TITLE: The Lost Children (6/6)
AUTHOR: Talepiece
RATING: 15 cert.
PAIRING: (not yet)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own them, I only borrow them for short periods.
SUMMARY: Something is attacking the Children Of Time.
CHARACTERS: Sarah Jane, Martha, Tegan, Jack and others.
CREDIT: Long and Lovecraft for the use of the creatures.
CONTINUITY: Post-Journey's End, pre-End Of Time. References numerous classic and new Who stories as well as my Not In Chronological Order story.

NOTE: There will be fics dealing with some of the off-Earth companions and there will be more stories following on from this one.

Jack was scrunched up over a laptop at a table in the middle of the little room. It was somewhere between a mess and a locker room; a rec room for UNIT personnel who found themselves on-base unexpectedly. There was just one other person in there. Each of them had a UNIT handler, there to ensure that no-one was left alone. The young soldier looked bored rigid, though he was trying to entertain himself with a magazine. He was slumped in the far corner of the sofa that sat in the far corner of the room, trying to look inconspicuous and succeeding remarkably well. There could have been a dozen people in there with Jack, though, or no-one at all; he wouldn't have noticed. He didn't notice when Sarah Jane came in, waving her own handler away at the door and nodding her greeting to the young man. She studied Jack's hunched back for a while, listening to his muttered curses. He was cocky and brash; he liked big guns and big gadgets; he was sexual in a way that she'd only ever witnessed once before. That thought made her smile. She'd loved it in River but, in anyone else, she generally disliked it. In Jack? He was just Jack and you couldn't get away from that.

'You OK?' he said.

Sarah Jane started, her head coming up to find him looking at her, a grin on his face but understanding in his eyes. Sarah Jane felt that she shouldn't like this man - but she did. She nodded slowly, lifting a hand to rub at the back of her aching neck. Bambera had refused to let any of them off-base overnight so she'd spent the time failing to sleep. Two nights of worry and exhaustion and she was ready to drop. Maybe she was getting too old for all this?

'Here,' Jack said, standing from the table, 'let me help you with that.'

He raised his hands, pointing to her neck and Sarah Jane realised what he was offering. 'Oh no, thank you very much,' she skipped out of his reach, 'I've heard stories about Captain Jack Harkness.'

His grin stretched wider, 'And they're all true. Seriously, come here, let me help you.'

'No. Thank you,' she added, 'but I'm just fine.'

'Really? The bunks in this place are criminal,' he said with feeling, 'I gave up trying to sleep before midnight.' He sat back down again and glanced at the laptop. A video was paused in a small window, the fuzzy image held on the device that Liz Shaw had theorised and UNIT had built. Jack indicated the screen, 'They've been testing that thing Doctor Shaw designed.'

'And?' Sarah Jane came closer, curiosity outweighing any other concerns. She stood behind his chair, leaning over his shoulder but careful not to touch him.

Jack grinned but didn't turn to her, 'I don't bite, you know.'

'That's not what Mr Jones says,' Sarah Jane whispered in his ear.

Jack barked out a laugh, 'You been talking to my boyfriend?'

'Back to business, please.'

She reached around him to hit play. There was a small, sealed room at the centre of a larger research lab. In the middle of the airtight cubicle stood a pedestal, on top of that was a black box with a keypad set in to one side. It didn't look like much but these things rarely did. Sarah Jane had seen some truly remarkable devices that she would have thrown away without a second thought. And she'd seen some gorgeous, flashy devices that were utterly useless. The proof was in the eating or, in this case, in the blue smoke that was being pulled out of the corners of the cubicle. Out of all of the corners at once. There was a hasty conversation, slightly panicked, from somewhere off camera and then the device suddenly deactivated. A remote kill switch, Sarah Jane supposed, as the blue smoke ebbed away. It had been an impressive demonstration even so.

'So it works then?'

'Oh yeah,' Jack leaned back in his chair and tilted his head to Sarah Jane, 'It works exactly as described. Only one problem - how do we kill the things once they're here?'

'No-one ever asks if we should kill them,' Sarah Jane said. She moved away from the table, off towards the coffee machine that sat on another table in the far corner of the room.

Jack watched her go, 'You'd rather be decapitated and drained dry? Cuz I've tried that and it ain't much fun, believe me.'

