Part 1

The Doctor watched as they stepped out of the black SUV parked across the street from the small park where he'd agreed to meet them. He'd thought he was just meeting Jack and Martha, but there was another man with them. He searched his mind for a name, he'd definitely seen the man before but wasn't sure he'd been introduced. He worked with Jack, that's where he'd seen him; he'd been with Jack the day Harriet Jones had contacted him through the Subwave network.

He still wasn't sure why he'd called Jack instead of Martha. Sometime in the minutes it took to leave UNIT and arrive in Cardiff he'd decided to call Jack at Torchwood. He should've called Martha directly, it wasn't as if he didn't have the number, but he'd called and left a message that he wanted to meet with Jack. Of course Martha called him back. He'd pretended to not know she would be there and made arrangements to meet them both for lunch today.

He didn't have a plan, no idea what he was going to say or do. He had nothing beyond the vague idea that he needed to get Martha away from Torchwood –away from Jack. He still didn't even know why he needed to do that. She had chosen to leave him, to not travel with him anymore; she'd said she couldn't keep waiting for him. She was right, she needed her own life with someone that could love her and be what she wanted and needed. He couldn't do that; he couldn't live a normal human existence, because he wasn't human. And he didn't want that kind of life with Martha anyway, did he? He'd never let himself fall in love with a human before. Well, Rose, but that was different, and over; she was gone with his regeneration now, as it should be.

So if he didn't want that life with Martha, why was he here? Why not let her get on with her own life? Work at Torchwood Three and help Jack to make a difference? Again he felt that surge of…something…course through him. He couldn't quite identify it, but it was a feeling that seemed to be associated with his friends and their relationship to Jack quite often. They all looked at him like…it was just that they all did it and then he'd feel like this and that would make him angry and he'd do things that he knew were wrong, like leaving Jack behind on that satellite. It was wrong, and he knew that. Yeah, he knew that Jack had changed that day, Rose bringing him back had done something, but Jack was a good person and leaving him there was wrong. He hadn't cared at that moment. All that mattered that day was Rose looking at him and only him and not at Jack. So he'd left him. Rose didn't know he'd been alive and hadn't asked, so they'd left. There was a nagging voice in the back of his head telling him he knew exactly what that feeling was, exactly why he'd left Jack behind, exactly why he was here to try to take Martha away. But he was going to ignore that voice. He didn't get jealous, it was ridiculous.

***

Jack opened Martha's door and offered her his arm as Ianto came around the SUV to stand beside them. "Ready then?" he asked.

"Sure, I wish he'd just told us on the phone what he wanted," Martha answered as they started walking. "You said he'd never called you before…"

"No," Jack agreed. "And I still don't know why he did now. The only abnormal rift activity we found was what was obviously the TARDIS landing and refueling."

They'd been discussing little else since getting the Doctor's message that morning. Even when Martha called him back, he'd not said anything beyond wanting to see Jack for lunch and expressing surprise at Martha's being at Torchwood at all. A fact that caused both Jack and Martha to look guiltily at each other, neither of them had thought to call and let the Doctor know she was working there now. There had been so much going on with leaving UNIT and moving from Manhattan to Cardiff and of course, catching up on all the medical work that needed to be done since Owen's death several months earlier that it had slipped Martha's mind. She should've called him; he'd gotten her the job at UNIT the least she could've done was tell him she was leaving it. Now they were here for lunch. The Doctor had suggested this park because, while it did have a few small stands where they could pick up food, it was quiet enough for them to talk without interruption. He'd said it was important.

Jack smiled over Martha's head at Ianto who was walking on the other side of her. "Ianto, you didn't have to come you know." He still wasn't sure why Ianto had joined them. Jack knew he was curious about why the Doctor was here and wanted to see him, but they would've filled him in on the meeting just like they would fill in Gwen. Ianto obviously wasn't happy about the meeting, so Jack couldn't see a reason for him to insist on joining them.

"I want to meet the Doctor." Ianto repeated the words yet again. "He's important to both you and Martha and considering I'd be a Cyberman if it wasn't for him, I don't think it's so unusual that I'd want to meet him, do you?" Jack had asked the same question so many times since he'd said he wanted to join them that Ianto was even starting to believe his own lie. He didn't want to meet the Doctor. Sure, he wasn't a Cyberman because of the Doctor but at the same time Lisa was dead because the Doctor wasn't fast enough to stop them from killing many others. Ianto was here because he wanted to meet the man that Jack had left him for not once, but twice. The man Jack and spent over a hundred years waiting for.

