The Butterfly Effect, Chapter 2
Title: The Butterfly Effect
Author: wbearsmom
Characters: Just about everyone
Rating: Varies with chapter - through Adult
Chapter summary: What happened after the parting at Bad Wolf Bay
Warnings: angst - lots of it for this chapter.
Disclaimer: The characters belong to the BBC. I’m just borrowing them for a bit.
Chapter 1: How?
The other Doctor pressed the bridge of his nose. “I’m not sure where to begin,” he said to his twin. “I suppose from when you left us on the beach.” He paused, putting his thoughts in order. “Jackie was glad to be back of course. Her life was there with Pete and Tony, and she never had any doubts about you returning her to her family.” Everyone in the room looked at Jackie and Pete who, despite their sadness, smiled softly at each other.
“As for me,” the other Doctor continued. “Even though Pete and Jackie welcomed me into their home and treated me as family, I was angry. Furious because you left us, even though I understood why you left us. But because I am you - with the same thoughts and experiences - I was able to cope with the feelings of abandonment because I did know exactly why you sent me there. I knew it was the right thing for me, and for you. Well, for everyone really. But Rose. . .” He trailed off, the memories of what had happened still fresh in his mind. The others remained silent, waiting for him to continue. It was several minutes before he managed to do so.
“At first, Rose was very depressed. She had spent so many years and so much energy trying to get back to you, and thought once she did find a way that you would keep her with you for the rest of her life. She couldn’t understand why you had returned her to Pete’s world. That’s what she called it - Pete’s world, Pete’s universe. She never felt it was her own, her home. She sat by herself the entire trip back to London and didn’t say a word to either Jackie or me. She’d just look at us every now and then with tears in her eyes. She wasn’t even happy to see Tony once we finally arrived home.” He looked fondly at the child, sleeping on his mother’s lap. “But she didn’t have much time to mope. The morning after we arrived she was sent out to the field with her team, and every day for some time after that.”
Jake nodded. “I was bloody glad to have her back. We’d been running ragged without her.”
“We were inundated with alien hot spots,” Pete added. “They were popping up everywhere.”
The other Doctor resumed his narrative. “The firing of the dimensional cannon as well as the interference of Davros and the Daleks in this universe had caused a rift breach. Life forms were flooding in from all over the other universe. Rose was out working with her team for weeks trying to stem the tide.
“We had hoped that by being constantly on the go her depression would lessen, but her mood never changed. She left the house in the morning without speaking, and went straight to her room when she returned home at night. It seemed she would never get past her sadness. But we were wrong. Her depression did break, just not in the way we expected.” He paused and shared a meaningful look with Pete and Jake, who both nodded in encouragement for him to continue.
“With all of the activity going on I offered to join one of the field teams, but Pete had other ideas for me. Their universe was collapsing - although slowly - and he asked if I could find a way to stop it; or if that wasn’t possible, to decelerate the collapse until we could help the inhabitants of his world - his universe - escape to a safer place. Of course, I agreed.
“I went through everything that Torchwood had collected over the years, all of the different technologies. And the only thing that I could come up with, the only thing that had a chance of slowing the collapse enough until a better solution could be found, was to modify the dimensional cannon.”
The Doctor perked up at that. “Brilliant idea! Use the cannon to support the walls of the universe instead of punch through them!” he said excitedly.
“Exactly,” the other Doctor enthused, flashing his trademark manic grin. But he quickly calmed himself. “It wasn’t an easy solution, though. We needed a huge power source. Not as much as Davros had needed - we didn’t want to disrupt anything. But enough to produce a mild shield around the area of collapse. Fortunately, there was a mountain range in the far north. And the main mineral formations that ran through the mountains were veins of quartz. The perfect natural, unlimited power source for our plans.”
Pete picked up the story for a bit. “So while Rose was out running with her team, the Doctor and I - and our crew - dismantled the cannon and transported it to Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the range, and started the conversion process. Wires were rerouted and control panels reconfigured. But most importantly, we removed the lanubium crystals. They were used to focus the cannon for the dimensional jumps and weren’t needed any more.” Pete sighed. “Everything was going smoothly. And then . . .” He stopped, closing his eyes as the memories came flooding back. Jackie reached out to him soothingly.
