Fic: All this has happened before....
Disclaimer: What a neat Christmas present that would be if someone would give me Torchwood or Doctor Who, but sadly I doubt that’s under my Christmas tree. If you can’t work out what that means, it means I don’t own them, but I wish I did.
Characters: Jack, 11th Doctor, a wayward pterosaur, Martha, Gwen, and maybe an appearance by a “little lost Welshman”
Summary: The Doctor gets a call on Christmas, finds a pterosaur, finds Jack, and helps Jack find a little bit more closure on his past.
Spoilers: Fragments, I guess? Kind of my own twist on the end of Miracle Day
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,385
Beta: No one, and that’s okay, this story has just been rattling around in my head for a little while. I had to let it out before the voices in my head ate it.
All This Has Happened Before….
The control room of the TARDIS was darkened and silent to accommodate the sleeping alien that was hiding underneath the console. The last of the Time Lords, the Doctor was asleep in his swinging chair, his sonic screwdriver hanging from one hand, and loud snores echoing from his large nose. His long legs dangled over the side of the swing, and his feet traced patterns in the dust on the floor. The ship drifted peacefully in space, knowing that her lone pilot was deserved of some well-earned rest this Christmas. But the universe had other plans as a sudden shrill tone caused the Doctor to start and let out a particularly loud snort, waking himself rather abruptly.
“What is that?” he muttered, patting his pockets. “It sounds like my mobile, but who’d been calling me today?”
He jumped down out of the chair and ran up the stairs in search of his old phone. “Yes, yes, I’m coming, I’m coming,” he shouted as he opened drawer after drawer, throwing spanners, hammers, and various bits and bobs over his shoulders, finally grabbing the mobile and grinning broadly. The Doctor flipped it open and said hello, turning around and staring at the mess he had created.
“Doctor? Doctor, is that you?”
“Martha Jones! Or is it Smith? Smith-Jones? Jones-Smith?”
“Some things never change,” laughed the woman under her breath. “Hello Doctor! I’ve found something that belongs to Jack, and I want to get it back to him, but the only problem is that I can’t find him. I think he’s off the planet for a time.”
“That’s quite possible, but why do you need to find him?”
“I think I might have found his dinosaur.”
“A dinosaur? He’s got a dinosaur? I don’t have a dinosaur, I’ve got a swimming pool, a garden, but no dinosaur, why don’t I have a dinosaur?”
“Focus, Doctor.”
“Sorry, dinosaur you say?”
“He did, until the Hub was blown up, something about an alien race called the 456. It was a few years ago, and he lost everything, his home, his little surrogate family, his real family, all his photos, and I don’t even think that he thought that the dinosaur might have survived. Apparently it’s been living in the countryside, and killing the odd sheep, but when the amount of disappearing farm animals increased recently, and Gwen went to go and take a look, she found the poor thing. She’s got her hidden in a warehouse, but wants to get the creature out and put back in her own time, it only seems fair for it, and for the sheep population of Wales.”
“But what does that have to do with Jack?”
“A temporary side effect of solving that stupid miracle rendered someone just like Jack. He wanted to show the person the wonders of the universe, so they left the planet.”
“There’s ANOTHER one of him?”
“They thought that it was permanent, but then the man actually died out there. I think Jack’s feeling guilty again, Gwen said that the last message she got was that he’d be back eventually, but I thought that finding his old pet might make him feel a bit better. What do you say? Maybe have a Christmas that doesn’t involve sword fighting aliens, killer Santa Clauses?”
“Oh, just one Christmas that doesn’t go explodey-wodey, that’d be nice. Okay! I’ll pick up the dinosaur first, then, we’ll go and find Jack.”
“Thank you Doctor,” said Martha, she flipped her mobile shut and turned to smile at the gap-toothed woman standing next to her.
“So he’ll come then?”
Martha nodded and smiled, shoving her hands deep in her pockets to warm up. “He’ll be here, the TARDIS, she likes Jack, anything to help him, and she’ll make sure that the Doctor gets here on time. Ah, speak of the big blue box now!”
Both Gwen and Martha stood back and waited until the door to the TARDIS creaked open; and the Doctor bounded out.
“Hang on, he looks different.”
