Fic: Resets Don’t Always Work_[Ten/Jack]_[Doctor Who]

[jade_dragoness]

Title: Resets Don’t Always Work
Author: J.D. aka jade_dragoness
Rating: R, for violent and disturbing imagery.
Pairing: vague Ten/Jack
Spoilers: Series 4 of Doctor Who
Summary: The Doctor rescues Jack with Jenny’s help.
Word Count: 9,350
Disclaimer: Never ever will be mine. *sadness*
A/N: Eight fic done for cliche_bingo. For the square # 13 - Wildcard - Amnesia. Um.. I have not seen the latest Doctor Who specials nor Torchwood ‘Children of Earth’, so please, please do not spoil me. *begs*
Feedback is hugely welcomed. Feel free to point out any errors I missed.
*-*-*-*
AO3 Link: here
*-*-*-*

The Doctor bounced on his white trainers in excitement as he circled the TARDIS console, occasionally pulling a lever, twirling a knob or smacking something with the rubber mallet in his right hand.

The girl watching him do this was smiling at his energetic antics. She couldn’t wait to see where they landed next. She absolutely loved all the running they did. And all those different planets with all those different people. It was wonderful, and better than what she had imagined.

The TARDIS rattled, shook and then landed abruptly.

“Barcelona! You know they have dogs with no noses?” The Doctor grinned, and headed for the doors. “I never get tired of saying that. You‘ll absolutely love it, Jenny!”

Jenny followed and nearly smacked into the suddenly stilled Doctor’s back right outside the TARDIS. She peeked around him, “What is it, Dad?”

“This isn‘t Barcelona,” the Doctor murmured. “Why is it that I can never get to Barcelona? I know that I set the right coordinates, maybe... hmmm.”

Jenny looked around seeing clean, brightly lit, white corridors. There were several people in what looked an awful lot like lab coats, though they were pale blue instead of the traditional white, hurrying into various rooms. The TARDIS had tucked itself into an alcove, neatly putting itself out of the main path of foot traffic. She shifted through her implanted memories to see what fit the clues, “It looks like a hospital or some sort of aid station?”

The Doctor groaned, “Oh, blimey. No, not a hospital, good things never happen to me in hospitals. Something always goes horribly wrong.”

Jenny glanced at him. “Name one trip where something hasn‘t gone wrong.”

The Doctor huffed, but said nothing.

Jenny grinned. She loved it when she caught her father off-guard like that.

The Doctor waved the question away dismissively and took a couple of steps forward before freezing again. Jenny did run into him this time.

“Something‘s wrong,” the Doctor’s voice was grim.

Jenny felt her stomach clench in worry and fear. Her Dad only ever sounded like that when they were in grave danger. The Doctor rolled his shoulders back and waved his hands in the air as if trying to sense something. Before Jenny could ask what he was doing, the Doctor’s serious expression broke into a large smile.

“It‘s not something! It‘s someone.” He instantly took off.

Jenny runs to catch up to his long legged pace, “Someone. You sensed someone… that was wrong? How can someone be wrong?”

“Long story. But it‘s an old friend of mine, Captain Jack. You‘ll like him,” the Doctor continued, “Everyone likes Jack, and Jack likes everyone so it works out very well.”

They skirted around a corridor and found a lobby with a receptionist manning what looked a lot like an information desk.

“Brilliant!” The Doctor stepped up the person, he opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by an abruptly raised finger.

The receptionist kept her finger up as she finished typing whatever she had been typing on a floating computer. Jenny eyed it with interest. It was always fascinating to see familiar bits of technology she knew upgraded to these far future ones. At least, Jenny thought it was the future, it could be the past. It was hard to tell sometimes when you were on different worlds that had different technological advances. She wondered where and when they were. Her Dad hadn’t said, and she had yet to learn how to feel out the timeline. Her Dad told her it wouldn’t kick in until she was a lot older, to her frustration.

“Yes, how can I help you today in the Phoenix Health Hospital and Pharmaceutical Labs?”

The Doctor rocked back on his trainers. “Phoenix Pharmaceutical Labs, oh. Famous labs, produces cutting edge medical techniques and medicines that they use in there very own hospital. Brilliant.” He grinned at the receptionist, “I‘m the Doctor, and I‘m looking for a friend of mine. Named Jack Harkness. Tall, blue-eyed gorgeous chap, flirts as easily as breathing. Rather hard to overlook. Or forget, really.”

The receptionist blinked rapidly at the spiel before turning her head to computer and imputing the name. The computer sounded an almost apologetic bleep. She frowned, “I‘m sorry. There is no one by that name in our database. No patient of that name has ever been admitted to Phoenix Hospital.”

The Doctor opened his mouth, closed it and then smacked himself on the forehead. “Oh, what I‘m a thinking. It‘s Jack. Do you have a way to check the visitor logs? Jack wouldn‘t be a patient.”

Jenny was utterly curious at this, “Why wouldn‘t he be a patient?”

“Oh, he wouldn‘t be sick. Or hurt, really.”

Jenny looked baffled. So did the receptionist.

“Long story,” said the Doctor in answer to both their looks.

The computer bleeped again.

“Try Captain Jack Harkness,” the Doctor leaned over to peek at the computer screen, which the frowning woman pointedly moved out of his line of sight.
This time the computer let loose a series of beeps that sounded an awful lot like warning alarms.

The bland expression on the receptionist’s face froze into a stiff mask but her eyes were scared. “Could you please wait in the seats until someone comes down to help you out? There seems to be something wrong with my computer hardware.” She tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace.

The Doctor stared at her. “Those are Epsilon Mark 18, Class 4B data computers. Nothing short of an lightning strike can damage those systems.”

Her expression grew stiffer.

