Down Time - Part 1
An old friend of Jack’s shows up on Torchwood’s doorstep, but why is he in such bad shape?
Jack/Ianto, a little Jack/Doctor
Rated Teen (No worse than an episode of Torchwood)
Approx 12,000 words Chapter 1 of maybe 4
This is dedicated to C_Woodhaven, who was there to coax me to finish this bunny gone mad, help me solve some logistic problems, and gave me some damn good lines. She has also proofed this monster, but any remaining errors are due to my tweaking. While I’m at it, she’s a hell of a fine lady and hostess. *massive hugs*
Ianto looked up as the tourist office door opened; his greet-the-public smile in place. It was a tribute to his public-dealing skills that the smile didn’t waver when he beheld the man who stuck his head in and cheerfully called, “Hello!”
Without waiting for an answer, the man stumbled forward, toward Ianto’s desk. He was painfully thin with a tangle of long unkempt brown hair that seemed to move with a will of its own. Ianto’s first impulse was to feed him a sandwich. After the smell hit him, he thought feeding him a sandwich outside on a bench would be more prudent.
As the stranger leaned on the counter, Ianto could make out wide brown eyes under the flopping mop of dirty hair. A bushy beard almost completely hid a sunny smile. Ianto’s trained eye could see that the tattered suit he wore was once well made and tailored.
“Can I help you?” Ianto asked.
“I would like a room for about a week, my good man.” The stranger said, and then yawned hugely. His hoarse voice was clear and cultured, but his breath was foul. “Sorry,” he muttered.
Ianto stepped back and picked up the phone, grateful to put distance between himself and this stranger. “There is a hostel five blocks over. I can call ahead…”
“But Jack said to drop by any time! He said I was welcome! Where is Jack?” The man yawned even as his tone was panicked.
Ianto blinked. Was this another of Jack’s strays? Was the man even human? Pretense gone, Ianto pushed a button under the desk. “I’ll call him. Calm down, sir.”
“I need to see him. Before I…” the man yawned again and tried to talk through it, but the only word Ianto could make out clearly was “Jack!” The man lurched toward the hidden door, Ianto caught him and pushed him back. The thin man was surprisingly strong, Ianto felt like he was pressing on a brick wall.
“Ianto Jones,” he yawned once more. “Please. I don’t have much time.”
Ianto went still, his hands on the man’s chest. “Do I know you?”
“Welllllll. We’ve not met in person and the circumstances were hurried, but yes. I’m…”
The door from the Hub burst open. “Doctor!” Jack cried.
“There he is,” the Doctor sighed and collapsed as Jack took him from Ianto.
Ianto frowned as he recognized the Time Lord he’d seen once on a small computer screen.
Jack controlled the Doctor’s fall and knelt with him, cradling him in his arms. “Doctor, what’s happened to you?” Jack asked as he pushed the Doctor’s hair from his eyes.
“Don’t get any ideas, Jack,” the Doctor mumbled.
“Furthest thing from my mind.” Jack replied with a small smile, but Ianto could see the care his boss had for this legendary being.
The Doctor yawned again. “Have you ever been to Hayluntz?”
Jack shook his head. “No. I hear it’s beautiful.”
“I saw the Calypso Lily bloom,” he said with wonder.
“But Doctor…”
“Shhh,” the Doctor said. “I’d never seen it before,” his voice got lower and lower. “In all my days. All my lives. So I went. By myself.”
“Oh, Doctor.” Ianto could hear a concern in Jack’s voice he didn’t understand. “You could have taken me.”
“You would’ve gone?” The Doctor asked, surprised. He curled against Jack’s chest. “I should have…” Then the Doctor went limp.
“Doctor! How much did you breathe? Damn it!” Jack shook him, but the Doctor remained still.
Ianto approached cautiously. “Um. He requested a room for a week.”
Jack put his head to the Doctor’s chest, moved it to the other side, then listened again. “They sound strong,” he sighed.