'No, of course not.' Sarah Jane poured her coffee, forgoing the milk after a tentative sniff at the long-opened carton. She stirred in the half a spoon of sugar that she allowed herself on bad days and considered what she really did mean. She'd spent a long time protecting Earth from all sorts of threats but she always did her best not to kill. Though the little critters she and Luke had been dealing with two nights before had stretched her patience and her diplomatic skills to their limits. Still, it was a big universe and almost all creatures could find a home somewhere. She'd negotiated plenty of mutually beneficial arrangements - and she'd met one or two races that just couldn't be reasoned with. She'd never deliberately hurt anyone or anything. But she would protect her own and herself. 'No,' she said on a sigh, 'No. I just wish there was another way.'

'Sometimes there just isn't,' Jack's tone was suddenly hard, 'Sometimes you have to kill or be killed.'

'Yes, I know that Jack.'

There was a long silence. Sarah Jane sipped at her coffee absently. Jack returned his attention to the screen, playing through some more of the tests. They'd gone through dozens of possible ways to neutralise the Tindalos. Nothing had worked. There was one video with screaming alarms and flashing lights that ended with the lab begin evacuated and locked down. The Tindalos had simple drifted away again once the device was deactivated and they were left alone. There was no great intelligence there as far as Jack could tell, just raw hatred wrapped up in something old and elemental. Terrifying, deadly and not to be reasoned with. There was only one option, whatever Sarah Jane said.

'Have you called your son yet?' Sarah Jane blinked at him for a moment, then shook her head. 'You think you should?' Jack continued, pointing to the telephone that sat close to the coffee machine, 'He'll be worried about you.'

'Yes. Yes, of course,' Sarah Jane's brain finally caught up with her. 'Do you mind?' she added, already turning to the phone.

'Go ahead. Say hi from me.'

'He's not sixteen yet, Jack,' she warned.

'Jeez, what sort of a person do you guys think I am?'

'Do you really want me to answer that?' Sarah Jane said, though her focus was on the phone as she finished entering Luke's number. She waited, a smile lighting her face when the ringing ended with a, 'Mum? Are you OK?'

Jack watched her as she spoke to the boy. He didn't want to listen in but he couldn't stop himself from studying the emotions that played across Sarah Jane's face. Mostly love and fear and relief. He felt a wave of sadness wash away his smile and had to look away, marshalling his own emotions before looking up again to find Sarah Jane studying him. She looked surprised but it was quickly replaced by understanding. Jack gave a faint shrug and returned to the laptop. Sarah Jane's conversation didn't last much longer and she dropped the handset in to its cradle with a sigh.

'The boy OK?'

'Luke's fine, thank you. He spent the night with Clyde and his mum. He had Coco-Pops for breakfast. Kids,' Sarah Jane rolled her eyes.

'No blue smoke? No voices?'

'Nothing.' She dropped in to the seat opposite Jack and slumped back, crossing her arms over her chest and closing her eyes. 'He's such a,' she stopped and tried again, 'I couldn't live without him, Jack.'

'You won't have to.'

'You live without someone, don't you?'

'Hey, when you've been around for as long as I have, you live without a lot of people.' Jack's head tilted back, eyes on the cracked ceiling tiles above him. He said, 'I have a daughter. And a grandson. I don't see them; tough to explain to a little kid why Grandad's looked the same for a few hundred years.'

'Would you like to see them?'

'I keep an eye on them.'

'It's not the same, Jack,' Sarah Jane leaned forward again, pulling Jack to her with the intensity of her gaze, 'When this is over, go and visit your daughter. Talk to her. Play with the boy. Be a grandad, Jack, just for a few hours.'

Jack hesitated. The thought made him smile; god but he'd love to do that. See Melissa, play with Steven - be a grandpa. He lowered his eyes and met Sarah Jane's intent stare. Maybe she was right, maybe he would. When this was all over. He glanced around the room, checking the corners despite the presence of his handler. He checked outside the room too, where the woman assigned to Sarah Jane was chatting with a tech in a white coat. The corners again...one last time...just to be sure.

'This stuff's starting to freak me out,' Jack said.

'It would certainly be nice to have it resolved.'

Jack's gaze returned to her face, 'You know how this is going to pan out, don't you?'

