Notes: Dr. Smith takes their new visitor to Torchwood to find out how he got there. Someone else is approaching the outer edges of the solar system.

Chapter 2

John drove the Delorian east alongside the Thames and half an hour later they pulled into the underground car park at Torchwood Tower. At reception, he arranged for a guest pass for Jack and they headed up to the top floor to Pete's office.

Progress was slow as they had to keep stopping for their friends and colleagues to admire young EJ, but eventually they made it to his glass fronted office.

"Rose, John," Pete called out as he stood up and walked from behind his desk. He gave Rose a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"And how's my grandson?" he cooed, gently rubbing EJ's cheek with his finger.

"Grandson?" Jack said looking at Rose. "Does that mean this is your father?"

"Dad, this is our friend Jack Harkness. Jack, this is my Dad Pete, current director of Torchwood."

"Jack Harkness? THE Jack Harkness, the one EJ is named after?"

"The very same," Rose said beaming a smile. Pete held out his hand and shook Jack's vigorously.

"You named your son after me?" Jack said looking at Rose as he shook hands.

"Of course, Eyulf Jackson, EJ," Rose replied. Jack was bristling with pride.

He turned to face Pete. "It is so nice to meet you Mr. Tyler."

"Please, call me Pete, and the pleasure is all mine. Rose and John talk about you all the time."

"Really? Oh you guys, that's so sweet."

"OK Jack, don't let it go to your head. Let's get you down to the Hospital floor and see if we can find some answers," John said.

John and Rose sat in the waiting room with staff cooing over EJ while Jack was having a full medical in the examination room. A female nurse came out blushing, with a smile on her face.

John and Rose looked at each other and grinned. When the male doctor came out all flustered, they looked at each other again and burst out laughing.

John stood up and walked over to the door.

"Jack!" he called through the closed door. "Stop it."

"What? I was only saying hello," he called back. Rose was in fits of giggles.

The medical results showed that Jack was in perfect health and there was nothing unusual in any of the samples or scans taken. Jack emerged from the examination room, pulling on the tracksuit top and putting a piece of paper in the pocket.

Rose looked at Jack with an enquiring look and he grinned.

"I got a phone number."

"Yeah, but who's," John asked. "Come on, let's go to my lab in Forensics, I need to do some tests of my own."

In his lab, John ran a number of high tech devices over Jacks body and put the medical samples through more tests.

"No artron energy. No void stuff, how can you be here without any of that on you? This doesn't make any sense." John was staring at the readouts.

"Do you have all your memories? When did you first meet Rose?"

"That's easy, she had a union jack T-shirt, and as she hung from a barrage balloon above the Thames, I couldn't help but notice she had a great ass.

"Jack!" Rose exclaimed.

"Sorry Rosie, but you do have a great ass," he said with his wicked grin.

"And me?" John asked.

"OK Doc, you have a great ass too." John looked indignant and Rose howled with laughter.

"Thank you Jack, but I meant can you remember when you first met me."

"Oh. Albion Hospital. You were Mr. Spock, all big ears and moody, wrapped in a rather cool leather jacket."

"Hmm, nothing wrong with your memory. Oh, I know, isotopes. Let's have a look at your isotope decay."

John went over to an analyser and ran the samples through it. After a few minutes, the results were displayed on the screen.

"Oh this is telling," John said bouncing on his toes. "Jack, according to your carbon 14 isotope decay, you are only a few hours old. I think I know what's happened."

"A few hours old?" Jack said disbelieving.

"Yep. It wasn't a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator you were working on; it was a tribo-psycho-physical harmonic macro-kinetic resonator."

"Ah, right," Jack said. "What's one of those then?"

"Well, I've only heard about them, never actually seen one. They are a last ditch life preserver developed by the Inducee of Trembis five." John leaned back against the bench and crossed his arms.

"Let's say your ship is crippled and about to blow up or the life support fails, you activate the device and think about where you would rather be. The device takes a complete pattern of all your atoms and through resonance creates another you in that place from locally available atoms."

"What? You mean there's another Jack back on the other Earth?" Rose asked.

"Well, actually he's the original Jack; this is the 'other' Jack. The original person is humanely euthanized by the device to spare them the trauma of their ship blowing up or their air running out. So I guess Jack has woken up over there wondering what the hell happened."

"So he's in a similar position to you then John, a mirror man," Rose said.

"Mirror man?" Jack asked her, but John explained.

