Heavenly Hosts Sing Alleluia
Title: Heavenly Hosts Sing Alleluia
Author: tellshannon815
Fandom: Doctor Who
Gift for: moon_blitz
Characters/Pairing: Jack/Alonso, Amy/Rory, Eleven, OMC, Bayldon Copper, River Song.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6,116
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They own me.
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers mostly for Voyage of the Damned, The End of Time, A Christmas Carol.
Summary: When the Doctor takes Amy and Rory on their honeymoon, the TARDIS brings them to the spaceship where Alonso Frame has started his first job since the Titanic disaster. With Jack by his side, Alonso's determined the voyage will go well, but the Doctor has his doubts about why this firm recruited Alonso.
Author’s Note: Thanks to aurilly for the beta. Also sorry it's so long, and hope you don't mind that Alonso kind of took over the fic!
“I’m still not sure about this.” Alonso Frame took one last look at himself in the mirror. After the whole business with Max Capricorn, he still had his doubts about returning to another spaceship cruiser. He had been out of work for the past two years; people took one look at his resume, spotted that Alonso’s last place of work was the Titanic, and all of a sudden it was “don’t call us, we’ll call you”. Finally, a new outfit called Hircus Tours had decided to give him a chance.
“Oh, come on!” Jack Harkness replied, “You’re gonna be fine. And as I’ve told you before, anyone who judges you for what happened back then is an idiot. You were the only one who came out of that in a good light. You tried to save everyone on that ship.”
“But I couldn’t save them all,” Alonso sighed.
“Do you still see them?” Jack asked. “I thought you hadn’t had that nightmare in a while.”
“Finding out I’d got this job with Hircus Tours brought it all back.” He’d had that nightmare a lot after returning to Sto, where he was back in the engine room, hearing everyone on board screaming, and knowing that there was nothing he could do to prevent the collision with Earth. The nightmares had eased off after the first year, and Alonso knew that Jack had a lot to do with that. Jack had asked at one point whether Alonso was sure he’d made the right decision in choosing to go back to the ships, but Alonso had been determined to lay that ghost to rest.
“Nothing is going to happen, Alonso,” Jack attempted to reassure him. “I’d see it if anything was going to. Instead, I see you getting that ship home safely.” Alonso managed a chuckle at their shared in-joke. “Besides, I’m not gonna let it. I’ve lost too many people already,” he went on, and Alonso knew he was thinking about Owen and Toshiko and Ianto. “There is no way I’m losing you too.”
“Well, if nothing is going to happen,” Alonso replied, “then what is he doing here?” Jack turned round to see what Alonso was pointing at. As they watched, the TARDIS slowly materialised in front of their eyes.
“You’re sure another of these spaceships was such a good idea?” Rory asked as they stepped out.
“Well, you didn’t seem that keen on my suggestion of the Moon made of Honey, so I let the TARDIS choose a destination of its own,” the Doctor reminded him.
“We weren’t keen to go to a planet that’s alive and carnivorous. Funny, that,” Amy snorted. “By the way, do you know those two men? The one on the left looks like he’s trying to get our attention.”
The Doctor turned around to see where Amy was pointing, then smiled and waved in delight. “Yes, that’s Jack, Jack Harkness, I used to travel with him! I must have told you about him, surely? And the other man, Alonso, is someone I met on a ship not unlike this one.”
“So, did you see this coming with your psychic powers?” Alonso hissed. Jack laughed as he shook his head (Alonso had known for a while now that Jack wasn’t actually psychic; Jack had confessed that the Doctor had told him Alonso’s name ages ago, but Jack’s psychic powers had remained an in-joke between them). “Because it seems to me that every time your mate turns up, it’s when something bad’s about to happen.”
“Not at all, Alonso!” exclaimed the man who had stepped from the TARDIS. Alonso stared at him, confused, until Jack realised what he was thinking and explained to him about regeneration. “I’ve just brought Amy and Rory here on their honeymoon. Sorry, I should introduce you. Amy Pond, Rory Williams, Jack Harkness, Alonso Frame.”
“Honeymoon, huh?” Jack asked. “Well, I hope it goes better for you than Martha and Mickey’s did for them. From the sounds of things, everything that could go wrong, did.” He was silent for a moment, and Alonso thought he knew why; when Martha and Mickey had been telling them about all the problems that they had had, Alonso had worked out that their honeymoon must have been somewhere around the time that Ianto Jones had died.
“Well, it very nearly ended up being his honeymoon as well,” Amy laughed, pointing at the Doctor. “Someone managed to get himself accidentally engaged to Marilyn Monroe.” Jack laughed, so did Alonso when Jack had explained who that was.
“And we just had a near collision with a planet thanks to a 44th century version of Scrooge,” Rory informed them. “So here’s hoping this trip turns out better than that, at least.”
Jack laughed again; Alonso, becoming frustrated at the Earth references, asked “Who’s Scrooge?”
The Doctor explained, “Ebenezer Scrooge. He’s a fictional miser in an Earth novel, ‘A Christmas Carol’. Can’t stand Christmas. I know the feeling, actually. I met the author once, Charles Dickens, with Rose. Great man.”
“Alonso is from Sto,” Jack explained, “the planet where this ship originally came from. I gather the historian on his previous ship had a few misconceptions about Earth.”
The Doctor nodded. “True. I don’t think Mrs. Golightly’s Travelling University and Dry Cleaners was one of the better schools of Earthonomics. Still, he’s living on Earth now, so I’m sure he’s learning more about it. So, what brings you two here?”
“This is my first job since the Titanic,” Alonso began.
“Sorry, the... Titanic?” Rory asked.
“Max Capricorn’s idea of a sick joke,” The Doctor explained. “That’s the owner of the company Alonso’s last ship belonged to. He intended for that ship to suffer the same fate as its namesake, wiping out life on Earth in the process. Alonso and I managed to stop that, but we couldn’t save everyone on the ship.”
“Yes, every time someone saw that on my resume, they instantly decided I was bad luck. Well, you saw me at that nightclub where you introduced me to Jack,” Alonso turned to the Doctor. “You know how down I was. Well, just as I was about to give up all hope, I was contacted out of the blue by Hircus Tours. I’d never even applied- I think they were just starting out at the time - but they’d heard all about how I’d helped keep the ship from crashing into Earth and they thought I was just the person they needed for this journey.”
“So, naturally, I’m along for the ride to keep him company,” Jack smiled, placing his arm around Alonso’s shoulders. “It’s our first holiday together, even if Alonso’s technically working.”
“Wait a minute,” the Doctor interrupted. “Let me get this straight. They contacted you, they knew all about you, and they offered you a job, just like that?”
“Yes, that’s right,” he began, but was interrupted by the sound of an alarm. “Right, that’s me. I have to get back to work now, but I’ll catch up with you all on my break.”
“And we’d better go and find our honeymoon suite. Just hope it hasn’t got bunk beds like our room in the TARDIS.” Amy rolled her eyes.
“Bunk beds?” Jack snorted.
“Nice to have met you.” Amy reached out to shake Alonso’s hand, then Jack’s, before walking in one direction with Rory while the Doctor and Jack left in another.
They all seem to be enjoying themselves so far, the young man thought as he watched the group via a surveillance camera. I hope they make the most of it, because it isn’t going to last.
“So, let’s have a look at the suite!” Amy began, rushing to catch up with Rory. Rory stuck his head around the door to the cabin, then hastily backed out again.
“Well, you got one wish. We haven’t got bunk beds.” Rory muttered sheepishly.
“So what’s the matter? Let’s go christen the double bed--” Amy tried to push past Rory, then looked over his shoulder into their cabin and realised exactly why he had backed out of the room.
