1x07: The Stolen Scion (1/2)
Title: The Stolen Scion (1/2)
Author: gin_and_ashes
Rating: PG
Pairing: Rose/Ten II
Summary: When Tony and Jackie Tyler mysteriously vanish from inside the Tyler mansion, the Doctor, Rose, and Pete must work together to discover where they were taken-and how.
Author's notes: Thanks as always to jlrpuck for being a wonderful beta, and to shinyopals for her browbeating encouragement and assistance.
Episode 7 of a virtual series at the_altverse, following The Tenth Sister last week.
Virtual Series Masterlist
Part One | Part Two
Jackie Tyler was annoyed. There were some people (well, one person) who would argue that this was unremarkable, as "annoyed" was Jackie's default state. They would also have said they weren't to blame for turning Jackie's hairdryer into a freeze ray, so perhaps they weren't completely to be trusted in this regard.
Amazingly, on this day Jackie's ire was not directed at her son-in-law, but rather at her young son Tony, who had decided--utterly against his mother's will--to play hide-and-seek. Jackie wasn't opposed to the game in principle, but the Tyler mansion was a vast place, with any number of prime hiding spots (just ask the Doctor), and it was past Tony's bath time. She didn't even have Pete to call on for help, as he'd been working long hours on some confusing new data at Torchwood.
"Come on now, Tony," Jackie pleaded. "I let you stay up late to watch your programme, but this is going too far. It's time for your bath."
There was a thunk down the hall, followed by short, hurried footsteps, suspiciously like those of a small boy scampering giddily away from his mother. Jackie darted in the direction of the sound, hoping to intercept her wayward offspring as he rounded the corner. Only he never appeared, much to her confusion and consternation. Whatever he'd done, he'd tricked her into thinking he'd come this way, when instead he…
Oh, he was going to get it.
"Tony Tyler, you naughty, naughty boy. Don't you think I don't know where you've gone, young man. That is your father's study, and you know full well you're not allowed in there without him."
Jackie had reached the door to Pete's study. It was ever so slightly ajar, which struck her as odd. Pete usually kept it locked up tight, even from her. There was too much untested Torchwood technology in there, and he'd not wanted anyone but him exposed to it.
"Tony, come out of there this instant," she demanded, reaching for the doorknob. There was a giggle, then the door closed; she heard the snick of the electronic lock.
Annoyance was fast giving way to exasperation. "Open this door, young man. Open it right now. And don't you touch a thing in there. When your father gets home…"
She pulled her mobile from her pocket. "I'm phoning him," she called through the locked door. "I'm calling your father to get the passcode for this door. If you think you're in trouble now...oh! Constance, hi, it's Jackie. Tony's got himself locked in Pete's study. Can you? Oh, cheers, love, you're an absolute angel. When are you going to come by for tea? I haven't seen you in...oh, there it is." The light on the panel turned green and she heard the lock disengage. "Thank you so much. And I mean it about the tea. It's been an age."
Jackie pushed open the door to Pete's study then rang off, pocketing her mobile. "All right, you little menace," she said, sweeping the room with her eyes to find where he'd hidden himself. "You're cornered now, aren't you? Just come along and--"
~~~~~
"Are you pouting?" Rose pressed her lips together in a futile attempt to avoid laughing.
The Doctor looked affronted at the very suggestion--and a not a little caught out. "What? No. No, I'm not pouting. Time Lords don't pout. That's ridiculous."
Rose said nothing, merely raised an amused eyebrow.
"Just because I don't see why the TARDIS thought it necessary to add a laundry room and a second bathroom before even getting started on a library does not mean I am pouting. Because I'm not."
"Well," Rose said, sidling up to him and walking her fingers up his tie, "maybe she figured you're brilliant enough to do without a library for a little while longer, what with all the knowledge in that magnificent brain of yours." The Doctor grinned, smugly. "And we did need the laundry, you know."
His grin melted; he harrumphed, rolling his eyes.
"We did! I was running out of clean clothes, and so were you." Her fingers traced around the edge of the Doctor's collar. "And as much as I like you without your clothes--" His smile came back, wider this time. "Most of the planets we visit frown on public nudity."
"Ah, but not all of them! Why, just off the top of my head I can think of three hundred and seventy-four planets where nudity is required by law. More if you count recreational nudist colonies established by humans, though believe me, you don't want to. Imagine a planet entirely populated by naked Jackie Tylers." He paused, his brow furrowing in distaste. "On second thought? Don't." He gave an exaggerated shudder. Rose opened her mouth to chastise him, but before she could speak, the strains of the Imperial March from Star Wars filled the air.
"Speak of the devil," the Doctor quipped.
"You made that my mum's ringtone?"
"Seemed appropriately ominous." Rose glared at him. "What, you don't agree?"
"Don't think we're not going to talk about this later," she warned, fetching her phone from its resting place on the console. "Hi, Mum, how are--"
Rose's speech halted abruptly. She froze in mid-step, her eyes widening in fear. The Doctor made to move closer, intending to ask what was wrong, but her hand shot up in a warning gesture; he stopped short.
"What do you mean, 'missing?' " she cried.
"Who--"
Rose shushed the Doctor, covering her free ear with her hand and pivoting away from him. "Mum. Mum! Slow down. I'm putting the Doctor on." She took the phone from her ear, pressed it to her chest, and turned to the Doctor. "Tony's gone missing. He was hiding from her in the house and now he's gone."
