*apologizes profusely for the lateness of this chapter. Again* In other news, I've regained full access to fanfic (it was sort of complicated) so hopefully updates won't be so few and far between from now on. Hopefully. Moving on I hope you enjoy this chapter! Disclaimer- *looks through pile of paper* This is a geography essay, that's a geography essay. Honestly, every piece of paper I have right now is a geography essay. The rights to Doctor sadly just don't belong between essays about Kashmir and Pakistan.

In Which Alien Schemes Are Discussed And Dismissed, Jack Loses His Cool, And Martha Makes A Valid Observation

~oOo~

Three AM

How, exactly, had he managed to stay up for so long every other day?

This question meandered through the Doctor's mind as he continued to play with his hands in the cell.

Wait a second, he thought bitterly, it's because there's usually something worth staying up for.

Sighing slightly, the Time Lord leaned his head against the wall behind him. It was, what? Three in the morning? He'd been awake, entirely unoccupied, for the last eight hours.

Without bothering to look at what he was doing, the Doctor reached to his side and picked up the not-quite-cube-shaped device, turning it over in his hands, again and again and again, finding this simple motion to be somewhat soothing.

Strange.

Continuing the movement, his thoughts wandered freely, unchecked and uncensored.

When were those aliens going to come back?

When would he be able to get out of this cell?

Would the TARDIS let him in any time soon?

Why had he even been brought here in the first place?

Why did normal time pass so bloody slowly?

Would Jack ever forgive him for what he'd done?

Why had that thought even occurred to him?

He didn't want Jack's forgiveness.

Did he?

No.

He didn't want, or need, to be forgiven by Jack Harkness.

And with this final thought, the drowsiness that he'd been battling for, Rassilon, so long, finally overtook him. His eyelids slid shut, his hands fell to his sides, and he sank into blessed unconsciousness.

~oOo~

Meanwhile

Jack exhaled a shuddering breath, desperately trying to get a grip on himself and his emotions. He brushed at his eyes with the back of his hands, making some sort of an attempt to remove the redness from them. He stood up from the edge of his bed, burying his face in his hands. Slowly, slowly, the Immortal started towards his office door, stepping onto the balcony and walking down the stairs.

Pacing around the lower level of the Hub, no real destination in mind, Jack soon found himself by Toshiko's computer. Out of sheer curiosity, he leaned over the keyboard, typed in a few commands, and directed his attention to the screen in front of him, which now depicted the cell at the end of the cell block.

The cell that the Doctor was in.

Jack's gaze fell to the Time Lord with no hesitation. And although the CCTV image was in black and white,, if Jack looked closely, it almost seemed as if the Doctor was...sleeping.

His eerily still body, the slow rise and fall of his chest, the closed eyes, all of it pointed to his being asleep.

Other than the short period of unconsciousness that had afflicted the Time Lord earlier that day, Jack had never actually seen the man sleep, and most certainly not of his own free will.

God, he looked so young. In his sleep, he was so relaxed; all the lines that normally creased his face seemingly disappeared, leaving him looking as if he nothing more than a young man who had a habit of falling asleep in strange places. No longer did he give off the aura of a High and Mighty Time Lord, with more authority and power and raw anger than all the beings in the seven systems. No, in his sleep, he was a man, and nothing more.

Almost unaware of his actions, Jack began to walk, slowly but surely heading towards the basement of Torchwood, climbing down the stairs but not really feeling as if he were doing so, even as he took the actions. He arrived at his destination, this being marked by the slightly musky smell that was the air in the cell block. Still not entirely sure why he was doing this, Jack walked down to the end of the hallway, turned to face the sleeping figure of the Doctor, and sank down to the floor, leaning against the clear glass cell wall behind him.

He studied the man before him. The man he'd just spent the last few hours loving, hating, wanting back, wanting to forget. It was amazing, it really was, that one man, one ridiculously skinny man, could affect so many people, so deeply.

Of course, that was probably easy when you had a time machine and the best impression of a kicked puppy for seven sun systems.

Jack shook his head, clearing that last thought from his mind. The Doctor wasn't as he had once been, his eyes weren't the same either. No longer were they deep and speaking volumes; rather, they were blank and emotionless.

"God, Doctor..." Jack muttered, mostly to himself, perhaps hoping that the Time Lord would hear him through his slumber. "What happened to you...?" He asked. He wanted to know what had happened to make the man who used to be his friend into the creature before him. And yet, at the same time he didn't. The Doctor had endured so much in his nine hundred and eleven years of life; losing his companions, his friends and family, seeing death and destruction, being unable to stop it, watching his whole damn race burn...Did Jack really want to know what had managed to drive the Doctor over the edge?