“Twin beds?” she asked, crouching down beside the bed nearest to her. “Twin beds screwed to the floor so we can’t even push them together? What kind of honeymoon suite is this?”
“Maybe this is what passes for a honeymoon suite on Sto?” Rory asked, not really believing it.
“Or maybe someone screwed up with the booking. Where’s the Doctor?”
“You wanted to see me?” Jack stuck his head around the door of the Doctor’s cabin. “Great suite.”
The Doctor glanced around him at the four poster double bed, bouquet of flowers and bottle of champagne on ice. “Yeah, it’s the honeymoon suite. They mixed up the bookings. I’ll swap with Amy and Rory later.” He glanced around regretfully at the suite for a minute before turning his attention back to Jack. “Did you honestly not think it was strange what happened to Alonso? He’s spent the last two years trying to find work and getting nowhere, and then all of a sudden this Hircus company just contact him out of the blue, when he hadn’t even applied to them? Didn’t you wonder why him, why this company?”
“All right, I admit something did seem a little off. But Alonso was so happy to have got this job at long last, I didn’t have the heart to burst his bubble. That’s why I insisted on coming along, so that if anything did happen, I’d be there to protect him. And that’s why I wasn’t as sorry to see you as he thought, because if anything did happen, we could always use you, too.” Jack took a seat on the bed beside the Doctor. “And it’s not as if there was anything concrete I could put my finger on. After all, it might have been legitimate. Alonso applied to pretty much every company on Sto. Who’s to say one of them didn’t pass on his details to another firm?”
The Doctor shook his head. “You don’t believe that any more than I do, do you?”
Jack shook his head. “Alonso says it himself. They all thought he was jinxed - why would any new company want to take on someone jinxed, sight unseen?”
“What did you just say?”
Jack and the Doctor both glanced up in shock to see Alonso, Amy and Rory standing in the doorway, Alonso taking in just how close Jack was sat to the Doctor.
“So, you’re the culprit!” Rory blurted out in an attempt to diffuse the tension. “This is what happened to the honeymoon suite.”
“I was just about to come and swap with you now,” the Doctor exclaimed, leaping away from Jack as though he were on fire. “Come on, I’ve got my things here. Let’s leave them to it.”
“No, you needn’t bother,” Alonso snapped. “I don’t think there’s anything left to sort out. You’ve said it all. You know all the doubts I’ve had, wondering why Hircus Tours would want me. I just didn’t expect to hear it from you. So, you don’t think I’m good enough for this job? Or not as good as Ianto, is that it?”
“Alonso, you didn’t hear what you think you heard -” Jack began, but Alonso brushed him off. “Forget it. I’m going back to the engine room.”
“Alonso, wait -” Jack began, but Rory held up his hand. “Actually, Jack, why don’t you give the Doctor and Amy a hand swapping the luggage round? I’ll try and talk to Alonso. I think he might listen to me.”
“What do you want?” Alonso asked when he turned around and saw Rory standing behind him. “Did Jack send you to do his dirty work for him?”
“No, actually, I sent myself. I thought you might find it easier talking to me about it first.” Rory explained.
“Why?” Alonso asked. “You don’t even know me.”
“Maybe not, but I think I know what you were thinking even before you heard Jack say what he did, because I’ve thought it too.” Rory explained, wincing at the memory even though he knew by now that it didn’t matter, that Amy had made her choice and she’d chosen him. “He came to me on my stag night, the night before I was supposed to marry Amy, and told me that she’d just tried to kiss him.”
Alonso frowned. “What, the Doctor and Amy?”
Rory nodded. “And there was a part of me that wasn’t surprised. You see, Amy had always been talking about this raggedy doctor all her life, but everyone had always thought that was some imaginary friend of hers. In fact, she used to make me dress up as him when we were kids.”
Alonso’s lips twitched. “Raggedy doctor?”
Rory was relieved both that Alonso was smiling, and that he didn’t appear to be laughing at the notion of him having to dress up. “Yes, that was what he’d looked like when Amy first met him. And once I knew that he was real, when I knew that she’d tried to kiss him, all I could think was, was this how it had been all the time? Had she been thinking about him the whole time we were together? All those times she’d made me dress up as him, she must have been wishing he was really there instead of me.”
“That’s what it was like for me back there,” Alonso admitted. “I looked at them on that bed together, and wondered whether Jack had always been thinking of him. I’d wondered about Ianto before, but I know he’s dead.”
“Who’s Ianto?” Rory asked. “I don’t think the Doctor’s ever mentioned him to me.”
“Ianto used to work with Jack at Torchwood, and they were together for a while. It’s a bit of a long story, and Jack finds it difficult to talk about with me. Not surprising, really, if he was wishing it was Ianto there with him instead of me. But when I saw him with the Doctor, I wondered...”
“Look, the Doctor’s not gay,” Rory explained. “At least, in all the time I’ve known him, the Doctor’s never shown an interest in anyone male. I know he’s got a history with a queen of England, Elizabeth the First, but apart from that, the only other person I’ve ever heard him talk about in that way is someone called Rose.”
“So what happened with you and Amy then?” Alonso asked. “What convinced you that it was you she really wanted to be with, and not him?”
“Now that’s a long story,” Rory smiled. “But in the short version, some psychic pollen caused us to be uncertain which of two realities we were living at the time, and which was a dream. Amy chose to stay in the reality where I was still alive.”
“So what I need is to stick some psychic pollen under Jack’s nose and see what he does?” Alonso laughed; Rory joined in.
“No, what you need to do is talk to him. That’s the only way you’re ever going to know for sure. Go and find him on your break, and tell him what you’ve told me. Amy and I will keep the Doctor out of the way.”
“Thanks, but it’s not just about him. You heard what Jack said just before we got there,” Alonso sighed.
“Look, neither of us heard much of that conversation. We don’t know what he might have said before that,” Rory reasoned. “But the only way you’ll know for sure is to talk to him, give him the chance to explain himself.”
“He said he couldn’t understand why Hircus Tours wanted to take me on when I was jinxed, Rory. How many ways can you misunderstand that?”
“Well, has he ever said anything before about you being jinxed, and how no one would take you on? What did he say to you when you were applying for all those jobs?” Rory asked.
“He actually asked at one point whether I’d think about working for him at Torchwood,” Alonso remembered. “But I thought he was just saying it to make me feel better. And besides, it didn’t feel like a good idea to be reliant on Jack for work. I wanted to be independent, to make my own way. And working on the ships has been in my family for years.”
“And do you really think that Jack would have ever asked you to work in an organisation like Torchwood, believing you didn’t have what it takes?” Rory asked. “Because I don’t.”
Alonso fell silent.
“Just talk to Jack,” Rory repeated.
“I think it was seeing the Doctor again that didn’t help,” Alonso mused. “You heard what I said about how things always happen when he’s around.”
“Well, we really are here on our honeymoon,” Rory replied. “Although it was just chance that we ended up on this ship. None of us could agree on where to go, so we let the TARDIS choose.”
“Does it often do that?” Alonso asked, curious. “Decide by itself where it wants to go.”
“Sometimes.” Rory mused.
“And does it have any reason for its decision? I mean, why do you think it brought you here?”
“Well, our honeymoon on the last spaceship didn’t exactly go as planned, so maybe it thought a trip to another ship would make up for it?” Rory joked. Alonso laughed along with him, but suddenly Rory wasn’t so sure. When the TARDIS had randomly taken them somewhere in the past, there had usually been some reason for its choice. Maybe the Doctor was right, and there was something more to its decision. But could he really tell Alonso this, just when he’d been trying to reassure him?
To Rory’s relief, they were interrupted by a young man in the crew’s uniform approaching Alonso. “I am making my way back to the engine room now, if you would like to walk with me,” he said in an accent Rory didn’t recognise.