“The alien activity slowed down, and we weren’t needed in the field that much,” Jake said. “It took us a fair few days to fill out all of the incident reports, but after that we had plenty of time to check out what was happening around the office.” He shook his head. “It was then that Rose found out that the cannon was gone and, well, she went ballistic. All she talked about during our missions was using it to get back to here, and she was planning on intensifying its power so that she could break down the barriers separating the universes. She was very desperate, and with the cannon missing, well, I’d never seen her so livid - and that’s saying something.”
Jackie nodded. “She came home that night screaming and cursing at everyone in her path. It was horrible, and she continued her ranting day in and day out. She became downright cruel to all of us - even Tony.” She stroked her son’s hair as he continued to sleep. “But especially to the Doctor. She accused him of stealing the cannon to spite her and trapping her in that universe so that she’d have to accept being with him instead of letting her come back to this world. And she cursed you out something fierce, Doctor.” Jackie said, looking at the Time Lord. “She called you a smug, superior git and felt that you had no right to decide how she lived her life and how dare you abandon her - imprison her in that universe with, in what her opinion, was a defective copy of you.” A tear slid down her cheek. “It was so bad that I didn’t recognize her any more. My own daughter, and she was a stranger to me. I even began to hate her! It got to the point where we were considering having her sectioned and medicated.” She sighed heavily, and Pete kissed her head to soothe her. “And then last night she came home smiling,” she continued. “Hugged and kissed all of us like nothing had ever happened. Even played with Tony for a bit and had tea with us.”
“We accepted it at face value,” Pete took up the narrative once again. “We wanted to believe that everything was finally okay, even though there was that nagging doubt - that gut feeling that things had gotten even worse. And we should have gone with that feeling.” His throat tightened and he stopped speaking.
Jackie continued the story. “For the first time since we had gotten home, Rose took Tony up to his room to read him his bedtime story. She tucked him in, and he was fast asleep when I went up to check on them. And when I looked in Rose’s room, I thought she was sleeping, too. I kissed her forehead . . .” Tears welled in her eyes, and Pete held her tightly.
“We all went to bed thinking that everything was going to be fine.” Pete said.
There was a silence of several minutes before the other Doctor began speaking again. “It was around 7 this morning - well, this morning for us. Pete and I were having breakfast. There was . . .” His voice failed for a moment, and he cleared his throat before continuing. “There was an earthquake. Or what we thought was an earthquake. The whole house shook, shattering windows and overturning furniture. We could hear Tony screaming from upstairs and ran up to check on him, Jackie and Rose. Jackie was already in Tony’s room comforting him, but there was no sign of Rose. When we looked in her room her bed was made and her backpack was gone. We assumed she had gone into work early. Pete was about to call the office, but Jake called us first.”
“It was my turn for the overnight shift,” Jake said. “I did an inventory of the highest security vault like I do on every overnight, and realized that the lanubium crystals were missing. When I checked the log, I saw that Rose had signed them out last night, before she left. I was just about to call Pete when the earthquake hit - headed for the office instead.” He gave a shaky sigh, still disturbed at what he had seen. “On the monitors - one of our satellites captured the source of the earthquake. There was an explosion on Ben Nevis.” He paused for a minute, swallowing hard before continuing. “The entire mountain blew apart.”
“Oh my God!” Gwen exclaimed.
The Doctor looked at his twin. “Rose,” he said softly.
“Yeah,” the other Doctor confirmed. “Rose. After we all turned in last night, she must have slipped out of the house and commandeered a zeppelin to take her to the mountain. She reinstalled the crystals in the dimensional cannon, not realizing all of the modifications that were made. And when she powered it up . . .” he trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. There was a long, heavy silence.
“27 of our techs were working at Ben Nevis. They were obliterated in an instant,” Pete finally said. “But that wasn’t the worst of it. When the Doctor and I got into the office, we realized the effects of the cannon exploding went far beyond what we originally thought.”
“By combining the power of the modifications with the energy of the lanubium crystals, Rose didn’t just destroy the mountain - she tore apart the very fabric of our universe,” the other Doctor elaborated. “We had less than 24 hours before everything was gone.” He looked at the child who was sound asleep on Jackie’s lap. “Tony was going to die before he ever had a chance to live.”
There was a long silence as everyone in the room realized the horror of what had taken place. Finally it was Pete that spoke up.
