Author's note: Please note the change in description as well as character involvement. I am bringing in the crew of Torchwood post Exit Wounds. If you have not watched Torchwood and do not wish spoilers then you may want to catch up to that episode before reading on as there will be discussion of events leading up to and immediately after that episode. Since I have branched off a new universe in this fic, I have moved up the events a little in the Torchwood universe than the Torchwood-Who canon would have them be placed. But the Timelines otherwise are pretty bang on.
Thank you for all the reviews! Reviews make my world go round!
Captain Jack followed The Doctor and Donna up the ramp into the control room of the Tardis, the panic fading as he finally felt that something was going right in his world. He had TWO Doctors now!
The smile on his face was blinding when he turned to Donna Noble, taking her hand in his and brushing a soft kiss across her knuckles. "Always a pleasure, Doctor Donna."
She flinched away from that name, her hand shaking in his grasp and causing him to look up at her with concern. His head cocked to the side at the bruise he saw on the side of her neck, but was momentarily distracted when the Doctor spoke up. "She no longer has my consciousness in her mind, her Time Lord knowledge is now safely removed."
"Removed? How? What happened?"
The Doctor sighed at the barrage of questions, his hand rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to think of a condensed version of all the events that had led up to her recovery.
"It was killing me, Jack. Burning up every cell of my body because a human was never meant to house such an intelligence, the Doctor was able to pull that fire out of me before it was too late."
There was something in her voice that caused him to step close in concern. "Are you all right now, Donna?"
The Doctor stood back up abruptly at the question, his eyes flicking from Jack to Donna before he nodded. "Yeah, Jack, she's fine. You don't think I'd let my best friend run around the universe unless I knew she was better, do you?"
Donna's head swung to the Doctor at that, the question uppermost in her mind to which he shook his head. He doesn't need to know all of it, Donna. At least not yet.
Her lips pursed at the response before she turned back to Jack and saw him eyeing the mark on her neck once more. Her hand fluttered up to it briefly, before she met his eyes firmly with lips compressed.
"What?"
"Is that a…?" He couldn't help the note of surprise in his voice.
"Yes it is, I AM a grown woman after all Jack."
His grin was positively salacious at that, his reply though was cut off by the terse voice of the Doctor. "Leave it, Jack"
He turned back to the Doctor, the grin on his face teasing as he remarked. "I was only going to…"
The Doctor cut him off again, this time with a strange sense of finality. "Focus on the here and now, Jack and on what's important."
Jack shook his head at the reminder, eyes flashing playfully to Donna's before he turned his attention back to the Doctor. At which point, his look turned far more serious as he watched the Doctor fiddling with various readouts and dials on the control panel though he filed that mark and the Doctor's reaction away to mull over properly later.
The Doctor's head jerked up at the sharp sense of rebuke he felt in his mind, eyes flashing to Donna's stormy blue-green eyes. He couldn't help the answering grin that flitted across his lips.
Donna growled in disgust and leaned back against one of the railings while she waited for Jack to start talking. Little boys, I tell you. LITTLE boys.
He tamped down the chuckle at her comment, before turning his attention back to Jack. "All right, Jack. What happened and when did it start?"
Captain Jack leaned back against the other railing, his arms crossed over his chest as he blew out a frustrated sigh. "As near as we can pinpoint it Doctor, it was about 5 weeks ago, but it took us a while to realize that it was a far larger upsurge of activity then we had seen in the past."
The Doctor and Donna both jerked at the mention of the timeframe, Donna leaning forward intently now to listen to Jack as he continued.
The Doctor's fingers flew over the console when he felt that echoing stab of fear from Donna, she knew exactly when the events aboard the Master's ship had occurred and suddenly it seemed like the rift activity was no coincidence.
"The rift goes through periods of quiet, then it flares up again before quieting down once more. It's always active in some way or another, though we have some moderate control over it with the rift manipulator."
"You're tampering with the rift? Didn't you people learn with the Battle of Canary Wharf?" The Doctor all but shouted, his mind racing as he thought of all the possibilities, none of which were good.
