Chapter Twenty-Eight
But as you walked into my life You showed what needed to be shown
Jake crouches down beside the Doctor and examines the air system.
"That makes sense," he says finally, looking back at Rose. "Someone is trying to poison the air here."
"Okay," Rose says slowly. "There are over 100 people here, between the cast and crew and Torchwood. How do we find out who it is?"
"We build the tools we need," the Doctor says. "Jake, find out if there are any more of these systems around. Check their oxygen levels and make sure they're adjusted back to what is normal for our alien friends' physiology."
Jake stands up. "What are you going to do?" he asks. He's worked with the Doctor long enough to respect his opinion and trust his methods. Jake's never gotten over the Doctor saving the world from the Cybermen. In his eyes the Doctor will always be able to fix everything.
The Doctor thinks for a moment. "I don't know yet. But I'm going to build the device that will let us do it."
oOoOo
"So what are you planning?" Rose asks. They've gone back to Torchwood. She's standing inside the Doctor's lab, watching him stack materials onto a table. He's on the floor beside a cabinet, taking out cables and monitors and small blinking lights.
The Doctor pokes his head over the top of the cabinet, peering at her from across the table.
"That air system was designed to filter out the harmful oxygen, correct?"
Rose nods. "Correct," she confirms.
"And we know that oxygen harms Nocklyns. Nockylners." The Doctor stands up and looks thoughtfully at the wall. "Nocklynites? What do they call themselves, anyway?"
Rose opens her mouth but he continues before she can answer his question.
"No matter. They cannot tolerate too much more oxygen than is already in our environment. They filter out a bit of it, giving them enough leeway to survive but allowing any nearby humans to function normally. That can be a tricky business, adjusting breathing air to suit several different species simultaneously. I remember once there was a pub on Barnoss-Eight-Mark-Nine that tried to host Julipgers and Morhaws. Nasty business. The resulting methane explosion destroyed an entire street."
Rose nods and tunes out the rest of it as she watches his start to stack the pile into smaller piles. He is still her Doctor, the same as before. Same face, same memories, same great hair. Really great hair, she thinks to herself with a grin. He's not quite as talkative now, which she thinks may be a result of the meta-crisis. Although there are times when that gob is still very much in evidence.
"Allowing oxygen back into the environment at the studio would eventually poison Sam's people without their knowledge. By the time they figured it out it would be too late. Here, come hold this."
Rose holds out a hand and accepts the small chip he places in her palm. "What is that?"
"I'm building a detector. Whoever altered the air system knows about the effects of oxygen. That means they're either from Nocklyn or has information from someone there."
"Makes sense," Rose agrees. And it does, which is more than you could say about some of the things he says.
"So, therefore, they must have a mechanism in place somewhere to filter out the extra oxygen."
"Like a...a breathing mask or something?"
"Well, not like Darth Vader or anything." He smiles at her. "Although that would make it easier to find, wouldn't it? No, I just need to set this little tracker to a level that will detect the exchange of gases that approximates a Nocklyn being breathing the air levels it's meant to, instead of what the local studio air is set to."
The Doctor holds up the completed product, a small square disk. "Easy peasy, eh?"
"Easy peasy," Rose agrees. "Are we gonna find them?"
"Oh, yes."
oOoOo
Jake is checking each air cleaning system installed at the studio. Fifteen of them, spread out amongst different closets and small rooms. All but three were adjusted to give off poisonous levels of oxygen. The only ones left untouched were in the main lobby, Sam's office, and security.
Pulling out his mobile, he dials a number back at Torchwood.
"Can you run some numbers for me?" he asks. Calling out the numbers, he waits for a response. "Now can you multiply that by 12 and run the probability of-" He stops and listens. "Oh. That's not good."
Hanging up, he activates his headset. "Simon? You there?"
"I'm here, Jake. What's up?"
"Trouble."
Jake hears Simon sigh. "Of course. Hang on, I'll be there as soon as I finish scanning this costume for alien bugs."
"They're bugging the costumes?" Jake asks, puzzled.
"No. Bugs. The material came from outer space. I've been warned that an infestation of grimspace manna bugs is very bad for fabric. Apparently."
Jake shakes his head. "This place is mad, eh?"
"You're telling me," Simon's voice answers. "Grimspace bugs never come this far east of the solar system."
