CHAPTER 2

He stood at the same spot for hours trying to make sense of what had happened. This was now the second time in a row that the TARDIS hadn't brought him to where he wanted to go. He'd entered all the data correctly, but somehow still wound up in the one town on the one planet he didn't want to be on unless she was there.

"Standing there won't make it any easier."

He wound around to see who was suddely talking to him. A woman stood there. She was most probably in her fourties, had long way brown hair, black glasses and wore a long brown coat almost the same his own. She smiled at him as he looked at her and put her glasses onto her head. "I'm Annika Smith. People call me Annie." She held her hand out. The Doctor, still mesmerized, moved out his own hand to shake her's. Seeing his confused look she chuckled and said: "You probably have no idea who I am, Doctor."

He let go of her hand and raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "You know who I am?"

"Yes, I do. You're the Doctor, last of the Timelords. You travel in your TARDIS, which stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. You ended the battle of canary warf."

The Doctor cleared his throat. He was – for once in his life– lost for words. "How do you know all this about me?"

"That's not important. All you need to know is that I'm here to help you."

The Doctor noticed she was speaking in a very posh accent. Every word she pronounced very clearly. It was almost amusing. But he was still unconvinced about her and her purpose. "What do you mean you are going to help me? How do you know what I'm about to do?"

She smiled. "Like I said, all you need to know is I'm here to help. You seek someone, yes? A Larah Jones I believe."

"Yes, that's true, but this is all a bit fishy to me. How do you know so much? How is it that you found me here? How did you know I was going to be here?"

"All you need to know is that I was sent here to assist you in finding the person you seek and in the long run, help you get someone back. Rose Tyler her name is."

His left heart skipped a bit and his right started pumping faster. How did she know all this? He couldn't stand still anymore. He started pacing around the lawn he'd only now noticed he was standing on. "But … but, how? Some people try to find me and it takes them decades! How do you know who I am?"

She continued to smile. "They told me you were going to put up a fight. This should convince you that I'm for real." She pulled out a little screen. "Maybe we should go inside as to not make anyone suspicious?"

"Inside? .. Oh yes!" He led the way into the TARDIS. She stood at the entrance for a second as he made his way towards the control panel. He stopped midway and said: "Yes, yes I know it's. …"

"Bigger on the inside", she added smiling. "I know."

"How? How do you know?"

"Be patient, Doctor. All in good time."

She walked over the bridge towards the control panel still carrying the screen. "Can I hook this onto something?"

"Hm? Oh yes, here." He pulled out what looked like a burnt cable and handed it to her. She took it now smiling even wider. "You should update your ship, Doctor. It looks a bit – old."

"Update? This is not a computer! It's a living thing! Think of it as a tree. It was grown, not built." He stopped himself from talking. "I'm not saying a word more until you show me proof that you're not here to get some information for people who will misuse it or you're not a Slythene, not a shapeshifter of any kind!"

She laughed. "I'm not. I'm human. Check me out with your sonic screwdriver."

"You know about that, too?" But he took her advice. He grabbed his sonic screwdriver and scanned her. Looking at the display he saw that she was almost completely human. One thing about her caught his eye. "Wait a minute! It says that you're almost human. There's something odd about it, though. You have time travelling specs!"

She looked over to him. "Yes. I'm a time traveller. Just like you."

He shook his head. "Hold on. I don't just cross paths with time travellers. In fact, I've never met one that didn't become one through me! It's actually quite impossible."

"Is it?" she said with a smirk. "Maybe this will help." She pressed a button on the top of the screen and an image of man appeared. He had a big smile on his face. "Doctor! Good to see you." The Doctor rubbed his eyes. "But … Jack! What are you doing? What's happening?" He heard the familiar laugh of Captain Jack Harkness. "Yes it's me!" he shouted gleefully. "I'm glad Annie found you. We were worried that she wasn't going to. She could have been much too early or much too late. We had to rely on records."

"Records?" The Doctor became furious now. "Would someone please tell me what's going on here? I'm simply not used to not understanding word of what is happening around me. You!" He pointed at Jack. "You explain to me how you're talking to me right now, where you are and why this is happening. And you!" He now pointed at Annie. "You're going to tell me exactly who you are. Where you came from, what your purpose is, why you are helping me. Everything! And right now."

