Reunions - Part 7. A Captain/Rosie Harkness adventure.
Title: Reunions Part 7 (The (mis)Adventures of the Captain and co. series)
Characters: Jack, Ten, The Captain (aka Rosie Harkness), Captain John Hart others to appear later (Spoilers :P )
Ratings: PG 13 to about 15 really for the whole series - angst and a bit of violence, nothing too major
Disclaimer: I don't own the boys, I just borrow them. Rosie is all mine though.
Summary: Epic/AU Series fic. When a mysterious message brings the TARDIS back to Earth with a bang a secret from Jack's past threatens his new family.
Authors Notes: Woooooooooooooooooah we're halfway there... Assuming I stop adding bits to the end. ;)
Ianto walked through the hub, last to leave as was often the case nowadays, absentmindedly tidying as he went. Tosh and Owen were out on a “not a date” as they both put it and Ianto found himself lost in thoughts of past dates, relationships - and Gwen’s wedding. The Nostravite had been a real pain in the arse but luckily Owen managed to get the egg out of Gwen without any harm and, after a spot of fun with the big gun, mummy was dispatched as well just in time to get Gwen back to the service.
Gwen had come back off holiday brimming with ideas and happy and it warmed his heart to see her so cheerful. He had thought the Jonah Bevan business would get messy but he took her out to the island himself. He showed her what was really going on. And why she had to stop. It had broken her heart but she understood. The past few weeks had been tough but things were finally settling down again. Until the next crisis...
Ianto jumped as the light flared in front of him and swore as an all too familiar shape emerged from it, striding towards him and slamming him against the desk hard. “You!” Captain John Hart wrapped his fingers around Ianto’s neck, pushing him down with a look of almost desperation in his eyes.
“Where is he Ianto? He’s supposed to be here, where is he?” Ianto couldn’t help crying out as he was pushed back further, his spine aching under the pressure as the ex time agent leaned over him.
“He left... months ago.” John swore and shook his head disbelievingly, almost panicked.
“No, no you’re lying he has to be here! Why would he leave?!” Ianto choked under the grip then gasped as John relaxed his fingers slightly.
“He... The Doctor. TARDIS, a time machine. He’s gone.” Ianto breathed deeply as John’s fingers slid down to his chest as John whispered to him so quietly no one but Ianto could possibly have heard it.
“I’m dead.” A low chuckle carried across the Hub and it was only now that Ianto took in the second figure walking forwards, his eyes dead and his strange brown clothes all the more subdued compared to the flamboyant Captain currently resting on his chest.
“Captain Jack Harkness has gone time travelling again? Maybe I should have just sat tight and waited for him to come find me, he is obviously so worried about me.” Ianto’s eyes flicked between the newcomer and John and he caught the look of fear in John’s eyes. The fingers lifted off him and with a look of such complete hopelessness that Ianto’s heart sank John stepped back.
“He’s gone. I kept my part of the bargain, I brought you to where he was. Let me go.” John was pleading with the other man, in spite of the cocky confidence and command in his tone, and Ianto found himself watching them closely.
“Oh no John. You promised to bring me to Jack. You promised to kill him for me, at least once. I don’t care how long it takes, you will make good on your promise. Or...” The stranger’s fingers reached out and brushed over John’s wrist strap, drawing Ianto’s gaze to it and horror to his face as he took in the damaged skin around it. “I make good on mine. Understood?” John nodded slowly and gazed back at Ianto.
“We’d best let the tea boy here get back to work then. It’s going to take us a while to track him down-”
“No.” The stranger came over to Ianto and he found himself pushing back against the desk again involuntarily, trying to shift away from the dark figure. “I have a better idea. There must be a way to contact him. Some...” Dirty fingers brushed themselves along Ianto’s chin and he tried not to flinch at the touch. “Bait we can use.” John laughed coldly behind them, drawing the strangers gaze again.
“What, eye candy? Like your brother ever cared about any of this lot.” Ianto stiffened in shock at the words and found himself refocusing on the stranger, searching his face for any trace of familiarity, any slight sign of the man he had lost.
“Brother...?” The stranger snapped his head back and took in the look of shock on Ianto’s face even as John laughed.
