Split Screen - 2/3
Title: Split Screen - 2/3
Characters: Ten, Donna, Jack Harkness
Summary: The Shadow Proclamation, who won two fics during the Support Stacie auction. The first was: Brave New World, in which Rose was allowed to choose between Ten and the human Doctor. This is the story of what happened to the Doctor after Rose decided to stay with 10.5.
Rating: PG
Beta: the excellent nattieb
One
Captain Jack Harkness stands in the middle of the Torchwood Hub. His arms are crossed against his chest and his legs are braced far apart, as if he’s getting ready for a confrontation. He looks just the same as the last time the Doctor saw him, of course, down to the blue shirt and dark trousers.
“Captain,” the Doctor says tersely with a nod of acknowledgement. He walks around Jack and strides over to Donna. Kneeling down, he spots the sonic screwdriver a few inches away from Donna’s outstretched hand. He tucks it back into his pocket and shoves aside Jack’s Torchwood colleagues.
“Donna. Look at me.” He’s aware that his voice sounds harsh, but he’s almost shaking with fear that it’s too late. He sets his fingers on her temples, ready to delete those memories that her human brain cannot contain.
“She’s in some sort of distress,” the man kneeling beside him states. “She needs medical help.”
“Ianto, isn’t it?” the Doctor asks absently.
“Ianto Jones.” Ianto can’t help staring at the Doctor. He’s heard so much about this almost-mythic person, and he knows first-hand what the Doctor is capable of achieving. He sneaks a look over at Jack, who has eyes only for the Doctor.
“What’s happened?” Jack asks. He’s relaxed his stance, but he’s still full of tension. The Doctor doesn’t just appear in The Hub for no reason. “Doctor? What’s going on?”
There’s no response, and Gwen and Ianto both look to Jack. He shakes his head briefly.
“He knows what he has to do.”
The Doctor blocks out the sound of their voices and closes his eyes. Donna’s brain is shutting down. She’s absorbed his Time Lord mind into her consciousness, and no human being can live with all of that knowledge. If he doesn’t remove it she’ll die.
Donna knew this. Donna ran because of it. In order to save her, he will have to erase her memories of him and everything they’ve done together. He will lose her friendship, but she will have her life. It’s a price he’s willing to pay.
Donna isn’t so willing.
Just as the Doctor gathers his thoughts and starts to focus, his hands are knocked away from Donna’s head.
“You miserable bastard,” she says in a weak whisper. “Don’t you dare.”
“Donna-”
Ignoring him, she looks around. “Ha! Torchwood. Knew I could fly the TARDIS better than you.” She motions to Jack, though the movement sends hundreds of sharp tiny knives through her head.
“Captain Jack. Help me up, handsome.”
Jack moves quickly to give her a hand. Ianto hurries to help her on the other side. Donna sways as she stands, leaning against Jack for balance. She wishes she wasn’t in so much pain the first time she’s in full bodily contact with him.
“You all right?” Jack asks, peering down at her.
“No, she’s not all right!” the Doctor snaps. “She’s got my mind inside her head and it’s killing her.”
“And what does he want to do about?” Donna asks the room in general in a mocking tone. “Give me a giant mind-wipe so I don’t remember anything!”
Jack’s Torchwood colleagues look appalled.
“Wipe your mind?” Gwen repeats. “Is that possible?”
“It’s that or death,” the Doctor says impatiently.
“Well, we can’t let you die, Donna,” Jack says, glancing at the Doctor.
“No one is gonna die!” Donna exclaims. “That’s why I came here.”
“And how is Torchwood going to help this?” the Doctor demands in exasperation. Honestly, the woman never changes, even on the brink of death with his entire mind burning her own mind up. He doesn’t know whether to force her to let him take care of this or smile at her proudly. Even on the brink of death, Donna Noble is magnificent.
Donna takes a deep breath, trying to steady her thoughts against the onslaught of pain.
“There’s a way,” she manages. “Here. In the Torchwood archives, there’s a device.”
“Which one?” Jack demands.
“What can you possibly know about the Torchwood archives?” the Doctor demands at the same time.
“A red box,” Donna says, eyes closed and still holding on to Jack. “45 centimeters wide, about the same tall. It’s got...it’s got black marks on it.”
Jack turns to his fellow workers. “Ianto.”
