Fic: The Return of John Smith
Title: The Return of John Smith
Fandom Doctor Who/Torchwood
Pairing: Jack/Ianto clear but not the focus.
Summary: The second Doctor says 'no'.
Disclaimer: I didn't make them up. I wish I did but I didn't. I do get to play with them sometimes though, and I say 'play' because I don't get any money out of it so it cannot in any way be described as 'work'.
Warnings: None.
Author's Note: I must confess that I didn't like the way the second Doctor was left with Rose. In my mind, the Doctor isn't in love with her though he does love her deeply. SO! Since I don't have to worry about the budget or the scheduling or David Tennant having to be in two places at once, I'm giving the second Doc to Torchwood. Also, some of the dialogue was taken from the show.
**********
Rose was protesting, pleading that she be allowed back on the TARDIS. He wasn't sure why, himself. She had family here and a life that wasn't dependant on one single, rather flawed man.
"No, but... I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not going back now!"
His counterpart, should he call him father? self? What? The Doctor, he decided, like everyone else called him. The Doctor wasn't accepting it of course. Rose back on the TARDIS could only lead to trouble, his memories provided enough back up for that. The Doctor believed she deserved a normal life, family, friends, a real home. He looked at her and smiled softly. The Doctor's emotions for her matched his own of course, and he too believed that she deserved something more than either of them could offer her. He watched the interaction silently, until he was somehow dragged into it.
"But you've got to. 'Cause we saved the universe, but at a cost." The Doctor was looking at him now. "And the cost is him. He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."
He was blaming him?! As if the Doctor hadn't done the exact same thing when it needed to be done. Leaving the Daleks alive would only lead to more bloodshed and there were no Time Lords to fight them this time. If he hadn't done what had to be done, the universe would still be in danger.
"You made me!" he yellled, disbelief melting to anger. It wasn't in him to lie down and let anyone walk over him, even if it was his own maker.
"Exactly. You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge."
That's not true, he wanted to say, to break in and scream at the Doctor that he wasn't full of these things, but the Doctor's attention had already shifted to Rose.
"Remind you of someone? That's me, when we first met. And you made me better. Now you can do the same for him."
He was so outraged at that he could hardly speak.
"But he's not you," Rose said softly, making his objection for him.
"He needs you. That's very me."
Donna chose that moment to intervene, smiling as if she was offering the world on a platter.
"But it's better than that, though. Don't you see what he's trying to give you? Tell her, go on," Donna smiled at him, encouraging and sweet.
It only made him angrier.
"No," he said firmly. He put his hands in his pockets, leaned back on his heels and repeated it once more, for good measure. "No."
"What?" Donna said, blinking at him.
"What?" the Doctor said in his usual high tone.
"I don't understand," said Rose.
"I'm sorry," he said, "but no. I won't stay here." He addressed that to Rose, as soft and kind as he could make himself. "This isn't my place. Besides, you deserve more than a cheap knock off. You'd look at me and think of him and in the end, I would hate you for it."
Then he turned to the Doctor, any trace of kindness leaving his voice at the frown marring the man's features.
"You cannot tell me what to do. You made me yes, and I was born in anger and revenge," he mimicked the Doctor's tone at those two words, "but I am still me and I have part of her in me too," he pointed to Donna. "I will not be sent off somewhere to be rehabilitated. If you don't want me, then at the very least take me to my Earth. The one you kept on protecting, the one Donna came from. My bloody universe, not someone else's."
With those words he stalked off, back into the TARDIS. If the Doctor wanted him out before the rip in the universes was sealed then he would have to drag him out.
He wasn't sure what happened while he was in the TARDIS but the Doctor came in a few moments later, looking wretched as ever, with Donna right behind him. They both looked at him accusingly but he simply looked calmly back at them.
"Take me to Earth then, if you don't want me," he repeated, "I'm only human after all."
"You're dangerous," the Doctor bit out, stalking to the console.
"So dump me on Sarah Jane then, or Martha, or Captain Jack. Any one of them can keep an eye on me and at least I'll be where I belong," he snapped. "I won't do to Rose what we did to Martha. I'm you," he snarled, "your memories, your thoughts, your feelings. Do you honestly think it fair that she be saddled with me? When she loves me like a man and I love her like a sister? Do you really think she deserves that?"
They both stare at him after that. Neither had realised the truth of his words until he'd uttered them. Donna, despite her, sometimes scary, understanding, hadn't realised quite how Rose or the Doctor had truly felt but he, despite the goddamn obstinate obliviousness, he should have known better.