Jake takes a few moments to consider that last comment, not sure whether or not Simon was joking. Finally he lets it go, hoping that he never has need to worry about space bugs, grim or otherwise.
Jake is in a small supply room near the rear of the main studio building. He knows where he is without checking a map. Directly behind the back wall is the back of the building. A few meters beyond that, the movie sets are constructed, waiting for their scenes. Actors and crews are out there right now, shooting scenes and blocking scenes and rehearsing.
Jake had always imagined that moviemaking would be more fun. This is a lot of waiting around for lighting and sound and actors to get ready.
He closes the door to the tiny closet that houses the air cleaning system. Looking around the walls, he spots a small depression in the wall opposite to him. He opens the small door, half expecting to find switches and levers or circuit breakers.
It's something else entirely.
Cursing, he fumbles for his mobile. "Control," he says hastily, "find the Doctor. Now."
oOoOo
"Where's the Doctor?" Sam asks Donna, poking his head into her office.
Donna looks up. "I don't know. Around somewhere, I guess."
"Thought you'd know." Sam comes all the way in and sits down. "You seem to be pretty friendly with him."
"Well, I wouldn't call us friends, exactly." Donna pauses to think about that. She's not about to call him up and suggest that they have drinks or anything. He's too mysterious. Too many things happen around him to make her comfortable with him. There are secrets behind those eyes, and Donna's not sure she wants to know what they are.
"He's here because of Janet. She thought he could help us."
"Why? Because of Torchwood?"
Sam hesitates to tell her the truth. She clearly doesn't know that Janet thinks Dr. Smith might be an alien himself. Janet might be wrong. Either way, it's not his place to say it, even though aliens have popped out all over the place lately.
"Something like that," he says finally. "Thank you, Donna, for what you did with Dr. Smith and Rose."
"Anyone would have done the same."
"No, not anyone," he corrects her. "If it weren't for you half the movie and television studios in town would be shut down. As it is, a lot of us haven't returned."
"Should be a boon for all those unemployed actors in London."
"Yes." Sam studies his hands. "Donna. Are you afraid of me?"
The pen Donna's been holding drops. "What? Afraid? Of you?"
He looks at her steadily. "Are you?"
"No! Of course not!" And she's not. He's never given her reason to be afraid of him.
"Is it because I'm your boss?"
Donna stares at him helplessly. How can she tell him what she's feeling when she doesn't know herself? It was one thing when he was just Sam, but an alien is something she doesn't know she can deal with.
"It's all right." Sam smiles easily and stands up. "You have no reason to be afraid of me, Donna. Not ever."
He leaves her sitting at her desk, staring blankly at papers she can't see properly.
oOoOo
"Here we are!" The Doctor's enthusiasm is contagious, and Rose all but skips to the studio door and opens it with a flourish for him.
"What are you doing, holding the door for me?" he asks her. Usually he's the one who opens doors.
"Come on! Let's go solve this. Then we can go find a new estate agent."
He comes to a halt there in lobby, under the watchful gaze of Mary Beth, who finally agreed to come back to work when Sam went to fetch her in person.
"A new agent?"
"Well, we can't use Sally, can we? Hello, Mary Beth!"
"Hello."
The Doctor follows her down the familiar hallways until they reach the outside of Donna's office.
"You still want to look for a house?"
"Yes, I do. Haven't we discussed this enough?" Rose asks. "We're doing it, yeah?"
"Yeah." There are still things they need to talk about, things he needs to tell her, but they have to wait.
"I want this," Rose says quietly. "I love you. This is it."
He leans down and kisses her quickly. "Me, too."
They share a slow smile, foreheads touching. The door to Donna's office opens.
"Oh, come on!" she says in extreme annoyance. "Don't you two get enough of that at home?"
Rose breaks away, trying not to smile.
The Doctor looks like he would like to expound at length on biological meta-crises, and what it means to go from a Time Lord to a human flooded with hormones, but obviously, this Donna Noble is not the best person to talk to about any of that.
"Sorry," he says instead. "Very unprofessional. You're right, won't happen again."
Donna raises an eyebrow. "Goodness, me. What's the occasion? You're usually never wrong."
"Off day," he says shortly.
Rose is not telepathic, never has been. But she can follow the train of his thinking close enough.