“Going now,” Ianto says, and disappears.
“You,” Donna says. “I need the Chameleon Arch.” Her eyes are closed but she’s pointing in the Doctor’s general direction.
“You know it’s attached to the TARDIS,” the Doctor says, even as he heads for the ship. “Jack, help her on. What are you planning, Donna?”
She smiles faintly. “Not sure, to be honest. But we’d better hurry, because my head’s on fire.” She sways unsteadily, and Jack gives in and lifts her into his arms. Donna has a momentary mental image of the two of them, her swooning against his chest, posed like the cover of a romance novel. She smiles despite the massive headache.
“Take me, I’m yours,” she murmurs.
Jack blinks, not sure he’s heard her correctly. “What?”
“Into the TARDIS,” the Doctor says impatiently.
Donna snuggles against Jack’s chest. He smells divine.
“You have no romance in your soul,” she tells the Doctor.
“I...what...you don’t,” the Doctor sputters.
“Here we go,” Jack says, and walks inside the ship, shaking his head.
Gwen has joined Ianto in the depths of the Torchwood building.
“Have you found it?” she asks anxiously, pushing aside boxes and looking around.
“We have five things matching Donna’s description on file,” he responds. “Three so far have not been the exact match.”
Jack’s voice crackles through on their headsets.
“She says you’ll know it when you see it. And hurry.”
“Last one,” Ianto says nervously, unlocking a vault. He reaches in and pulls out the contents. He and Gwen stare down at it.
“Size is right,” she murmurs.
“Red with black markings,” he agrees. “This is it. Let’s go.”
The Doctor meets them at the TARDIS doors and takes the box.
“What’s in it?” he asks.
“We didn’t look,” Ianto answers.
“Just as well. Could be anything. You two stay out here,” the Doctor commands when Ianto and Gwen look like they’d like to join the others in the TARDIS. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I can regenerate and Jack would survive, but you two wouldn’t be so lucky if something explodes.”
“Something?” Gwen questions.
“Explodes?” Ianto says sharply, trying to look beyond the Doctor into the TARDIS.
The looks uncomfortable. “Or someone. That never happens. Well, almost never. On a rare occasion, someone in the wrong place emitting the wrong sort of frequency might -” He abruptly breaks off as he realizes his words are not precisely what people want to hear at a time like this. “Be back as soon as we’re done!” He promises insincerely, and the TARDIS vanishes.
“Where are we going?” Jack asks as he helps Donna sit down on the jump seat. “What did you tell Ianto and Gwen?”
The Doctor sets the box down. “Don’t worry. We’ll be right back. Told them not to worry.”
“As if you could find the right time and place again,” Donna murmurs.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. All right! Chameleon Arch is down! What’s in the box?”
Donna shrugs. “Don’t know.”
“You don’t?” the men chorus.
“I saw it. In my head,” she explains.
“What is it?” the Doctor asks.
“I don’t know! I just saw it and knew that that’s what I need.”
“You just saw it,” the Doctor states. “In your head.”
“Yeah.” Donna sounds like seeing images of unknown objects is a perfectly normal occurrence. In fact, it’s a great deal more normal than having her own mind go up in flames, but you can’t always choose the strange phenomenon that happens to you.
“Could it be something from your home planet?” Jack asks the Doctor.
The Doctor is studying the box. “I would know if it was. It doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen.”
“How else would she know about it, though? If your mind is in there with hers, doesn’t she know everything you do?”
“In theory, yes.”
“Oh, in practice, too,” Donna can’t help assuring them both. “You would not believe some of the stuff he’s been carrying around. I had no idea.”
“Oh, yeah?” Jack asks with a grin.
The Doctor ignores them and opens the box. Inside is a complicated metal device.
“That came through the Rift,” Jack says in recognition. “We studied it for a while but we couldn’t determine anything.”
The Doctor nods absently and puts on his glasses. “Was it emitting any radiation or energy?” He points the sonic screwdriver at it.
“None that we could measure.” Jack and the Doctor hunch over the box, apparently fascinated by the mystery it presents.
“Get the Arch,” Donna snaps, “if you’re both done talking while my brain boils!”
Jack jumps. The Doctor obeys and pulls the Chameleon Arch down.
“All right,” he says. “Now what?” His voice is calm but he’s not feeling calm at all. He’s worried and nervous and afraid that Donna will die before she can do what she thinks will save her life.
