Dedicated to Jennyrated Anomaly. Hope you like it. Enjoy.
An old Friend.
" So there I was, stranded in the year 200100, ankle deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me, but I had this."
Even without him watching, the Doctor knew that Jack was showing Martha his vortex manipulator. He was more interested in the surrounding countryside.
It was a beautiful place, purple skies with clouds, dark blue grass, beautiful trees with dark red leaves. But he was still interested in why the TARDIS would bring him here. His temporal senses were all over the place, like this planet should be here but shouldn't.
He tuned back into the conversation.
" I used to be a Time agent," The Doctor wondered whether or not Jack should add he was a conman.
" It's called a vortex manipulator."
Pointing at the tall Time lord walking slightly ahead of them, Jack said slightly scornfully, " He's not the only one who can time travel."
Now the Doctor had a good reason to argue, no one insulted his TARDIS and got away with it, " Oh, excuse me, that is not time travel."
Sounding as dignified as he could, although it made him sound slightly smug, the Doctor carried on, " It's like, I've got a sports car, you've got a space hopper."
Martha sounded amused, clearly not getting the difference between a TARDIS and a vortex manipulator, " Oh, boys ad their toys!"
Jack sounded more annoyed, not bothering to reply to Martha's remark, " All right, so I bounced."
Now he spoke to Martha, " I thought, " 21st century, the best place to find the Doctor." except I got it a little wrong, arrived in 1869, this thing burnt out, so it was useless."
Now the Doctor sounded deliberately smug, " Told you."
His TARDIS may not have been the latest model on the market, but at least it didn't burn itself out on the first run they'd had.
" I had to live through the entire 20th century waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me." At last, the aggrieved former Time agent was showing his real thoughts.
Whilst the Doctor wrestled with the implications he'd been stalking his past lives, Martha had just worked something out.
" But that makes you more than 100 years old." She pointed out.
" And looking good, don't you think ?" The smile and the chuckle from Jack was forced. He'd never asked to be immortal and the Doctor sympathised. He hadn't wanted to live when Gallifrey had been destroyed.
Jack carried on, " So, I went to the time rift, based myself there, 'cause I knew you'd come back to refuel, until finally, I get a signal on this detecting you and here we are."
He ended that on a flourish.
But Martha was curious and asked a question the Doctor hated above all else because it made him nervous and awkward.
" But the thing is, how come you left him behind, Doctor ?"
" I was busy." The Doctor knew that was a lame excuse and neither Martha nor Jack for that matter wouldn't accept it. Maybe he should tell Jack the truth….
Martha carried on, ignorant of the Time lord's feelings, " Is that what happens, though, seriously ?"
" Do you just get bored of us one day and disappear ?"
Jack spoke up this time, " Not if you're blonde."
There was definite hurt there.
Martha spoke as if the comment answered everything, " Oh, she was blonde ! What a surprise!"
The Doctor swung round, " Alright, ok, you wanna know ? Right, Jack, Rose made you immortal. She looked into the heart of the TARDIS, came back and destroyed the Daleks. No one's meant to have that kind of power. If I'd looked in, well I have actually but that's another story, anyway, if I'd looked into the vortex, I'd become a god, a vengeful god. She brought you back to life, but she couldn't control it. She brought you back forever, that's something I guess, the final act of the Time War was life."
" I took the power out of her, then I regenerated. I left you behind because of the fact you are wrong. I can't help that, I'm a Time lord, it's instinct, its in my guts. You're a fixed point in time and space, a fact, not meant to happen. Why do you think I've been avoiding and running away from you ? Even the TARDIS reacted, tried to shake you off. I had to shut down the power to stop."
Jack's voice was wry, but now he'd gotten some answers he was satisfied, it did answer one or two questions and made some sense.
" So, your prejudiced."
The Doctor blinked, " Hadn't thought of it like that."
" Shame on you."
" Yeah,"
Jack just had to ask, " Can she take it back ?"
The Doctor shook his head, " No, sorry Jack, I took it out of her. I can't bring her back, the walls to the parallel realities have sealed shut. Even I can't break through."
As they carried on walking, Jack had the impression the Doctor didn't want Rose back…
The trio walked across a valley when they saw it. It was a huge number of spaceships, they were arranged like scrapped cars in a scrap yard.
The Doctor and Jack recognised a number of ships, the strange part was some of the ships resembled spacecraft that had been used aeons ago and were long since scrapped, but these…these looked brand new, like they'd just come off on an assembly line.
Jack pointed to one of the ships, " Is that an Arcateen glider ?" he pointed towards a sleek arrow headed ship with a smooth curve.
The Doctor looked at it, astonishment wrestling with delight, " Yeah, it is, I don't understand. They were scrapped and taken apart, the Arcateen's later regretted that action, but they couldn't rebuild them. Only 13 were built."
Martha looked at the ships, lack of understanding seeping into her voice as well as her face, " What are you two on about ?"
Jack explained, " Half these ships are ancient, some have been lost, but the majority look….brand new."
The Doctor looked up at the skies above his head, " There's something familiar about this planet, all my senses are all over the place."
" What d' you mean ?"
" Just that Martha, this planet feels out of sync with time."
" Maybe she can help." Jack said pointing down into the valley, where they could see a woman amongst the ships, taking bits and pieces out.
The Doctor stared hard at the woman, and suddenly sections of his mind and brain started tingling as he sensed another Time lord in his presence.
" No way," he whispered, recognising the other instantly. The voice told him who it was. A smile started appearing on his face.
" Doctor, do you know her ?" Martha asked.
" Yes, I do." The Doctor stared at the woman in the distance.
" Romana."
Romanadvoratrelunder, Romana for short, sighed wearily as she scavenged the components from a downed Sontaran scout ship. The occupants of the ships were killed by the temporal energy the planet sat on, it was like a time minefield.
Slipping her sonic screwdriver from her pocket, she started taking apart the flight computer for anything that the Time lady felt she could use.
As she worked, she became aware of a….presence.
Her brain tingled as she heard a voice in her mind, a familiar voice, one she knew and had become well tuned too over the centuries.
An old friend.
The Doctor.
But how ? She'd thought he'd died during the Time war.
Romana turned around slowly and saw 3 people coming towards her, one was wearing a tan brown trench coat, brown pinstriped jacket and matching trousers, converse trainers, dark blue shirt with a half tied tie.
His face, he looked like he was in his early 40s in human terms, but Romana knew he was much older than that, his eyes were bright and sad at the same time. His hair, she almost laughed, was standing on edge.
Nothing changes.
" Romana ?" He asked, his voice quiet, almost unsure.
" Doctor ?"
When they both nodded in sync, they rushed towards each other and held each other.