"It's nothing," she assures Donna. "We're gonna go and see what we can find out."
"About what?" Donna asks, but Rose has already followed the Doctor down the hallway.
Someday, Donna promises herself, she's going to get the real story on them.
"Love?" Rose hurries to catch up with him.
"I'm turning this on," the Doctor tells her. "Get ready."
"You all right?"
"Yeah. It hasn't exploded yet." He eyes it carefully, fairly certain that it won't be exploding today.
"No, with Donna, back there."
He sighs. "Rose, she's Donna. I keep thinking she ought to know things that she doesn't. I keep wanting to talk to her. Tell her how much I miss her. But I can't, because she has no idea what I'm talking about if I do that."
"Look, I know we can't exactly explain it to her right now, but afterwards-"
"Rose. Don't." He swallows hard. "She would never understand. There's no point."
Rose would like to say more, but she knows that when he's decided on something it's pretty hard to change his mind.
"Okay," she says quietly. She is committed to helping him through this human life, and she will do whatever he needs.
"Okay." He nods at the device in his hand. "Let's go track down some stuff."
"Okay," Rose says again. She files this away to be dealt with once this mission is over with. This, and all the other things they still haven't talked about.
oOoOo
Jake shows Simon what he's found.
Simon is too shocked to even swear, which is his usual response to something very, very bad.
"Did you tell anyone else?" he finally asks.
"Just you. Control is looking for the Doctor."
"He's not here on set?" Simon is lying flat on the floor, trying to look underneath the wall through a small grate.
"He went back to the Tower to get some equipment together."
"He might not have his mobile." Simon grunts as he tries to force a hand through a grate that is much too narrow. "Try Rose." He withdraws his hand and starts pulling at the grate. It's screwed to the wall, but he has no tools and no time to go looking for some.
Jake joins him on the floor, and together they get their fingers through the metal and wrench it from the wall.
They're both carried backwards by the momentum. Dropping the grate, Simon edges forward on his knees and looks inside the wall. Jake joins him. They stay motionless for a long moment, staring at the object inside. Then they turn to look at one another.
This time Simon does swear. "There's no time for the Doctor, is there?"
oOoOo
Rose picks up her mobile. "Rose Tyler," she says cheerily. Beside her the Doctor is running his device over the air cleaner they found, trying to find traces of the person who was there last.
"Rose Tyler, this is Control. You and the Doctor are needed at Jake Simmonds' location immediately."
"Where is he?"
"He is requesting radio silence on this one. Please use his Torchwood tracking chip."
"All right," Rose says slowly.
The Doctor is already fumbling in his pocket for the small remote that will let him activate the chips in the security passes. He punches in Jake's code from memory and waits.
"He's in the back of the building."
"Let's go."
Jake and Simon are sitting on the floor together when they arrive in the room.
"Close the door!" they say together.
Rose shuts the door behind her. The Doctor abandons his device and walks to them.
"What are you doing?"
"There is a bomb in here," Simon says carefully. "A large, alien bomb with nothing familiar about it."
"But there is a countdown timer," Jake adds.
"There is a countdown timer," Simon amends. "And it's counting down to now."
"Now?" the Doctor repeats in alarm.
"Now. As in twenty minutes from now. It's been here for some time, from the looks of it, counting down."
The Doctor pushes his way to the wall, where the small bomb is sitting. He takes his glasses out of his pocket and leans in closely.
"Oh, that's bad. Very, very bad."
Rose joins them, standing up and looking down over their heads. "Do you know what it is?"
The Doctor sighs. "No. The planet Nocklyn is unique to this universe, apparently. I've not seen the likes of this before, but we need to evacuate before this goes off."
"Whoever's after Sam means business," Rose agrees. She takes out her phone and looks at her watch. "Right. Travis! We have to evacuate the entire area. Immediately." Rose frowns and looks at her phone. "Travis?"
"Where's he gone to?" the Doctor asks, eyes still on the bomb. "Jake, see if that blue wire connects to anything in the wall."
"We got cut off." Rose activates her headset. "Ian, you there? Ian? Ian!"
Simon tries his own headset. "Ian, Riley, come in."
"Something's wrong," the Doctor says without looking.
