I'm not even sure which direction I wanted this chapter to go in, but I do know that this was not it. I'm a slave to the muse *dramatic sigh*

Chapter Twenty-One

Martha Jones had seen quite a few strange things in her life. Between travelling with the Doctor, freelancing with Mickey, and working at UNIT, she had seen far too many unexplainable things. Upside-down rain and humans born from machines – and indeed cloned from green goo – for instance.

The sight that arrived in her lab that morning wasn't strange, per se, but it still made her blink. As if summoned by Martha's thoughts of the Progenation machine, Jenny walked in – or hobbled, supported by Jack, whose help she certainly did not need, if her vehement arguments were anything to go by.

"Morning, Martha," said Jack, with an apologetic smile. Turned out, an injured Time Lady was not to be trifled with.

"What happened?" she asked, recovering from her momentary shock and helping Jenny to sit on her lab table.

"Anwen discovered the magic of building blocks," Jenny replied, with a wry smile that hid a wince. "I broke my leg, and Jack and Gwen decided that it made much more sense to bring me to London instead of Cardiff General."

Martha shook her head, examining the leg. "No, they were right. Your energy might have kicked in; we wouldn't want that."

"We would want that. It hurts."

She smiled. "I'm sure I can give you some painkillers. Not a lot of data on Time Lord medicine, but it's not as if your dad's around."

Jenny looked as though she'd swallowed something bitter. Martha turned away, gathering the materials she needed to make a cast, and an unhealthy – in human standards – amount of painkillers. Jenny swallowed them down without complaint, and allowed her jeans to be cut with a notably higher amount of grumbling. Jack stood a short distance away, not saying anything. Martha made a mental note to talk to him later.

The pain gone, Jenny was much more agreeable. "Do you think I'd heal faster than a human?"

"I'm surprised you're not healed right now," Martha frowned at the injury. "Maybe regenerative energy is conserved for life-threatening wounds. The Master was able to … refuse to regenerate, though."

"Who's the Master?"

"Another Time Lord," she replied. "Childhood friend, adulthood enemy of your dad's. He wanted to destroy the earth."

"And?"

Martha allowed herself a proud smile. "And I stopped him. There. You'll need crutches, too. And rest," she turned to Jack. "Time off, you hear?"

"Aye, aye," he replied, smiling softly.

She found a pair of crutches for Jenny, and set her off down the hall to try them out. Jack made to follow, but Martha snagged his sleeve, folding her arms once she had his attention.

"Are you all right?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know; why aren't you?"

Jack laid a hand on both her shoulders. "Martha, I'm fine. Just worried about Jenny, that's all. Last time she was injured, it was a bullet."

"Quite a difference between a bullet and a building block."

"Indeed."

She cocked her head to the side, staring at the man who had come to be one of her closest friends. "You care about her."

"Yes, I do. And so do you. Which she's got on her side."

"She won't get shot again, Jack."

He smiled humourlessly. "And you can guarantee that, can you?"

The clink of metal against the floor broke the silence that fell between them at that. Jack's hands fell back down by his sides, marking the end of their conversation.

"Where's Gwen?" asked Jenny, leaning over Jack's shoulder to look into the computer screen. He hadn't looked up when she came into the office, but – what with the cumbersome aids she required to walk – there was no way that he hadn't been alerted to her presence.

"At home," he replied, finally glancing up to shoot her a look. "Where you should be."

"Sitting at a computer is hardly taxing. Shoo." She nudged him out of his chair with a crutch, sitting in his place. He glowered, and she patted his arm. The monitor displayed the recent rift activity. She inspected it. "There was a spike about twelve hours ago, right? You gonna check it out?"

He nodded, arms folded in a display of his distaste at being all but kicked out of his office.

"Take Sky with you. Do a little recon," she suggested, and sighed at his look. "Don't look at me like that. I don't like sending her out, but it shouldn't be too dangerous. You need someone to watch your back, and Gwen and I are out of action," she tapped her cast. "Besides, if you die and become evil alien fodder, it'll take you ages to revive. What use are you to us then?"

He smiled, only looking slightly affronted, which she took as a victory. "All right, I see where you're coming from."

"Good," she beamed. "Got your earpiece? I'll be in touch. Try not to die!"

In the end, it was he who initiated contact. She looked up from the computer at the sound of Jack's voice, pressing her earpiece in further the better to be able to hear. "Jack? What's wrong?"

"Sky—" he answered, and must have heard her sharp intake of breath, for he added, "She's all right. There was a dog … or what we thought was a dog."

"Shape shifter?" she questioned, pulling up the UNIT database (that Martha may have given them unauthorised access to). "You don't know what it is?"

"Haven't seen its true form. But when Sky touched it – she was stung, almost. It looks like a .. welt."

Jenny frowned. "You're sure she's all right?"

"I'm fine, Jenny," Sky grumbled, voice muffled. "Honestly, you're in a worse fix than me right now."

"Very funny," she replied, keeping her exhale of relief as silent as she could. "Right – describe the wound to me."

"Red and blotchy."

"Gonna need a little more to go on than that, kid. Is it still there?"

"No." Jack's voice had returned. "But we can track it."

"See if you can bring it in," Jenny decided. "We might need to treat Sky – you know what happened last time."

She thought she could imagine his wry smile. "I'm not likely to forget any time soon. I'll stay on the line. Have you got our location?"

"Railway tunnel?"

"Spot on."

Silence fell, apart from the low conversation between Jack and Sky, which Jenny ignored in favour of searching through the database. There were more metamorphic aliens than she might have estimated, and all of them were hostile.

She didn't register that there had been a commotion on the other end until it had passed, and Sky's voice was in her ear (Jack's in the background, complaining at how she'd stolen his earpiece), a distinct note of pride in it. "We got it! I knocked it out with my pendant. It's still a dog," she added, and Jenny imagined her frowning at the creature.

"Are you coming back?"

"On the way."

It didn't take them long to return to the hub, despite the fact that Jack carried an unconscious Labrador Retriever in his arms – "It's probably best that it didn't turn into something else," he remarked, heading immediately to the holding cells. Sky, to her credit, walked with Jenny at a slower pace – she would heal sooner than a human would, if Martha was to be believed, but it still felt like too long – beaming as she played with the pendant around her neck.

Jenny smiled in return, pride for her almost-sister overtaking all irritation caused by her injury. "Good job out there."

She ducked her head. "Thanks."

"You know … maybe you should be trained."

Sky's head snapped up, brown eyes confused. "For combat?"

"Well … not running into combat, at least." The reasons for keeping Sky from battle were as strong as they ever had been, but, then again, so was the Flesh Kind. "But, looking at the UNIT database, there are lots of aliens that can be seriously harmed by electricity. You could be our only hope, one day."

"Sounds scary," she admitted. Jenny smiled.

"You're learning."

You're learning" refers to how to be human. "If you're not scared, you're crazy," sort of way. It felt right to end it there without development, so just to clear up any possible confusion.

Jack/Jenny hints keep jumping out at me even though they're supposed to be a very very slow burn ship. Godammnit you two.