A/N: Had you thought I'd forgotten? Sorry folks, I know it's incredibly late but here it is. The End. The Last Chapter. Only a coupld of weeks and our Doctor will be back on our screens getting himself into more trouble. Don't forget 7pm bbc one for the brand new season 4 trailer! Two week mark folks! And to anyone who watched the second to last Torchwood last night, how much did you want to hug Owen?! Blimey. Anyway. There is a follow-on to this story in the pipeline and I have included a page or two at the end of this as a reward for actually making it all the way through to the end of this story! I have no idea what it's called yet.
Anyway. Huge thank you to everyone who has stuck with me and kept the reviews coming, it means a lot! I hope you have a fantastic Easter and hopefully next time you see a creme egg you will think of the Doctor, lol. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about check out my little ficlet called, "Why Jack and Rose hate Easter" for a bit of a giggle!)
Acn anyone remember where we were last chapter? (Goes back and checks.) Oh yes, Jack doesn't like being in Torchwood.
Chapter 16
The cog door announced their arrival as Gwen, Toshiko and Owen melted into the room.
"What is this? You find you can't function outside Torchwood? First Ianto, now the rest of you," Jack chuckled.
"Couldn't let you go without seeing you off now could we?" Owen told him.
"I haven't even decided what I'm doing yet."
"Yeah, but once you do it won't take long. Besides, we want to have a bit of fun before you abandon us again." Gwen winked at him.
"Should I be worried?"
"About us? No, we can look after ourselves," Tosh assured him.
"That's not what I meant."
"Depends, are you afraid of water?" Owen asked.
"Last time I checked, no."
"Good."
Suddenly all three pulled out giant water pistols and fired at him.
"Hey, hey, hey!" a voice called as the lift began to descend. "You were meant to wait for us!"
"I told you to get the pizzas delivered!"
"Doc? Rosie? What's going on?" Jack asked, running his hands through his soaking wet hair.
"You didn't think we'd let you sneak off did you? Leaving Gwen in charge? Are you sure that's a good move?" Owen asked, jogging down the stairs and depositing his water-gun on one of the tables.
"Ianto's gone to get some beers," Gwen informed him.
"Wow, so the gang's all here."
"Certainly are captain," the Doctor told him.
Rose bounded across from the lift and threw herself at the Time Agent.
"Oooo, it's good to see you," she told him, kissing his cheek.
"Captain," the Time Lord greeted with a grin as Rose extracted herself from Jack's embrace.
"What are you doing here? I told you I didn't need to see you," Jack whispered.
"I rarely listen to you," the Doctor shrugged, his grin widening.
"Well, for once I'm glad you stuck to that. It's good to see you. Both of you."
"So, are we going to eat these pizzas or what?" Owen called as Ianto entered, arms laded with beer cans.
XxXxX
"I may not be Fred Flintstone, but I bet I can make your Bed Rock," Owen announced.
"You didn't?!" Tosh squealed with laughter.
"If you'd said that to me I'd have collapsed laughing. Did it work?" Gwen asked.
"Erm, no. But it was worth a try. Who's next?"
"If you're going to regret this in the morning, we can sleep until the afternoon," Jack offered. "That one surprisingly did work, but then I don't think they knew what a chat up line was."
"I'm not even going to ask what planet you were on at the time," the Doctor chuckled, shaking his head.
"I got asked this once," Rose announced. "If your left leg is Halloween and your right leg Christmas, can I visit you between the Holidays?"
"That's shockingly bad," Jack laughed. "What did you say?"
"I was only fifteen at the time so I didn't say anything, I just walked away."
"I would have said; 'sorry I'm Jewish'," Gwen told her.
Rose laughed. "I've got better at it over the years."
"I'll bet," Jack winked.
"Behave," Rose and the Doctor chorused.
"I always behave, I just behave badly. Come on then Rosie, how did you crush young men's hearts?"
"Let's see. One guy said 'I would go to the end of the world for you'. So I said 'Yes, but would you stay there?'"
The group laughed.
"I once told a girl 'I know how to please a woman.' And she replied 'then please leave me alone.' I thought that was unnecessarily mean," Owen smirked.
"One of my old friends once had a really cheesy guy say; 'I want to give myself to you.' So she responded with; 'Sorry, I don't accept cheap gifts,'" Gwen said, enjoying watching Ianto almost choke on his beer while holding back a laugh.
"I once heard a guy say 'your body is like a temple'. What would say to that?" Ianto asked, clearing his throat.
"Sorry, no services today," Rose and Gwen chorused.