“Put it on my head. My head. My head. My head.” Donna winces as she tries to control her speech.
“Donna, are you okay?” Jack asks anxiously.
“Fine! Fine, fine, fine.”
The Doctor tries to touch Donna’s face. “Let me-”
“Do it,” Donna manages to whisper. “Please.”
“Donna, this will make you forget - this will be worse than what I would do-”
Donna makes a last effort to get control of herself. By sheer force of will, she gets the words out. “Stuff it, spaceman! Put it on. Now take that thing and attach it to the side wires on the Arch.”
“What?”
“Do it!” she screeches.
Swallowing, he does. “We don’t have time to invent a story to explain your memory loss, what’s happened -”
“We don’t need a cover story. It won’t work the usual way. Flick on the Arch. Now turn the switch on the box.”
“We don’t know what this is, Donna,” Jack says urgently. “We can’t just play around with alien tech.”
The Doctor glances at him. “I’ve never heard that attitude from you before.”
“Alien tech is one thing,” Jack says impatiently. “Unknown alien tech is something else.”
“For the love of - do it!” And Donna turns on the Arch herself. She screams, and Jack and the Doctor stand there, transfixed. Sparks fly from the alien red box, travel down the wires and into the Chameleon Arch. Donna’s eyes are screwed shut, her mouth open in a grimace of extreme pain.
“It’s killing her!” Jack protests.
“Don’t touch her now! The process has started.” The Doctor watches in agony. His way of helping Donna would have robbed her of her memories, but she would have remained alive. He’s not at all sure what will happen here with this foreign device.
All they can do is stand there, waiting for the sparks to stop flying. Finally Donna falls back in her seat, unconscious. The Doctor tentatively removes the Arch from her head and removes the wires that are attaching it to the box.
“Now what?” Jack asks with his eyes fixed on Donna. His voice is hushed, like he’s at the side of someone’s deathbed.
The Doctor quickly scans her with the sonic screwdriver. She’s alive and breathing, vitals registering as normal.
“Now we wait,” he says finally. “We’ll know when she wakes up.”
“We’ll know what?”
“If it worked.”
“What if it didn’t?”
The Doctor frowns. “Help me move her into the infirmary,” is all he says.
Donna is unconscious for a long time. Jack paces around the console room, going into the infirmary to check on Donna every now and then.
“Shouldn’t we be in there with her?” he asks.
The Doctor makes a small sound of denial. “Nothing to be done until she wakes up. The TARDIS is letting me know how she’s doing.”
“I know that,” Jack says impatiently, and continues to pace around.
The Doctor uses the time to try and trace the origins of the red box. The TARDIS computer has a far greater store of information than the Torchwood computers could ever hope to.
“I don’t believe it,” the Doctor says, an hour after Donna went unconscious. “I found it. This really is alien technology.”
Jack jumps to his side to peer at the computer. “Was there ever a doubt?” The TARDIS declines to translate for him, so all he sees are the circles and swirls of the Doctor’s native language.
“What is it?” he asks.
“This is a memory regulator,” the Doctor says. “It works much like the Arch, only not as radical. The Arch is capable to turning a Time Lord into a human being. It changes every cell in the body. The only problem is that it takes all memories of being a Time Lord along with it. The regulator appears to remove only the memories you want removed. It leaves the structure of the cells intact.”
“You’re kidding.” Jack eyes the device with a newfound respect. “You get to choose what you want to forget? People would kill for something like that.”
“Yes, wouldn’t they?” The Doctor fixes Jack with a stern look. “It’s too dangerous to stay at Torchwood. I’ll keep it here.”
“Isn’t it too dangerous for you?” Jack asks pointedly.
The Doctor’s mouth tightens. “I have far too many memories that would need to be removed. No device is that powerful.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Jack says quickly. He’d grown up thinking the Time War was just an ancient myth until he’d met the Doctor. Since reading all the information Torchwood had collected on the Time Lord, he’s gained a newfound respect for what the Doctor has done, and he knows how much the past pains him.
“It’s okay. Tell me, Jack, how long has it been since we last saw each other?”
Jack is puzzled by the question. “Since...the last time? Since we saved the universe and towed the Earth home?”
“Yes. That time.”