Rose nods in agreement. "I'll go find-" She comes to an abrupt stop as she turns around and sees someone standing there who wasn't there a moment before. "Can I help you?"
"What are you doing in here?" The man is tall and dressed in black and grey, and he looks very displeased to find them all here.
At the sound of his voice, the Doctor, Simon and Jake all look over. Simon slowly comes to his feet.
"We're Torchwood," Rose says. "Remember? We're here to find out who is threatening Sam."
The man smiles. "Oh, that won't be necessary anymore."
"Why not?" Simon asks challengingly.
"Because that's me. Here I am. You found me." He spreads his arms wide.
Jake stands and reaches for his gun. The man shrugs.
"You can certainly try, but it won't get you very far. This room has been de-magnetized. Human weapons and equipment will not work in here. Just my little toy there."
"We have to shut this off," the Doctor says, his tone that of one talking to a madman. "It's going to explode."
"It better, for the price I paid to get it here. I'll be gone, of course, but you'll all still be here." He holds up a small black square, only as large as the palm of his hand. "Remote detonator, of course."
"What was your name again?" Rose asks. She knows him, of course. She's trying to stall him, giving Jake and Simon a chance to try and contact someone on the outside.
He smiles. "I'm Geoffrey."
"Geoffrey," Jake says under his breath, headset activated in case it suddenly starts working. "It's Geoffrey."
"You might as well stop trying," Geoffrey says to Jake. "I told you, your human equipment won't work in this room."
Simon closes his mobile and stands up.
"You're the assistant director."
"Didn't pay too much attention to me, did you? You just assumed that we were all trustworthy, that we were all Sam's people."
"But you are," Rose says in confusion. "His family, his-"
"I'm no friend of his!" Geoffrey says angrily.
The Doctor abandons his attempts to uncover the secrets of the bomb. He stands up slowly, walking to stand beside but slightly in front of Rose.
"You have set a bomb here that is going kill everyone around us," he says quietly. "That's mass murder."
"Sam is going to bring destruction to our planet if he continues. He needs to be stopped."
"Not by killing!" the Doctor says angrily.
"He wouldn't listen! And now it's time to pay the price." Geoffrey raises the detonator.
"No!" Rose cries.
"Stop!"
Sam is at the door. "Geoffrey, stop! What the hell are you doing?"
"What I should have done a long time ago, Sam." Geoffrey smiles pleasantly, an attractive men in a business suit, who happens to be holding the means to murder in his hand. "Nothing personal. Actually, yes, it is personal. Sorry."
Sam eases into the room. The Doctor takes a step forward, but Geoffrey holds out an arm.
"I wouldn't, Dr. Smith. I really wouldn't."
"Why are you doing this?" Sam asks quietly. "You know how hard I worked to get here."
"Oh, I know exactly how hard you worked! You've exposed us all to the outside, and if you're not stopped the council will stop you themselves. The more famous you become the more dangerous it is for the rest of us. It's better for you this way."
"You're gong to kill everyone here!" Simon says angrily. "How is that better for him?"
Geoffrey spares a glance for the humans standing ranged behind him. "He dies, so do all the people here. But the remainder of his family on Nocklyn stays alive."
"You wouldn't dare," Sam says slowly.
"Wouldn't I? Destroy the most powerful family on Nocklyn? I'd get a medal."
Sam refuses to believe it. "The council would never agree to that. They would never risk the destruction of my family. There are too many of us. The government would collapse. The economy-"
"Yes, a rather large power vacuum would be left, but I'd be there to help fill it. As soon as the council finds out my part, it should be worth the pain and heartbreak we'll have to go through." Geoffrey smiles. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I really do need to teleport myself off this rock."
"They don't know," Sam says suddenly, gazing hard at Geoffrey. "They don't know you're doing this."
"Not yet. But they will. If I wait for them to act it will be another ten years before anything is done, and by that time you'll be so bloody popular that the entire galaxy will know about it."
"Now, Jake," the Doctor says suddenly, and whatever Jake does makes the bomb start beeping. Geoffrey turns around at the sound, and Simon throws his non-working mobile his way. Ducking his head, Geoffrey's attention is diverted, and the Doctor reaches out and handily grabs the detonator.
Just as swiftly, Geoffrey bolts for the door, knocking Sam aside.