"We would never have been able to get the earth home if we hadn't been 'tampering' with it, Doctor." Jack shouted back in an uncharacteristic display of anger. "The rift manipulator gives us a rudimentary control over the more volatile spikes of the rift surges, but that is it. We can harness that energy, as we did when you towed the earth back to its proper orbit. Trust me, Doctor, I know better than most what tampering with that thing can trigger." He subsided for a moment, striking angry eyes glaring at the Doctor before he continued. "You left me stranded, I came back to earth and managed to make due while I was waiting for you to come back in the hopes that you could…" His voice trailed off at that last to which the Doctor sighed in response. "Well, no matter we all know how that ended."
Donna watched the interplay between the two of them, confused by the genuine affection she felt from them but also the deep seated animosity and anger that was rolling off Jack in near blinding waves. Unconsciously, she reached out her thoughts to Jack, hoping to soothe some of the anger but was shocked when she was met with a completely blank slate.
The Doctor's head snapped to Donna when he felt her reach out to Jack, the words dying on his lips as he felt her instant recoil.
"You know that doesn't work on me, Doctor. I'm offended that you would even try."
The Doctor barely even looked at Jack, all his attention was riveted on Donna, whose hands had flown to her mouth in shock. "That wasn't me, Jack."
Donna's lips were quivering, hands trembling against her lips as she pulled her mind back with a snap. Her eyes were frozen on Jack's face, the complete yawning abyss she had felt within Jack in that brief moment and the endless agony that seemed to radiate off the man while his thoughts were somehow still a complete blank slate to her. She couldn't help the tears that sprang to her eyes at what she had glimpsed just for one moment, the endless pain that the man before her suffered, to know that he would never ever die no matter what happened, to know that there would be no peace for him for all eternity was almost more than she could bear.
Captain Jack pushed off the railing with a start at the Doctor's words, his eyes riveted to the two of them watching as the Doctor walked slowly towards Donna. He shifted uncomfortably under Donna's gaze, feeling like if his whole world was suddenly rocked by the conclusions to which he was jumping. "Donna? Donna, was that YOU?"
She gulped loudly, her shining eyes locked with his in confirmation before she choked out. "Yeah, that was me. I'm sorry, I'm still learning how to control it. I couldn't help myself, you're in so much pain. So much…" Her voice trailed off when she was nearly overwhelmed once more by the loneliness and pain that had been this man's life for centuries, it was so sharp she could nearly taste the bitter tang of regret. She had thought the Doctor's sorrow and anger were overwhelming, but his was the anger of a man cast adrift and forced to live with decisions no being should ever have to live with. He had been raised knowing that a near eternity awaited him, that that had been his birthright that he had a lifetime to grow into and with which to come to terms to the hell that his life could possibly become.
Captain Jack Harkness was human, he had been raised knowing that he only had a finite number of days in this life and to suddenly have all that taken away, to have immortality thrust upon him though he didn't ask for it. Was it any wonder he was so angry? And was it any wonder that the Doctor was so filled with regret every time he looked at the unwilling immortal? Yet another person whose life had been irrevocably changed just because they had happened to be close to him.
Captain Jack staggered, his hand to flying to his head as he tried to grasp everything that was happening. "Let me get this straight. You… You're no longer part Time Lord, but you're still a telepath? How is that even possible?" His head was spinning, so many questions and not enough time for any of them.
The Doctor's hands grasped Donna's shoulders, turning her to look at him while his mind reached out to hers and carefully helped her smooth the barriers back into place. He hadn't counted on her natural empathy and compassion reacting so strongly to the feel of Jack's sorrow, hadn't expected her mind to unfurl so naturally in an attempt to soothe the tortured immortal.
He had had time to get used to that pain that seemed to radiate off the man, such that though it pained him every time he was near Jack, it was nowhere near as painful as it had been when he had first seen him on that space station after his strange resurrection. Another reason why he had run from Jack and stranded him in the future, another failure that ultimately he could only attribute to his own actions.
Donna was gasping for breath, her eyes clinging to his while the world slowly began to right itself once more. "Donna, are you all right?" His dark eyes were boring into hers, his mind moving with lightning speed to make sure all the barriers were still in place before reluctantly withdrawing.
She nodded numbly in response. "Yeah, I'm okay Spaceman. It was just a shock is all. I wasn't expecting that to happen."
He hugged her tight for a moment, before stepping back once more relieved yet still concerned about throwing her feet first into what was looking like a very intense crisis.
