And here would be the third chapter. Sorry bout the delay, life was happening. Enjoy! Disclaimer- Nope. Maybe by next week.
In Which A Beatdown Takes Place, Torchwood Grows Frustrated, and There Is Bribery
~oOo~
Blind with an unfamiliar mix of emotions, Jack stumbled back from the body before him. His face disappeared behind his hands for a moment before he spun around and re-emerged, staring at the Doctor with as much intensity as he can possibly muster.
Jogging, nearly running, wait, scratch that, nearly sprinting, Jack made his way over to the Doctor, halting to a stop so suddenly it might have been comical if not for the weight of the entre situation. Without a second thought, Jack grabbed the Doctor by the collar of his coat, clearly taking the Time Lord by surprise, and slams his twig like body into the Torchwood vehicle as hard as he can, not even caring about the any number of possible repercussions his actions could have.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" He yells, freely ignoring the fact that he might be losing control of his emotions, his actions, himself, just a bit.
The Doctor rubbed the back of his head where it had made harsh contact with the metal door and scowled, trying half heartedly to shake free of the grip that Jack had on him. Realizing that escape would require more effort than he cared to exert at the moment, the Doctor settled for taking a slightly more defensive stance against Jack instead, before speaking.
"He was going to kill you, Harkness." He said, voice remarkably steady considering his situation. "And I took the necessary precautions to prevent that from happening."
"I can't die!" Jack exclaimed furiously, tightening his hold on the thin wrist underneath the brown coat. "You know that perfectly well! You didn't have to kill him!"
The rage that had been building in Jack starts to boil over; he's going to kill the Doctor. Not just make him regenerate, but properly kill him. From what he's seen, he'd being doing the universe a favor at this point.
He shouldn't be thinking these thoughts about the man who had once been his best friend. He shouldn't be imagining his fist diving into the Time Lord's stomach time and time again, shouldn't be imagining shooting him in cold blood, shouldn't be imaganing the Doctor, laying on the ground, his body slick with warm scarlet liquid, but Jack can't seem to help himself from imagining all these things and more.
"Either way, I'm not your biggest problem right now." The Doctor mentioned airily. The Time Lord's voice snaps Jack out of his blood filled thought, but does nothing to control his anger.
"What?"
"...You really are stupid, aren't you?" The Doctor asked, an incredulous look plastered on his face.
"And how's that?" Jack snarled, putting more weight onto the Doctor as he continued to lean closer until he as mere inches away from his face. The Doctor smirked.
"You'll figure it out...Maybe." He said.
Jack slammed the Doctor into the metal doors yet again, paying no attention to the Time Lord's grimace of pain.
Good.
The bastard deserved it.
"Tell me what I missed!" Jack shouted.
The Doctor gave a crooked smile to this.
"Nope."
And Jack loses control over himself. Every pent up emotion he has is let loose. He brings his arm back, forming a fast, and slams it into the Doctor's face. He pulls it back once more, and hits the Doctor again, and again, and again, hitting every inch of the lanky Time Lord he can reach, ignoring the blood that is now covering his fists, not stopping, even when the Doctor falls to the ground. He follows the other man down, landing on his chest, forcing the air out of his lungs, and continues his onslaught. Jack let up his attack for just a moment, just long enough for the Doctor to inhale a ragged breath, the grabbed the Time Lord's hair and smacked the back of his head against the cement several times before standing up and kicking him in the chest, not caring as he heard cracking that was most probably the Doctors's ribs breaking, enjoying it actually.
Finally, after what feel like an incredibly long time, Jack's kicks ceased and the Doctor curled in on himself, letting out shaky gasps of air as he may on he ground. Jack took a deep breath and let it out, watching the Doctor as he squirmed a bit. He kicked the Time Lord in the chest one more time, with enough force to knock him back several feet, flipping him over onto his back effectively.
Breathing heavily, Jack took a few steps back, turning to face his team, who were looking on with varying levels of shock etched on their features. Jack glanced over to the Doctor; the Time Lord's eyes had slid shut. He was unconscious, bleeding freely from multiple lacerations onto the ground, blood pooling underneath him. He looked back at his team, then stalked over to the vehicle, flinging the door to the back open before walking over to the purple alien and picking it up, carrying it back to the van in both arms and placing it in the back.
Noting that still nobody had said anything to him, Jack turned and faced his team once more.
Martha was looking on with an expression of disgusted terror, probably for both Jack's and the Doctor's actions, and the rest of the Torchwood team was merely staring at their leader, at a complete loss of what to say. Eventually, Gwen took a few steps towards the Time Lord's body, kneeling down next to him, refusing to look at Jack, who stood just feet away.
