Somewhere over the rainbow"So, do you know this Master guy?"
"Yes… We go back."
"He's not like an evil twin or something" Jack asked.
"Is your head filled with dirt? Of course he's not" the Doctor responded. "What a stupid thing to ask."
"Just had to be sure. What's the plan now?"
"I find him."
"And?"
"Not so sure about the next part."
"You're gonna kill him?"
"I don't know" the Doctor said. "Rationally, I know it won't bring Rose back, or ease the pain, but…"
"Revenge is an easier emotion to deal with than sorrow" Jack said. "I get it."
"Jackie asked me to…" The Doctor sighed. All the conflicting emotions were starting to wear him down. And Jackie had asked him to find whoever did this and get revenge, she had asked him she earnestly that he couldn't refuse her. Maybe because he really wanted revenge too.
"She wants justice" Jack said. "It's only natural. Can't really say I don't want that either. Rose meant the world to me."
The Doctor didn't respond and the two men just sat there in silence for a while.
"Jackie's finally asleep" Owen said as he almost collapsed at his desk. "Lord that woman can hold her meds. Used the same tranquilizers we use on Weevils.""Is that healthy" Ianto asked.
"It made her calm down" Owen said with a shrug. "Pete's phoning Mickey and Jake right now, they are in Norway."
"Where's Gwen" Tosh asked.
"Throwing up, again! She really needs to cut down on her drinking" Owen said. "She's what, twenty eight going on sixty?"
"We all deal with this differently" Tosh said.
"What about Donna and Martha?"
"Outside" Tosh said. "They must feel so weird, they barely knew Rose."
"So what now" Ianto asked and sat down at Gwen's desk. "Is it just back to business?"
"Well, call me crazy, Ianto, but I think we're going to take some time to deal with this" Owen said.
"Please, let's just not fight right now" Tosh intervened. "That's not what Rose would have wanted."
"I think Rose would have wanted not be dead! To not be locked in the Torchwood dearly dead employees' storage room" Owen yelled and stood up. "I hardly think she would care about Ianto's idiocy."
Tosh and Ianto looked surprised and a little shocked, as Owen left the room. "What just happened?"
Ianto stared at the door Owen had just slammed shut. "I think he's dealing…"
"I was coming back…"
Jack turned to look at the Doctor. They were sitting outside, on the harbour and the Doctor had been staring at the same spot somewhere on the horizon for almost an hour and his admission surprised Jack. "What do you mean?"
"It's just, ironic, almost… I was coming back and then… this. Story of my life, I suppose."
"Doctor, it wasn't your fault" The Doctor just shrugged. "Look, what Jackie said…"
"It's not about that. But she's right, I promised I would look after Rose, make sure she was safe…"
"Rose was an adult, she made her own choices. Trust me, she didn't want a babysitter."
The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Donna. "How are you doing?"
"Fine, I'm fine…"
"Liar" she said with a small smile, gently touching his arm.
Gwen sat down next to Jack. "Owen is throwing things around in the lab."
"He's a bit on edge" Jack said. "We all are. You okay?"
"No" Gwen said honestly. She was afraid whatever decease Rose had had, she had passed it on to Gwen.
"You should let Owen give you a check up" Martha said.
"I'd rather have my tonsils removed with teaspoons" was Gwen's reply.
"Oh… I can do it, if you want? Not the tonsils, the check up."
"Really? That would be great" Gwen said. "But, maybe later, yeah? When Owen's done redecorating:"
Martha smiled. "It's fine."
"Where's Jackie" the Doctor asked.
"Owen gave her something to calm her down. She's sleeping now, I think. Pete's arranging for Mickey and Jake to come home" Gwen said.
Donna leaned her head on the Doctor's shoulder. "I hate this. It's not fair" she whispered.
"I know" he responded.
The little group was joined by Tosh and Ianto not too long after. "Owen's tearing the lab apart" Tosh said as she sat down next to Gwen.
"Let him" Jack said.
"Beautiful sunset" Ianto commented.
"You should eat something" Donna said.
"I'm not hungry" the Doctor said.
"I could eat" Gwen suddenly said.
"Yeah me too" Ianto agreed. None of them had eaten in a while.
They all stood up, ready to return to the hub and order some food when a voice called out: "Dad!"
"Dad?" four confused voices repeated, as a blond girl threw herself at the Doctor, who looked just as confused.
"Jack, that's the alien who crashed.""What?" Jack looked even more confused now. "What the hell is this" he asked Martha.