“What’s happening, Jack?” Ianto asked quietly.
“The Calypso Lily is a massive, beautiful purple and pink blossom that blooms once every hundred years deep in the jungles of Hayluntz.”
“That’s another planet, right?”
“Yeah.” Jack brushed back the Doctor’s hair and cupped his bearded cheek. “The pollen puts you into dreamless sleep so deep you never wake up. But, in spite of the danger, you’re drawn to its beauty. They say the scent is so sweet, you can’t help but breathe in.”
Alarmed, Ianto interjected, “Are we in any danger? It could be on his clothes!”
Jack shook his head dismissively. “It is only effective in the atmosphere of its home planet. If you take it off world…” Jack cut himself off. Ianto got the feeling he sometimes did when he suspected Jack was hiding something. “That’s not important. If he went there just when it was blooming, he had to know what effect it would have. I have to take care of him.”
Ianto had to smile at his Captain as he tenderly took their sleeping guest’s hand. “What did you see, Doctor?” Jack whispered.
“I’ll get the crash room ready,” Ianto offered quietly. The crash room was a small room off the main Hub with a serviceable bed, a small table, folding chair, and not much else. Torchwood members could sleep there when too tired to make it home.
“Put a camera in there, too,” Jack said. For privacy it was one of the few areas without one. A fact Jack and Ianto had taken advantage of any number of times. “We can’t have someone in there with him all the time, and if he’s going to be asleep for a week…”
The Doctor’s eyes shot open, startling both men. “Be a good man and make sure the TARDIS is parked out of the way, humm?” Then he closed his eyes and was as still as before.
Both men watched him for a minute, watching to see if he woke up again, but he remained still.
Ianto put a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “I’ll put fresh sheets on and get an extra blanket.”
Jack put his hand over Ianto’s. “You’re a good man, Ianto.”
“He’s a hero. Least I can do is help.” Ianto flipped over the closed sign and locked the outer door. “You get him cleaned up, and I’ll see what I can find for him to wear.”
Jack easily scooped up the Doctor and carried him as Ianto opened the inner doors. Silently, Ianto helped Jack transfer his unresisting load to the locker room.
Ianto spread a towel on the Victorian style tiled floor and Jack gently undressed the Doctor. “I don’t see any injuries.” He frowned at the protruding ribs and slightly rounded belly. “He’s always been thin, but now he’s starved,” Jack said to Ianto as he went through lockers looking for clothes.
“Held captive perhaps?” Ianto provided.
“No. No. You can’t hold this man captive for long. Not against his will…” Ianto could hear the admiration in his captain’s voice, even as he trailed off. Ianto was used to Jack’s secrets. “Besides, why would he not clean up? He’s always been fastidious about his appearance.”
Jack picked up the Doctor’s tattered pants and reached in one pocket. He searched around for what seemed to Ianto a long time before he came out with a silver device that was the size and shape of a thick magic marker. Jack looked at it, twisted one end and pointed it at the lockers. There was an oscillating whine and all the doors Ianto had not searched sprang open.
“The infamous sonic screwdriver, I presume?” Ianto asked.
“Yeah. If he had this with him there’s no way…” A shiver wracked the Doctor’s now nude body. “I best get him warm. Leave his clothes here: I’ll take care of them. You never know what he keeps in his pockets.”
Ianto turned a shower on hot as Jack quickly stripped down. Normally seeing Jack naked quickened Ianto’s pulse, but now his lover’s healthy body served as a stark contrast to the Time Lord’s thin frame.
Ianto made certain that shampoo, soap, and washcloths were within Jack’s reach where he sat on the floor supporting the Doctor. “I’d ask if you need any help, but it looks like you know what you’re doing,” Ianto said, as he watched Jack slide a soapy cloth over the Doctor’s arm.
Jack grinned up at him. “I’ve been last man standing too many times to have not picked up a few skills. Get the bed ready.” Ianto nodded and turned to go. “And Ianto,” he turned back and met Jack’s eye. “Thank you.”