“Of course. Thanks for the advice, Rory,” Alonso said as he walked away.
“Any time.” Rory made his way back to the dining room to meet up with the others, breaking into a run as soon as Alonso was out of sight.
“Everything is all right?” Alexander asked Alonso as they made their way back to the engine room.
“Well, I hope it will be. Just had a bit of a misunderstanding with my boyfriend, but Rory back there persuaded me to talk to him,” Alonso explained.
“Not the man with the bow tie. The other man, the one they call Jack?” Alexander asked.
“That’s right. I think I might have taken something he said the wrong way. I’ll go after him and try and make it up when I take my next break.” They had reached the engine room now, and Alonso stuck his head around the door, turning back to face Alexander. The engine room appeared deserted save for the two of them. “Where is everybody?”
“There were people here when I left.” Alexander replied, shaking his head. “It is dinner time down there. Maybe they all went to join in the festivities.”
Alonso shook his head in disgust. “But they know there’s supposed to be two people here manning the engine room at all times.” Great, so much for talking to Jack quickly, was his first thought, followed by Haven’t I had this conversation before?
“It is all right,” Alexander offered. “I know that you want to go and make it right with this Jack. I can manage here alone.”
“No, it wouldn’t be fair to leave you. And as I said, there’s supposed to be two people here.”
“Of course.” Alexander pursed his lips. “That is what happened on your last ship, right? The story is well known even on my part of Sto. That is why Hircus Tours chose you.”
“That’s sort of what the argument with Jack was about,” Alonso admitted. “He seemed to think there was something funny about the way I was hired.”
“No.” Alexander shook his head. “You were chosen for your actions aboard the Titanic. This job was exactly what you deserve.”
“It’s as though we never left Earth,” Amy mused as she tucked into her meal of roast turkey with all the traditional trimmings. “They’ve got the food just right.”
“You should have heard what the last ship’s historian thought the British people ate for their Christmas dinner,” the Doctor replied. “Actually, you don’t want to know, not while you’re eating.”
“Are you not happy with yours, Jack?” Amy asked, noticing that Jack had barely touched his.
“I’m sure it’s great, but I’m just not that hungry.” Jack forced down a mouthful of turkey and wondered how Rory was getting on talking to Alonso. Jack had known that there would be long periods of time on this trip when he wouldn’t get to spend time with Alonso because he was working, and for that reason, he was kind of glad the Doctor, Amy and Rory were here to keep him company. He just hadn’t expected that he and Alonso would be on the outs so early into the trip.
“Look, I’m sure once Rory’s spoken to Alonso, he’ll be fine,” the Doctor said.
“Bet you never thought you’d see this, did you?” Jack grinned ruefully. “Me in love. Even if you did bring us together.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” the Doctor mused. “I think I kind of had an inkling.”
“I never thought I’d see it myself,” Jack admitted.
“Not even with your psychic powers?” Amy joked.
“That’s just a little in-joke between Alonso and me,” Jack explained. “But no, I didn’t. I remember Ianto once asking me whether I’d ever been in love, and I never answered him. And at the time, I thought I had, with a woman named Estelle. But I realised afterwards that that wasn’t love at all, and the first time I really felt that was with Ianto. I know that he wasn’t sure how I felt about him until the end, and I just wish I’d been able to tell him that before he died.”
“And have you told Alonso how you feel about him?” Amy asked.
“It was a while before I realised that as well,” Jack admitted. “I never thought it would be that way. Strangers in a bar, spending one night together, never to see each other again. That was what I expected at first.” Seeing the look on the Doctor’s face, and understanding now that that hadn’t been what the Doctor had had in mind when he had brought them together, Jack decided he wouldn’t dwell on that. “But there was something about him that got to me, something that I think you understood back then.”
“Well, don’t you think you should be telling him that, not us?” Amy asked. “Hopefully Rory’s been telling Alonso the same thing. Look, here he comes now.” She waved him over.
“What happened?” Jack asked as soon as Rory rejoined them.
“I think I’ve persuaded him to come and talk to you,” Rory explained, chewing his turkey mechanically. “But I am starting to wonder if you’re right when you think something’s going to happen. Alonso asked me why we’d come here, and then he asked me why I thought the TARDIS might have chosen to bring us here.”
“What did you tell him?” Jack asked.
“What could I? I don’t know anything. He thinks the TARDIS brought us here to make up for what happened last time.”
“Something’s nagging at me,” the Doctor said. “Something someone said back there, that explains the whole thing. And I can’t think what it is.”
“Try and remember,” Amy urged. “Was it when we all first met up? Was it when we got here? You thought something sounded weird about Alonso’s story. Think back to what he said. He was talking about being contacted by Hircus out of the blue.”
“What does Hircus even mean, anyway?” Rory asked.
“Capra aegagrus hircus. It’s the trinomial name for...” The Doctor broke off suddenly, realising exactly what had been wrong with Alonso’s story. “Oh, God, Rory, you’re right. That’s what it is. I knew that name meant something. But it can’t be. He’s dead.”
“Who’s dead? What is it the name for?” Rory demanded.
“Goat. Capricorn. Max Capricorn. Hircus Tours is something to do with him. That’s why Alonso was recruited when nobody else wanted him. That’s why the TARDIS brought us here. Someone wants revenge for Max Capricorn.”
“What do you mean, the reward that I deserve?” Alonso frowned, watching the expression on Alexander’s face change before his eyes, becoming hardened and almost mask-like.
“I mean exactly what I say,” Alexander smiled eerily at Alonso before reaching into the waistband of his trousers and drawing out a gun, pointing it at him. “This is what you deserve for what you did on the Titanic, you and your friend who calls himself the Doctor. This is why I brought both of you here.”
“You?” Alonso asked. “Who are you?”
“You never once questioned why Hircus Tours wanted you. In a way, it is a shame that you will not get the chance to tell Jack that he was right to ask that question after all. It was I who created this company, I who hired you, I who will finish what my father started.”
“Your father?” Alonso repeated.
“Yes. Max Capricorn.”
“That Alexander,” Rory panted as he, Jack, Amy and the Doctor raced towards the engine room in search of Alonso. “He led him off just as I came back to you. I should have stopped him.”
“You couldn’t have known, Rory,” Jack replied. “What matters now is that we get to him.”
“This way!” Amy cried, grabbing the Doctor by one arm and Rory with the other and running down the corridor which led to the engine room, before stumbling and falling to the floor. “You two go on!” she yelled, gesturing frantically towards the Doctor and Jack as Rory helped her up, only to notice Jack stumble himself.
“He’s done it again,” the Doctor cursed. “He’s interfered with the shields on this ship.”
“Max Capricorn is your father?” Alonso asked. Keep him talking , he thought. Jack and the Doctor will be here soon.
“After everything that he did for his company, all those years that he did so much for them, and then to be betrayed like that when they found out he had become a cyborg,” Alexander ranted. The accent he was using earlier had gone, Alonso noticed. “He should have been treated with respect. Revenge was his right, and yet you took that away from him.”
This is insane, Alonso thought.
“But enough talking,” Alexander continued as he aimed the gun at Alonso. “Captain Hardaker showed you mercy at the last; I will not be so generous. Now Sto will speak of you as the person who failed to prevent a disaster after all.”
“No, they won’t!” yelled Jack, bursting through the door and throwing himself in front of Alonso just as Alexander fired the gun. Alonso watched in horror as Jack took the bullet squarely in the chest and collapsed to the floor. As he and Rory rushed to Jack’s side, they were barely aware of the Doctor and Amy wrestling Alexander Capricorn to the floor (“Good job I packed these,” Amy grinned as she used the handcuffs from her policewoman kissogram costume to handcuff Capricorn to the radiator. “Even if this wasn’t what I had in mind for them.”).
