Fic: Pinstripes & Jacquard ‘Verse, Chapter 7: Borrowed Time
Title: Pinstripes & Jacquard ‘Verse, Chapter 7: Borrowed Time
Author: psyfi_geekgirl
BetaBabe: akkajemo
Characters/Pairings: Twelfth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Mickey, Jack
Excerpt: “It’s this, isn’t it? This is the chaos we were promised. This is what Ianto and Carly were talking about-or at least made to talk about-Cos, you did this, you and your impulsiveness--“
Word count: 4,777
Disclaimer: Until she’s Jossed, Twelve is mine-but of course, based entirely on stuff that ain’t mine… All hail Auntie Beeb!
A/N: Continuing Part II of Girl in the Mirror ‘Verse. Which, if you haven’t read yet, will give you important backstory and character details which are essential to this ‘verse (the link to the GitM masterlist is provided below). This series is a sort of Season Two. Also written before the end of DW season 6, so some details have gone AU.
Part I: Girl in the Mirror ‘Verse Masterlist
Part II:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Jack’s voice reverberated through the corridor of space/time like he was yelling through the blades of a moving fan, “-think you’re being a little hard on him.”
“The hell I am, Jack!” came the Twelfth Doctor’s voice. In addition to sounding angry, there was also a strange, tinny reverberation to her voice.
Together, they sounded like an echo of glass breaking as they navigated the Vortex via Jack’s wristband Manipulator.
Suddenly Jack, Mickey and the two Doctors arrived in a blinding flash and a pop into Torchwood One’s empty main room, still engaged in their heated argument.
“You had no idea what might’ve happened as a result of compressing him into that device!” Twelve finished angrily.
“Oh, so you’re the only one allowed to make boneheaded, rash decisions?” came Mickey’s sarcastic retort. Both Doctors rounded on him, but before they could say anything he hastily added, “Hey! I liked him, too! And I didn’t blow anybody away. He’s just contained. Isn’t that what you needed?”
“He’s got a point,” said Ten under his breath to Twelve. “And if that thing works we can use it.”
“Sure, but there’s just one thing,” said Twelve. “The bit that makes this worse.”
“How do you figure?” asked Jack.
The Twelfth Doctor paused for a second to collect her racing thoughts before trying to explain. “These earthquakes and the increased rift activity are more than they appear. They could be ripples in time. Think about it-earthquakes in South London? Increased rift activity in Cardiff? What about the Death Winds on Transboolian?” she turned to Ten, “Might they all be connected?”
Jack made a face, “Death what?”
Ten waved him off as he watched Twelve think. “You’ve got a point,” he sighed.
Twelve turned to Mickey. “Mickey, please use that fabulous, sentient Torchwood computer of yours to monitor the outer solar system and beyond-Call Sarah Jane’s computer if you have to-widen the reach. We need to know if other galaxies and other times are experiencing this same phenomenon.”
Mickey remained rooted to the spot, his eyes down. Ten stared at Twelve and raised his eyebrow, urging her wordlessly: Well, go on….
Finally remembering herself, she sighed. “I’m sorry, Mickey. You did the right thing. My Ninth self was right, you have grown up. I guess that in my sentimentalism over my previous self I was temporarily blinded to your extreme awesomeness…”
Mickey blew out his air. “Aww, now if that was an apology, y’just blew it…” He smirked at her.
The Twelfth Doctor grinned at him. “Well, now, I wouldn’t want to be accused of any more needless sentimentalism…”
Jack rolled his eyes and slapped Twelve and Mickey on the back. “All right, gushy acts of contrition are over!” He steered them in the direction of the main computer. “I say we head straight to the make up sex!”
Three bleating groans were heard reverberating off the sterile bunker walls.
“What??” said Jack. “Too much?”
It didn’t take long for them to figure out that yes, indeed there were effects being felt on an inter-planetary scale throughout all of time. Seeing the readings, the two Doctors glanced at each other worriedly before rushing off in different directions, leaving Jack and Mickey behind, blinking and bewildered.
Apparently there was more to the return of the Ninth Doctor than met the eye…
******
Several minutes later, scraps of alien tech piled high in her arms, the Twelfth Doctor kicked open the door to the TARDIS open and hurriedly carried her teetering pile of rubbish outside and over to a large work table by the computer in Torchwood One’s main room.
“Oh look, it’s the Leaning Tower of Pish”
Jack glowered at him. “Put a sock in it, Mickey!”
The three boys had been huddled around a computer terminal, running predictive software, trying to figure out if there was a pattern to the rift activity. Still absent from their group was Martha, having her hands full in the MedLab stabilising Torchwood field operatives who’d been hit by falling debris in the recent earthquakes.
The Tenth Doctor’s shoes squeaked as he rushed over to help Twelve steady the stack and sort the parts on the table. “Is this everything?” he asked.
“I think so… Mickey, give me that Trap Box thingy?”
Mickey grabbed it off his desk and handed it to her. The Tenth Doctor yanked his glasses out and put them on, inspecting the object eagerly. “Ooooohhh… She’s a beauty!”
“Yes, that’ll do nicely,” muttered Twelve as she studied the device. After a quick buzz of her sonic, she unceremoniously ripped a piece of its coverings off, exposing a nest of pulsating wires.
Jack and Mickey’s indignant chorus of “HEY!” fell on deaf ears…
“I’m sorry, Jack-but keeping the Ninth Doctor’s bio-data in this gadget does us little good. We need to construct a way to offload it into the Matrix of the TARDIS for safekeeping--”
“And we need to do it fast,” finished Ten, “before the rift causes any more damage.”
“But I thought we had the Ninth Doctor contained,” said Mickey. “Why are we still experiencing increased rift activity?”
“You’ve said there was more to it, Doctor,” persisted Jack. “What else is going on?”
The Twelfth Doctor paused for a second in her tinkering. “Martha asked me when I came back if I was sure that all of the other residual personalities had been captured by the TARDIS…” She looked up at Jack, her face contorted with hesitation. “Given the circumstances now… I doubt it,” she finished simply and returned to her project.
“What??” exclaimed Mickey. “Didn’t you check?”
“There wasn’t exactly a way to check!” she bleated defensively. “It’s not like I can run a simple search-Command F, search equals ‘bio-data,’ enter! It’s complicated! The TARDIS doesn’t operate on Windows 18 or OS Jackalope or the like… Plus, it wasn’t like in the blink of an eye I was facing enough people to play tournament poker or anything-he was the only one to manifest!” She insisted, gesticulating to the Tenth Doctor, who was busy stripping wires with his teeth. “I just figured everyone else had been properly accounted for in the Matrix!”
“You mean you assumed,” stressed Jack.