Ianto nodded. “I’ll see about locating his TARDIS, too.”
Some thirty minutes later Jack had removed the worst of the grime from the Doctor’s body and coaxed some of the tangles from his hair and beard. He looked up to find Ianto holding a large towel ready to receive the Doctor. Jack stood with the Time Lord in his arms and handed him over to Ianto who wrapped him up in it.
“I’ve laid out some clean clothes for you, “ Ianto said, nodding to a nearby bench as he tucked the towel around his charge. “I’ll take him to the crash room and put him to bed. I think you should see to the TARDIS. He didn’t leave it in the best of places.”
Jack froze and peered out from under the towel he’d been drying his hair with. “Where?”
“Go out the tourist office door. You can’t miss it.”
Jack hurriedly dressed and dashed through the Hub. He spared a glance at Gwen’s empty desk, glad she had gone home early. He reached the tourist office, unlocked the door, opened it, and ran through. He smacked into the blue door of the TARDIS which swung open, causing Jack to tumble in, fall over the upwards steps and sprawl across the metal gratings by the command console.
“Thanks a lot, Ianto!” Jack yelled, venting his annoyance at such a spill, even though he knew Ianto couldn’t hear him. He picked himself up and looked around the once-familiar room.
Jack had never seen the inside of the TARDIS in such a state. Right after every adventure that damaged his beloved TARDIS, the Doctor would pull a fit of maniacal energy and clean up. He seemed to be everywhere at once; replacing sensor bulbs on the walls, grafting in lengths of new wire to the console, mopping up spilled tea. Jack smiled at the memories.
It looked like twenty disasters had struck the TARDIS with no loving hand to clean them up. More than half of the sensor bulbs were shattered or dark. Several panels on the console were off; one of them rested across the room as if it had been flung there. Empty food packets and trash were everywhere.
The Doctor’s treasured long brown coat lay pooled at the base of the forked support column where its owner typically threw it to hang with unerroring accuracy. Jack’s heart skipped when he saw the state of it. The surfaces he could see where streaked with what he knew with a soldier’s eye was dried blood. Probably human. What was clearly a bullet hole pierced one corner. The sleeve that lay outstretched like the arm of a drowning man was scorched. More blood crusted and flaked on the cuff.
“Poor thing,” Jack said, putting his hand on the console. “What’s happened for him to treat you like this?” A light blinked twice. Jack stroked a panel. “Hold on, sweetheart. I’m going to find a place for you to rest. I’ll be right back.”
Jack found Ianto had moved the bed to the middle of the wall and was now carefully brushing out the sleeping Doctor’s hair. As he worked, Ianto hummed quietly. Jack stood silently in the door for a few minutes to watch before Ianto noticed him.
“Looks like you’ve done that before,” Jack said with a smile.
“My grandmother,” Ianto said without pausing in his work. “I helped care for her for three years. From when I was sixteen.” He put aside the brush to pick at a tangle. “I found a set of Owen’s scrubs for him to wear. He’s thin like Owen.” Ianto added quietly.
Jack walked over, put his hand on Ianto’s shoulder, and kissed the top of his head. “Is there an out-of-the-way place I can park the TARDIS?”
“There’s an empty storage room on level twelve.” Ianto replied after a few moments. “The ceiling should be high enough.”
Jack entered the coordinates into his wrist strap and kissed Ianto again. “Thanks.”
He returned to the TARDIS and picked his way to the console. “Come on, old girl. I need you to make a short hop.” He pressed buttons and turned knobs as he spoke. “Just in space, not in time, please. Your Doctor is safe, we’ll look after him, but you need to be in out of the elements and off our doorstep. Once there you can open yourself to the rift and recharge all you please.” He typed the coordinates from his wrist strap into the console.
“Here goes.”