Jack thinks a moment and shrugs. “About a year.”
“A year,” the Doctor murmurs. “It was only moments for us.”
Jack nods, glancing around the TARDIS. “Since the last time I saw you? Were you two alone?”
The Doctor knows what he is asking, and he clears his throat and nods. “It’s just Donna and me. We left Rose behind with her mother on the parallel world.”
“She didn’t look like someone who was planning to stay behind,” Jack says cautiously. “It looked like she was here to stay. I mean, she did cross across several parallel dimensions to find you.” He raises his hands off the look the Doctor gives him. “Hey, I’m just sayin’.”
“She had other incentives this time,” the Doctor says shortly, and Jack puts two and two together.
“She stayed with her family?”
“Yes.”
“And...the other Doctor?” Jack has not forgotten the other Doctor. The image of two Doctors at once has stayed with him.
“He’s human,” the Doctor says shortly. “She wanted to stay with him.”
“Really stay with him, or stay with him like I wanted to stay on the Game Station?” Jack has great and profound love and respect for the Doctor, but some things just need to be said.
The Doctor glares at him, but Jack stands his ground.
“I love Rose, too,” he states. “I deserve to know.”
The Doctor runs a hand through his hair. “I gave her a choice. She chose. She’ll be happy.”
Jack looks down at the floor, unable to handle the pain he saw flashing in the Doctor’s face. “I’m sorry.”
“She’ll be safe and happy,” the Doctor says again. “That’s what I want for her.”
Jack doesn’t know what to say to that. He never would have thought that Rose would choose someone else over the Doctor, but he hadn’t seen Rose in a long time before she came back to this world. Maybe being on a parallel world has changed her more than he’d thought.
Just then the computer beeps an alert, and on the monitor that shows them the infirmary, Donna stirs on the bed. Their attention quickly swings to her and both men rush to her side.
“Did it work?” Donna asks in a weak whisper as the Doctor checks the various monitors.
The Doctor is rather annoyed with the question. “You tell me. I still don’t understand what you were doing.”
Donna struggles to sit up and appears to be thinking of something complex.
“Go on. Ask me a question.”
“Who’s the Prime Minister?” Jack says promptly.
“Something useful. And difficult.”
“What is the chemical composition of hafnium?” the Doctor asks.
“Come on! Something harder than that! It’s...” And Donna is stumped. All of the Time Lord memories and knowledge she once had are gone. She can no longer access them.
“I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know.” She looks up at the Doctor, who is watching her very closely.
“You don’t remember? You really don’t know?”
“I don’t even know what hafnium is. I know that Brad and Angelina are still together. I know that the new Harry Potter movie is coming out soon. And Charles is married to Camilla.”
“Yeah, but anything useful?” Jack can’t help asking.
But the Doctor is grinning ear to ear. “Donna, you’re back!”
“I told you I knew what to do!” Donna says triumphantly.
“Yes, but how did you know the regulator was at Torchwood?”
“I ...don’t know. I saw it. In my head. And I knew what to do with it.”
Jack is thinking hard. “I had your hand in a jar for years,” he says slowly. “It was on my desk. I kept the regulator right next to it for weeks while we tried to work out what it was.”
Donna starts to laugh. “Well, that’s silly.”
“What is?” the Doctor asks.
“Come on! The hand on the desk. Your hand. Part of me went into that part of you and grew another you. He had your memories and something from me. But how could I get anything from him?”
“You couldn’t. It’s not possible.”
“And yet how else would she know about that device?” Jack asks.
“He knew,” Donna says. “Somehow he knew what that was, and he remembered it.”
“He started out as a hand,” the Doctor says. “My hand. It could not have possibly absorbed any information at all. It wasn’t alive.”
“Well, I kept it alive,” Jack disagrees. “In that solution. Not alive alive, but it would have decomposed, wouldn’t it? The tissue would have been destroyed.”
“You two are insane,” the Doctor says positively. “Absolutely insane.”
“What else could it have been?” Donna bursts out. “Tell us, then.”
“I...it... oh, for the love of-” The Doctor throws up his hands and walks away.
“Maybe it wasn’t just part of me that went into that hand to create the human Doctor,” Donna whispers. “Maybe part of that hand came into me.”
“I think he’s figured that out,” Jack agrees. “You doing anything for dinner? I know this great little cafe on Zebulon Nine.”
