The conversation went on while they enjoyed cheesecake for desert. Mickey glanced over at Martha and said, "I wonder if I still have the high score on the pinball game in the Game Room?" Martha laughed, "Are you kidding? I had that score topped the first week I was here!" Mickey raised an eyebrow, "Well then I think it's time we had a head to head match-up, whatcha say?" She nodded and the two of them stood up and started to head for the Game Room. Jeanne turned to the Doctor and said softly, "Why don't you join them, and give me a chance to get to know Captain Jack a little better?" The thought had been suggested by Ardi, and Jeanne was more than willing to go along. The Doctor looked at her with a puzzled expression, but Jack laughed, "Yeah, certainly you could beat both of them on your own pinball game?" The Doctor grinned, "Quite right!" and got up from the table to chase the other two down. This left Jack and Jeanne sitting alone at the table. Jack just looked at her, sensing that she wanted him alone for a reason.
"Jack, I wanted to apologize for what happened in the control room when we met. Ardi explained to me about what she did to you, and she's very sorry about that. I can, well, sense that you're different." Jack shrugged, "I'm used to it by now, I've forgiven her and Rose for what they did, they had good intentions." Jeanne nodded, "It wasn't just that, though. You were flirting with me." Jack laughed, "Well, flirting is as natural as breathing to me, I flirt with everyone I meet, the Doctor didn't tell you?" She shook her head, "No, not really. It made me very uncomfortable because I just lost my husband two weeks ago." Jack didnt' say anything, just played with his tea cup before saying, "I'm sorry for your loss." Jeanne looked at him quizzically, "You already knew that didn't you? You've checked up on me." Jack looked up, and met her gaze. "Yes, I did. When one of my friends has been hurt as much as the Doctor, I want to watch out for him. He shows up out of the blue with a new passenger who isn't a travelling companion but is, there's something strange going on there."
Jeanne nodded. "From what Ardi has told me, losing Rose again and losing Donna hurt him a great deal, perhaps more than anything other than the loss of his people. So, he decided not to take on any more travelling companions. However, this left Ardi very lonely. His Companions are her Companions too, and she missed having someone to take care of besides the Doctor. She was lonely, and they found me when I was feeling very lonely." Jack leaned back in his chair, "So where did they find you?" Jeanne gave a slight smile, "Well, I was taking a walk through the woods, getting away from it all, when along came a spider - a large metallic one. The TARDIS scanners had detected it, some kind of alien probe, and he came to stop it from causing trouble. When I followed him into his ship, she spoke to me." Jack's eyebrows went up, "The old girl talks?"
A woman's voice came from the other end of the table, "Only to people I like and when I feel like it, dear Captain." Jeanne and Jack both turned to face the new voice, and there was Ardi sitting at the end of the table, smiling at them both. Jeanne frowned, "Are you sure its safe to be seen, the Doctor could return..." Ardi laughed, "Not if I've locked the door to the game room for 30 minutes, he can't." She turned to look at Jack and her face grew very serious. "Captain, you truly do forgive Rose and I for what we did to you?" Jack looked at her in surprise, "You're the TARDIS? You're beautiful!" Ardi laughed, "Well, yes and no, I'm the intelligence of the TARDIS, but I'm using the image of one of the Doctor's former companions. That's why Jeanne was worried, we don't want to upset him by appearing like this in front of him." Jack stood up and moved to the end of the table, and sat down, "Ardi, yes, I have forgiven you for what happened. It wasn't your fault, you and Rose did what you had to do to save the Doctor, what happened to me was an accident and I've learned to live with it. Over and over again, actually. It comes in very handy when dealing with these dangerous situations I find myself in working for Torchwood." Ardi smiled, "I hope that means we can be friends, Captain Jack." He grinned, "Of course, I'd never turn down the friendship of a beautiful woman!" He reached out for her hand and gave it a kiss. Jeanne smiled from her end of the table, happy that the slate had been wiped clean between these two.