“I’m sorry,” Jack whispered, “about what happened back there with the Doctor. And about not talking to you sooner about what I suspected.”
“It’s okay, Jack,” Alonso soothed him. “Don’t try to talk. And I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. Turns out you were right. But everything’s going to be all right. You’re going to be fine, and we’re going to get out of here.” In truth, Alonso didn’t like the colour Jack’s face was slowly turning, and from the look on Rory’s face, he agreed.
“Doctor?” Alonso cried, incredulous as he watched the Doctor, who had left Alexander to be watched over by Amy, frantically fiddling with the engines, trying to get the shields up and running again. “What are you doing? What about Jack?”
“Actually, Alonso, look!” Rory tugged on his sleeve. “He’s starting to look a bit better. I can’t understand this. I wouldn’t expect anyone to recover this fast from a shooting. Not that I saw many shootings in Leadworth, of course...”
“Yeah, something else I maybe should have told you.” Jack whispered, reaching for Alonso’s hand. “I’m...kind of immortal.”
“Immortal?” Alonso repeated.
“Yeah. Ask him,” Jack replied, gesturing towards the Doctor. “Actually, maybe not. He didn’t take it very well at the time. But yeah, I can’t die. He doesn’t know if I ever will.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Alonso replied. “It doesn’t have to change anything. You’re still the same person.”
“You know something?” Jack whispered. “I love you.”
“Okay, I think I’ve got the engines sorted. We’ll just take Jack into the TARDIS and check him over, but he’s going to be fine. It’ll take more than him to get rid of Jack.” The Doctor gestured towards the now unconscious Alexander, before whispering, “And it’ll take more than me to come between the two of you.”
“Jack’s going to be okay,” Rory said as he stepped out of the TARDIS to rejoin Amy. “They don’t need me anymore, so I thought I’d give them some privacy. The Doctor’s just behind me.”
Amy glanced over Rory’s shoulder and made a gesture to the Doctor to wait a few moments before joining them. Alonso and Jack weren’t the only ones who needed time to talk right now.
“I know why you went after Alonso, you know,” she said, putting her arm around Rory. “And I kinda understand why you thought what you did.”
“Look, that doesn’t matter now,” Rory mumbled, embarrassed. “What matters is that Jack and Alonso are going to be okay.”
“And so are we.” Amy smiled. “Just as soon as you get it into your stupid head that I don’t have any feelings for the Doctor. You know how I chose the future with you in it back then, and that’s what I choose now. The same as Jack’s chosen his future with Alonso. Now come on, we have a honeymoon to finish.”
“Right, now where? The moon made of honey starting to look appealing after all?” the Doctor asked.
“You know what?” Rory asked. “I’m starting to think we’d have more chance of a relaxing honeymoon if we just went back to Earth.”
“Earth,” Alonso mused. “I never did get to experience the proper Earth Christmas last time around.”
“Well, we’ll have to do something about that!” the Doctor exclaimed, gesturing towards the TARDIS. “London on a typical Christmas day, annoying music playing on a loop, the turkey dinner none of us got to finish, repeats on the television, and maybe even snow. How about it?”
“You want to do Christmas?” Amy frowned. “I thought you always tried to get out of that if you could.”
“I’m not doing it for me. I’m doing it to give all of you the holiday you deserve. So how about it? Christmas on Earth? Allons-y, Alonso! You know, I’ve missed saying that,” he said. Amy and Rory looked puzzled; Jack and Alonso smiled to themselves.
“So what are you going to do now that Hircus Tours are no more?” Rory asked Alonso as they followed the Doctor into the TARDIS. With Alexander Capricorn arrested, it was felt that no one would want to take on the firm which was so closely associated with Max Capricorn and the Titanic, and the decision had been taken by the authorities on Sto to close the company. “Are you going to try and find another spaceship firm to work for?”
“After all this, I think I’m done working on spaceships,” Alonso admitted. “I want to do something else now, something that makes a difference. And even if I wanted to, I don’t think anyone would want me.”
“I can think of someone who does,” Rory said, pointing towards Jack.
“My offer still stands,” Jack smiled at him. “I’d really like it if you came to work with me at Torchwood.”
“Then I will.” Alonso replied. “I want to go somewhere that I can do some good in the world.”
“Right, then,” the Doctor said, making his way towards the controls. “Christmas Eve, London, Earth. Allons-y. You know, I could get used to saying that again,” he mused, but broke off at Amy’s expression. “But I won’t.”
“Oh, I know what I meant to tell you,” Alonso began when the Tardis touched down on Oxford Street, but he was interrupted by a cry of “Midshipman Frame!” He turned around to see an older man waving at him.
Alonso clutched at the Doctor’s sleeve. “Look, it’s Mr Copper, from the Titanic, remember?” Delighted, he beckoned him over and introduced him. “This is Jack, and Rory, and Amy, and you remember the Doctor, of course?” Noticing the look of confusion that mirrored that which had appeared on his own face earlier, he hastily explained “He regenerates. He changes his appearance. Long story.”
Mr Copper shook hands with Jack, Amy and Rory, told them he was delighted to meet them all, made some comment to the Doctor about how he would never have known him.
“So, you live on Earth now?” Alonso asked.
“Yes, I’ve been here ever since the Titanic.” Mr Copper explained.
“Actually, you might be interested to hear this, too,” Alonso continued. “You remember Rickston Slade, right?”
“That very rude man, the one who kept making all those jokes about other passengers and then gloated about how the demise of the Titanic was going to make him a very wealthy man?” Mr Copper pursed his lips. “Yes, I remember him.”
“Well, it turned out that he didn’t end up quite as wealthy as he thought.” Alonso informed them. “The rival company he invested in ended up going bust themselves. Sounds like there were some allegations of corruption at the time, and their board ended up being removed from office. Stock plummeted. Rickston ended up going bankrupt.”
“I know that Christmas is meant to be the season of goodwill,” Mr Copper replied, “but I have to admit that that couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.”
“So you’re learning about Christmas then?” Alonso asked. “That’s why the Doctor brought me here, to show me the Christmas I didn’t get to see on the Titanic.”
“Yes, I’m learning all about it. Mrs Golightly’s Happy Travelling University and Dry Cleaners was no substitute for actually experiencing Earth life, but do you know something? I’ve never experienced a real Christmas in the UK yet either.”
“Well, come and join us!” Amy offered.
“I’d be honoured to,” Mr Copper replied, as Rory tugged excitedly on his sleeve.
“Look, it’s snowing!”
“It snowed when I first arrived on Earth,” Mr Copper remembered, “but I wondered if that was something to do with the ship.”
“Not this time,” Alonso informed him. “This time, we saved them all.”
“This is what Christmas is usually like on Earth,” the Doctor explained. “London streets are always crowded at this time. The time you took everyone there before, everyone had left for the country in case of another alien invasion. But what you’re seeing now, this is proper Christmas.”
No one took much notice of the group as they made their way towards the Christmas tree, joined in with the crowd singing Silent Night (Alonso and Mr Copper both flinched at the line “Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia”, but nobody except Jack and the Doctor appeared to notice). As Rory and Amy sang along with the crowd, as Jack turned to whisper something in Alonso’s ear, the Doctor paused for a moment to remember those from the Titanic who should have been with them that day; Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, Bannakaffalatta, Astrid Peth.
As he watched Rory and Amy, and Jack and Alonso, the Doctor remembered the Christmas he had spent with Rose, and Jackie and Mickey. He normally preferred to be alone at Christmas, although his friends always determined not to let him. He wondered if he would ever experience a Christmas quite like that again. Suddenly, he heard someone walk up behind him, place their hands over his eyes.
“Hello, sweetie.”