Jenny could hear the thundering place of boots running down the hallway towards them. “Dad!” she said urgently. She knew that sound, it was the sound of combat boots and people with guns advancing at a rapid march.

“I hear them,” he said. He held out his hand to her, and she quickly grabbed it. “Run!”

They ran.

“Stop!”

They ran faster.
*-*-*-*

It took them nearly half an hour but they managed to avoid the chasing security forces.

“What- What was that about?” Jenny as she leaned against a wall. She was breathing a little hard but also smiling widely. She really did love all the running.

“I don‘t know,” the Doctor was frowning again, he was a little out of breath himself. That serious look that Jenny had really come to both dread and enjoy was back on his face. “But whatever it is, it has something to do with Jack. And I plan to find out what it is.”

Jenny stared at him, at his determined face, and thought about how sad he had been when they were reunited. He’s best friend had died, he’d told her, Donna. She remembered Donna. Jenny had liked her. Donna had named her and encouraged her father to accept her. When she found out it was Donna that was dead, she‘d been pretty upset and her father had felt worse.

Now, he had another friend who was possibly in danger. At least those unfriendly guys running in the halls out there had given her that impression. The Doctor would do anything possible to find out what was happening, and find his friend, this Captain Jack Harkness.

“How can I help?” she asked.

The Doctor’s eyes snapped to her in surprise and a wide smile spread across his face. Jenny smiled back. He looked genuinely happy and proud.

It made her beam at him. It delighted her, from the top of her head, down through her hearts, to the tip of her toes when her father looked at her like that. Like she was this amazing wonderful being that he was overjoyed to call his daughter.

“I need you to distract the guards while I hack into their computer network,” the Doctor said. He pulled his sonic screwdriver out of a pocket and twirled it. “Once I‘m in I can track down where Jack is and I can find out what’s going on here.”

Jenny stood up straight, tossed him a cheerful salute, “I‘m on it, Dad!” And bounded out of the room. She ran down the hallway and caught sight of a group of guards checking the rooms for intruders.

“Here I am boys! Catch me!” She ran off, leading the chasing guards away from the Doctor

The Doctor peeked through the door after the men thundered by, seeing no one he opened the door further and walked nonchalantly down the hallway. The sounds of shouting men, and his laughing daughter made him grin before he too ran off.

He came across an orientation computer station, the kind used by guests and patients to find where they were in the complex and used his sonic to break past the firewalls into the main data systems.

He looked for Captain Jack Harkness and found one file, but it led to entire data tree of information labeled, ‘Phoenix Experiments’.

He couldn’t get into them.

The Doctor slammed his hand against the screen, frustrated.

“Think. Think. Think.” He ran his hands through his hair, making it stick up in even wilder spikes before he was struck by an idea.

He pointed his sonic at the screen again. “Ha!”

He punched the air in triumph. He loved it when people who were paranoid enough to build ultra secure computer programming also stuck in back doors in the same software.

It took a bit of jiggery-pokery but he convinced the software to let him in. He loved being brilliant!

He used to the backdoor to trace were the majority of experiments where being conducted.

It looked like he was headed for Level 7.

“Well, up I go,” the Doctor muttered and so he ran off.
*-*-*-*

He had to move quickly to avoid being seen by any guards, so he got to Level 7 in no time. A quick flash of his sonic got him through a very locked door.

He barely got a few feet in when he is caught.

“You there! You‘re not suppose to be here.”

The Doctor doesn’t hesitate. He reaches into a pocked and pulls out his psychic paper. “Oh, but I am. I‘m the Doctor.”

He holds up the psychic paper for inspection. The man in the white lab coat who caught him frowned but his expression quickly cleared at the sight of the paper, his expression becoming pleasant and ingratiating.

The Doctor found it rather disturbing. It reminded him too much of the expression that Director Yvonne Hartman of Torchwood London had used when telling him that he was their prisoner. The same expression she had on when insisting that she knew better.

“Oh, you‘re from the Gilgamesh Group.”

“Yes! That‘s right,” the Doctor faked a smile.

“You‘re rather early for the monthly inspection,” the man said as he started leading them down the hall.

“Well, you know how it is. There were some details missing in the last report and I was sent in early to make sure everything is addressed correctly.” The Doctor carefully watched to see how the human reacted to this. From him body language, he accepted it. Good.

“I see,” the man frowned again as he pulled pressed a palm against a laser reader. He then pulled an ID card out of his lab coat pocked and pushed into a slot at the side of the reader.

The Doctor glanced at it quickly and caught the name, Henry Stutterson, M.D. on the card.

“Well, you have good timing. We’re just about to retrieve the organs samples to do a deep tissue check for any damage possibly sustained from the 50 grams of Tychodramazine. The check at 25 grams was very promising.”

As he chatted, Stutterson led them into a large room. It was an observation room and through its large windows, the Doctor could see down into a surgery theater. It was empty but, in only moments, people in lab coats started walking in pushing various medical equipment.

Then, they brought in Jack.

The Doctor’s breath caught.

Jack was strapped down to surgical table, and he was glaring at the people around him. His blue eyes were blazing with his anger but he was so pale and thin that if the Doctor hadn’t know better he would have thought that Jack was very sick or dying.

“50 grams of Tychodramazine, you said?” he murmured. He tried to remember what the drug did. It wasn’t one that he recognized, but that didn’t mean much. Biology wasn’t really his subject and there were too many drugs out there, each called a different name depending on the planet, for him to remember all the varieties. If he could find out the chemical formula then he would be able to identify it.

“Yes. A larger dose, than usual for this test stage, I know. But the results from the 25 grams was so promising, I decided that it would be best double to dose to test for side-effects. Especially on the subject. He heals faster than normal, as you know from the reports.” Stutterson said. He leaned closer to the window, “Ah, they look like they’re almost ready to begin.”

