(Part 2)

It was three days before Christmas when he noticed that his throat was itchy. He kept on clearing his throat, worried he might start coughing and spluttering like Tony and Pete. He really didn't want to get sick. Getting sick was bad, the Doctor rarely ever got sick.

He went to sleep that night hoping that it would go away, and woke up feeling like he'd gone through a sun. He had a fever, his eyes and nose ran constantly, he felt utterly miserable in a way he couldn't ever remember feeling before, and he couldn't stop coughing.

There was a knock on the door and Jackie poked her head in; she took one look at his mussed up hair and sighed. "So you've got it too, then? Just you watch, I'll be next."

He was going to tell her to go bugger off, but ended up having a slight coughing fit instead. Taking advantage of it, Jackie came in and went over to his bathroom. He heard the tap running, and then she was back with a damp washcloth and a glass. She put the cloth on the back of his neck and held it there as she waved the glass of water in front of him.

"Nothing much you can do but sleep it off. Drink lots of fluids too, or you'll end up regretting it. I'll bring you your breakfast up here."

He wasn't hungry but knew Jackie in a mothering mood was a force to be reckoned with. He ate the toast she brought up a short time later, but enjoyed the banana more, even though it hurt to eat that as well.

"Guh, I feel terrible," he stated rather belatedly, as she was about to leave the room with the empty tray.

"You've got a cold, everyone feels terrible when they have a cold," Jackie replied, and left him to his misery. He wished more than ever right now that Rose was there to curl up with, but she wasn't. All he could do was lay on his side and try to concentrate on how to breathe properly with his nose all clogged up.

He spent that and the next day, mostly lying in bed, sleeping or reading. He was afraid he'd end up spending Christmas like that too, so was nicely surprised when he woke up on the twenty-fifth feeling... not 'well' exactly, but better than he had for days. He was still sick, but felt like he was getting better.

Pete and Tony were nearly free of coughing now too, and Jackie seemed happy to not be sick that day.

He had a small stack of presents waiting for him on the breakfast table; one from each of the Tyler's, and he discovered, Maureen, the cook, had baked him some tarts as well. Sick or not, he was going to eat them, before they weren't good anymore. They ended up being his breakfast. Not exactly the most nutritious thing, but it made everyone happy to see him eat something without having to tell him to. Being sick had taken his appetite.

Tony had got him some colouring pencils. He laughed when he opened the small present from the boy, and had hugged him and thanked him. The boy had seen him sketching and obviously thought it would be good if he could add in some colour. Pete got him a new suit, this one a darker shade of blue than his main one. He knew he'd wear it just as often as his other one.

When he opened Jackie's present he had to close his eyes quickly. She had given him a framed photograph, just one. It had been taken the last time the Doctor had shared Christmas with the Tyler's; one of their next door neighbours, Jason, he thought his name was, had taken it for them. Pete wasn't in it and Mickey was, but that didn't matter. He found that he was even missing Mickey. Mickey the Idiot who had turned into Mickey the Hero.

"You didn't have a picture, I thought you might like one."

"Thank you," he replied, going upstairs quickly to put it on his bedside table; the Doctor, Mickey, Rose and Jackie smiled widely back at him. At least now he wouldn't have to worry that he'd forget what she looked like.

Back downstairs with the others, again, he smiled at Jackie. "I Guess I did miss having a photo."

She smiled back at him and nodded. "It's helped me, knowing that I have photos to look through. Not her baby photos of course, they're still in the other universe, but I have a few good new ones from here."

He nodded, glad to feel that he was in a good mood now. "Yeah." His grin widened slightly and he looked down at his lap. He was still wearing his pyjamas. "I got presents!" he stated and laughed. He couldn't remember the last Christmas the Doctor had got presents. All his Christmases lately had been blood and fire and fighting, and death, lots of death. In fact, the closest to a good one he'd probably had was the one the photo had been taken at. He wondered for a few seconds how the Doctor's current Christmas was going, or if it even was Christmas wherever he was. Or if he'd bother with it. Shrugging, and coughing slightly, he decided to forget about him and enjoy this day with his new family.