Three
Characters: Ten, Donna, Jack Harkness
Summary: The Shadow Proclamation, who won two fics during the Support Stacie auction. The first was: Brave New World, in which Rose was allowed to choose between Ten and the human Doctor. This is the story of what happened to the Doctor after Rose decided to stay with 10.5.
Rating: PG
Beta: the excellent nattieb
One
Captain Jack Harkness stands in the middle of the Torchwood Hub. His arms are crossed against his chest and his legs are braced far apart, as if he’s getting ready for a confrontation. He looks just the same as the last time the Doctor saw him, of course, down to the blue shirt and dark trousers.
“Captain,” the Doctor says tersely with a nod of acknowledgement. He walks around Jack and strides over to Donna. Kneeling down, he spots the sonic screwdriver a few inches away from Donna’s outstretched hand. He tucks it back into his pocket and shoves aside Jack’s Torchwood colleagues.
“Donna. Look at me.” He’s aware that his voice sounds harsh, but he’s almost shaking with fear that it’s too late. He sets his fingers on her temples, ready to delete those memories that her human brain cannot contain.
“She’s in some sort of distress,” the man kneeling beside him states. “She needs medical help.”
“Ianto, isn’t it?” the Doctor asks absently.
“Ianto Jones.” Ianto can’t help staring at the Doctor. He’s heard so much about this almost-mythic person, and he knows first-hand what the Doctor is capable of achieving. He sneaks a look over at Jack, who has eyes only for the Doctor.
“What’s happened?” Jack asks. He’s relaxed his stance, but he’s still full of tension. The Doctor doesn’t just appear in The Hub for no reason. “Doctor? What’s going on?”
There’s no response, and Gwen and Ianto both look to Jack. He shakes his head briefly.
“He knows what he has to do.”
The Doctor blocks out the sound of their voices and closes his eyes. Donna’s brain is shutting down. She’s absorbed his Time Lord mind into her consciousness, and no human being can live with all of that knowledge. If he doesn’t remove it she’ll die.
Donna knew this. Donna ran because of it. In order to save her, he will have to erase her memories of him and everything they’ve done together. He will lose her friendship, but she will have her life. It’s a price he’s willing to pay.
Donna isn’t so willing.
Just as the Doctor gathers his thoughts and starts to focus, his hands are knocked away from Donna’s head.
“You miserable bastard,” she says in a weak whisper. “Don’t you dare.”
“Donna-”
Ignoring him, she looks around. “Ha! Torchwood. Knew I could fly the TARDIS better than you.” She motions to Jack, though the movement sends hundreds of sharp tiny knives through her head.
“Captain Jack. Help me up, handsome.”
Jack moves quickly to give her a hand. Ianto hurries to help her on the other side. Donna sways as she stands, leaning against Jack for balance. She wishes she wasn’t in so much pain the first time she’s in full bodily contact with him.
“You all right?” Jack asks, peering down at her.
“No, she’s not all right!” the Doctor snaps. “She’s got my mind inside her head and it’s killing her.”
“And what does he want to do about?” Donna asks the room in general in a mocking tone. “Give me a giant mind-wipe so I don’t remember anything!”
Jack’s Torchwood colleagues look appalled.
“Wipe your mind?” Gwen repeats. “Is that possible?”
“It’s that or death,” the Doctor says impatiently.
“Well, we can’t let you die, Donna,” Jack says, glancing at the Doctor.
“No one is gonna die!” Donna exclaims. “That’s why I came here.”
“And how is Torchwood going to help this?” the Doctor demands in exasperation. Honestly, the woman never changes, even on the brink of death with his entire mind burning her own mind up. He doesn’t know whether to force her to let him take care of this or smile at her proudly. Even on the brink of death, Donna Noble is magnificent.
Donna takes a deep breath, trying to steady her thoughts against the onslaught of pain.
“There’s a way,” she manages. “Here. In the Torchwood archives, there’s a device.”
“Which one?” Jack demands.
“What can you possibly know about the Torchwood archives?” the Doctor demands at the same time.
“A red box,” Donna says, eyes closed and still holding on to Jack. “45 centimeters wide, about the same tall. It’s got...it’s got black marks on it.”
Jack turns to his fellow workers. “Ianto.”
“Going now,” Ianto says, and disappears.