"It's a big house, Rose, I'm sure he's--"
"No, you don't get it. He was standing right there in front of her, and then he wasn't. He vanished into thin air. Mum's frantic."
The Doctor's expression hardened. "I'm patching her through."
In two long strides, he was at the console and reaching out for Rose's phone, which she handed over without hesitation. He snapped it into a dock near the console's monitor, then turned a dial and flipped a series of switches.
"Jackie, you there?"
"Doctor?" Her voice was fraught with emotion. "Doctor, he's gone. Tony's disappeared!"
"Jackie. I know this is hard, but right now, it is incredibly important that you stay calm. I need you to do that for me, Jackie. I need you to stay calm."
At the other end of the line, the Doctor could hear Jackie taking several deep breaths. He stole a worried glance at Rose. Her hands were folded, pressed tightly against her lips. Her eyes were wide, brimming with as yet-unshed tears. Whatever this was, whatever had happened, it was clear from the terror in Jackie's voice that it was no misunderstanding, no exaggeration.
The Doctor leaned over, bracing himself against the console, staring into the monitor as the TARDIS's computer got a fix on Jackie's location. "We're on our way, Jackie. Now, tell me exactly what happened. Don't leave out anything, not the tiniest detail. Anything could be a clue. Anything at all."
"Wait." Rose interrupted. "Mum, does Dad know?"
"Yes, of course he knows, I phoned him first. He's coming home now. Where are you two?"
"We're in the TARDIS. We'll be there soon, Mum, I promise. Just hang on."
"Jackie?" The Doctor cut in. "What happened? Where are you? I'm getting strange readings from your location."
"I'm at home, in Pete's study. Tony was trying to get out of taking a bath, and--oh, Rose. Rose, I was cross with him. What if I never see him again? What if the last thing he heard his mum say was--"
"Jackie!" the Doctor snapped, his emotions barely contained. "We are going to get Tony back, I swear it. But you need to tell me what happened."
"I'm sorry, Doctor. I--"
"I understand." He kept his voice calm, measured, trying to will Jackie to be the same. Whatever had happened to Tony, wherever he was, every second counted now. He needed her to be focused.
Jackie took a deep breath. "Right. He'd been hiding from me, trying to avoid his bath, and--and when I caught up to him, he came here into Pete's office and locked the door. Well, closed the door. It locks automatically."
"How long was he in there by himself?" The Doctor squinted at a reading on the monitor, then thumped it on the side. That couldn't be right.
"A minute, two at most. I called Constance and she engaged the override, and when I went in...when I…" Jackie's voice became choked with tears.
"Mum…" Rose reached out, trying to comfort a mother who wasn't there, then drew her arm back tight against her chest. The Doctor turned to her and mouthed: Almost there.
"When I came in, he was standing right over here," Jackie said. As she spoke, the sounds of the TARDIS materialisation could be heard over the speakers, almost drowning her out. She raised her voice, nearly shouting into the phone to be heard over the sound. "He was smiling at me and laughing because he knew he was in for a tickling, and then--"
Everything went silent. The call had cut off.
"Then what?" the Doctor demanded. "What? Jackie?"
They'd landed. Rose sprang for the TARDIS doors and flung them open. She launched herself through them and directly into Pete's study, looking around frantically for her mother.
"Mum?" she cried. "Mum?" But Jackie Tyler was nowhere to be found.
Rose whirled, advancing on the Doctor with a sudden fury. "What did you do?"
"What?" he sputtered, stumbling away from her and nearly falling backwards through the TARDIS doors.
"You. You missed! Again!" She raced back into the room, scanning frantically for any sign of her mother. "She's not here. How long has it been? How long?" Her eyes were wild.
"We didn't miss. Your mother was here when the TARDIS was landing; we both heard it through her phone. It's been seconds, at most."
Rose exhaled; her shoulders slumped. "How is that possible?"
The Doctor stepped tentatively forward. "I'm...not sure yet. But I think it's safe to say that whatever took Tony has her as well." She looked up at him in terror. "We'll find them, Rose. I promise."
He opened his arms to her. She came to him in a rush, burying her face against his lapel. The Doctor wrapped her in an almost crushing embrace, brushing a kiss over her hair before resting his chin on the crown of her head. A frown tugged at his mouth as his eyes surveyed the room warily. What had happened here?
Rose sniffled, then hiccoughed and raised her head. The Doctor shifted his expression to one of comforting optimism. "Better?" he asked.
She nodded. "Sorry."
"Don't you dare apologise." He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her gently. "Don't you dare. Of course you're worried. You love your brother and mother, and so help me I'll deny it if you ever repeat a word of this to her, but so do I, and together we are going to find them both and bring them home safe and sound to climb on me and call me names. Respectively, that is."
Rose let out a small, weak laugh, then took a shaky breath.
"Where do we start?" The brightness in her voice was false, but it was better than tears.
"In here, I'd suppose." He unwound himself from Rose, reaching in his pocket for the sonic screwdriver. "Right before Jackie--before we landed, there were some anomalies…"
"Jacks!"
Pete Tyler skidded into the room, keys still in hand. He did a minor double-take at the TARDIS, then--as he took in Rose's red, swollen eyes, the firm set of the Doctor's jaw, and the absence of his wife--he paled. "What's happened? Where's Jackie?"