Still rather full from all the tarts he'd eaten for breakfast, he didn't come down again for lunch, so when dinner time arrived he got a surprise. Not only was there a huge meal, with turkeys and hams, and enough places set to fill the table and extra plates stacked on the side, but he found Pete had invited over quite a number of people for a party.

He ate enough to fill up to almost bursting. Or so it felt. He didn't think he had ever understood that particular saying until just then.

Some of the people there were families, so there was quite a bunch of children in the family room, talking noisily and poking fun at the people on the television. Tony was the youngest child there, but he appeared to be enjoying himself immensely. The poor boy mustn't get a lot of time with other children to play with, he thought, yet, oddly, Tony didn't seem to be spoiled rotten. That must have been Jackie's doing. Being a single mum bringing up her daughter on a council estate probably meant she'd never had any money to spend on things they didn't need. To not buy extra things for Tony, after finding herself rich? Must have needed a will of steel.

He didn't know any of the people there as most were from Pete's 'real life' workplace, Vitex, rather than Torchwood, but he had fun anyway. He even danced with a few people. A woman about the same age as Rose kept on trying to feel his bum when they danced. It was kind of scary to be around someone that touchy.

He went to bed at ten. For him, that was late.

It was only the next day, when he woke up still in a good mood and looked at the photo, that he realised it had been the first day he had spent here that he hadn't spent most of his time either feeling sad or sorry for himself.

He'd had his first good day.

He hoped he would have a lot more like it. It felt good to be happy for once.

* * * * * * * * * *

Christmas was over and it was now the fifth of January. If he didn't hand in his notice soon, he was going to end up having to go back to Torchwood after the break instead of enrolling at college on the nineteenth. He cornered Pete in his study.

"I need to hand in my notice at Torchwood. I want to do a Business Course at Barking College. Enrolment's in a fortnight."

"Business? That the Donna in you?"

He blinked. He simply hadn't thought of that, "The Donna in me? Do you know... I think it is. Donna definitely knew about that kind of stuff, in spades. She was brilliant."

* * * * * * * * * *

Barking College. He'd chosen it for two reasons even before he'd even bothered looking to see if it held a course he'd wanted to take. Firstly, for the name. There was something quite 'him' about going to college in a place called Barking; it suited him better than most, he thought. Secondly, for the colour of the front of the main building. It was blue. TARDIS blue. Well, almost anyway.

"I need to rebuild my life, and I don't have any business skills. I've never needed them before, but I'm alone now, and need to get a job. I haven't got the foggiest how to do interviews or even how to go about getting an interview in the first place and thought that this would be a good course to take to get me introduced to it. And it will give me skills that I might need later. I read the course curriculum thingy on the net and it says communication skills. They're important nowadays I hear." He tried a smile. He didn't think he was making a very good impression. He tended to ramble when he was nervous.

The woman who was there for the enrolments nodded her head with a slight frown. "Define rebuilding your life?"

The smile on his face fell. "Umm, two months ago, almost three now, on my birthday in fact... I lost my home. Everything I had, gone. I had nothing but the suit I was wearing. No money, no friends, no clue as to what to do next. I need to start all over again.

And that probably was that. They would reject him for being a broke, friendless, lunatic. Sighing, he got up off the seat he was in and stretched. "I'm staying at the Tyler residence.

The woman, Mrs Green if her nametag was correct, smiled at him and nodded. "Just so that you know, most people who join this course are young; sixteen to nineteen, usually."

He grinned. "That doesn't worry me. I can get on perfectly well with the younger crowd. My... partner... Rose. Well, she's gone now. Never coming back. Went running off with... a doctor, and this chap called Mickey. She was nineteen when I first met her. It'll be good to make some new friends."

And with that, he handed over the form with his details on it, and walked out,

Why did life have to be so hard?

* * * * * * * * * *

A week later he hung up the phone with a huge grin on his face. "Hah! Jackie, Pete, I got in!"

He hugged both of them for a good five minutes each, then swept Tony up off his feet and ran around the lounge a few times with him hanging off his shoulder, squealing and giggling the entire time. He was too for that matter.

Alright, so, sometimes life wasn't too bad.