He continued, “It really is beneficial to have some who will reset back to their baseline after every death. It‘s incredible.”

“Yes, incredible,” said in the Doctor, his voice was flat with disapproval, fortunately Stutterson was too wrapped up in his own delight to notice anything off about his reaction.

Stutterson pushed at a speaker button by the window. “Start the organ extraction process.”

The Doctor stiffened. But before he could say anything, Jack started screaming.

The Doctor froze for a second at the horrible sound before reaching into this coat pocket to pull out his sonic screwdriver.

Stutterson continued, “Did you know how very different a healthy human brain is to a sick one? The things alone that we‘ve learned about how the human brain works has jumped studies ahead by fifty years. Being able to study the subject’s brain and dissection it, and even pulling it out for a closer look and knowing that the subject will reset and revive with another brain.” Stutterson laughed in delight. “It is amazing.”

The men below were cutting Jack open while he was conscious. His screams got louder.

The Doctor shuddered in horror then pressed his sonic against Stutterson’s back. He demanded through clenched teeth, “Tell them to stop.”

Stutterson stiffened, then said in a low voice, “You‘re not from the Gilgamesh Group.”

“No. Now, don‘t make me ask again or you will regret it.”

Stutterson paled, the Doctor could see his expression reflected on the glass. The human’s eyes looked around trying to find some means to escape and he slumped slightly as he realized he didn’t have one.

Jack’s screaming abruptly cut off. The Doctor wanted to look but he didn’t dare. The wet organic plops of flesh being moved were horrific enough without having to see what the strangers were pulling out of Jack.

The Doctor pressed the end of his sonic even harder into Stutterson’s back. He knew he was going to leave behind bruises, but at the moment he honestly didn’t care. Jack was his only concern.

Stutterson tried to say, “Look you are making a mistake. The things we are learning-”

“No.” The Doctor cut him off, “Whatever you are learning is not worth the things you are doing to him. Make them stop.”

Stutterson pushed at the button again. “Abort.” He cleared his throat nervously. “This in an abort.”

The Doctor said, “And tell them to leave the room. Jack stays.”

“Leave the room, and the subject behind,” Stutterson added.

The Doctor could hear confused murmurs from the surgery theater and he was relieved to see that they did what they were ordered. As the last of the men and women left the room, he grabbed Stutterson and pushed him with his sonic still at his back.

He had noticed another door near the entrance to this one and he was willing to bet that it led down to the surgery theater.

He needed to get to Jack now.

He was pretty certain that at any moment those surgeons would be demanding to know what was going on, or they would alert the guards. He needed to move Jack and get him away from this place as fast as he could

Stutterson led him to and through the door, his expression was growing angrier by the moment, which the Doctor ignored.

Once they were inside it took all of the Doctor’s self control to keep from crying out at the sight of Jack.

His friend had been carved open, his chest cracked apart, and his intestines spread out over the top of his hips. Blood had spilled all around him, and the only reason the floor wasn’t covered in it was because the operating table they had set Jack upon had built in gullies that drained the blood and other fluids away into blue containers labeled ‘Medical Waste‘ in bold white letters.
.
The Doctor stared grimly at a tray holding Jack’s heart, and liver. The only reason his other organs weren’t there, the Doctor theorized, was because he hadn’t given the butchers enough time to get them out of Jack.

“Oh, Captain,” he said, his voice mournful. “I‘m sorry. I‘m so sorry.”

Stutterson tried to use this distraction to attack.

The Doctor had been waiting for it though. He was pretty certain that the human wouldn’t let someone take way Jack without a fight. Stutterson saw Jack as too valuable a resource. The Doctor used his own momentum against him and spun him into a wall. Stutterson hit it hard and slid down to the floor in a daze.

The Doctor stared at him grimly, and once again pointed his sonic at the man. “Take off your coat.”

Stutterson didn’t dare disobey and handed it over.

The Doctor tucked it under his shoulder. “Now, run.”

“Run?”

“Yes, run. Get as far away as you can.” The Doctor said in a low threatening voice. “Because the moment I get my friend to safety, I‘m destroying this place. Every room, every wall, down to the foundations this butcher shop stands on.”

Stutterson stared at the dark expression on the Doctor’s face, at his steely eyes and believed him. He scrambled to his feet. “You may take him away now. But we‘ll get him back. No matter where he goes, we‘ll find him again.”

“RUN!” The Doctor shouted, utterly furious at the idea. He pointed his sonic screwdriver at a row of monitors near Stutterson and made them explode in a shower of white sparks.

The man ran.

The Doctor leapt to Jack’s side. He was still dead. That would make the rescue a bit more complicated.

He had to push Jack’s rib cage close and into his body. He wrapped the lab coat around him, using it to keep the other man’s remaining internal organs in place like a particularly large bandage. Then the Doctor tried to pick him up but Jack’s body was too slick with still warm blood. He decided to sacrifice his own coat and tucked Jack into it. It took a bit of maneuvering, but afterwards he was able to pick up Jack with ease.

So, holding him close, the Doctor ran out the door.

That’s when the alarms started going off.
*-*-*-*

Running while holding a dead body was even more difficult than running with an unconscious body, the Doctor noted. And when that dead guy was someone who was nearly as tall as the person who was carrying him, lighter than the body and trying to keep Jack from losing any other internal bits, well, the entire process grew exponentially more complex.

And that was without adding the factor of being chased through a labyrinth of similar looking hallways by several armed guards.

The Doctor was breathing hard and running fast but he tried to run faster because the guards were gaining on him. He lucked out that they couldn’t aim very well while running otherwise they would have already taken him down.

He turned into another hallway and got only a few feet when he was yanked into a room.

