Shades of Blue

A Doctor Who Fic

By Tenshi-Chan

Prologue

Note: This is a companion fic to my "Shades of Grey"

It was working. The Doctor couldn't believe it even though he knew that it was possible. The Cybermen and Daleks were all being sucked into the void like so much dust into a vacuum cleaner. He grinned over at Rose, who beamed right back at him. Oh he had been upset at her sacrifice, but he had to admit that he was pleased to know that he'd have her as a companion for a while longer.

Then the unthinkable happened. Something flying through the air hit one of the switches, turning the device off. Daleks were still flying through, but so much slower. It was only a matter of time before it was off altogether and then all of his efforts would have been in vain.

His hearts both stopped when Rose let go of her magnetic clamp to grab onto the switch. There was no way she could get as firm a hold as she'd had on the clamp just seconds before. He urged her to hold on when she switched the device on again. It wouldn't be for long ... a minute, maybe two at the most. She could hold on for that long, surely. He wanted to scream in agony as her grip slowly slipped, and he pretty much knew that she was going to get sucked in. He kept trying to reach her to no avail and he had to watch as her tentative grip finally gave way.

That's when something he never expected happened. A hand grabbed Rose and pulled her to the clamp with obvious effort. The Doctor gave the stranger, a young man who looked as if he were in great pain, a look filled with immense gratitude. They all looked when Pete Tyler appeared for just a second and nodded his thanks to the Doctor before vanishing again. Not ten seconds later, the doorways between realities closed and sealed and the Doctor let go of his clamp. He opened his arms and hugged Rose tightly as the young woman ran to him with a sob. "I almost lost you."

"Never ever, Doctor! Luck was on our side today. As it always seems to be the case." She sniffled and turned to the young man who was holding his arm and grimacing.

"Oh dear! Are you all right?" The Doctor walked over to him and smiled as he held out a hand in hopes of helping.

"I don't think it's broken, just a bit banged up. Something hit me on my way up here." He submitted himself to the Doctor's examination with an air of dignity that was quite uncanny. "Well?"

The Doctor ran his sonic screwdriver over the young man's arm. "I'd say take it easy with that arm, and you should be right as rain in a few days. Now! Who are you and what are you doing here? Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but I do think it rather odd that you would be going towards danger when any sane individual would be running from here as fast as possible."

The young man tilted his head with a sad look. "With all due respect, Sir, I doubt running would have done me any good whatsoever."

The Doctor saw it. A hint of knowledge in those young eyes. "Why DID you come here? You could have hidden anywhere in the building, so why here?" When the young man glanced at Rose, the Doctor knew and swallowed. "What? How?"

Rose spoke up. "Doctor? What's wrong?"

The Doctor pointed at the young man. "I think you were supposed to be sucked into the void, only to be stopped by Pete. And I think this young man knew what was about to happen and stopped it from happening and I want to know how. The why would also be appreciated."

The young man sat in a nearby chair and looked up. "The how ... I touched your blue box and it showed me about two years of possibilities. The why ... I'd have to show you."

That was unexpected, as was the sudden pain in the young man's eyes. "Well ... let's see about you showing me this." He stepped forward and placed his hands on the young man's face, sprawling his fingers for the optimum telepathic connection. "All right ... what is it you want to show me?"

Then it was there. A wave of love and grief and loss. All wrapped up in the image of a very familiar face.

The Doctor sprang back and stared at Ianto Jones in shock, the link had given him the young man's name.

Ianto gazed back bleakly. "He's been alone so long and lost so much. Please. I'm not asking you to stop them from coming, but what kind of existance is that for anyone?"

"And you would submit yourself to that kind of existance?"

Ianto gave him a ghost of a smile. "It would be hard, but at least he won't be alone anymore. Please? There are other things I can show you. No one deserves to be the only one of their kind."

The Doctor started pacing. "No ... no I can't. The first time was an accident, nearly a fatal one. Well, in some cases, it was a fatal one." He turned to the young man. The way he had said that no one deserved to be the only one of their kind had struck something in him. He had an odd feeling that Ianto didn't mean Jack. "What do you mean ... other things you can show me?"

Rose cleared her throat. "Doctor? What are you talking about? What's going on?"

Ianto's eyes flicked over to her and the Doctor could swear he could see the anger and resentment he had for the young woman for the briefest of instant before his eyes turned back to the Doctor. "Help me and I'll tell you."

The Doctor sat down to regard Ianto Jones. If he was telling the truth, and Ianto had no reason to lie, then the young man had information to give him that he would find valuable. All he wanted in return was to become an impossible thing. Something that had been accomplished, but only at the cost of the Doctor's previous regeneration. Not that he was too upset about it. He rather liked this current body.

