Chapter Fifteen
"I think this calls for How I Met Your Mother, what do you think?"
"Yeah," Sky agreed, smiling as she allowed a throw to be placed over her.
"Marshmallows?" Jack called from the kitchen.
"Always add marshmallows," Sky replied. "Hello Anwen."
"Hi Sky," the toddler replied, giggling at the rhyme she had made. Jenny picked her up, setting her on Sky's lap.
"Luke's coming down this weekend," Gwen informed them, entering the sitting room with her phone in hand. "It's the start of the Halloween break."
"What's Halloween?" Sky asked curiously. Jenny glanced up from the DVD pile, also interested.
"I'll let Jack explain," said Gwen, after a moment of deliberation. "You're welcome."
"Just because I've been around longer," he muttered, setting the tray of hot chocolates on the coffee table, yet he smiled. He sat between Jenny and Sky while the former navigated the DVD menu. "It started off as a Druid festival. Samhain. They sacrificed animals and prayed for sunlight to return. Then it was believed that on that night, the walls between the living and the dead became thin, and that the dead could enter the land of the living. So they dressed as ghosts and monsters to prevent attacks. Now kids dress up as monsters and we have to give them sweets. All in all, a good holiday."
"Interesting," Jenny raised an eyebrow, pressing play.
"Kids …" the narrator began.
"Pumpkins are involved, too," Gwen put in, picking up her mug of hot chocolate from the tray and settling in an armchair. "Though how, I'm not quite sure …"
"To ward off spirits, probably."
"Hmm."
"How I Met Your Mother?" Rhys questioned, appearing in the doorway.
"Yeah."
"Come sit down. There's hot chocolate."
He complied, sitting in the unoccupied armchair and asking, "What's happening?"
"Lily left Marshall and Ted and Robin are together."
"Right."
They watched intently, drinking their hot chocolate and laughing at the jokes.
"I come bearing coffee," Jenny announced to the hub, stepping off the lift. As if these words were an incantation to summon the Welshwoman, Gwen appeared, taking her cup from the cardboard tray.
"Where's Zara?" Jenny asked.
"In the lab, I think."
The Rheugal who had first made Sky ill and then cured her had been granted her freedom (or at least the run of the hub, as she would frighten the humans if she left it) until they could find a way to send her home. Zara (as she'd informed them her name was, thanks to the translator given to them by Martha) was particularly interested in the instruments and technology used by mankind.
"How's Jack doing with his Vortex Manipulator?" she asked next. Gwen shrugged, downing a gulp of coffee before answering.
"Ask him yourself."
The Vortex Manipulator seemed the best bet to return Zara to her home. None of the space ships that fell through the rift were functional. Jenny's stolen shuttle was certainly of no more use than to repair another of the same build.
She knocked on the door, waiting for assent before she opened it. Jack was working on his Manipulator – fiddling with screws and wires.
"I've got coffee," Jenny said, sitting in the chair on her side of the desk. "How's it going?"
"Not great," the captain (if only by stolen identity) replied, without looking up.
"I could help?" she offered.
"You probably could. Your father put this out of commission with his screwdriver," he glanced up at her. "Could I …?"
"Sure," Jenny replied, fishing the sonic lipstick out of her pocket and handing it over to him. Jack pointed it at the dismantled Vortex Manipulator, and the screen lit up.
"That's it!" he exclaimed, delighted, as he handed the lipstick back to Jenny. "Zara can go home."
"Can I come?" Jenny queried. The question seemed to surprise him, so she elaborated. "I haven't seen a new planet since I got here. I'd like the chance."
"If something goes wrong, we could end up stranded in a different planet. A different time."
She grinned in response. "Isn't that the point?"
Jack smiled back – an unwilling smile, a mere quirk in the corner of the lips. "All right. You can tell Zara."
She stood, picking her coffee cup out of the tray and leaving the office.
Zara was overjoyed at the news, giving Jenny coordinates for Zon right away. The young Time Lady had to explain that it was not her who had the Vortex Manipulator and that they would not be leaving right away.
"Don't tell Sky, or she'll want to go too," said Gwen.
"She should say her goodbyes though."
"She should."
Zon was a beautiful planet, Jenny decided, as soon as she had arrived on it. She disentangled herself from Jack and Zara's arms – they all were required to touch the Vortex Manipulator, or at least each other. It was truly a sight to behold.
"I must give you the treatment before we continue," Zara informed them. "Will the human decontaminant suffice for you, Captain?"
"Yes, it should."
The Rheugal placed her hand on Jack's head, and a faint purple pulse appeared on his skin for a brief moment.
"I have never performed this treatment on a Time Lord before," Zara admitted, turning to Jenny, her large eyes unblinking. "I hope I can do it correctly."
"I'm sure you will," she smiled, allowing the Rheugal to place her hand on her head. She pulsed orange, from what she could see, and felt no different.
"Thank you, Zara," Jenny inclined her head.
"I shall inform my family of my safe return and find you a tour guide. Wait here."
"Do we have a way to get home?"
Jack frowned at her. "You see it as home?"
"Of course. I've been there for months, Jack. I have friends, some kind of family, a job and somewhere to live. What else would be my home?"
"Adria?"
"Pit stop."
"The TARDIS?"
"Never been on it. It probably would've been, but …"
"Cobb," Jack finished for her, understanding in his eyes.
"Yeah."
"You should have a TARDIS of your own," he said decisively. "From what I know of the Time Lords, most of them had a TARDIS."
Jenny quirked an eyebrow. "Is this going anywhere?"
"I have a … coral. From the TARDIS. In time, it should grow into one. It would take a while, maybe a hundred years, but …"
Jenny stared blankly at him.
"I think you should have it," he finished.
"Are you sure?" she asked tentatively.
He shot her a glance. "Do you think I know how to fly a TARDIS? What would I do with it?"
She laughed, hugging him in thanks.
"Plus," Jack continued, as they broke apart. "You need something to replace your shuttle, and this is the best I can do."
"Excuse me?"
The two of them turned to face the Rheugal who had appeared to show them around the planet.
"My name is Zack," he informed them. "What are yours?"
"I'm Jenny, this is Jack."
"Pleased to meet you, Jenny and Jack," Zack inclined his head in something like a bow. "May I say that you are a lovely couple?"
"You may," Jenny replied, almost smiling at the assumption. People generally assumed that she and Luke were a couple, but never her and Jack. "But we're not a couple."
"My apologies," said the Rheugal. "If you will follow me …"
Jenny had been correct; Zon was beautiful. There were many monuments and tokens to the planet's history. The sky was a pale pink as Earth's was at dawn, and the grass a deep blue colour. There were four suns, one for each direction, and the clouds were lazy brush strokes against the pink canvas of the sky; those were the same colour as Earth's clouds.
"We're coming back when I get my TARDIS," she decided.
Jack arched an eyebrow. "'We'?"
"I can hardly go on my own now, can I?"
He laughed softly. "No. I suppose you can't."
Jenny needs her own companions, right?