"We can keep him," Donna said suddenly.
"What?"
"We can keep him," she repeated, rolling her eyes at the both of them, "though the synchronised whatting will have to stop. Sure! Why not, what could be more fun than two of you. Well, loads of things I guess, like two chocolate cakes or two of Captain Jacks. Oh wouldn't that be absolutely amazing, two of Captain Jack."
He looked at the Doctor, who looked back at him and they both had the same shock on their faces.
"Glad that's settled then," Donna nodded as if she'd just solved the most difficult of their problems. But he had the Doctor's thoughts and his memories and he knew what was coming next. "I thought we could try the planet Felspoon. Just 'cause. What a good name! Felspoon! Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move, can you imagine?"
He stepped back, a little bit afraid of the look in her eyes, and the sorrow in the Doctor's.
"And how d'you know that?" the Doctor asked.
He moved away from the console, glancing back once then purposefully moving forward. This was private. They may share memories but, as he'd so forcefully pointed out, they weren't the same person any more. As he walked out of the main console, the last thing he could hear was Donna insisting that she was fine.
He settled in the kitchen, a cup of tea growing cold in front of him as he waited for the Doctor to return.
"You can't stay here."
He looked up to see the man himself, leaning against the doorway.
"I know. If she had stayed, maybe but the two of us...no."
The Doctor nodded, fatigue showing in the simple movement.
"Okay then," he said, coming to a quick decision, "Cardiff."
"Cardiff it is," agreed the Doctor.
* * *
The Doctor left him on the edge of town. He didn't want to deal with Jack and his friends, he said. So he took a taxi to Roald Dahl Plass and stood on the invisible lift. One flick with the sonic screwdriver, and wouldn't the Doctor be pissed off when he found it missing, he started his descend into Torchwood Three.
"And then there were two of them! I swear, my mind came up with all sorts of happy pictures," Jack was saying.
"I'm not sure I appreciate that."
"Which all involved you Ianto," Jack continued, his laughter bouncing off the walls.
"They better have," Ianto replied, clearly amused.
"Jack, the lift is coming down!" the woman exclaimed. Gwen, he remembered.
By the time the lift reached the ground, all three of them were standing around it, guns trained up at him. He stepped off and Jack lowered his gun, beaming at him.
"Which one are you?" Jack asked.
"The human one," he replied.
"Not the Doctor then?" Ianto asked, peering at him.
He looked back, noting the tension in the kid's shoulders.
"Nope," he said, grinning in the exact same way the Doctor would.
Ianto frowned but relaxed. He wondered at the story behind the cold look in the kid's eyes. It might be Jack's disappearance, he thought, or maybe plain jealousy.
"Come on then, Doc, have a seat. Want refreshment? Ianto here makes a mean cup of tea," Jack stepped back, Gwen right behind him. Ianto looked at him a moment longer then turned to go.
"Coffee for me I think," he said. He wasn't the Doctor, he was his own man and he would try to prove it, even in the details. "And don't call me Doc, I'm not him."
Jack laughed. Part of it was the exuberance of survival, he knew, but the other part was just Jack. He would laugh in the face of danger, then shoot its head off.
"What shall we call you then?" Gwen asked, head tilted to the side and watching him curiously.
He shrugged.
"John Smith is as good as anything," he replied, "after all, he called himself that the last time he was human."
"So long as it's anything but Jones," Jack said.
"And what's wrong with my surname, may I ask?" Ianto asked, depositing a cup of coffee in front of John.
John...he liked thinking of himself like that. It suited him, he thought.
"Nothing, nothing, but with Martha coming, the Hub will be overrun with Joneses," Jack responded. His hand snaked up and he pulled Ianto down until he could kiss him.
John watched curiously. It amazed him to think that his lips had never actually been kissed. The Doctor had snogged and shagged and danced and dreamt but not him. Not yet.
"So, you're staying in Cardiff?" Gwen asked, dragging his attention away from the two men.
"The Doctor left me here. I'm too dangerous to be left on my own," he said. He grinned as he processed the sarcasm in his voice. He could be sarcastic. He liked that. The Doctor hardly ever was.
"Did he go on a spiel about revenge and blood and anger?" Jack asked.
John nodded and Jack shrugged in response. "He has his issues," he laughed. He glanced at the other two and his smile faded. He was quiet for a momen and when he spoke, the joy had left his voice.