Jack held his breath as the TARDIS wheezed and groaned as they dematerialized and immediately rematerialized. He savored the missed feeling of teleporting through space. Jack read the coordinates and found they’d made the hop successfully. He patted the console again “Good job. You’re safe here while the Doctor gets his nap. Now let’s see if I can figure out what’s been going on.”
Jack made his way over to the computer and turned it on. He didn’t read much Gallifreyan, but he knew enough of the controls to call up the last thing played on the Doctor’s console.
To Jack’s surprise, it wasn’t the Doctor’s face that come up on the screen, but that of a young, blonde man with a cupid’s bow mouth and intelligent blue eyes. Jack couldn’t help but smile back at his eager, honest smile.
“Okay, we’re in New York at last.” He said in an American accent. “The Doctor’s letting me go see the Zigfield Follies! The real deal! Finally! What he doesn’t know is I’m going to find the original Richard I was named for. Even better, I’ll just take his...”
The Doctor’s voice cut him off as he came into the room. “Ready to go, Richard? Ready to charm the fine ladies? Oh! You are going to love this. The way they kick…”
The message cut off.
Jack’s eyes were drawn back to the bloody coat.
He switched off the computer and crossed the room. He stopped dead when instead of the door to the body of the TARDIS, he found a solid wall. He knew the TARDIS interior could change, but this surprised him. “Where’s the door?” he asked the TARDIS. “Can you open the door? I wanted to get some clean clothes for the Doctor.”
Nothing changed.
“Were you so unhappy you never left this room, Doctor?” He added quietly.
Jack stroked the wall. “Okay. Okay. You sit here and rest, old girl. The Doctor will come back soon enough.”
Jack took a last look around and left the TARDIS. The door clicked shut behind him. Jack frowned and tried the door. It was firmly locked. “Don’t worry about your Doctor. We’ll take the best care of him we can so he can return to you.”
++++++
Jack found Ianto at the console that had been manned by Tosh. “I took down the alarms as you moved the TARDIS in,” he said. “They’re back up now. The Doctor is comfortably asleep.”
Jack went to Ianto who took him in his arms. “You should have seen it, Ianto. It was a mess in there. Something horrible happened.”
Ianto stroked Jack’s back and kissed his forehead. “He’ll wake up, and when he does, I’m sure he’ll want to talk. Why else would he come to you?”
Jack moved away, affronted. “Why else? Are you saying I’m not a good friend? That he wouldn’t just stop by for a bit of fun?”
Ianto took his captain’s face in his hands. “No. I’m saying he trusts you, Jack. He trusts you to care for the TARDIS and for him. He must consider you his best friend to come here in that condition.”
Jack smiled. “Thank you, Ianto.”
Ianto moved his hands to Jack’s shoulders. “I don’t know anything about a Time Lord’s physical make up. Should we call Martha Jones?”
Jack sighed and ran a hand over his hair. “I don’t think it will be necessary . I know a fair amount about them. Him. He is amazingly resilient. If it looks like there is any drastic change in his condition we will.”
Ianto nodded. “I imagine he’ll be hungry when he wakes up. I’ll put some food in the crash room.”
“I tried to get some more clothes for him, but the TARDIS… all but the control room was closed off. It’s like the Doctor hadn’t left that room for… I can’t tell how long.”
“Take any alien technology from his suit pockets and I can get some measurements from it. I know the best tailor in Cardiff.”
Jack smiled. “I think his pockets are alien technology. They’re bigger on the inside.”
Ianto cocked an eyebrow. “That’s very useful.”
“And forbidden,” Jack said warningly.
Jack emptied the contents of the Doctor’s pockets into a small box which he put in the crash room. He didn’t understand the technology behind the pockets, so he folded the garments and placed them where the Doctor could find them as well.
He looked down on the Doctor as he lay peacefully asleep. “I hope you can get the rest you need here, old friend. Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll look out for you.”
Jack leaned over and kissed the Doctor’s forehead, turned out the lights and left.