The Doctor looked to Rose, who shook her head at Pete. "She's gone, Dad. Vanished, just like Tony."
"That's impossible. Do you know how many levels of security this house has? No one could have gotten in. No one could have gotten close."
"I don't think," the Doctor said, "it's the getting in so much as it is the getting out."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Pete looked confused.
Instead of answering, the Doctor started pacing. "Rose. Jackie told you Tony vanished, yes?"
"Said he was there one minute and gone the next."
"Hmm. Now, it's possible, of course, that whoever took Tony did something, used some sort of gas or drug or device to physically snatch Tony while making Jackie believe he'd disappeared." The Doctor raked a hand through his hair while he walked. "It's very, very possible." He stopped, narrowed his eyes, and sniffed the air, then continued pacing.
"He does that," Rose said to her father, whose brows had shot up in bemusement.
"But...but but but...that doesn't account for what happened to Jackie. The TARDIS began its materialisation sequence while she was in the room--remember, Rose? We could hear it over the phone. It was, oh, ten seconds at the most between the moment the call cut off and the moment Rose opened the TARDIS doors. So, unless whoever took Jackie was somehow able to manipulate time--and there's no one in this universe who can do that, not even me--then they must have used a teleportation device or a transmat. Or...something." He turned to Pete. "Has anyone been in this house recently--anyone at all--who normally wouldn't?"
"No--I mean, not that I know of. I've been held up at Torchwood a lot lately, but...no. if Jackie was going to have work done on the house, she'd have told me."
"Oh yes, and of course you've never had anyone get into Torchwood undetected, so naturally this house should be safe as...er...as houses." The Doctor frowned. "Hmm. That lost something in the telling."
Pete strode over to his desk, grabbing the phone from its cradle and jabbing at a button. "Code Mauve. I want a complete lockdown. Now. "
"Dad…?"
Pete replaced the phone in its cradle. He loosened his tie, shucked his jacket, and tossed it over the back of his desk chair. "If there was a transmat in this house, then it was brought in. By someone who works for me."
"They mightn't have known."
"True. But they'll need to be questioned, all the same."
"No no no no no, this is all wrong!" The Doctor dashed towards the open study door. "Jackie said this room has an automatic lock, yes?"
"A biometric one, yeah."
"But it has an override." He crouched, the better to examine the locking mechanism up close.
"Yes, in case of system failure or emergency. Jackie, Rose, and I are allowed to request an override--"
"Not me?" The Doctor pouted.
"I...I never...you have the sonic screwdriver."
"Well, yes, but still. I'm family, aren't I? I should be on the list."
"I don't think now's really the time," Rose suggested. The Doctor huffed, but let the matter drop.
"As I was saying," continued Pete as the Doctor re-entered the study, "we can request an override, but even then there's a fail-safe. All calls to Torchwood are monitored. In the case of an override request, the caller's voice print would have to match the one in the system. Even if Constance was certain it was Jackie on the other end of the line, she couldn't open the lock unless the system confirmed it."
"How is any of this going to help us get Mum and Tony back?" Rose broke in to ask. "I get that it's important, but shouldn't we be working on finding them?"
"If we know how they were taken, it will help us determine how to locate them." The Doctor scowled and leaned back against Pete's desk, folding his arms as he pondered. "Intruders, it's safe to say, are out. Too much risk, too many variables. If they'd only taken Tony, then maybe, but...no, no, that can't be it."
The phone on Pete's desk rang, the shrill electronic tones reverberating through the room. Rose started; the Doctor stepped back abruptly, making way for Pete, who hesitated briefly before picking up the receiver. "Tyler here."
Rose and the Doctor watched Pete warily, looking for anything--the slightest shift in expression--that would indicate who he was speaking to, or what about. But his face remained impassive as he listened to the caller. Finally he nodded.
"Yeah. Let me know the second you..." his eyes closed. His posture shifted from rigid authority to one of weary resignation, even fear. "Yeah. Cheers." He slowly replaced the phone in its cradle and looked up to meet the eyes of an expectant Doctor and Rose. "That was Security. Jackie never activated her panic button."
"Panic button?" The Doctor looked lost.
"This wouldn't be the first time we've had to worry about abduction, Doctor. Kidnap and ransom's not a bad way to make a living, even here, and Jackie and Tony are natural targets. Jackie carries a panic button with her at all times, even in the house. At the first sign of a threat, she knows to activate it; it should be like a reflex. As long as it stays on her person, it can lead an extraction team to her."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then at least we don't have to wait for her to go missing to start looking for her."
"We all have them," Rose said. "Well, had. Tony kept playing with his and causing false alarms, and I left mine behind. Not much point in calling out a security team when they're on a different planet," she joked half-heartedly.
"So what does it mean that she didn't activate it?"
Pete blanched. "I don't really want to think about that."
The Doctor put a comforting hand on the other man's shoulder. "She's alive, Pete. If they'd meant to harm her or Tony they'd not have bothered to take them away, they'd have just done it here."
"Small comfort."
"We'll take what we can get."
Pete nodded, then eased away from the Doctor, sat at his desk, and opened a notebook computer there. After a few keystrokes, he motioned for the Doctor and Rose to join him.