It really didn't matter much whether or not what had happened, Jack realized, because chances were that the Time Lord wasn't going to talk about it anyways. The fact was stuck somewhere between being a relief and a burden.

Sniffing slightly, Jack continued to study the Doctor, gaze shifting to the small, cubishly shaped contraption that resided beside the Doctor. How he had managed to build that mess of wires in the space of twelve hours was beyond Jack. But then, so we're many of the things that the Time Lord did.

Taking a deep breath, Jack stood up, pushing off the glass that was still warm with his residual body heat, starting towards the stairs that would lead him away from the Doctor and the mess of emotions that were induce by him. He reached the top of the stairwell, braced himself, and stepped out, closing the heavy metal door behind him.

~oOo~

The Next Morning

"Has anybody got a name yet?" Were the first words to come out of Owen's mouth when he entered the Hub at 8:35 the next morning. When he received shakes of heads and various muttered versions of 'no' in response, he gave a noncommittal grunt and continued walking, finding his way to his medlab and dropping off his bag before climbing the stairs again to find Toshiko.

"Anything interesting happen yet?" He asked from beside her. Toshiko shook her head.

"Not yet, no."

"So what's up? What're we doing?" Owen questioned, leaning on Tosh's desk slightly.

"Jack's in his office; Rift reports and such. Ianto's in the archives-"

"So back to normal then." The medical doctor interrupted.

"Pretty much."

"Got it." Owen paused. "Really? Nothing at all with the Rift?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary." Tosh answered. "Why?"

Owen shrugged.

"Nothing. It's just-" He broke off, motioning with his hands. "What are they waiting for, you know? Those aliens, why are they waiting to come back? If they really are manipulating the Rift like Jack said, what's the advantage of them waiting to come back? They could just get this over with if they really wanted to."

Toshiko nodded at this.

"I know. It's putting me a bit on edge too." She admitted.

"...Of course..." Owen trailed off.

"What?"

"Well, the Doctor did sort of kill one of their people. Maybe they're biding their time or something. Coming up with a plan."

"Or maybe we're just reading into this too much. It has been less than a day, after all."

"Could be." Owen said, a slight smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. "I quite like the idea, actually. There are no evil alien plots in action. We're just over analyzing this."

Tosh smiled in return.

"And there we are."

Silence ensued, broken by Owen clearing his throat a few moments later.

"I should be doing...things." He said, motioning behind himself.

"Yeah," Toshiko agreed, somewhat awkwardly. "Me too."

Owen stayed where he stood for half a second longer, hesitating for just a moment before spinning on his heel and hurriedly walking away, hands shoved deep into his coat pocket, head down, gaze trained on the ground.

~oOo~

"Here, put this in the pile on your left." Said Jack, handing a pile of papers to Martha, who placed it on the small mountain of reports next to her, then turned to Jack.

"So..." She started, trailing off and giving a meaningful arch of her eyebrows.

"What?" Jack asked shortly.

"How are we doing...?" Martha inquired, voice carefully light.

"Fine. I'm fine, Martha."

"And you're sure about that, are you?" Martha asked, clearly skeptical of Jack's less than reassuring answer.

"Yes!" Jack snapped, clenching his fists. "My best friend just showed up today and he hates me now, and, oh yeah, he shot a person and I beat the shit out of him! Not to mention the fact that there are aliens, we don't know anything about them or what they want, and we have no idea what they're planning! But putting all of that aside, yeah, I'm perfectly fine!" He sniffed and stood up from his desk, pacing relentlessly, hands working themselves through his hair time and time again. "Sorry..." He muttered.

Martha was silent a moment.

"Maybe you should take a bit of a break."

Jack turned to face her.

"Why?" He questioned, genuinely curious. Martha snorted.

"Take a guess, Captain. That little snap right there? A break would do you some good."

"...Maybe." Jack mused, mostly to himself it seemed.

"Try definitely." Corrected Martha. Jack screwed his eyes shut.

"Alright, alright." He agreed. "I'll go for a walk or something."

"Care if I join you?" Martha inquired.

"Go ahead." Jack replied, grabbing his heavy wool coat off of the back of his chair and shrugging it over his shoulders. Martha too stood up, stretching herself out some before following Jack out the door of his office and starting their way down the stair together.

"We're going out." Jack declared once at the bottom of the staircase, earning him and Martha curious glances from a few of the Torchwood team. "Don't bother us unless it's something important."