"It's a way I used to explain my existence to Rose. You look in a mirror and see a person who is you, who has your personality, all your memories and feelings."

"Hmm, good analogy. So I'm stuck here then?"

"Yeah, afraid so old friend, and you are probably mortal, so no more cheating death for you," John told him.

"Hey, it's not so bad over here," Rose told him cheerfully. "And you've got us." She reached over and gave him a big hug.

John walked over and put a hand on Jack's shoulder. "Let's head to the restaurant and grab something to eat, we need to discuss your future Jack. Rose, do you want to give your Dad a call and see if he's free for lunch."

In the restaurant, Rose was eating a jacket potato with salad while John fed EJ with a bottle of expressed milk. Jack and Pete were tucking into some sandwiches.

"So Pete, how would you feel about taking on a senior field operative with loads of experience?" John asked the current director of Torchwood.

Pete laughed. "I get the feeling I may not have a say in this."

"We'll vouch for him Dad, and a recommendation from John is a pretty good reference in itself."

"Yeah, OK already. How do you feel about it Jack?" Pete asked seriously.

"Well I'm still a bit stunned. I didn't expect to end up in another universe when I got out of bed this morning. If I'm staying, I guess I'll need a job and everything," he said with a sigh.

"John and Rose told me that you were director of Torchwood Three in Cardiff. With that experience, you'd make a good deputy director here as well as a great member of John and Rose's team. What do you say?" Pete held out his hand.

"I'd say 'thanks for the offer', I'll take it." Jack shook Pete's hand and gave him his perfect teeth smile.

"So, that's a job sorted," John said as he burped EJ. "Now we need to get you some clothes and a place to live."

"I can take Jack shopping at Henrick's this afternoon," Rose suggested.

"And we have plenty of rooms at the mansion you could use until you find your feet," Pete said.

"You guys are incredible. Thank you so much," Jack's face had a sincere look that he didn't show very often.

Rose leaned over, kissed his cheek and hugged him. "What are friends for?"

In Henrick's, Jack was flirting with the personal shopper while Rose was trying to explain between fits of laughter, that he wasn't EJ's father and that they weren't a couple.

When they left Henrick's, Jack was loaded with bags full of clothes, and he was wearing jeans, sweatshirt and a leather jacket. There was one more stop he wanted to make before Rose called John to collect them.

In an Army and Navy store, he bought his RAF trousers, shirt, braces and grey coat. He explained to Rose that he would feel more at home in his old outfit.

John picked them up in the Delorian and headed northeast for the 30 minute journey to the Tyler Mansion in Highgate.

"As soon as I can afford it, I'll give you the money for all these clothes Rose," Jack told her.

"No you won't! They're a gift from us to you." Rose reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's our way of saying welcome to this world. I've only had my Mum and John to talk to about the old world and having another friend from there is great."

She could see Jack wasn't comfortable accepting all these expensive clothes as a gift.

"C'mon, don't worry about it, when you see Mum and Dad's place you'll understand. In this world we're loaded," she said with a grin.

They pulled in front of Tyler Mansion and got out of the car. Jack whistled through his teeth. "Wow, you weren't kidding, this place is amazing."

They walked up the steps and the front door opened as they reached it. The house manager, Alistair was standing in the doorway smiling at them. He was dressed in his usual conservative 'sharp' suit and immaculate hair.

"Alistair, how's it going?" John said as he bumped fists with him.

"It is going good Dr. Smith thank you."

Rose kissed Alistair on the cheek. "Good to see you Alistair."

"And you Mrs. Smith. How is young master Smith? He seems to get bigger every time I see him." Alistair leant forward and looked into the carry-seat.

Rose smiled. "He certainly has a good appetite." As Rose was speaking, a hand extended past her.

"Hi. Jack Harkness's the name. Really pleased to meet you." Jack had his winning, boyish smile.

"Jack," John and Rose said together in a warning tone.

Alistair shook his hand, raising an eyebrow in question. "Alistair, house manager. Pleased to make your acquaintance Mr. Harkness."

"He's already spoken for Jack, so you can stop flirting," Rose told him. Alistair had a surprised look on his face, which made Rose grin.

At their wedding, Jake Simmonds had hired a video karaoke machine to get the party going. Alistair had stunned everyone with his Freddie Mercury rendition of 'I Want To Break Free'.

