The second chapter, as promised. Go forth and enjoy! Disclaimer- See disclaimers on previous stories if you want a good one.*hinthint*

In Which Owen Is His Usual Self, Ianto Gets the Low-Down, And the Doctor Explains the Blood On His Suit

~oOo~

Martha closed the door with more force than necessary and whirled around to face Jack who was standing by his desk, running a hand through his hair.

"Okay, what's going on here?" She asked impatiently.

"I- I haven't been able to get much out of him," There was no question as to who him was referring to. "But I do know that for him, it's been four years since Donna left and-" Jack found this part difficult to say. "And basically he's- He's stopped helping people. Pretty much given up on the universe for the rest of his life as far as I can tell." Jack explained.

"He had a gun." Martha pointed out. "What's- What's the Doctor doing with a gun?!"

"I really don't even know at this point." Jack admitted. "It's like-...To me, this might as well be some fucked up regeneration of the Doctor. I don't feel like I know him at all any more, Martha."

"Do you have any idea why he's here?" Martha asked, trying to process all of this new information. The Doctor, her friend, had tuned into the person she'd seen outside? When? How? It didn't even feel right to think of him as the Doctor anymore. The old Doctor, the proper Doctor, wasn't the one outside. The man outside right was a ghost of him. A shadow. A shell, the essence of what made him the Doctor gone, somewhere maybe, but most certainly not here.

"No." Jack answered, yanking Martha away from her musings. "But..."

"But what?" Martha demanded to know, desperate for any information as to what was happening.

"I've got an idea or two."

"Well spit them out, would you?

"I think..." Jack shifted his weight from side to side "I think that the TARDIS brought him here on purpose. And now she's intentionally not letting him back in."

"Yeah, but why would she do that?" Martha asked.

"I think that she wants for him to stay here." Jack carefully proposed. "I'm not going to pretend like I know what's going on, but I think that's it. She want him to stay and...You know."

"Get to the point where he's not brandishing a gun at anybody who looks at him funny?" Martha filled in. Jack swallowed hard at this and gave a slight nod, not liking the way that Martha had worded that, but not arguing with it either.

"Yeah." He agreed.

Silence, as the both of them considered their situation.

"Well." Said Martha.

"Well." Jack repeated. Martha glanced around before speaking.

"We've certainly got our work cut out for us."

oOo

Owen Harper stepped into the Hub, letting the large door behind him roll shut almost soundlessly despite its massive size. He took four and a half steps in, then stopped dead in his tracks. A large 1960's police box was staring him right in the face. When had this shown up? He'd been gone from the Hub for not even ten hours, and yet somehow they'd acquired, of all things, a police telephone box. His first idea was Jack. His tendency to get here at un-godly hours, paired with his love of older things, take his beloved World War Two coat for instance, made him a prime suspect.

"Jack," Owen called, a bit more than exasperated. "What the hell is there a police box in the Hub?!"

No answer.

Sighing, Owen started towards his desk, dropping his bag where he usually did, taking note of the voice he heard over at Toshiko's desk.

"-And then we locked them up."

Ianto's voice, Owen recognized.

"Mmm." Said somebody else, somebody that Owen didn't know.

With his usual tact for social situations, Owen stepped around his desk and over to Toshiko's, intruding on the conversation but not really caring. His gaze settled on an unfamiliar man positioned in front of him, sprawled out on Tosh's chair. The skinny man eyed him suspiciously.

"What do you want?" He asked, voice flat. Owen snorted at this.

"Hell of a way to start off a conversation, mate." He chastised. "There's a lot I want actually, but at the top of my list right now? I want to know why there's a police box here, and, now,who you are."

"I'm the Doctor, that's my police box. It's staying here. Deal." The Doctor replied shortly. Owen arched an eyebrow.

"...Alright then." He turned to Ianto. "Where's Jack at?" He questioned.

"Up in his office, talking with Martha. He probably doesn't want to be interrupted right not, actually."

"...Okay...I'll just...File some Rift reports or something." Owen said, sounding unsure of the situation.

"Good idea." Ianto confirmed. Owen hesitated a second more, then turned away, walking over to the medlab to work on his reports.

The Doctor, the Doctor...He'd heard that name before, he was sure of it. Yes, there was Jack, who never failed to mention him any less than twice a week, but there had been some other time. The Daleks. That's it. When the Daleks had come, he'd talked to the Doctor over a screen for a short time.

He had seemed different back then though. Lighter, taking more joy in life, in a better temperament and mood in general.