"One time I got shot down but the come back was good so I had to give them credit. It was the usual, 'Haven't I seen you somewhere before?' and they came back with; 'yeah that's why I don't go there any more.' Sharp as a tack. Just made me want them more," Jack grinned at the memory, not noticing the look on his team mates faces.
"What?" Rose asked, looking from one member of Torchwood to the other.
"It's just the thought of Jack chatting up a woman, seems…..odd," Owen said.
"Who said it was a woman?" Jack grinned.
"Who said it was human?" the Doctor countered.
"Touché," the Time Agent chuckled. "So any more for any more? What about you Doc? Any dodgy chat up lines?"
"Only the one you tried on me one night."
"What? When was this and where was I?" Rose demanded incredulously.
"Oh, years ago and you were asleep. I'd been repairing the TARDIS so you two went off to entertain yourselves. When I found you later, the living room was covered in beer cans and you, dear Rose, were passed out on the sofa."
"Ooohhhhhh I remember, vaguely. You were glaring at me for getting Rosie in such a state and I looked at you and said…. Oh." The smile fell from Jack's face as his cheeks took on an unusually pink hue.
" Yeah, oh!" the Doctor grinned. "Embarrassed at flirting with me or the line you used?"
"Erm, after meeting this you it's a tough call. Please don't!"
"You asked."
"What did he say?" Owen asked eagerly, leaning forward in his seat to rest his elbows on the table.
"Doc, I'm begging you!"
"He said….'your eyes are like spanners; every time I look at them my nuts go tight!'"
"You're kidding!" Rose howled with laughter. "Oh my god! That has got to be one of the funniest things I have ever heard!"
"Oh I don't know, I've heard worse," the Doctor told them.
"How?"
"After 900 years, you hear a few things."
"Such as?" Ianto asked, enjoying himself more than he had in months.
"Rassilion, now you're asking. Um, let's think."
Rose watched as he stared up at the ceiling, biting his lip in thought. She loved seeing him this relaxed, he was like a teenager.
"Ooo, I once heard;" he cleared his throat. "'I'm a love Pirate, and I'm here for your booty! ARRRGGGHHH!!'" he delivered in a Cornish accent that sent everyone into fits of giggles. "They're not all like that though I once heard a young chap say; 'can I give you my number in case hell freezes over?' I thought that was cute nice."
"Sometimes you just have to be direct, like; 'I think I'd love every bone in your body, especially mine'." Jack grinned.
"Don't forget the classic; 'hey baby is that a mirror in you're pants? Because I can see myself in them.'" Owen offered.
"To which we girls would respond with; 'I have one arsehole in my pants already - I don't need another one.'" Gwen informed him.
Owen grinned at her.
"I got chatted up once, but he was very drunk so I don't think it counts," Tosh announced, reminding everyone that she was there.
"So come on then, share," Owen encouraged.
"He said; 'You must be a stewardess, 'cause my tray returned to its upright position.' I didn't really understand it."
"Well his tray was…"
"No I get that," Tosh interrupted before Jack could go any further. "I get that he was talking about…that. Just why refer to it as a tray?"
"Toshiko, never question anything a human male does, you'll go mad trying to find the answers," the Doctor advised.
"That goes for non-human males too. I'm still trying to work him out sometimes," Rose added, nodding at the Time Lord.
"Still can't quite get to grips with you being an alien and dating a human," Owen admitted, looking at the Doctor.
"Most things work in the same way, Owen, you know that. You've seen as much of me as Rose has, in fact you've probably seen more. Rose has never had to check my insides."
"I gotta admit. If you hadn't been alive I'd have had a field day."
Jack took a deep breath and stood. "How about some music?"
"Oh god!" Gwen groaned as Jack disappeared.
"What?" Rose asked.
"He plays the oldest songs in the world. Right, who's up for a game of basketball?" Owen asked, grabbing the ball from his desk.
"I'll referee," Ianto announced stripping his suit jacket and rolling up his sleeves.
Leaving the others to it, the Doctor went for a snoop around. He hadn't had much of a chance last time he was here and he was curious to see just how big Jack's operation was.
He smiled as the familiar sounds of Cole Porter filled the air. Typical Jack, he thought.
"Curiosity killed the cat you know," Jack told him, appearing by his side.
"Hmm. Standing in the middle of Torchwood is usually hazardous to my health but I'm still standing. Might as well tempt fate a little more."
"Living on the edge," Jack chuckled.
"Always." The Doctor turned to look at his friend. "Anything else I should know about?"
"Not that I can think of. Thanks for coming."
The Doctor just smiled. "What are you going to do?"
Jack sighed. "I don't know. Whatever I'm looking for I'm not going to find it here. It's not even my century."