"If we're dealing with a teleport or transmat, then Jackie probably didn't have a chance to hit her panic button before they took her. Now, it's possible that whatever tech used to take her also disabled the GPS inside it, but if not..." he hit a few more keys. "I can activate it remotely. Assuming it's not destroyed or otherwise inoperative...there!" He gave a triumphant shout. "That's her signal. It'll just take the satellite a moment to triangulate her location, and...no. That can't be right."
"What can't be?" Rose had felt a surge of hope, which melted away at her father's sudden dismay.
"The signal is coming from inside the house," Pete said. He scrubbed his hands over his face, then stared at the monitor as if he expected a different result. "According to this? Jackie's still here."
"What?" The Doctor frowned at the computer screen as if he could intimidate it into producing a different result.
"That's what it says, that she's still right here somewhere." Pete pointed at the display. "It's not pinpoint accurate, mind, but that--" he jabbed his finger for emphasis-- "is our house."
"Oh, this is bad. This is very, very bad."
Pete picked up his desk phone again. "I need a complete sweep of the property, visual and electronic. Every room, every cupboard, roof to cellar and back if you have to. Has there been any contact? Anyone claiming responsibility?" He grunted in frustration. "Right. Keep me updated."
Rose's attention was divided between the Doctor--who oscillated from terror to fascination and back again--and her father, who was displaying the sort of bluster she recognised as the sudden helplessness of a powerful man, having seen it all too often. She hated this, hated the moments when they couldn't act, couldn't even plan. Not that they ever really did much in the way of planning, of course, but the point remained.
It struck her then how terrified Pete must be. He'd lost a wife once, only to be granted an incredible (if slightly improbable) second chance. Now he was faced with the possibility of losing not only his wife, but his child as well.
It couldn't happen. She wouldn't let it happen.
"Okay." Her voice was tentative, but her resolve was firm. "Are we sure Mum and Tony are still here somewhere?"
Pete stared helplessly at Rose, then returned his attention to the display. "That's what it says here."
"And what does that mean?" she asked, turning to the Doctor.
"Any number of things, really. None of them good. Some of them bad. Some of them really, really bad."
Rose shot her best "Not helping!" glare at the Doctor. He frowned, confused, back at her then his eyebrows shot up almost to his hairline.
"...orrrrr, of course, she could be...er...locked up in a cupboard somewhere? Maybe?"
Rose buried her face in her hands, then rubbed her temples. Her head was starting to pound. "Assuming they aren't in a cupboard, though, Doctor, then what?"
"Well, there's dimensional shift, of course, but the amount of power needed to sustain that is immense. It would be impossible for a power source that massive to go unnoticed."
"Not even if they tapped into the power grid?"
"The whole of London would have gone dark. Each time," he said. "No, that's not it. A temporal shift, maybe?" He clicked his tongue. "Naaaaaah..."
"How's that work?" Rose kept prodding him, getting him to talk, to work the problem out in his head.
"You move the target ever so slightly out of time and trap them there. Even a second out of sync and they effectively disappear."
"So it's like a time loop?"
"In a way, yes. And the smaller the loop, the less energy required." The Doctor wrinkled his nose. "It's possible. Plausible, even. Except that there's no evidence of it." He waggled the sonic screwdriver between his fingers for emphasis. "None."
Pete was still sitting hunched over at his desk with his head in his hands. He rubbed roughly at his eyes. "So we're back at square one."
"No, no." The Doctor shook his head. "Well, yes. But eliminating what it can't be helps."
"The list of things it can't be is more or less infinite, Doctor."
He considered this for a moment. "You've got me there."
Defeated, Rose slumped down onto a settee, resting her head on the arm. While she stared blankly ahead, the Doctor and Pete traded ever more implausible explanations for Jackie and Tony's disappearances--up to and including time displacement and something involving light particles and scoops that she really didn't understand. She even thought that at one point she heard the Doctor suggest they'd been taken by portkey. By then, though, the initial rush of adrenaline had given way to a fatigue borne of helplessness, and that--plus her pounding headache--made him even more incomprehensible than usual. So as not to feel completely useless, she decided to go make them all some tea, dragging herself to a sitting position and heaving herself up off the sofa. And then she saw it--a tiny green light blinking under Pete's desk.
"Dad?" Rose interjected. "Dad. Where is mum's panic button? Is it its own unit, or...?"
"Nah, she kept forgetting to take it with her," Pete answered. "So I had Torchwood incorporate it into her phone. You know she's never without that thing; she uses it so much she has to charge it twice a day. She even takes it to bed with her. Why?"
Rose walked over to the heavy wooden desk, then got down on her hands and knees and reached underneath. Her shoulder was wedged against it, her arm stretched as far as it could without injury. She was feeling blindly, relying on where she thought she'd seen the light come from, but finally her fingers brushed against a small, solid, squarish object. She scrabbled her fingers over it, trying to coax it nearer so she could grasp it fully. Little by little it slid closer until at last her fingers closed around it. With a victorious grin she leaped to her feet, holding the object in her palm for the two men to see: it was a mobile phone, its LED blinking to indicate a missed call.
Pete stared at it, dumbfounded. "That's Jackie's phone," he said, blankly.
Rose's smile faded. "And if her phone is here, then...that explains the signal."
He nodded, once. "And it means we have no way of finding her. Or Tony."