And as the Doctor turned to face River Song, he knew that he wouldn’t feel alone this Christmas.
Author: tellshannon815
Fandom: Doctor Who
Gift for: moon_blitz
Characters/Pairing: Jack/Alonso, Amy/Rory, Eleven, OMC, Bayldon Copper, River Song.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6,116
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They own me.
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers mostly for Voyage of the Damned, The End of Time, A Christmas Carol.
Summary: When the Doctor takes Amy and Rory on their honeymoon, the TARDIS brings them to the spaceship where Alonso Frame has started his first job since the Titanic disaster. With Jack by his side, Alonso's determined the voyage will go well, but the Doctor has his doubts about why this firm recruited Alonso.
Author’s Note: Thanks to aurilly for the beta. Also sorry it's so long, and hope you don't mind that Alonso kind of took over the fic!
“I’m still not sure about this.” Alonso Frame took one last look at himself in the mirror. After the whole business with Max Capricorn, he still had his doubts about returning to another spaceship cruiser. He had been out of work for the past two years; people took one look at his resume, spotted that Alonso’s last place of work was the Titanic, and all of a sudden it was “don’t call us, we’ll call you”. Finally, a new outfit called Hircus Tours had decided to give him a chance.
“Oh, come on!” Jack Harkness replied, “You’re gonna be fine. And as I’ve told you before, anyone who judges you for what happened back then is an idiot. You were the only one who came out of that in a good light. You tried to save everyone on that ship.”
“But I couldn’t save them all,” Alonso sighed.
“Do you still see them?” Jack asked. “I thought you hadn’t had that nightmare in a while.”
“Finding out I’d got this job with Hircus Tours brought it all back.” He’d had that nightmare a lot after returning to Sto, where he was back in the engine room, hearing everyone on board screaming, and knowing that there was nothing he could do to prevent the collision with Earth. The nightmares had eased off after the first year, and Alonso knew that Jack had a lot to do with that. Jack had asked at one point whether Alonso was sure he’d made the right decision in choosing to go back to the ships, but Alonso had been determined to lay that ghost to rest.
“Nothing is going to happen, Alonso,” Jack attempted to reassure him. “I’d see it if anything was going to. Instead, I see you getting that ship home safely.” Alonso managed a chuckle at their shared in-joke. “Besides, I’m not gonna let it. I’ve lost too many people already,” he went on, and Alonso knew he was thinking about Owen and Toshiko and Ianto. “There is no way I’m losing you too.”
“Well, if nothing is going to happen,” Alonso replied, “then what is he doing here?” Jack turned round to see what Alonso was pointing at. As they watched, the TARDIS slowly materialised in front of their eyes.
“You’re sure another of these spaceships was such a good idea?” Rory asked as they stepped out.
“Well, you didn’t seem that keen on my suggestion of the Moon made of Honey, so I let the TARDIS choose a destination of its own,” the Doctor reminded him.
“We weren’t keen to go to a planet that’s alive and carnivorous. Funny, that,” Amy snorted. “By the way, do you know those two men? The one on the left looks like he’s trying to get our attention.”
The Doctor turned around to see where Amy was pointing, then smiled and waved in delight. “Yes, that’s Jack, Jack Harkness, I used to travel with him! I must have told you about him, surely? And the other man, Alonso, is someone I met on a ship not unlike this one.”
“So, did you see this coming with your psychic powers?” Alonso hissed. Jack laughed as he shook his head (Alonso had known for a while now that Jack wasn’t actually psychic; Jack had confessed that the Doctor had told him Alonso’s name ages ago, but Jack’s psychic powers had remained an in-joke between them). “Because it seems to me that every time your mate turns up, it’s when something bad’s about to happen.”
“Not at all, Alonso!” exclaimed the man who had stepped from the TARDIS. Alonso stared at him, confused, until Jack realised what he was thinking and explained to him about regeneration. “I’ve just brought Amy and Rory here on their honeymoon. Sorry, I should introduce you. Amy Pond, Rory Williams, Jack Harkness, Alonso Frame.”
“Honeymoon, huh?” Jack asked. “Well, I hope it goes better for you than Martha and Mickey’s did for them. From the sounds of things, everything that could go wrong, did.” He was silent for a moment, and Alonso thought he knew why; when Martha and Mickey had been telling them about all the problems that they had had, Alonso had worked out that their honeymoon must have been somewhere around the time that Ianto Jones had died.
“Well, it very nearly ended up being his honeymoon as well,” Amy laughed, pointing at the Doctor. “Someone managed to get himself accidentally engaged to Marilyn Monroe.” Jack laughed, so did Alonso when Jack had explained who that was.
“And we just had a near collision with a planet thanks to a 44th century version of Scrooge,” Rory informed them. “So here’s hoping this trip turns out better than that, at least.”
Jack laughed again; Alonso, becoming frustrated at the Earth references, asked “Who’s Scrooge?”
The Doctor explained, “Ebenezer Scrooge. He’s a fictional miser in an Earth novel, ‘A Christmas Carol’. Can’t stand Christmas. I know the feeling, actually. I met the author once, Charles Dickens, with Rose. Great man.”
“Alonso is from Sto,” Jack explained, “the planet where this ship originally came from. I gather the historian on his previous ship had a few misconceptions about Earth.”
The Doctor nodded. “True. I don’t think Mrs. Golightly’s Travelling University and Dry Cleaners was one of the better schools of Earthonomics. Still, he’s living on Earth now, so I’m sure he’s learning more about it. So, what brings you two here?”
“This is my first job since the Titanic,” Alonso began.
“Sorry, the... Titanic?” Rory asked.
“Max Capricorn’s idea of a sick joke,” The Doctor explained. “That’s the owner of the company Alonso’s last ship belonged to. He intended for that ship to suffer the same fate as its namesake, wiping out life on Earth in the process. Alonso and I managed to stop that, but we couldn’t save everyone on the ship.”
“Yes, every time someone saw that on my resume, they instantly decided I was bad luck. Well, you saw me at that nightclub where you introduced me to Jack,” Alonso turned to the Doctor. “You know how down I was. Well, just as I was about to give up all hope, I was contacted out of the blue by Hircus Tours. I’d never even applied- I think they were just starting out at the time - but they’d heard all about how I’d helped keep the ship from crashing into Earth and they thought I was just the person they needed for this journey.”
“So, naturally, I’m along for the ride to keep him company,” Jack smiled, placing his arm around Alonso’s shoulders. “It’s our first holiday together, even if Alonso’s technically working.”
“Wait a minute,” the Doctor interrupted. “Let me get this straight. They contacted you, they knew all about you, and they offered you a job, just like that?”
“Yes, that’s right,” he began, but was interrupted by the sound of an alarm. “Right, that’s me. I have to get back to work now, but I’ll catch up with you all on my break.”
“And we’d better go and find our honeymoon suite. Just hope it hasn’t got bunk beds like our room in the TARDIS.” Amy rolled her eyes.
“Bunk beds?” Jack snorted.
“Nice to have met you.” Amy reached out to shake Alonso’s hand, then Jack’s, before walking in one direction with Rory while the Doctor and Jack left in another.
They all seem to be enjoying themselves so far, the young man thought as he watched the group via a surveillance camera. I hope they make the most of it, because it isn’t going to last.
“So, let’s have a look at the suite!” Amy began, rushing to catch up with Rory. Rory stuck his head around the door to the cabin, then hastily backed out again.
“Well, you got one wish. We haven’t got bunk beds.” Rory muttered sheepishly.
“So what’s the matter? Let’s go christen the double bed--” Amy tried to push past Rory, then looked over his shoulder into their cabin and realised exactly why he had backed out of the room.
“Twin beds?” she asked, crouching down beside the bed nearest to her. “Twin beds screwed to the floor so we can’t even push them together? What kind of honeymoon suite is this?”