He nearly dropped Jack and he yelled but a hand muffled the sound.

“Quiet, Dad!”

The Doctor relaxed. Jenny let loose her grip on him, stepped away from his back so he could see her in the dim light. He opened to mouth to say thank you but the sounds of the guards running into the hallway made him duck down. Jenny was head of him and already flat against the floor.

They both hold their breaths as the guards thundered past them. The Doctor was glad that he’d managed to retain enough of a lead on them that they hadn’t seen him be pulled into the room. Obviously, they thought he was still running, like he had been for the last few minutes when he was trying to escape them or they would have started a room by room check. He was glad that the guards were proving to be not all that bright. It made it easier to escape them.

Both of them let loose quite sighs of relief as the sound of pounding boots faded away.

“Are you alright?” The Doctor asked Jenny, his voice low. He couldn’t see her too well in the dark room.

“I‘m fine. They never got close to capturing me.” Jenny was grinning, “And I got this!” She pulled one of the gun the guards were toting from her pocket. She help it up to the narrow beam of light coming from the hallway. The Doctor could see it was a electrical stun gun, the sort whose lethality could be dialed up from mild shock to fatal. He was relieved and proud to see it was set at a level in-between, at a non-lethal stun.

“Good, good. You hold on to that,” he said. The Doctor shifted the hold he had on Jack’s body, which brought him to Jenny’s attention.

“He‘s dead!” Jenny gasped. “Oh Dad, I‘m so sorry.”

The Doctor shook his head, “No, it‘s alright. He‘ll get better.”

For once, Jenny looked shocked. Utterly could-have-knocked-her-over-with-a-feather shocked.

The Doctor was amused to realized he’d never seen that expression on her before. She took so much in with a smile of delight, or puzzlement or a small bit of surprise. She never looked that taken off balance before by all the things they had seen while traveling together. But then, she had been born in a middle of a war, ready to fight from her very first breath. It made it rather difficult to find any thing that could throw her off guard.

Jack coming back from the dead was apparently one of those things.

“Is that what you meant when you said he was wrong?” she asked, looking down at Jack’s bundled body in fascination.

“It‘s one of the reasons. Not the only one. You could even say that the reviving is a side-effect of the real reason. I‘ll tell you later when we get back to the TARDIS. But first help me find something I can use to carry Jack. I think my arms are going to fall off.” He didn’t add that he wanted an arm free to have access to his sonic screwdriver. He was pretty sure that he would end up needing it and with Jack occupying both hands it was rather hard to use it, even if he held it between his teeth.

Jenny nodded and reached for the light source.

As the lights flickered on, the Doctor was looking down at Jack trying to judge how long it would take for him to revive, so he missed the horrified expression on his daughter’s face.

“Dad,” she said, her voice low and anguished.

Surprised, the Doctor looked up at her.

Jenny was staring at the rest of the room. She looked like she was going to be sick.

The Doctor stood up, still holding Jack and followed her gaze.

What he saw made him do something he rarely indulged in, swearing.

Numerous jars, jar upon jar, were sitting on lab tables, and in those jars floated brains.

Different bits of brains. Some in pieces, a forebrain here and there, entire but separated hemispheres, and a few completely intact brains.

Some, the Doctor noted, had eyes still attached by the optic nerve. Eyes that were an entirely too familiar shade of blue. And the Doctor knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, each and every single brain and bit of brain floating in those preservation jars belonged to Captain Jack Harkness.

“They‘re all dead,” said Jenny. This wasn’t something that war had prepared her to see. Torn and broken bodies on a battlefield? Bleeding and dying fellow soldiers? Yes, that she could handle. This? This was something so cold and out of her realm of experience she couldn’t begin to comprehend it.

“They‘re all Jack‘s,” said the Doctor, his voice dark.

Jenny looked at her father. He had that deadly, grim expression back on his face and she could see his grip on the body he held grow tighter until it looked like he was clutching it for comfort.

“The fluids preserving them are flammable,” he continued.

Jenny got it. She drew the stunner back from her pocket and dialed up the power to fatal levels. She started firing.

Every shot hit a jar and shattered it. She didn’t miss once. Blue flames started leaping up, following the spread of the clear fluids across the tabletops and onto the floor.

They got out of there as fast as they could. At the pace the fire was spreading the entire hallway would be engulfed in minutes.

Again, they ran.

This time they headed for the TARDIS, stopping only once so that the Doctor could sonic a computer into sending the guards in another direction.

With their way now clear they were able to head straight to where they had left the TARDIS. But when they were just meters away from the ship they got pinned down by guards that had been waiting for them in case they doubled back.

“Maybe not all of them are stupid.” said the Doctor. Jenny peaked around the corner and drew back in time to avoid a bolt of electricity.

She asked, “Now, what do we do?”

But before the Doctor could answer.

“Give up the subject! And we‘ll let you live.”

The Doctor narrowed his eyes as he recognized the voice of Henry Stutterson. He shouts back, “Not on your life!”

“Doctor, you don‘t know what you are doing. The things we have learned from him, such extraordinary things. The things we can still learn about the human body. About the human mind. That man is immortal. Truly immortal. He’s resistant to injury, illness and even time, itself. Isn‘t it worth it? For knowledge, for science, for immortality?”

“For money and your own selfishness,” the Doctor spat back. “I know that Phoenix Pharmaceutical Labs are generating billions of dollars of profit. All of it in the last twenty years. All of it from Jack‘s pain. I saw it in your computers.”

There was a moment of silence, then Stutterson continued, “How do you know that he didn‘t volunteer for this? That he did chose to let us use his body for the advancement of mankind?”