“See! I told you, he didn’t tell them about you, not even when I told him I found you! Hell I bet none of them even know your name.” John moved closer again, almost begging now. “He won’t come back here, he’s not even on the planet any more. Hell he’s not even in the time period! There’s nothing left for him now. There’s nothing I can do to find him so why do you still need me?” Jack’s brother looked at him oddly, considering.
“You’re right. I don’t need you.” He stepped back with a cold grin and moved to his own wrist, revealing a strap wrapped around it, slightly smaller than Jack’s had been. “Goodbye John.” A sudden beeping from John’s wrist made him cry out.
“No! You can’t!” As the stranger walked away Ianto dashed to John’s side, grabbing John’s wrist and swearing.
“What the hell is it?” John looked at him hopelessly.
“It’s a bomb. And just so you know it’s powerful enough to take out this whole building so you might want to, oh I don’t know, help me rather than just grin and count this time!” His voice dropped and he whispered to Ianto softly. “He’s insane. There are bombs all over the city. He’s going to destroy it anyway. I’m sorry.” Ianto thought quickly and closed his eyes as he came up with the only chance they had, turning to the stranger and shouting.
“WAIT!” He ran up to him desperately, trying to ignore the increasing beeps behind him. “You want Jack right? You need him to be in a certain place at a certain time so you can go to him now, don’t you? You time travel too, right?” The stranger nodded and looked at him curiously. “I can’t get hold of him here and now. It’s not possible. But I will find a way. I can send him to you. This place, right here, exactly twenty years from now. I can send him to you. You can go after him and you don’t need to kill John or anyone else here. And this city needs to still be here for him to come so you have to leave us alone in return.” He was panting slightly as he tried to concentrate, tried to convince this man to back down. The stranger looked at him curiously.
“I’ll tell you what... Ianto is it?” He reached out and brushed imaginary lint off the young man’s shoulders. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll go exactly 20 years ahead. If I find he is there as promised I’ll come back and deactivate the bombs. If you lie to me, if you warn him-” He made a mock shocked face as he mimed an explosion. “Boom.” Ianto nodded furiously.
“Deal. They travel by TARDIS, it’s a blue box. Look out for the blue box. Go, hurry!” The stranger chuckled as he turned away and carried on walking, dissolving into a flash of golden light. Ianto hurried back to John as he sat on a desk, his wrist continuing to beep alarmingly. “How long do we have?” John looked at him desperately.
“Ten minutes.” With a significant look at Ianto he pressed a finger to his lips and pointed to his wrist apologetically. Ianto nodded. Understood. “Where the hell is Jack?” Ianto shrugged and sat down beside him heavily.
“Travelling in space and time with the Doctor. And a girl.” John smiled softly and looked at him curiously.
“A girl? My, he has changed.” Ianto shook his head and a grin quirked over his features.
“It’s not like that; he and the Doctor are the couple. The girl is...” He hesitated, not wanting to reveal the truth about Rosie but how to explain it? “She’s just a child. She’s half Time Lord, well, Gallifreyan I guess. Her father died before she was born. The Doctor sort of adopted her.” John rolled his eyes and leaned back.
“Who would have thought you and me would have something in common eh eye candy? We’ve both been dumped by his immortalness.” He winced as the beeps coming from his wrist changed in pitch. “He’d better hurry up.”
“What is he going to do to Jack?” John shook his head and shuddered slightly.
“If he finds them he’ll kill them all. He’s insane. He knows he can’t kill Jack but he wants to hurt him and, if he can’t, he’ll hurt those around him instead-” John swore softly as the flash of gold returned. “Here we go.” Both men leapt to their feet as the stranger reappeared, a grin on his face as he used his wrist strap to stop the beeping coming from John. With a shaky sigh of relief John grinned and clapped his hands together. “Well, as you two seem to have everything sorted I’ll leave you to it. If you’ll just release me...” He held out his wrist, an impish grin on his face as Jack’s brother came closer.