"Hey!" The Doctor tears off after him.
"Don't let him teleport!" Rose follows. Sam follows her.
Jake and Simon stare at the empty space, and then at each other, and then at the bomb.
"Still ticking," Jake observes.
"Is that what the Doctor wanted it to do?" Simon asks.
"I don't know."
"What the hell - if it blows up it blows up."
And Simon and Jake join the chase.
Geoffrey runs down hallways, knocking people over as he does so.
"Get out of the way!" the Doctor yells. "Don't try to stop him."
"What?" Rose gasps from behind him. "Stop him!"
'"The teleport may be linked to the bomb!" the Doctor shouts over his shoulder. "No telling what would happen!"
Geoffrey has led them out of the building and around to another entrance. Looking wildly over his shoulder, he wrenches open an emergency exit door and heads back inside. The Doctor is at the door before it can close.
"What the hell's he doing?" Sam gasps, catching up to Rose and running past her.
He's led them back to the room with the bomb. The Doctor realizes this and bursts forward in an excess of speed, afraid that Geoffrey will somehow set off the bomb without the detonator. He catches up with Geoffrey in the hallway, launching himself forward and tackling him at the knees.
"Nice," Rose says admiringly, stopping to finally catch her breath.
"Geoffrey, you miserable son of-" Sam has waited until Geoffrey was standing again. Now he hits him with a punch to the jaw. Geoffrey retaliates in kind, his hand hitting the Doctor as he aims for Sam, and soon there is a brawl underway. Simon and Jake arrive and immediately join in, trying to separate the men.
"Travis, where the hell is security?" Rose demands into her headset.
Sam manages to subdue Geoffrey with a punch to the nose.
Geoffrey yells and holds a hand to the nose, which is now bleeding. Sam holds on tight to his arm.
"Don't try to teleport," he says grimly. "I've got a vortex manipulator that will disintegrate you on the spot."
"The bomb's still going," Jake reports. "Any thoughts?"
They all turn to the Doctor, who's holding a hand to his own jaw. He walks into the room, followed by Sam, who shoves Geoffrey in front of him. Rose and Simon follow.
"Tell me how to turn this off," the Doctor says.
"I don't think so."
"Tell him," Donna's voice says from the door. She's standing there, quite calmly, in a rather pretty pantsuit in dark purple. Her hair is curled around her face and she's braced in the doorway, in shoes with tall skinny heels that Rose instantly covets for herself. In her hand is a large black gun. It's pointed directly at Geoffrey.
"The blue wire was first," the Doctor says. "Jake will next pull out the green one. Which I don't think you want him to do with you in the room, since that's the one connected to this detonator in my hand. So either turn off the bomb, or I put this back in your hand and Jake pulls the wire."
"Or I can just shoot you," Donna says, waving the gun.
"Or Donna can just shoot you," the Doctor amends.
Slowly, Geoffrey turns an angry glare on the Doctor. "The keypad," he says. "Type in 999."
Simon crouches done and does so, carefully.
"Timer's stopped," he reports in relief. Suddenly overcome, he sits back on the floor. "Eight minutes from explosion," he adds.
"Is the room un-de-magnetized?" the Doctor demands.
"Yes." Geoffrey appears to deflate.
Rose's phone starts to ring. She looks at the incoming number and shakes her head. "Travis? About time. We have a security issue. Bring your handcuffs."
"I'm sure the justice system on your planet is quite fair and equitable," the Doctor says cheerfully. "Of course, that won't be until after you've spoken with Torchwood."
Rose shoots him a startled glance. He meets it, and she sees the resolution in his eyes.
"He attempted to murder innocent people here," he says.
"That's fine," Donna interrupts. "Let Torchwood have him."
"We'll have to remove this," Simon says, looking down at the bomb. "If we can take it apart it would be pretty valuable."
Jake looks down. "I'm not going to be the one to do that, mate."
Sam walks over to Donna. Heedless of the gun she's still holding, he frames her face in his hands, looks into her eyes for a long moment, and gives her a long, slow kiss.
oOoO
The studio shuts down for the day so Torchwood's sweepers can make sure nothing else is waiting for them. By the time the building is cleared, it's late into the night. Sam and Donna are sitting in his office with Rose and the Doctor. It's been an exhausting day of interviews, searches and paperwork.
