Reunions and Wolf Cubs
Chapter 4
I do not own Doctor Who!
Hopscotching thru time was exhausting, especially when said activity involved a parallel universe centered around one person. After each jump, both Rose and the TARDIS were exhausted. Hanging in the Vortex kept them from being a part of the universe, but it was wearing on all of them.
Tally's visions were getting stronger and more frequent as the day approached. It was up to her to navigate them to where they needed to be. Jenny's job was making certain they had everything they needed once the time came. Both girls hated being left behind, but obeyed. Jenny did so because she understood the importance of not interfering too much in events. Tally was simply too exhausted from visions and navigating to argue. Even the TARDIS was tired, since moving thru the parallel world was hard and unsettling work.
The day finally came when the world righted itself. Rose settled her ship on the Rift in Cardiff. The girls were happily running around nearby, ecstatic to be outside once again. Rose stood watching them, smile on her face.
"You know, the last time someone stole the Doctor's ship we had a year that didn't happen."
Rose spun around at both the voice and the sound of a cocking gun. Her eyes widened in shock at the man standing there.
"Jack?" She said in disbelief.
"Rose?" Jack gaped at her. His two remaining teammates looked between the two.
"You know her Jack?" Ianto wondered if he should be jealous.
He got his answer as the blonde woman threw herself at his boyfriend. She was hugging him tightly and ignoring the guns.
"You're alive! How are you alive?" Rose was babbling, she knew that, but one of her best friends was alive. Not only that, but he knew who she was.
"Long story," Jack replied, disengaging his weapon and returning her hug. "I thought you were trapped in a parallel universe?"
"I was, but I found a way back. That isn't the Doctor's TARDIS, it's mine." She explained. "Oh! You need to meet the girls!"
"Girls?" Jack wiggled his eyebrows, smiling more when Rose slapped his shoulder.
"My daughters, so no trying to corrupt them." She told him.
"Daughters?" Jack was lost. Had Rose found someone else? He'd never pegged her to giving up the Doctor.
"I adopted them," she explained, "are you going to introduce me to your friends?"
"Right, this is Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper," Jack introduced them, "they're my team."
"Team for what?" Rose asked, waving the girls over.
"Torchwood," he answered.
Rose spun away from him. "You work for Torchwood?"
"We are Torchwood, just us." Gwen told her, wondering why the woman was suddenly so afraid of them. Not just afraid, but angry.
"What's wrong Rose?" Jack had never seen her look afraid; certainly she'd never been scared of him. It hurt to see that look on someone he cared so much about.
"Mum, what's wrong?" Jenny took one hand while Tally took the other. "Who're they? Why do they have guns?" She glared at Jack. "And why is he a fixed point?"
"Nothing, just had a shock." Rose assured them. "Let's just say that the Torchwood in Pete's World and I didn't get along very well." She told Jack. Rose figured that he knew enough about the Torchwood here to figure out why she didn't trust this version any more than the one she had briefly worked for.
"We're not like that Rose, I promise you." Jack told her firmly. He had a suspicion on why she was so wary now. The original Torchwood had many unsavory factions that liked their 'experiments'. He'd obliterated most of those, mostly because he'd been at the receiving end of them at one point or another.
"I trust you Jack, and I'm sorry. It's my fault, isn't it, that you can't die?" Rose asked him, saddened at the thought of what she'd done to her friend. She hadn't registered it at first, but now that Jenny had mentioned it she could feel it. That feeling came with the slight glimmer of gold at the edges of her vision she had come to associate with Bad Wolf.
"Yea, but I don't blame you. It's come in handy a time or two." Jack joked even as Gwen and Ianto groaned.
"He's only died how many times since I've joined?" Gwen asked her friend.
"Dozens, at least," Ianto answered, holstering his weapon. "Jack, are you going to return the favor?"
"Right, this is Rose Tyler. She's one of the Doctor's companions." Jack explained.
"And these are Jenny and Tally, my daughters." Rose explained. "Girls, this is your Uncle Jack, you remember me telling you stories about him?"
"Yea," Tally nodded, hiding behind Rose in a sudden bout of shyness. "Hi."
"Did you really save Mum from a barrage balloon?" Jenny asked, not the least bit shy. Jack bothered her a little bit because he was a fixed point, but if Rose wasn't bothered by it then she wouldn't be either.
"I did indeed, although she was unimpressed at the time." Jack replied. The girls were adorable, and he knew his team was already attached. "Would you like to come back to the Hub with us, have dinner and see what we do? We've only got a weevil in one of the cells at the moment, but she's pretty sedate most of the time." He said the latter to Rose, trying to reassure her that she and her daughters were not in any danger from them.
"We won't have to fight it, will we?" Tally asked. She had nightmares about weevils and a scar on her back from one. Both were from before Jenny and Rose had arrived in her life.
The Torchwood team looked completely and utterly horrified at the suggestion. Rose shook her head.
"No, you never have to fight again if you don't want to." She reassured the girl. "I'll explain Jack, and dinner would be good. The girls have never had fish and chips before, so that would be nice." She'd missed chips. Potatoes had never been exactly successful in Pete's World and the ones that did exist there tasted wrong.
"Got it," Ianto assured her, already calling their normal chip shop.
"We have space in the Hub if you want to park your ship there," Jack suggested. "I take it the Doctor doesn't know you're back yet?"
Rose shook her head. "No, and something is coming Jack, something bad."
"The pepper pots with lazars," Tally piped up, hiding behind Rose again when Jack looked at her.
"Jack, what is she talking about?" Gwen was curious about this strange woman and her daughters and the affect they were having on her boss.
"She doesn't mean?" Jack felt real fear flash through him. He'd managed to come through Canary Wharf without having to face any Daleks or get too close to the Cybermen, but neither was an enemy he'd ever forget or take lightly.
"Yep," Rose nodded, "like I said, long story."
It wasn't until after the girls had been fed and put to bed that Rose sat down with her friend and told him the entire story. Except for the Doctor, Jack was probably the only person she trusted with the whole truth.
"I'm so sorry that you had to go through that Rosie," Jack said softly as he held her. "I wish I could have been there to help."
"Thank you, but I'm glad you weren't. I don't even want to think what they would have done to you or the Doctor."
"Been there, done that," he told her, thinking of both his experiences with Torchwood and the Master. "I'll probably end up going through it again at some point. A hazard of being me I'm afraid."
"Jack, have you noticed anything odd happening lately?" Rose broached the subject.
"Not really, been busy dealing with losing Owen and Tosh and keeping things running smoothly with only the three of us." Jack told her.
"The stars are going out, everywhere," Rose told him. "That's why I risked using the rift to bring us here. I think whatever is happening, is going to happen, will happen here. Tally's visions point that way."
"Having a seer around is new," Jack remembered the strange little girl who had twice read his cards. Maybe not so new, for him anyway.
"Yea, and scary. Sometimes they send her into hysterics, they terrify her so badly. Combined with her telepathy, it's a wonder she hasn't gone bloody mad." Rose hugged her knees to her chest. "Have you seen him then, since the Game Station?"
"I have," Jack nodded. "He was traveling with a woman named Martha Jones for a while, but she works for UNIT now. I don't know who his current companion might be. He tends to stay away from me because I unsettle him," and because Jack had chosen to stay on Earth with Torchwood after the year that never was. The Doctor wasn't one to visit.
"Her name's Donna Noble," Rose told him and how she knew that information. "I think she might be one of the few women he knows that isn't interested in him as anything but a friend."
"When do you think they'll get here?" Jack asked, knowing that what was coming was going to require the Doctor.
"Soon," she said softly, "it's going to start soon."