+++
On to Chapter 2
Jack/Ianto, a little Jack/Doctor
Rated Teen (No worse than an episode of Torchwood)
Approx 12,000 words Chapter 1 of maybe 4
This is dedicated to C_Woodhaven, who was there to coax me to finish this bunny gone mad, help me solve some logistic problems, and gave me some damn good lines. She has also proofed this monster, but any remaining errors are due to my tweaking. While I’m at it, she’s a hell of a fine lady and hostess. *massive hugs*
Ianto looked up as the tourist office door opened; his greet-the-public smile in place. It was a tribute to his public-dealing skills that the smile didn’t waver when he beheld the man who stuck his head in and cheerfully called, “Hello!”
Without waiting for an answer, the man stumbled forward, toward Ianto’s desk. He was painfully thin with a tangle of long unkempt brown hair that seemed to move with a will of its own. Ianto’s first impulse was to feed him a sandwich. After the smell hit him, he thought feeding him a sandwich outside on a bench would be more prudent.
As the stranger leaned on the counter, Ianto could make out wide brown eyes under the flopping mop of dirty hair. A bushy beard almost completely hid a sunny smile. Ianto’s trained eye could see that the tattered suit he wore was once well made and tailored.
“Can I help you?” Ianto asked.
“I would like a room for about a week, my good man.” The stranger said, and then yawned hugely. His hoarse voice was clear and cultured, but his breath was foul. “Sorry,” he muttered.
Ianto stepped back and picked up the phone, grateful to put distance between himself and this stranger. “There is a hostel five blocks over. I can call ahead…”
“But Jack said to drop by any time! He said I was welcome! Where is Jack?” The man yawned even as his tone was panicked.
Ianto blinked. Was this another of Jack’s strays? Was the man even human? Pretense gone, Ianto pushed a button under the desk. “I’ll call him. Calm down, sir.”
“I need to see him. Before I…” the man yawned again and tried to talk through it, but the only word Ianto could make out clearly was “Jack!” The man lurched toward the hidden door, Ianto caught him and pushed him back. The thin man was surprisingly strong, Ianto felt like he was pressing on a brick wall.
“Ianto Jones,” he yawned once more. “Please. I don’t have much time.”
Ianto went still, his hands on the man’s chest. “Do I know you?”
“Welllllll. We’ve not met in person and the circumstances were hurried, but yes. I’m…”
The door from the Hub burst open. “Doctor!” Jack cried.
“There he is,” the Doctor sighed and collapsed as Jack took him from Ianto.
Ianto frowned as he recognized the Time Lord he’d seen once on a small computer screen.
Jack controlled the Doctor’s fall and knelt with him, cradling him in his arms. “Doctor, what’s happened to you?” Jack asked as he pushed the Doctor’s hair from his eyes.
“Don’t get any ideas, Jack,” the Doctor mumbled.
“Furthest thing from my mind.” Jack replied with a small smile, but Ianto could see the care his boss had for this legendary being.
The Doctor yawned again. “Have you ever been to Hayluntz?”
Jack shook his head. “No. I hear it’s beautiful.”
“I saw the Calypso Lily bloom,” he said with wonder.
“But Doctor…”
“Shhh,” the Doctor said. “I’d never seen it before,” his voice got lower and lower. “In all my days. All my lives. So I went. By myself.”
“Oh, Doctor.” Ianto could hear a concern in Jack’s voice he didn’t understand. “You could have taken me.”
“You would’ve gone?” The Doctor asked, surprised. He curled against Jack’s chest. “I should have…” Then the Doctor went limp.
“Doctor! How much did you breathe? Damn it!” Jack shook him, but the Doctor remained still.
Ianto approached cautiously. “Um. He requested a room for a week.”
Jack put his head to the Doctor’s chest, moved it to the other side, then listened again. “They sound strong,” he sighed.
“What’s happening, Jack?” Ianto asked quietly.
