A little light relief in this chapter...malt whiskey...memories...the Doctor has one over the eight...
Peter has said in interviews that The Doctor has realised that ' life is short' for season nine...so why not let his hair down? Live a little...just this once...
Scene 5
With the Tardis on half power The Doctor managed to manoeuvre them into a static orbit around a small lifeless planet.
Jack wandered the console room listlessly.
Running his hands across the panels, gazing around him, as memories of so long ago continually flooded back.
"Do you remember when we all flew her?" He said, wistfully, as The Doctor appeared behind him.
"Yes." He replied, "it was hundreds of lifetimes ago. What have you been doing with yourself Jack?"
"Grieving." He snapped.
Clara looked up sharply, she still didn't quite trust this suave character.
"We're all grieving," retorted The Doctor, "one way or another."
"Yes...well, I lost Ianto. As far as my daughter is concerned, I'm a dead man, and I fried the brain of my Grandson. Not bad for a day's work."
"I lost my whole planet. All my family. I lost Rose. I've lost countless others. You don't get used to it, Jack, you just learn to carry on."
Clara moved across to him and took his hand, interlacing their fingers. Jack watched her with a sad smile.
"We needed you Doctor, when the 456 came back. We needed you, but you weren't there."
"I can't be everywhere, at any given day or month, no one ever could. As much as I would love to be. I've been there when I can, done what I can. I've made mistakes, Jack. We all have."
"What about this Frobisher? What happened to him Jack, tell us." Clara asked, she looked up into The Doctor's face, his lip still swollen and bruised.
"He was a gopher. A pawn in the game. A puppet, and they yanked his strings. Made him believe what he was doing was right. They ordered him to authorise my assassination, along with all those who knew anything about the 456 from 1965, and they pulled in my daughter, Alice and her son, Steven, holding them, pretty much for ransom, when they found they couldn't kill me. They played him like a fucking harp. Made him believe that giving the 456 the children they wanted, was the only way out...until they wanted his own children too."
Clara gasped.
"They were going to take his children? After telling him they'd be exempt?"
"Yes, told him it'd be an example to others, to see someone as trusted as he, hand his own kids over."
"Good God!" She whispered.
"What did he do?"
"They told me he shot them...he requisitioned a revolver, he shot his own girls and then his wife, then turned the gun on himself."
Clara put her hand up to her face, in anguish. The Doctor pulled her to his side, holding her.
Jack frowned.
"But he looked like you Doctor...why? How?"
"Let me show you something."
The Doctor tapped the keyboard, a picture of Malcolm faded into view.
Harkness stared, open mouthed...
"I don't get it, who is he?"
"He's Malcolm Tucker, a man who shouldn't have been where he was, but there he is! Working for the government, just enough power, put in place to do a job."
"What job?"
"To bring Nicola Murray into Number 10, because she will refuse to back a bill to allocate extra funding into disease research, and thus put in motion a chain of events that causes the deaths of millions."
"But Doctor, putting someone in place like that would cause time anomalies...alternate universes, fractured pathways...it could change the future...you'd need a transmat, or a Manipulator, to alter the course of time...some heavy stuff..."
"Exactly! But so far they've failed...because I stepped in. Took Malcolm's place. Put it right."
Clara, who had been computing all this information, suddenly piped up.
"So, John Frobisher might have been their first attempt? You said, Jack, that in 1965, the 456 offered you a flu cure, in exchange for the first 12 children? And that they released a deadly virus into Thames House, that killed everyone, including Ianto, when they were refused the second time?"
"What's your point?"
"Well, they seem to use disease as a weapon or a bargaining tool to achieve their aims. You were meant to have been taken out of the equation Jack, you were threatening them, they thought they'd killed you, but they failed. Then John Frobisher killed himself, so they didn't get what they wanted, you sent the radio signal that caused the 456 to withdraw...they must have been seriously pissed."
Jack looked at The Doctor and smiled.
"I like this girl...she's good!"
"Yeah, well, hands off...I found her first!"
"Er...When you two have finished comparing penis size...do you think we can focus?" Clara frowned.
The Doctor opened his mouth like a fish, then closed it again.
Jack laughed heartily.
"Yep, I like her!"
"So you think this could be the 456 again... And Malcolm Tucker was to be the instrument of their revenge?"
"It's possible. I think we need to find the 456. What do you think Clara?"