“There’s gonna be an OS Jackalope?” asked Mickey, dumbstruck. Ten stopped in mid-wire stripping to glare at him causing Mickey to look down at his computer with great interest, marveling at his ability to feel like a complete ignoramus only when the Doctor’s tenth regeneration was around.
“Yes, I assumed,” answered Twelve hotly, ignoring Mickey.
“So none of the residuals were captured by the TARDIS?”
“I think it’s safe to say that a mathematical case of traditional conditional construct applies here. So, if that’s the case, then it follows naturally that if two have been unleashed then probably all of them have,” she answered.
Mickey blanched. “All??”
“Well, no Mickey. Not all-not all eleven-Just two others.”
“Right,” said Jack, understanding. “Remember? Before she left to siphon off the residuals she said the bio-data of her other incarnations pre-Time War had all been downloaded directly to the Matrix on Gallifrey. Yet during the Time War the link was severed, so with each regeneration since the War they were stored within herself as there was no place else for them to go. But, by the time she got to this version there were too many extras squeezed in there-and had too many side effects-and that’s why she tried to dump the excess into the TARDIS Matrix.” He looked to both Doctors. “Have I got it right?”
“Yes,” said Ten. “All except for the Matrix being on Gallifrey. It’s actually in a separate dimension-there was just a sort of doorway located on-“
“Yes, Jack,” said Twelve, interrupting Ten’s needlessly complicated explanation of the multi-dimensional nature of the Matrix and it’s intricate relationship with Gallifrey. “That’s close enough.”
“So where do you think the others are?”
“I don’t know, Jack. We’ve got some ideas. But first we have to offload Nine.” She gave a short nod to the Tenth Doctor who ran back inside the TARDIS. Giving their hacked project one last assiduous glance, she sighed and dropped it loosely to her side. “I guess the good news in all of this is that I didn’t get a regulation poker tournament.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you saw Nine-or to be more accurate, you didn’t see Nine. He wasn’t totally corporeal: He couldn’t interact with his environment, he was partially see-through-he wasn’t all there.” Mickey started to open his mouth to take advantage of the “wasn’t all there” door the Doctor had opened but she glared him back into silence. Once his mouth was closed she looked back to Jack. “So the effects of his existence on our temporal plane were-thankfully-minimal. He ended up being something more than bio-data and less than reanimated, more like a bio-echo, of sorts.”
“But what about Ten? He’s here…”
“Yes, but that’s different. He wished to be,” she said, looking over toward the TARDIS where the Tenth Doctor was.
“But what about the others,” asked Mickey, “What did they wish for?”
“They didn’t get a vote!” Twelve insisted.
“He’s got a point,” added Jack. “After all, the Tenth Doctor is here,” Jack repeated.
“Yes, but the others wouldn’t have been able to manifest like that, they weren’t as strong as him! He was the dominant incarnation, he influenced me over all others!”
“And what if they were stronger than you think?” asked Jack, worriedly. “If the Tenth Doctor was strong enough to get a wish in and reanimate, then isn’t his being here just as bad?” he insisted. “Wouldn’t his existence affect the rift?”
“No! It doesn’t! It’s different!” she argued. “Ten is a separate person now, but unlike Nine, he originates from the same temporal reality. As a part of me, he remembers everything-there isn’t any difference, there’s continuity between the regenerations with him. But from that reanimation point onwards we’re different. That version of Nine we saw, like I said, he wasn’t all there-so not only did he appear ghostlike, but his memories… they were missing, there was no continuity. He had no idea who either of us were. He only remembered you and Mickey.”
“And Rose, of course,” muttered Mickey.
Twelve continued, “The thing that worries me is that he didn’t seem to show up at the same time as us…”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we were all standing here the moment Mickey saw the sensors trip in the flat…”
“So there’s some sort of distortion?”
“Or a delay in the manifestation?” thought Twelve aloud, looking at the TARDIS. “After all, I do have one minute and thirty-two seconds of missing time following the attempted residual bio-data download.”
Mickey screwed up his face in confusion, “Missing time?”
“I passed out,” Twelve explained. “Anything could have happened while I was out.”
“But you look like you have a hypothesis…” said Jack.
Before she could say anything, the Tenth Doctor came rushing out of the TARDIS dragging a long cable behind him. He pulled it over to Twelve and together they hooked it up to the jury-rigged Trap Box.
“That should do it,” said Ten after he affixed the last bolt with Twelve’s sonic.
The Twelfth Doctor looked meaningfully at him. “This had better work.”
Mickey pointed at the umbilical cord. “Why are you keeping this thing outside the TARDIS while you fire it up?”
“Safety,” replied Ten. “If we’ve got other versions of the bio-data roaming free we’ll need another way to trap them and store them in the TARDIS-something that doesn’t involve letting them get inside the TARDIS.”
“They need to be as far away from us as possible,” explained Twelve. “Y’know, it’s a good thing our ninth version couldn’t shake your hand,” she reminded Ten, “if he’d have touched you-“
“Yeah, I know,” said Ten glumly, “Reapers. Stupid mistake, that.”
Twelve nodded but didn’t want to rub it in.
“I still don’t see why we can’t use the Trap Box gun,” said Jack. “It worked just fine.”
“Frankly, we’re lucky that it worked ‘just fine.’ No, I’d rather have it hooked directly up to the TARDIS’ Matrix, eliminate the middle man,” explained Twelve. Switching back to the task at hand, she turned to Ten. “Will you keep an eye on the offload from inside the TARDIS?”
Ten nodded quickly and scampered back into the TARDIS. After a few seconds they heard him call out, “READY??”
Twelve asked Mickey to closely monitor the rift activity while they downloaded the Ninth Doctor. Once he was in position she yelled out to Ten that she was ready and depressed the button on the device.
There was a massive buzzing for a few seconds and then it cut off. However just as Ten called out the “ALL CLEAR!” from his station in the TARDIS, the device suddenly sparked and flamed in the Twelfth Doctor’s hands!
In an effort not to damage the components, she bobbled the device carefully to the floor.
Jack yelled out in alarm and rushed towards her.
Her trousers had caught fire!
In an instant, Jack had his coat off and wrapped Twelve up in it, smothering the flames.
Mickey jumped out of his seat, ready to run for Martha.
His heart in his throat, Jack kept patting until the smoke cleared. Once he was satisfied the flames were out, he peeled the coat off her with dread, fearful that the familiar glow of regeneration would greet him once he unwrapped her…
But she was fine. Only her trousers were badly singed.
In spite of this scare, the Twelfth Doctor was still singly focused on the task. As soon as she was unwrapped, she sprang up off the floor, ignoring her close call as well as Mickey and Jack’s concern and barked out orders, “Mickey, talk to me-how’s the rift activity now?”