Right now he felt like he could fly.

* * * * * * * * * *

February the second started early for him.

He grabbed the notebook and pens he'd set ready on his desk the night before and stuffed them in his jacket pocket . He was wearing his blue suit. The original one. He was even wearing the same red t-shirt under it. He hadn't really known what else to wear and, since he didn't mind coming off as the eccentric type, he wasn't bothered about wearing a suit to a school. As this one had belonged to the Doctor, the pockets were transdimentional ones. He was sure they'd come in rather handy.

He'd got used to the family having breakfast together but, this morning, Tony was still asleep in bed as he wolfed down a few pieces of toast and a glass of orange juice in the dining room. Jackie was up though, and hugged him good luck. It made him feel a bit like a child himself, but at least she seemed to care about how his day was going to go. He was nervous and jittery, even with her support, but he wanted to go. He needed to do something different with this life, and he had to start somewhere, even if it was a small baby step like this one.

The literacy and numeracy tests he had taken to show his abilities had been easy. He was sure he'd pass the course with flying colours, if he could stay focused. He just hoped the teachers were a bit livelier than the ones he could remember from the Academy back on Gallifrey.

By the time he got to the college, the sun had fully risen and he had five minutes left to find the right room. That didn't bother him too much. If he was a little bit late, well, he couldn't help it.

As it was, he found the room he was looking for with no problems. He spotted someone standing, having a cigarette, right by the main door who, it turned out, was doing the same course. Holly her name was, and she was eighteen. She kept smiling at him.

Most of the class was female. Apart from him, there was only one other male; a boy of sixteen, who looked kind of awkward (He almost laughed out loud when he found out the boy's name was Peter.) and only one other person in the class, besides him (Mrs Green, the teacher he had met last month, didn't count.) who was over the age of nineteen; a woman who looked to be almost his age, called Katie. Well his body's apparent age, anyway. After careful consideration, and help from both Jackie and Pete, he had settled on thirty-eight. He was almost forty. Damn.

Katie had olive skin, shiny, dark hair, even darker eyes, and a body figure close to that of Rose's but with (and he noted it with a slight blush) smaller breasts. And when she spoke it was with an accent that reminded him of Martha's. There was something about her he automatically liked. Automatically liking someone was one of the ways, in his later years, that the Doctor had begun to choose his companions. It was definitely how he'd chosen Rose and Martha.

He smiled at her, and she smiled back. He had been doing a lot of smiling at people the past five minutes. Most had smiled back, too.

Taking a seat off to one side, he turned to the front when Mrs Green (Diane) cleared her throat. "Welcome class, to the Introductory Diploma for Business and Retail Studies."

The course was explained, not in detail but in part, and a sheet was handed out showing the class what would be taught on Monday mornings . It took up the whole lesson, and, apart from a small break, it seemed to go by rather quickly. Diane was both funny but not afraid to point out when someone made a mistake. She was the kind of teacher he liked.

Afternoon class was Computer Studies. Again, it was just an outline of what they'd be doing, the course objectives and a little bit of time left over to muck about on the internet. It was basic stuff, and most of the people in there already seemed to know it as well, but it was part of the programme, and the majority of the class rejoiced at seeing there was something that they'd definitely be able to pass. Their teacher was a man. Justin. All the teachers went by their first names here. That'd take a bit of getting used to. It was a much more relaxed environment for learning than he was used to.

Even though there were still three more different classes to get the information about for the term, he thought that he'd actually enjoy the course. And he was more than likely to make some young friends.

He had to go speak with a tutor before he went home, they went over his info and spent an hour with him to help with a study plan.

He got home just in time for a rather late dinner, tired but happy with his plans and how they were going so far.

He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, and slept like a log.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Jack, how are you doing?"

Blinking and turning around, he waved to Katie, the 'older' woman in his class and grinned. "Hi!"

Jackie had taken him shopping to help pick out some clothes he actually liked. He'd been wearing the same two suits to classes and he was sure that everyone was kind of wondering if he had anything else. Not that it was Pete's fault that the clothes he'd bought for him weren't 'him'. The problem was he still wasn't too sure what was 'him' when it came to clothes. He did love his suits though, so blue was definitely in for things he'd like.