"Absolutely. We have to stop them...they may even have made previous attempts, that we don't yet know about."
The Timelord turned to Jack, regarding him closely,
"Jack. I know this is hard for you. But we could use your help. We'd make a good team."
"If it's a chance to finish this...Count me in." He replied, and gave a salute.
Scene 6
Clara had gone to bed, leaving The Doctor and Jack to reminisce.
They sat opposite each other, a bottle of fine malt whiskey on the table between them.
Jack took a slug, sucking through his teeth as it burned.
"So...Clara?...that's surprising?" Jack said.
The Doctor shrugged.
"I love her. Just that. It's only just recently we've...well, we've..."
"It's okay, you don't have to paint a picture, I get the idea. It's just...I thought, after Rose..."
"Yeah...well, I thought that too, but I was miserable and lonely, and I don't do very well on my own. She's sacrificed a great deal for me, even stepping into my timeline. I know our time is short, relatively, but after millennia by myself, ten years...even one year, with her, would be worth it."
"What about a family? You could have one...with her. Human and Timelord DNA are compatible, aren't they?"
"Dunno, haven't thought about it...don't know if Clara has either, dunno if I'd want to be a father again...we haven't discussed it. Early days. Not sure it's the way to go. What about you?"
He drained his tumbler and poured them both some more.
"Oh, you know me, a girl in every port...or a boy...or anything really."
"What happened to Alonso?"
"We were together a while, then, you know how it is...he grew old, I didn't!"
The Doctor huffed.
"Well I know what that feels like!"
"Talking of old...what happened with you? I mean, Clara's what...30? How does that work exactly? What's your secret?"
"I've no idea, but she says she loves me too, and I believe her, she wants me, and she likes the way I look...No...Don't give me that look...it took me a while to get my head round it too...but now I have, and we're okay. It's good. It works. Mind you, she's a little control freak!"
They laughed and emptied their glasses again. Jack refilled them.
"So...Alice cut you off then?"
"Well, not surprising really. I took her son away from her and fucking sacrificed him. Doesn't exactly leave me top of the Christmas card list."
"I'm sorry Jack. Really I am. I don't know what else to say."
"I wish you'd turned up, Doctor. I kept thinking you would. It was such a hellish time. All the kids in the street chanting. The Cabinet sitting calmly discussing which children would be sent to the 456. That poor bastard Clement. It was just a bloody mess. You know, Frobisher wasn't really a bad man, he was manipulated just like the rest of us."
"And you lost Ianto."
"Yeah...still miss him too...and Gwen...she's got a new life now, and a family. Maybe I'll go back and see her one day. Maybe I won't. Too painful."
"Still got the vortex manipulator too I see..."
Jack waggled his wrist.
"Never go anywhere without it...useful bit of kit!"
He topped up the glasses again.
It was sometime later that Clara woke, to the sound of raucous singing...
"Ye'll tak the higgghh road...an I'll tak the loooowww road, an I'll be in Scotlannnndd afore yeee...me and ma true love will nevvvvver meet agin..."
She sat up in bed, as the Doctor, lurched in, finger over his lips...
"Shhhhhh! Shhhhhh!"
He kicked the chair leg and almost fell over, cursing and holding his shin.
"DOCTOR! Are you...?"
He plonked himself, heavily and unceremoniously on the edge of the bed, and began the apparently difficult task of untying his bootlaces. It proved beyond him...
"Migh jusss leave these on..."
His accent had cranked up several notches...and appeared to be on 'Glaswegian Dock Worker' setting.
Clara watched, amused, as he hauled himself up again, and attempted to take off his trousers, over the top of the boots. The legs were far too narrow however. Predictably, he lost his balance, and came down with a crash...
"Shhhhhh! Shhhhhhh! Tu much noisssse!
"Doctor, forget the shushing, I'm awake. Well and truly awake. And YOU...are...wasted!"
He turned towards her, his head cocked to one side like a love struck labrador...his eyes trying to focus, from under those comical brows.
"I migh jussss," he made a vague gesture towards the door, "find somewhere else te sleeeep."
Pulling his trousers up again, he shambled off...hiccups jarring him as he did so, knocking his shoulder on the door jamb as he underestimated its width.
"Ow!...Bugger! Hue put tha therrree?"
Clara chuckled to herself, and lay down again...