The rumbling in Jack Harkness' stomach interrupted his attempt at hacking into the Master's digital database. He glanced up to see if Martha had heard, and sure enough, she was looking at him with raised eyebrows.

"Bit hungry?" she asked from where she was perched on one of the chairs they'd scavenged off the factory floor.

"More than a little," Jack acknowledged as he leaned back for a stretch. "God, I'd kill for something hot and fried right now."

"Mmm, yeah. I'm so hungry I think I'd even eat Mum's cooking. And she's never met a vegetable she hasn't boiled into mush." Jack chuckled along with her, but neither of them really had their hearts in it.

It had been a long, rough day for both of them.

Was it really only this morning that Jack had finally caught up with the Doctor again? He tried to calculate the hours, but it was as much of a hopeless task as it always was when time travel was involved. He hadn't slept or eaten more than half of a ration pack since he'd hitched a ride to the end of the universe, and being immortal unfortunately didn't prevent him from hunger pangs or the affects of sleep deprivation. If he listened to his body, he figured it had been about a day, Earth time. Two at the most.

The fact that he was already loosing track of his usual twenty-four-hour cycle wasn't surprising. That was typical when adventuring with the Doctor. That man sucked his traveling companions into a different sort of reality. Running for their lives and helping the last sentient life in the universe seek Utopia was par for the course. Despite a complicated history the Doctor and Jack had needed to work out, he'd been having a hell of a good time.

At first.

But then the bumbling professor Yana had opened up an old pocket watch and everything had gone to hell. In some ways it was a miracle - another survivor of the Time War. But out of all the billions of refugees who could have survived, it'd had to be the Master - an insane Time Lord who'd stollen the TARDIS, taken over the government, and captured Martha's family. The poor woman was beside herself waiting to learn what had become of them. Jack knew it had killed her to run away when her parents were being hauled into that van. He could relate. His own sort of family, his Torchwood team, were MIA and his guts clenched when he thought of what the Master had done to them. Even the Doctor could barely hide how all this was pushing him towards that edge he always danced around. Jack had seen him go over it only once before, when they'd thought the Anne Droid had vaporized Rose Tyler on the Game Station. He never wanted to see his old friend go to that dark place again. The problem for all of them was that the Master had shown himself to be very good at finding their most sensitive spots to dig in and twist the knife.

So, here they were, holed up in this abandoned warehouse or factory or whatever it was, hunted, anxious, and left with limited time and resources. The Master had gotten eighteen months to put together a government takeover and whatever other schemes the madman had come up with. Jack doubted the three of them even had days to come up with a way to stop him. It was very likely that humanity was on the brink of peril.

Jack was so distracted by his thoughts that he almost flinched when Martha spoke again.

"Have you found anything?" she asked, getting up to look over his shoulder at the computer screen.

"Almost there, I think," he reported as he pushed his unease aside to resume working on Martha's laptop. "Tosh is usually the one to do this kind of thing, but I'm not too shabby at it."

"Tosh?" Martha asked confused.

"Oh, she's part of my team at Torchwood. Great with computers. Gets along better with tech than people most of the time…And, hang on…BINGO! I'm in!" Jack leant closer to the screen as he searched for various key words in the database. "Oh yeah!" he said with relief, "Torchwood Four was sent off to the Himalayas. Well that explains why they wouldn't pick up the phone. But hey, I'll take it! Better sent on a wild goose chase then mixed up in all this at ground zero." The knots in his stomach loosened a fraction as he plowed into a new search.

"Aaaaand…" he said to stall as he clicked through a few folders, "Here we are, Martha! Looks like Mom, Dad, and Sister have all been taken into custody for 'questioning.' They aren't hurt though. Just in custody. See there's some video footage. And…" he scrolled down to make sure, "No mention of Leo," he winked at her.

Martha seemed to take heart from that, "Guess he's not as daft as I thought!" she laughed. "My god, I'm talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?" Martha shook her head and looked around the empty building. "And where is the Doctor? He said he'd be right back."

"Still setting up a security perimeter, I guess. Though he's certainly taking his time about it." Jack had the suspicion the "security perimeter" was really more an excuse for the Doctor to get some air and collect his thoughts. God forbid the Time Lord showed an emotion in front of the humans, Jack thought with a smirk.

"Maybe he can get some takeout while he's at it. I'm starving," Martha plopped down on top of a large crate next to the fire they'd started in an old barrel.

"So we're back to food again?" Jack asked, shooting Martha a playful look to try and ease the lines of tension on her face.

"Oh, I don't know," Martha chuckled, "I'm caught between fantasizing about it and trying to think of anything else. Same goes for sleep."

"Yeah I -"

A flash of blue light illuminated the warehouse and the sharp sound of static filled the air. Jack's body reacted without thought, his instincts taking over as he leapt to his feet and moved into position to protect Martha.

"Stay back!" he hissed at her as he stepped forward and pulled the gun from the holster at his hip. The Doctor had disarmed it hours ago, but the intruder emerging from the crackling light wouldn't know that. It could still be a handy negotiating tool.