“Uh…” Mickey bumbled, snapping his attention back to watch the rift activity levels on his computer screen. “Nada,” he reported. “No changes. It barely affected anything… I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s bad, huh…?”
The Twelfth Doctor swore.
The Tenth Doctor emerged from the TARDIS. “Contained,” he reported with a grin, tossing her the sonic before noticing her blackened trousers.
She sighed. “Well that proves my unfortunate theory about conditional construct…”
“So,” reasoned Mickey, “If your other two selves are present, then-“
“--We’re screwed,” finished Jack. “Wonderful. They’re all here. Now what? Clambake?”
“The main question is, how do we find them and where are they?” said Ten, defining the problem further. “And…” he stopped. “What happened to your trousers??” he squawked, staring at them.
“When are they, more like,” corrected Twelve, ignoring the question about her clothing. She huffed at Jack and Mickey’s confused looks. “Look, he reanimated spontaneously at the point of download, right?” said Twelve, pointing at Ten. “But the rest of them were probably dispersed throughout time-as evidenced by Nine showing up just a few hours ago as opposed to immediately after my downloading stunt…”
The Tenth Doctor stared at the TARDIS. “It’s her, isn’t it? Ohhh, but she’s brilliant, she is!”
“I don’t follow,” said Jack. “You think the TARDIS had something to do with this?”
“Of course she did!” said Ten. “Great big reality imploding paradox like this?”
Twelve nodded. “Yep, that’s our girl-she doesn’t always take us where we want to go, but she takes us where we need to go. Couldn’t self-phase or shunt the reality compensators during the event by herself, but she did the only thing she could to reduce the impact of the paradox…”
“-She scattered the bio-data throughout space and time…” finished Ten.
“Yep,” said Twelve, without popping the ‘p,’ and winking knowingly at Ten.
“To where?” asked Jack.
“I’m still working on that bit,” said Twelve.
“The TARDIS could really do that?” asked Mickey.
“Of course she can!” crowed Twelve, gesticulating at the TARDIS. “Most of my life I’ve been with that old girl and she never stops surprising me! The best girlfriends always do! And believe me, it takes a lot to keep a relationship that’s lasted over 900 years this fresh!” She walked over to the ancient ship and stroked her. “In trying to reduce the greatest immediate danger she spread the consequences over a wider reach… Saved my arse again, old girl, didn’t you?”
“Look, I won’t argue that the TARDIS is extraordinary, but how can you know this for sure?” asked Jack.
“Well, for one,” offered Ten, “if she hadn’t, then instead of all of these little rifts and earthquakes there would have been one almighty, reality collapsing paradox-“
“Poof! Instant poker tournament in the sky!” finished Twelve, “All five of us present and accounted for on the same time continuum would have wiped the slate of reality clean! Instead of one great big party, we probably now have various forms of the bio-data scattered throughout time and space, boogying down.”
“Various forms?”
Ten tried to explain: “If there had been something fundamentally defective with the downloading process then the TARDIS could have modified the data to reduce the impact.”
“For example, instead of reanimating all of them-because that equals End of The Universe-the TARDIS adjusted one to be more of a bio-echo-hence Nine’s ghost-like quality-and another perhaps tweaked differently, but to the same effect: Not entirely there. Cos remember, all present and accounted for equals-“
“Instant universal death,” said Mickey, getting it.
“Yep,” said Ten, popping the ‘p.’
“So then, what we’re looking for are diluted versions of the former bio-data, scattered throughout time and space?”
“Um hmm,” nodded Twelve.
Jack made a dismissive gesture. “So, in other words, not too much of a problem. Just go out, find everybody, recapture them and restore balance to the universe-something we should have tied up in a neat bow in a matter of minutes, huh?”
“Sarcasm does not become you, Captain,” said Twelve coolly.
“The favourite son of Gallifrey, a son no more-an unnatural child-brings a song of chaos and redemption, and will make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of all...” Jack’s voice rang out in the large room nearly emptied of Torchwood personnel.
The prophecy from Gallifrey.
“It’s what River found on that parchment,” he continued. “It’s this, isn’t it? This is the chaos we were promised. This is what Ianto and Carly were talking about-or at least made to talk about-Cos, you did this, you and your impulsiveness--“
Fists clenched by her sides, the Twelfth Doctor spoke through her teeth, fighting for control of her temper. “If you will remember…” she seethed, “you sent me off with a ‘Godspeed…’”
“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m not the one that put all of time and space into jeopardy along with--”
“Not this time, no,” said Twelve pointedly.
Jack’s mouth tightened into a grim line across his face.
Mickey and the Tenth Doctor watched uneasily as Jack and Twelve stood bone straight and silent, the air crackling around them in unspoken and barely spoken accusations. Behind him, Mickey’s computer flashed with new warnings for earthquakes in Paris and Slovakia.
“The prophecy spoke about redemption as well,” reminded Twelve.
“And yet once again you ignore the part about ‘ultimate sacrifice,” spat Jack.
Twelve looked up, surprised. This wasn’t about blame at all, she realised. This was about her-his concern for her! “Ohhh, Jack,” she breathed, shaking her head, “I think I’m gonna have to change your title from Captain of the Innuendo Squad to Captain Subtext…”
Jack blushed and chuckled softly, looking down at his hands. “Subtext is for suckers, Doctor. Besides, I’ve already told you I didn’t want to lose you. Bad enough you just almost caught yourself on fire…”
“She almost what??” yelped Ten, now understanding her ruined trousers.
“Can you two kiss and make up already?” Mickey snapped at them. He was still watching reports on the worldwide plight on his computer. “Cos it looks like Mount Saint Helens is gonna blow any second due to your non-reality imploding, complicated time event!”
Jack looked at both Doctors, two incarnations of his oldest friend, “Just tell me what I need to do to help so you two will be all right,” he said, the warmth and concern evident in his voice.
Twelve swallowed, pushing down a bubble of emotion that threatened to disturb her trademarked veneer of “fine-ness” and grinned at Jack, “Just tell me you have a neural relay programmer in the Archives…” she looked down at her ruined slacks. “And maybe another pair of trousers…”
******
“Well, hell-o, m’dear! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen under your skirts,” Jack purred to the underside of the TARDIS’ console as he lay on his back, tightening the screw that held the neural relay into place.
For the past two hours, the two Doctors and the boys had been buffeting the temporal seismic activity and kitting out the TARDIS with enough patched-together equipment to be able to contain the remaining essences of the old Doctors-as well as insulate them from having any further degenerative effect on all of time and space once they were contained.
There was a loud BIIING, and a piece of equipment rose from the fabrication dispenser of the console, like toast from a toaster.