For a moment the Doctor was so outraged and angry that he could barely speak. He had to take a deep, slow breath before saying, “If that was true. If it truly was Jack‘s choice, then you wouldn‘t have tried to hide him. You wouldn‘t have tried to keep us from him, because Jack would never not want to see me. I know. I know that you had to force him here, that you need to strap him down. I saw you cutting into him while he was still conscious for it and I saw him fighting to get away from you with everything he had. There is no way that this is Jack‘s choice.”

The Doctor hands Jack to Jenny, who cradled him in her arms with tender care, as if he could still feel it. She was more than strong enough to carry him with ease, but he was an awkward size, being much taller and heavier than her, for her to do so comfortably for too long. She got ready for whatever her father had planned next. She had a feeling it would involve more running.

The Doctor flashed her an approving look before pulling his sonic screwdriver out.
As he calibrated it to the setting that he wanted, “Too bad for them that I‘m a whole lot cleverer than them.”

Jenny started grinning.

The Doctor’s expression was cool as he stepped out into view of the guards and Henry Stutterson.

His eyes caught sight of what he was looking for and he smiled. It’s not a friendly smile. “The major problem with Epsilon Mark 18, Class 4B data computers is while they have some of the toughest hardware designed in this century, their software is so easy to destroy, if you know the trick.”

The Doctor points his sonic screwdriver at the computer from the information terminal he had been at just an hour ago. His sonic glowed blue, and the computer started whining, growing more and more high pitched.

“And if you know what you are doing!” shouted the Doctor, “You can wipe out the entire computer system, creating a cascade effect that wipes out every connecting database in the network.”

Stutterson paled.

“Absolutely every experiment, every result, every bit of data that you‘ve managed to gather from Jack, is gone. An absolute erasure,” the Doctor continued. “And your lab is going to follow.”

More alarms started going off, louder and more urgent than the previous ones. Flashing red light, sirens, and above the din, a cool female voice intoned, “Emergency. Please head for the nearest exit. Emergency. Please head for the near-”

Stutterson took a deep breath, catching the faint arid smell of smoke, and shouted, “Shoot them!”

But Jenny and the Doctor were already moving. The sudden loud noise and flashing lights disoriented the men with guns enough to give them an edge. By the time the men started shooting, Jenny and the Doctor managed to get close enough to the TARDIS to be protected by the ship’s shielding.

Blue and white electricity bloomed like wild flowers against the force-field as the guards kept shooting.

They stumbled into the TARDIS and the Doctor instantly headed for the console controls. He wanted them away from here as fast as possible. So, he started up the TARDIS, directing her to take them into the time vortex.

The Doctor and Jenny ignored the pounding at the doors.

The TARDIS started grinding and vanished from this time and place to safety.

Jenny finally relaxed and settled Jack down onto the floor. She looked at him in amazement. He looked so pale, and was so clearly dead that it was hard for her to believe that he would really get better.

Which is why she screamed when he suddenly took in a deep ragged breath.

“Jack!” the Doctor shouted in delight. He ran over, “Yes! You‘re awake! Jack-”

The Doctor cut himself off as he noted something odd. Jack was alive alright, but he wasn’t awake and Jack always woke up when he revived. Always.

The Doctor frowned, “Jack?” He got no response. His unease grew thick and heavy. He started shouting and shaking the other man, “Jack! Jack! Wake up! Wake up, Captain Jack Harkness! Wake up!”

Still no response, Jack might as well still had been a corpse, he didn’t so much as twitch, even with the Doctor shouting so loudly into his ear.

The Doctor stared down at him, his face stricken. He whispered, “That’s impossible. Something is wrong with Jack.”

Jenny put her hand against his shoulder. She could feel her father‘s tension in her hand. She looked at them both in concern and asked, “Is there anything you can do?”

“I don‘t know. I don‘t know what’s wrong with him in the first place.” The Doctor voice grew determined, “But I‘ll find out!”

With that the Doctor picked up Jack again and headed for the medical bay.
*-*-*-*

The Doctor was running his hundredth scan on Jack. It was several days since the rescue and Jack still wasn’t waking up. It was driving the Doctor crazy trying to find the cause. Because according to every single scan that he ran, Jack was in perfect health for a 51st Century human, which was much better than a 21st Century human.

Yet, there had to be something keeping Jack from waking up, and so the Doctor run scan number one hundred and one only to get the same results.

There was nothing wrong with him.

The Doctor scowled at Jack. He irritably said, “Even unconscious you’re still causing me trouble. That is just so typical. Humans!”

He let loose a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand up in even wilder spikes. He sat down in the chair and stared at Jack. There was one more thing he could try. He didn’t really want to. There was a reason he was putting it off.

He would have to get into Jack’s mind to see if there was anything left of him inside.

And if there wasn’t? Then Phoenix Pharmaceutical Labs really had found a way to kill the only truly immortal being in the universe.

The Doctor’s mouth flattened at the thought, anger and despair flickering in his eyes.

He had grown used to having Jack around. The Doctor hadn’t realized how much he had come to depend on knowing that no matter where or when he went that Jack would be out there, being a hero, seducing every kind of being and just getting into incalculable amounts of trouble.

Because without Jack in that mind, even if he woke up, without the personality and culmination of memories that had become Jack Harkness, he would never be the same. Ever again.

Even thinking that made him ache in his hearts, and feel as if all his nine-hundred years were pressing upon him again.

The Doctor took a breath, took a moment to control his thoughts into the necessary patterns and reached for Jack’s face. The tips of his long fingers gently found the sites for telepathic contact.

He reached out.

He slowly curled out tendrils of thought as he went, reaching for where Jack‘s mind should have been. He kept expecting to hit mental barriers, or even sleeping thoughts but he found nothing.

He stretched out further. He found nothing.

The ocean of personality and experience that should have been there, was not. Instead there was a fog. A dark gray fog that obscured everything but held nothing substantial. The sort of fog that left a body damp, chilled and worried about what lurked just out of sight because by the time you saw it, it was only a couple of feet away.