Captain Jack watched the interplay between them, something niggling the back of his mind though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. The Doctor had always been affectionate with his companions, and it was most likely just natural concern for her that he was seeing. Still though, the Doctor was even more intense than usual and something about it set Jack's nerves on edge.
"Doctor, what's going on here? You said she was all right. Is she going to be okay, really? I'm worried now with everything else that is going on. "
The Doctor couldn't help but be moved by Jack's concern, he turned from Donna once he made sure she was all right before he responded to Jack. As usual, events shaped themselves in their own way and he was left running to catch up.
"The metacrisis left a mark on her. Yes, she no longer has the consciousness of a Time Lord, but some abilities when switched on can't be turned off. My mind opened hers completely, switched on her natural ability and when I was able to drain the Time Lord essence from her, that ability was left switched on." He looked to Jack, shaking his head at that thought. "We're both still learning what that means for her, and sometimes are still surprised by the strength of her ability. It definitely is very much a work in progress."
Donna strode forward at that. "Oi! Don't talk about me like I'm not here, Time Boy! I can still talk for myself you know." The volatile irritation was snapping off her in fits and starts, it was a wonder her hair wasn't standing on end.
The Doctor grimaced at that. Jack just grinned in response. "I'm sorry, Donna. That was rude. You definitely haven't lost any of your fire, that's for sure!"
She hmphed at that before crossing her arms over her chest. "I've been working hard with the Doctor the last few weeks, the control is getting better but this is the first time in a while that I've been near someone else. I guess it's just another thing I need to start working to control."
The Doctor suddenly leaned forward, his brow furrowed in thought as some more of the readings on the monitors started to make sense. "That may not be the only thing you need to learn to control on the fly, Donna." He frowned before muttering. "Damnit, you're not ready for this yet."
Captain Jack's head swiveled back and forth between the two of them, positive now that there was yet another conversation going on between them that he was not privy to, which with the most recent revelation made complete sense.
Something strange was definitely going on between the two of them, though he couldn't put his finger on what it was. The Doctor had always been more protective of Donna then his other companions, though he had blustered when Jack had flirted with Martha and Rose, Jack had always laughed him off and continued in his usual overtly sexual way. He hadn't felt the warning vibes with them like he did with Donna, not by a long shot. Which was why he had always been hesitant to hug her, though Donna had had no such reticence before as was evidenced when she nearly threw Sarah Jane across the control room just so she could finally get her own hug in. He knew he would figure it out eventually, but the Doctor's last comment finally caught his attention. Donna, however, beat him to the punch.
"What do you mean I'm not ready, Doctor? Ready for what?"
Captain Jack stepped up beside the Doctor, trying to make sense of the swirls and curls of strange characters on the screen in front of him. The Doctor grimaced before answering. "Those are temporal rifts out there, Donna."
Jack nodded at that. "Yeah, I was getting to that Doctor. We've been seeing ghosts again."
The Doctor's head snapped up, his eyes widening at that. "Ghosts? Like before Canary Wharf?"
Donna still was trying to make sense of the concern she felt pouring off the Doctor, her mind worrying over his words before she jumped to the same conclusion that he already had. "I'll be able to see the echoes of the rifts won't I, Doctor?"
His answering smile though brilliant at her quick deduction, was tempered with a sad regret as he nodded. "Yes, you will Donna and it's going to be absolute hell at first."
Jack just shook his head, once more feeling a million miles behind and not liking the sensation at all. "What do you mean, you'll be able to see the echoes? Doctor, what the hell is going on?"
The Doctor stood up, eyes locked on Jack while he took a deep breath; his mind churning while he debated how much to let Jack know. Knowledge was power and as always he was worried of giving too much power to anyone, let alone the man standing in front of him.
Donna put her hand on his arm, causing him to turn to look at her. "He needs to know Doctor. Especially if it has the potential to incapacitate me at a crucial moment."
Jack's head swiveled back and forth, wondering what in the world could have happened to Donna after the metacrisis that was worse than her telepathy.
"The months that my consciousness were within her left an imprint, an echo so to speak. Her telepathy was just her natural ability that had been turned on, but this is an imprint from my own consciousness. We only realized it a few days ago and so haven't had any chance to really try to delve into the depth of the ability or how it would manifest." He growled at that, hating the feeling of jumping completely into the unknown, but it seemed like that had been the story of his life and anyone who was unfortunate enough to be with him at the time. "Time Lords all see and feel time in different ways, to some it's a physical sensation to others more of a mental one. There had never been a human Time Lord metacrisis before Donna, which is why I can honestly say I don't know what to expect and it frustrates the hell out of me."