“DOCTOR!” Jack called-the sound of his voice traveling up the staircase to the wardrobe room beyond--“I think she’s ready!!”
Soon there were footfalls on the stairs down to the console. “Hot diggity!” exclaimed the Twelfth Doctor as she plucked the object from the console. “It’s done!”
Jack pulled himself up to standing, faltering for a second as he saw the Twelfth Doctor.
The suit was gone. In its place she wore a form fitting pair of bootleg-cut, black twill pants that had corseting at the back of the knees and a high-collared, Victorian style, red satin ruffled sleeveless blouse. She also wore 14-eye patent leather Docs-red again-a cocked eyebrow, and a big smile.
“Well?” she asked, pulling on the familiar jacquard suit jacket-the only bit of the old outfit to survive the fire.
“I say, I’m starting to appreciate this immortality thing. You just get better and better…”
“Not me, silly-this…”
“Oh, yeah, that…”
He looked admiringly at the gleaming new sonic screwdriver that she held in the palm of her hand.
Twelve beamed at him, “He’s gonna be surprised, don’t cha think?”
“It looks exactly like his old one.”
“That’s the point. I figured with all of the new new new Doctor stuff he might like to have something of his very own in the realm of the more familiar…”
Jack spoke again, caution obvious in his voice, “You’re really convinced he’s not part of the problem?”
She shook her head. “I really am, Jack. You’re just going to have to trust me on this--“ she stopped dead in the sentence, shaking her head-the irony of that statement hitting her on so many levels-before continuing. “As much as I need you, I need him-I’m sorry to say maybe even more.” She went off Jack’s face, “Look, he’s another me, another version-another Doctor-and what’s better in a jam than two of me?”
Jack looked dubious. “Doctor, I can think of many things that two of you would be good for, but right now-“
“Right now it appears your judgment is clouded by concerns other than temporal universe survival, Jack,” she reproved in mock seriousness.
Jack looked at her sheepishly, but a twinkle remained in his eyes. “Are you saying you’re gonna keep him all to yourself?”
Twelve rolled her eyes.
“I’m just sayin,’” he continued, “I don’t see how I’m ever gonna get anywhere with you while River’s out there, hogging you all to herself, so don’t you think-“
“No, Jack. I don’t…”
“Never say never, Doctor!”
“And: Changing the subject back to relevant topics…” Twelve said, pointedly. “As I was saying, I just think that he can do so much more, alive…” Her voice trailed off to a whisper, remembering a bleak, cold Christmas when her world had come crashing down: “So much more…” She cleared her throat. “Besides, who better to help track a few grouchy old buggers like me than another grouchy old bugger like me?”
Jack eyed her, “Yeah, I see your point, but there’s something else.”
“But there really isn’t.”
He pointed to his chest, “Take it from me, newly minted Captain Subtext: I can tell there’s something else other than wanting to give a previous version of yourself an extra chance at life. Now, out with it, or I shall have to resort to more physical methods of persuasion?” He winked at her and then slyly added, “Obviously, I’m hoping you’ll resist…”
“You’ve lived a long time, Jack.”
He grinned his dimply best. “And my powers of persuasion are plentiful as a result…”
She exhaled a small chuckle and looked into Jack’s sparkling blue eyes, growing more serious. “Then I can tell you that I have no intention of getting rid of him. I’ve come to understand that his very existence keeps me away from the desperate, clawing, howling loneliness,” she said, evenly. “And you can’t tell me that alone isn’t worth sustaining…”
Without a word, Jack grasped one of the Doctor’s glittery varnished hands and brought the back of her hand to his lips. He softly kissed it and then dropped her hand to thread his fingers through the silver streak in her soft brown hair, finally cupping the back of her head and bringing her temple to his lips. Dazed, the Doctor closed her eyes, but clutched the Tenth Doctor’s replacement sonic to her chest in an awkward defensive posture.
Despite all the flirty banter, he completely understood her, and it pained him to know that she felt all those things too…
The squeak of the Tenth Doctor’s chucks on the polished floor of the TARDIS broke them apart.
Ten stopped dead in his tracks.
Attempting to cover his confusion, he spluttered, awkwardly, “Oh! I… er… um… I was just-I was, ah-I was just coming in to-“
Stepping away from Jack with her eyes shielded, she waved her hand,” S’all right! S’nothing. Jack was just-“
“You know you don’t have to explain. With a combined age of over three-thousand-give or take-you two can be considered more than consenting age…”
“Hardy har har,” she bleated, sardonically. “After that dig, you hardly deserve this. But what the hell, Happy early Christmas!” She launched the sonic into the air.
He deftly caught it. “Ohhhh! My old sonic!!” He held it up to the light and turned it over and over, inspecting it with great affection. It clacked its familiar metallic noises in greeting as he handled it, two old friends, reunited.
“Your new old sonic,” corrected Twelve. “A gift of the TARDIS. We missed you.”
The Tenth Doctor stopped his admiration of the sonic to look into his successor’s eyes-eyes that were so much like his, but just a little bit older, and much more adept at expressing her inner emotion than his.
“Thanks,” he said softly, carrying a cartload of unexpressed feelings like an overfilled wheelbarrow-with its contents trickling over the edges. For whatever difficulties they may have initially had, they were now steadfastly joined in solidarity.
Jack cleared his throat. “Now, speaking as Captain Subtext, I’d like to nominate a Vice President…”
Both Doctors turned to shame him into silence, but it had no effect. “Now you know why I’m always snuggling her,” he added cheekily to Ten.
The Tenth Doctor grinned, “Umm…Yes, and I think it may be contagious,” he said, and caught the Twelfth into a giant hug. “And before you think I haven’t noticed: Nice outfit! Looove the red shoes!”
After a few seconds of the hugging she peeled herself away from him, self-consciously. “Okay, okay, okay-you’re welcome! And, thank you! Now, if Doctor Appreciation Day is over, we have an apocalypse to stop. Shall we go through our checks?”
Ten nodded whilst Jack saluted. She rolled her eyes. “Retro-fitted Trap Box?”
“Check!” called Ten.
“Neural relay processor?”
“Check!” called Jack.
“Time Rotor insulation?”
Jack patted the outer casing of the Time Rotor-inside the clear tube was a black box where the bio-data/echoes of the past Doctors would reside once they were drawn off. The Time Rotor would provide a stasis of temporal grace, thus insulating the continuum from the paradox and preventing universal reality implosion. “Check!” called Jack.
“Personnel?”
“Check,” sang Ten.
“And check,” finished Jack.
“All right, kids-time for some Doctor catching!” said Twelve. “Who’s hungry?”