"Did you ever know what you were looking for?"
"When I joined Torchwood I did. I was looking for you, waiting for you to come back so I could kick your ass. Before that? I don't know. I might have done, once, before the Time Agency and their Great Brain Robbery. I just feel like there's something missing, sometimes it feels like there's part of me is missing, more important than my memories." Jack sighed and sat heavily on his desk.
"Well…..you can always search more of the universe when you have a ship capable of Time Travel."
"That your way of telling me to come home?"
"I'd never tell you what to do Jack, you have to make that decision on your own. I'm just telling you that you don't have to do everything on your own. Come on, why don't you show me what you've found and entertain me with what you think it is before I dazzle you with my endless knowledge?!" the Time Lord grinned.
"You're on."
XxXxX
Rose watched from the doorway as Jack tipped some metal fragments from a container onto the desk in front of the Doctor. Pulling out his glasses, the Time Lord threw his overcoat onto the table beside it and peered closely at the fragments.
"Where did you say you found this again?" He picked up a piece and looked at it so closely he almost went cross eyed, then he licked it.
What happened next had Rose pelting into the room.
The Doctor yelled out and launched into a coughing fit, his face turning purple with the effort.
"Doc?" Jack pulled him back into a chair and forced him to lean forward as the Doctor reached for a mug on the table.
He swilled the contents round in his mouth and spat it back into the mug. "Eugh," he rasped, "cold tea."
"What was that about?" Rose asked.
"That thing tasted disgusting." He made a face and wiped his tongue vigorously with the palm of his hand.
"Well that'll teach you to like things when you don't know what they are!" she giggled.
"Who said I don't know what it is?" He raised his eyebrow and gave her a crooked smile. "The question is Captain, where's the other one?"
"Other what?" Rose asked, looking down at the lumps of metal.
"The other glove. This was once a glove that could bring life but only for a short time unless the dead and the living were linked. It was sort of a prototype. The second glove worked better but before any real records could be made it disappeared with its twin. I'm guessing this is flotsam and jetsam?"
"Yup, fell through the rift a few years back. Ianto joked that gloves always came in pairs but I didn't think much of it…"
"Until?"
"Until I got a reading in the rift activity one day. The same kind of reading we got with this one."
"And you didn't go to collect it?"
"I think it's probably safer there than it is here. You'd never make it out of their alive to use it."
Rose and the Doctor looked at him, waiting for him to elaborate.
"It's in the middle of a Weevil den. Where did it come from Doc?"
Before the Doctor could answer the alarm sounded and everything went red.
The three ran from Jack's office to the walkway.
"Tosh? What's happening?" Jack yelled.
"Huge rift activity in the centre of the city. It's almost like it's opening again," she called, a hint of panic lacing her voice.
"But we didn't touch anything!" Owen yelled, running to look at the screens.
"It's nothing to do with you," the Doctor told Jack quietly, his eyes glazed as if trying to find something in the distance.
"So what do we do?" Jack looked at the Time Lord.
"Run!" he shouted propelling Jack and Rose forward as the walkway began to shake. "Out, out, out, out! Now!" he yelled flying passed everyone to the door and wrenching it open. "Run as fast as you can, get outside, this place might not hold."
"What about Myfanwy?" Gwen asked, looking up at the agitated Pterodactyl that was circling.
The Doctor growled and pointed his Sonic Screwdriver at the ceiling of the hub, tripping the mechanism, forcing the roof open. "Now go!"
XxXxX
As they reached the outside the ground steadied.
"What do you say Doc, one more adventure then back to the TARDIS?" Jack asked quietly as his team regrouped.
The Doctor grinned. "Why not."
"Why not what?" Rose asked, taking the Doctor's hand.
"One more mystery then back to the TARDIS," Jack told her. "All of us."
"You're coming home? Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Nope, but I stand a better chance of finding it with you guys. Plus, life's more fun on the TARDIS."
Rose grinned and threw her arms around his neck. "Welcome home."
"We're not there yet Rosie. We've still got Rift activity to investigate."
"Then let's get to it, Captain. Where first?" the Doctor announced as the rest of the group gathered together.
"Suv. We need the onboard computers to find out where we need to go. I couldn't get a fix before we ran," Tosh told them.
"Just as well we have two. There's no way we'd all fit," Ianto said, pulling the car keys from his pocket and passing them to Jack and Owen.
"Why…..?" Owen asked looking down at the key.
"Always be prepared." Ianto grinned.
"Well what are we standing around here for?" the Doctor asked. "Allon-sy!"
