A/N: A "no funnies" chapter. Well, one. I mentally pictured Jack in a full-on suit and it amused me to no end :D
Chapter 12 – Jack Wears A Suit
"Hello... Sarah? … Yeah, it's me. Umm, can you look after Leah for a while? … I dunno, a few days? … I have to... No, I'm fine. Can we talk when I get there? … Is today okay? … Good, what's the date? … Ok, I'll see you then, bye."
He hung up to find Leah standing precariously in the corridor doorway, staring at him without a word.
He offered her a smile. "Come on," he said, taking her hand and leading her to her bedroom. "Let's get you packed up. You're gonna stay at Auntie Sarah's for a few days. You remember her, don't you?"
Leah nodded as they reached her room. "Why?"
The Doctor sighed, looking at her confused eyes. He picked her up and sat her down on her bed, kneeling down and brushing a lock of stray hair from her eyes.
"You know that I'm going to try and get Mummy back," he said gently. "But it might be very dangerous, so it's safer for you to stay with Auntie Sarah for a while. And..." He reached into his pocket and drew out a locket necklace from within, holding it to her. "This is a bio-damper," he explained. "If you wear this all the time then the bad people won't be able to find you."
Leah didn't argue, sensing a sadness in her Father. He placed the locket over her neck and kissed her forehead gently. "Now come on, pick out your favourite toys and I'll pack you some clothes."
Leah nodded and slipped off the bed, going to her toy chest and rummaging through.
At 6pm the TARDIS churned into existence in Sarah Jane's attic. Sarah was already on her feet waiting when the Doctor emerged with a backpack in one hand and Leah clutching the other, holding a cuddly brown teddy bear in the other arm.
"Hello, Leah," Sarah greeted gently, kneeling down.
"Hi," Leah replied with a smile. Sarah smiled at looked up at the Doctor, but he looked beyond exhausted.
"Chat?" Sarah offered. The Doctor nodded and followed Sarah out the door of the attic, slinging the backpack over his shoulder so he could pick up Leah and carry her down the steep stairs. When they got to the kitchen he placed Leah into one of the chairs and sat in the one beside it, heaving the backpack off again, completely jaded.
"Would you like a drink, Leah?" Sarah asked. "I have some orange juice?"
Leah nodded, holding Bundy close, waving her legs back and forth on the chair. "Yes, please."
Sarah nodded, moving to fetch a plastic cup from the cupboard. The Doctor didn't say a word as she poured the orange juice and gave it to Leah, who took it greedily and sipped.
"Leah," the Doctor warned quietly.
"Oh, sorry," she said, turning to Sarah. "Thank you, Auntie Sarah."
"You're welcome," she replied, smiling at the little girl before glancing at the Doctor. "Do you want to go and watch some TV while me and your Daddy talk about boring grown-up stuff?"
"Okay," Leah replied, clambering out of the chair and lifting her cup of orange juice off of the table with extreme care in both hands, following Sarah out of the door. When Sarah returned the Doctor still hadn't moved, staring at the cooker across the room.
"Doctor?" Sarah asked, taking the seat opposite.
He finally looked at her. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I didn't know where else to go."
"It's okay," she said quickly, resting her hand on his. "You're always welcome here. What's going on?"
The Doctor looked at her sadly, and opened his mouth to explain from start to finish the whole business with the Shadow Proclamation. Sarah's face dropped more and more as he progressed, and she could see that the emotional turmoil was starting to take its toll on the seemingly invincible Time Lord.
"They don't know about you, and I've shielded us all, the TARDIS included, to make sure they can't trace our path. Make sure Leah keeps her necklace on, it's hiding her on a basic level from global bioscans."
Sarah nodded.
"I can't absolutely guarantee they don't know where she is," the Doctor continued, "but hopefully they'll be too distracted with me to look too deeply for her."
Sarah nodded again. "Mr Smith will shield her as well. Don't worry, I'll look after her. Do you want something to eat?"
The Doctor shook his head.
Sarah looked at him. "No, you're hungry. I'll make you sandwich and some tea. Stay right there."
The Doctor had to concede. He was pretty hungry. "All right."