“Maybe this is what passes for a honeymoon suite on Sto?” Rory asked, not really believing it.
“Or maybe someone screwed up with the booking. Where’s the Doctor?”
“You wanted to see me?” Jack stuck his head around the door of the Doctor’s cabin. “Great suite.”
The Doctor glanced around him at the four poster double bed, bouquet of flowers and bottle of champagne on ice. “Yeah, it’s the honeymoon suite. They mixed up the bookings. I’ll swap with Amy and Rory later.” He glanced around regretfully at the suite for a minute before turning his attention back to Jack. “Did you honestly not think it was strange what happened to Alonso? He’s spent the last two years trying to find work and getting nowhere, and then all of a sudden this Hircus company just contact him out of the blue, when he hadn’t even applied to them? Didn’t you wonder why him, why this company?”
“All right, I admit something did seem a little off. But Alonso was so happy to have got this job at long last, I didn’t have the heart to burst his bubble. That’s why I insisted on coming along, so that if anything did happen, I’d be there to protect him. And that’s why I wasn’t as sorry to see you as he thought, because if anything did happen, we could always use you, too.” Jack took a seat on the bed beside the Doctor. “And it’s not as if there was anything concrete I could put my finger on. After all, it might have been legitimate. Alonso applied to pretty much every company on Sto. Who’s to say one of them didn’t pass on his details to another firm?”
The Doctor shook his head. “You don’t believe that any more than I do, do you?”
Jack shook his head. “Alonso says it himself. They all thought he was jinxed - why would any new company want to take on someone jinxed, sight unseen?”
“What did you just say?”
Jack and the Doctor both glanced up in shock to see Alonso, Amy and Rory standing in the doorway, Alonso taking in just how close Jack was sat to the Doctor.
“So, you’re the culprit!” Rory blurted out in an attempt to diffuse the tension. “This is what happened to the honeymoon suite.”
“I was just about to come and swap with you now,” the Doctor exclaimed, leaping away from Jack as though he were on fire. “Come on, I’ve got my things here. Let’s leave them to it.”
“No, you needn’t bother,” Alonso snapped. “I don’t think there’s anything left to sort out. You’ve said it all. You know all the doubts I’ve had, wondering why Hircus Tours would want me. I just didn’t expect to hear it from you. So, you don’t think I’m good enough for this job? Or not as good as Ianto, is that it?”
“Alonso, you didn’t hear what you think you heard -” Jack began, but Alonso brushed him off. “Forget it. I’m going back to the engine room.”
“Alonso, wait -” Jack began, but Rory held up his hand. “Actually, Jack, why don’t you give the Doctor and Amy a hand swapping the luggage round? I’ll try and talk to Alonso. I think he might listen to me.”
“What do you want?” Alonso asked when he turned around and saw Rory standing behind him. “Did Jack send you to do his dirty work for him?”
“No, actually, I sent myself. I thought you might find it easier talking to me about it first.” Rory explained.
“Why?” Alonso asked. “You don’t even know me.”
“Maybe not, but I think I know what you were thinking even before you heard Jack say what he did, because I’ve thought it too.” Rory explained, wincing at the memory even though he knew by now that it didn’t matter, that Amy had made her choice and she’d chosen him. “He came to me on my stag night, the night before I was supposed to marry Amy, and told me that she’d just tried to kiss him.”
Alonso frowned. “What, the Doctor and Amy?”
Rory nodded. “And there was a part of me that wasn’t surprised. You see, Amy had always been talking about this raggedy doctor all her life, but everyone had always thought that was some imaginary friend of hers. In fact, she used to make me dress up as him when we were kids.”
Alonso’s lips twitched. “Raggedy doctor?”
Rory was relieved both that Alonso was smiling, and that he didn’t appear to be laughing at the notion of him having to dress up. “Yes, that was what he’d looked like when Amy first met him. And once I knew that he was real, when I knew that she’d tried to kiss him, all I could think was, was this how it had been all the time? Had she been thinking about him the whole time we were together? All those times she’d made me dress up as him, she must have been wishing he was really there instead of me.”
“That’s what it was like for me back there,” Alonso admitted. “I looked at them on that bed together, and wondered whether Jack had always been thinking of him. I’d wondered about Ianto before, but I know he’s dead.”
“Who’s Ianto?” Rory asked. “I don’t think the Doctor’s ever mentioned him to me.”
“Ianto used to work with Jack at Torchwood, and they were together for a while. It’s a bit of a long story, and Jack finds it difficult to talk about with me. Not surprising, really, if he was wishing it was Ianto there with him instead of me. But when I saw him with the Doctor, I wondered...”
“Look, the Doctor’s not gay,” Rory explained. “At least, in all the time I’ve known him, the Doctor’s never shown an interest in anyone male. I know he’s got a history with a queen of England, Elizabeth the First, but apart from that, the only other person I’ve ever heard him talk about in that way is someone called Rose.”
“So what happened with you and Amy then?” Alonso asked. “What convinced you that it was you she really wanted to be with, and not him?”
“Now that’s a long story,” Rory smiled. “But in the short version, some psychic pollen caused us to be uncertain which of two realities we were living at the time, and which was a dream. Amy chose to stay in the reality where I was still alive.”
“So what I need is to stick some psychic pollen under Jack’s nose and see what he does?” Alonso laughed; Rory joined in.
“No, what you need to do is talk to him. That’s the only way you’re ever going to know for sure. Go and find him on your break, and tell him what you’ve told me. Amy and I will keep the Doctor out of the way.”
“Thanks, but it’s not just about him. You heard what Jack said just before we got there,” Alonso sighed.
“Look, neither of us heard much of that conversation. We don’t know what he might have said before that,” Rory reasoned. “But the only way you’ll know for sure is to talk to him, give him the chance to explain himself.”
“He said he couldn’t understand why Hircus Tours wanted to take me on when I was jinxed, Rory. How many ways can you misunderstand that?”
“Well, has he ever said anything before about you being jinxed, and how no one would take you on? What did he say to you when you were applying for all those jobs?” Rory asked.
“He actually asked at one point whether I’d think about working for him at Torchwood,” Alonso remembered. “But I thought he was just saying it to make me feel better. And besides, it didn’t feel like a good idea to be reliant on Jack for work. I wanted to be independent, to make my own way. And working on the ships has been in my family for years.”
“And do you really think that Jack would have ever asked you to work in an organisation like Torchwood, believing you didn’t have what it takes?” Rory asked. “Because I don’t.”
Alonso fell silent.
“Just talk to Jack,” Rory repeated.
“I think it was seeing the Doctor again that didn’t help,” Alonso mused. “You heard what I said about how things always happen when he’s around.”
“Well, we really are here on our honeymoon,” Rory replied. “Although it was just chance that we ended up on this ship. None of us could agree on where to go, so we let the TARDIS choose.”
“Does it often do that?” Alonso asked, curious. “Decide by itself where it wants to go.”
“Sometimes.” Rory mused.
“And does it have any reason for its decision? I mean, why do you think it brought you here?”
“Well, our honeymoon on the last spaceship didn’t exactly go as planned, so maybe it thought a trip to another ship would make up for it?” Rory joked. Alonso laughed along with him, but suddenly Rory wasn’t so sure. When the TARDIS had randomly taken them somewhere in the past, there had usually been some reason for its choice. Maybe the Doctor was right, and there was something more to its decision. But could he really tell Alonso this, just when he’d been trying to reassure him?
To Rory’s relief, they were interrupted by a young man in the crew’s uniform approaching Alonso. “I am making my way back to the engine room now, if you would like to walk with me,” he said in an accent Rory didn’t recognise.
“Of course. Thanks for the advice, Rory,” Alonso said as he walked away.
