Chapter 4: Rescue

The instant the TARDIS was fully materialized, the Doctor came rushing out. "Rose," he whispered hoarsely, "what have they done to you?"

"Doctor," Rose said with a soft smile. He knelt down beside her and gently cupped her cheek with one hand. Her eyes fluttered closed and she leaned into his touch. Taking a deep breath, the Doctor pulled out his sonic and undid the handcuffs, then ran it over Rose's body, scanning her.

The Doctor muttered something in the musical, lilting language that was his native tongue. Rose guessed, from the look on his face, that it was a curse. The Time Lord was angry. "Interrogation Room Two," she said, hoping to distract him from his scans. "That's where Jack is. There's this woman, Regina, who seems to be in charge, but she mentioned something about a Commander? I dunno; Jack'll probably be able to tell you more."

"How did you find that out?" the Doctor asked curiously, slipping his arms around the blonde and pulling her close to him.

"Pretended t' be unconscious," she said with a tongue-touched grin. "They never thought I was anything other than Jack's… 'latest conquest.'" The Doctor chuckled.

"Their mistake," he said with a small smile, that soft tilt of his lips that was so different from the manic grin he wore to hide his pain. This was his true smile. "C'mon, let's get you to the medbay. I swear, you are the most jeopardy-friendly human I've ever met."

"No," Rose told him as he got to his feet, scooping her up in his arms. The Doctor frowned. "'M gonna come with you. You need me to help you find Jack."

"Rose…" the Doctor started, but Rose put a finger on his lips, startling herself as much as she did him.

"'M comin' with you, Doctor."

OoOoO

Jack sighed and stared around the room. It had been several minutes since Regina had fled, and there were no signs of any other Time Agents in the vicinity. He could only hope that the Doctor would come soon, before Regina sent for the Commander. As if the thought was a summons, he heard a familiar whirring sound before the door clicked open.

"Hey, Doc," Jack greeted. His eyes fell on the girl the Time Lord was half-carrying, and a sudden rush of anger slammed through him. "Who did this to you, Rose?"

The blonde looked absolutely terrible. Her nose was smashed, and dried crimson blood covered half her face. The other half was filled with livid purple and black bruising. One arm was clutched against her side, and it looked as though every breath hurt. The worst, however, was the outline that stood in sharp relief on her cheek and over her broken nose: the shape of an energy gun, the weapon Jack had been stunned with.

"You look like hell," he told her seriously. Rose frowned.

"Thanks," she said drily. "You sure know how to charm a woman."

He gave her a bright, Captain Jack Harkness grin. "One of my many specialties," he said with a wink. Rose laughed and though the Doctor rolled his eyes, there was a fondness in the gesture. "Right. Let's go. I think we have an appointment with the Commander."

OoOoO

As the three time travelers walked—or rather, Jack and the Doctor walked, and Rose half walked, half was carried by said Doctor—down the hallway, Rose and Jack told the Doctor what they knew.

"I overheard this woman, Regina, talkin' about why they wanted Jack," Rose said. "She had two reasons. The first was somethin' about bein' afraid that the Doctor had fixed his memories; since you're telepathic, apparently you can do that. The second was, well…" Rose swallowed. "Bad Wolf," she said in a quiet voice. "She said tha' the words are scattered through time and space, an' that all they knew was Jack's involved."

Jack nodded, confirming this. "Regina asked me several questions. She wanted to know if I knew about this Bad Wolf thing. Apparently, it seems that the epicenter of the whole thing is in the year 200,100, on a satellite owned by the Bad Wolf Corporation."

"What did you tell her?" the Doctor asked.

"That I had no idea what it was, she shouldn't tell me about it because it was still in my personal future, and to tell everyone who made bets that Rose is not my girlfriend." Jack grinned at the Doctor. "Rule One: Hands Off the Blonde."

"Cheeky," the Doctor snorted.

Rose giggled, but her amusement faded rapidly. "I've seen Bad Wolf everywhere, Doctor. What does it mean?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I don't know. Bloody fantastic," he grumbled. Whatever else he would've said was cut off when Jack stopped.