And with a flip of the parking break, they were off…
Pic by the fabulous akkajemo!
To be continued in Chapter 8: Long Time No See…
Author: psyfi_geekgirl
BetaBabe: akkajemo
Characters/Pairings: Twelfth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Mickey, Jack
Excerpt: “It’s this, isn’t it? This is the chaos we were promised. This is what Ianto and Carly were talking about-or at least made to talk about-Cos, you did this, you and your impulsiveness--“
Word count: 4,777
Disclaimer: Until she’s Jossed, Twelve is mine-but of course, based entirely on stuff that ain’t mine… All hail Auntie Beeb!
A/N: Continuing Part II of Girl in the Mirror ‘Verse. Which, if you haven’t read yet, will give you important backstory and character details which are essential to this ‘verse (the link to the GitM masterlist is provided below). This series is a sort of Season Two. Also written before the end of DW season 6, so some details have gone AU.
Part I: Girl in the Mirror ‘Verse Masterlist
Part II:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Jack’s voice reverberated through the corridor of space/time like he was yelling through the blades of a moving fan, “-think you’re being a little hard on him.”
“The hell I am, Jack!” came the Twelfth Doctor’s voice. In addition to sounding angry, there was also a strange, tinny reverberation to her voice.
Together, they sounded like an echo of glass breaking as they navigated the Vortex via Jack’s wristband Manipulator.
Suddenly Jack, Mickey and the two Doctors arrived in a blinding flash and a pop into Torchwood One’s empty main room, still engaged in their heated argument.
“You had no idea what might’ve happened as a result of compressing him into that device!” Twelve finished angrily.
“Oh, so you’re the only one allowed to make boneheaded, rash decisions?” came Mickey’s sarcastic retort. Both Doctors rounded on him, but before they could say anything he hastily added, “Hey! I liked him, too! And I didn’t blow anybody away. He’s just contained. Isn’t that what you needed?”
“He’s got a point,” said Ten under his breath to Twelve. “And if that thing works we can use it.”
“Sure, but there’s just one thing,” said Twelve. “The bit that makes this worse.”
“How do you figure?” asked Jack.
The Twelfth Doctor paused for a second to collect her racing thoughts before trying to explain. “These earthquakes and the increased rift activity are more than they appear. They could be ripples in time. Think about it-earthquakes in South London? Increased rift activity in Cardiff? What about the Death Winds on Transboolian?” she turned to Ten, “Might they all be connected?”
Jack made a face, “Death what?”
Ten waved him off as he watched Twelve think. “You’ve got a point,” he sighed.
Twelve turned to Mickey. “Mickey, please use that fabulous, sentient Torchwood computer of yours to monitor the outer solar system and beyond-Call Sarah Jane’s computer if you have to-widen the reach. We need to know if other galaxies and other times are experiencing this same phenomenon.”
Mickey remained rooted to the spot, his eyes down. Ten stared at Twelve and raised his eyebrow, urging her wordlessly: Well, go on….
Finally remembering herself, she sighed. “I’m sorry, Mickey. You did the right thing. My Ninth self was right, you have grown up. I guess that in my sentimentalism over my previous self I was temporarily blinded to your extreme awesomeness…”
Mickey blew out his air. “Aww, now if that was an apology, y’just blew it…” He smirked at her.
The Twelfth Doctor grinned at him. “Well, now, I wouldn’t want to be accused of any more needless sentimentalism…”
Jack rolled his eyes and slapped Twelve and Mickey on the back. “All right, gushy acts of contrition are over!” He steered them in the direction of the main computer. “I say we head straight to the make up sex!”
Three bleating groans were heard reverberating off the sterile bunker walls.
“What??” said Jack. “Too much?”
It didn’t take long for them to figure out that yes, indeed there were effects being felt on an inter-planetary scale throughout all of time. Seeing the readings, the two Doctors glanced at each other worriedly before rushing off in different directions, leaving Jack and Mickey behind, blinking and bewildered.
Apparently there was more to the return of the Ninth Doctor than met the eye…
******
Several minutes later, scraps of alien tech piled high in her arms, the Twelfth Doctor kicked open the door to the TARDIS open and hurriedly carried her teetering pile of rubbish outside and over to a large work table by the computer in Torchwood One’s main room.
“Oh look, it’s the Leaning Tower of Pish”
Jack glowered at him. “Put a sock in it, Mickey!”
The three boys had been huddled around a computer terminal, running predictive software, trying to figure out if there was a pattern to the rift activity. Still absent from their group was Martha, having her hands full in the MedLab stabilising Torchwood field operatives who’d been hit by falling debris in the recent earthquakes.
The Tenth Doctor’s shoes squeaked as he rushed over to help Twelve steady the stack and sort the parts on the table. “Is this everything?” he asked.
“I think so… Mickey, give me that Trap Box thingy?”
Mickey grabbed it off his desk and handed it to her. The Tenth Doctor yanked his glasses out and put them on, inspecting the object eagerly. “Ooooohhh… She’s a beauty!”
“Yes, that’ll do nicely,” muttered Twelve as she studied the device. After a quick buzz of her sonic, she unceremoniously ripped a piece of its coverings off, exposing a nest of pulsating wires.
Jack and Mickey’s indignant chorus of “HEY!” fell on deaf ears…
“I’m sorry, Jack-but keeping the Ninth Doctor’s bio-data in this gadget does us little good. We need to construct a way to offload it into the Matrix of the TARDIS for safekeeping--”
“And we need to do it fast,” finished Ten, “before the rift causes any more damage.”
“But I thought we had the Ninth Doctor contained,” said Mickey. “Why are we still experiencing increased rift activity?”
“You’ve said there was more to it, Doctor,” persisted Jack. “What else is going on?”
The Twelfth Doctor paused for a second in her tinkering. “Martha asked me when I came back if I was sure that all of the other residual personalities had been captured by the TARDIS…” She looked up at Jack, her face contorted with hesitation. “Given the circumstances now… I doubt it,” she finished simply and returned to her project.
“What??” exclaimed Mickey. “Didn’t you check?”
“There wasn’t exactly a way to check!” she bleated defensively. “It’s not like I can run a simple search-Command F, search equals ‘bio-data,’ enter! It’s complicated! The TARDIS doesn’t operate on Windows 18 or OS Jackalope or the like… Plus, it wasn’t like in the blink of an eye I was facing enough people to play tournament poker or anything-he was the only one to manifest!” She insisted, gesticulating to the Tenth Doctor, who was busy stripping wires with his teeth. “I just figured everyone else had been properly accounted for in the Matrix!”
“You mean you assumed,” stressed Jack.
