Down Time Chapter 3
For the next several weeks, the Torchwood team grew used to the Doctor ghosting about. Dressed in his finely made suit, his bushy beard and long hair made a striking contrast. As he ate the good food Ianto provided and pitched in to help move things around when needed, he soon returned to his former trim, healthy shape. He would quietly fix things, serve as consultant, or just smile and walk away when asked some alien or future information he didn’t want to provide. He stayed in the hub and lived in the crash room.
He wouldn’t answer any questions about how he came to visit with them. He would artfully turn the subject away from himself, launch into a long story of his travels, or just make them laugh. He never went into the TARDIS. Jack had seen him approach his ship only once. The Doctor stood before it, head down, his hand resting gently on the door. After a little while he left the room without looking back.
The Doctor spent hours with Janet, never speaking a word to the Weevil. The Time Lord refused to Jack’s questions about them.
One evening found the rift quiet and Ianto in the storage rooms cataloging unidentified objects when the Doctor showed up.
“Good evening, Doctor.”
“Ianto, my good man! What are you doing down in the dark on this fine day?”
“It’s night time, sir, and it’s raining.”
“Is it?” The Doctor scratched his chin through his beard.
“I’m going back through unidentified items to see if we now can identify them. For example, in a box from 1958 I found an Ipod.”
“Really! What songs did it have in it? I lost one of those once. Was it purple? No, wait, I dropped it in a lava pit on the fifth moon of Clarkton. Pfft! Not mine. Pity, I had the complete Cole Porter catalog on there. Some I’d recorded myself, live.”
As he babbled, the Doctor peered into boxes and held up bags. “Careful, sir.” Ianto said as he moved to a red box.
“Don’t worry. I won’t mess up your filing system. I do admire a good filing system. Look! Brilliant!” Before Ianto could stop him, the Doctor picked up a silver cylindrical device that was three inches around and twelve inches long. He removed the tag and started tossing it from hand to hand.
“Sir!”
“I told you, Ianto, it’s ‘Doctor,’” he calmly answered, adding a flip to his throws.
“Doctor! We’ve not been able to determine… That’s… that’s very dangerous.” Ianto stood in a half crouch, ready to run or catch the thing.
“No, it’s safe. It’s a Kaiatube.” He tossed it a couple of times, getting a feel for it. “About 30 years from now it will be invented by a bright young lady. Watch.” The Doctor’s skillful tossing grew quicker and more elaborate. The device began to glow leaving colored trails in its wake. The Doctor had a big smile, poking his tongue out one side of his mouth in concentration. He flipped the device, spun in place and missed catching it by inches. It fell to the floor, trails fading behind it.. “Never could master that bit,” he muttered.
Ianto let out a sigh of exasperation as the Doctor picked up the toy.
“Kinetic energy converter. Other models have sound. May I keep it a while? Maybe I can master that last turn.”
“Sure. I don’t see why not. Just let me mark it on inventory.”
The Doctor reached for the discarded tag and froze. His eyes narrowed and he turned toward a locked cabinet in the corner. “What’s in there?”
“Jack calls it the nuts and bolts cabinet. It contains items that are apparently one piece of alien material or composition. I can…” there was a whirring accompanied by a blue light and the door opened easily, “open that for you.”
Heedless of the file system he’d just praised, the Doctor shoved aside containers and boxes before pulling an old coffee bean can from the back. He sat on the floor and dumped its contents out. Screws, nuts, rusty short lengths of wire, and bits of hardware jetsam rolled and scattered as the Doctor pawed through them. Finally, he froze, then held up a little spade shaped piece of silvery metal the size of a key.
“Where did this come from?” the Doctor demanded. There was a spark in his eye, a flint strike Ianto had not seen before. He was a little bit afraid.
“Let me see the can.” He picked it up and typed information from the peeling label into his laptop. “Acquired April 9, 2001. One lot from the estate of Ian Chesterton. Shows residual unknown energies. There’s an address.”
The Doctor caressed the piece of metal with his thumb. “Ian Chesterton,” he said sadly. “There’s a name I’ve not thought about in…. so very long. Too long.”
“You knew him?” Ianto asked.
“Yes. He was my companion. One of the first. One of the best. I wasn’t as easy to get along with in those days. It’s a TARDIS key, Ianto. There’s your unknown energy.” He handed it to Ianto who took it with respect and looked it over with interest.
“It doesn’t look like it would fit the Yale lock,” he said, rubbing a thumb over the odd makings on its surface.
“Things change, my friend. Things change.” He took the key back, stood, and strode from the room.
Ianto hesitated before abandoning his laptop and following.
Ianto watched from the storage room door as the Doctor approached his ship. The Time Lord paused and held up the old key. He reached in his pocket and took out an unremarkable Yale key with his other hand. He looked from one to the other, then cupped his hands around both.
“What do you think, Ianto Jones? Walnut or oak?” He jingled the keys as if readying to throw them like dice.
“Sir?”
“Which do you like?”