Owen arrived at his destination and grabbed a stack of papers to start in on.

Jack had better explain just what the hell was going on here later.

oOo

The door to Jack's office opened and Martha stepped out, followed by Jack.

"Ianto!" The Captain called, interrupting the, well, probably not conversation, but the talk that the Welshman and the Doctor had been sharing.

Both men turned around to face Jack, the Time Lod spinning around in his chair to do so.

"Could you come up here?" Jack requested. Ianto nodded shortly and began towards the staircase as the Doctor gave a scoff."You don't need to discuss anything up there." He said, voice incredulous. "I already know what you're going to be talking about."

"Come on, Ianto." Jack said, voice slightly softer this time around, eyeing the Doctor carefully. Ianto climbed the stairs and joined both Jack and Martha at the balcony.

As the trio whispered where they stood, the Doctor turned his attention to the computer by his side. It was entirely possible that he had missed something during his earlier search. Not likely, but possible.

It still didn't make sense though, he thought, logging into the computer and sorting through the files, trying to find something. The TARDIS knew that he didn't help people anymore, that he hadn't done that in a long time. Granted, that didn't stop her from bringing him to places in need of his help, but she had never refused to let him in. He clenched his fist. What was going on?

He continued to scan through the files, finding nothing whatsoever. So the TARDIS brought him here for nothing it appeared, and still refused to let him leave. Which, as far as the Doctor was concerned, left one reason that he could think of.

Jack's theory.

It was stupid. A stupid, ridiculous idea, but it was the only thing that he could think of. But why would the TARDIS bring him here? To spend time with Jack?!

It just didn't make sense.

He kept searching.

oOo

"You think that's why he's here?" Ianto asked, trying to absorb all the information that Jack had just dumped onto him.

"It's the only thing that we can come up with." Martha confirmed.

"...So what are we going to do?"

Silence.

"I'm gonna go talk to him." Martha declared. Jack glanced at her.

"...Alright then."

Martha flashed a half hearted grin.

"Wish me luck." She said, walking down the stairs.

She looked around, trying to locate her friend. After a moment she saw him, leaning towards a computer screen, typing furiously. That part of him hadn't changed at least. Martha made her way over to him, stopping once she was behind the chair he sat in.

"...What're you up to, Doctor?" She asked, doing her best to sound casual.

No response.

"Doctor?"

"Finding out why the TARDIS brought me here, and trying to figure out a way to leave, Miss Jones." The Time Lord snapped.

Okay then. That hadn't went quite as she'd expected. She would work with it though.

"Find anything yet?" She asked.

"No." The Doctor replied shortly.

"Think you're going to find anything?"

"Probably not." The Doctor answered, exasperated. "Now if you could just go off somewhere else-"

"Why did you have the gun?"

The Doctor stopped speaking mid sentence and spun around to face Martha.

"You are just absolutely bloody fixated on that gun, aren't you?"

"I just want some answers." Martha replied steadily.

"I have it to protect myself." The Doctor responded, clearly giving up on his search for disturbances in the Rift's activities.

Pause.

"Have you ever used it?" Martha asked after a moment, not really sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"Yes." The Doctor replied, no hesitation in his voice.

She really shouldn't have been surprised, what with the deadly calm he had retained while threatening Ianto. And she wasn't surprised, not really. Rather she was leaning more towards disappointed, angry. Yeah. Anger was definitely present right now.

"What for?"

The Doctor snorted at this, in a manner that quite clearly said 'Really?'.

"For shooting people maybe?"

"Why-" Martha cleared her throat some, starting over. "Can I ask why you've..." She trailed off, unable to formulate the next words in the context of the situation. "You know."

"People threatened me. Tried to hurt me. Got in my way." The Time Lord replied casually and with shrug of his shoulders.

"Have you...Killed anybody?"

The Doctor nodded silently.

Martha let out a silent breath.

Right. This was...extremely not good. At all. She had gathered that much bout the situation before, both from wat she had seen and her conversation with Jack and Ianto, but this, it took the whole not-goodness of the entire thing to a different, completely unprecedented level.

And if Martha was entirely honest, she wasn't quite sure what to do about this.

Rather conveniently, as Martha was busy being disbelieving and a bit shocked, Jack sauntered down the stairs, saving her from having to speak anymore, at least for the moment.

"So, Doc," Jack started loudly, ignoring the Doctor's dislike of his nickname. "Why don't you answer that question of mine?"