“Any time.” Rory made his way back to the dining room to meet up with the others, breaking into a run as soon as Alonso was out of sight.
“Everything is all right?” Alexander asked Alonso as they made their way back to the engine room.
“Well, I hope it will be. Just had a bit of a misunderstanding with my boyfriend, but Rory back there persuaded me to talk to him,” Alonso explained.
“Not the man with the bow tie. The other man, the one they call Jack?” Alexander asked.
“That’s right. I think I might have taken something he said the wrong way. I’ll go after him and try and make it up when I take my next break.” They had reached the engine room now, and Alonso stuck his head around the door, turning back to face Alexander. The engine room appeared deserted save for the two of them. “Where is everybody?”
“There were people here when I left.” Alexander replied, shaking his head. “It is dinner time down there. Maybe they all went to join in the festivities.”
Alonso shook his head in disgust. “But they know there’s supposed to be two people here manning the engine room at all times.” Great, so much for talking to Jack quickly, was his first thought, followed by Haven’t I had this conversation before?
“It is all right,” Alexander offered. “I know that you want to go and make it right with this Jack. I can manage here alone.”
“No, it wouldn’t be fair to leave you. And as I said, there’s supposed to be two people here.”
“Of course.” Alexander pursed his lips. “That is what happened on your last ship, right? The story is well known even on my part of Sto. That is why Hircus Tours chose you.”
“That’s sort of what the argument with Jack was about,” Alonso admitted. “He seemed to think there was something funny about the way I was hired.”
“No.” Alexander shook his head. “You were chosen for your actions aboard the Titanic. This job was exactly what you deserve.”
“It’s as though we never left Earth,” Amy mused as she tucked into her meal of roast turkey with all the traditional trimmings. “They’ve got the food just right.”
“You should have heard what the last ship’s historian thought the British people ate for their Christmas dinner,” the Doctor replied. “Actually, you don’t want to know, not while you’re eating.”
“Are you not happy with yours, Jack?” Amy asked, noticing that Jack had barely touched his.
“I’m sure it’s great, but I’m just not that hungry.” Jack forced down a mouthful of turkey and wondered how Rory was getting on talking to Alonso. Jack had known that there would be long periods of time on this trip when he wouldn’t get to spend time with Alonso because he was working, and for that reason, he was kind of glad the Doctor, Amy and Rory were here to keep him company. He just hadn’t expected that he and Alonso would be on the outs so early into the trip.
“Look, I’m sure once Rory’s spoken to Alonso, he’ll be fine,” the Doctor said.
“Bet you never thought you’d see this, did you?” Jack grinned ruefully. “Me in love. Even if you did bring us together.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” the Doctor mused. “I think I kind of had an inkling.”
“I never thought I’d see it myself,” Jack admitted.
“Not even with your psychic powers?” Amy joked.
“That’s just a little in-joke between Alonso and me,” Jack explained. “But no, I didn’t. I remember Ianto once asking me whether I’d ever been in love, and I never answered him. And at the time, I thought I had, with a woman named Estelle. But I realised afterwards that that wasn’t love at all, and the first time I really felt that was with Ianto. I know that he wasn’t sure how I felt about him until the end, and I just wish I’d been able to tell him that before he died.”
“And have you told Alonso how you feel about him?” Amy asked.
“It was a while before I realised that as well,” Jack admitted. “I never thought it would be that way. Strangers in a bar, spending one night together, never to see each other again. That was what I expected at first.” Seeing the look on the Doctor’s face, and understanding now that that hadn’t been what the Doctor had had in mind when he had brought them together, Jack decided he wouldn’t dwell on that. “But there was something about him that got to me, something that I think you understood back then.”
“Well, don’t you think you should be telling him that, not us?” Amy asked. “Hopefully Rory’s been telling Alonso the same thing. Look, here he comes now.” She waved him over.
“What happened?” Jack asked as soon as Rory rejoined them.
“I think I’ve persuaded him to come and talk to you,” Rory explained, chewing his turkey mechanically. “But I am starting to wonder if you’re right when you think something’s going to happen. Alonso asked me why we’d come here, and then he asked me why I thought the TARDIS might have chosen to bring us here.”
“What did you tell him?” Jack asked.
“What could I? I don’t know anything. He thinks the TARDIS brought us here to make up for what happened last time.”
“Something’s nagging at me,” the Doctor said. “Something someone said back there, that explains the whole thing. And I can’t think what it is.”
“Try and remember,” Amy urged. “Was it when we all first met up? Was it when we got here? You thought something sounded weird about Alonso’s story. Think back to what he said. He was talking about being contacted by Hircus out of the blue.”
“What does Hircus even mean, anyway?” Rory asked.
“Capra aegagrus hircus. It’s the trinomial name for...” The Doctor broke off suddenly, realising exactly what had been wrong with Alonso’s story. “Oh, God, Rory, you’re right. That’s what it is. I knew that name meant something. But it can’t be. He’s dead.”
“Who’s dead? What is it the name for?” Rory demanded.
“Goat. Capricorn. Max Capricorn. Hircus Tours is something to do with him. That’s why Alonso was recruited when nobody else wanted him. That’s why the TARDIS brought us here. Someone wants revenge for Max Capricorn.”
“What do you mean, the reward that I deserve?” Alonso frowned, watching the expression on Alexander’s face change before his eyes, becoming hardened and almost mask-like.
“I mean exactly what I say,” Alexander smiled eerily at Alonso before reaching into the waistband of his trousers and drawing out a gun, pointing it at him. “This is what you deserve for what you did on the Titanic, you and your friend who calls himself the Doctor. This is why I brought both of you here.”
“You?” Alonso asked. “Who are you?”
“You never once questioned why Hircus Tours wanted you. In a way, it is a shame that you will not get the chance to tell Jack that he was right to ask that question after all. It was I who created this company, I who hired you, I who will finish what my father started.”
“Your father?” Alonso repeated.
“Yes. Max Capricorn.”
“That Alexander,” Rory panted as he, Jack, Amy and the Doctor raced towards the engine room in search of Alonso. “He led him off just as I came back to you. I should have stopped him.”
“You couldn’t have known, Rory,” Jack replied. “What matters now is that we get to him.”
“This way!” Amy cried, grabbing the Doctor by one arm and Rory with the other and running down the corridor which led to the engine room, before stumbling and falling to the floor. “You two go on!” she yelled, gesturing frantically towards the Doctor and Jack as Rory helped her up, only to notice Jack stumble himself.
“He’s done it again,” the Doctor cursed. “He’s interfered with the shields on this ship.”
“Max Capricorn is your father?” Alonso asked. Keep him talking , he thought. Jack and the Doctor will be here soon.
“After everything that he did for his company, all those years that he did so much for them, and then to be betrayed like that when they found out he had become a cyborg,” Alexander ranted. The accent he was using earlier had gone, Alonso noticed. “He should have been treated with respect. Revenge was his right, and yet you took that away from him.”
This is insane, Alonso thought.
“But enough talking,” Alexander continued as he aimed the gun at Alonso. “Captain Hardaker showed you mercy at the last; I will not be so generous. Now Sto will speak of you as the person who failed to prevent a disaster after all.”
“No, they won’t!” yelled Jack, bursting through the door and throwing himself in front of Alonso just as Alexander fired the gun. Alonso watched in horror as Jack took the bullet squarely in the chest and collapsed to the floor. As he and Rory rushed to Jack’s side, they were barely aware of the Doctor and Amy wrestling Alexander Capricorn to the floor (“Good job I packed these,” Amy grinned as she used the handcuffs from her policewoman kissogram costume to handcuff Capricorn to the radiator. “Even if this wasn’t what I had in mind for them.”).