~~~~~
Part Two
Author: gin_and_ashes
Rating: PG
Pairing: Rose/Ten II
Summary: When Tony and Jackie Tyler mysteriously vanish from inside the Tyler mansion, the Doctor, Rose, and Pete must work together to discover where they were taken-and how.
Author's notes: Thanks as always to jlrpuck for being a wonderful beta, and to shinyopals for her browbeating encouragement and assistance.
Episode 7 of a virtual series at the_altverse, following The Tenth Sister last week.
Virtual Series Masterlist
Part One | Part Two
Jackie Tyler was annoyed. There were some people (well, one person) who would argue that this was unremarkable, as "annoyed" was Jackie's default state. They would also have said they weren't to blame for turning Jackie's hairdryer into a freeze ray, so perhaps they weren't completely to be trusted in this regard.
Amazingly, on this day Jackie's ire was not directed at her son-in-law, but rather at her young son Tony, who had decided--utterly against his mother's will--to play hide-and-seek. Jackie wasn't opposed to the game in principle, but the Tyler mansion was a vast place, with any number of prime hiding spots (just ask the Doctor), and it was past Tony's bath time. She didn't even have Pete to call on for help, as he'd been working long hours on some confusing new data at Torchwood.
"Come on now, Tony," Jackie pleaded. "I let you stay up late to watch your programme, but this is going too far. It's time for your bath."
There was a thunk down the hall, followed by short, hurried footsteps, suspiciously like those of a small boy scampering giddily away from his mother. Jackie darted in the direction of the sound, hoping to intercept her wayward offspring as he rounded the corner. Only he never appeared, much to her confusion and consternation. Whatever he'd done, he'd tricked her into thinking he'd come this way, when instead he…
Oh, he was going to get it.
"Tony Tyler, you naughty, naughty boy. Don't you think I don't know where you've gone, young man. That is your father's study, and you know full well you're not allowed in there without him."
Jackie had reached the door to Pete's study. It was ever so slightly ajar, which struck her as odd. Pete usually kept it locked up tight, even from her. There was too much untested Torchwood technology in there, and he'd not wanted anyone but him exposed to it.
"Tony, come out of there this instant," she demanded, reaching for the doorknob. There was a giggle, then the door closed; she heard the snick of the electronic lock.
Annoyance was fast giving way to exasperation. "Open this door, young man. Open it right now. And don't you touch a thing in there. When your father gets home…"
She pulled her mobile from her pocket. "I'm phoning him," she called through the locked door. "I'm calling your father to get the passcode for this door. If you think you're in trouble now...oh! Constance, hi, it's Jackie. Tony's got himself locked in Pete's study. Can you? Oh, cheers, love, you're an absolute angel. When are you going to come by for tea? I haven't seen you in...oh, there it is." The light on the panel turned green and she heard the lock disengage. "Thank you so much. And I mean it about the tea. It's been an age."
Jackie pushed open the door to Pete's study then rang off, pocketing her mobile. "All right, you little menace," she said, sweeping the room with her eyes to find where he'd hidden himself. "You're cornered now, aren't you? Just come along and--"
~~~~~
"Are you pouting?" Rose pressed her lips together in a futile attempt to avoid laughing.
The Doctor looked affronted at the very suggestion--and a not a little caught out. "What? No. No, I'm not pouting. Time Lords don't pout. That's ridiculous."
Rose said nothing, merely raised an amused eyebrow.
"Just because I don't see why the TARDIS thought it necessary to add a laundry room and a second bathroom before even getting started on a library does not mean I am pouting. Because I'm not."
"Well," Rose said, sidling up to him and walking her fingers up his tie, "maybe she figured you're brilliant enough to do without a library for a little while longer, what with all the knowledge in that magnificent brain of yours." The Doctor grinned, smugly. "And we did need the laundry, you know."
His grin melted; he harrumphed, rolling his eyes.
"We did! I was running out of clean clothes, and so were you." Her fingers traced around the edge of the Doctor's collar. "And as much as I like you without your clothes--" His smile came back, wider this time. "Most of the planets we visit frown on public nudity."
"Ah, but not all of them! Why, just off the top of my head I can think of three hundred and seventy-four planets where nudity is required by law. More if you count recreational nudist colonies established by humans, though believe me, you don't want to. Imagine a planet entirely populated by naked Jackie Tylers." He paused, his brow furrowing in distaste. "On second thought? Don't." He gave an exaggerated shudder. Rose opened her mouth to chastise him, but before she could speak, the strains of the Imperial March from Star Wars filled the air.
"Speak of the devil," the Doctor quipped.
"You made that my mum's ringtone?"
"Seemed appropriately ominous." Rose glared at him. "What, you don't agree?"
"Don't think we're not going to talk about this later," she warned, fetching her phone from its resting place on the console. "Hi, Mum, how are--"
Rose's speech halted abruptly. She froze in mid-step, her eyes widening in fear. The Doctor made to move closer, intending to ask what was wrong, but her hand shot up in a warning gesture; he stopped short.
"What do you mean, 'missing?' " she cried.
"Who--"
Rose shushed the Doctor, covering her free ear with her hand and pivoting away from him. "Mum. Mum! Slow down. I'm putting the Doctor on." She took the phone from her ear, pressed it to her chest, and turned to the Doctor. "Tony's gone missing. He was hiding from her in the house and now he's gone."