Ianto generally wasn't the jealous type. Being with Jack had made it a bad idea to be jealous. Usually his behaviour didn't bother Ianto, Jack flirted with…well with everyone. It was something he had to accept. The only other options were to leave Jack or spend his life in a jealous rage. But the Doctor was different. Jack had loved this man enough to spend a hundred years waiting for him to return. He'd disappeared once because the Doctor had returned. He'd left them again just months ago to find him yet again. Now the Doctor was back and wanted to see Jack and that worried Ianto.

"Martha Jones!" The Doctor said, smiling as the group approached him. He pulled Martha away from Jack and into a hug. "It's fantastic to see you again. When I called Jack I had no idea you'd be here."

"What? I don't get a hug?" Jack said, grinning.

"Hello, Jack," the Doctor said as he released Martha and quickly hugged Jack as well.

"Doctor, do you know Ianto Jones?" Martha asked, pulling Ianto closer.

"I haven't had the pleasure. You work for Torchwood as well?"

"Yes," Ianto answered, extending a hand to the Doctor. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Jack watched the exchange with a frown. Ianto was obviously not pleased to see the Doctor. He'd go so far as to say that he'd rather the Doctor was nowhere near Cardiff, possibly this planet, at the moment.

"Doctor, you still haven't told us why you called."

He hadn't told him, mostly because he knew he couldn't say he was here and had called Jack because he wanted him to stay away from Martha. That Martha was his and Jack had no right to offer her a job. He couldn't say that because he did know enough about human women to know that Martha would not take any of that in the way he intended, and because Martha wasn't his. He had been too caught up in missing Rose for too long and had lost that chance long ago. "Oh, there's time for that after we eat," he replied. "Shall we find a table?"

Stalling until they were eating would at least give him a short while longer to come up with a valid reason for contacting Torchwood. He wondered if Jack would believe he just missed him and wanted to have lunch with an old friend. Probably not, seeing that Jack had been here for years and he'd never bothered before, and had even told Jack he'd wanted to stay away from him because he was wrong; he shouldn't exist.

They quickly picked up their food from the small stand and found a small table. As Jack began to slide into the seat next to the Doctor, Ianto said, "You should let Martha sit with the Doctor."

"Of course," Jack said, stepping back and letting Martha slide into the space as he moved over and slid in next to Ianto.

They all ate in silence for several minutes, everyone trying to find ways to accomplish the goals they had in mind when they agreed to attend this meeting. The Doctor still didn't have an acceptable explanation for calling Jack. Ianto was still trying to assure himself that the Doctor was not back for Jack and that Jack wasn't going to leave him again. Martha and Jack were busy trying to figure out why the doctor was in town, if he was at all angry over her career change, and how they could justify the fact that neither of them thought to call him.

Finally, the Doctor broke the silence. "Martha, did I understand correctly today you are working for Torchwood now, not just assisting but actually working with Jack?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "After we came back from…when you dropped us back here in Cardiff, Jack offered me a job. It's not that the job at UNIT wasn't wonderful - I owe you so much for getting me the job but it's all so impersonal and military and I really feel like I can do more good here."

"You just offered her a job out of the blue, then?" The Doctor asked, turning his attention to Jack.

"Out of the blue, no," Jack answered, "Martha's a wonderful doctor, you know that. She knows what's out there and understands what we do."

"Of course she is," the Doctor agreed immediately. Maybe he'd overreacted to finding out she was here. Maybe Jack had no ulterior motives.

"And it never hurts to surround yourself with beautiful women," Jack added grinning, "who kiss so wonderfully."

Ianto groaned, Jack was baiting the Doctor, he was sure of it; he wanted to get that jealous reaction from him. Jack still had a thing for him, just as Ianto had suspected. He had to do something about this, find a way to keep the Doctor away from Jack.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. When had Jack kissed Martha? Why had he kissed her? Didn't she have a fiancé? This just confirmed that he wasn't wrong; he needed to get Martha to come away with him again.

Martha's eyes widened in surprise at Jack's last statement. Coming from anyone other than Jack, she'd have been angry and offended. She'd have thought he was demeaning her work as a doctor. But Jack was being Jack, so she let it go. She didn't even know why the comment took her by surprise, but what shocked her even more was the anger on the Doctor's face and on Ianto's when he'd said it. If she didn't know better, she'd swear they were both jealous.

That didn't make sense though. To be jealous of Jack would mean the Doctor thought of her as more than a friend, and he didn't. Most of the time, he barely noticed she existed, so he certainly wasn't in love with her. And Ianto—why would he be jealous of her? Jack loved Ianto; he might not say it often but anyone could see it was true. Ianto knew Jack was teasing about the kiss; it was just one time over a year ago, a good-bye kiss, nothing more.

Jack watched all three of them, his grin fading. That comment certainly wasn't received the way he'd thought it would be. It was a joke. So why did everyone but Martha look as if they were going to kill someone—likely him—first chance they had?