"That's Jenny…. Who is dead."
"And Jenny is…" Jack looked at the blond again. "Kinda hot, actually."
"Jack, shut up" the Doctor said. He grabbed Jenny by the shoulders. "Is that really you?"
"It's really me" Jenny replied with a mega watt smile. "I have been looking everywhere for you!" She looked at Donna and Martha. "It's so good to see you again too…. But you all look so sad. What's going on?"
"She certainly sounds like him" Jack mumbled, as Jenny speed-talked herself through an introduction.
"Oh… Well…" The Doctor looked at Donna and Martha for help, but they both looked equally lost for words. "How are you here?"
"Oh, well I woke up after you left and then I just sort of decided to go see the universe, like you said, save planets and people and do a lot of running. I did a lot of running! And now I'm here…" She smiled again.
The Doctor smiled and hugged her again. For a second he could forget all the troubles in the world and just hug his daughter. "It's good to see you too" he whispered.
Owen had pretty much trashed the lab when the tears finally came. He didn't like crying, it made him feel weak; he preferred rage and anger. And by now he was so full of both that it was almost overwhelming. Rose was gone, she had been violently ripped from them and there was nothing he could do about it. It opened old wounds, making them bleed all over again. What use was all that fancy education of his, if he couldn't even save the lives of those he loved? First Katie and now Rose. Maybe he should just have become a plumber? Surely his life wouldn't be so shitty if he fixed pipes for a living. Or well, it probably would be full of shit, just a different kind.
He hated this, he hated his life and honestly, he kinda hated the people he worked with. He was still so full of resentment towards Jack because he let Katie die and Gwen… Gwen had stirred feelings in him he didn't like just to dump him again. Ianto was an vest-wearing idiot and Tosh was a pushover. Owen sent another a lamp flying. He really hated his life, everything was completely wrong and no matter what he did, he couldn't fix it. He couldn't fix his mother, he couldn't fix Katie and he couldn't fix Rose.
An image of her dropping to the ground, shock still registering in her eyes, flashed in his mind. She looked surprised most of all, dead eyes staring up in the air and blood pumping out of her chest. Jack had been the first on the ground, feverishly trying to stop the bleeding. The rational part of Owen's brain knew it was too late, she was already dead, but he dropped to the ground as well, steadying her head and trying to put pressure on the wound with Jack. He could remember Gwen screaming and Ianto pulling her back so she wouldn't get in her way, but it was pointless. In Owen's assessment Rose was long gone before she even hit the ground. He wasn't sure how long they had worked on her, Jack kept insisting she could be saved and Owen tried his best, but… What was the point?
The Master had disappeared when Owen rose, probably took off the second the bullet hit Rose. Smart move, Owen thought. Jack had carried Rose to the car and back at the hub a struggling Owen was forced to call the time of the death. He almost wished the bullet had hit him instead.
"So, let me see if I get this straight. You go to some desolated planet where a machine takes a tissue sample and out of the machine comes a grown what? Replica?"
"It's Progenation. Reproduction by a single organism. It means one parent is biological mother and father. You take a sample of diploid cells, split them into haploids then recombine them in a different arrangement and grow" the Doctor explained.
"I didn't understand a word of that" Jack said.
"She's my daughter."
"Oh, okay. Congratulations, I guess" Jack said, still looking rather confused.
"Who are these people" Jenny asked.
"Torchwood" Jack said. "Captain Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper and Tosh Sato."
"So what's going on? You all look sad. And there's something in the air."
Jack looked at the Doctor, who looked away. "We lost a member of our team today.""Oh how awful, I'm so sorry" Jenny said.
Jack just nodded. He was kinda taken back by this, the last thing he had expected was another Time Lord, or Lady, and especially not one who was the daughter of the Doctor. What puzzled him even more was her appearance; she looked like Rose. Jack definitely needed to talk with the Doctor in private, and not just about the Master and the cracks...
A/N: This chapter tortured me. And that evil writer's block is most definitely back. Thanks for the reviews, faves and alerts, as always, they mean the world to me. And to one reviewer, acelili: Yes, really, I'm leaving it there. Rose is dead.
So, this weeks awesome thing: My bright yellow nail polish. It's just awesome! Not so awesome: My two bff's were in London last week and guess who they ran into: Matt Smith! And I wasn't there. I'm not sure how I'm going to get over that one.
Next chapter is going to tie some of the many loose ends and actually have some sort of action - that's the plan, anyways. I haven't written it yet, but hopefully it won't take this long again.