"...Jesus fucking Christ, Jack..." She muttered, standing up. "Get over here, Ianto!" She called, motioning for the Welshman. Ianto arrived, and assisted Gwen in getting the Doctor's body picked up, grabbing his feet and she grabbed him ny the underarms, and set him in the back of the vehicle with something that at least resembled gentleness.
Jack turned from the scene before him and walked away, circling around the vehicle and stopping on the right side, opening the door and climbing in, closing the door behind him. He set his hands on the steering wheel with more force than needed and gripped it tightly.
He studied the hands before him, covered in the Doctor's ever-so-slightly orange tinted blood. They were shaking, just a bit. It's the adrenaline, Jack presumes.
After a few moments, the rest of Jack's team clambered into the vehicle, entering silently, not a word being spoken.
"There we are, then." Said Jack, pressing the gas pedal and pulling into the street, starting back towards Torchwood.
God only knew what would happen once they got there.
oOo
Ianto carried the Doctor in his arms, shooting a quick glance to the medlab table, but finding it to already be occupied by the purple alien. Unsurprising, really. So the Welshman instead started towards the only other bed-like structure in the entirety of Torchwood. Which just happened to reside in the office of the man who had beaten the Doctor unconscious.
Ianto started up the stairs and pushed the door to Jack's office open once he reached it, stepping inside. He made his way around the darkly stained wood desk that was placed closer to the center of the room than not, and found the bed, placing the Doctor on it as softly as he could manage. Once the Time Lord was properly situated and the possibility of him falling off the bed was no longer there, Ianto stepped back and took a good, proper look at the Doctor.
His face was smeared with blood, and a wide variety of bruises had already started to appear, marking their place. Ianto had laid the Doctor on his back, but, even as he watched, the Time Lord slowly, almost haltingly, repositioning himself, forming a protective ball., His breathing was ragged and shallow, something that earlier Ianto had written off to be an after-effect of his beating, sure to disappear within a few minutes. But seeing as how his breathing was still like that...
Ianto wasn't a fool. He had seen what Jack had done. The Doctor's ribs were probably broken, and who knew what injuries he had besides that?
Sighing to himself, the Welshman stepped outside of Jack's office and into the rest of the Hub, walking down the stairs and entered the main level of Torchwood, where a rather heated argument appeared to be taking place between Jack and Martha, while the rest of the team, rather wisely Ianto thought, stood off to the side, watching as Martha slowly but surely corralled Jack into a desk, the Immortal arguing just as fiercely as the young ,medical doctor.
"He shot that alien!" Jack exclaimed.
"You didn't have to hurt him like that!" Said Martha, tone equal to that of Jack's.
"He killed the thing!" The Captain argued through clenched teeth, eyes dangerously bright.
"You damn near killed him!"
Jack scoffed.
"Oh, come off it." He turned to Ianto, apparently having noticed that he'd entered the room. "Ianto, help me out here."
Ianto hesitated for a split second before answering.
"You...you did beat him unconscious, Jack..." He said a bit uncertainly.
"...He'll be fine." Jack muttered, doing his best to sound dismissive. He turned to Owen. "Shouldn't you be doing an outopsy, Owen?" He said, not so much a question as it was a hidden command. For once, Owen decided not to mouth off to Jack, and instead nodded.
"Right." He said, starting over to his medlab so that he could begin the autopsy.
Jack turned to Tosh.
"Toshiko, I want you to try and find information on these things. Anything. Go through Torchwood London and Wales, as well as UNIT, along with anything else you think might be useful." He pointed to Gwen. "Gwen, help her."
"What do you want me to do, sir?" Asked Ianto.
"I want you top go down to the archives and search through our files; look for some hard copies." Jack instructed. Martha raised an eyebrow slightly.
"What am I doing, then?" She inquired.
"You're with me."
"And what are you doing?"
Jack too a deep breath and let it out.
"I'm going to be in my office, looking up some files, and waiting for the Doctor to wake up." He said, a certain tone of finality in his voice that left very little room for constructive argument.
"...Alright then." Martha agreed.
"Come on." Said Jack, making for the stairs. "Let's go."
Martha followed the Immortal up the stairs, wondering if this was really the best course of action to take. Having the Doctor and Jack on the same room, that was. It seemed as if, especially after the events that had taken place, that the two might go for each other's throats. Figuratively, in the Doctor's case. Martha doubted that he would be moving around for a couple of hours, at least.
On the other hand, having the two of them in the same room might be useful. It could force them to talk some. God knew they needed to talk. Not just Jack and the Doctor, but Martha herself as well. All of them needed to calm down some and talk about what was happening and how they were going to deal with this entire bloody predicament that they'd gotten themselves into.
Martha stepped into the office and closed the door as Jack flipped the light switch on, shot the Doctor a dark glare, full of an intense mix of mostly unidentifiable emotions, and pulled up his chair, turning on his computer and bringing up a screen full of files. File of which, Martha assumed, were available to only those with top-level clearance.