"This is the Commander's office," he said, easing his sonic blaster from his holster. Jack'd been adamant about getting his gun back before they went to confront his superior officer. The Doctor nodded once, then pushed the door open. The Commander was a stocky man of medium height, with a thin, angled face and buzzed brown hair. He was not very frightening, until one looked in his eyes. The dark, flat, expressionless orbs made Rose shiver. Jack stepped to her left side and rested a hand on her shoulder lightly, while the Doctor tightened his hold. The Storm was brewing in his hard, icy blue eyes.

"Hello," the Commander drawled lazily. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You kidnapped my friends," the Doctor said, his voice tight. Friends, not companions. It sent a feeling of warmth through Rose; he was calling them his equals.

"Oh, did I? My apologies," the man said, his voice oozing with fake sympathy and regret. "Really, though, I can't just have rogue Agents running around without supervision. Think of the chaos that would cause! My perfectly run organization would be in shambles! Surely you understand, Mr.—" he paused, waiting for a name.

"Doctor."

"Well, Doctor, I'm certain you understand. You do seem to be a man of intelligence, after all," the Commander said, a smug grin on his face.

"Actually, I don't," the Doctor said bluntly. "You used a low-level energy pulse to stun Jack. Why did you not have Rose taken down in the same way?" Rose could feel the Doctor's tension. His muscles were tight and coiled, ready to spring.

"Rose? Oh, you mean Jack's little blonde whore?" the Commander asked tauntingly, smiling maliciously. Jack reached around Rose and physically restrained the angry Time Lord, who looked as though he was ready to commit murder with his bare hands. Rose sighed. They never seemed to know when to stop. How the Commander wasn't cowering from the rage in the Doctor's eyes, she didn't know.

"Well, you see, the charges on our energy guns are tricky things; we don't want to waste them. I'm afraid Blondie over there just isn't worth the use of—" the Commander's patronizing tone and mocking smile both dropped away as the Doctor moved. Faster than Rose had ever seen him move before, he shoved her into Jack's arms and strode forward, and suddenly the Commander was pinned to the back wall of his office, the Doctor's left hand at his throat and his right hand resting on the wall above the Time Agent's head.

"Rose is worth infinitely more to me than your stinking ape brain could ever comprehend," the Doctor spat, his face inches away from the other man's. "If you ever speak about her again, I will make it so you wish you were never born."

"You're a Time Lord," the Commander got out. "Time Lords never interfere. You are a good man. You wouldn't break your own rules."

"I've always been a bit of a rebel, me," the Doctor said, his voice infused with steel, low and deadly. "The Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds, the Bringer of Darkness, the Killer of his Own Kind; do those sound like the titles of a good man to you?" the Doctor hissed. "Good men don't need rules, Commander. Now is not the time to find out why I have so many."

His voice dropped even lower, so much so that Rose had to strain to hear him. "You are going to find out why it is a bad idea to hurt the ones I love. I will burn this place to the ground. I'm the last of the Time Lords, I destroyed my own planet, I've done worse things than you can ever imagine. I can guarantee you I will not blink at wiping your pitiful little Agency out of the universe. There is no power here that can stop me. Now think very, very carefully on what you say to me."

"Doctor," Rose said softly. "Stop this. You're better than this. Let him go."

The Doctor froze at her voice. It pierced through the red haze of utter fury that was clouding his vision and his mind. He saw his hand on the human's neck, heard every word he had spoken echo through his head, and he felt sick. The Time Lord slowly stepped back, releasing the Commander, and turned away. Rose reached out to him.

"You're alright, it's ok," she whispered soothingly. "Let's talk about it when we get back to the TARDIS, ok?" The Doctor was mute.

"You're a corrupt bastard, Commander," Jack said suddenly. "You stole two years of my life, stalked me through Time, and then, when you became afraid I was getting my memories back, you had me incarcerated. Go to hell." With that, he pulled the trigger on his sonic blaster and the Commander fell to the floor, thoroughly dead. Rose stared at him in shock that softened to a sad understanding. "Let's go," Jack muttered.

The three time travelers trudged back to the TARDIS in total silence, each too involved with their own thoughts to speak to the others.

Do you want to see an epilogue? The adventure is technically over, but there are a couple conversations to be had that I can make into an epilogue for you.