With a sigh, the Doctor stood. "Come on. It's really not up to me. You say the TARDIS showed you this?" When Ianto nodded, the Doctor shrugged. "Then it's up to her. If it's what she wants, she'll help you."

Ianto followed them back to where the TARDIS was. The blue box practically hummed when the Doctor unlocked her. The warmth of familiar welcome washed over him when he walked in.

Ianto made a little sound. "Looks like the intel that was gathered was correct." He motioned to the control room. "How does it work?"

"Hm? Oh! Dimensionally trascendental. The outside is just a doorway. Same as any other entrance, really. The door doesn't alter the size of the interior." The Doctor stroked the console and spoke with the ship. He didn't want to make another immortal being. No one deserved that fate. After a moment, he sighed and looked sadly at Ianto. "I'm sorry. She says she's already done everything she can."

Rose sighed impatiently. "Doctor?"

Ianto glanced at Rose and then raised an eyebrow at the Doctor and it was clear he believed that she should know just how much her desire to save him had affected another of her friends.

The Doctor looked down before turning his attention to Rose. "I'm so sorry, but you're right. You deserve to know." He motioned for her to sit down, which she did. He stuck his hands in his pockets and started to pace while talking. "How much do you remember about what happened when you came back to Satellite 5?"

Rose frowned and shook her head. "I remember ... wanting the Daleks gone ... wanting you safe ... knowing that Jack was dead and wanting him to not be dead. Other than that, all I remember is a splitting head ache."

The Doctor nodded and motioned vaguely with his hand, the little niggling guilt he felt when remembering that time coming to the forefront. "Yeah, well ... about that. You managed to destroy the Daleks. You turned them all to dust. I told you that bit. Then you brought Jack back to life." He looked at Ianto before looking back at Rose. "The power in you was too strong, though. You didn't have proper control over it."

Rose's eyes widened before looking to Ianto and then back to the Doctor. "Oh my God! What did I do?" She stood up. "Tell me what I did!"

The Doctor tried to find the words that would Make it sound better.

Ianto answered in his stead. "He can't die ... ever." He was obviously upset on Jack's behalf. "Actually, that's not really true. He can die ... he just doesn't stay that way." He let out a breath. "I was shown, by the TARDIS, how I'm going to die. I'm not sorry about the how ... just that he'll be alone again. I can't imagine what losing loved ones time and time again with absolutely no hope of it ever ending would do to a person."

Rose's eyes were filled with tears. "Oh god! I didn't want that for him. I just didn't want him to die. I didn't mean to do that to him." She turned to the Doctor. "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy and Jack's a friend! More than that! He was almost like the older brother I've always wanted!" Her horror turned to anger. "You knew, didn't you?" She shoved his shoulders, causing him to stumble a little. "You knew and you just LEFT him there?"

The Doctor held up his hands. "Now ... to be fair, I WAS regenerating at the time and I wasn't thinking straight!"

Ianto, thankfully, interceded before Rose could shove the Doctor again. "It was for the best. If he hadn't been left behind, he would never have used his Vortex Manipulator to try and travel to the 21st century, miss horribly, get shanghaied into Torchwood, become leader of Torchwood Cardiff ..."

The Doctor sputtered a moment in shock. "Jack is WORKING with Torchwood? An institution based solely for the purpose of capturing and/or killing me?"

Ianto snorted before shaking his head. "He hates Torchwood 1 with a passion and was secretly pleased when it was destroyed. He rebuilt it in Cardiff with a handful of very good people." He chuckled. "One of which I think you've already met. When dealing with the Slitheen the first time? You spoke to an asian doctor?"

The Doctor thought and nodded, one of the best memories of those couple of days were of speaking with a surprisingly intelligent young woman. "Nice young lady, too. Wait a second ... she was Torchwood?"

Ianto nodded. "Her name is Toshiko Sato. Jack recruited her from a UNIT prison where she had been incarcerated for building a sonic device that wasn't supposed to work. Had he not gotten drunk, you would have met a very different person altogether. A rather snarky fellow by the name of Owen Harper." He looked nostaglic for a moment. Apparantly thinking about dear friends he had yet to meet.

The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows as something occurred to him. "Wait a tick ... that means ... Jack was in Cardiff at the time we were running around after Margaret?"

Ianto chuckled and inclined his head. "You were actually right on top of Torchwood at the time. The Hub is located in Raold Dahl Plass right under the Fountain. From what the memories showed me, Jack had put the Hub in lock down to prevent anyone from running into his earlier incarnation."