"You can stay here if you want. We could do with a brain like yours, human or otherwise."
"Right then," Gwen said suddenly, "I should go home. Rhys is freaked out as it is, I won't let him worry anymore."
She got up and left the room, just under a run. Ianto and Jack exchanged a look.
"Go on, I'm okay for now," Ianto said and Jack dropped a quick kiss on his forehead and went after Gwen.
The silence grew strained with just the two of them in the room. John busied himself adding cream and sugar to his coffee until it tasted okay. He took careful sips, savouring the taste. As he drank, he watched Ianto who was sipping from his own coffee and avoiding looking in John's direction.
"Is it me the two of you are objecting to or would anyone get the same reception?" he asked.
"Neither of us is objecting," Ianto started. John raised an eyebrow at him, communicating his disbelief. "We're not. It's not been long since we lost them and the Doctor did take Jack away once."
"I'm not him," he pointed out for the millionth time.
"I know. We'll get used to it," Ianto said. "Not many people can say 'no' to Jack and his tendency to pick up strays." He smiled for the first time since John had come into the building. "How do you think we ended up with a pterodactyl?"
John smiled back and the silence descended again, more comfortable this time. The adrenaline was finally fading and, despite the coffee, he could feel his eyes closing slowly.
"You'll need a place to stay," Ianto sighed, startling him back awake.
"He can stay at the Hub!" Jack said, bounding back in.
"You have too much energy," John complained at the same time as Ianto said that nobody sane stayed at the Hub when they didn't have to.
"You're both coming home with me," Ianto said.
"Really?" Jack replied, sounding entirely too hopeful.
"To sleep, Jack. I have a spare bedroom for Mr Smith here and you can come with me."
Jack barely had his mouth open before Ianto had placed his hand over it.
"Too tired for jokes. Come on then, the both of you," he said and headed for the exit.
"King Ianto has decreed it so," Jack said with faux solemnity, "and he must be obeyed."
"Just shut up and get going," Ianto replied, "sir."
"You know he calls me sir," Jack sighed, dutifully following Ianto, "but I sense that he doesn't respect me like he used to."
John grinned and went with them. He would like this place, he decided, better than any absurd alternate universe.
Fandom Doctor Who/Torchwood
Pairing: Jack/Ianto clear but not the focus.
Summary: The second Doctor says 'no'.
Disclaimer: I didn't make them up. I wish I did but I didn't. I do get to play with them sometimes though, and I say 'play' because I don't get any money out of it so it cannot in any way be described as 'work'.
Warnings: None.
Author's Note: I must confess that I didn't like the way the second Doctor was left with Rose. In my mind, the Doctor isn't in love with her though he does love her deeply. SO! Since I don't have to worry about the budget or the scheduling or David Tennant having to be in two places at once, I'm giving the second Doc to Torchwood. Also, some of the dialogue was taken from the show.
**********
Rose was protesting, pleading that she be allowed back on the TARDIS. He wasn't sure why, himself. She had family here and a life that wasn't dependant on one single, rather flawed man.
"No, but... I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not going back now!"
His counterpart, should he call him father? self? What? The Doctor, he decided, like everyone else called him. The Doctor wasn't accepting it of course. Rose back on the TARDIS could only lead to trouble, his memories provided enough back up for that. The Doctor believed she deserved a normal life, family, friends, a real home. He looked at her and smiled softly. The Doctor's emotions for her matched his own of course, and he too believed that she deserved something more than either of them could offer her. He watched the interaction silently, until he was somehow dragged into it.
"But you've got to. 'Cause we saved the universe, but at a cost." The Doctor was looking at him now. "And the cost is him. He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own."
He was blaming him?! As if the Doctor hadn't done the exact same thing when it needed to be done. Leaving the Daleks alive would only lead to more bloodshed and there were no Time Lords to fight them this time. If he hadn't done what had to be done, the universe would still be in danger.
"You made me!" he yellled, disbelief melting to anger. It wasn't in him to lie down and let anyone walk over him, even if it was his own maker.
"Exactly. You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge."
That's not true, he wanted to say, to break in and scream at the Doctor that he wasn't full of these things, but the Doctor's attention had already shifted to Rose.
"Remind you of someone? That's me, when we first met. And you made me better. Now you can do the same for him."
He was so outraged at that he could hardly speak.
"But he's not you," Rose said softly, making his objection for him.