The other top performer was Rose's bereavement councillor Alice Demaggio, who had helped Rose when she first came to this world and was separated from the Doctor. Alice belted out 'Shout' by Lulu, which impressed everyone, including Alistair.

A few days after the wedding, Alistair invited Alice to a karaoke night down at the local pub and they quickly found they had a lot in common. And so their secret romance began.

"Your secret is safe with me," Rose whispered with a tongue in the teeth smile. After Rose's counselling, Alice had become a close friend and they talked about everything.

"Thank you," he said sincerely. He then straightened and took on his official role as manager. "The lady of the house is in the lounge, having her IQ reduced by one of the TV soaps."

As they walked down the hall, Jack looked back at Alistair as he closed the door. "I like him," he told them.

John opened the lounge door and said 'knock knock' as he walked in.

"John, Rose, what a lovely surprise," Jackie said as she rose from the sofa. "And how's my lovely grandson? C'mon, hand 'im over."

"Before I do Mum, we've brought a visitor to see you." At that point Jack walked into the room.

Jackie just stood there, speechless. Her brain was trying to take in the scene before her. It looked like that gorgeous hunk Jack Harkness, the one that came back to life and kept her, Sarah Jane and Mickey safe in that Dalek ship.

"Jack? Is that you?"

"Hello gorgeous. How are you?" Jack stepped forwards and enveloped her in a huge hug.

"Oh my God, it is you!" She grabbed his face and snogged him.

"Mum! Put him down," Rose said, embarrassed.

"Wha'? Oh, alright. Sorry Jack, I got a bit carried away."

Jack was grinning madly. "No problem Ma'am. I'm glad to see you too."

"Jack's been stranded here like us," Rose started to explain.

"Not on that bleedin' beach I hope," Jackie said.

John laughed. "No, he ended up naked in our bedroom... Oh, I probably shouldn't have told you that." Jackie's eyes went wide in surprise.

"Anyway Mum, Dad said he could stay here for a bit until he can sort out somewhere to live."

Jackie put a hand to Jack's cheek. "Of course you can stay Jack. Stay as long as you like, it'll be nice to have some company. The old place seems a bit empty since Rose and John moved out, I'll get Jenny to make a room up for you."

The Oort cloud is an area at the outer limits of the solar system, almost a light year from the sun. It consists of the leftover material from the formation of the sun and all of its planets. Not much happens out here, the occasional long period comet would return from its unrelenting journey to the sun and back.

Today though, there was an intruder. A sleek and elegant craft was nearing the end of its six month journey towards the third planet from the star. The ship had been built by engineers, but it had be designed and styled by artists, it truly was a beautiful ship.

The occupants had travelled halfway across the galaxy on a quest to find the religious leader of their discordant worlds. It had been foretold that an unusual child, born of unusual parents would unite the worlds in a golden age of peace and prosperity, and he had been born on the third planet of this particular star.

The current leader was onboard the ship and was negotiating with a devout religious sect on the planet that was sympathetic to the needs of their religion, and for a fee would arrange the delivery of the child and its mother safely into their care.

To say that nothing happened in the Oort cloud for billions of years, it was getting a bit hectic. A week later, on the other side of the cloud, a saucer shaped craft passed through, following a long forgotten radio transmission from the third planet from the star, and picking up new ones as it approached.

It was an explorer scout craft that roamed the galaxy looking for new worlds and new civilizations. It had detected a very weak, modulated radio signal spreading outwards from its source around a hundred light years away.

When the signal was demodulated, the voices of Riccardo Martin, Emmy Destinn and Enrico Caruso could be heard performing Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in 1910.

That first radio broadcast was travelling away from the Earth at the speed of light, followed by nearly a hundred years worth of other transmissions.

As the ship approached, the occupants detected evermore powerful and complex signals, including encoded video and digital. They had no idea what significance the transmissions had, but were eager to find out.

Presently on the screen, they could see two bipedal life forms in suits and round hats, modifying an aquatic vessel with little success. It appeared that they lacked the necessary skills and were causing a great deal of damage to the vessel.

The science officer realised that he would need to ask the inhabitants of the planet about Laurel and Hardy. He took his eye away from the screen and reported to the commander.

"The third planet orbiting the star is the source of the transmissions," he announced.

"Set a course for that planet, we must investigate," the commander instructed.

"I will obey," the helmsman said.

Various officers on the bridge took up the commander's chant. "Investigate. Investigate."