"Why can't I see the echoes in the Tardis, Doctor?" Donna asked.
The Doctor shook his head, motioning vaguely in the direction of the walls. "She shields us from outside temporal anomalies, if something were to get in here well we'd have a far bigger issue on our hands."
Jack's head was spinning as he tried to take it all in. So Donna was no longer a Time Lord but she still was? Kinda sorta? She was also now a telepath when she hadn't been before? Oh man, it sounded like she had been worked over nearly as bad as he had because of his association with the Doctor. She at least was lucky that the Doctor had come to his senses to help her through her change, unlike he had done with Jack. There was a brief stab of jealousy at that thought, but then Jack couldn't help the surge of sympathy as he looked at her standing there, bold and ready to face anything no matter the cost. The universe it seemed had chosen well with her.
"So anyways, Jack. We need to stay on topic here, as you can see a lot has happened in the last few months but much of it can and possibly will be a benefit to us in the here and now. Tell me more about these ghosts?" The Doctor continued to fiddle with switches and dials on the console, tweaking his readings and trying to make sense of the fluctuating temporal fields that were surging uncontrollably out of the rift. There was something else there, something that he couldn't quite put his finger on and it worried him.
"The ghosts are nothing like the ones we saw before Canary wharf, these are fully formed specters Doctor. From all periods of time it seems and in all manner of dress. They're still relatively localized to the location of the heaviest concentration of micro rifts, but they are starting to spread."
The Doctor looked up at that last, head cocking when he felt those words tickle something, a memory from what seemed another life. "Are the ghosts aware of you?"
Jack shrugged. "Some seem to be, others just walk through doing whatever they were doing before fading away. We have however timed their appearances to surges in micro rift activity."
The Doctor frowned thoughtfully, lip worried again between his teeth. "All this activity is hardly unnatural though, Jack. There's something else that has you worried." At Jack's look he leaned forward, eyes suddenly intent on him. "Spit it out, Jack. What is it?"
Jack was suddenly very uncomfortable under the intensity of that stare, trying to bring sense to his scattered thoughts as all the past weeks of constant activity were finally starting to wear on him and what was left of his team. He didn't need sleep, but his body did need rest on occasion and it was sorely lacking that at the moment.
"Something else is coming through the micro rifts, Doctor but we don't know what it is. We get faint readings that then fade. Some people say that they hear laughter, childlike giggles but when they turn around there is nothing there. A few weeks ago though is when the people started dying."
The Doctor's eyes slid closed, he had been afraid it wasn't as simple as temporal rifts letting ghosts wander harmlessly through. It seemed something was making use of the instability of the rift to come through, but who or what? More importantly, how many were already here?
"Doctor, you reacted weird when I told you when this all started happening. Do you know what is causing this?" Jack's gaze darted between both Donna and the Doctor, the silence between them both was suddenly deafening.
He watched with fascination as a shutter seemed to fall over both of their eyes shielding their thoughts and emotions. It was eerie how perfectly in sync the two of them did that. "Doctor, what's happened?"
The Doctor pushed off the console, arms suddenly crossed in front of him as he started pacing in a big circle around the room. Oh that was never a good sign, when the Doctor started to get too much energy it was always a sign of something really bad happening. "Doctor? Now you're really starting to scare me."
"I'm not sure Jack, and it's only a theory, but your timeframe coincides almost exactly to certain events that happened with myself and Donna. Events that I had thought were somewhat isolated, though now it looks like it had even farther reaching effects then I had initially thought."
The Doctor was brooding while he thought back to the sensation that day, the sensation of his timeline tearing and all of his future reshaping itself after the Gallifreyan high council had been sent back into the Time Lock. "The Master had actually kidnapped Donna about 6 weeks ago. He found her even though I had had to suppress her memories in order to keep the fire from consuming and destroying her."
Donna shuddered softly when he began to recount the tale, her mind flashing back to the agony that had burned through her body for days on end. The feeling of hopelessness that had been her constant companion even as she had wept and screamed in rage against the powerlessness that she was so unaccustomed to.