The Doctor scowled and stood up, turning to face the Ex-Time Agent who was now standing directly in front of him.

"Which question, Harkness?" He asked bitterly. Jack motioned to the Doctor's torso.

"The one about your suit, Doc." He said, voice lowering, revealing the full gravity of his inquiry. "And why it is like it is."

"I got in a fight. And stuff happened. Is that acceptable?!"

Jack ignored the last part of what the Doctor had said and continued.

"What was the fight about?"

"The guy attacked me, I fought back."

"Yeah, but why did the guy attack you in the first place."

The Time Lord began clenching and unclenching his fist, conscious of his actions or not.

"I-" He broke off, screwing his eyes shut. "Could have been anything." He said, his voice under control. Calm. "He might have heard of me, or something I did that he didn't agree with. I could have done something to him, or to somebody he knew. In the past or the future" He stopped without warning. "Oh, bloody hell, I don't know what I did, or when I did it! It's a a bit wibbly-wobbely- No! Don't say that!" He snapped. At who, it was unclear. "...It's all a bit confusing."

Damn right it was. Jack furrowed his eyebrows slightly, trying to put the pieces of this rather complex puzzle together. It was entirely possible that the Doctor didn't know why the other man had attacked him, and Jack was actually compelled to believe him. Not out of sentiment, but because of the fact that, so far, the Time Lord had been strikingly honest with the questions that he had answered, seemingly not caring about Jack's reaction to anything he said.

What was Jack supposed to make from that last part though? The Doctor loved using technobabble to explain, well, explain was too strong a word, but to describe whatever it was that he was talking about. It was a staple part of his personality. Jack didn't actually believe it possible to take that away from him. And 'wibbly-wobbely, timey-wimey stuff' had always been one of his favorite phases to use. So why the sudden aversion to it-

Oh.

It was a link to his past. That phase, it had been used explicitly by this regeneration, but before Donna had left. It reminded him too much of himself, of what he used to be, of what he had done, and of just how much he had changed.

Of course he wouldn't use it now.

"...Alright then."

It wasn't alright though, a part of Jack reminded him. The Captain tried to ignore it. He knew that, after all, and dealing with this entire mess was his priority.

"Are you alright?" He asked, glancing the Doctor over again.

"I'm fine." The Time Lord replied.

Jesus Christ, even now he was shit at lying, to anybody, about anything. Another thing Jack ignored in this moment.

"What about the other guy?"

"Not quite as fine as I am." The Doctor said, rather absent-mindedly. A shiver ran down Jack's spine and he could feel the hair on the back of his neck rise. Not as fine as the Doctor. Hell, that could mean any number of things.

"How not fine is he, exactly." Jack dared to venture.

The Doctor shrugged slightly.

"Probably some broken ribs. Maybe arm. Ankle. When somebody pulled me off of him he'd been unconscious for a few minutes.

"Shit..." Jack breathed. He cleared his throat a bit. "Um...Right."

"He was pretty dead set on killing me, mind you." The Doctor half heartedly defended.

"That's-" Jack broke of, recognizing that there was nothing he could really do about what had happened at the moment. He let out a breath. "How not fine are you?"

"I'm completely alright, Harkness." The Time Lord growled.

Another thing about the Doctor that hadn't changed, Jack thought. The man still would not accept help, even when he needed it. Especially when he needed it.

"Whatever you say, Doc." Jack said, backing off some for the time being. "You look dead tired though." He carefully pointed out.

If you were able to look past the Time Lord's blood soaked suit, and the disturbingly dark look in his eyes, it was strikingly obvious just how the Doctor was; The bags under his eyes, his sagging posture.

How long had he been going for?

"I said, I'm fine"

"And I say that you can stop pretending, Doctor." Jack retorted, matching the Doctor's tone. The Doctor drew his eyebrows together at this, opening his mouth, undoubtedly to give a scathing response.

And then, the unexpected happened.

Or maybe it wasn't so unexpected.

Either way, a look of confusion flashed across the Doctor's face, he closed his mouth, and collapsed onto the floor, unconscious.

And at about this time, Captain Jack Harkness decided to aptly sum up the collective thoughts of everybody who stood in the room.

"Fuck."

And there we are. Hope you liked that. In the next chapter some stuff really starts to happen, so stick around! Also, I'm not the type of person who demands a certain amount of reviews before they post another chapter, but it would be nice to get some feedback with what you think about the story so far. So leave a review if you want. In other news, thanks for reading, have a brilliant day, and DFTBA!