After they'd finished catching up and the Doctor had al-but demolished the sandwich and cup of tea, it was almost 7pm. Sarah tidied up and picked up Leah's bag to take upstairs as the Doctor went to put Leah to bed.
He found her lying on the sofa curled up under a blanket fast asleep, the CBeebies Book At Bedtime buzzing away on the TV. He smiled gently and leant down to wrap the blanket around her a little more, before picking her up in both arms and cradling her against his shoulder carefully.
He moved up the stairs, finding Sarah already having unpacked Leah's things with Bundy sitting on the bed waiting to be cuddled. The Doctor laid Leah carefully down on the bed, changing her into her pyjamas as methodically as he could so as not to fully wake her up.
He tucked her up in the bed, slipping Bundy in her arms before sitting on the mattress beside her, leaning down to kiss her forehead. He gazed at her for a few moments before getting up, flicking off the light and slipping out the door to join Sarah, closing the door quietly behind him.
Sarah looked at him. "Are you leaving now?" she whispered.
He nodded.
Sarah offered a supportive smile, leaning forward to hug him. "Good luck. And Leah will be fine."
"Thank you, Sarah."
"Don't worry. Now go and find Rose," she said, letting go of him. "Everything's taken care of, here."
The Doctor got changed into a black suit and smartened up his hair before he went to pick up Jack and Martha from Torchwood. They were also dressed up, even Jack was out of his usual attire and had made an effort to wear a suit. He looked very odd.
Jack and Martha followed the Doctor onto the TARDIS, the three of them looking and acting more like they were attending a funeral. The Doctor began to program, glancing at them both with a huge amount of gratitude in his eyes, before his gaze finally rested on Jack.
"Nice suit," he said, forcing a grin.
Jack smiled in return. "It's Ianto's."
"Naturally," the Doctor replied, yanking a lever to make the TARDIS explode into life. Not a word was said once they were in flight, a very tense silence being held between them as they got closer and closer to the Shadow Proclamation.
They landed surprisingly smoothly, obviously the TARDIS knew what was going on, and that absolutely anything could happen. The Doctor looked at his beloved ship for a moment, resting his hand on the console to feel her vibrations running through his hand. He finally pressed a button, and the entire TARDIS fell into blackness with only the backlights aiding any sight.
"Essential running only," the Doctor muttered in explanation. "Diverting all power to security and extrapolator defence."
"This isn't gonna be a walk in the park, is it," Jack stated more than asked.
The Doctor looked at him. "They won't harm either of you, you're not charged with anything and they have no jurisdiction over humanity and planet Earth. Don't worry."
"I'm not worrying about myself," Jack muttered quietly, Martha nodding silently in agreement. The Doctor didn't reply to this, merely straightening his tie and making his way over to the TARDIS door. He rested a hand on the handle, taking a deep breath and looking at Martha and Jack as if for confirmation. They both nodded, and he opened the door.
Just as the three stepped through, they instantly found 15 heavily armed Judoon pointing their weapons collectively at them. The Doctor raised his hands in the air, Jack and Martha following suit.
For a moment there was only silence, before the Judoon crowd parted like a zip down the middle to reveal a red-eyed woman with white hair, a long black dress flowing to the ground. She sauntered towards them to stand in front of the Doctor, looking him up and down judgementally before regarding his companions.
"Where is the hybrid child?" she asked with no trace of warmth in her voice.
"Obviously not here," the Doctor replied in an equally cold tone of voice, his hands still in the air.
"Another charge against you," she noted.
The Doctor ignored this. "Where's my wife?"
The woman ignored him in return. "You will be detained until the court can begin with proceedings. Are these your witnesses?"
"Yes."
"Judoon," she said, turning to the collection of armed rhinos. "Take the defendant to a holding cell, and take the witnesses to the waiting room."
The Judoon moved forward to grab the Doctor's arms, pulling him towards the door. He didn't even bother struggling – there was very little point. He looked over his shoulder to Jack and Martha, nodding to reassure them before he was dragged out the door and out of sight.
It was three hours of sitting around waiting in an extremely boring white room until Jack and Martha were approached and escorted to what they could only assume to be the court room. It was absolutely huge and very grand – seats in a circular pattern stretching up high and wide, the judge's table placed on a side curve with a currently empty circular platform set in the centre. It was buzzing with technology far too advanced for both Martha and Jack to even describe, let alone work out their function.