"Hands up!" Jack barked as the light faded to reveal a humanoid who was still facing away from them. His brain, now cleared from the fog of exhaustion, took a mere fraction of a second to catalogue the threat. The figure was small, dressed in contemporary clothes and had shoulder length bleach blonde hair. He though he saw a flash of metal, maybe a small weapon strapped to her belt, but her hands were empty. The figure had stumbled when she first appeared, but now was standing completely straight with her hands in the air. There was something familiar about her posture though…

Then she spoke, "Jack?"

He nearly dropped the gun when he heard that voice.

But…it couldn't be. It was just traveling with Doctor again - she'd been in his thoughts was all. He was tired and hungry and his mind was playing tricks on him.

"Who's asking!" it was more a command for identification than a question.

"Oh my god! Jack!" the figure turned around and this time Jack did drop the gun in favor of the blue and yellow blur that ran into his arms.

"Rosie?" he said amazed as his arms automatically folded around her. His brain that had worked so quickly moments earlier slowed down as he tried to process this. It was Rose. Rose Tyler. Rose Tyler had appeared out of nowhere in a supposedly secure building and was now in his arms hugging him hard enough that he'd be worrying about breathing if he was still mortal. This wasn't supposed to be possible. The Doctor had said…ah, but then this wouldn't be the first time the Time Lord had underestimated her.

"Oh god Jack, I've missed you! But how are you here? I thought you had di-," seeming to catch herself, Rose stepped back out of his embrace, folded her arms, and looked him over.

"When is it for you?" she asked cautiously. Looks like she'd kept her time traveling skills sharp, he thought grinning.

"Long after Daleks on the Game Station," he replied. Just from a quick once over, Jack could tell that this Rose was a little older and a lot harder than when he'd seen her last, so it must have already happened for her too. Still, a little caution wouldn't hurt. "And you?"

Rose stared at him in astonishment shaking her head slightly, "But Jack," she said, "How are you here? On Earth, right? That's where we are? Jack, you died! The Daleks…"

"Yeah well, didn't stick," he shrugged, "Takes more than a fleet of pepper pots to kill me. Although, I mostly have you to thank for that, sweetheart," he winked. "And as for why I'm here, well that's a long story. But the short of it is, I used my vortex manipulator to go back in time and then the damn thing burned out. Been looking for you and the Doc ever since."

Rose's face fell, "So we left you? On that ship, all alone? God Jack, I'm so sorry!"

"Hey," he said resting a hand on her shoulder, "You didn't know." And it was true. She hadn't known. Jack wondered what story the Doctor had told her to make her think he'd died. He wondered how much she knew about her part in it all. "And hey," he assured her, "I've done alright for myself, don't worry."

She nodded and offered him a small smile, "Good Jack, that's good."

She took a deep breath as if steeling herself for something. "The Doctor and me…we got separated," she admitted, eyes drifting away from his. "I have no idea where he is, Jack. I've been looking for him too. For so long…" she looked exhausted, very nearly haggard, and Jack wondered what she'd been through in that parallel universe.

"Yeah, well I may be able to help you with that." Her eyes snapped back to his as he continued, "Me and the lovely Miss Martha Jones here," he gestured to Martha who was still standing a few steps behind him, "are hiding out in this stinking old factory because we are currently number two and three of Britain's most wanted."

"Two and three…" Rose said slowly, working it out, "and…Number One?"

"He'll be back any minute," Jack said smiling, overjoyed to be the person who got to give her the news that her search was over. It looked like it had been a rough one.

"Jack," she said half laughing and shaking her head in astonishment before leaping back into his arms. He swung her around a few times until he faced Martha who had remained very still and quiet the last couple of minutes.

"While we're waiting on his Time Lordiness…Rose Tyler, meet Martha Jones. Martha Jones, Rose Tyler."

Rose turned to face Martha. Jack held his breath, wondering how this would play out. There was a tense moment as both women sized each other up before Martha stepped forward, offering her hand, "Good to meet you," she said perhaps a touch too formally, "The Doctor talks about you all the time."

"He…he does?" Rose took Martha's hand, but glanced back at Jack as if for confirmation, "He mentioned me?"

"Er…yeah," Martha said stiffly, "Won't shut up about you sometimes."

"I…I didn't think he'd…," Rose began before breaking out in a wide grin as she gripped Martha's hand in a firm shake, "Good to meet you too, Martha Jones! I bet you've had a time of it, keeping those two blokes in line. How long have you all been traveling together?"

"Er…" Jack's heart really did go out to Martha as she struggled to keep her composure. "Well, first it was just me and the Doctor - that was for, oh I don't know, bout a year?"

"It's hard to keep track," Rose sympathized.

"Yeah, it is," Martha agreed, "And, well, I just met Jack actually…"

Before she could finish, a rain-slicked Doctor bounded through the doors already jabbering, "Alright, that should do it. This is now a surveillance free zone! We'll be able to keep here safely until…"

Jack could tell the exact moment the Doctor noticed Rose. If he lived to be five-billion years old, he was sure he'd never forget the utterly gobsmacked look on the Time Lord's face.