“The last time I saw him, he was saying goodbye,” Martha mused softly. “I figured that he’d be different.”
“Why?”
“Any time that the Doctor is mortally wounded, he regenerates into a new person. Everything changes, body, face, mannerisms, voice, he literally becomes a new man.”
“And there’s always a chance that I’d not even stay a man,” said the Doctor, walking up and smiling at both women. “Now, where’s that dinosaur?”
“She’s through here,” said Gwen, as she pulled open the door.
“Excellent!” replied the Doctor, bouncing on the balls of his feet as the door rolled open. “A dinosaur, that’s just cool. Last Christmas it was sky fish, and now, a dinosaur.”
“He’s worse than Ianto ever was about her,” laughed Gwen.
“It’s got to be a boy thing,” teased Martha, giggling at the indignant look the Doctor threw at her.
“Ianto used to feed her dark chocolate. She got so tame that she would practically eat out of his hand. If he could have, he would have used her as his bloody party piece.”
“The chocolate is good for the serotonin levels.”
“So, Doctor, how are you going to get her into the TARDIS?”
“Have you got any dark chocolate?” he asked Gwen.
The Welsh woman nodded and pulled a bar out of her back pocket; she tossed it to the Doctor and stepped away, swiping her hand quickly across her eyes. “There’s more in the boot of my car if you need it.”
“We just might,” the Doctor muttered. He broke a piece of the chocolate and threw it into the warehouse. “Come on, you’ve got to know that this tastes better than sheep.”
He whistled and tossed another piece of the candy farther into the large building. “There you are!” he said happily, as a dark shape screeched from the dark corner, and swooped down to take the chocolate.
“You are a beauty! Come on, why don’t you follow the chocolate this way, and I will take you to see someone who probably misses you a lot,” said the Doctor quietly. “Have you got that chocolate?”
“Right here,” said Gwen, pressing several bars into his hands.
“Good, now what we’re going to do is make like Hansel and Gretel, and see if can’t lure her into the TARDIS. Ladies, you’ll need to take some of the chocolate and start making a path towards my ship. Once you get inside, aim for the door at the top of the stairs, hopefully she’ll have made you a room that you can lead our new friend right into.”
For thirty minutes, the three of them worked diligently towards getting the wayward pterosaur situated in the TARDIS. The ship itself aided in getting the dinosaur settled; it recreated the Hub after pulling the image out of Gwen’s mind. The Welsh woman stood next to Martha and unabashedly cried on her shoulder, and together the two of them enjoyed watching the majestic winged creature soar and swoop around the room.
“Right! She’s settled, I’d best be off,” said the Doctor. He turned to the two women, and hesitantly patted their shoulders in a comforting gesture. “Would you like to come with me?”
Martha smiled and shook her head slowly. “No, this isn’t my adventure anymore.”
“Oh, I don’t think that Rhys would be all too pleased if I took off across the stars without him and our daughter.”
“Well, then, suit yourselves. Martha, Ms. Cooper, thank you for your assistance. My leathery friend, enjoy your new room, and we’ll be on our way soon enough.”
The Doctor led the two women out into the control room and ushered them out the door before spinning around and clapping his hands gleefully. “All right old girl, let’s go and find our errant fixed point and show him what we found him for Christmas.” The Doctor raced up to the control console and started pulling levers, pressing buttons, and racing around, cheering madly as the TARDIS seemed to pilot herself towards where he hoped Jack was hiding. “Did we do it old girl? Did we find him?”
The TARDIS answered by landing with a resounding thump, flashing her lights, and flinging open her doors with a flourish.
“I guess that means we did. Well, shall I go and take a look, see where we are?”
The Doctor walked slowly down the ramp and cautiously poked his head out the door. The TARDIS had landed on the roof of a building, just behind the hunched yet unmistakable figure of Jack Harkness.
“You still haven’t figured out how to land her gently have you?”
“She’s fine, she practically piloted herself here. Now, come along Captain, I have a friend of yours with me.”
“One I haven’t managed to kill? That’s hard to believe.”
“I’m still alive.”
Jack snorted and turned around to face the Doctor. “You run away from me most of the time.”
“Just this once, I’m running towards you. Martha and your Ms. Cooper found someone that you probably didn’t even realize that you were missing. They asked me to bring them to you.”