"I'd ask what you are doing here, but that'd be a bit stupid."

"Me? Jackie here is taking me shopping. I need more clothes in case you hadn't figured that out yet." He grimaced. "Two suits. It's not good to wear them all the time, or so I hear."

Katie laughed as Jackie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, we noticed you only seemed to wear the same two outfits. We were wondering if you'd have another two for the second week and turn it into some kind of trend."

He shook his head. "Nope. Just the two suits. I was kind of abandoned recently. Left with only the clothes I stood up in... so to speak. I got born and... and..." He was not going to cry on the middle of a busy street.

As if sensing his near meltdown, Jackie quickly pulled him into a hug and begun rubbing his back. "Come on sweetheart, don't be upset." He stood there and just let her wrap him up in her arms. He didn't return the embrace, nor did he say anything. If he opened up his mouth, he was sure he'd start sobbing.

Katie was looking at them in a weird kind of way. "Is he alright?" he heard her asking Jackie. Now he felt invisible too! He sniffed slightly and, without them wanting to, his arms wrapped themselves around Jackie and he clung on tightly.

"He will be. He's a bit... confused and upset." He felt her sigh heavily, and loosened his grip slightly.

"Thank you!" she responded, "I was suffocating."

"Sorry. Jackie... I don't think I can do this. Not right now anyway."

He felt a third hand join hers on his back, and lifted his head from Jackie's shoulder to see Katie grinning at him.

"I could come with you? Shopping. It's better with three."

Jackie smiled at her and patted him on the back. "See? An offer you can't refuse. Between the two of us we'll find you something you like."

He groaned. "Will I get a say at all?"

"Sure! We'll let you pick things out," Katie replied, grabbing onto one of his hands and pulling him forwards, Jackie making sure to keep a grip on his other so he couldn't slip away from her. He was sandwiched between two women bent on making sure he had something to wear. He was either in hell, or very lucky. Possibly it was both at the same time.

He found he was actually good at this whole shopping thing and, to his added horror, he found that he enjoyed it. Spending time with Katie was a new and interesting experience, and he found he really liked her. His spirits rose with each item that he found, liked, and they both seemed to approve of.

The clothes he ended up choosing were mostly in some shade of blue. But he did end up with quite a lot of brown and a few green items as well. He didn't know why he liked green, he just did. Maybe that was a Donna part of him, or maybe it was this new human him that just liked it.

By the end he had another two suits, one brown and one blue. To Jackie's disappointment, he hadn't gone for denim; it was too scratchy on his skin and he found he didn't like it. Jackie had also bought him quite a few new pairs of trousers; three pairs of pyjamas (none of them pinstriped, though he especially liked the dark blue ones with the planets on them); and lots of new underthings to wear. The women had definitely enjoyed helping him out in that department. He'd had the odd thought that perhaps not too many guys would actually liked that.

By the end they were all hungry. And, to show how much he appreciated the good day he'd had, he took the other two to off to buy them tea at a nearby by café. He had a banana flavoured sundae, with a milkshake, also banana. Well, at least it was another thing about him that truly hadn't changed: when given a choice, he'd always go for banana. For some reason, Katie found it hilarious.

As they walked out of the café, still all grins, he clapped his hands together and made his first major slip of the tongue since being in this universe. "So! Come on, back to the TARDIS."

Katie frowned slightly. "What's a TARDIS?"

He slammed a hand over his mouth and made a sound that came out a bit... strangled. He walked off, back toward Jackie's car, and crawled into the back seat to waited for her. She was talking to Katie, he could see her doing it, through the window, and wondered what she was saying to her about it.

He didn't say another word for the rest of the day, worried that he might say something else stupid. In fact, it wasn't until he put on his new planet patterned pyjamas that he began to feel a little bit better.

* * * * * * * * * *

On the second week, they had to pick out a partner for group work, and he automatically gravitated towards Katie. It was good to have a friend in class now. But he was worried about what Jackie had told her about him when he'd gone to sulk in the car. What he'd said out in the street was still very clear to him, and he needed to know what she thought.

