Dropping in
One late december night, there was a groaning and wheezing in the Torchwood hub and a blue box appeared near the entrance. It sat there silently humming in the dim light, while it's occupant dashed about the mushroom shaped console in an attempt to start its refuelling sequence
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When they got down by the docks to the tourist door, he reached up and tugged at his jacket collar. The wind always seemed to whip harder by the water. Even on good weather days. It was such a pain sometimes, but he'd never trade it and he'd never move the Hub anywhere else. He pulled out a key and unlocked the door, pushing it open.
Reluctantly, he let go of the Doctor's arm to step inside. "Welcome to Torchwood. This is our cover story. A tourist office. Ianto mans the desk and we have cameras to keep an eye on if anyone actually enters. He's born and raised Welsh, so it isn't a problem for him to boast about it." He grinned. "And those Welsh vowels are so nice to listen to." The Doctor walked over to the desk and leaned over it, his arse sticking out into the air. He grunted, reaching to find what he was looking for. Pressing a button, a small door to their right slid open, revealing a stone tunnel.
"After you, Doctor?"
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He beamed even more at the stone rolling back and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Why Jack, you've out done your self! Very, very, very, secret is a very secret sort of way. Reminds me of unwrapping a chocolate..." He paused, not sure exactly where he was going with it. "Well you know what I mean? So we have the place to ourselves? No need to worry about calling them, I'm here, if you need help we can take care of any problems! Your staff can have a holiday!"
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Jack led him through the stone tunnel. Pressing a button on the wall, the lift door opened and they stepped inside. It was a quick, quiet ride down in the lift. The cog door opened and they stepped inside the 'real' Hub. And then the Doctor saw it. And he saw it all.
The computers beeped quietly in the background. Above them, the pterodactyl flew overhead, screeching softly. The water fell down the water fall and lapped into the small pool at the bottom. It was just the two of them there.
"Welcome to Torchwood."
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Yet he also realized his friends, his companions needed his support and approval, and it put him in a very awkward place. In the end, he wanted to protect them from the horrors of war and death, yet he couldn't. All students grew up and stuck out on their own.
He drew a breath as he looked around Torchwood's wonders. Jack had indeed outdone himself. And if anyone in the Universe controlled the power of the rift, the Doctor would rather it be Jack Harkness and his trusted band of friends.
In fact, it suddenly occurred to the doctor, unlike any of his other companions, save perhaps Sarah Jane in her own way, Jack Harkness was his equal.
"Fantastic." He glanced to the other man. "And you can control the rift? Well I mean monitor it and keep it at bay long enough to prevent world ending catastrophes?"
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“Oh no. We don’t control the Rift. Well, we do…” His brow furrowed and he walked over to the steps leading down to the stone tablet. He stared up at the waterfall, leaning against the metal railing. “We have the Rift Manipulator, but there’s still Rift spikes on occasion. Flotsam and jetsam slipping in. Can’t control that. So we salvage. We take things so that the humans who can’t control the devices don’t do something stupid with them.” He crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. “Sometimes the Rift takes people. Sometimes the Rift spits them back out. So we have a place for them too. If I could control it, that wouldn’t happen.”
He looked up at the Doctor. The love in his eyes had to be seen, didn’t it? “I do what I can. We monitor it. We try our hardest to prevent things. It’s all we can do, right? I refuse to let this place be like Canary Wharf. I answer to people when I have to, buck them when I don’t. And nobody gets in and out of this place without my approval.” He smiled. “If they do, we retcon. To the point that they forget they were ever hear. Just a dream. I will NOT let Canary Wharf happen again.”
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And then he was there, behind the Doctor, gently laying a hand on his shoulder. He leaned up and gently kissed the back of the Doctor’s other shoulder, not doing more than that. He didn’t want to scare the Doctor or make him uncomfortable. He just wanted the man to know that he was here for him. Yes, he wanted to carry on in the Doctor’s footsteps, but it was more than that.