“I’m sorry,” Jack whispered, “about what happened back there with the Doctor. And about not talking to you sooner about what I suspected.”
“It’s okay, Jack,” Alonso soothed him. “Don’t try to talk. And I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. Turns out you were right. But everything’s going to be all right. You’re going to be fine, and we’re going to get out of here.” In truth, Alonso didn’t like the colour Jack’s face was slowly turning, and from the look on Rory’s face, he agreed.
“Doctor?” Alonso cried, incredulous as he watched the Doctor, who had left Alexander to be watched over by Amy, frantically fiddling with the engines, trying to get the shields up and running again. “What are you doing? What about Jack?”
“Actually, Alonso, look!” Rory tugged on his sleeve. “He’s starting to look a bit better. I can’t understand this. I wouldn’t expect anyone to recover this fast from a shooting. Not that I saw many shootings in Leadworth, of course...”
“Yeah, something else I maybe should have told you.” Jack whispered, reaching for Alonso’s hand. “I’m...kind of immortal.”
“Immortal?” Alonso repeated.
“Yeah. Ask him,” Jack replied, gesturing towards the Doctor. “Actually, maybe not. He didn’t take it very well at the time. But yeah, I can’t die. He doesn’t know if I ever will.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Alonso replied. “It doesn’t have to change anything. You’re still the same person.”
“You know something?” Jack whispered. “I love you.”
“Okay, I think I’ve got the engines sorted. We’ll just take Jack into the TARDIS and check him over, but he’s going to be fine. It’ll take more than him to get rid of Jack.” The Doctor gestured towards the now unconscious Alexander, before whispering, “And it’ll take more than me to come between the two of you.”
“Jack’s going to be okay,” Rory said as he stepped out of the TARDIS to rejoin Amy. “They don’t need me anymore, so I thought I’d give them some privacy. The Doctor’s just behind me.”
Amy glanced over Rory’s shoulder and made a gesture to the Doctor to wait a few moments before joining them. Alonso and Jack weren’t the only ones who needed time to talk right now.
“I know why you went after Alonso, you know,” she said, putting her arm around Rory. “And I kinda understand why you thought what you did.”
“Look, that doesn’t matter now,” Rory mumbled, embarrassed. “What matters is that Jack and Alonso are going to be okay.”
“And so are we.” Amy smiled. “Just as soon as you get it into your stupid head that I don’t have any feelings for the Doctor. You know how I chose the future with you in it back then, and that’s what I choose now. The same as Jack’s chosen his future with Alonso. Now come on, we have a honeymoon to finish.”
“Right, now where? The moon made of honey starting to look appealing after all?” the Doctor asked.
“You know what?” Rory asked. “I’m starting to think we’d have more chance of a relaxing honeymoon if we just went back to Earth.”
“Earth,” Alonso mused. “I never did get to experience the proper Earth Christmas last time around.”
“Well, we’ll have to do something about that!” the Doctor exclaimed, gesturing towards the TARDIS. “London on a typical Christmas day, annoying music playing on a loop, the turkey dinner none of us got to finish, repeats on the television, and maybe even snow. How about it?”
“You want to do Christmas?” Amy frowned. “I thought you always tried to get out of that if you could.”
“I’m not doing it for me. I’m doing it to give all of you the holiday you deserve. So how about it? Christmas on Earth? Allons-y, Alonso! You know, I’ve missed saying that,” he said. Amy and Rory looked puzzled; Jack and Alonso smiled to themselves.
“So what are you going to do now that Hircus Tours are no more?” Rory asked Alonso as they followed the Doctor into the TARDIS. With Alexander Capricorn arrested, it was felt that no one would want to take on the firm which was so closely associated with Max Capricorn and the Titanic, and the decision had been taken by the authorities on Sto to close the company. “Are you going to try and find another spaceship firm to work for?”
“After all this, I think I’m done working on spaceships,” Alonso admitted. “I want to do something else now, something that makes a difference. And even if I wanted to, I don’t think anyone would want me.”
“I can think of someone who does,” Rory said, pointing towards Jack.
“My offer still stands,” Jack smiled at him. “I’d really like it if you came to work with me at Torchwood.”
“Then I will.” Alonso replied. “I want to go somewhere that I can do some good in the world.”
“Right, then,” the Doctor said, making his way towards the controls. “Christmas Eve, London, Earth. Allons-y. You know, I could get used to saying that again,” he mused, but broke off at Amy’s expression. “But I won’t.”
“Oh, I know what I meant to tell you,” Alonso began when the Tardis touched down on Oxford Street, but he was interrupted by a cry of “Midshipman Frame!” He turned around to see an older man waving at him.
Alonso clutched at the Doctor’s sleeve. “Look, it’s Mr Copper, from the Titanic, remember?” Delighted, he beckoned him over and introduced him. “This is Jack, and Rory, and Amy, and you remember the Doctor, of course?” Noticing the look of confusion that mirrored that which had appeared on his own face earlier, he hastily explained “He regenerates. He changes his appearance. Long story.”
Mr Copper shook hands with Jack, Amy and Rory, told them he was delighted to meet them all, made some comment to the Doctor about how he would never have known him.
“So, you live on Earth now?” Alonso asked.
“Yes, I’ve been here ever since the Titanic.” Mr Copper explained.
“Actually, you might be interested to hear this, too,” Alonso continued. “You remember Rickston Slade, right?”
“That very rude man, the one who kept making all those jokes about other passengers and then gloated about how the demise of the Titanic was going to make him a very wealthy man?” Mr Copper pursed his lips. “Yes, I remember him.”
“Well, it turned out that he didn’t end up quite as wealthy as he thought.” Alonso informed them. “The rival company he invested in ended up going bust themselves. Sounds like there were some allegations of corruption at the time, and their board ended up being removed from office. Stock plummeted. Rickston ended up going bankrupt.”
“I know that Christmas is meant to be the season of goodwill,” Mr Copper replied, “but I have to admit that that couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.”
“So you’re learning about Christmas then?” Alonso asked. “That’s why the Doctor brought me here, to show me the Christmas I didn’t get to see on the Titanic.”
“Yes, I’m learning all about it. Mrs Golightly’s Happy Travelling University and Dry Cleaners was no substitute for actually experiencing Earth life, but do you know something? I’ve never experienced a real Christmas in the UK yet either.”
“Well, come and join us!” Amy offered.
“I’d be honoured to,” Mr Copper replied, as Rory tugged excitedly on his sleeve.
“Look, it’s snowing!”
“It snowed when I first arrived on Earth,” Mr Copper remembered, “but I wondered if that was something to do with the ship.”
“Not this time,” Alonso informed him. “This time, we saved them all.”
“This is what Christmas is usually like on Earth,” the Doctor explained. “London streets are always crowded at this time. The time you took everyone there before, everyone had left for the country in case of another alien invasion. But what you’re seeing now, this is proper Christmas.”
No one took much notice of the group as they made their way towards the Christmas tree, joined in with the crowd singing Silent Night (Alonso and Mr Copper both flinched at the line “Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia”, but nobody except Jack and the Doctor appeared to notice). As Rory and Amy sang along with the crowd, as Jack turned to whisper something in Alonso’s ear, the Doctor paused for a moment to remember those from the Titanic who should have been with them that day; Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, Bannakaffalatta, Astrid Peth.
As he watched Rory and Amy, and Jack and Alonso, the Doctor remembered the Christmas he had spent with Rose, and Jackie and Mickey. He normally preferred to be alone at Christmas, although his friends always determined not to let him. He wondered if he would ever experience a Christmas quite like that again. Suddenly, he heard someone walk up behind him, place their hands over his eyes.
“Hello, sweetie.”
And as the Doctor turned to face River Song, he knew that he wouldn’t feel alone this Christmas.