"I made him the assistant director for this movie," Sam says. "He had access to all the shooting schedules. He decided when we would be shooting each scene. He was able to plan the bomb to go off when the maximum number of people were here on set. He thought the council would reward him for taking care of me."
"Would they have done?" Rose asks.
"I don't think so. The council was never thrilled with me, but they wouldn't condone murder. Not the murder of so many of us."
"And you, yourself?" Rose continues, remembering what Geoffrey had said. "You're a pretty important person back there?"
"My family has been prominent for many generations. It would have done a lot of damage for so many of us to be killed."
"I'm sorry," the Doctor says. "It's not easy to be betrayed by a friend."
Sam sighs. "No, it's not."
"Anyway, we found out what was going on," Donna says, determined to be cheerful. "That's good. Now we can work finish the movie up."
The Doctor looks at Rose. She looks tired. Her clothes are smudged from the searches she's conducted, and he doesn't think either of them has eaten since breakfast. He doesn't have to read her mind to know that all she wants is a hot shower and a long sleep.
"Now we can finish a lot of things," he says, still looking at Rose.
"That'd be nice," she says softly.
oOoOo
"It's so weird," Donna says the next morning, gazing at the Doctor over a glass of orange juice. "I get the strangest feeling sometimes that I know you. I mean, we like the same stuff in our coffee, the same kind of movies. We say the same thing sometimes. It's like we're long lost twins or something."
He rolls his eyes. "As if! We look nothing like each other."
"Don't I know it. You're far too skinny, spaceman."
He looks at her quickly. "Why do you call me that?"
She looks surprised. "'Cos you work at Torchwood, dummy! All of you are either spacemen or Martians trying to lock each other up. Don't know how you do it."
He shrugs.
"Where are you from, anyway?" Donna asks curiously.
"Far from here," he says quietly. "You wouldn't know it."
"Go on, then. I was an ace at geography. Where?"
He looks up from his drink and into her eyes. "Gallifrey," he says quietly.
"Gallifrey," Donna echoes. "That's a lovely name. Where is it? Ireland?"
He smiles sadly at that. "No. It's long since gone."
Donna doesn't really understand, but she covers his hand with her own. "I'm sorry," she says.
"Thanks. It's all right. I have Rose."
"Is that enough?" Donna asks carefully. "My dad is gone, but I still have my mum and my granddad. Can't be easy being all alone."
"I've been alone for a long time. I've got Rose and her family now."
"Family's important. Even though my mum drives me mad."
He nods, a sad expression in his eyes when he looks at her that she still doesn't understand.
"Family's important," he agrees. "So are friends. It's hard when you lose either one."
"That's why it's better when you find one."
oOoOo
"I told you!" Janet says gleefully, walking around the studio with Sam. "Someone close to you."
"Well, how was I to know it was someone I'd known for over sixty years?" he demands irritably.
"Are they going to release him?"
"Who, Torchwood? Not for a long while, I imagine. I'll let them break him and then request that he be sent home. They might even listen to me."
"You know that won't be much better." Nocklyn likes privacy and has a real dislike of people who break laws.
"I know it won't. If they frown upon me doing this, they won't be too pleased with his attempt to commit a terrorist act on a foreign planet."
"And how are things with Donna? I hear she saved the day."
"Literally," he says proudly. "Snatched a gun from a security guard and took care of things on her own. She's absolutely brilliant."
"Is she?" Janet is amused by this. "Good."
He shoots her a quick look. "What do you know? What do you see?"
She only smiles as she raises her up to drink. "Oh, you'll find out."
"You know, I hate that about you. Mistress of the enigmatic remark. Would it kill you to tell me something directly for once?"
"How much of a mess did he leave you in here?" she asks instead.
"Not too much, since it's still early days. If he'd waited he could have damaged the studio a lot more, what with replacement costs and salaries and equipment."
"Will you be very behind schedule?"
"I don't think so. We'll lose some money on this, and I'll have to replace Geoffrey, but we should make it up when the movie is released."
"If you don't?"
"Well, I have another film in mind," he admits. "More of a, a love story."
Janet smirks. "Alien and human fall in love, live happily ever after?"
"I was thinking more of an alien and human falling in love, traveling the stars."
Janet shakes her head. "That will never sell."