“Oh I think I can find a use for you still.” John’s smile froze on his face as Ianto looked on in horror. “I saw someone else coming out of the blue box so he must still have company. We still have work to do.” Ianto moved forwards and the stranger stopped him with a glance. “Thank you for your help Ianto Jones. And for the help you are yet to give.” He grinned with a slight tinge of insanity in his eyes as he activated his wrist strap and held it over the nearest computer, sparks flying as he did something to it.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ianto ran over to the monitor, trying to track when he had done.
“A parting gift for you. A tracing program. If you try to warn Jack, if you try to let him know I’m coming in any way I’ll know.” He moved closer as John tiredly shifted to stand next to them, the stranger’s dirty fingers straightening Ianto’s suit with care. “Goodbye Ianto Jones.” Ianto sank back onto the desk as the two men started to move away.
“Wait!” Jack’s brother stopped and looked at him almost pityingly.
“What now?” Ianto swallowed hard and looked at him strongly.
“What’s your name?” The stranger laughed hollowly as the gold light began to engulf them again.
“My name? My name is Gray.”
************************************
“I have an uncle?” The Doctor reached out and switched off the display, stroking his hand along her back soothingly.
“Gray. He was your dad’s little brother but they were separated when they were just kids, Gray was kidnapped. Your dad looked for him for years but we thought he had died.” She shifted on the seat, looking at him oddly.
“So you never knew for sure he was dead but you assumed he was and now he’s taken dad and is possibly going to come back for us. And you thought my other father was dead until he came back and tried to destroy me.” She raised an eyebrow questioningly. “Just to check, are they any other ‘lost’ relatives I should be aware of?” He pulled her to him and shook his head sadly but with the faintest smile at the joke.
“Well we both know there are no more on the Gallifreyan side. As for your dad, his father was killed in the attack where they lost Gray. His mum never really recovered from the loss but she was proud of your dad, she waved him off to the Time Agency with a smile on her face. And that was the last time he saw her.” He hugged her tight and took her hand in his. “I promise, it’s just you two left, you and your dad.” She shook her head and looked round at him again.
“It’s not just two of us. You’re family too. And Martha and Tom and the boys and Owen and Tosh and Ianto...” She smiled at him sadly. “We’re all family. And we don’t let each other down. I wonder how Ianto managed to keep this from dad for all those years, he had to figure out a way to disable the TARDIS, to bring us here-” She jumped as though receiving a shock and swore loudly in Judoon. “Ianto! That little Welsh...”
She wriggled to her feet and grinned broadly, a trace of her father’s trademark beam on her features but the frantic energy as she moved was all Time Lord. The Doctor watched as she flicked the monitor back on again and began to move, hastily getting out of her way as she worked. “What are you doing?” She hurried around the console, flicking switches in quick succession and barely sparing her uncle a glance as she danced around the machine.
“The virus, Ianto wrote it with Tosh’s help, or Tosh with Ianto’s help depending on how you look at it, anyway he disabled the TARDIS but he will have left a back door, a password, some way of removing it because he doesn’t want us to stay crippled, he would want us to help dad and that’s why he left that message, not just to warn us but so we knew it really was him and he had no choice but that he would-”
She grinned in savage triumph as the screen resolved into a blinking password entry box. “Yes!” She pointed at the screen and hugged her uncle tight. “He left us a way out. An escape route.” Her smile faded as she looked at her uncle seriously. “Gray wants to ruin Jack’s life. Do you really think he is just going to let us walk away? Ianto wasn’t just trying to protect dad he was trying to protect me too. Again.” The Doctor nodded and let her go, moving alongside her as he pulled on his glasses.
“Right so what’s this password?” The Captain smiled again and leaned forwards, typing in the characters and watching them appear on the screen.
“Like Ianto said, sometimes the key is a nice cup of tea.” She finished typing and held her breath as she hit enter. With a slow whirr the TARDIS lights started to rise, growing brighter again as the ship began to hum contentedly, almost purring to be back online again. “Yes! Earl Grey every time.” With a giggle she twirled on the spot before catching the look on her uncle’s face and blushing. “Sorry.” He shook his head quickly and grinned so broadly.
“No, no, I was just thinking... You’re brilliant.” With a small curtsey she nodded her thanks then moved back to the console, her hands flying over controls as the machine finally responded properly.
