Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who, the Duplicate Doctor, Donna, Rose, etc. Thanks for the reads and reviews, glad everyone is enjoying it. Can't wait to hear from everyone about this chapter.

Rose followed the woman to a nondescript building. Inside, she found a series of guards in black suits, all with eye patches. They didn't seem to move. Then Rose thought she saw something but as soon as she turned away she couldn't remember what it was. The woman directed her to a chair and sat down across from her another.

"Rose Tyler, the Bad Wolf."

"Yeah, and you are?"

"Madame Kovarian of the Silence."

"The Silence? What's that then?"

"It's a calling, a purpose. Don't you miss that, Rose? Don't you miss having a purpose?"

Rose did. She felt like she was back where she started all those years ago before the Doctor when she was just a girl who worked at a shop. She missed the Doctor more, though.

"We're working on a device for interdimensional transport. Does that sound like something you might be interested in?"

"Where you going?"

"Where do you want to go?"

"Back home, back to my universe," she said. She thought she had seen something again, but turned back to Kovarian and dismissed it, her breathing suddenly rushed.

"I think that could be arranged," said Kovarian.

Funny thing about Pete's World.

Nerys and Donna were actually friends. They actually liked each other. Donna had helped Nerys after the Cybermen killed her family and Nerys had helped Donna when Ethan turned out to be a bastard. John couldn't quite wrap his head around the concept and now that he was at a bridal salon with Donna, Nerys, Ella and Josh it wasn't getting any better.

Josh was walking around staring at his portable video game. Ella was entranced because everywhere she looked there were big, white dresses.

"Isn't it bad luck or something for me to be here?," asked John, suddenly wanting an out.

Donna and Nerys stopped in their tracks.

"What?"

"You know, that whole thing where the groom shouldn't see the bride in her dress before the wedding?"

Nerys shook her head. "I've never heard of that."

"No..." Donna said slowly.

"Okay, wrong universe then," said John.

"How many are you having?," asked Nerys.

"Small, just a hundred."

"Ooh! Mummy!," said Ella running at the first white dress she spotted on a mannequin. "Get this one!"

Donna smiled back at John. This was going to be happening a lot. "It's nice, sweetheart, but we should look at some more, don't you think?"

"Okay," said Ella.

"Ladies!," John heard someone shout. "Welcome! And gentlemen!"

John looked ahead of him at an impossible sight: Jack Harkness.

There was no way that in Pete's World Jack Harkness was a wedding dress consultant. Just not possible. He knew multiverse theory, anything should be possible, but that just seriously wasn't.

"Hi, Donna Noble."

"Yes, I talked to your assistant, Ianto. Sexy accent and who else do we have here?"

"Oh, this is my friend, Nerys."

"Hello, Nerys," said Jack, smiling.

Then again, matter can only be arranged in so many ways. Maybe he just looked like Jack and had the same name or he was just a very distant relative, a precursor to Jack Harkness of the 51st century.

"Josh and Ella and my fiance, John."

"Hello, John," Jack said with a wink.

Oh, yeah, it was definitely the same Jack Harkness.

"Beautiful couple, let's get started with some dresses, shall we, ladies?"

The women walked off with Jack and John got out his mobile.

"Hello, John," he heard Gwen say brightly, "aren't you meant to be shopping?"

"Yeah, I'm there, I need some help, though. Are you busy?"

"I think Donna can probably do without my help."

"It's not about the dresses, Gwen. There's someone here. Someone I know."

"From the other universe, you mean?"

"Yes, I do..."

"What do you need?"

"Back at my work table in the lab, I need the sonic screwdriver and the timey wimey detector."

"The sonic probe?"

"It's a screwdriver."

"Fine. Which one's the timey wimey detector?"

"The red one with the tape reel."

"Oh, the egg boiler?"

John sighed. "Just bring it."

John couldn't tell the difference between any of the dresses to save his life. A-line, ball gown, mermaid. He thought Donna looked gorgeous in all of them and said so, which only seemed to frustrate her more. He was a little preoccupied, though, making certain wedding dress consultant Jack Harkness didn't look too long at his fiancee. After about ten dresses, Gwen finally arrived while Donna was changing into the next gown.

"I have your screwdriver and your egg boiler," said Gwen. "Who are we looking at?"

John motioned to Jack as he flirted with Nerys.

"Ooh, quite a dish that one, isn't he? How do you know him?"

"In the universe I came from, he's a rogue Time Agent the Doctor travelled with. Also, he'll have sex with anything that moves."

Gwen laughed.

"No, I'm serious. Really serious." He got in the carrier bag Gwen had the timey wimey detector in and pulled it out. He pointed it at Jack.

"What does it do?," asked Gwen.

It dinged.

"That," said John.

"So, that means that he's a time traveler?"

"Yes, he is."

"But what's he doing working in a bridal shop?"

"No idea, but I do know how we can get close enough to ask him."

"Donna, may I borrow the car?"

Donna looked up from her reports to see John standing in the doorway of the study. "You know, you don't have to ask like you're a teenager begging for the keys. We really ought to do something about your transportation."

"No, I'm fine, really, the bus just doesn't run that late out here on weekends and I have some work to do."

"That's what I'm saying," said Donna as she got into her bag for the keys, "what if there's some world saving emergency? Do we really want to have Torchwood wait for you to take two trains and a bus?"

"I'm fine as I am, Donna, really."

"I want to get you a car. Please?"

"I have to go," John said, kissing her. "Sorry."

John started leaving.

"Are you going to worry about me? Leaving me all alone on a Saturday night?," Donna called after him in her most lusty tone.

John turned around and grinned at her. "Of course I am."

Jack Harkness looked up at the brunette who had slid in next to him at the pub.

"Hi," he said.

"Hello."