“Have to carry on. You’re not always here, Doctor. Someone has to be here when you’re not.” He smiled warmly at the Doctor, well, the back of his head. “You inspire me, Doctor. I wish I could be half the man you are.” He hugged the Doctor from behind, very brief, before pulling away again.
“Come on. We have to go downstairs. You have to see Janet. And I think you’d like Owen’s medical lab…” He sighed. He had to move on, to realize it wasn’t Owen’s lab anymore. Though, to Jack, it always would be.
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Yet Jack would. "But you are Jack." And more, Jack was far better with his people than the Doctor was. Jack's heart was capable of loving and accepting that love when it came to the people he cared for. It was hard for the Doctor to feel that way. Sometimes he wished he could let go and be like Jack.
But the past, the timewar, and loss of so many people he cared for, made it difficult for him.
The hug felt good and couldn't have come at a better time. "Jack, all this, everything you've done, the man that you are, is in many ways far greater than what I do." Jack couldn't run...
Jack didn't run. Certainly the Doctor didn't run for fear reasons, well not really, it was for attachment reasons and concern, concern he'd watch time take all he loved away again. "Right, Janet it is, and I would love to see the medical lab."
He noticed the sigh and wondered why Jack seemed a little melancholy. Gently he reached out and went to take his hand. He knew that look, it was the same look he had when someone special to him left or died. "I'm sorry."
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He took him to meet Janet first. He prattled on as he walked about state of the art security systems and how Torchwood can go into instant lockdown with the press of his fingers against his wrist strap. “No time hopping, just controlling this place. I did a little rewiring.” He couldn’t rewire it to hop though. Even if he could, he wouldn’t. His team needed him here. He knew that now.
He took the Doctor down to the cells and stood outside Janet’s door. “This is Janet. A weevil. Something that came through the Rift. I’ve tried, but I can’t send them back. Even if I could, I don’t know where it would send them. We try to keep as many as we can, but…” He looked broken even as he uttered it. “Sometimes we have to help them pass on. I don’t want to, but I can’t let anyone else on this planet get hurt.”
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"I know you are doing this for me... And I proud of you because of it. "
He looked at Janet and realized Jack's words were very true. How many had he helped to pass on? He went to put a hand on Jack's shoulder. "I understand. It's never easy Jack... But I'm here to help, if you need it. You're not alone doing it anymore."
Perhaps doing it together is what they both needed?
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He slowly tugged the Doctor back out of the cells. He gave him the grand tour. Everything from the medical lab to the new and very fancy boardroom they had been working on. The Hub still was a little bruised from the Dalek invasion, but he and the team had been working together to get it back and in tip top shape.
The last place he showed the Doctor was the morgue.
“You know,” he murmured, leaning against the cases. “Torchwood protocol is that no member of this team ever leaves Torchwood. Everything gets wiped and they get put here.” He motioned behind his shoulder with his thumb. “I broke that for the first time with *this* team. Tosh was given to her family and an official funeral was held.” He smiled at the Doctor. “I think she would have liked it. You would have loved Toshiko Sato. Beautiful. Smart. Brilliant, really. She had some medical skills, but she was a wiz with technology.”
He sighed. “They always leave us, don’t they…”
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The hub was amazing. High tech computers, the rift machine, the hodgepodge of advance and almost steampuk like technology gave him the goosebumps. It made him giddy like a school child, just looking and poking about. But he sobered quickly when Jack showed him the morgue. He listened and nodded gravely. Jack had lost two very special people, two companions, the Doctor reflected. He didn't blame him for breaking with protocol.
Yes he was certain he would have liked Toshiko Sato, the woman sounded very special, very bright, and he liked bright resourceful people.
"Yes, they leave, it's hard to lose them... Death is the hardest." He thought of Adric, and Donna. "Or when they forget us, I suppose that's death. But Jack, it's because they believe in us, that we must go on, and remember them. Rose, You and Sarah made me realize that."
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“She used to work for UNIT before she came here, Tosh. Hell, you probably met her and didn’t even know it.” He let go and took the Doctor’s hand, tugging him back up towards the main part of Torchwood. “You have to see the computer system she put together for us. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen. I’d be willing to wager on that!”
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