Martha grabbed a chair that was in the corner of the room and pulled it up to Jack's desk, studying the screen, and watched as Jack typed a flurry of commands into the computer.
oOo
Owen took off his gloves, placed them on his metal medical tray, and bounded up the stairs, over to where Toshiko and Gwen were busy working together.
"And I can't find anything." He said, sounding and looking quite exasperated. "Its biology isn't particularly interesting, so there's no identifying traits that we can identify figure out what the damn thing is. How's it going for you two?"
"Bout that same as you, really." Gwen replied. "We've tried just about everything we can think of and haven't found anything yet."
"Blimey..." Owen muttered. "You think it's entirely new?" He questioned.
"Could be." Said Toshiko.
"This'll be fun...New race of aliens, and no data on them." Owen sighed slightly and shoved his hands back into his white coat. "Right then. We'll keep looking, I suppose. We can check back later."
And with that, Owen turned away, walking back over to his medlab.
oOo
Martha buried her face into her hands, elbows resting on the desk before her.
"An hour and a half of looking. And still nothing." She groaned. "Face it, Jack. There are no records on these things."
Jack leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his eyes some.
"Probably not." He said, conceding defeat.
A noise sounded from behind the pair; some slight creaking, accompanied by a pained grunt and a string of muttered words in a language that neither Jack nor Martha recognized.
Both of them spun around in their chair, shooting up into a standing position as they did so to face the figure of the Doctor. The Time Lord took a ragged breath, a pained expression painted on his features, and let it out slowly before repeating the process in the same shuddering way. After a moment, his eyes fluttered open, wild and confused and dangerous.
"...Hey, Doctor..." Said Martha, words cautious.
The Doctor slowly pushed himself up, screwing his eyes shut in the process, and then glared at Jack, who remained silent. His face might as well have been carved of stone.
"Rassilon..." The Doctor muttered.
"You deserved it." Said Jack,absolute conviction in his voice. The Doctor gave a small laugh and promptly regretted it, clutching at his chest, gasping for breath.
"You might want to take it easy, Doctor." Martha suggested.
"Yeah. Yeah, that might be a good idea." The Time Lord said, positioning himself upright, planting his feet on the floor below him, but still staying on the bed.
"So it might not be a good idea to do what you're doing." Pressed Martha. The Doctor scowled.
"Im fine." He took a moment to glance at Jack. "I stop you from getting shot and I deserve this?" He asked, disbelieving.
"You kill somebody in cold blood and expect me to just stand there?" Jack questioned heatedly. "And then you withhold information from me?" He asked, voice shaking with anger.
At this time, Martha decided to step in between the two men in an attempt to shut them up so some progress could actually be made.
"Doctor, your gun " She said, holding her hand out and keeping her tone as steady as she could. "Now would be good."
"Like hell." The Doctor replied, clearly amused by Martha's request.
"Give it to her." Jack growled, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Or I swear to god, I won't stop when you're unconscious this time."
Martha glanced to her left.
"Jack."
The Immortal have no recognition that Martha had said anything.
The Doctor opened his mouth and then promptly closed it.
"...I'll tell you what you missed." He offered after a few moments. The expression on Jack's face changed from fury to surprise.
Damn.
He was stuck now.
Take the Doctor's gun and miss a possibly vital clue as tl what they were dealing with,or let the Time Lord keep his weapon and receive important information from him.
Jack had to chose the latter, for the safety of his team, and for possibly for the safety of other people, if those things decided to come back. There really was t a choice here/
"Fine." Spat Jack. "You tell us what you know, and I might let you keep your gun."
"You will let me keep it, Harkness." The Doctor pressed.
Jack was silent a moment, weighing his options with care.
"Alright." He eventually agreed. The Doctor smirked some at this, and gradually began to lean back against the wall, don't so slowly as to not further aggravate his injuries, and closed his eyes.
"So, tell us what we missed." Said Jack.
"Their wrists, Harkness." Replied the Doctor. "What did the last two do when they left? They pulled up their sleeves and there was a device in their wrists."
"Yeah, I saw that. What about it?"
The Doctor muttered something, most probably a very insulting something,kinder his breath before repealing once more.
"They teleported. Teleported. With control over it. Under their own free will. What does the Rift do?"
"It brings things here through space and time, Doctor. You know that."
"And do the things that come through the Rift have any choice of doing so?"
"No." Jack replied.
"Then what is wrong with this entire picture of these things teleporting?"
Click
Jack let out a breath as Martha inhaled sharply.
"They...The Rift didn't bring the here." Said Jack. The Doctor nodded with exaggerated slowness, and for once Jack doesn't care that he's being patronized, because this is a breakthrough and he needs to figure out just what the hell is going on.