XxXxX
A/N: And that's it for this story. Keep an eye out for the next one, (sneak peek below) and fillers will be updated as soon as 42 has finished. Oh and for Ten/Rose fans yes he does get to see her in the new season in case no one had told you and there's a little smutty scene that has been nagging at me that I haven't included in this story but may post on it's own.
Best wishes to all, don't make yourselves sick!
Coming soon:
"What the hell is going on?" Gwen turned around as she walked through the darkened streets. "It's like something out of a movie."
"It's London," Owen said, incredulously. "I mean old London, Victorian London. What's it doing in the middle of Cardiff?"
"And more to the point how can they not see us?" Ianto asked, waving at passers-by and getting no response.
The Doctor stopped and turned on the spot, frowning at his surroundings, he didn't see the girl running towards him.
"Sorry," she mumbled, without looking up as she collided with the Time Lord, before running off.
"They're seeing him alright," Owen pointed out.
"Me too," Jack winked at some girls as he passed, earning some giggles of appreciation.
"So what's going on? I mean we've traveled in time before and the locals have always been able to see us," Rose looked up at the Doctor.
"But we haven't gone anywhere. We're still in 21st century Cardiff." He frowned and shook his head before walking over to one of the buildings and resting his ear against the wall.
"What can you hear?" Jack asked quietly.
"Nothing much. But we definitely haven't traveled in time, time has traveled to us. Something's gone wrong. A whole city shouldn't be able to travel through time. It doesn't make sense." The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair. "Think, think, think."
"Okay, well, how about an easier one? How can the locals see us but not the others?"
"We've been here before. We were alive when this happened in real time, we existed. Rose and the others didn't. They haven't even been born yet."
"Well neither have I. 51st century, remember?" Jack pointed out.
"No but you must've existed here at some point for a significant amount of time."
"I lived in Victorian London for a while. That's how I joined Torchwood. Does this mean I'm already here?"
"It's possible."
"Won't that create a paradox and bring in the reapers if he bumps into himself?" Rose asked, catching up with the conversation.
"Best not touch yourself if you meet him."
"No touching, right, gotcha," Jack nodded. "So we've got 19th century London in 21st century Cardiff, only two of us can be seen…"
A scream pierced through the sound of the hustle and bustle of the market.
"And a screaming woman," Owen finished.
"Ooo only taken three minutes, they obviously didn't know I was coming," the Doctor grumbled as the group began to jog towards the quickly gathering crowd.
"Rose stop!" the Doctor yelled. She was ahead of the rest of them and the Doctor suddenly felt a grip of panic as he saw the street sign. He grabbed her arm as she pushed her way through the crowd and pulled her short of the doorway. "You really don't want to look in there," he said gently, turning her to face him.
"What? Why?"
"Just trust me."
"What's going on?" Jack asked from beside him as the others battled their way to his side.
"This is Miller's Court, Dorset Street."
Jack blanched as he looked down at Rose and then at the door that stood ajar. "Stay here." Tentatively he moved to the doorway, indicating for the others to stay well back. It only took a momentary glance to see what the Doctor feared Rose would see.
"Has anyone gone to fetch the police?" Jack called.
"My Master has gone to do so, Sir," a young, pale lad told him.
Jack nodded and pulled the door closed behind him.
"There's nothing we can do here Doc, we can't change history."
"No, we just have to find a way of sending this place home, before anyone else stumbles in I don't want anyone else seeing that," the Doctor told him.
"Agreed."
"See what? What's going on?" Rose looking at her friends.
"Let's get out of here then I'll explain."
The Doctor led everyone back towards the main street. "Ah." He stopped in his tracks and wiped his hand down his face.
"What?" Gwen asked.
"Notice anything amiss?"
Owen looked around. "Only the absence of our SUVs."
"Exactly. They don't exist."
"What about the TARDIS?" Jack asked.
"If we can find it it'll be a miracle. Any idea where we are on a real map, a modern, Cardiff map?"
"Not a clue," Ianto told him apologetically.
"So we have no transport, no computers, no way of getting home and only you and Jack can see us. What do we do?" Tosh asked.
"We do this the old fashioned way. Brainpower and a Sonic Screwdriver." The Doctor turned to face them all. "I want you all to listen very carefully to every word I say. This place is dangerous. I don't want any one of you wandering off. The girls are never to be left without a man in the vicinity. Do you understand?"
Rose frowned at him. "What danger? We're in London. Sure it's a big, dark and dirty but what's with all the drama?"
"That bedsit we were at was where Mary Jane Kelly lived."
A/N: Thats ya lot. Please review as the snow is actually depressing me seeing as I'm at work instead of snuggled up at home. Until next time my friends!!