The many seats were barely filled as the two humans arrived and were shown to theirs, close to the Judge's area. A few more minutes passed before Martha suddenly nudged Jack, pointing across the court room.
"It's Rose!" she whispered.
Jack perked up instantly, looking at the woman sitting directly opposite them, trying to catch her attention with a wave. She was too far away for either of them to tell if she had noticed them, but she hadn't seemed to have waved back.
"Silence!" a grand voice suddenly boomed, and Jack and Martha turned their attentions directly to the owner of the voice – the Judge of the High Court of the Shadow Proclamation. Instantly the court, consisting of less than fifteen people including the Judoon security, fell absolutely silent.
"This is a care hearing for the hybrid human-Gallifreyan child known as Leah Tyler, case number 606987," the Judge boomed. "Please bring out the defendant."
Jack and Martha looked around with wide eyes to try and find where the Doctor was sitting, but he didn't seem to be anywhere. Then the door opened and several more Judoon entered, carrying something between them.
It was then both Jack and Martha both simultaneously realised who the platform in the middle was for, as the Judoon placed a dishevelled-looking Doctor bound by the wrists and ankles straight onto it, a huge cylinder of blue energy suddenly bursting up from the floor around him to presumably contain the Time Lord.
The Doctor looked around with interest, but also deep, deep worry. The High Court was always full. It was a law that the High Court had to be filled – but there was no one here. Why was no one here?
He caught sight of Jack and Martha, who looked really quite uncomfortable in this hugely unfamiliar environment – but he had to admire their bravery for agreeing to do this. They were probably regretting it, now.
Then he spotted Rose, sitting perfectly still, staring at him. When he looked at her she seemed to quickly look away as though she didn't want him to see her looking at him...
"The defendant is the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords from the planet of Gallifrey, charged with the attempted murder, abuse and neglect of this child..."
"What?" the Doctor gaped, but was only ignored.
"Be quiet, defendant," the Judge drawled before continuing, "the prosecutor is his wife, Rose Tyler..."
"What?" the Doctor yelled again, looking across the room to where he could see Rose, rapidly shaking her head, tears in her eyes. But he was completely ignored again. Jack was looking between them, his eyes wide and alert...
"Shock him," the Judge said dully, and suddenly the blue cylinder of energy pulsed with light and the Doctor felt a sudden seering pain burst through his body as though he'd temporarily been set on fire. He cried out more in surprise than pain, utterly caught off guard before it stopped and he took the time to gather his senses. Shocking the defendant to invoke discipline? Well, that was new. Very new.
The Judge continued with the trial as if nothing had just happened. "Jury, you have seen the evidence, have you reached a verdict?"
The Doctor's eyes widened even further. "Hey! This is an unfair trial! I haven't had a chance to..."
"Shock him," the Judge demanded again, and this time it actually hurt. They were on the ball, trying to catch up with his pain threshold... It felt longer this time too, or maybe that was just his perception? But when it was finished even the Doctor's head had seemed to start buzzing inside, and it took a few moments for him to realise he was lying on the floor. He didn't want to try and get up.
His eyes flickered to Rose, who was still sat there completely unmoving, tears falling down her cheeks. Something was seriously wrong...
One of the jury stood up, straightening his shirt. "We have, your Honour," he droned, as if he'd rehearsed it a hundred times. "We find the defendant guilty as charged."
"No!" Jack gasped, standing up from his seat.
"Very well. Doctor, I sentence you to 500,000 years imprisonment in the high security prison Volag-Noc. However, you will remain here in the Shadow Proclamation in a high security cell for an indefinite length of time for interrogation before being transferred to carry out your sentence. You will have no chance of appeal. The child hybrid shall be found and tested, its sentence impending after investigation. Take him away."
Jack was on his feet yelling, Martha yelling beside him, but it made no difference. The blue forcefield containing him shut off and he could do nothing but lay there as the Judoon moved forward to grab him bodily and drag him towards the door. Jack tried to get out, but a few more handy Judoon stopped him in his tracks as Rose just sat there staring after her husband, silent tears rolling down her face.