“That’s just the first step, next we need to find them again. Now, we know dad isn’t in this time or if he is he is not reviving because I sure as hell can’t feel him here. But I can almost feel an echo of him so he may be physically nearby but not temporally. Of course there is a risk I’m just sensitive to being parked right on top of his home of 100 years but I think it’s more than that. But we still need a date, we need to know when he is. And for that we need...” She glared as the corner of the screen shifted to an external view, showing a figure in a red jacket simply standing and watching the TARDIS as bold as brass. “Well what, do you know, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Captain John Hart.”
“What are you going to do?” The Doctor watched open mouthed as she grabbed her jacket but hesitated before leaving her hat, dressing quickly as she slid her screwdriver into her top, hiding it between her breasts. She then switched her phone on and dialled rapidly, wriggling an earpiece to hide inside her ear. The Doctor looked bemused as the TARDIS phone rang and she pointed to it.
“I’m going to go out there. Keep the line open and trace me at all times and I need you to find out if we can block the detonation or communication signals. The way I see it either Captain John is a free man, in which case he’s come back to offer us some help and will know the way to dad so we can go get him - or he’s still under orders in which case there is a good chance he is here to forcibly take you or me to Gray, in which case it would be a shame to disappoint him. So, if we can’t deactivate the bomb trace my signal and as soon as you have a fix on the date find dad then come and get me out of there.” The Doctor rolled his eyes as he ran forwards, grabbing her shoulders firmly.
“Are you crazy? For all you know he will simply try to kill you. Captain please, we can find another way, we will find him again.” Rising onto her tip toes she leaned up and kissed her uncle on the cheek before hugging him tight. She could feel he was torn between his desire to find Jack and his duty to protect her, taking herself out of the equation would not only help them find Jack but leave the Doctor free to act.
“Don’t forget, dad first.” She pulled back and walked away, pausing at the doorway for a moment before looking back. “By the way, are all family reunions this bad or just mine?” He couldn’t help grinning but the smile faded as she pushed through the door. Quickly he moved around the console and hooked the phone up to the equipment, watching her every move.
Part 8
Characters: Jack, Ten, The Captain (aka Rosie Harkness), Captain John Hart others to appear later (Spoilers :P )
Ratings: PG 13 to about 15 really for the whole series - angst and a bit of violence, nothing too major
Disclaimer: I don't own the boys, I just borrow them. Rosie is all mine though.
Summary: Epic/AU Series fic. When a mysterious message brings the TARDIS back to Earth with a bang a secret from Jack's past threatens his new family.
Authors Notes: Woooooooooooooooooah we're halfway there... Assuming I stop adding bits to the end. ;)
Ianto walked through the hub, last to leave as was often the case nowadays, absentmindedly tidying as he went. Tosh and Owen were out on a “not a date” as they both put it and Ianto found himself lost in thoughts of past dates, relationships - and Gwen’s wedding. The Nostravite had been a real pain in the arse but luckily Owen managed to get the egg out of Gwen without any harm and, after a spot of fun with the big gun, mummy was dispatched as well just in time to get Gwen back to the service.
Gwen had come back off holiday brimming with ideas and happy and it warmed his heart to see her so cheerful. He had thought the Jonah Bevan business would get messy but he took her out to the island himself. He showed her what was really going on. And why she had to stop. It had broken her heart but she understood. The past few weeks had been tough but things were finally settling down again. Until the next crisis...
Ianto jumped as the light flared in front of him and swore as an all too familiar shape emerged from it, striding towards him and slamming him against the desk hard. “You!” Captain John Hart wrapped his fingers around Ianto’s neck, pushing him down with a look of almost desperation in his eyes.
“Where is he Ianto? He’s supposed to be here, where is he?” Ianto couldn’t help crying out as he was pushed back further, his spine aching under the pressure as the ex time agent leaned over him.
“He left... months ago.” John swore and shook his head disbelievingly, almost panicked.
“No, no you’re lying he has to be here! Why would he leave?!” Ianto choked under the grip then gasped as John relaxed his fingers slightly.