The Doctor was flabbergasted. "That shows ... remarkable restraint on his part."

Ianto shrugged. "Time Agent. If nothing else, he knows he can't cross his own timeline ... as tempting as it was."

Rose nodded. "If he had stopped us, it would have meant stopping what happened on Satellite-5 ... creating a paradox."

Ianto sighed and looked at his surroundings in obvious regret. "I should go and see if my ex-girlfriend survived so we can go have a cup of coffee before I visit with my sister for a few days. After that, I have to meet Jack in the park for the first time."

Rose blinked and shook her head. "But ... you'll die. Wouldn't it make more sense to stay safe?"

Ianto smiled at Rose before responding. "And miss out on being with Jack? Never. You remember him as he was when he was mortal. The Jack I meet guards his heart, but loves fiercely when he lets those guards down ... even if he never speaks the words." He headed for the door, and paused. He turned back to the Doctor. "When the time comes, Lucy has a gun. Don't turn your back on her." He smirked at the Doctor's puzzled expression and headed back to the door.

Rose watched the doors close behind Ianto Jones and spun on the Doctor. She loved him, she really did, but she was furious with him. "You left Jack behind! How could you do that?" She shook her head. "Was Sarah Jane right? You get tired of us, and then just ditch us at the most convenient moment?"

The Doctor sighed and looked up. "I'm not proud that I did it, Rose, but I'm not sorry about it." He reached up and rubbed at the back of his head in a way that Rose always found endearing. It made him seem more human. "Jack ... how can I explain it?" He walked around to console and leaned against it so he was facing her. "All right ... I felt what happened as soon as you did it, and it frightened me. People should not be fixed points in time. It just should never happen. What he is goes against everything Time Lords stood for." Then he sighed again before giving her a small smile. "Although if anyone had to become a fixed point, I'm almost glad it was him. Despite how we met him, he became a good man. Better than I ever believed if he's able to command such loyalty."

Rose thought about it before speaking. "Would you have ever gone back for him?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Probably not. You know how hard it is to admit you're wrong? You plan on doing it, but actually going through with it just gets harder as time goes by. Same concept applies here. Yeah I originally planned to go back after regenerating. It's how we ended up in New New York. Then that whole business with the Face of Boe and Cassandra distracted me and, by the time I thought of it again, we were in 1873 England going up against a werewolf." He gave a sheepish smile. "I tried again after getting Mickey, and we all know how that turned out."

Rose nodded, not wanting to make the Doctor re-hash everything. "So you just stopped trying?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I figured the TARDIS had her reasons for not letting me go back at that point in time, and just travelled." He paused and frowned. "Wait just a tic."

Rose blinked as the Doctor started muttering and pressing buttons. "Now that I think of it ... I seem to remember someone snooping about before Barbara and Ian poked their noses into my business. Ah-HAH!" He pressed a button and turned to the small monitor on the control board. He motioned to Rose and smiled when she came over. "I knew there was a reason something felt off about Jack when we first met him."

Rose watched the small screen and frowned in confusion. "It looks like a view of a junk yard!"

The Doctor didn't even look at her as a petite girl with short black hair came into view. "It was a junk yard. The very first time the TARDIS became a police box. We stayed there so long that I guess the circuit broke without me noticing it. Of course ... I was very young by Time Lord standards back then."

Rose didn't ask what he meant, but watched as someone came into the Junk Yard and approached the girl who had sat down and started to read a book. She jumped when he started speaking, recognizing the voice immediately.

"Hey there! Jack Harkness at your service! I wonder if you could help me out here Miss ..."

The girl frowned at him. Whether in displeasure or confusion Rose didn't know. For all she knew, it could have been both. "Susan Foreman."

Jack made a little bow. "Pleasure. Listen. I work for a certain agency that has detected some unusual readings in the area. Can you tell me if there's been anything out of sorts happening here in the last week or so?"

The girl, Susan, shook her head. "Nothing that I can think about. I'll ask my grandfather when I see him, later."

Jack nodded. "Right! I'll just be on my way, then." He turned to the camera and froze a moment. Rose watched as his hand went out of view, probably placing it on the TARDIS, and his face went white. He spoke, but it was so low that Rose almost missed it. "Too early."

The Doctor sighed. "Susan told me about it, of course. I wanted to leave straight away, but she wanted to see what Earth was like. I never really could deny her anything if she really wanted it."

Rose looked at him and was taken aback at the sad look in his face. "Who was she?"