The Doctor continued, though his mind reached out to gently wrap her trembling essence close. "The Master had figured out what had happened to Donna, he was always far more brilliant than me. Though I had built safeguards in her mind, I honestly had not expected someone of the Master's strength and skill to find her. How could I when he was supposed to be dead? However, he had no trouble blasting right through those safeguards."
Jack shook his head at that. "But why would he want Donna?"
"He wanted my consciousness that was within Donna, he wanted my power that he knew she would be too weak to truly control. He needed Donna's brilliance and my own genius to finally figure out how to finish bringing the Time Lords out of the Time Lock."
Jack's teeth clacked closed in shock as he realized he had sat down hard on the floor in horror at the Doctor's revelation. "He broke the Time Lock? Jesus no WONDER the rift has been going insane! Oh my god, how much worse is it going to get?"
The Doctor was already shaking his head. "No, he didn't break the Time Lock, though he came close."
Donna spoke up at that point. "He used the Doctor's power that was within me to finish the final calculations, the ones that he had been missing for that final puzzle piece to fall into place. He destroyed a planet in the Galifreyan system using a weapon he called a Trans Dimensional Catalyzer. Something that took all matter, all life on that planet and scattered it across all dimensions and realities thus opening the fissure that allowed Gallifrey to slip back through."
Jack was reeling, so much starting to make sense now that he knew what had happened in that distant corner of the universe.
"I was following the trail back to Donna when that shock wave blasted through the Cosmos, it was like a screaming beacon to anyone who knew how to listen."
The Doctor's voice suddenly rang hollow as he continued. "Rassilon, the Lord President had been planning for this eventuality for centuries. He had actually planted the key in the Master's head when he was a child and he took the Master to stare into the heart of the Untempered Schism. That was when Rassilon permanently planted the key, as well as the trigger that would open the link." He sighed softly at that, the brief pang he always felt when he thought of the Master stabbed through him. "When I arrived, the High Council of Gallifrey was manifesting in the control room even while Gallifrey was materializing in its orbit below."
Jack was enthralled with the telling of the story, feeling that there was so much more that they were not telling him though he also knew he most likely wouldn't be able to understand half of it. He looked at Donna Noble standing there next to the Doctor, though she was completely human once more he could now tell how she had been so drastically changed by her experiences. The essence of the Doctor's consciousness may no longer be a living breathing thing within her, but it had left its mark and that mark was obviously powerful to any who knew to look.
"Rassilon revealed that he was going to initiate the Final Sanction and rip the heart of the Time Vortex apart." The Doctor shook his head wearily at that. "Just like he had been planning on that fateful day before, he was going to sacrifice all of reality just so the Time Lords could escape the Time War and ascend into pure beings of consciousness."
Donna's voice quavered as she added. "The Doctor doomed his people back to the Time War to avoid that. He sent them all back to die."
Jack's jaw hit the floor, unable to believe that the man before him who abhorred violence with a passion that was almost rabid, would destroy his own people in such a way. It was almost more than he could comprehend. "But.. But why, Doctor?"
"Because Rassilon truly had the power to destroy everything as we know it. All life, all reality, all TIME would cease instantly forever. In the end, I could make no other choice, just like before. But it was the Master who came to his senses and fought Rassilon at the end. He realized that he had been nothing but a tool for Rassilon for centuries and finally it was too much. He threw himself at the Lord President as the rift was closing itself off again and that's when I felt the change happen."
Jack pulled himself back up to his feet, grateful at least that the Time War was not going to rage across the cosmos once more but still concerned about the effects that were manifesting on earth and most likely in every corner of the universe. "What do you mean change, Doctor?"
The Doctor raised haunted eyes to Jack's, licking lips suddenly gone dry. "I had been told a prophecy by the Ood. He was going to knock four times then I was going to die." Jack gasped, but the Doctor spoke right over him. "It was the same knocking that the Master had been hearing for nearly a millennia. I heard it on that ship, I heard it the minute Donna was able to reconnect with me after the Master destroyed the barriers in her mind. I knew that by going to that ship, I was going to meet my death."
He fell into a brooding silence for a moment, his mind racing once more as the memories were burning through him. The touch of Donna's mind, the raging agony that had been screaming through her, the despair that had threatened his very sanity, it all was running through his mind in rapid succession.