“Let’s see, is it Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Lucia, Angelo, Esther, Steven, Alex, Estelle, Rose?
“Captain, you know that I can’t do that.”
“Then who am I missing? Who, Doctor? Who am I missing?”
“Come with me and find out.”
Jack chuckled and shook his head. “Why the hell not,” he mumbled, walking towards the TARDIS.
“Up the stairs then,” said the Doctor, trailing Jack into his ship. “Go on and have a look.”
The Captain walked up the stairs and opened the door. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”
“It’s a nice new look to go with my nice new look. Well, what do you think? Is she who you were expecting?”
“It can’t be her.”
“Yes it is! How many pterosaurs do you know that are addicted to dark chocolate?”
“She survived.”
“That’s right,” said the Doctor, “Ms. Cooper found her decimating the sheep population of Northern Wales.”
Jack smiled and looked up. “Good girl.”
“So, Jack, where should we take her?”
He patted the Doctor on the arm and moved farther into the remade Hub. “I have just the place and time. Can you take us back to Cardiff? In 2004?”
“Why?”
“I know someone who’s going to want to find her.”
“Captain?” asked the Doctor warningly.
“We won’t be crossing any timelines, I promise. I just know that someone’s going to be searching for something to catch my attention this year, and she’d be perfect.”
“Will you be seen?”
“No, I just have to fake a rift alert and release her where she’ll be found. He won’t see me.”
“You could you know, if you’ve still got that TARDIS key.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” mumbled Jack, looking down at his toes.
The Doctor didn’t say anything, he just patted the Captain on the shoulder and wandered back into the control room. He silently worked the controls and sighed as the ship landed with a gentle thump.
“Best check where we are then.” The door swung open and the Doctor walked out into the cool Cardiff evening. He watched the people passing by, arms laden with carrier bags full of groceries, or hand in hand with friends or family members.
“This is the right time and place. The park is dark enough to where they’ll just think she’s a really big bird. Do you have an easier way to get her out of the TARDIS than how you got her in?”
The Doctor smiled and darted back inside the ship. “As it happens, I think I might.”
He started the ship, and Jack could feel them move slightly. “What’d you do?”
“I made a window.”
“A window?”
“A window, it’s kind of a spacey wacey designy thing, but all you need to know is that I made a window, I opened the window, and she’s out there flying free. And Jack, according to my calculations, if you put that TARDIS key on, your young friend should be arriving any minute.”
Jack just stared at him for a full moment before shaking his head and letting out a laugh. “You are definitely a different doctor.”
“Off you pop then Captain,” said the Doctor with a grin and wave of his hand.
Jack nodded and pulled a tattered piece of twine out of his coat pocket. He slipped it over his head and walked down the ramp towards the door. He stepped outside of the ship and walked a distance away. Jack looked up and watched the dark shape of his dinosaur swoop and wheel through the familiar night air. The headlights of an approaching van caught his attention and he turned to watch a tall man emerge, carrying a large piece of equipment in his hand. Jack’s breath caught in his throat as Ianto came fully into view. He smiled at the wide-eyed look on the young man’s face at having caught a dinosaur.
With a sad glance, he raised his hand in a faint wave, and turned to walk back towards the TARDIS. “Goodbye Ianto, you’re going to have one hell of year.”
The Doctor looked up as Jack wandered back in to the control room. “Well?”
“He’s found her,” said Jack. “Thank you.”
“Are you ready to go back to your friends now?”
Jack nodded at the Doctor and scrubbed his face with his hands. “I think so.”
“It’ll be all right Captain, you’ll see. Or rather, I think you did see when you looked into the face of the so-called ‘blessing.’ It showed you your life, and warts and all; you’ve done very well Captain. It’s time to let go of the guilt, I’m the only one who’s allowed to carry the weight of the universe on their shoulders.”
“What a pair we make.”
“Before I take you back, how about just one adventure? What do you think Captain? Just one, for old times?”
Jack laughed, “All right, just one, but not to the end of the universe.”
The Doctor shuddered and smacked something on the console with a rubber mallet. “Never, ever, again. Enough of that talk, how about the Eye of Orion? Ready? Yes? Then, Geronimo!”
END