“He... The Doctor. TARDIS, a time machine. He’s gone.” Ianto breathed deeply as John’s fingers slid down to his chest as John whispered to him so quietly no one but Ianto could possibly have heard it.
“I’m dead.” A low chuckle carried across the Hub and it was only now that Ianto took in the second figure walking forwards, his eyes dead and his strange brown clothes all the more subdued compared to the flamboyant Captain currently resting on his chest.
“Captain Jack Harkness has gone time travelling again? Maybe I should have just sat tight and waited for him to come find me, he is obviously so worried about me.” Ianto’s eyes flicked between the newcomer and John and he caught the look of fear in John’s eyes. The fingers lifted off him and with a look of such complete hopelessness that Ianto’s heart sank John stepped back.
“He’s gone. I kept my part of the bargain, I brought you to where he was. Let me go.” John was pleading with the other man, in spite of the cocky confidence and command in his tone, and Ianto found himself watching them closely.
“Oh no John. You promised to bring me to Jack. You promised to kill him for me, at least once. I don’t care how long it takes, you will make good on your promise. Or...” The stranger’s fingers reached out and brushed over John’s wrist strap, drawing Ianto’s gaze to it and horror to his face as he took in the damaged skin around it. “I make good on mine. Understood?” John nodded slowly and gazed back at Ianto.
“We’d best let the tea boy here get back to work then. It’s going to take us a while to track him down-”
“No.” The stranger came over to Ianto and he found himself pushing back against the desk again involuntarily, trying to shift away from the dark figure. “I have a better idea. There must be a way to contact him. Some...” Dirty fingers brushed themselves along Ianto’s chin and he tried not to flinch at the touch. “Bait we can use.” John laughed coldly behind them, drawing the strangers gaze again.
“What, eye candy? Like your brother ever cared about any of this lot.” Ianto stiffened in shock at the words and found himself refocusing on the stranger, searching his face for any trace of familiarity, any slight sign of the man he had lost.
“Brother...?” The stranger snapped his head back and took in the look of shock on Ianto’s face even as John laughed.
“See! I told you, he didn’t tell them about you, not even when I told him I found you! Hell I bet none of them even know your name.” John moved closer again, almost begging now. “He won’t come back here, he’s not even on the planet any more. Hell he’s not even in the time period! There’s nothing left for him now. There’s nothing I can do to find him so why do you still need me?” Jack’s brother looked at him oddly, considering.
“You’re right. I don’t need you.” He stepped back with a cold grin and moved to his own wrist, revealing a strap wrapped around it, slightly smaller than Jack’s had been. “Goodbye John.” A sudden beeping from John’s wrist made him cry out.
“No! You can’t!” As the stranger walked away Ianto dashed to John’s side, grabbing John’s wrist and swearing.
“What the hell is it?” John looked at him hopelessly.
“It’s a bomb. And just so you know it’s powerful enough to take out this whole building so you might want to, oh I don’t know, help me rather than just grin and count this time!” His voice dropped and he whispered to Ianto softly. “He’s insane. There are bombs all over the city. He’s going to destroy it anyway. I’m sorry.” Ianto thought quickly and closed his eyes as he came up with the only chance they had, turning to the stranger and shouting.
“WAIT!” He ran up to him desperately, trying to ignore the increasing beeps behind him. “You want Jack right? You need him to be in a certain place at a certain time so you can go to him now, don’t you? You time travel too, right?” The stranger nodded and looked at him curiously. “I can’t get hold of him here and now. It’s not possible. But I will find a way. I can send him to you. This place, right here, exactly twenty years from now. I can send him to you. You can go after him and you don’t need to kill John or anyone else here. And this city needs to still be here for him to come so you have to leave us alone in return.” He was panting slightly as he tried to concentrate, tried to convince this man to back down. The stranger looked at him curiously.
“I’ll tell you what... Ianto is it?” He reached out and brushed imaginary lint off the young man’s shoulders. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll go exactly 20 years ahead. If I find he is there as promised I’ll come back and deactivate the bombs. If you lie to me, if you warn him-” He made a mock shocked face as he mimed an explosion. “Boom.” Ianto nodded furiously.