She stood up, "You know, I'd love to show off Ardi's handiwork with my suite of rooms, why don't you come let me give you the grand tour?" Jack looked up at her, surprised, and she gave him a mock frown, "I'm just showing off her decorating skills, don't get any funny ideas!" He laughed, "Oh, I think you're going to be as good for the Doctor as you are for Ardi, Jeanne McCormick. After you." Ardi began to fade from view, "I'll see you both there." Jack stuck out an arm, and Jeanne slowly put hers through it, and verbally gave him directions to the entrance to her rooms. As they walked, she asked, "Tell me more about Rose, you knew her well?" Jack's face clouded over, "Yes, I travelled with her and the Doctor back in his 9th incarnation. Ardi has explained about regenerations to you, right?" Jeanne nodded, "So that would be grouchy big-ears?" Jack laughed, "Yes, that's him, the three of us met up in London in the middle of the Blitz during World War II and we travelled together for a time, up until I died. They left me behind on Earth, and it took me awhile but I met up with this Doctor and Martha later on for awhile. When I left their company, I started up with Torchwood. After we brought the Earth back to it's proper place in space, Mickey had come from the parallel universe where Rose had been living and chose to stay here, so I brought him onboard with Torchwood. Martha has been working sort of double duty between UNIT and Torchwood." Jeanne asked again, "But tell me about Rose. Why was she so special that it hurt so much to leave her behind?" Jack slowed his step before stopping and looking down at her, he smiled softly, "She was special because he loved her, probably the first woman he's loved in a long, long time. The two of them were connected somehow, they had something special, I could see it when they were together when we first met. I saw her with this incarnation only for a short time, but the connection was still there, even though they had been apart for a couple of years or so. She crossed the Void between two universes to find him again. It takes a special person to risk everything to do that." Jeanne nodded, "She does sound special, smart, and strong in spirit. Ardi has shown me bits and pieces of their travels together, sometimes she's limited in that she can only show me what she can see. Some of the rest she's filled in with what they told her. Apparently she makes an excellent diary." She laughed at Jack's surprised look, "Yes, something like a Time Lord's version of a Captain's Log, I guess. I don't even know if he realizes he does it, but he shares his memories of events with her and she records them. She won't show me the images of the memories, but tells me what happens as a story." Jack nods, "She is full of surprises, the TARDIS is." Jeanne nodded, "Yes, it's hard to reconcile sometimes the personality of Ardi with the power of the TARDIS. It'll take me awhile to get to used to them being one and the same, and I have a lot to learn."
When they reached her suite of rooms, Ardi was waiting for them, and they went through the grand tour again. Jack was very impressed at the stylish rooms and how quickly Ardi was able to put things together. He spent some time talking to her about her ability to move rooms around within herself, what her senses were. If it wasn't so friendly, you would have thought he was giving her the third degree. Ardi was happy to talk about herself and her abilities. Jeanne just followed behind, storing the information he extracted for further discussion. They started talking about her holographic image and the difficulty of not being able to be seen by the Doctor. Jeanne jumped in, "Ardi's limited to using images of people who have been within the TARDIS. That's mostly his companions and people that would hurt him. Do you think it'd be possible to get some images from you of strangers that she could use to create a face of her own?" Ardi and Jack stopped and looked at her, then at each other. Jack grinned, "I think that could be arrange, we have some sophisticated software for facial analysis, I don't see why you couldn't use it to build a unique face of your own." Ardi clapped her hands with excitement, "Can you bring it to me before we have to leave?" Jack nodded, "Not a problem, how much longer do you think you'll be refueling." Ardi's head tilted as she analyzed herself. "Another 36 hours or so should top off all of my fuel tanks and reserves." Jack nodded, I'll make sure to bring it over tomorrow so you can experiment with it before you leave, in case you need any help." Jack glanced at his watch. "It's getting late, we'd better go see what those guys have done to the Game Room and head for home."
Ardi faded from view and Jeanne and Jack started walking through the corridors again. Jeanne would feel an occassional tug telling her to make a turn. Jack followed her, knowing that the TARDIS moved the rooms about the room probably wasn't anywhere close to where he remembered it. They could hear the sound of laughter from well back in the corridor. They looked at each other and smiled, and hurried along until they were standing in the doorway to the Game Room. The room was filled with all sorts of different gaming systems, video games, pinball, billiards, computers, even a virtual reality pod! Jeanne's eyes grew wide, she couldn't wait to get a chance to play in here with Ardi while the Doctor was out and about. The three had been taking turns at the pinball game, and the Doctor was currently having his turn with Martha and Mickey cheering him on. They just watched from the doorway, not wanting to disturb him. After his game ended - with a new record high score - there were high fives all around before Jack called out, "It's getting late guys, we probably should head back home." They all walked to the control room and Martha and Mickey and Jack gave both the Doctor and Jeanne hugs goodbye. Jack said, "I'll stop by tomorrow, I've got a present for Ardi before you guys head out." The Doctor nodded, frowning, and Jack called out, "See you tomorrow, Ardi!" The TARDIS hummed in response, and Jack grinned. "Still got it..." then headed out the door. Jeanne couldn't contain the giggle, and the Doctor turned to look at her. "I can't believe him, flirting with a spaceship, he really will flirt with anything that moves!" The Doctor didn't even try to contain the cheesy grin, "Yeah, that's right. Well, did you have a good time?" Jeanne nodded, "Yes, your friends are really nice. Ardi likes them too, it was good to have them back on board even for a visit." The Doctor started fiddling with the control panels and Jeanne yawned, "Well, I'm off to bed, talk to you later, Doctor!" He nodded and waved absently, "Night Jeanne, sweet dreams." Jeanne hummed slightly under her breath as she made her way back to her rooms for her first night sleeping in her new home.
Home. That's what the TARDIS had quickly become to her, a new home. There was distance from the pain of her loss here, no friends or family trying to help but only making her more miserable. No one telling her that "it would get easier with time" or "time heals all wounds". These kinds of emotional wounds never heal, she could look at the Doctor and based on what little she knew about him, knew that he had many long-standing wounds based on losses in his life. He's learned to move on with his life despite that - hopefully he could teach her how to do that too. That knowledge and Ardi's affection were a healing balm to Jeanne's wounded spirit. For the first time since the accident, she climbed into bed and felt like she could sleep free of nightmares. And she did just that.