“The Calypso Lily is a massive, beautiful purple and pink blossom that blooms once every hundred years deep in the jungles of Hayluntz.”
“That’s another planet, right?”
“Yeah.” Jack brushed back the Doctor’s hair and cupped his bearded cheek. “The pollen puts you into dreamless sleep so deep you never wake up. But, in spite of the danger, you’re drawn to its beauty. They say the scent is so sweet, you can’t help but breathe in.”
Alarmed, Ianto interjected, “Are we in any danger? It could be on his clothes!”
Jack shook his head dismissively. “It is only effective in the atmosphere of its home planet. If you take it off world…” Jack cut himself off. Ianto got the feeling he sometimes did when he suspected Jack was hiding something. “That’s not important. If he went there just when it was blooming, he had to know what effect it would have. I have to take care of him.”
Ianto had to smile at his Captain as he tenderly took their sleeping guest’s hand. “What did you see, Doctor?” Jack whispered.
“I’ll get the crash room ready,” Ianto offered quietly. The crash room was a small room off the main Hub with a serviceable bed, a small table, folding chair, and not much else. Torchwood members could sleep there when too tired to make it home.
“Put a camera in there, too,” Jack said. For privacy it was one of the few areas without one. A fact Jack and Ianto had taken advantage of any number of times. “We can’t have someone in there with him all the time, and if he’s going to be asleep for a week…”
The Doctor’s eyes shot open, startling both men. “Be a good man and make sure the TARDIS is parked out of the way, humm?” Then he closed his eyes and was as still as before.
Both men watched him for a minute, watching to see if he woke up again, but he remained still.
Ianto put a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “I’ll put fresh sheets on and get an extra blanket.”
Jack put his hand over Ianto’s. “You’re a good man, Ianto.”
“He’s a hero. Least I can do is help.” Ianto flipped over the closed sign and locked the outer door. “You get him cleaned up, and I’ll see what I can find for him to wear.”
Jack easily scooped up the Doctor and carried him as Ianto opened the inner doors. Silently, Ianto helped Jack transfer his unresisting load to the locker room.
Ianto spread a towel on the Victorian style tiled floor and Jack gently undressed the Doctor. “I don’t see any injuries.” He frowned at the protruding ribs and slightly rounded belly. “He’s always been thin, but now he’s starved,” Jack said to Ianto as he went through lockers looking for clothes.
“Held captive perhaps?” Ianto provided.
“No. No. You can’t hold this man captive for long. Not against his will…” Ianto could hear the admiration in his captain’s voice, even as he trailed off. Ianto was used to Jack’s secrets. “Besides, why would he not clean up? He’s always been fastidious about his appearance.”
Jack picked up the Doctor’s tattered pants and reached in one pocket. He searched around for what seemed to Ianto a long time before he came out with a silver device that was the size and shape of a thick magic marker. Jack looked at it, twisted one end and pointed it at the lockers. There was an oscillating whine and all the doors Ianto had not searched sprang open.
“The infamous sonic screwdriver, I presume?” Ianto asked.
“Yeah. If he had this with him there’s no way…” A shiver wracked the Doctor’s now nude body. “I best get him warm. Leave his clothes here: I’ll take care of them. You never know what he keeps in his pockets.”
Ianto turned a shower on hot as Jack quickly stripped down. Normally seeing Jack naked quickened Ianto’s pulse, but now his lover’s healthy body served as a stark contrast to the Time Lord’s thin frame.
Ianto made certain that shampoo, soap, and washcloths were within Jack’s reach where he sat on the floor supporting the Doctor. “I’d ask if you need any help, but it looks like you know what you’re doing,” Ianto said, as he watched Jack slide a soapy cloth over the Doctor’s arm.
Jack grinned up at him. “I’ve been last man standing too many times to have not picked up a few skills. Get the bed ready.” Ianto nodded and turned to go. “And Ianto,” he turned back and met Jack’s eye. “Thank you.”