Sarah Jane was not going to like this. Martha gave another heavy sigh. No, she was not going to like this one bit. Martha wasn't very happy about it either but, god forgive her, it looked like the only answer. She stared in through the glass of Donna's room. She was still unconscious but there didn't appear to be any long-term damage; she was just sleeping. Her mother was in there along with Mr Mott. There had been no way to keep the two of them away from her without having them locked up. The room also held a nurse and a highly-trained special operative in a nurse's uniform. What Bambera thought the man could do if these Tindalos attacked baffled Martha. Though she had considered the possibility that the General had met Mrs Noble and the operative was in there to protect UNIT from her.

Tegan was in there too, chatting away in that light Aussie accent, making them all smile despite their fears. She was a different woman from the one Martha had sedated earlier. The thing that Jack had said, Martha realised, the thing about the Mara. Something had clicked in Tegan's head and now she was back to being the sort of person that the Doctor would want to travel with. Amazing what a few words could do; heal a whole person. Maybe she'd be nicer to Jack for that. Or maybe not.

Tegan patted Mr Mott's arm, smiling encouragingly to Mrs Noble as she left the room. Different, yes, but there was still a core of fear in her.

'Are you all right?' Martha said.

Tegan sighed, rubbing her hand over her face, 'Those poor people. After everything they've been through - now this.'

Martha nodded but tried again, 'Yes, but are you all right?'

'Apart from the crazed time-traveller-decapitating creatures, you mean?'

Martha smiled, 'Apart from them, yeah.'

Tegan shrugged, 'Do you know any of the others? What about the ones who didn't end up on Earth now?'

So that was it, Martha felt her smile drop away again. 'Not really,' she said. She thought about the report that had just come through from the historical research team. At least two accounts of strange beheadings that sounded suspiciously like the Tindalos. One was a Jacobean rebel; his clan had blamed the English. Torchwood were trying to get hold of an off-world contact to see if they could pick up on any intergalactic gossip. There was Jo Jones, proving as difficult to trace as ever; off on some mad expedition with her husband. Sarah Jane was worried about someone too, though she was refusing to say anything about it. There was Jenny, the Doctor's daughter. And there was Rose. Time and space didn't seem to be a problem for these things, what about boundaries between universes? 'Though I do know of a few,' Martha said thoughtfully.

There was a long pause and Martha thought that Tegan might talk about her own concerns. Instead, Tegan said, 'Bambera's going to use her, isn't she?'

Martha didn't answer, her eyes only leaving Donna's sleeping face when the nurse moved around the hospital bed and blocked Martha's view. She looked up to find Tegan watching her intently. She waited for another question but it didn't come. Whatever Tegan had been looking for, apparently she'd found it in Martha's expression. And, really, hadn't it been a forgone conclusion? Bambera had seen a quick, simple - to her mind - solution and she'd taken it. With Donna and her "defensive capabilities" and the device that Doctor Shaw had sketched out in her notes.

'Martha?' Jack's voice came from behind them.

They turned to see Jack marching towards them, Sarah Jane beyond him, jogging to keep up with his longer strides. Her jaw was set so hard that Martha was amazed she hadn't dislocated it. No, Sarah Jane Smith was not liking this at all

It was a nuclear bunker. There was no other way to describe it. Martha had had as much medical equipment moved in as she could but it still looked like a hospital bed in a block of cement. The walls were cement grey, the ceiling was the same. It was cold but oppressive and Martha couldn't help but shiver. She'd done some terrible things in her time - well, in the past few years - but this was probably going to be the worst thing ever. Even turning the Osterhagen Key seemed preferable. She was getting out, Martha decided then and there. She was calling it quits. Maybe she'd go back to medicine? Or there was always Jack's offer. Though that would be just as bad, if not worse, than this lot. No, no she wouldn't do any of that; she'd go freelance. There were plenty of things she could do that no-one else would be willing or able to do. Like this, for example.

Despite her fury, Sarah Jane had insisted on being with Donna until the last moment. Tegan and Jack too. Sir Alistair had declined to make the long walk down to the bunker itself but he was up on the surface, trying to keep General Bambera out of Sarah Jane's way. There were also a couple of nurses, some armed soldiers and the techs who had just finished setting up what had come to be known as the Shaw Device. They were all waiting for Martha now. Waiting for her to wake Donna up. The poor woman was going to be terrified. Waking up in a nuclear bunker - and she was the nuke.

'OK,' Martha said, clearing her throat and repeating the word before continuing, 'Time for you all to get to the surface. Now,' she said in a firmer tone. The UNIT personnel obeyed her orders without question. Even Tegan and Sarah Jane made for the door but Jack stood his ground. Martha glared at him, 'Jack,' she said in a warning tone.