"Can I buy you a drink?"

Gwen rolled her eyes. "I bet you use that line on all the girls."

"And the boys."

"Fine, then, I'll have a beer."

"Straightforward. I like it." He turned to the bartender. "Two pints, please."

"American, are you? What are you doing in London?"

"Work. Welsh, aren't you? Bigger question is, what are you doing in London?"

Gwen shrugged. "Cybermen. They killed my boyfriend and my parents. There was nothing left for me back home."

Jack handed Gwen her pint. "I know the feeling."

"Thought the invasion wasn't as bad in America..."

"So, what's your name?"

"Gwen. You?"

"Jack." He grinned. "So, Gwen, what do you do?"

"I work for Torchwood."

"Torchwood? What's that?"

"Matter of fact, she works with me."

Jack looked back to see John. "Mr. Smith. What a coincidence."

"Captain Harkness."

Gwen put a taser in Jack's back. He looked at her. "Don't tease me with that thing unless you're going to use it." He looked at John. "Hate to disappoint you, but it's Commander."

John shrugged. "That's alright. I was guessing anyway. Now, tell me, what are you doing here?"

Before Jack knew it, Gwen had handcuffs on him.

"Can't you wait until where somewhere more private? And you're wearing leather?" He looked at John. "You too."

"Let's get him back to Torchwood."

An hour later, Jack was sitting in an interrogation room at Torchwood.

"Okay, Commander Harkness," John began again, "what does the Time Agency want with Earth?"

"I think you mean the Time Bureau."

"I was just guessing anyway."

"Your guesses are really close, though. How are you doing that?" He asked as if he already knew the answer.

"I'm asking the questions."

"Could we get Gwen back? I liked her."

"You like everyone."

"You know a lot about me, don't you? Too bad I don't know that much about you. We should get to know each other better."

"See, I think you do know something about me. "

Jack shook his head. "I know your name is John Smith and you're marrying a very sexy woman."

John sat back in his chair. "See, I can be here all night."

"Really? I'd be at home if I were you, Doctor."

John eyed him critically. "What do you mean, Doctor?"

"Enough with the games already. I get it, Doctor. You're undercover. Does the Oracle know you've gone native?"

"I'm not the Doctor."

"Well, if you're not, you're his twin."

John nodded. "Yeah, that's about right."

"You're serious?"

"Are you serious about Time Lords in this dimension? There are still Time Lords?"

Jack nodded to himself, a sudden moment of understanding. "That's it, you're from another universe! I scanned you and thought it was just a perception filter saying you had only one heart and I was just meeting you out of order, but, you're someone entirely different, aren't you?"

"Hold on, there's a Time Lord called the Doctor in this universe?"

"Yeah, I know him. We've fought beside each other. I thought you were him, looking for the same thing I was looking for."

"And what are you looking for?"

Jack smiled. "Well, that I've got to show you."

Another hour passed. Gwen, Bernard and Pete Tyler had joined them in another conference room. Jack showed a projection from his Vortex Manipulator.

"A Time Cube."

"Time Cube?," asked John, looking at the projection of a glass cube. Suddenly, the Time Vortex appeared inside it.

"It's a research tool, the way the scientists at the Time Bureau can study the Vortex without actually having to go inside of it. Like the Large Hadron Collider, only instead of a big thing in Switzerland, it's a little cube. One was stolen."

"One?" John frowned. "How many do you have?"

"A dozen more."

"But they only took one?," asked Pete.

"Just one."

"What makes you think it's here?," asked Gwen.

"I met a woman in a bar."

John shook his head. "Of course you did."

"I can't remember her she drugged me. All I remember is that she said her name was Mildred and my scanner carbon dated her to this era."

Pete leaned in to John. "Do you think it could be Mildred?"

"Maybe, no telling where the Balvaran Portal left her," mused John.

"I don't think her name was Mildred," said Jack.

"What makes you say that?," asked Bernard.

"Because when I took her back to my place, she didn't act like a Mildred. I do remember that much."

"Okay, too much information," said John. "Let me guess, she took your-"

"Keycard," finished Jack.

"So, you're on the hook then?," asked Gwen.

"Gwen, I am anywhere you want me to be."

"Why would anyone steal a piece of the Vortex?," asked John. "The vortex isn't harmful, it doesn't do anything. You can't use it as a weapon and you couldn't travel with this cube?"

"No, you can't, but you're wrong about the Vortex. It can transform life at the cellular level. You told me once that your people evolved thanks to the Untempered Schism."

"That was billions of years, though. You couldn't do anything."

"Yeah, that's a nice theory, but in reality, no."

"What does it do exactly?," asked Bernard.

"At the cellular level? Makes Time Babies. You know, if you have sex inside it."

"Found that out the hard way, did you?," asked Gwen.

"No, his doppelganger did," said Jack, nodding his head at John. "You ought to give people some rules when you pick them up in your time machine. This thing could alter the course of human evolution, I have to find it."

"You're not going anywhere, you're staying at Torchwood, as our guest," said Pete.

"Oh, can't I stay with Gwen?," Jack whined.

"I'll see to it, sir," Gwen said getting up.

Gwen, Bernard and Pete left.

"Why were you at the bridal shop?," asked John.

"Fine," Jack smiled. "I saw you and Donna in a magazine. She was easy enough to track down so I got myself a job. Didn't mean to stalk you, I thought you were the Doctor and I figured he could help."

"How do you know him?"

"We fought together, but I haven't seen him in years. Went home, not travelling any time soon. The Time Lords are all in seclusion, safe on Gallifrey."

"In seclusion? Why?"

"Well, because of the war."

"With the Daleks?," John frowned.

"No, what's a Dalek?"

"Never mind."

"They're at war with the Silence."

"What's the Silence?"

"The hell if I know."