What if she thought it was some kind of nervous breakdown? He wasn't sure one was too far off anyway; he'd been getting a bit snappy towards the Tyler's, lately.

Katie was the only friend he had right now who wasn't living with him, and he felt like he could talk to her. There were things he wanted her to know, but he didn't think she'd believe him.

"Hello," he said as he sat down in the chair next to her.

She smiled at him and nodded. "Hello back. I was afraid you'd quit after what happened Saturday."

Blinking, he frowned. "Why would I quit? It's not like I find this class hard or anything."

"Jackie said that you were... I mean, she kind of said that you were... "

Closing his eyes, and letting his breath out in a frustrated sigh, he let his head hit the table with a bit of a thud. "Said what?" His voice sounded short and bitter to his own ears, he hated to think of what it sounded like to her.

"That you're having a bit of a hard time of it lately."

He snorted out in disbelief. "You were talking for over five minutes. I doubt that's all she said about me."

She shook her head. "No, it's not. But it is all I'll say in the middle of a classroom."

For a second he had forgotten where they were, and it calmed him down a bit to remember. He looked at her and grimaced. "Yeah, thanks. Sorry. I've been snapping at everyone the past two days."

She was still smiling nicely at him. "Nah, that's alright."

He couldn't concentrate on the work they were supposed to be doing in their pairs though, and spent most of the first half of the day watching Katie as she did some of the work set out, occasionally pointing out a few things she missed.

It wasn't the best start to his second week of college, but it was better than having completely lost his rag with her. The horrid thing was he could feel it inside him, rising with every passing second. He didn't know how long he'd be able to keep his temper under wraps.

"Jack? Have you thought about talking to the counsellor? It could do you some good," Katie stated as they sat down in a secluded spot to eat lunch, after the first class was over.

He shook his head. "One of the first things I was made to do soon after I fetched up here was to go to a bloody psychologist. She made my skin crawl. Made me feel like a freak of nature. Which, by the way, I am. Not one other being ever in existence is like me. I'm a complete freak. I hate it. I hate myself. I hate being unable to do anything without help of some kind, even if it's just monetary. I hate not being able to travel. I miss the hell out of everything. I don't know how long I'm going to be able to stand this." Admitting that out loud felt both incredibly good and was infuriatingly saddening, but it was true. He didn't know what Jackie had told her, but he couldn't help himself. He needed someone right then, and here someone was. "I'm a burden. It's all I am to Jackie and Pete and everyone. I can't do anything right, I can't do anything at all. I can't even get a bloody job on my own. It makes me feel so stupid! And stupid is one thing I'm not. Not even close to it. Yet here I am in a bloody stupid school learning things I should probably already know by now. God knows I'm old enough!"

He took a deep shuddering breath and tried ignoring the damp tracks on his cheeks, swiping a hand over his eyes when he found he couldn't any longer. He let out a loud sniff and took a few more deep breaths. "Bloody hell! I can't do this. Really, I can't let my anger out. And it's clawing at me. Or, well, it feels like it anyway."

"Maybe you should get a punching bag then? Beat the crap out of it when you're angry."

He blinked, couldn't help but snort in amusement, and grinned up at her. "Did you just say, 'beat the crap out of something' to me? Heh, I know I've only known you a little over a week, but I didn't know you were so violent."

She grinned back at him and winked. "I'm not."

His heart lurched in his chest before beating a tiny bit faster. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes again before clearing his throat. "Well, I'm a mess. I'm going to go clean my face up a bit before I go to next class."

"Will you be doing something in class this time?"

He nodded. "Yeah, sorry about that. I Guess I just... I need to sort myself out, I know. Maybe it was too soon to start with this, but I just feel like I'm wasting my life if I'm not doing something."

Katie nodded at him, before getting up to make her way to the next class. "I'll save you a seat," she stated, before disappearing around the corner.

He went to the bathroom, and spent a good five minutes trying to wash away the evidence of his outburst. He was late to the next class, but he didn't get into trouble.

He rather thought that Katie had explained to the tutor that he was a bit out of it today.

* * * * * * * * * *

It was five days later, when he got in the shower and went to soap between his thighs that he found there'd been a few improvements to his 'plumbing'.