Ianto nodded. “I’ll see about locating his TARDIS, too.”
Some thirty minutes later Jack had removed the worst of the grime from the Doctor’s body and coaxed some of the tangles from his hair and beard. He looked up to find Ianto holding a large towel ready to receive the Doctor. Jack stood with the Time Lord in his arms and handed him over to Ianto who wrapped him up in it.
“I’ve laid out some clean clothes for you, “ Ianto said, nodding to a nearby bench as he tucked the towel around his charge. “I’ll take him to the crash room and put him to bed. I think you should see to the TARDIS. He didn’t leave it in the best of places.”
Jack froze and peered out from under the towel he’d been drying his hair with. “Where?”
“Go out the tourist office door. You can’t miss it.”
Jack hurriedly dressed and dashed through the Hub. He spared a glance at Gwen’s empty desk, glad she had gone home early. He reached the tourist office, unlocked the door, opened it, and ran through. He smacked into the blue door of the TARDIS which swung open, causing Jack to tumble in, fall over the upwards steps and sprawl across the metal gratings by the command console.
“Thanks a lot, Ianto!” Jack yelled, venting his annoyance at such a spill, even though he knew Ianto couldn’t hear him. He picked himself up and looked around the once-familiar room.
Jack had never seen the inside of the TARDIS in such a state. Right after every adventure that damaged his beloved TARDIS, the Doctor would pull a fit of maniacal energy and clean up. He seemed to be everywhere at once; replacing sensor bulbs on the walls, grafting in lengths of new wire to the console, mopping up spilled tea. Jack smiled at the memories.
It looked like twenty disasters had struck the TARDIS with no loving hand to clean them up. More than half of the sensor bulbs were shattered or dark. Several panels on the console were off; one of them rested across the room as if it had been flung there. Empty food packets and trash were everywhere.
The Doctor’s treasured long brown coat lay pooled at the base of the forked support column where its owner typically threw it to hang with unerroring accuracy. Jack’s heart skipped when he saw the state of it. The surfaces he could see where streaked with what he knew with a soldier’s eye was dried blood. Probably human. What was clearly a bullet hole pierced one corner. The sleeve that lay outstretched like the arm of a drowning man was scorched. More blood crusted and flaked on the cuff.
“Poor thing,” Jack said, putting his hand on the console. “What’s happened for him to treat you like this?” A light blinked twice. Jack stroked a panel. “Hold on, sweetheart. I’m going to find a place for you to rest. I’ll be right back.”
Jack found Ianto had moved the bed to the middle of the wall and was now carefully brushing out the sleeping Doctor’s hair. As he worked, Ianto hummed quietly. Jack stood silently in the door for a few minutes to watch before Ianto noticed him.
“Looks like you’ve done that before,” Jack said with a smile.
“My grandmother,” Ianto said without pausing in his work. “I helped care for her for three years. From when I was sixteen.” He put aside the brush to pick at a tangle. “I found a set of Owen’s scrubs for him to wear. He’s thin like Owen.” Ianto added quietly.
Jack walked over, put his hand on Ianto’s shoulder, and kissed the top of his head. “Is there an out-of-the-way place I can park the TARDIS?”
“There’s an empty storage room on level twelve.” Ianto replied after a few moments. “The ceiling should be high enough.”
Jack entered the coordinates into his wrist strap and kissed Ianto again. “Thanks.”
He returned to the TARDIS and picked his way to the console. “Come on, old girl. I need you to make a short hop.” He pressed buttons and turned knobs as he spoke. “Just in space, not in time, please. Your Doctor is safe, we’ll look after him, but you need to be in out of the elements and off our doorstep. Once there you can open yourself to the rift and recharge all you please.” He typed the coordinates from his wrist strap into the console.
“Here goes.”