"It's a big house, Rose, I'm sure he's--"
"No, you don't get it. He was standing right there in front of her, and then he wasn't. He vanished into thin air. Mum's frantic."
The Doctor's expression hardened. "I'm patching her through."
In two long strides, he was at the console and reaching out for Rose's phone, which she handed over without hesitation. He snapped it into a dock near the console's monitor, then turned a dial and flipped a series of switches.
"Jackie, you there?"
"Doctor?" Her voice was fraught with emotion. "Doctor, he's gone. Tony's disappeared!"
"Jackie. I know this is hard, but right now, it is incredibly important that you stay calm. I need you to do that for me, Jackie. I need you to stay calm."
At the other end of the line, the Doctor could hear Jackie taking several deep breaths. He stole a worried glance at Rose. Her hands were folded, pressed tightly against her lips. Her eyes were wide, brimming with as yet-unshed tears. Whatever this was, whatever had happened, it was clear from the terror in Jackie's voice that it was no misunderstanding, no exaggeration.
The Doctor leaned over, bracing himself against the console, staring into the monitor as the TARDIS's computer got a fix on Jackie's location. "We're on our way, Jackie. Now, tell me exactly what happened. Don't leave out anything, not the tiniest detail. Anything could be a clue. Anything at all."
"Wait." Rose interrupted. "Mum, does Dad know?"
"Yes, of course he knows, I phoned him first. He's coming home now. Where are you two?"
"We're in the TARDIS. We'll be there soon, Mum, I promise. Just hang on."
"Jackie?" The Doctor cut in. "What happened? Where are you? I'm getting strange readings from your location."
"I'm at home, in Pete's study. Tony was trying to get out of taking a bath, and--oh, Rose. Rose, I was cross with him. What if I never see him again? What if the last thing he heard his mum say was--"
"Jackie!" the Doctor snapped, his emotions barely contained. "We are going to get Tony back, I swear it. But you need to tell me what happened."
"I'm sorry, Doctor. I--"
"I understand." He kept his voice calm, measured, trying to will Jackie to be the same. Whatever had happened to Tony, wherever he was, every second counted now. He needed her to be focused.
Jackie took a deep breath. "Right. He'd been hiding from me, trying to avoid his bath, and--and when I caught up to him, he came here into Pete's office and locked the door. Well, closed the door. It locks automatically."
"How long was he in there by himself?" The Doctor squinted at a reading on the monitor, then thumped it on the side. That couldn't be right.
"A minute, two at most. I called Constance and she engaged the override, and when I went in...when I…" Jackie's voice became choked with tears.
"Mum…" Rose reached out, trying to comfort a mother who wasn't there, then drew her arm back tight against her chest. The Doctor turned to her and mouthed: Almost there.
"When I came in, he was standing right over here," Jackie said. As she spoke, the sounds of the TARDIS materialisation could be heard over the speakers, almost drowning her out. She raised her voice, nearly shouting into the phone to be heard over the sound. "He was smiling at me and laughing because he knew he was in for a tickling, and then--"
Everything went silent. The call had cut off.
"Then what?" the Doctor demanded. "What? Jackie?"
They'd landed. Rose sprang for the TARDIS doors and flung them open. She launched herself through them and directly into Pete's study, looking around frantically for her mother.
"Mum?" she cried. "Mum?" But Jackie Tyler was nowhere to be found.
Rose whirled, advancing on the Doctor with a sudden fury. "What did you do?"
"What?" he sputtered, stumbling away from her and nearly falling backwards through the TARDIS doors.
"You. You missed! Again!" She raced back into the room, scanning frantically for any sign of her mother. "She's not here. How long has it been? How long?" Her eyes were wild.
"We didn't miss. Your mother was here when the TARDIS was landing; we both heard it through her phone. It's been seconds, at most."
Rose exhaled; her shoulders slumped. "How is that possible?"
The Doctor stepped tentatively forward. "I'm...not sure yet. But I think it's safe to say that whatever took Tony has her as well." She looked up at him in terror. "We'll find them, Rose. I promise."
He opened his arms to her. She came to him in a rush, burying her face against his lapel. The Doctor wrapped her in an almost crushing embrace, brushing a kiss over her hair before resting his chin on the crown of her head. A frown tugged at his mouth as his eyes surveyed the room warily. What had happened here?
Rose sniffled, then hiccoughed and raised her head. The Doctor shifted his expression to one of comforting optimism. "Better?" he asked.
She nodded. "Sorry."
"Don't you dare apologise." He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her gently. "Don't you dare. Of course you're worried. You love your brother and mother, and so help me I'll deny it if you ever repeat a word of this to her, but so do I, and together we are going to find them both and bring them home safe and sound to climb on me and call me names. Respectively, that is."
Rose let out a small, weak laugh, then took a shaky breath.
"Where do we start?" The brightness in her voice was false, but it was better than tears.
"In here, I'd suppose." He unwound himself from Rose, reaching in his pocket for the sonic screwdriver. "Right before Jackie--before we landed, there were some anomalies…"
"Jacks!"
Pete Tyler skidded into the room, keys still in hand. He did a minor double-take at the TARDIS, then--as he took in Rose's red, swollen eyes, the firm set of the Doctor's jaw, and the absence of his wife--he paled. "What's happened? Where's Jackie?"