“I like walnut, Doctor. The furniture in my Grandfather’s study was all rich, dark walnut. Why do you ask?”
“Things change.” The Doctor opened his hands. Only one key remained; a hybrid of the originals. “You are all welcome to come for tea tomorrow, around 4.” he said. Instead of putting the key in the door, the Doctor snapped his fingers. The door opened at his command. He went in, and the door shut behind him.
The rift alarm sounded and Ianto ran to the central room. The alarm shut off as soon at it begain. He found Jack sitting in his chair studying a readout. Ianto recognized peaks and dips of rift activity. Gwen stood beside him. “It’s the TARDIS,” Jack said. “It’s tapping the rift. It’s been quiet, but now it’s wide open.”
“The Doctor just went in, sir,” Ianto said quietly, not sure how his Captain would take the news.
Jack shot to his feet. “Is he leaving? Why would he just leave?”
Ianto filled them in on his conversations and the finding of the key. “He said that things change and then he invited us all to tea.”
Jack paused and sat back down. “Did he now? I guess that’s progress.”
The work day ended and Gwen went home, but Ianto stayed at the Hub. Jack just stood before the TARDIS.
“Come on, Jack,” he finally said, taking his Captain’s hand. “Time for bed.”
“You know I don’t sleep that much, Ianto.”
Ianto pulled at him, leading him from the presence of the TARDIS where he always felt he was being watched. In the next room, he took Jack in his arms. “Give me the chance to tire you out, Captain,” he breathed in Jack’s ear.
Jack grinned, taking a last glance at the big blue box before letting Ianto lead him away, through the empty hub and down to Jack’s bedroom.
A couple of minutes before four, Gwen, Jack, and Ianto went downstairs. Just as they reached the vault where Janet sat in his cage, a groaning, wheezing, mechanical sound came from down the hall.
“No!” Jack shouted. He ran to the room and turned the corner just in time to see the TARDIS vanish out of existence as the sound faded to nothing.
“Where did he go?” Gwen asked.
“He wouldn’t invite us, and then leave,” Ianto said. “Would he?”
Jack stood with his hands clinched as if he wanted to punch something.
The sound started up again, and grew louder. In less than a minute, the TARDIS stood fully formed before them. The doors swung open and the Doctor greeted them. They all took note that he was now clean shaven and his hair was pulled back in a tidy pony tail, but no one remarked on it. The suit now fit him perfectly.
“Welcome to the TARDIS, my friends! Come in! Come in!”
Jack stepped into the console room only to find it transformed. The walls were much the same, a collection of circular depressions, but the space seemed larger. The rough organic coral shapes had been replaced with dark wood columns which were polished to a warm glow. The ratty automobile seats had been replaced with three comfortable looking chairs of red leather. While Jack could still see many of the familiar levers, knobs, and even the mallet, over all the fittings were brass and shone in the yellow glow of the sensor bulbs.
Jack and the Doctor watched with amusement as Ianto and Gwen marveled at the bigger-on-the inside properties of his TARDIS.
Ianto frowned slightly as he touched the carved lion’s paw arm of an elaborate hall tree that stood against one wall. The piece was a marvel of Victorian clutter control. It was bout six feet high, and carved out of a dark wood. The center held a long mirror with a hinge-lidded box that served as a seat beneath it. It was flanked by brass coat hooks which at the moment held only an inexplicably long multi-colored scarf and an umbrella with a bright red handle.
“Like it?” the Doctor asked, grinning.
“There are pictures of my father sitting on one just like this. It stood in his home when he was a boy. I never got to see it, because the home was destroyed in the blitz.”
“Your grandfather was a very nice man, Ianto. He sold it to an antiques dealer about a week before the Germans messed up London. They needed money for tickets to get out of town and… well, it all worked out.”
Ianto’s eyes widened and he looked around the room again. “That’s why you asked about what kind of wood I liked.”
“I didn’t see the study he had when you were a boy, but I figured it would have been much like the one he had then.”
“It was, he told me about it. It’s beautiful, Doctor.”
The Doctor gave him a million watt smile. “Good! Now, is anyone hungry?”
The Doctor opened the dark wood door that stood opposite the blue exit doors. He ushered Gwen and Ianto through.
Jack hung back a little. “Where did you go, Doctor? You had me worried.”
“Now, Jack, I always keep my appointments. Well, almost always. Well, sometimes. I had to go shopping! The pantry was bare and I wanted to do a proper tea.”
Down a short hall way they came to an atrium with apparent sunshine coming through the ceiling. In the center stood a round, white gazebo with intertwined ivy and delicate pink roses growing on it.
Gwen stopped and gasped. “I’ve seen this before! But it doesn’t exist! Didn’t…”
The Doctor smiled.
“You recreated my desktop wallpaper!”
The Doctor squinted at the scene. “Thomas Kinkade owed me a favor. I drew the line at swans in the TARDIS, though, Noisy beasts. Shall we eat?”