“Deal. They travel by TARDIS, it’s a blue box. Look out for the blue box. Go, hurry!” The stranger chuckled as he turned away and carried on walking, dissolving into a flash of golden light. Ianto hurried back to John as he sat on a desk, his wrist continuing to beep alarmingly. “How long do we have?” John looked at him desperately.
“Ten minutes.” With a significant look at Ianto he pressed a finger to his lips and pointed to his wrist apologetically. Ianto nodded. Understood. “Where the hell is Jack?” Ianto shrugged and sat down beside him heavily.
“Travelling in space and time with the Doctor. And a girl.” John smiled softly and looked at him curiously.
“A girl? My, he has changed.” Ianto shook his head and a grin quirked over his features.
“It’s not like that; he and the Doctor are the couple. The girl is...” He hesitated, not wanting to reveal the truth about Rosie but how to explain it? “She’s just a child. She’s half Time Lord, well, Gallifreyan I guess. Her father died before she was born. The Doctor sort of adopted her.” John rolled his eyes and leaned back.
“Who would have thought you and me would have something in common eh eye candy? We’ve both been dumped by his immortalness.” He winced as the beeps coming from his wrist changed in pitch. “He’d better hurry up.”
“What is he going to do to Jack?” John shook his head and shuddered slightly.
“If he finds them he’ll kill them all. He’s insane. He knows he can’t kill Jack but he wants to hurt him and, if he can’t, he’ll hurt those around him instead-” John swore softly as the flash of gold returned. “Here we go.” Both men leapt to their feet as the stranger reappeared, a grin on his face as he used his wrist strap to stop the beeping coming from John. With a shaky sigh of relief John grinned and clapped his hands together. “Well, as you two seem to have everything sorted I’ll leave you to it. If you’ll just release me...” He held out his wrist, an impish grin on his face as Jack’s brother came closer.
“Oh I think I can find a use for you still.” John’s smile froze on his face as Ianto looked on in horror. “I saw someone else coming out of the blue box so he must still have company. We still have work to do.” Ianto moved forwards and the stranger stopped him with a glance. “Thank you for your help Ianto Jones. And for the help you are yet to give.” He grinned with a slight tinge of insanity in his eyes as he activated his wrist strap and held it over the nearest computer, sparks flying as he did something to it.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ianto ran over to the monitor, trying to track when he had done.
“A parting gift for you. A tracing program. If you try to warn Jack, if you try to let him know I’m coming in any way I’ll know.” He moved closer as John tiredly shifted to stand next to them, the stranger’s dirty fingers straightening Ianto’s suit with care. “Goodbye Ianto Jones.” Ianto sank back onto the desk as the two men started to move away.
“Wait!” Jack’s brother stopped and looked at him almost pityingly.
“What now?” Ianto swallowed hard and looked at him strongly.
“What’s your name?” The stranger laughed hollowly as the gold light began to engulf them again.
“My name? My name is Gray.”
************************************
“I have an uncle?” The Doctor reached out and switched off the display, stroking his hand along her back soothingly.
“Gray. He was your dad’s little brother but they were separated when they were just kids, Gray was kidnapped. Your dad looked for him for years but we thought he had died.” She shifted on the seat, looking at him oddly.
“So you never knew for sure he was dead but you assumed he was and now he’s taken dad and is possibly going to come back for us. And you thought my other father was dead until he came back and tried to destroy me.” She raised an eyebrow questioningly. “Just to check, are they any other ‘lost’ relatives I should be aware of?” He pulled her to him and shook his head sadly but with the faintest smile at the joke.
“Well we both know there are no more on the Gallifreyan side. As for your dad, his father was killed in the attack where they lost Gray. His mum never really recovered from the loss but she was proud of your dad, she waved him off to the Time Agency with a smile on her face. And that was the last time he saw her.” He hugged her tight and took her hand in his. “I promise, it’s just you two left, you and your dad.” She shook her head and looked round at him again.