“You,” Donna says. “I need the Chameleon Arch.” Her eyes are closed but she’s pointing in the Doctor’s general direction.
“You know it’s attached to the TARDIS,” the Doctor says, even as he heads for the ship. “Jack, help her on. What are you planning, Donna?”
She smiles faintly. “Not sure, to be honest. But we’d better hurry, because my head’s on fire.” She sways unsteadily, and Jack gives in and lifts her into his arms. Donna has a momentary mental image of the two of them, her swooning against his chest, posed like the cover of a romance novel. She smiles despite the massive headache.
“Take me, I’m yours,” she murmurs.
Jack blinks, not sure he’s heard her correctly. “What?”
“Into the TARDIS,” the Doctor says impatiently.
Donna snuggles against Jack’s chest. He smells divine.
“You have no romance in your soul,” she tells the Doctor.
“I...what...you don’t,” the Doctor sputters.
“Here we go,” Jack says, and walks inside the ship, shaking his head.
Gwen has joined Ianto in the depths of the Torchwood building.
“Have you found it?” she asks anxiously, pushing aside boxes and looking around.
“We have five things matching Donna’s description on file,” he responds. “Three so far have not been the exact match.”
Jack’s voice crackles through on their headsets.
“She says you’ll know it when you see it. And hurry.”
“Last one,” Ianto says nervously, unlocking a vault. He reaches in and pulls out the contents. He and Gwen stare down at it.
“Size is right,” she murmurs.
“Red with black markings,” he agrees. “This is it. Let’s go.”
The Doctor meets them at the TARDIS doors and takes the box.
“What’s in it?” he asks.
“We didn’t look,” Ianto answers.
“Just as well. Could be anything. You two stay out here,” the Doctor commands when Ianto and Gwen look like they’d like to join the others in the TARDIS. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I can regenerate and Jack would survive, but you two wouldn’t be so lucky if something explodes.”
“Something?” Gwen questions.
“Explodes?” Ianto says sharply, trying to look beyond the Doctor into the TARDIS.
The looks uncomfortable. “Or someone. That never happens. Well, almost never. On a rare occasion, someone in the wrong place emitting the wrong sort of frequency might -” He abruptly breaks off as he realizes his words are not precisely what people want to hear at a time like this. “Be back as soon as we’re done!” He promises insincerely, and the TARDIS vanishes.
“Where are we going?” Jack asks as he helps Donna sit down on the jump seat. “What did you tell Ianto and Gwen?”
The Doctor sets the box down. “Don’t worry. We’ll be right back. Told them not to worry.”
“As if you could find the right time and place again,” Donna murmurs.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. All right! Chameleon Arch is down! What’s in the box?”
Donna shrugs. “Don’t know.”
“You don’t?” the men chorus.
“I saw it. In my head,” she explains.
“What is it?” the Doctor asks.
“I don’t know! I just saw it and knew that that’s what I need.”
“You just saw it,” the Doctor states. “In your head.”
“Yeah.” Donna sounds like seeing images of unknown objects is a perfectly normal occurrence. In fact, it’s a great deal more normal than having her own mind go up in flames, but you can’t always choose the strange phenomenon that happens to you.
“Could it be something from your home planet?” Jack asks the Doctor.
The Doctor is studying the box. “I would know if it was. It doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen.”
“How else would she know about it, though? If your mind is in there with hers, doesn’t she know everything you do?”
“In theory, yes.”
“Oh, in practice, too,” Donna can’t help assuring them both. “You would not believe some of the stuff he’s been carrying around. I had no idea.”
“Oh, yeah?” Jack asks with a grin.
The Doctor ignores them and opens the box. Inside is a complicated metal device.
“That came through the Rift,” Jack says in recognition. “We studied it for a while but we couldn’t determine anything.”
The Doctor nods absently and puts on his glasses. “Was it emitting any radiation or energy?” He points the sonic screwdriver at it.
“None that we could measure.” Jack and the Doctor hunch over the box, apparently fascinated by the mystery it presents.
“Get the Arch,” Donna snaps, “if you’re both done talking while my brain boils!”
Jack jumps. The Doctor obeys and pulls the Chameleon Arch down.
“All right,” he says. “Now what?” His voice is calm but he’s not feeling calm at all. He’s worried and nervous and afraid that Donna will die before she can do what she thinks will save her life.