'I can survive what happens next, if I have to,' he acknowledged Martha's doubtful look, 'but you most certainly cannot. I stay. You do what you have to do. I wait to be sure Donna's OK, set the device, then I follow you out. That's the way it's gonna be, Martha Jones. Don't question me on this.'

She would have quite happily left him to do all of it. She said, 'OK, fine. But you two,' indicating Tegan and Sarah Jane, both lingering at the bunker's reinforced door, 'go now. We won't be long.'

Sarah Jane stared at Donna for a long time. Eventually Tegan grabbed at her arm and pulled them both out of the room. Martha watched them go, her eyes not leaving the space they had filled until Jack said, 'Martha? We have to do this.'

'Do we?' she hissed. But she got to work, bustling around Donna's bed, checking readings, taking her pulse yet again. Doing anything to put off the moment. But the moment came to them. Martha felt Jack closing up behind her, 'Jack?'

He leaned over her shoulder and whispered, 'Blue smoke. Far corner.'

And the Shaw thing wasn't even on yet. Martha closed her eyes, taking a slow breath. She eased the needle into Donna's arm, withdrawing it as carefully as she could. They waited, Martha's eyes on the readings flashing beside Donna's bed. Jack glanced around them, watching the blue smoke as it hissed and oozed from the walls. They didn't have a lot of time. No, Martha didn't have a lot of time. He looked down at her, saw her eyes close, one tear escape from her dark lashes. He reached out with a gentle hand and wiped the tear away. The contact made her jump and she opened her eyes to look directly into his concerned gaze.

'Martha Jones,' he said,'the woman who saved the whole human race. You have to go now.'

He took her by the shoulders and manoeuvred her towards the bunker door. Half way there, he gave her a gentle shove and turned away. He ran back to the device, tapped at the keypad set in to its side and held his breath for a moment. The lights began to blink and the breath escaped him in a rush. He really didn't want any of them to have to go through this a second time. Least of all Donna. The thought had him looking up to see the redhead's eyes fluttering open. He glanced back to the door to see Martha still there, her own gaze shifting to the hospital bed. She took a few steps towards it and he called out, 'Martha, no! Get out of here.'

Jack jogged back to Donna's side. He forced a smile to his face and patted Donna's arm. She was still groggy but she was coming to rapidly. Rapidly enough to realise that her wrists were cuffed to the bed. She tucked at the bonds, her eyes darting around her. Fear blossomed on her face and Jack felt his heart break. He patted her arm again, leaning over her to whisper in to her ear. She stilled for a moment, expression suddenly bewildered before the fear was back and she jerked her arms wildly.

'I'm so sorry, Donna Noble,' Jack said.

He forced himself to turn away from her now, relieved to see that Martha had finally gone. He glanced back, seeing the corner of the room now filled with blue smoke. More of it rushed in. He looked around the rest of the bunker and saw smoke gushing from all of the corners. It was being pulled towards the device, sucked in to the room and swirling around. Donna followed his gaze and her eyes widened even more. She swallowed visibly, here eyes darting from the smoke to Jack and back again. He cast her one last look, so sad that she stilled again but only for a moment.

'Hey! Here, you! Come back,' she begged as Jack turned and headed for the door. He was almost there when she shouted, 'Oi, Spaceman!'

Jack stopped, his head dropping to his chest. He waited but she said no more. The sounds of her frantic movements had stilled too; she was no-longer fighting her bonds. God but he hoped she didn't need to use her hands to do whatever the hell it was she was going to do. Hopefully going to do, he corrected himself. Please god - please Doctor - let her survive this. He couldn't bring himself to look back and he hated himself even more for it. But he forced his legs to move under him, carrying him the last few paces to the bunker's inner door. He swung himself around it, heaving the foot-thick metal closed behind him. He heard Donna say something but wouldn't allow himself to comprehend the words. Then the door was closing with a heavy thud and he was spinning the lock furiously. The lock caught and sealed and he turned on his heels. To find Martha standing behind him.

'Godammit, Martha Jones, do you ever do what you're told?'