A small pause followed. Then Jack spoke. "Fine, old friend. I'm in the year 2062, about 55 years in your future."

"Hold on a second", the Doctor said. "It's 2007 now? How is that possible? Why did I land here and now?"

"I'm trying to explain, Doctor. We were trying to find you. It's very hard to do that when you travel across time and space, so we had to find someone who saw you at some point. The last time anyone on Earth saw you was this moment right there. We had to calculate when you would land and where, because the person could only remember that it was somewhere around Big Ben. Then we went back in time to meet you. Annie is by far our best agent. She was the first pick for this mission."

This didn't help the Doctor at all. There were still too many questions unanswered. "Now hold on. First of all, who exactly is 'we'?

Jack's smile faded and he paused for a second. Then he said with a lowered voice: "Torchwood."

"Torchwood!? You work for Torchwood? After everything they did at canary warf, after they let the cybermen cross over to our world, after they nearly destroyed the Earth and … and after Rose …" He stopped. The painful memories came back yet again. He had tried hard to supress them, because they weren't helping. But his anger towards everything that had happened, towards Torchwood, the Earth and fate, only grew.

"I know what Torchwood did", Jack said. "I redid it. I created a new and better Torchwood. The only thing we do is make sure that aliens do not interfere with the ways of the Earth. We inspect mysterious creatures and deaths. That is all. We do not start wars and we do not experiment. Well, at least not on things that can go wrong."

The Doctor shook his head. "I don't believe that. Torchwood caused so much evil. It can't be good."

"Am I evil?" Jack asked in earnest. "Am I the cause of all problems? Think about that, Doctor."

No one spoke for a minute or two. Then the Doctor stepped forward and looked onto the screen. "No, you're not evil. You may be a scoundrel, but you're not evil."

Jack laughed. He looked over to Annie and said: "Well, Annie, I suppose this concludes things. Oh, Doctor" he turned his head to him, "before you keep harrassing her with questions, she is an excellent Torchwood agent from planet Earth travelling through time and space on secret and emergency missions like the one you're about to embark on. Her name is Annika Smith, she likes to be called Annie. She can speak up to 18 languages, she's a fantastic cook and she's a wonderful companion. Give her a chance."

The Doctor sighed. He looked over at Annie who was smiling in a sweet yet suspicious way. Something about her reminded him of himself. He looked at Jack's picture and said: "Fine, I will give her a chance. But if anything goes wrong, if she keeps talking too much, I'll send her back!"

"No offence, Doctor", Jack answered, "but I don't know if anyone can talk more than you. You'll be alright."

Now even the Doctor had to smile. "Alright, hurray then. We'll be on our way."

"Always a pleasure, Doctor" Jack said while giving a salute. The Doctor simply nodded. A second later his picture was gone.

"Right then", Annie said tucking away the screen. "Best be off." She walked a couple of steps to the control panel. "Oh I've been dreaming to be inside this thing for a long time." She gigled.

The Doctor took a few steps forward to get a better look at her. "Let's get one thing straight."

"Hm?"

"Last time I traveled with someone, I lost her to a different version of reality. I'm not exactly fond of the idea of a new companion just now."

"Fine then", Annie responded. "I'm not your companion. I'm your – …caseworker. How's that?"

"Better", the Doctor answered. "So, off to Satellite III. I hope I'll reach it this time."

"You will. We interfered with your transmat. You should have free reign now over all your control panels."

The Doctor stopped in mid-action. "You … you interfered with my transmat? How on Earth did you do that?"

"We went to Satellite V first and acquired some technology. They have a way of sucking people into games there. At least they did for a while until you saved the day again, Doctor."

He looked down. "That was very long ago. In fact, I even looked very different back then. I was a different man. Even my accent was different. I sounded like I was from the North. At least that's what Rose said." The silence that followed was uncomfortable. Annie shifted around nervously.

"Why don't we get a move-on, Doctor."

He nodded. He turned the wheel, set the data and punched the start button. Making its usual noise, the TARDIS left the ground and started the journey. From the corner of his eye the Doctor saw Annie fiddling with something that looked like a small trinket. She put it back into her pocket before he could see what it was.