The Doctor seemed to snap out of the thoughts he had been lost in. "Hm? Oh! She was my grand daughter. Still would be, too, if she hadn't decided to take Alex to Gallifrey at just the wrong time. I didn't know, until later, that they had been there."

Rose swallowed as she remembered the Doctor's declaration that he had been a father once. "Was Alex her husband?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Her son, my great grandson." He closed his eyes. "Never even got to say good bye." Then his eyes snapped open and he started rushing around the console. "Which is a horrible thing for any parent to endure!"

Rose grabbed onto the nearest support as the TARDIS lurched into flight. "Where are we going?"

The Doctor spoke without bringing his attention from the controls. "The doors between dimensions are almost completely closed, but they are still open just enough to peek through. If I can get the old girl to the right place, you can say good bye to Jackie and Pete. Mind you, it will take a great deal of power. Let's see ... YES! A star is about to go supernova. That should give us just enough power."

Rose shook her head. "A supernova will only JUST give us enough power?" She was still trying to wrap her head around that fact as the TARDIS shuddered to a halt. "What now?"

The Doctor flipped a switch and turned to her. "Call for your mother. She'll hear you. It might take a moment, but she will hear you and you'll be able to say good bye to her."

Rose swallowed and nodded. "Mum? Mum!" She felt rather silly, but knew that this would ease the Doctor's mind as well as her mother's. "Mum!"

The Doctor turned and fiddled with a few switches. "There we are! We have a connection." He directed Rose to a certain spot.

Rose blinked when she saw she was standing in front of a projector. The small monitor was next to it. "What should I do?" She could see an image of her mother walking on a beach in the monitor.

The Doctor made a motion. "Talk to her. She'll hear you."

Rose cleared her throat. "Mum!"

Jackie's head snapped around and it was as if she was looking right at Rose through the monitor. "Rose! It is you! Are you all right, Sweetheart? I've been so worried about you!"

Rose smiled. "I'm fine, Mum! The Doctor's brought me to some sun going supernova so I could say good bye to you."

Jackie looked around. "The Doctor? How is he? Pete wasn't clear about it. And there was another young man he mentioned that was holding on to you."

Rose smiled. "The Doctor is fine, but a little shaken because of what might have happened to me. The guy you saw was called Ianto Jones. Nice fellow. Tell Mickey that Jack is alive and well. I can't go into detail. I don't know how much time I have."

The Doctor frowned and looked at a read out. "About a minute an a half if you're lucky."

Rose nodded. "The Doctor says we might have a little over a minute. I just wanted to say good bye and let you know that I was all right."

Her mother's eyes took on that tender look that was always reserved just for Rose. "Oh, Rose. I won't lie. I wish you were here, but I'm glad you're with the Doctor. He'll keep you as safe as possible." She ducked her head. "As for me, well. Pete from this universe and I got married. I'm expecting a baby."

Rose was shocked, but pleased. "I'm so happy for you, Mum!" She looked up and swallowed when the Doctor mouthed 'thirty seconds max.' She turned back to the monitor. "We're out of time. You take care of yourself."

Jackie smiled. "You, too. I love you, Rose."

Rose smiled. "I love you too!"

Before anything else could be said, the monitor went blank. "That wasn't thirty seconds."

The Doctor sighed. "No. The tiny crack snapped shut faster than I thought it would."

Rose nodded and smiled sadly. "Thank you, Doctor. You were right. It would have eaten me up inside once all the excitement wore off."

The Doctor smiled back. "Yeah. Now maybe we can go to Barcelona!" He froze and his face went white. "What?"

Rose turned and blinked. Standing there, right inside the control room, was a figure in what looked like a wedding gown.

The figure turned to reveal a red-haired woman looking shocked and a little bit angry. "Oh!"

Rose shook her head. "Doctor?"

The Doctor seemed boggled beyond belief. "What?"

The redhead gave the Doctor and Rose a once-over. "Who are you two?"

The Doctor's eyes were wide and he looked around as if trying to find the answers in thin air. "But..."

"Where am I?"

In another situation, Rose might have laughed at the Doctor's expression. As it was, she was shocked into silence.

The Doctor shook his head. "What?" It was like that was all he could say.

The shock had worn off the woman's face and she was working her way into furious. "What the HELL is this place?"

"WHAT?"

To be continued ...

Okay. I was told to work on Shades of Grey first, but I'm sure all of you would like to know what's going on with the Doctor and Rose and everyone else from the Doctor Who Universe with Ianto's one act. We shall see. *rubs hands together in delight*