Martha shot a slightly apologetic look to the team members and left through the metal rolling door alongside the Captain, entering a cold and dimly lit hallway. Martha and Jack walked through it in complete silence, despite each other's company. Jack reached and opened a second door, leading to a deceivingly office like room. Maneuvering around the lightly colored wooden desk, she and Jack exited the office, entering the bustling streets of Cardiff, still in utter silence.

And then Martha decided, quite abruptly, that she'd already experienced far too many meaningful silences during the year that she'd traveled with the Doctor.

"Jack." She addressed.

"Hmm?" The Immortal replied, surprising Martha, who had been expecting a waspish really. There was a small pause before Martha continued.

"...This is hard for me, too." She said. Jack swallowed and gave a small nod, gaze trained on the ground before him as he continued to stroll down the sidewalk.

"...I know." Said Jack, voice barely above a whisper. "And I'm sorry about this whole mess and how I'm handling it."

"We'll figure it out, Jack." Said Martha, doing her best to be reassuring. The Captain's head shot up and he glared at Martha.

"And you're sure about that, are you?" He asked, a dangerous edge to his tone.

"And you're sure that we won't?" Martha retorted steadily, matching Jack's gaze. The Immortal fell silent a moment, staring straight ahead.

"...You're right. We'll figure this out."

~oOo~

"I'm off to talk with him." Owen declared, starting up the waits and taking them two at a time.

"Why's that, then?" Asked Gwen, glancing up from the piles of papers she'd been sorting just moments ago to instead glance at Owen, who was emerging from the medlab.

"Why not?" Owen answered. "Just going to check up on him. See if he's willing to say anything about anything. Maybe he's got that little detector thing finished by now."

"'Cause suddenly you're Mr. Caring, are you?" Gwen chastised.

"I'm bored!" Owen exclaimed. "And curious! And maybe I do care just a bit about what the hell he's getting up to down there!"

Gwen rolled her eyes slightly at this, but said nothing.

"I'll come with you." Toshiko offered. Owen shot a curious glance at Tosh.

"Alright then." He agreed after a split second hesitation. Toshiko stood up and walked over to the stairwell where Owen now stood, and the two started down the stairs leading to the cell blocks.

"Why're you coming?" The medical doctor asked after a few moments of quiet.

"Same as you." Toshiko replied.

Pause.

"Is that alright?" She hurriedly asked.

"No, no, it's fine. Go ahead." Owen quickly reassured. "Just wondering."

"Right."

More silence ensued, and Owen wanted to punch something.

~oOo~

"So what's happening with you, Jack?" Martha asked, turning to face Jack as they continued to walk down the busy street.

"What do you mean?" Jack questioned, voice laden with confusion.

"It's just-" Martha broke off, trying to find the right words. "I suppose it's nothing, really, but lately, it just seems like your emotions are getting the better of you. I mean, yesterday with the Doctor, today in you office..." She trailed off, leaving a pointed silence in her wake.

"I know," Said Jack, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Last night didn't work out very well either." He admitted.

Martha arched a curious eyebrow.

"Last night?" She questioned.

Jack nodded.

"What happened last night?"

"...Just, after all of you left,"

"Which you seemed to be in a hurry to get us all out." Martha interjected.

"Yeah, I was, a bit." Jack acknowledged, continuing. "But after that, I don't know...I didn't do anything stupid; didn't punch any walls or anything, but it seemed like I was still all chalked up on emotions or something." The Captain muttered, sounding just as confused as Martha felt.

"Why was that?" Martha inquired.

"Martha...I'm immortal."

"Figured that much out, funnily enough."

"No, you're not- you're not getting it." Murmured Jack, closing his eyes. "I can't die. Everybody else can, but I can't. And do you know what was keeping me going most of the time? Knowing that the Doctor was out there; knowing that I had at least one friend out there who wouldn't die, Martha."

Martha's eyes widened as she realized what Jack was saying.

"And last night, I figured it out. I figured out that the Doctor might as well be dead, and that I am alone. And I lost it a bit."

"I- Right." Martha managed to stammer out. Jack was quiet, stiffening his jaw and shoving his hands into his pockets in an attempt to pull himself together."...I don't want to be alone."

~oOo~

Owen and Toshiko reached the end of the cell block, stopping and turning towards the clear walls of a cell, finding themselves face to face with a weary looking Time Lord. All of them were quiet for a moment.

"Is it actually possible for you people to just leave me alone?" The Doctor asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence between the trio.

"I'm afraid not. Sorry 'bout that, Doc." Owen replied, no remorse present in his voice.

