'You Can't Be Here' (11/35?)
Title: You Can't Be Here
Author: Time Phobia
Rating: PG
Characters: (this section: Jack, Ianto, Tenth Doctor)
Pairings: (series: Jack/Ianto)
Summary: The TARDIS takes off.
Timing: Post-CoE, Post-Waters of Mars
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or make a profit. They are owned, for the most part, by RTD and BBC.
Warning: Mentions of cannon character death. Don't worry. Death is only a beginning.
Author's Note (for series): I've got a long detailed spoiler-rific post here
The Doctor itched with impatience. He wanted to get the TARDIS moving, but he certainly couldn’t leave Ianto in this time frame. Never mind that Jack would throw a fit, though the Doctor was confident that Jack would get over it, but Ianto was just too dangerous to leave behind.
“Shouldn’t take him that much longer,” the Doctor mused as he stared at the monitor.
Jack glanced over the Doctor’s shoulder and saw the little dot moving along the street on the map. He asked, “You put a tracker in the thing?”
“In case he ran into trouble,” the Doctor informed him.
Three knocks on the TARDIS door frightened the Doctor. When a fourth didn’t follow, and Jack hurried to open the door, the Doctor scolded himself. All this talk about death and the Void had made him jumpier than he had been before.
Ianto looked a little pale. He and Jack were staring at each other as the Doctor started the TARDIS towards Minevra. The familiar whirring noise began. Jack and Ianto still hadn’t said anything and the Doctor realized, You’re communicating like mentally so I can’t hear you. I can’t trust either of you.
Suddenly, Ianto glared at the Doctor.
And you heard that, the Doctor continued.
“Yes.”
“You’re keeping secrets,” the Doctor said mentally. “And I’m guessing that’s your idea. Jack doesn’t hide anything from me.”
“You don’t know him as well as you think.”
“I know him better than you,” the Doctor returned.
“I seriously doubt that,” Ianto snapped.
Jack glanced between the two men. A desperate sigh escaped his lips. “Would you two stop?” he pleaded. “I think your arguing is going to wear me out and I didn’t think that was possible.”
“He started it,” the Doctor said childishly.
Jack threw up his hands and headed down the staircase and deeper into the TARDIS. Ianto followed immediately after him.
“I won’t let you use him like you did the TARDIS,” the Doctor threatened.
It felt like a sledgehammer swung straight into his mind. His head pounded. Slowly, the Doctor managed to sit up, only now noticing he’d been knocked flat on his back. His nose was bleeding just a trickle and the Doctor wiped the blood away.
Glancing up at the TARDIS, he murmured, “Should have listened to Jack. Well, I shouldn’t have been stupid enough to anger a super-being.”
Fear tickled at his mind. Just what was Ianto Jones becoming?
*-*
“You know, maybe I came down here to get away from both of you,” Jack snapped as he walked into the bedroom.
“Considering where our conversation was leading off--”
Jack sighed and turned back towards Ianto. “It’s not like I care,” Jack replied. “So you made out with past-me? I don’t think that qualifies as ‘cheating,’ do you?”
“I can sense your fear,” Ianto said.
“Would you at least not remind me every five minutes that there isn’t any kind of barrier between us?” Jack asked. He tapped his head. “Getting a little crowded in here on my own.”
I just need a minute, Jack thought desperately. I’ve got to make sense out of everything.
Ianto backed towards the door. “I’ll try talking to--”
The room shook violently. Jack caught himself as he was propelled towards the wall and Ianto gripped the door frame.
“What was that?” Ianto asked.
“No idea,” Jack replied.
Before Jack could suggest they go back to the Doctor, the room shook again. And again, even harder. “Come here,” Jack ordered, throwing an arm around Ianto and pulling him into the room. He slammed the door shut as the room started shaking again and this time kept on shaking.
Ianto clutched at Jack’s shoulder. “What’s happening?”
“My guess? We’re crashing.”
Suddenly, Ianto collapsed in Jack’s arms, screaming. Jack caught him, taking him down to the floor gently. Helpless, Jack held Ianto as he kept screaming.
*-*
The flight had been going normally. The Doctor didn’t know what happened to cause the sudden explosion at the controls, but he knew that if he didn’t get this contained, they’d be thrown off into the time vortex.
So he raced against the damage. Tried to stabilize her enough to pull them out, wherever and whenever they were. When she rocked, he grabbed onto the control panel, and when he barely had his balance, he kept moving.
Action. Instinct. And when he’d done everything he could, the Doctor held on for his life.
*-*
Crashing seemed to last forever. Jack held onto Ianto, grateful that the furniture wasn’t attacking them, but worried that Ianto still screamed.
The thud was distinctive. The normal lights went out, and instead the soft blue and red glows of the backup lights kicked on.