He closed his eyes and leaned against the bathroom wall. "Bloody hell!" he exclaimed aloud, "Oh that's just brilliant."

He was in a human body. His system needed to work like a human one. And, while he hadn't had any needs in that department, yet, his body was trying to regulate his hormones into something fit for a human male. Including in the sexual way. Testosterone. He could deal with that. No wonder he'd been so tetchy lately. His hormones were going nuts. His marvellously alien brain had taken a while, but it had finally caught up.

He immediately felt better about all the times he had started getting pissed off for no reason, recently. He was going through an accelerated growth stage similar to puberty.

Standing naked under the streaming water, he laughed out loud. And to think he'd been scared there, for a moment.

* * * * * * * * * *

He had his first unexpected erection later that night. He laid in bed stock still, afraid to move, wondering if it would just go away by itself like it had arrived. It had, thankfully, ten minutes later.

He wasn't awake when he went through his first orgasm. He woke up all sticky instead.

* * * * * * * * * *

Sexual frustration, he decided after two more days of his body deciding to act without his consent, was a bitch. Sometimes he couldn't think past what a nice bum Holly had, and what nice breasts most of his female classmates possessed.

He spent most of the third day sitting, hoping he wasn't called to stand for any reason, and blushing if anyone got too close. He felt old and kind of like a pervert for even thinking thoughts like that about people so young. He'd been looking at Peter too, not just the girls. Peter had very nice legs, for a bloke.

Katie, alone, was free from his roaming eyes and it made him think there may be something wrong with him. Did he only like young people sexually? It would explain a lot, really, if that was the case. Still, it didn't stop Katie from being his friend. Knowing what was making him feel so totally out of control recently helped immensely and, for some reason, he confided in her.

"It's not funny! It's very frustrating I'll have you know. I'm not used to it at all, it's entirely new. Not necessarily something I like, but new and rather... intriguing anyway. Next thing, I'll be having sex. Maybe even regularly. Sex, me!"

She grinned at him and he grinned back. "I can think of worse things than regular sex. Regular sex is good, and it feels fantastic. I haven't had that for a while mind, not since Richard anyway. He divorced me for an eighteen year old. I was only twenty-three at the time!"

"Bastard."

"Yeah."

He found he was even comfortable talking about sex around Katie, and he eased up in his chair and sighed. "There's other things I know next to nothing about. How do you ask someone on a date? And what do you do on them? Is it all movies and holding hands?"

She gave him an odd look then, one he couldn't really identify, before she cracked another grin at him. "Got someone in mind?"

He shook his head, and saw disappointment flash in her eyes. Well, it was nice that she was worried for his emotional wellbeing and happiness, it was a sign he had once again chosen the right person to be friends with.

"Just curious right now, for when I am interested. Right now I'm trying to deal with one thing at a time, or I'd probably be overwhelmed."

The disappointment faded from her eyes and she nodded. "Yeah, good idea. I forgot that this is all new to you. Not that I believe half the crackpot things you and Jackie have told me."

He froze a bit at that, remembering he had wanted to talk to her about that last week. "Umm, yeah, about that. What did Jackie say? When I... slipped up?"

Katie shrugged her shoulders a bit and rolled her eyes. "She kept on going on about travelling in a blue box that was bigger on the inside through space and time."

Taking a deep breath, he nodded. "A TARDIS, that stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space, she's a time machine, spaceship, utterly marvellous and much like me, last of her ki... No, not me. Not mine anymore. Human-Time Lord Biological Metacrisis. I'm now half human... well, mostly human really, just kept the same big old, alien brain."

She was looking at him with a look of pure fascination and, taking heart, he grinned happily and went on, telling her all about the TARDIS and some of how she worked. It was the first time since being abandoned here that he hadn't cried or got angry at the thought of the TARDIS.

It felt good to be able to talk so freely to someone that didn't look like they wanted to lock him up for being completely crazy. Someone not 'psychologically' trying to put him in a category and stick a dozen labels on his head.

The only thing he wanted as a label was his name. Jack. That was him now. Or at least, who he was trying to figure out he was.