The Doctor unfolded his mind, taking up more space and reaching out in even more directions. He tried to burn away the mental fog with the light of his own thoughts. Tried to find Jack in all the murk.

And still he found nothing.

He was about ready to give up in despair, admit that Jack was gone from his reach, possibly forever when he hit something. Something so hard and unexpected that he bounced clear out of Jack’s mind.

Gasping, the Doctor stared at Jack. His eyes were wide.

Then he whooped.

An overjoyed smile spread across his face, and he jumped to his feet, punched the air, and whooped again.

Jenny ran in. She’d been keeping an ear open on her father to make sure he didn’t tire himself out hovering over Jack.

“He‘s still in there!” the Doctor shouted. He bounced towards Jenny, wrapped his arms around her waist, picked her up and spins her around. “He‘s in so deep I nearly couldn‘t find him. So heavily shielded I almost didn’t recognize him. But he‘s there! Jack’s alright!”

Jenny beamed and wrapped her arms around her father, hugging him back tightly as they spun around the medical bay again.

A pained groan from bed made them abruptly stop and stare.

“Jack!” the Doctor shouted and let go of Jenny to rush to his side.

Jenny followed, eager to meet this man whom her father cared so much for.

Jack’s eyes snapped open and he quickly rolled off the bed, putting it between him and them. He’s eyes were narrowed, wary and very scared.

The Doctor noted that he moved quick for a man wearing only a hospital gown. Well, it was Jack, he shouldn’t be surprised at all.

“Stay back,” Jack said, his voice hoarse. He was holding a hand out, and the other was reaching behind him, as if trying to find a weapon. Any kind of weapon.

The Doctor stopped moving. “Jack. It‘s me. The Doctor.”

There was no recognition in Jack’s eyes. If anything, the Doctor’s name caused so much fear that Jenny and the Doctor could see the blood drain from Jack’s face leaving him pale and shaken.

The Doctor took a step forward in alarm.

Jack scrambled back.

“You don‘t have to be afraid of me, Jack. I swear. I‘m a friend,” the Doctor said, he reached out his hand, pleading with his expression for Jack to take it. “You‘re safe. This is the TARDIS, not the labs. You‘re safe here. I promise. You know me.”

Jack shook his head mutely and rasped, “No. No, I don‘t.”

The Doctor felt as if he’d been punched. He closed his eyes in pain. He took a breath and opened them again, a determined look on his face.

“Look at me,” he demanded. Jack’s eyes snapped to his. “Look at me and see that I don‘t mean you any harm. You. Are. Safe.”

Jenny held her breath as she watched Jack looking at her dad. His eyes searched the Doctor’s intently, as if he could see the truth of his words in them. He must have found it because a moment later he slumped and his guard dropped.

The Doctor reached him and wrapped his arms around Jack to hold him up. Jack sobbed once, a low soul-wounded sound, and let the Doctor bear his weight. The Doctor shushed him and held him gently.

Jack only let the Doctor hold him for a few seconds before stiffening and pulling back.

The Doctor had to resist the impulse to keep holding on and so he let Jack go reluctantly. It was a balm to his aching hearts to hold a living, breathing and awake Jack.

“You said I know you,” Jack said. “But I don‘t remember you. Either of you.” Jack stepped away from the Doctor and his eyes flickered between him and Jenny. The caution, though muted, was back.

“Oh! We‘ve never met!” Jenny said cheerfully. She reached out her hand to Jack. “Hi! I‘m Jenny. I‘m the Doctor‘s daughter.” She smiled, as charming a smile as she could make it.

Jack caught her hand and smiled back in reflexive response. “Hello, I‘m Jack.” His smile grew incandescent as he held Jenny hand. She positively beamed back in appreciation.

The Doctor scowled at them both. “Oh, cut it out. Both of you.”

Jenny shot him a startled look and Jack flinched, dropping Jenny’s hand of if it had turned red coal hot.

The Doctor’s expression became contrite. He cleared his throat, and tugged at his ear. “I need to check you over, Jack.”

“I‘m fine!” Jack swallowed, and shot the medical equipment an uneasy look.

“Jack,” the Doctor said, firmly. “I still don‘t know why it took you so long to wake up. So want to run some more brain scans now that you‘re awake so I can figure out why your memory is missing.”

“Is that why my head feels like it‘s about to break apart? The scans? Or is it the memory loss?” Jack asked, raising a hand to rub at his forehead.

The Doctor rocked back on his heels, “Oh no. None of those thing. It was me, I‘m afraid. Sorry. Didn’t mean to do that. It should wear off in an hour.”

“You did it? And you want to do even more things to my head?” Jack asked. He grimaced at couple of machines around the room.

It was clear from Jack’s expression that it was taking everything he had to not run out of the medical bay. It was too similar to the look of Phoenix Pharmaceutical Labs and talking to the Doctor and Jenny had been all that had kept it from sinking in.

The Doctor reached out, caught Jack’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

Jack shot him a startled look but the tension that had been rising in his frame drained away.

“I‘m not going to hurt you,” the Doctor said gently. “And really, the headache has nothing to do with the scans. I‘m not doing that thing again anytime soon, that I can promise you.” He hadn’t exactly escaped unscathed either. He was just better able at handling the backlash of being essentially tossed out on his rear from Jack’s mind like he’d been.

Jack nodded mutely and lay back on the sensor bed. It took a moment for the Doctor to get his hand back from his grip, but as soon as he was free he set the sensor to run it’s one-hundredth and second scan on Jack.