“There’s gonna be an OS Jackalope?” asked Mickey, dumbstruck. Ten stopped in mid-wire stripping to glare at him causing Mickey to look down at his computer with great interest, marveling at his ability to feel like a complete ignoramus only when the Doctor’s tenth regeneration was around.
“Yes, I assumed,” answered Twelve hotly, ignoring Mickey.
“So none of the residuals were captured by the TARDIS?”
“I think it’s safe to say that a mathematical case of traditional conditional construct applies here. So, if that’s the case, then it follows naturally that if two have been unleashed then probably all of them have,” she answered.
Mickey blanched. “All??”
“Well, no Mickey. Not all-not all eleven-Just two others.”
“Right,” said Jack, understanding. “Remember? Before she left to siphon off the residuals she said the bio-data of her other incarnations pre-Time War had all been downloaded directly to the Matrix on Gallifrey. Yet during the Time War the link was severed, so with each regeneration since the War they were stored within herself as there was no place else for them to go. But, by the time she got to this version there were too many extras squeezed in there-and had too many side effects-and that’s why she tried to dump the excess into the TARDIS Matrix.” He looked to both Doctors. “Have I got it right?”
“Yes,” said Ten. “All except for the Matrix being on Gallifrey. It’s actually in a separate dimension-there was just a sort of doorway located on-“
“Yes, Jack,” said Twelve, interrupting Ten’s needlessly complicated explanation of the multi-dimensional nature of the Matrix and it’s intricate relationship with Gallifrey. “That’s close enough.”
“So where do you think the others are?”
“I don’t know, Jack. We’ve got some ideas. But first we have to offload Nine.” She gave a short nod to the Tenth Doctor who ran back inside the TARDIS. Giving their hacked project one last assiduous glance, she sighed and dropped it loosely to her side. “I guess the good news in all of this is that I didn’t get a regulation poker tournament.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you saw Nine-or to be more accurate, you didn’t see Nine. He wasn’t totally corporeal: He couldn’t interact with his environment, he was partially see-through-he wasn’t all there.” Mickey started to open his mouth to take advantage of the “wasn’t all there” door the Doctor had opened but she glared him back into silence. Once his mouth was closed she looked back to Jack. “So the effects of his existence on our temporal plane were-thankfully-minimal. He ended up being something more than bio-data and less than reanimated, more like a bio-echo, of sorts.”
“But what about Ten? He’s here…”
“Yes, but that’s different. He wished to be,” she said, looking over toward the TARDIS where the Tenth Doctor was.
“But what about the others,” asked Mickey, “What did they wish for?”
“They didn’t get a vote!” Twelve insisted.
“He’s got a point,” added Jack. “After all, the Tenth Doctor is here,” Jack repeated.
“Yes, but the others wouldn’t have been able to manifest like that, they weren’t as strong as him! He was the dominant incarnation, he influenced me over all others!”
“And what if they were stronger than you think?” asked Jack, worriedly. “If the Tenth Doctor was strong enough to get a wish in and reanimate, then isn’t his being here just as bad?” he insisted. “Wouldn’t his existence affect the rift?”
“No! It doesn’t! It’s different!” she argued. “Ten is a separate person now, but unlike Nine, he originates from the same temporal reality. As a part of me, he remembers everything-there isn’t any difference, there’s continuity between the regenerations with him. But from that reanimation point onwards we’re different. That version of Nine we saw, like I said, he wasn’t all there-so not only did he appear ghostlike, but his memories… they were missing, there was no continuity. He had no idea who either of us were. He only remembered you and Mickey.”
“And Rose, of course,” muttered Mickey.
Twelve continued, “The thing that worries me is that he didn’t seem to show up at the same time as us…”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we were all standing here the moment Mickey saw the sensors trip in the flat…”
“So there’s some sort of distortion?”
“Or a delay in the manifestation?” thought Twelve aloud, looking at the TARDIS. “After all, I do have one minute and thirty-two seconds of missing time following the attempted residual bio-data download.”
Mickey screwed up his face in confusion, “Missing time?”
“I passed out,” Twelve explained. “Anything could have happened while I was out.”
“But you look like you have a hypothesis…” said Jack.
Before she could say anything, the Tenth Doctor came rushing out of the TARDIS dragging a long cable behind him. He pulled it over to Twelve and together they hooked it up to the jury-rigged Trap Box.
“That should do it,” said Ten after he affixed the last bolt with Twelve’s sonic.
The Twelfth Doctor looked meaningfully at him. “This had better work.”
Mickey pointed at the umbilical cord. “Why are you keeping this thing outside the TARDIS while you fire it up?”
“Safety,” replied Ten. “If we’ve got other versions of the bio-data roaming free we’ll need another way to trap them and store them in the TARDIS-something that doesn’t involve letting them get inside the TARDIS.”
“They need to be as far away from us as possible,” explained Twelve. “Y’know, it’s a good thing our ninth version couldn’t shake your hand,” she reminded Ten, “if he’d have touched you-“
“Yeah, I know,” said Ten glumly, “Reapers. Stupid mistake, that.”
Twelve nodded but didn’t want to rub it in.
“I still don’t see why we can’t use the Trap Box gun,” said Jack. “It worked just fine.”
“Frankly, we’re lucky that it worked ‘just fine.’ No, I’d rather have it hooked directly up to the TARDIS’ Matrix, eliminate the middle man,” explained Twelve. Switching back to the task at hand, she turned to Ten. “Will you keep an eye on the offload from inside the TARDIS?”
Ten nodded quickly and scampered back into the TARDIS. After a few seconds they heard him call out, “READY??”
Twelve asked Mickey to closely monitor the rift activity while they downloaded the Ninth Doctor. Once he was in position she yelled out to Ten that she was ready and depressed the button on the device.
There was a massive buzzing for a few seconds and then it cut off. However just as Ten called out the “ALL CLEAR!” from his station in the TARDIS, the device suddenly sparked and flamed in the Twelfth Doctor’s hands!
In an effort not to damage the components, she bobbled the device carefully to the floor.
Jack yelled out in alarm and rushed towards her.
Her trousers had caught fire!
In an instant, Jack had his coat off and wrapped Twelve up in it, smothering the flames.
Mickey jumped out of his seat, ready to run for Martha.
His heart in his throat, Jack kept patting until the smoke cleared. Once he was satisfied the flames were out, he peeled the coat off her with dread, fearful that the familiar glow of regeneration would greet him once he unwrapped her…
But she was fine. Only her trousers were badly singed.
In spite of this scare, the Twelfth Doctor was still singly focused on the task. As soon as she was unwrapped, she sprang up off the floor, ignoring her close call as well as Mickey and Jack’s concern and barked out orders, “Mickey, talk to me-how’s the rift activity now?”