“Put it on my head. My head. My head. My head.” Donna winces as she tries to control her speech.
“Donna, are you okay?” Jack asks anxiously.
“Fine! Fine, fine, fine.”
The Doctor tries to touch Donna’s face. “Let me-”
“Do it,” Donna manages to whisper. “Please.”
“Donna, this will make you forget - this will be worse than what I would do-”
Donna makes a last effort to get control of herself. By sheer force of will, she gets the words out. “Stuff it, spaceman! Put it on. Now take that thing and attach it to the side wires on the Arch.”
“What?”
“Do it!” she screeches.
Swallowing, he does. “We don’t have time to invent a story to explain your memory loss, what’s happened -”
“We don’t need a cover story. It won’t work the usual way. Flick on the Arch. Now turn the switch on the box.”
“We don’t know what this is, Donna,” Jack says urgently. “We can’t just play around with alien tech.”
The Doctor glances at him. “I’ve never heard that attitude from you before.”
“Alien tech is one thing,” Jack says impatiently. “Unknown alien tech is something else.”
“For the love of - do it!” And Donna turns on the Arch herself. She screams, and Jack and the Doctor stand there, transfixed. Sparks fly from the alien red box, travel down the wires and into the Chameleon Arch. Donna’s eyes are screwed shut, her mouth open in a grimace of extreme pain.
“It’s killing her!” Jack protests.
“Don’t touch her now! The process has started.” The Doctor watches in agony. His way of helping Donna would have robbed her of her memories, but she would have remained alive. He’s not at all sure what will happen here with this foreign device.
All they can do is stand there, waiting for the sparks to stop flying. Finally Donna falls back in her seat, unconscious. The Doctor tentatively removes the Arch from her head and removes the wires that are attaching it to the box.
“Now what?” Jack asks with his eyes fixed on Donna. His voice is hushed, like he’s at the side of someone’s deathbed.
The Doctor quickly scans her with the sonic screwdriver. She’s alive and breathing, vitals registering as normal.
“Now we wait,” he says finally. “We’ll know when she wakes up.”
“We’ll know what?”
“If it worked.”
“What if it didn’t?”
The Doctor frowns. “Help me move her into the infirmary,” is all he says.
Donna is unconscious for a long time. Jack paces around the console room, going into the infirmary to check on Donna every now and then.
“Shouldn’t we be in there with her?” he asks.
The Doctor makes a small sound of denial. “Nothing to be done until she wakes up. The TARDIS is letting me know how she’s doing.”
“I know that,” Jack says impatiently, and continues to pace around.
The Doctor uses the time to try and trace the origins of the red box. The TARDIS computer has a far greater store of information than the Torchwood computers could ever hope to.
“I don’t believe it,” the Doctor says, an hour after Donna went unconscious. “I found it. This really is alien technology.”
Jack jumps to his side to peer at the computer. “Was there ever a doubt?” The TARDIS declines to translate for him, so all he sees are the circles and swirls of the Doctor’s native language.
“What is it?” he asks.
“This is a memory regulator,” the Doctor says. “It works much like the Arch, only not as radical. The Arch is capable to turning a Time Lord into a human being. It changes every cell in the body. The only problem is that it takes all memories of being a Time Lord along with it. The regulator appears to remove only the memories you want removed. It leaves the structure of the cells intact.”
“You’re kidding.” Jack eyes the device with a newfound respect. “You get to choose what you want to forget? People would kill for something like that.”
“Yes, wouldn’t they?” The Doctor fixes Jack with a stern look. “It’s too dangerous to stay at Torchwood. I’ll keep it here.”
“Isn’t it too dangerous for you?” Jack asks pointedly.
The Doctor’s mouth tightens. “I have far too many memories that would need to be removed. No device is that powerful.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Jack says quickly. He’d grown up thinking the Time War was just an ancient myth until he’d met the Doctor. Since reading all the information Torchwood had collected on the Time Lord, he’s gained a newfound respect for what the Doctor has done, and he knows how much the past pains him.
“It’s okay. Tell me, Jack, how long has it been since we last saw each other?”
Jack is puzzled by the question. “Since...the last time? Since we saved the universe and towed the Earth home?”
“Yes. That time.”
Jack thinks a moment and shrugs. “About a year.”