The Doctor was interested to see that the brain scan had changed drastically and not just because Jack was awake now. There were a lot of dark areas, that should have been sparkling with energy. Nothing that was interfering with Jack’s health and definitely the sort of spots that would house memories. Yet, there wasn’t any sort of discernable damage to them. No scarring or the breaking of the pathways. In some ways they were in better shape than they’d ever been.

When those so-called doctors had removed Jack’s brain they had forced his body to produce one that was in near mint condition. A reset, like Stutterson had called it. The Doctor really hated the term. It was entirely too similar in vein to the way that the Cybermen called death a deletion.

There was a tiny change in the brain scan and the Doctor looked up to see Jenny sitting by Jack’s side, taking his hand in her own.

The Doctor went back his study and he adjusted the machinery to see if it could give him anything new. He didn’t get anything but it did cause a theory to start forming in his mind. The Doctor had seen Jack take damage to his brain before, and he’d seen Jack come back from it with all his memories intact. That meant that the sheer amount of damage that Phoenix Pharmaceutical Labs had inflicted on the him by removing his brain as often as they had shouldn’t have caused irreversible memory loss.

If they had been responsible the Doctor would have seen something show up in the scans. Phoenix Pharmaceutical Labs weren’t what he would call subtle. They would have left traces of their actions behind. Their organ removal had left faint micro-scarring that the Doctor had been able to detect.

So, the sheer lack of outside interference made the Doctor start to believe that Jack had caused the memory loss to himself.

“Jack, how much do you remember?” he asked.

Jack frowned, “I remember the labs. Waking up there and being taken to a room filled with equipment. And then pain. Lots of pain.” He laughed bitterly. “Why couldn‘t I had forgotten that?” He shook his head. “I blacked out, then I woke up here.”

He closed his eyes, trying to find any older memories only to fail. He continued, “I knew I was in danger, that I needed to get away, and that I needed to fight. It‘s such an overwhelming urge. I still feel it. It‘s not as strong but it‘s still there.” Jack sighed, “Honestly, I don’t think I would have even remembered my name if you hadn‘t been calling me Jack from the moment I woke up.” Jack smiled faintly at the Doctor. “It was pretty obvious you were talking to me.”

The Doctor was disappointed, he had hoped Jack had remembered his name on his own.

“I think,” said the Doctor, as he started pacing. “I think you did this to yourself.”

“Why would he do that?” Jenny asked.

“I wish I knew. I wish I knew what he did! Then I could reverse it,” the Doctor said and threw his arms up into the air in exasperation.

Jack looked at them both, not really understanding their concern. It was difficult to be worried about the lack of something he hadn‘t even known was missing until it had been pointed out. He considered the Doctor, his frantic pacing and his racing thoughts and felt a glow of warmth that combated the frantic feeling of danger. If his memories included more of him, Jack thought, he was pretty sure he wanted them back.

“Are we done?” he asked after a few minutes of watching the Doctor.

“Yup! All done,” the Doctor said.

Jack got off the bed, relief radiated from every inch of him. This time when he got off the bed, the hospital gown he was wearing rode up giving the Doctor and Jenny a clear look at his upper thighs.

The Doctor instantly reached over and clamped a hand over Jenny’s eyes, who protested and tried to pry the fingers apart. The Doctor glanced at Jack for a second then pointedly looked the other way.

Jack gave them both a puzzled look.

“There‘s set of clothes for you in that cabinet there,” the Doctor pointed off to the side with his only free hand. Jack nodded and started stripping which the Doctor took as a sign to haul his daughter and himself out of the room.

Jenny protested even more. She could hear Jack even if she couldn’t see him. “Dad! What if he needs help putting on his clothes?”

“Nice try,” the Doctor said dryly. “But Jack‘s a champion at taking off his clothes and putting them back on again. Not even memory loss can interfere with that skill set.”

The Doctor’s word were proved true as Jack followed the out the door, fully dressed in a shirt and jeans, just a minute after they had walked out. So he let Jenny go.

He looked a paler than he had a moment ago though, and the Doctor felt a guilty pang as he realized that Jack probably wasn’t comfortable being left in the medical bay all alone. Even if had been only for a minute, well, 58.35 seconds

“Let me show your room,” said the Doctor. He turned and headed off. Jack and Jenny followed.

“I - I‘d rather stay with you, Doctor,” Jack said quietly. He did feel much safer in his presence and he was loathe to give up even such a fragile feeling of sanctuary. Especially since he still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was still in danger. Not from Jenny or the Doctor, but a general feeling of impending doom, as if the universe itself was out to get him. It had started up from when he first awoke, and though it had lessened with the Doctor’s words, it had yet to fully dissipate. He couldn’t help but wonder if spending even more time with the Doctor would make it go away. He wanted it to go away.

“Me?!” The Doctor spun to face him and eyes grew wide at the thought. “Well- I- I mean - You see-”

Jenny hid a grin behind a hand. “Yeah, Dad,” she asked casually. “Why can‘t he stay with you?”

The Doctor ignored her and so missed her mischievous expression. He said desperately, “But your room has all the stuff you left behind from before!”

Now, it was Jack’s turn to sport a wide-eyed look. “You mean its my own personal room?”

“Yes! What did you think I meant?” The Doctor asked in turn.

“I thought, something like a guest room. You were serious when you said we were friends.” Jack was rather overwhelmed by this. That he had someone who knew him, who he had previously trusted, even if he didn’t remember it. It was an incredible feeling.

“We are friends,” the Doctor corrected, and rather relieved to have changed topics to something far more comfortable. “You‘ve traveled with me before, so you have your own room here in the TARDIS that still has stuff you left there.” He wasn’t going to bring up exactly why there was so much of Jack’s stuff left behind. That was a much too sensitive topic to bring up.

Both Jenny and Jack followed the Doctor through the halls, who moved swiftly and surely, and in moments they were in Jack’s old room.