The Doctor looked to Rose, who shook her head at Pete. "She's gone, Dad. Vanished, just like Tony."
"That's impossible. Do you know how many levels of security this house has? No one could have gotten in. No one could have gotten close."
"I don't think," the Doctor said, "it's the getting in so much as it is the getting out."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Pete looked confused.
Instead of answering, the Doctor started pacing. "Rose. Jackie told you Tony vanished, yes?"
"Said he was there one minute and gone the next."
"Hmm. Now, it's possible, of course, that whoever took Tony did something, used some sort of gas or drug or device to physically snatch Tony while making Jackie believe he'd disappeared." The Doctor raked a hand through his hair while he walked. "It's very, very possible." He stopped, narrowed his eyes, and sniffed the air, then continued pacing.
"He does that," Rose said to her father, whose brows had shot up in bemusement.
"But...but but but...that doesn't account for what happened to Jackie. The TARDIS began its materialisation sequence while she was in the room--remember, Rose? We could hear it over the phone. It was, oh, ten seconds at the most between the moment the call cut off and the moment Rose opened the TARDIS doors. So, unless whoever took Jackie was somehow able to manipulate time--and there's no one in this universe who can do that, not even me--then they must have used a teleportation device or a transmat. Or...something." He turned to Pete. "Has anyone been in this house recently--anyone at all--who normally wouldn't?"
"No--I mean, not that I know of. I've been held up at Torchwood a lot lately, but...no. if Jackie was going to have work done on the house, she'd have told me."
"Oh yes, and of course you've never had anyone get into Torchwood undetected, so naturally this house should be safe as...er...as houses." The Doctor frowned. "Hmm. That lost something in the telling."
Pete strode over to his desk, grabbing the phone from its cradle and jabbing at a button. "Code Mauve. I want a complete lockdown. Now. "
"Dad…?"
Pete replaced the phone in its cradle. He loosened his tie, shucked his jacket, and tossed it over the back of his desk chair. "If there was a transmat in this house, then it was brought in. By someone who works for me."
"They mightn't have known."
"True. But they'll need to be questioned, all the same."
"No no no no no, this is all wrong!" The Doctor dashed towards the open study door. "Jackie said this room has an automatic lock, yes?"
"A biometric one, yeah."
"But it has an override." He crouched, the better to examine the locking mechanism up close.
"Yes, in case of system failure or emergency. Jackie, Rose, and I are allowed to request an override--"
"Not me?" The Doctor pouted.
"I...I never...you have the sonic screwdriver."
"Well, yes, but still. I'm family, aren't I? I should be on the list."
"I don't think now's really the time," Rose suggested. The Doctor huffed, but let the matter drop.
"As I was saying," continued Pete as the Doctor re-entered the study, "we can request an override, but even then there's a fail-safe. All calls to Torchwood are monitored. In the case of an override request, the caller's voice print would have to match the one in the system. Even if Constance was certain it was Jackie on the other end of the line, she couldn't open the lock unless the system confirmed it."
"How is any of this going to help us get Mum and Tony back?" Rose broke in to ask. "I get that it's important, but shouldn't we be working on finding them?"
"If we know how they were taken, it will help us determine how to locate them." The Doctor scowled and leaned back against Pete's desk, folding his arms as he pondered. "Intruders, it's safe to say, are out. Too much risk, too many variables. If they'd only taken Tony, then maybe, but...no, no, that can't be it."
The phone on Pete's desk rang, the shrill electronic tones reverberating through the room. Rose started; the Doctor stepped back abruptly, making way for Pete, who hesitated briefly before picking up the receiver. "Tyler here."
Rose and the Doctor watched Pete warily, looking for anything--the slightest shift in expression--that would indicate who he was speaking to, or what about. But his face remained impassive as he listened to the caller. Finally he nodded.
"Yeah. Let me know the second you..." his eyes closed. His posture shifted from rigid authority to one of weary resignation, even fear. "Yeah. Cheers." He slowly replaced the phone in its cradle and looked up to meet the eyes of an expectant Doctor and Rose. "That was Security. Jackie never activated her panic button."
"Panic button?" The Doctor looked lost.
"This wouldn't be the first time we've had to worry about abduction, Doctor. Kidnap and ransom's not a bad way to make a living, even here, and Jackie and Tony are natural targets. Jackie carries a panic button with her at all times, even in the house. At the first sign of a threat, she knows to activate it; it should be like a reflex. As long as it stays on her person, it can lead an extraction team to her."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then at least we don't have to wait for her to go missing to start looking for her."
"We all have them," Rose said. "Well, had. Tony kept playing with his and causing false alarms, and I left mine behind. Not much point in calling out a security team when they're on a different planet," she joked half-heartedly.
"So what does it mean that she didn't activate it?"
Pete blanched. "I don't really want to think about that."
The Doctor put a comforting hand on the other man's shoulder. "She's alive, Pete. If they'd meant to harm her or Tony they'd not have bothered to take them away, they'd have just done it here."
"Small comfort."
"We'll take what we can get."
Pete nodded, then eased away from the Doctor, sat at his desk, and opened a notebook computer there. After a few keystrokes, he motioned for the Doctor and Rose to join him.