He grabbed for her arm and jerked her body around. There was a long corridor, rising in a sharp incline, at the top of which was an elevator to take them the last few hundred feet. It was a good five minutes run back to that, plus the time to get up to the surface, and Bambera had made it very clear that the outer doors would be locked and airtight at the first hint of trouble. They were long past the first hint of anything. Jack knew he could survive whatever Donna was about to throw at the Tindalos. It wouldn't be much fun but he could survive it. But Martha? If Donna's defensive reaction was proportionate to the threat - all of the Tindalos in one go? She could take the whole facility out.

That's assuming this works, a nasty little voice whispered in Jack's mind. He swatted the thought away and yanked Martha forward. He only had to pull her along for a few feet before she seemed to come back to herself and was moving under her own power. They ran side-by-side up the corridor, legs pumping as they increased their speed. Jack glance at her, not able to hide the wild thrill that was coursing through him. Martha had the same look in her eyes, though her face was still set in devastation. Jack reached out and grabbed for her hand again. He didn't know why and he didn't care; it just felt good to be holding on to another living, breathing human being. When you were running for your life, leaving god alone knew what behind you, it was that sort of thing that became important.

The ground lurched beneath them and they both stumbled. Their hands parted as they bounced off the walls and were thrown back together again. Jack looked up. The elevator entrance was another twenty feet away. Could they make it? Jack threw his arm around Martha's shoulder and huddled them forward. He wanted to force them on, drag them both towards the elevator but it was just too far. His larger body shielded Martha as a wave of heat hit them from behind. It burned at his back, fiery even through the heavy material of his great coat. Martha hissed in pain, stumbling again. Jack wrapped his body around her and pushed them both to the floor. Blinding light erupted from the bunker door below them and flooded the corridor. Jack cried out, burying his head in Martha's neck. He did his best to protect the smaller form, pressing Martha's face to the cold floor, trying to cover her entire body. And then things got worse.

Sarah Jane Smith, Martha Jones and Tegan Jovanka sat side-by-side on the park bench. Martha's arm was still in plaster. Her burned hair was growing back in frizzy patches. She refused to wear a wig despite her mother's pleas. She looked like the level of hell that Dante forgot and Sarah Jane suspected that was exactly how she felt. Not just physically, either; they all felt the weight of what they had been party to. Sarah Jane leaned back and looked across Martha's shoulders to catch Tegan's gaze. They shared concerned glances but said nothing. The three of them had sat on this bench in this park every day since Martha had been discharged from the UNIT Medical Wing but they never seemed to finish the conversations that they had begun on the first day.

'So you just quit?' Tegan said, trying to start the conversation yet again.

'Yes,' Martha said.

'What did General Bambera,' disgust dripped from Sarah Jane's lips, 'think about that?'

Martha answered after a long pause, saying, 'I think she was relieved. Not big on civilians.'

'So what now then?' Tegan asked.

'Back to medicine?' Sarah Jane said hopefully.

Another long pause. Tegan watched the mothers and children playing at the little climbing frame off to her right. She smiled at them; it was nice to see kids again. Nice to see all sorts of people. She took a deep breath and felt freedom fill her lungs. She could have done without the long list of dead and the short list of injured but she was pleased to have helped to save people again. And she was pleased to have survived - not just this but the last twelve years. The last fifty years. She could do anything she wanted now. Sarah Jane had been kind to her, letting her stay at Bannerman Road with her and Luke, a part of her extended family, but she needed to find something for herself now.

Eventually Martha said, 'No.'

Tegan had to backtrack to work out what Martha was saying no to, 'What then?'

'You're not joining Torchwood, surely?' Sarah Jane said.

Martha ignored the appalled tone and just shook her head. Another long pause, then, 'I'm going freelance.'

'Freelance?' Tegan said. She looked across to Sarah Jane again and received a shrug of confusion in answer to her own raised brow. 'You mean like,' Tegan waved her hands around vaguely, 'like... Like the Doctor?' Martha and Sarah Jane stared at her. She really hated being stared at like that; she'd had it for twelve years, that was enough. 'Don't look at me like that,' her voice dropped, 'You know what I mean.'

'More like you,' Martha said to Sarah Jane.

'Me?'

'Yeah, you know, dealing with stuff when it comes up. Helping people when you can. Doing stuff that no-one else can do. Will do' she added with a trace of bitterness in her tone.