Donna remained silent in his mind, a bastion that he could hold to while he weathered the storm of grief and despair once again.
Captain Jack just stood there, leaning against the rail just watching the byplay between Donna and the Doctor, knowing that so much more had happened then was being said but unwilling to pry into what had obviously been an absolutely devastating time for the Doctor and for Donna as well it seemed.
The Doctor came back to himself with a snap, smiling softly at Donna before turning back to Jack and continuing. "I felt my timelines change, Jack. I felt my entire future rewrite itself in that instant when the Master threw himself at Rassilon, I thought that it was limited to just me and my immediate future until we went back to the Ood for confirmation."
"All reality has changed you're saying?" Jack tried to wrap his mind around the enormity of what he heard, but it was still too much for him to truly grasp all the implications of this news. "Not just you, but everything?"
The Doctor nodded. "That is what the Ood said. My prophecy ended that day over Gallifrey's burning skies they said, but that a new future had been formed and it was still in the process of forming when we had visited them. It looks like the rift here in Cardiff and possibly other rifts throughout the galaxy are feeling the effects of that change and reacting to it."
Jack's head fell back as he just shook his head with a laugh. "So what are the rifts really then, Doctor? Giant mood rings?"
The Doctor laughed at that, thinking long and hard before responding. "Maybe in a sense. They mostly are gateways into other dimensions and realities, other timelines if you will. A gauge so to speak of reality as we know it. When it shifts so drastically, there is bound to be a reaction and that unfortunately is what I believe is happening here in Cardiff. We will need to track down as many other rifts that we know of to see how they are faring, starting with the one in the Medusa Cascade after we're done."
Donna recoiled instantly when he mentioned the Medusa Cascade, feeling a flash of terror at the thought of returning to that place that had been the source of so much pain and suffering for her. The place that had started the both of them down such a disastrous and near deadly path.
The Doctor turned to her, eyes locked with hers as he murmured. "I will be there with you when we go, Donna, we will have time to prepare for that trip."
Jack watched as Donna nodded hesitantly, seeing the tension melt from her body at the Doctor's words before both turned back to Jack.
"I need you to come to Torchwood with me Doctor. Granted we're not the organization we once were, but we still do have some impressive tech. I want you to see the readings we have been taking for the last month and to meet the rest of my team."
The Doctor stood up straight at that, suddenly going stiff and shaking his head vehemently at that request. "You know how I feel about Torchwood Jack, hell last time I barely got out alive AND they confiscated the Tardis."
Donna looked back and forth between the Doctor and Jack, surprised by the sudden virulent denial that screamed through the Doctor's mind at the very thought of going to Torchwood. "Why, Doctor? What's wrong with Torchwood?"
The Doctor turned back to Donna, his lip curling into a sneer when he answered. "Torchwood was founded by Queen Victoria. Founded specifically to capture me, and as a secondary objective to gather all alien tech that they could to turn into a weapon in preparation to defend the earth against alien incursion. Torchwood nearly DID capture me a few times, and one time caught someone who had just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They had a nasty habit of executing aliens on sight."
Donna turned to Jack with a look of absolute horror on her face that had him squirming beneath that penetrating gaze. He stood his ground though, facing down the Doctor in all his rage over all that Torchwood had been and done in the past. HE had made a difference in Torchwood, HE had helped to temper its xenophobic fury over the past century and he in the end had shaped it into the organization it had become before the troubles had started.
"That Torchwood died, Doctor. It died along with thousands of others that day at Canary Wharf. This is MY Torchwood now, what's left of it anyways and trust me. I took your lessons to heart. I trained my people well, and they are ready to answer to any and all needs that are required of them." He took a step forward, still bristling as he thought of all that he had had to endure during the century of his imprisonment on earth while he had waited for the right Doctor to finally show up. The deaths he had faced, the loved ones he had lost, the wars… the endless, endless killing and dying. "I've trained them to think and ask questions, Doctor and as they saw after you brought the earth back from the Medusa Cascade, not all aliens are monsters bent on our destruction. Some even give a damn about the human race."
The Doctor stood stock still, feeling the truth ringing in Jack's words and reflecting on all that he had seen and heard from Jack in the last few years when he spoken of his team in Cardiff. Jack at least had the advantage of being from the distant future so he was the perfect foil against the organization's sometimes more genocidal tendencies. He was right, the old Torchwood was dead and the new Torchwood was barely a shell of its former self, but it was a shell that Jack had had an absolutely vital hand in shaping.