Jack held his breath as the TARDIS wheezed and groaned as they dematerialized and immediately rematerialized. He savored the missed feeling of teleporting through space. Jack read the coordinates and found they’d made the hop successfully. He patted the console again “Good job. You’re safe here while the Doctor gets his nap. Now let’s see if I can figure out what’s been going on.”
Jack made his way over to the computer and turned it on. He didn’t read much Gallifreyan, but he knew enough of the controls to call up the last thing played on the Doctor’s console.
To Jack’s surprise, it wasn’t the Doctor’s face that come up on the screen, but that of a young, blonde man with a cupid’s bow mouth and intelligent blue eyes. Jack couldn’t help but smile back at his eager, honest smile.
“Okay, we’re in New York at last.” He said in an American accent. “The Doctor’s letting me go see the Zigfield Follies! The real deal! Finally! What he doesn’t know is I’m going to find the original Richard I was named for. Even better, I’ll just take his...”
The Doctor’s voice cut him off as he came into the room. “Ready to go, Richard? Ready to charm the fine ladies? Oh! You are going to love this. The way they kick…”
The message cut off.
Jack’s eyes were drawn back to the bloody coat.
He switched off the computer and crossed the room. He stopped dead when instead of the door to the body of the TARDIS, he found a solid wall. He knew the TARDIS interior could change, but this surprised him. “Where’s the door?” he asked the TARDIS. “Can you open the door? I wanted to get some clean clothes for the Doctor.”
Nothing changed.
“Were you so unhappy you never left this room, Doctor?” He added quietly.
Jack stroked the wall. “Okay. Okay. You sit here and rest, old girl. The Doctor will come back soon enough.”
Jack took a last look around and left the TARDIS. The door clicked shut behind him. Jack frowned and tried the door. It was firmly locked. “Don’t worry about your Doctor. We’ll take the best care of him we can so he can return to you.”
++++++
Jack found Ianto at the console that had been manned by Tosh. “I took down the alarms as you moved the TARDIS in,” he said. “They’re back up now. The Doctor is comfortably asleep.”
Jack went to Ianto who took him in his arms. “You should have seen it, Ianto. It was a mess in there. Something horrible happened.”
Ianto stroked Jack’s back and kissed his forehead. “He’ll wake up, and when he does, I’m sure he’ll want to talk. Why else would he come to you?”
Jack moved away, affronted. “Why else? Are you saying I’m not a good friend? That he wouldn’t just stop by for a bit of fun?”
Ianto took his captain’s face in his hands. “No. I’m saying he trusts you, Jack. He trusts you to care for the TARDIS and for him. He must consider you his best friend to come here in that condition.”
Jack smiled. “Thank you, Ianto.”
Ianto moved his hands to Jack’s shoulders. “I don’t know anything about a Time Lord’s physical make up. Should we call Martha Jones?”
Jack sighed and ran a hand over his hair. “I don’t think it will be necessary . I know a fair amount about them. Him. He is amazingly resilient. If it looks like there is any drastic change in his condition we will.”
Ianto nodded. “I imagine he’ll be hungry when he wakes up. I’ll put some food in the crash room.”
“I tried to get some more clothes for him, but the TARDIS… all but the control room was closed off. It’s like the Doctor hadn’t left that room for… I can’t tell how long.”
“Take any alien technology from his suit pockets and I can get some measurements from it. I know the best tailor in Cardiff.”
Jack smiled. “I think his pockets are alien technology. They’re bigger on the inside.”
Ianto cocked an eyebrow. “That’s very useful.”
“And forbidden,” Jack said warningly.
Jack emptied the contents of the Doctor’s pockets into a small box which he put in the crash room. He didn’t understand the technology behind the pockets, so he folded the garments and placed them where the Doctor could find them as well.
He looked down on the Doctor as he lay peacefully asleep. “I hope you can get the rest you need here, old friend. Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll look out for you.”
Jack leaned over and kissed the Doctor’s forehead, turned out the lights and left.
+++
On to Chapter 2