"He needs you. That's very me."
Donna chose that moment to intervene, smiling as if she was offering the world on a platter.
"But it's better than that, though. Don't you see what he's trying to give you? Tell her, go on," Donna smiled at him, encouraging and sweet.
It only made him angrier.
"No," he said firmly. He put his hands in his pockets, leaned back on his heels and repeated it once more, for good measure. "No."
"What?" Donna said, blinking at him.
"What?" the Doctor said in his usual high tone.
"I don't understand," said Rose.
"I'm sorry," he said, "but no. I won't stay here." He addressed that to Rose, as soft and kind as he could make himself. "This isn't my place. Besides, you deserve more than a cheap knock off. You'd look at me and think of him and in the end, I would hate you for it."
Then he turned to the Doctor, any trace of kindness leaving his voice at the frown marring the man's features.
"You cannot tell me what to do. You made me yes, and I was born in anger and revenge," he mimicked the Doctor's tone at those two words, "but I am still me and I have part of her in me too," he pointed to Donna. "I will not be sent off somewhere to be rehabilitated. If you don't want me, then at the very least take me to my Earth. The one you kept on protecting, the one Donna came from. My bloody universe, not someone else's."
With those words he stalked off, back into the TARDIS. If the Doctor wanted him out before the rip in the universes was sealed then he would have to drag him out.
He wasn't sure what happened while he was in the TARDIS but the Doctor came in a few moments later, looking wretched as ever, with Donna right behind him. They both looked at him accusingly but he simply looked calmly back at them.
"Take me to Earth then, if you don't want me," he repeated, "I'm only human after all."
"You're dangerous," the Doctor bit out, stalking to the console.
"So dump me on Sarah Jane then, or Martha, or Captain Jack. Any one of them can keep an eye on me and at least I'll be where I belong," he snapped. "I won't do to Rose what we did to Martha. I'm you," he snarled, "your memories, your thoughts, your feelings. Do you honestly think it fair that she be saddled with me? When she loves me like a man and I love her like a sister? Do you really think she deserves that?"
They both stare at him after that. Neither had realised the truth of his words until he'd uttered them. Donna, despite her, sometimes scary, understanding, hadn't realised quite how Rose or the Doctor had truly felt but he, despite the goddamn obstinate obliviousness, he should have known better.
"We can keep him," Donna said suddenly.
"What?"
"We can keep him," she repeated, rolling her eyes at the both of them, "though the synchronised whatting will have to stop. Sure! Why not, what could be more fun than two of you. Well, loads of things I guess, like two chocolate cakes or two of Captain Jacks. Oh wouldn't that be absolutely amazing, two of Captain Jack."
He looked at the Doctor, who looked back at him and they both had the same shock on their faces.
"Glad that's settled then," Donna nodded as if she'd just solved the most difficult of their problems. But he had the Doctor's thoughts and his memories and he knew what was coming next. "I thought we could try the planet Felspoon. Just 'cause. What a good name! Felspoon! Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move, can you imagine?"
He stepped back, a little bit afraid of the look in her eyes, and the sorrow in the Doctor's.
"And how d'you know that?" the Doctor asked.
He moved away from the console, glancing back once then purposefully moving forward. This was private. They may share memories but, as he'd so forcefully pointed out, they weren't the same person any more. As he walked out of the main console, the last thing he could hear was Donna insisting that she was fine.
He settled in the kitchen, a cup of tea growing cold in front of him as he waited for the Doctor to return.
"You can't stay here."
He looked up to see the man himself, leaning against the doorway.
"I know. If she had stayed, maybe but the two of us...no."
The Doctor nodded, fatigue showing in the simple movement.
"Okay then," he said, coming to a quick decision, "Cardiff."
"Cardiff it is," agreed the Doctor.
* * *
The Doctor left him on the edge of town. He didn't want to deal with Jack and his friends, he said. So he took a taxi to Roald Dahl Plass and stood on the invisible lift. One flick with the sonic screwdriver, and wouldn't the Doctor be pissed off when he found it missing, he started his descend into Torchwood Three.
"And then there were two of them! I swear, my mind came up with all sorts of happy pictures," Jack was saying.
"I'm not sure I appreciate that."
"Which all involved you Ianto," Jack continued, his laughter bouncing off the walls.
"They better have," Ianto replied, clearly amused.
"Jack, the lift is coming down!" the woman exclaimed. Gwen, he remembered.