“Uh…” Mickey bumbled, snapping his attention back to watch the rift activity levels on his computer screen. “Nada,” he reported. “No changes. It barely affected anything… I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s bad, huh…?”
The Twelfth Doctor swore.
The Tenth Doctor emerged from the TARDIS. “Contained,” he reported with a grin, tossing her the sonic before noticing her blackened trousers.
She sighed. “Well that proves my unfortunate theory about conditional construct…”
“So,” reasoned Mickey, “If your other two selves are present, then-“
“--We’re screwed,” finished Jack. “Wonderful. They’re all here. Now what? Clambake?”
“The main question is, how do we find them and where are they?” said Ten, defining the problem further. “And…” he stopped. “What happened to your trousers??” he squawked, staring at them.
“When are they, more like,” corrected Twelve, ignoring the question about her clothing. She huffed at Jack and Mickey’s confused looks. “Look, he reanimated spontaneously at the point of download, right?” said Twelve, pointing at Ten. “But the rest of them were probably dispersed throughout time-as evidenced by Nine showing up just a few hours ago as opposed to immediately after my downloading stunt…”
The Tenth Doctor stared at the TARDIS. “It’s her, isn’t it? Ohhh, but she’s brilliant, she is!”
“I don’t follow,” said Jack. “You think the TARDIS had something to do with this?”
“Of course she did!” said Ten. “Great big reality imploding paradox like this?”
Twelve nodded. “Yep, that’s our girl-she doesn’t always take us where we want to go, but she takes us where we need to go. Couldn’t self-phase or shunt the reality compensators during the event by herself, but she did the only thing she could to reduce the impact of the paradox…”
“-She scattered the bio-data throughout space and time…” finished Ten.
“Yep,” said Twelve, without popping the ‘p,’ and winking knowingly at Ten.
“To where?” asked Jack.
“I’m still working on that bit,” said Twelve.
“The TARDIS could really do that?” asked Mickey.
“Of course she can!” crowed Twelve, gesticulating at the TARDIS. “Most of my life I’ve been with that old girl and she never stops surprising me! The best girlfriends always do! And believe me, it takes a lot to keep a relationship that’s lasted over 900 years this fresh!” She walked over to the ancient ship and stroked her. “In trying to reduce the greatest immediate danger she spread the consequences over a wider reach… Saved my arse again, old girl, didn’t you?”
“Look, I won’t argue that the TARDIS is extraordinary, but how can you know this for sure?” asked Jack.
“Well, for one,” offered Ten, “if she hadn’t, then instead of all of these little rifts and earthquakes there would have been one almighty, reality collapsing paradox-“
“Poof! Instant poker tournament in the sky!” finished Twelve, “All five of us present and accounted for on the same time continuum would have wiped the slate of reality clean! Instead of one great big party, we probably now have various forms of the bio-data scattered throughout time and space, boogying down.”
“Various forms?”
Ten tried to explain: “If there had been something fundamentally defective with the downloading process then the TARDIS could have modified the data to reduce the impact.”
“For example, instead of reanimating all of them-because that equals End of The Universe-the TARDIS adjusted one to be more of a bio-echo-hence Nine’s ghost-like quality-and another perhaps tweaked differently, but to the same effect: Not entirely there. Cos remember, all present and accounted for equals-“
“Instant universal death,” said Mickey, getting it.
“Yep,” said Ten, popping the ‘p.’
“So then, what we’re looking for are diluted versions of the former bio-data, scattered throughout time and space?”
“Um hmm,” nodded Twelve.
Jack made a dismissive gesture. “So, in other words, not too much of a problem. Just go out, find everybody, recapture them and restore balance to the universe-something we should have tied up in a neat bow in a matter of minutes, huh?”
“Sarcasm does not become you, Captain,” said Twelve coolly.
“The favourite son of Gallifrey, a son no more-an unnatural child-brings a song of chaos and redemption, and will make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of all...” Jack’s voice rang out in the large room nearly emptied of Torchwood personnel.
The prophecy from Gallifrey.
“It’s what River found on that parchment,” he continued. “It’s this, isn’t it? This is the chaos we were promised. This is what Ianto and Carly were talking about-or at least made to talk about-Cos, you did this, you and your impulsiveness--“
Fists clenched by her sides, the Twelfth Doctor spoke through her teeth, fighting for control of her temper. “If you will remember…” she seethed, “you sent me off with a ‘Godspeed…’”
“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m not the one that put all of time and space into jeopardy along with--”
“Not this time, no,” said Twelve pointedly.
Jack’s mouth tightened into a grim line across his face.
Mickey and the Tenth Doctor watched uneasily as Jack and Twelve stood bone straight and silent, the air crackling around them in unspoken and barely spoken accusations. Behind him, Mickey’s computer flashed with new warnings for earthquakes in Paris and Slovakia.
“The prophecy spoke about redemption as well,” reminded Twelve.
“And yet once again you ignore the part about ‘ultimate sacrifice,” spat Jack.
Twelve looked up, surprised. This wasn’t about blame at all, she realised. This was about her-his concern for her! “Ohhh, Jack,” she breathed, shaking her head, “I think I’m gonna have to change your title from Captain of the Innuendo Squad to Captain Subtext…”
Jack blushed and chuckled softly, looking down at his hands. “Subtext is for suckers, Doctor. Besides, I’ve already told you I didn’t want to lose you. Bad enough you just almost caught yourself on fire…”
“She almost what??” yelped Ten, now understanding her ruined trousers.
“Can you two kiss and make up already?” Mickey snapped at them. He was still watching reports on the worldwide plight on his computer. “Cos it looks like Mount Saint Helens is gonna blow any second due to your non-reality imploding, complicated time event!”
Jack looked at both Doctors, two incarnations of his oldest friend, “Just tell me what I need to do to help so you two will be all right,” he said, the warmth and concern evident in his voice.
Twelve swallowed, pushing down a bubble of emotion that threatened to disturb her trademarked veneer of “fine-ness” and grinned at Jack, “Just tell me you have a neural relay programmer in the Archives…” she looked down at her ruined slacks. “And maybe another pair of trousers…”
******
“Well, hell-o, m’dear! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen under your skirts,” Jack purred to the underside of the TARDIS’ console as he lay on his back, tightening the screw that held the neural relay into place.
For the past two hours, the two Doctors and the boys had been buffeting the temporal seismic activity and kitting out the TARDIS with enough patched-together equipment to be able to contain the remaining essences of the old Doctors-as well as insulate them from having any further degenerative effect on all of time and space once they were contained.
There was a loud BIIING, and a piece of equipment rose from the fabrication dispenser of the console, like toast from a toaster.