Jack's eyebrows furrowed together and he took a step towards the Doctor, grabbed at his braces, and shifted his weight between his feet, mind whirling.
"But that doesn't make any sense!" He exclaimed suddenly, trying to fathom how what the Doctor was saying could possibly be true.
Trying to figure out how it couldn't.
"It makes perfect sense." Said the Doctor, a dangerous edge on his quiet voice.
"Buy the Rift alarm went off! We thought they were Weevils! How does that make sense!"
The Time Lord groaned.
"Do I have to explain everything to you?" He asked, clearly contempt. Jack bit his lil some, but held his tongue, and after a few moments the Doctor resumed speaking.
"They're using the Rift. Manipulating it if you will." He said.
"Using the Rift?"
"Yes, Harkness. They're using the Rift to help them come to Earth. Makes infiltrating a planet a bit easier it you've got a rip in time and space with enough energy to tear a hole in the universe running through it."
"That-"
"Makes sense now?" The Doctor suggested.
"Uh, yeah. Starting to." Said Jack.
"That doesn't explain why they looked like Weevils on the software though." Said Martha.
"Martha," The Doctor started, bringing his hands to his face and rubbing at his eyes. "They masked their energy signal. If they've got the technology to take advantage of the Rift like this, then they would be able to mask the type of energy they were giving off."
"Great." Muttered Jack. "Just what we need. Aliens disguised as other aliens."
"At least it's interesting." Said the Doctor.
Jack shot the Time Lord a sharp glare.
"You. Gt up." he commanded. The Doctor raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Well, I'd like to, you see, but-" He started.
"I said get. Up. Thai is going to be hard enough without you mucking about the place." The Captain said, unwavering.
"And what's that supposed to mean? What are you going to do with me?" The Doctor asked, not seeming particularly concerned with the answer to his question. Jack was quiet a minute.
"I'm going to lock you in the Weevil cells. So you'll do as I say, and get up."
The Time Lord snorted slightly.
"I'm hardly just going to do as you say-"
"Do it!" Jack thundered. He pointed an accusatory finger at the Doctor. "You, are a danger to everyone here. And I'm not going to stand for it. I won't place my team in danger, and that's final. Do you understand me?"
"There's a difference between me understanding you and me actually doing what you want me to do." The Doctor pointed out.
Jack reached down towards his hip and withdrew his revolver from its holster, bringing it up and pointing the barrel at the Doctor's head.
"Get up." he demanded.
"Put the damn gun down, Jack!" Martha exclaimed.
The Doctor eyes the gun wearily for a moment.
"...You wouldn't." He said, watching Jack with care.
"I genuinely don't know." The Immortal replied, cocking the gun. "Care to find out?"
Pause.
The Doctor let out a breath.
"Fine." He agreed. Jack placed the revolver back into his pocket as the Doctor gingerly pushed himself off the wall. The Time Lord slowly shifted his full weight to his feet and stood up, still relying heavily on the wall he had his hand firmly planted on to support him.
"Come on, then." Said Jack, motioning towards his office door. The Doctor took his hand off the wall and promptly collapsed, staggering forwards and unintentionally plowing into jack, who clasped his hands onto the Time Lords's shoulders in an attempt to steady him, but instead the force caused his knees to buckle, forcing him to the floor.
Jack quickly caught the Doctor before he had the the time to completely crumple to the floor, grabbing him by the underarms and pulling him back up.
"Nope." He said, getting the Doctor back onto his feet, though the lanky alien was still leaning on him heavily. "That's not happening. Come on, out we go." The Captain said, walking over to the door with the Doctor and pushing it open, stepping outside onto the balcony. He led the Time Lord down the stairs and down to Torchwood's main level, closely followed by Martha, and then down another set of stair that led to the dimly lot hallway of containment cells.
Jack stuck his hand into his coat pocket and took out a ring of keys, picking one out and sticking it into the lock of the cell door at the end of the block. He laughed the door opened and motioned for the Doctor to enter. The Doctor hesitated, then resisted s much as he could when Jack pushed him in some, until the Captain out more power into the push, sending the Doctor sprawling into the barren cell.
Jack gave the Doctor a pitying look as he gasped for breath.
He pulled the door towards himself, slamming it shut. He locked the deadbolt, letting the finite click ring out, followed by the deafening and infinite silence, then turned away from the man who had once saved him from himself, who was now his prisoner. Who was both his oldest friend and newest enemy, and left him in the ever flickering lights.
And so ends the chapter. Once again, sorry about the delay. I'll try not to have it happen again. Please leave a review. It only takes a minute and they really do help me become a better writer. If you want something in the story, go ahead and leave it in a review. I'll see what I can do. In other news, thanks for reading, have an amazing day, and DFTBA!
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