On the round wrought iron table stood a picture-perfect high tea. “Oh! Peaches!” Gwen said. “I love peaches.” She cupped one in her hands and sniffed it.
“Ripe off trees in sunny Georgia!” the Doctor drawled in a credible Southern accent.
“What about the bananas?” Jack asked, picking one up and cocking an eyebrow.
“They’re from your favorite grove on Villengard,” the Doctor said.
“Aw! You remembered.” Answering Gwen and Ianto puzzled looks, Jack shrugged. “From when we first met.”
“So the silver service really is Baroque?” Ianto asked.
“Yes!” the Doctor crowed, delighted that Ianto had caught on. “The tea is from the Han Dynasty, 10th century BC, that is. The tea set is Ming. China, not the Merciless. He was actually less of a tea fan that you would expect. The coffee is from Turkey, 1586. The milk, butter, and cream are from the happiest cows in the alps. They just love yodeling. The cheese is from Wisconsin. The traditional window cake is from 1884, made in the honor of the marriage of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter to Prince Louis. Aw! Louis and Vickie! What a sweet couple they were. The mints are from Branlaclarpahan in the blueberry sector of Alpha seven in the year 1 billion, 1,472.”
“What about the tablecloth? It’s lovely.” Gwen fingered the ornately embroidered white cloth. “I’ve never seen a pattern like this.”
“It’s from Gallifrey. It’s a ceremonial alter cloth. Last one in existence. I was Lord President of the High Council for a bit!” Gwen respectfully soothed the cloth and Ianto hesitated putting his cup down. “Don’t worry. It won’t stain. That’s why I dare use it as a tablecloth.”
“I like the TARDIS patterned plates,” Jack said, loading one up with cucumber sandwiches and scones.
“It’s Dresdin china. There’s a story behind that. I rescued the chairs from the French revolution. I told you I had some shopping to do, Jack. Oh! I also had time to master this!”
The Doctor jumped up and took out the Kaiatube toy he’d taken from the storage room. His one-object juggling routine started out slow with the object just throwing off flashes of color and sparks of light. His movements grew faster, and the toy started giving off a steady stream of colors that trailed behind it. The Doctor tossed it into the air with one hand, manipulating the color tails with the other.
The Torchwood team members clapped and laughed. With a flourish, the Doctor flipped the device, spun in place, and neatly caught it behind his back. With a grand wave of both arms, he shaped the remaining trails into butterfly wings behind him which faded out as he took a bow.
“Thank you! Thank you!” the Doctor said, waving his arms as if to a large crowd instead of three people. He took a seat and handed the device to Ianto. “Thank you for the loan. You can have fun with it now. Oh, and Ianto,” the Doctor smiled, “can you possibly introduce me to your tailor? I find myself in need of a new coat.”
Jack knew how important a good coat was to a traveler. He smiled and wondered if Ianto knew what an honor it was the Doctor entrusted him with this task. The Doctor, as if sensing Jack’s thoughts caught his eye and gave him a wink. Another knot of worry about the Doctor loosened in Jack’s chest.
For several hours, they talked, laughed, and shared the good food.
Gwen’s phone rang and she answered it, still laughing at Jack’s last story. “Hello! Rhys, hi!” She smiled her apologies and stepped away from the table.
“She loves that man very much,” the Doctor observed quietly. “She’s lucky to have him.”
Jack watched Gwen as she bent to sniff a rose, caressing its petals as she spoke quietly to her husband. “Yes, she is.”
Gwen flipped off her phone and turned around. “I’ve had a lovely time, but Rhys needs me at home.”
“Oh I bet he does,” Jack leered.
Gwen smacked his arm. “Jack, stop it.” She turned to the Doctor. “Doctor, thank you for the wonderful tea. And this room! It’s lovely. Like a dream come true.”
She gave him a peck on the cheek and the Doctor hugged Gwen close. “Well, you’ve been good to me. And It’s been too long since the TARDIS had an atrium. I can come here, smell the roses and think of you.”
Gwen blushed.
Ianto got to his feet. “I should be getting back to work as well.”
“Ianto Jones!” The Doctor said, giving him a warm hug. “If you ever get tired of the way Jack treats you, I could use a man like you on my side.”
“Nice to know I have a retirement plan, sir, but I believe I’ll stay with Jack.”
“Put in my order with your tailor will you?”
“Are you certain you don’t want to pick the materials yourself?”
The Doctor indicated the suit he was wearing. “You chose so beautifully with this one, I trust you. Just… no true blue. And lots of pockets in the coat. Contrary to popular theory, it was the pocket that started man on the road to civilization, not flint knives. ‘Ogg,’ I said, ‘everybody will want one.’”
They laughed and parted with the Doctor in the console room. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Jack said firmly, looking Ianto in the eye, and making a silent promise to not run off with the Doctor.
“I’ll be here, Jack.” The door closed behind Ianto.
“Alone at last,” Jack observed softly, leaning against a pillar. “Can we talk now?”
TBC - More very soon
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On to Chapter 4