“DOCTOR!” Jack called-the sound of his voice traveling up the staircase to the wardrobe room beyond--“I think she’s ready!!”
Soon there were footfalls on the stairs down to the console. “Hot diggity!” exclaimed the Twelfth Doctor as she plucked the object from the console. “It’s done!”
Jack pulled himself up to standing, faltering for a second as he saw the Twelfth Doctor.
The suit was gone. In its place she wore a form fitting pair of bootleg-cut, black twill pants that had corseting at the back of the knees and a high-collared, Victorian style, red satin ruffled sleeveless blouse. She also wore 14-eye patent leather Docs-red again-a cocked eyebrow, and a big smile.
“Well?” she asked, pulling on the familiar jacquard suit jacket-the only bit of the old outfit to survive the fire.
“I say, I’m starting to appreciate this immortality thing. You just get better and better…”
“Not me, silly-this…”
“Oh, yeah, that…”
He looked admiringly at the gleaming new sonic screwdriver that she held in the palm of her hand.
Twelve beamed at him, “He’s gonna be surprised, don’t cha think?”
“It looks exactly like his old one.”
“That’s the point. I figured with all of the new new new Doctor stuff he might like to have something of his very own in the realm of the more familiar…”
Jack spoke again, caution obvious in his voice, “You’re really convinced he’s not part of the problem?”
She shook her head. “I really am, Jack. You’re just going to have to trust me on this--“ she stopped dead in the sentence, shaking her head-the irony of that statement hitting her on so many levels-before continuing. “As much as I need you, I need him-I’m sorry to say maybe even more.” She went off Jack’s face, “Look, he’s another me, another version-another Doctor-and what’s better in a jam than two of me?”
Jack looked dubious. “Doctor, I can think of many things that two of you would be good for, but right now-“
“Right now it appears your judgment is clouded by concerns other than temporal universe survival, Jack,” she reproved in mock seriousness.
Jack looked at her sheepishly, but a twinkle remained in his eyes. “Are you saying you’re gonna keep him all to yourself?”
Twelve rolled her eyes.
“I’m just sayin,’” he continued, “I don’t see how I’m ever gonna get anywhere with you while River’s out there, hogging you all to herself, so don’t you think-“
“No, Jack. I don’t…”
“Never say never, Doctor!”
“And: Changing the subject back to relevant topics…” Twelve said, pointedly. “As I was saying, I just think that he can do so much more, alive…” Her voice trailed off to a whisper, remembering a bleak, cold Christmas when her world had come crashing down: “So much more…” She cleared her throat. “Besides, who better to help track a few grouchy old buggers like me than another grouchy old bugger like me?”
Jack eyed her, “Yeah, I see your point, but there’s something else.”
“But there really isn’t.”
He pointed to his chest, “Take it from me, newly minted Captain Subtext: I can tell there’s something else other than wanting to give a previous version of yourself an extra chance at life. Now, out with it, or I shall have to resort to more physical methods of persuasion?” He winked at her and then slyly added, “Obviously, I’m hoping you’ll resist…”
“You’ve lived a long time, Jack.”
He grinned his dimply best. “And my powers of persuasion are plentiful as a result…”
She exhaled a small chuckle and looked into Jack’s sparkling blue eyes, growing more serious. “Then I can tell you that I have no intention of getting rid of him. I’ve come to understand that his very existence keeps me away from the desperate, clawing, howling loneliness,” she said, evenly. “And you can’t tell me that alone isn’t worth sustaining…”
Without a word, Jack grasped one of the Doctor’s glittery varnished hands and brought the back of her hand to his lips. He softly kissed it and then dropped her hand to thread his fingers through the silver streak in her soft brown hair, finally cupping the back of her head and bringing her temple to his lips. Dazed, the Doctor closed her eyes, but clutched the Tenth Doctor’s replacement sonic to her chest in an awkward defensive posture.
Despite all the flirty banter, he completely understood her, and it pained him to know that she felt all those things too…
The squeak of the Tenth Doctor’s chucks on the polished floor of the TARDIS broke them apart.
Ten stopped dead in his tracks.
Attempting to cover his confusion, he spluttered, awkwardly, “Oh! I… er… um… I was just-I was, ah-I was just coming in to-“
Stepping away from Jack with her eyes shielded, she waved her hand,” S’all right! S’nothing. Jack was just-“
“You know you don’t have to explain. With a combined age of over three-thousand-give or take-you two can be considered more than consenting age…”
“Hardy har har,” she bleated, sardonically. “After that dig, you hardly deserve this. But what the hell, Happy early Christmas!” She launched the sonic into the air.
He deftly caught it. “Ohhhh! My old sonic!!” He held it up to the light and turned it over and over, inspecting it with great affection. It clacked its familiar metallic noises in greeting as he handled it, two old friends, reunited.
“Your new old sonic,” corrected Twelve. “A gift of the TARDIS. We missed you.”
The Tenth Doctor stopped his admiration of the sonic to look into his successor’s eyes-eyes that were so much like his, but just a little bit older, and much more adept at expressing her inner emotion than his.
“Thanks,” he said softly, carrying a cartload of unexpressed feelings like an overfilled wheelbarrow-with its contents trickling over the edges. For whatever difficulties they may have initially had, they were now steadfastly joined in solidarity.
Jack cleared his throat. “Now, speaking as Captain Subtext, I’d like to nominate a Vice President…”
Both Doctors turned to shame him into silence, but it had no effect. “Now you know why I’m always snuggling her,” he added cheekily to Ten.
The Tenth Doctor grinned, “Umm…Yes, and I think it may be contagious,” he said, and caught the Twelfth into a giant hug. “And before you think I haven’t noticed: Nice outfit! Looove the red shoes!”
After a few seconds of the hugging she peeled herself away from him, self-consciously. “Okay, okay, okay-you’re welcome! And, thank you! Now, if Doctor Appreciation Day is over, we have an apocalypse to stop. Shall we go through our checks?”
Ten nodded whilst Jack saluted. She rolled her eyes. “Retro-fitted Trap Box?”
“Check!” called Ten.
“Neural relay processor?”
“Check!” called Jack.
“Time Rotor insulation?”
Jack patted the outer casing of the Time Rotor-inside the clear tube was a black box where the bio-data/echoes of the past Doctors would reside once they were drawn off. The Time Rotor would provide a stasis of temporal grace, thus insulating the continuum from the paradox and preventing universal reality implosion. “Check!” called Jack.
“Personnel?”
“Check,” sang Ten.
“And check,” finished Jack.
“All right, kids-time for some Doctor catching!” said Twelve. “Who’s hungry?”
And with a flip of the parking break, they were off…
Pic by the fabulous akkajemo!
To be continued in Chapter 8: Long Time No See…