“It’s not just two of us. You’re family too. And Martha and Tom and the boys and Owen and Tosh and Ianto...” She smiled at him sadly. “We’re all family. And we don’t let each other down. I wonder how Ianto managed to keep this from dad for all those years, he had to figure out a way to disable the TARDIS, to bring us here-” She jumped as though receiving a shock and swore loudly in Judoon. “Ianto! That little Welsh...”
She wriggled to her feet and grinned broadly, a trace of her father’s trademark beam on her features but the frantic energy as she moved was all Time Lord. The Doctor watched as she flicked the monitor back on again and began to move, hastily getting out of her way as she worked. “What are you doing?” She hurried around the console, flicking switches in quick succession and barely sparing her uncle a glance as she danced around the machine.
“The virus, Ianto wrote it with Tosh’s help, or Tosh with Ianto’s help depending on how you look at it, anyway he disabled the TARDIS but he will have left a back door, a password, some way of removing it because he doesn’t want us to stay crippled, he would want us to help dad and that’s why he left that message, not just to warn us but so we knew it really was him and he had no choice but that he would-”
She grinned in savage triumph as the screen resolved into a blinking password entry box. “Yes!” She pointed at the screen and hugged her uncle tight. “He left us a way out. An escape route.” Her smile faded as she looked at her uncle seriously. “Gray wants to ruin Jack’s life. Do you really think he is just going to let us walk away? Ianto wasn’t just trying to protect dad he was trying to protect me too. Again.” The Doctor nodded and let her go, moving alongside her as he pulled on his glasses.
“Right so what’s this password?” The Captain smiled again and leaned forwards, typing in the characters and watching them appear on the screen.
“Like Ianto said, sometimes the key is a nice cup of tea.” She finished typing and held her breath as she hit enter. With a slow whirr the TARDIS lights started to rise, growing brighter again as the ship began to hum contentedly, almost purring to be back online again. “Yes! Earl Grey every time.” With a giggle she twirled on the spot before catching the look on her uncle’s face and blushing. “Sorry.” He shook his head quickly and grinned so broadly.
“No, no, I was just thinking... You’re brilliant.” With a small curtsey she nodded her thanks then moved back to the console, her hands flying over controls as the machine finally responded properly.
“That’s just the first step, next we need to find them again. Now, we know dad isn’t in this time or if he is he is not reviving because I sure as hell can’t feel him here. But I can almost feel an echo of him so he may be physically nearby but not temporally. Of course there is a risk I’m just sensitive to being parked right on top of his home of 100 years but I think it’s more than that. But we still need a date, we need to know when he is. And for that we need...” She glared as the corner of the screen shifted to an external view, showing a figure in a red jacket simply standing and watching the TARDIS as bold as brass. “Well what, do you know, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Captain John Hart.”
“What are you going to do?” The Doctor watched open mouthed as she grabbed her jacket but hesitated before leaving her hat, dressing quickly as she slid her screwdriver into her top, hiding it between her breasts. She then switched her phone on and dialled rapidly, wriggling an earpiece to hide inside her ear. The Doctor looked bemused as the TARDIS phone rang and she pointed to it.
“I’m going to go out there. Keep the line open and trace me at all times and I need you to find out if we can block the detonation or communication signals. The way I see it either Captain John is a free man, in which case he’s come back to offer us some help and will know the way to dad so we can go get him - or he’s still under orders in which case there is a good chance he is here to forcibly take you or me to Gray, in which case it would be a shame to disappoint him. So, if we can’t deactivate the bomb trace my signal and as soon as you have a fix on the date find dad then come and get me out of there.” The Doctor rolled his eyes as he ran forwards, grabbing her shoulders firmly.
“Are you crazy? For all you know he will simply try to kill you. Captain please, we can find another way, we will find him again.” Rising onto her tip toes she leaned up and kissed her uncle on the cheek before hugging him tight. She could feel he was torn between his desire to find Jack and his duty to protect her, taking herself out of the equation would not only help them find Jack but leave the Doctor free to act.
“Don’t forget, dad first.” She pulled back and walked away, pausing at the doorway for a moment before looking back. “By the way, are all family reunions this bad or just mine?” He couldn’t help grinning but the smile faded as she pushed through the door. Quickly he moved around the console and hooked the phone up to the equipment, watching her every move.
Part 8