Just after the hard landing, Ianto stopped screaming. He clung to Jack’s arm and drew in long ragged breaths. “The TARDIS,” Ianto said breathlessly. “She was screaming. It hurt.”
Jack nodded and stroked Ianto’s cheek. “How are you?”
“Scared,” Ianto admitted. “Did we just crash somewhere?”
“Yeah, think so. Come on, we should go see if he’s okay.”
Nodding, Ianto slowly stood up.
They made their way through the long hallway, though they had to pick their way around the random objects that had slammed into the hall during the crash. An old exercise bike had come from some room and they had to move it to get through.
“Doctor?” Jack called out as they climbed up the final staircase.
“Here,” the Doctor shouted back. “You two alright?”
“Fine,” Jack answered. He hit the top stair and turned towards the Doctor. “What happened?”
“Not a clue,” the Doctor said. “Well, that’s not completely true. I haven’t been maintaining her as well as I used to. I thought she’d be good for a few more trips before I needed to do major work.”
Jack glanced around the ruined control room. The eerie blue emergency light didn’t help the view. “We’re not getting anywhere fast. Any idea where we ended up?”
“I was aiming at Minevra,” the Doctor told him. “But I don’t think we made it. The positioning system is offline. We won’t know where we are until we open the doors.”
“Is the force field still working?” Jack asked. “I don’t want us to end up opening the door into a vacuum.”
The Doctor ducked underneath the control panel and dragged out a long board. Using his sonic screwdriver, he examined the device. “Looks like it’s holding.”
“Then let’s see where we are,” Jack said. He headed for the door with Ianto and the Doctor not far behind him.
Bright sunlight and a sandy beach greeted them. The pale blue water wasn’t too far off. Brownish green shrubs littered the landscape and farther back from the water, a few trees hung onto life.
Jack stepped out onto the sand and glanced around. “I don’t believe this,” he whispered. He glanced back at the Doctor and Ianto with a confused frown. “I think it’s Boeshane.”
*-*
Ianto leaned around the edge of the TARDIS door to get a good look around. He’d seen Boeshane in Jack’s memories, and now he realized sometimes memories were nicer than reality.
“The Boeshane where you grew up?” the Doctor asked as he stepped out, squinting in the light.
“Yeah,” Jack replied. “But I don’t see any settlements. Must be before the colonies.”
“Anything dangerous out here?”
“Not really. Some coyotes, maybe,” Jack said.
“What about the Reapers?” Ianto asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think there would be,” Jack answered, though he didn’t look happy about discussing them. “They only attacked the larger settlements. Wouldn’t have any cause being here now.”
“Then we’ll be relatively safe while we fix the TARDIS,” the Doctor said. “Come on.”
Jack and the Doctor reentered the TARDIS. Ianto was about to pull the door shut when he felt someone shove him. Thrown off-balance, Ianto had to take a step outside. He whirled around to see the Doctor standing in his way.
“Stay out here,” the Doctor ordered.
“Why?” Ianto demanded.
“You come out of the Void, you attach yourself to Jack, you convince the TARDIS to bring you back to life, she takes us to a past-Jack, and now we’ve landed on Jack’s homeworld. That’s an awful amount of coincidences, and I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“You think I had something to do with the crash?” Ianto snapped.
“Did you?” The Doctor tried to stare him down.
“No,” Ianto insisted.
“Still, stay out here while we work,” the Doctor said.
Ianto glanced at Jack and saw the other man’s apologetic face. He felt the color drain out of his face. “You’re siding with him?” Ianto screamed internally at Jack.
Jack flinched, but didn’t answer.
“What am I supposed to do out here? Stare at the ocean?” Ianto asked the Doctor hotly.
The Doctor picked up a metal box from beside the door and Ianto noticed the funny symbol on the top. “Here,” the Doctor offered. “Read a book. Or a million.”
And after handing the archive to Ianto, the Doctor slammed the door shut.
Ianto stared at the cold metal box in his hands. It shifted shape and looked like a gray rock the size of his palm. The strange symbol still glared up at him from the top of the rock. The Seal of Rassilon, he suddenly recalled.
“Could have at least told me how to open it,” Ianto muttered as he sat down in the TARDIS’s shadow.
Slowly, he fingered the seal, looping along the infinity symbol. Something sharp stuck him and he dropped the rock with a stifled cry of surprise.
A hologram projected up from the center of the seal. Letters appeared, reading off, “Huon particles detected. Skin cell sample taken. Analyzing.” A moment passed and the letters changed. “Unregistered Time Lord. Limited Access Permitted. Contact the Librarian for full access.”
A key pad projected up from the rock. A search engine is a search engine, Ianto thought with a grin. Now all he had to do was figure out which books he could access.
Onto Part 12