Taking a deep breath, he nodded though he felt like he was willingly placing a noose around his own neck. "All right, Jack. I'll come to Torchwood, we can have to Tardis interface with your mainframe to help analyze the data you have already collected."
Jack's answering smile was brilliant as he threw his arms around the Doctor in a huge hug, unable to stop himself from grabbing Donna in just as eager a hug. She squeaked in surprise before hugging him back with a soft laugh.
"I'll go let them know you're coming, Doctor. How's pizza sound for dinner? We've got a great little joint around the corner that delivers."
The Doctor just laughed and nodded. "All right Jack, get whatever. Just give Donna and I a few minutes to lock the Tardis down before we join you."
Donna and the Doctor stood back as Jack bounded to the door and back out into the city beyond, pausing for a moment to let the peace of the Tardis settle about them once more before turning to each other.
She looked up into his eyes, worried at the concern she read there and what all it might entail. No small amount of that concern was for her and what she would face once she walked out that door, but the larger part was reserved for what they were walking into. The realization that the second chance that he had been given looked like it had already come at a cost that was far too high to imagine.
"This isn't your fault, Doctor. Whatever is going on here, you didn't cause it."
He couldn't hide the flash of pain at her words, shaking his head in denial. "Isn't it though? I cheated death Donna. At least death in this form. That has to come at a price, and unfortunately it looks like once again the innocent will pay the price for my continued good fortune."
She scowled at that, shaking her head even as she muttered. "You went to that ship fully prepared to die, Doctor. You had no way of knowing that your actions would set off this chain of events. Trust me, I had you in HERE." She stabbed a finger to her temple for emphasis. "So I know damn well what was going through that Time Lord brain of yours. You were ready to die, and by some strange twist of fate you were granted a reprieve. Don't you dare go blaming yourself for something you truly could never have foreseen." She crossed her arms over her chest, toe tapping a dangerous staccato on the grating of the control room. "Because trust me Time Boy, I will have WORDS to say about that."
His jaw had dropped open by an increasingly larger degree as she continued her tirade, his mind overwhelmed by the heat and fire that was blazing off her with the energy of a thousand suns. His teeth clacked closed and he couldn't stop the goofy grin as he scooped her up and spun her around. "Oh Donna! Whatever would I do without you?"
She hugged him back just as fiercely before muttering. "We already know what you would've done Doctor and it was rubbish."
He set her down with a wince, laughing softly. "Ouch, earthgirl! You fight dirty!"
She smirked back at him. "Oh you have NO idea, Spaceman. Come on, let's go save the universe again."
He grabbed her hand before she turned to go, leading her over to the small medical kit that was always tucked beneath the console.
She cocked her head while he rummaged around in the medical kit, muttering softly under his breath before coming up with a small circular patch in his hand that looked almost like a hand wipe. "Come here, Donna before we go out. I need you completely focused out there, and childish displays that I am grateful you were willing to humor me with, would only serve to distract both you and me when we can't afford to be distracted."
Her brow furrowed in confusion at his words, before he reached up to her neck and carefully ran that wipe over the mark on her neck. She sighed softly when she felt the cool tingling spread through her neck, it seemed to dig into muscles before fading and leaving behind a pleasantly warm glow.
"This only works on minor bruises and abrasions, otherwise I would've been able to heal your larger bruises better before you went to visit your family. Might've saved some of the trouble actually." The last was muttered somewhat ruefully.
She took his hand in hers, smiling brilliantly up into his eyes at the gesture. "Thank you, Doctor." He had felt her stab of embarrassment when Jack had noticed it, and hadn't wanted to be the cause of any further embarrassment for her. Besides, the goal had been accomplished and Jack had truly been set on his ass by that. Hey, if it kept the handsome immortal on his toes, it was well worth it in his books.
He smiled at the result of his handiwork before holding out his arm to her, mentally preparing himself and Donna as well for the uncertainty that was waiting beyond those doors. "Are you ready, Donna?"
She took a deep breath, running one final check of her mental barriers before nodding. "Ready as I'll ever be, Doctor."
Arm in arm, they walked to the doors of the Tardis and out into the Cardiff afternoon beyond.