"If we're dealing with a teleport or transmat, then Jackie probably didn't have a chance to hit her panic button before they took her. Now, it's possible that whatever tech used to take her also disabled the GPS inside it, but if not..." he hit a few more keys. "I can activate it remotely. Assuming it's not destroyed or otherwise inoperative...there!" He gave a triumphant shout. "That's her signal. It'll just take the satellite a moment to triangulate her location, and...no. That can't be right."
"What can't be?" Rose had felt a surge of hope, which melted away at her father's sudden dismay.
"The signal is coming from inside the house," Pete said. He scrubbed his hands over his face, then stared at the monitor as if he expected a different result. "According to this? Jackie's still here."
"What?" The Doctor frowned at the computer screen as if he could intimidate it into producing a different result.
"That's what it says, that she's still right here somewhere." Pete pointed at the display. "It's not pinpoint accurate, mind, but that--" he jabbed his finger for emphasis-- "is our house."
"Oh, this is bad. This is very, very bad."
Pete picked up his desk phone again. "I need a complete sweep of the property, visual and electronic. Every room, every cupboard, roof to cellar and back if you have to. Has there been any contact? Anyone claiming responsibility?" He grunted in frustration. "Right. Keep me updated."
Rose's attention was divided between the Doctor--who oscillated from terror to fascination and back again--and her father, who was displaying the sort of bluster she recognised as the sudden helplessness of a powerful man, having seen it all too often. She hated this, hated the moments when they couldn't act, couldn't even plan. Not that they ever really did much in the way of planning, of course, but the point remained.
It struck her then how terrified Pete must be. He'd lost a wife once, only to be granted an incredible (if slightly improbable) second chance. Now he was faced with the possibility of losing not only his wife, but his child as well.
It couldn't happen. She wouldn't let it happen.
"Okay." Her voice was tentative, but her resolve was firm. "Are we sure Mum and Tony are still here somewhere?"
Pete stared helplessly at Rose, then returned his attention to the display. "That's what it says here."
"And what does that mean?" she asked, turning to the Doctor.
"Any number of things, really. None of them good. Some of them bad. Some of them really, really bad."
Rose shot her best "Not helping!" glare at the Doctor. He frowned, confused, back at her then his eyebrows shot up almost to his hairline.
"...orrrrr, of course, she could be...er...locked up in a cupboard somewhere? Maybe?"
Rose buried her face in her hands, then rubbed her temples. Her head was starting to pound. "Assuming they aren't in a cupboard, though, Doctor, then what?"
"Well, there's dimensional shift, of course, but the amount of power needed to sustain that is immense. It would be impossible for a power source that massive to go unnoticed."
"Not even if they tapped into the power grid?"
"The whole of London would have gone dark. Each time," he said. "No, that's not it. A temporal shift, maybe?" He clicked his tongue. "Naaaaaah..."
"How's that work?" Rose kept prodding him, getting him to talk, to work the problem out in his head.
"You move the target ever so slightly out of time and trap them there. Even a second out of sync and they effectively disappear."
"So it's like a time loop?"
"In a way, yes. And the smaller the loop, the less energy required." The Doctor wrinkled his nose. "It's possible. Plausible, even. Except that there's no evidence of it." He waggled the sonic screwdriver between his fingers for emphasis. "None."
Pete was still sitting hunched over at his desk with his head in his hands. He rubbed roughly at his eyes. "So we're back at square one."
"No, no." The Doctor shook his head. "Well, yes. But eliminating what it can't be helps."
"The list of things it can't be is more or less infinite, Doctor."
He considered this for a moment. "You've got me there."
Defeated, Rose slumped down onto a settee, resting her head on the arm. While she stared blankly ahead, the Doctor and Pete traded ever more implausible explanations for Jackie and Tony's disappearances--up to and including time displacement and something involving light particles and scoops that she really didn't understand. She even thought that at one point she heard the Doctor suggest they'd been taken by portkey. By then, though, the initial rush of adrenaline had given way to a fatigue borne of helplessness, and that--plus her pounding headache--made him even more incomprehensible than usual. So as not to feel completely useless, she decided to go make them all some tea, dragging herself to a sitting position and heaving herself up off the sofa. And then she saw it--a tiny green light blinking under Pete's desk.
"Dad?" Rose interjected. "Dad. Where is mum's panic button? Is it its own unit, or...?"
"Nah, she kept forgetting to take it with her," Pete answered. "So I had Torchwood incorporate it into her phone. You know she's never without that thing; she uses it so much she has to charge it twice a day. She even takes it to bed with her. Why?"
Rose walked over to the heavy wooden desk, then got down on her hands and knees and reached underneath. Her shoulder was wedged against it, her arm stretched as far as it could without injury. She was feeling blindly, relying on where she thought she'd seen the light come from, but finally her fingers brushed against a small, solid, squarish object. She scrabbled her fingers over it, trying to coax it nearer so she could grasp it fully. Little by little it slid closer until at last her fingers closed around it. With a victorious grin she leaped to her feet, holding the object in her palm for the two men to see: it was a mobile phone, its LED blinking to indicate a missed call.
Pete stared at it, dumbfounded. "That's Jackie's phone," he said, blankly.
Rose's smile faded. "And if her phone is here, then...that explains the signal."
He nodded, once. "And it means we have no way of finding her. Or Tony."
~~~~~
Part Two