They sat in silence again. Watching the people go by. Sarah Jane nodded a greeting to an elderly couple who went past hand-in-hand. She felt a stab of pain, a flash of memory; walking hand-in-hand with River, wondering what it would be like to grow old with the woman, to walk hand-in-hand with her forever. She shook the thought away and wilfully ignored the glances that her sudden movement earned her. She liked Martha. She was a good person who had survived what seemed to have been a tough year with the Doctor. Tougher than anything Sarah Jane had dealt with. If the vague hints that Jack had given her were anything to go by, Martha was even stronger than she seemed. Though, at the moment, she didn't seem that strong at all. She looked deflated. Not just the injuries and the hair but her whole being seemed to have sunk in on itself. Perhaps she was finally paying for her time with the Doctor?

'Are you sure?' Sarah Jane said. Martha nodded but said nothing. 'Well, then, perhaps we might work together?'

The question surprised Martha almost as much as it surprised Sarah Jane. Together? She'd never worked with anyone. Not even River really. And there was Luke and Clyde and Rani to worry about now too. But... It would be nice to share all this with someone. It would be nice to have someone above the age of majority to unburden to, to share the workload and the woes. And there was always more work than she could handle. She'd begun to think about leaving the newspaper to focus on all the weirdness that Earth seemed to be attracting at the moment. That she seemed to be attracting.

Martha turned to her, studying her closely She saw the emotions cross Sarah Jane's eyes before a smile broke out on the older woman's face. Martha found herself smiling in return. Yeah, she'd like that. Sarah Jane knew what she was doing, she was already doing it. Her cover with the newspaper would help too. Could this work? Did she want to work with anyone else? That was the thing. Martha liked the idea of going solo; she'd had enough of following orders that she didn't agree with and doing other people's dirty work. She'd done far too much of other people's dirty work in the past few years. But... This was Sarah Jane Smith, not UNIT or Torchwood. Sarah Jane Smith. No guns, three kids, job at the 'paper. Twenty-odd years of saving Earth without any credit and without asking for anything in return. Martha turned away from Sarah Jane before looking back again. She realised she was already nodding her agreement so maybe the decision wasn't so difficult after all.

Tegan watched the silent communication, following it easily; you got good at picking up on that sort of thing when you lived in a place like the Keeley. She felt her own lips twitch in to a smile and the words were out before she'd really considered them, 'You'll be needing a secretary. Can't do 100 words a minute like Donna but I reckon I could bang out a letter. They still have typewriters, do they?' she added with a smirk.

The three of them were laughing again, propping each other up as they pitched and rolled on the park bench. It wasn't mirthless this time, it was warm and genuine. The laughter was finally running down when someone walked up to the bench.

'Did I miss something?' Jack's tone was playful, 'Discussing a threesome? Need a fourth?'

'You're a filthy old bugger, aren't you Cap'n Jack?' Tegan said.

'As often as I can be,' he said as he sat down. Jack looked from one woman to the next and quirked a brow in question. They looked at him and began to laugh again. 'Jeez,' he muttered, 'what have you three been drinking?'

They calmed down again and the four of them sat in silence, squashed up on the bench, shoulders pressed close as they looked around the park. Some of the kids had been taken home by their mothers, Tegan noticed with regret. Sarah Jane smiled at a lone woman with drooping shoulders who was carrying two shopping bags in each hand. Martha and Jack reached across Tegan to clasp hands for a moment before going back to staring out at the park. Then something caught their attentions, all of them sitting up as straight as they could in the little space available. Their heads followed the path of an old man pushing a wheelchair. The woman in the chair was younger than him but she was slumped down and her head lolled slightly as the man laboured to get them both up the slight incline. He was chatting away, telling her something that made him laugh but barely altered her expression.

'I got hold of her med records,' Jack said, 'She's doing OK. Everything's intact; no physical injuries, no brain damage. It's just,' he trailed off.

'She's still healing,' Tegan said, 'That can take a while.'

'You think -' Martha began but couldn't finish.

Sarah Jane said 'I think the Doctor wouldn't do anything to her that could harm her in the long-term.'

'It wasn't the Doctor who did this to her,' Martha pointed out.

'She'll be OK,' Jack said, 'She's getting good care and her family are with her. She'll be OK.'

He looked across the bench, studying each of the three women in turn. Oh how he'd like to hire the lot of them. But he'd caught a bit of their conversation as he loitered behind the bench. The three of them - working together. That would put the fear of heck up lot of the aliens who thought Earth was an easy mark. UNIT, Torchwood or these three? He knew which team he'd put his money on.