“A year,” the Doctor murmurs. “It was only moments for us.”
Jack nods, glancing around the TARDIS. “Since the last time I saw you? Were you two alone?”
The Doctor knows what he is asking, and he clears his throat and nods. “It’s just Donna and me. We left Rose behind with her mother on the parallel world.”
“She didn’t look like someone who was planning to stay behind,” Jack says cautiously. “It looked like she was here to stay. I mean, she did cross across several parallel dimensions to find you.” He raises his hands off the look the Doctor gives him. “Hey, I’m just sayin’.”
“She had other incentives this time,” the Doctor says shortly, and Jack puts two and two together.
“She stayed with her family?”
“Yes.”
“And...the other Doctor?” Jack has not forgotten the other Doctor. The image of two Doctors at once has stayed with him.
“He’s human,” the Doctor says shortly. “She wanted to stay with him.”
“Really stay with him, or stay with him like I wanted to stay on the Game Station?” Jack has great and profound love and respect for the Doctor, but some things just need to be said.
The Doctor glares at him, but Jack stands his ground.
“I love Rose, too,” he states. “I deserve to know.”
The Doctor runs a hand through his hair. “I gave her a choice. She chose. She’ll be happy.”
Jack looks down at the floor, unable to handle the pain he saw flashing in the Doctor’s face. “I’m sorry.”
“She’ll be safe and happy,” the Doctor says again. “That’s what I want for her.”
Jack doesn’t know what to say to that. He never would have thought that Rose would choose someone else over the Doctor, but he hadn’t seen Rose in a long time before she came back to this world. Maybe being on a parallel world has changed her more than he’d thought.
Just then the computer beeps an alert, and on the monitor that shows them the infirmary, Donna stirs on the bed. Their attention quickly swings to her and both men rush to her side.
“Did it work?” Donna asks in a weak whisper as the Doctor checks the various monitors.
The Doctor is rather annoyed with the question. “You tell me. I still don’t understand what you were doing.”
Donna struggles to sit up and appears to be thinking of something complex.
“Go on. Ask me a question.”
“Who’s the Prime Minister?” Jack says promptly.
“Something useful. And difficult.”
“What is the chemical composition of hafnium?” the Doctor asks.
“Come on! Something harder than that! It’s...” And Donna is stumped. All of the Time Lord memories and knowledge she once had are gone. She can no longer access them.
“I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know.” She looks up at the Doctor, who is watching her very closely.
“You don’t remember? You really don’t know?”
“I don’t even know what hafnium is. I know that Brad and Angelina are still together. I know that the new Harry Potter movie is coming out soon. And Charles is married to Camilla.”
“Yeah, but anything useful?” Jack can’t help asking.
But the Doctor is grinning ear to ear. “Donna, you’re back!”
“I told you I knew what to do!” Donna says triumphantly.
“Yes, but how did you know the regulator was at Torchwood?”
“I ...don’t know. I saw it. In my head. And I knew what to do with it.”
Jack is thinking hard. “I had your hand in a jar for years,” he says slowly. “It was on my desk. I kept the regulator right next to it for weeks while we tried to work out what it was.”
Donna starts to laugh. “Well, that’s silly.”
“What is?” the Doctor asks.
“Come on! The hand on the desk. Your hand. Part of me went into that part of you and grew another you. He had your memories and something from me. But how could I get anything from him?”
“You couldn’t. It’s not possible.”
“And yet how else would she know about that device?” Jack asks.
“He knew,” Donna says. “Somehow he knew what that was, and he remembered it.”
“He started out as a hand,” the Doctor says. “My hand. It could not have possibly absorbed any information at all. It wasn’t alive.”
“Well, I kept it alive,” Jack disagrees. “In that solution. Not alive alive, but it would have decomposed, wouldn’t it? The tissue would have been destroyed.”
“You two are insane,” the Doctor says positively. “Absolutely insane.”
“What else could it have been?” Donna bursts out. “Tell us, then.”
“I...it... oh, for the love of-” The Doctor throws up his hands and walks away.
“Maybe it wasn’t just part of me that went into that hand to create the human Doctor,” Donna whispers. “Maybe part of that hand came into me.”
“I think he’s figured that out,” Jack agrees. “You doing anything for dinner? I know this great little cafe on Zebulon Nine.”
Three