By the time the lift reached the ground, all three of them were standing around it, guns trained up at him. He stepped off and Jack lowered his gun, beaming at him.
"Which one are you?" Jack asked.
"The human one," he replied.
"Not the Doctor then?" Ianto asked, peering at him.
He looked back, noting the tension in the kid's shoulders.
"Nope," he said, grinning in the exact same way the Doctor would.
Ianto frowned but relaxed. He wondered at the story behind the cold look in the kid's eyes. It might be Jack's disappearance, he thought, or maybe plain jealousy.
"Come on then, Doc, have a seat. Want refreshment? Ianto here makes a mean cup of tea," Jack stepped back, Gwen right behind him. Ianto looked at him a moment longer then turned to go.
"Coffee for me I think," he said. He wasn't the Doctor, he was his own man and he would try to prove it, even in the details. "And don't call me Doc, I'm not him."
Jack laughed. Part of it was the exuberance of survival, he knew, but the other part was just Jack. He would laugh in the face of danger, then shoot its head off.
"What shall we call you then?" Gwen asked, head tilted to the side and watching him curiously.
He shrugged.
"John Smith is as good as anything," he replied, "after all, he called himself that the last time he was human."
"So long as it's anything but Jones," Jack said.
"And what's wrong with my surname, may I ask?" Ianto asked, depositing a cup of coffee in front of John.
John...he liked thinking of himself like that. It suited him, he thought.
"Nothing, nothing, but with Martha coming, the Hub will be overrun with Joneses," Jack responded. His hand snaked up and he pulled Ianto down until he could kiss him.
John watched curiously. It amazed him to think that his lips had never actually been kissed. The Doctor had snogged and shagged and danced and dreamt but not him. Not yet.
"So, you're staying in Cardiff?" Gwen asked, dragging his attention away from the two men.
"The Doctor left me here. I'm too dangerous to be left on my own," he said. He grinned as he processed the sarcasm in his voice. He could be sarcastic. He liked that. The Doctor hardly ever was.
"Did he go on a spiel about revenge and blood and anger?" Jack asked.
John nodded and Jack shrugged in response. "He has his issues," he laughed. He glanced at the other two and his smile faded. He was quiet for a momen and when he spoke, the joy had left his voice.
"You can stay here if you want. We could do with a brain like yours, human or otherwise."
"Right then," Gwen said suddenly, "I should go home. Rhys is freaked out as it is, I won't let him worry anymore."
She got up and left the room, just under a run. Ianto and Jack exchanged a look.
"Go on, I'm okay for now," Ianto said and Jack dropped a quick kiss on his forehead and went after Gwen.
The silence grew strained with just the two of them in the room. John busied himself adding cream and sugar to his coffee until it tasted okay. He took careful sips, savouring the taste. As he drank, he watched Ianto who was sipping from his own coffee and avoiding looking in John's direction.
"Is it me the two of you are objecting to or would anyone get the same reception?" he asked.
"Neither of us is objecting," Ianto started. John raised an eyebrow at him, communicating his disbelief. "We're not. It's not been long since we lost them and the Doctor did take Jack away once."
"I'm not him," he pointed out for the millionth time.
"I know. We'll get used to it," Ianto said. "Not many people can say 'no' to Jack and his tendency to pick up strays." He smiled for the first time since John had come into the building. "How do you think we ended up with a pterodactyl?"
John smiled back and the silence descended again, more comfortable this time. The adrenaline was finally fading and, despite the coffee, he could feel his eyes closing slowly.
"You'll need a place to stay," Ianto sighed, startling him back awake.
"He can stay at the Hub!" Jack said, bounding back in.
"You have too much energy," John complained at the same time as Ianto said that nobody sane stayed at the Hub when they didn't have to.
"You're both coming home with me," Ianto said.
"Really?" Jack replied, sounding entirely too hopeful.
"To sleep, Jack. I have a spare bedroom for Mr Smith here and you can come with me."
Jack barely had his mouth open before Ianto had placed his hand over it.
"Too tired for jokes. Come on then, the both of you," he said and headed for the exit.
"King Ianto has decreed it so," Jack said with faux solemnity, "and he must be obeyed."
"Just shut up and get going," Ianto replied, "sir."
"You know he calls me sir," Jack sighed, dutifully following Ianto, "but I sense that he doesn't respect me like he used to."
John grinned and went with them. He would like this place, he decided, better than any absurd alternate universe.