The Doctor tucked his hands into his pockets and swayed in place as he watched them explore the room.

Jenny looked around in bright eyed interest. She was soon delighted by a gun she discovered in a night stand. She barely got to raise it up to admire it when her father plucked it out of her hands and tucked it back in it’s drawer.

“No guns,” the Doctor reminded her.

She sighed. He was especially hard on her about it because of how she was ‘born’. She could take guns off anyone who was using them against her but she wasn’t to carry one around. It had been the hardest rule to accept when it came to traveling with her Dad.

She resisted the urge to pout and went back to poking around.

The Doctor went back to watching Jack and tried to see if anything was familiar to the human. But it was clear from his curious expression that Jack didn’t recognize anything.

Not even a blue-gray British RAF greatcoat that was hanging from a coat stand caught his eye.

The Doctor controlled his expression as not to show how worried that made him. Jack had worn that coat for too many years. It had become as much a part of his identity as being called Jack Harkness. That he didn’t recognize it at all was a bad sign.

Fortunately, for the Doctor at least, by the time the room’s explorations was done, Jack had grown tired again and just chose to drop off to sleep. Real sleep, and not the coma-like sleep he had been under. So the Doctor didn’t have to answer an uncomfortable questions, like where his room was located or if Jack could stay there with him.

The Doctor escorted Jenny out, and went back to the TARDIS control room to check the status of their position in the Vortex. He‘d hate for something to have gone mauve on him while his attention was elsewhere.
*-*-*-*

The Doctor was sitting in the pilot chair, his trainer clad feet up on the TARDIS console, wearing his glasses and looking at the results from all the scans that he ran on Jack, yet again, when Jenny joined him.

“Has he woken up yet?” she asked, bouncing to her Dad’s side.

“Not so far,” the Doctor answered absently, flipping a page over.

“It‘s been hours,” Jenny huffed.

“Humans need more sleep than we do,” said the Doctor. He looked up. “I always thought it was pretty inefficient. Earth has 24 hours in a day and they spend about 8 hours of it sleeping. 8 out of 24. That‘s 33.33333 percent of their time asleep. And if you ask them to sleep less, well, they get cranky.”

The Doctor twitched as he remembered the one time he asked that of Donna. The diatribe he got from her that day had left him with ringing ears for hours afterward.

“You should have stayed with him,” Jenny said, grinning over at the Doctor from where she was leaning against the TARDIS console.

“What? He didn‘t need me. He fell asleep perfectly fine on his own,” the Doctor protested. He had thought of it. Briefly. Alright, maybe not so briefly. He got as far as the door to Jack’s room before deciding it would be better for him to go grab a look of the scans again.

Anyway, he hadn’t been feeling particularly sleepy.

He eyed Jenny, wondering rather nervously what she was thinking.

“Then I should go stay with him. That way when he wakes up he won‘t be alone!” Jenny said. She lit up at her idea and straightened up.

“Oh, now wait a minute,” the Doctor said as he stood up in alarm.

Jenny smiled smugly and headed for the door only to run into Jack. They clung at each other for balance for just a moment before stepping apart.

“Oh, hello again,” Jack said, blinking sleepily at her.

“Oh! You‘re awake. Good. That‘s very good,” said the Doctor.

Jenny looked torn between disappointment and delight. She had wanted to see what her father would have done about it but she was glad he was finally awake.

Jack was back to wearing his jeans and shirt but he looked a lot better for the sleep. The only jarring note was his body’s thinness and the odd innocence that the Doctor had never known Jack to have. There had always been too much knowledge in Jack’s eyes. He knew too well how life and people could disappoint you, and that had been before the hundreds of years he spend on Earth as part of Torchwood.

The lack of it was an uncomfortable reminder of how much Jack had lost in those locked away memories, all that knowledge and hard-won experiences.

Jack looked appreciatively at the Doctor. “Nice glasses.”

“What? Oh, these.” He pulled them off and tucked them back in his pocket. “Just doing a bit of reading. How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Jack said.

“Do you remember anything?” asked Jenny.

“No,” Jack shook his head. “I‘m still drawing a blank.”

The Doctor hummed. “Yes, well, until we know exactly why you can‘t gain access to those memories that changes of them simply coming back on their own is, oh, 0.05 percent? Maybe, 0.056.”

Jack grimaced, “So, it‘s pretty much not happening.”

“Yup,” the Doctor said.

Jenny looked at them both and the rather gloomy expression on Jack’s face, the carefully blank on her father’s and threw her hands up in exasperation.

“Come on Jack. Thinking out it isn‘t going to make it better,” Jenny grabbed Jack’s hand and started tugging him away from the control room. “Let‘s get you something to eat! Do you like tea?”

Jack followed along. “I have no idea.”

“It‘s brilliant!”

It struck the Doctor then exactly how the future would roll out with Jack being with them.

Jack would stay with them, doubtlessly throwing himself in front of danger but he would be there. He’d follow at his side, and at Jenny’s side. He’d do his best, fail and succeeded.

And when his memories came back. Jack would probably leave them at that point but until then he’d die for them both, and enjoy life with them. He would make their life so much more interesting. Maybe Jack’s flirting would finally get past his own reticence. Maybe it wouldn’t.

The Doctor looked in the direction that they'd left, glance at the pages he had been looking over again without getting any answers and back. The Doctor dropped his feet to the deck and dropped the scan results on the chair. He could look at those later after all he had all the time in the universe, and so did Jack.

“Oi! Hold on!” called the Doctor and ran after his daughter and his friend. “After tea, how do you guys feel about Barcelona?”

End

a/n: I‘ve had this half-finished and languishing in my hard-drive forever. I finally decided to finish it up to my satisfaction and I could use it for cliche_bingo.