"It is just so cute!" Lucy exclaimed, running back to Jack and the Doctor, but not going fast enough to let the flower fall out of her hair.
"Thank you!" Jack said teasingly. Lucy made a face at him, but he mimicked her, and sent her into another fit of giggles. The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks when he caught the scent of methane and calcium.
"Jack, we are going to have to do some running!"
"What now?" Jack asked as Lucy said, "why?"
"Slitheen, and um, well, they don't exactly enjoy my presents precisely…" Jack sighed teasingly, and slipped his hand into Lucy's. Jack laughed heartily as the Doctor explained his last run-in with the Slitheen, leaving out Rose's name of course. He couldn't bring himself to say that name out loud.
"So this isn't exactly going to be a vacation by the sounds of it," Jack said sarcastically, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.
"Never is Jack, never is." The Doctor replied, laughing.
"You know, I really am having far too much fun," Lucy added, her eyes open wide, still trying to take in everything at once.
"Jack, marry this girl!" The Doctor said, "But don't propose right now if you will. We are still trying to blend." The Doctor added quickly, seeing Jack make a move to get down on one knee.
"Ah, Doctor, I thought someone had told you not to meddle with the business of the Slitheen." A man with a 'hefty' build and wide face, slipped in front of him, giving him terrifying look with his deep set watery blue eyes.
"Oh, hello! And what are you doing in Barcelona? On vacation? Or the usual Slitheen 'Mummy didn't pay enough attention to me so now I need to try and take over some other planet.'?" The Doctor said with a smile, and Lucy slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. The Doctor glanced over at the small sound, and noted that Lucy's other had was still intertwined with Jacks.
"Oh, give us some credit, we are really good at taking over other planets! My mother paid plenty of attention to me thank you! I am far more original than most though! I am working on something far grander than world domination! I am really pleased that you will be around to see it actually!"
"If I were you, I would stop whatever you are doing right now. If you choose not to, don't forget what I can do with nothing but a screwdriver." The Doctor said, with all of the dark ferocity of the Oncoming Storm. The Slitheen's expression hardened before he turned and walked away. Lucy stood beside Jack with wide eyes.
"Trouble just seems to find, doesn't it? Jack said after the Slitheen was out of sight.
"Well you are travelling with me, so what does that say about you?" The Doctor asked, deciding that sarcasm was the only way to try and ignore the sharp pain in his chest as his two hears contracted painfully. He needed to stop thinking about her. Rose isn't coming back because you are a magnet for trouble. It is your fault that she is not here right now.
"Doctor, are you OK?" Jack asked, seeing the small pinch between his brow that appeared when he was thinking about Rose.
"I am the King of OK; I really must stop using that title. It really is just rubbish." The Doctor said, smoothing his face, and putting on a mischievous grin.
"I do believe that we are going to have to look into the Slitheen's plans, and foil them! Jack, Rose-" he stopped mid-sentence, a look of horror flashing across his face before he continued as though nothing happened. "Jack, Lucy, you with me?" They both gave an affirming nod, and with that the Doctor raced ahead, enveloping himself in the mystery.
Lucy and Jack stayed back, walking together. Lucy cleared her throat, "who is Rose?" She said it tentatively, not certain that Jack would tell her.
"Rose Tyler was… Brilliant and wonderful. She was a good friend, and the Doctor was in love with her. She is… she got trapped in another universe with her family. I don't think that the Doctor had been able to tell her that he loved her, but you can see it when he looked at her. It was a look that was so private, that I felt awkward sometimes, seeing that look. She saved my life too, and if anyone deserved to spend forever with the Doctor, it was Rose Tyler." Jack explained sadly, his eyes mournful, as though he felt the pain of her being gone more than he let on.
Lucy had been expecting something like that. the Doctor had worn the same expression as her mom had after he father died. She could still remember that look, even though she had been 6 when her father had died.
She consoled him, and after a few moments of silence, Jack changed the topic to lighter things, he explained the soul of the TARDIS to her, he told her about Torchwood, and the Doctor's two hearts. He told her the legend of the Daleks, and anything else that came to mind. She listened intently and had stopped trying to see everything, because he was so focused on the grand stories that Jack told.
The Doctor appeared again two hours later.
"It's brilliant! Oh these ones are clever! The dogs! The nose-less dogs!" He exclaimed, nothing but sheer excitement on his face. Jack urged him to continue.
"The Slitheen are developing mind control, and they are sung the noes-less dogs to test it!"
"So what are we going to do about it? Have you got a plan?" Lucy asked, her excitement rising by the second.
"Of course I don't have a plan! Give me a minute." The Doctor thought hard. He could quite easily set a trap, but it would be very risky, and Lucy would be in very serious trouble if it when wrong. It was the only option, nothing would go wrong.
"I've got it!"