"Rassilon..." The Doctor muttered. A string of what sounded like alien swears followed, being spoken under his breath. Despite himself, Owen smirked a bit, finding the Doctor's frustration to be amusing.

"Well, what do you want?" The Time Lord snapped, dragging Owen from his train of thought.

"You done with that little detector thing yet?" The medical doctor inquired. The Doctor screwed his eyes shut.

"What the hell difference does it make to you?" He challenged.

"None." Owen answered. "Just curious."

The Doctor sniffed slightly and then reached his left hand over to his side, retrieving a small object that Owen had not previously taken note of.

"Yeah, it's done." The Doctor said, brandishing the small device.

"What did you build it from?" Tosh asked, suddenly curious. The Doctor took a deep breath and studied Tosh for a moment before replying.

"Time-disruptancy detector." He spat out. "Rewired it."

"But- that's-"

"Impossible?" The Doctor interrupted.

Toshiko nodded.

"Yes." She confirmed. The corners of the Doctor's mouth turned upwards very slightly, continuing to watch Tosh.

"No." He said. "Not impossible. Quite simple, actually, if you know what you're doing."

"But you can't just-"

"Toshiko," The Doctor started. "That is your name, right? Right. Look, I've went and built the time-space disturbance detector, so obviously, no matter how much you may deny it, building this from what I had is rather not impossible. You see my logic here?" He questioned rhetorically. Toshiko set her jaw and continued to dare at the Doctor, mind working at break-neck rates.

"But," She began. "How would you do that? I mean," She gave a slight laugh. "You would need a lab to get it all done. A big, space lab." She pointed out.

"Or a superior brain." The Doctor countered. Toshiko looked puzzled for a moment before speaking.

"Explain."

The Time Lord gave a small sigh.

"Toshiko, all I did was a seven-dimension rerouting of the whole thing; I adjusted it so that instead of only detecting disturbances in the fourth dimension, t can also detect those of the fifth." He explained, exasperated.

"Seven dimensions?" Tosh asked, disbelieving.

"Time Lord trick; I'm aware of all twenty-six. This was a snap." The Doctor stopped speaking, chosing instead to glare at Owen and Toshiko.

"So..." Owen trailed off, still sorting through the conversation he'd heard, trying to make some form of sense of it. After a moment, he continued. "So you just rewired it?" He asked. "'Cause I don't know a whole lot about this stuff, but that doesn't sound entirely possible to me. Like Tosh said, you'd need a shitton of equipment."

The Doctor was quiet a moment before shoving his hand into a pocket in his coat and then retracting a small metal for with a blue tip.

"This," He said, waving it slightly. "Is a sonic screwdriver. It's very clever and very useful. It, is what I used to do most of rerouting." He explained.

"What else does it do?" Owen inquired. The Time Lord shrugged.

"Unlocks locks, mostly. Quite a few other things as well. Scans, it can give remote commands to the TARDIS if I have an emergency protocol set up. And, obviously, a lot of mechanical jiggery-pokery as well."

Owen blinked, giving off the vague air of someone who's been promised something, only to receive a plastic replica.

"...Alright then. The thing's a fucking miracle." He said, unimpressed.

"Then why aren't you out?" Tosh challenged, cutting into the conversation. "If it unlocks locks, why aren't you out of here already?"

"Doesn't do deadlocks or wood. Too primitive." The Doctor explained.

"Ah."

"Yep."

Silence.

"As much as I would like to continue this lovely conversation we're having here," The Doctor began briskly. "I really must get back to my original question; could you leave me alone?"

Owen rolled his eyes and turned on his heel and Toshiko arched a curious eyebrow.

"Come on then, Toshiko." The medical doctor said, starting for the stairwell that led to the main level of Torchwood. Tosh walked with him, the two side by side, as they left the dimly lit hallway once more.

~oOo~

The Doctor listened to Owen and Toshiko's steady footsteps as they faded away, leaving him in a numbing silence. Finally, conceding to the fact that he didn't actually have anything better to do, he grabbed his time-space device in his hand and continued the motion that he had found so soothing last night (this morning?). He stopped after a moment, choosing instead to keep the cube still, with his gaze trained on the LED light that he had wired in.

How he craved for that light to flash.

This chapter is finally up, so yay for that I guess. I've got up to chapter twelve written and am currently working on thirteen *yells at plot*, so if I keep up the typing, updates will be a lot more frequent than they have been. If you could leave a review, I would be so happy, it'd be ridiculous. If you have anything you want in this story, go ahead and leave it in a review or shoot my a PM -I always reply. Anywho, even if you don't leave a review, thanks for reading, have an absolutely fantastic day, and DFTBA!