“I wasn’t going to give in and let my son go down with the universe - not if there was any way of getting out. The Doctor and I went through every bit of information and technology in the Torchwood archives. It took several hours, but we found a way.” He sighed. “It was limited, though. We could only save ourselves.” His voice broke.
The other Doctor continued for him. “We had five transport buttons left - the ones that were used during the Canary Wharf battle. The energy from the cannon explosion charged them just enough and, after setting their coordinates to the rift here in Cardiff, we were able to jump through one of the cracks in the universe wall before it collapsed completely. We landed just in front of the fountain.” He nodded towards Jack. “It wasn’t even 5 minutes before Jack found us.”
“The rift alarm went off,” Jack said. “I looked at the CCTV and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I ran out to the plaza as fast as I could. And once I brought them into the hub here, I knew I had to call you.”
The Doctor nodded. “Quite right.”
The room fell quiet once again. For the moment, there was nothing more to be said.
Author: wbearsmom
Characters: Just about everyone
Rating: Varies with chapter - through Adult
Chapter summary: What happened after the parting at Bad Wolf Bay
Warnings: angst - lots of it for this chapter.
Disclaimer: The characters belong to the BBC. I’m just borrowing them for a bit.
Chapter 1: How?
The other Doctor pressed the bridge of his nose. “I’m not sure where to begin,” he said to his twin. “I suppose from when you left us on the beach.” He paused, putting his thoughts in order. “Jackie was glad to be back of course. Her life was there with Pete and Tony, and she never had any doubts about you returning her to her family.” Everyone in the room looked at Jackie and Pete who, despite their sadness, smiled softly at each other.
“As for me,” the other Doctor continued. “Even though Pete and Jackie welcomed me into their home and treated me as family, I was angry. Furious because you left us, even though I understood why you left us. But because I am you - with the same thoughts and experiences - I was able to cope with the feelings of abandonment because I did know exactly why you sent me there. I knew it was the right thing for me, and for you. Well, for everyone really. But Rose. . .” He trailed off, the memories of what had happened still fresh in his mind. The others remained silent, waiting for him to continue. It was several minutes before he managed to do so.
“At first, Rose was very depressed. She had spent so many years and so much energy trying to get back to you, and thought once she did find a way that you would keep her with you for the rest of her life. She couldn’t understand why you had returned her to Pete’s world. That’s what she called it - Pete’s world, Pete’s universe. She never felt it was her own, her home. She sat by herself the entire trip back to London and didn’t say a word to either Jackie or me. She’d just look at us every now and then with tears in her eyes. She wasn’t even happy to see Tony once we finally arrived home.” He looked fondly at the child, sleeping on his mother’s lap. “But she didn’t have much time to mope. The morning after we arrived she was sent out to the field with her team, and every day for some time after that.”
Jake nodded. “I was bloody glad to have her back. We’d been running ragged without her.”
“We were inundated with alien hot spots,” Pete added. “They were popping up everywhere.”
The other Doctor resumed his narrative. “The firing of the dimensional cannon as well as the interference of Davros and the Daleks in this universe had caused a rift breach. Life forms were flooding in from all over the other universe. Rose was out working with her team for weeks trying to stem the tide.
“We had hoped that by being constantly on the go her depression would lessen, but her mood never changed. She left the house in the morning without speaking, and went straight to her room when she returned home at night. It seemed she would never get past her sadness. But we were wrong. Her depression did break, just not in the way we expected.” He paused and shared a meaningful look with Pete and Jake, who both nodded in encouragement for him to continue.
“With all of the activity going on I offered to join one of the field teams, but Pete had other ideas for me. Their universe was collapsing - although slowly - and he asked if I could find a way to stop it; or if that wasn’t possible, to decelerate the collapse until we could help the inhabitants of his world - his universe - escape to a safer place. Of course, I agreed.
“I went through everything that Torchwood had collected over the years, all of the different technologies. And the only thing that I could come up with, the only thing that had a chance of slowing the collapse enough until a better solution could be found, was to modify the dimensional cannon.”
The Doctor perked up at that. “Brilliant idea! Use the cannon to support the walls of the universe instead of punch through them!” he said excitedly.
“Exactly,” the other Doctor enthused, flashing his trademark manic grin. But he quickly calmed himself. “It wasn’t an easy solution, though. We needed a huge power source. Not as much as Davros had needed - we didn’t want to disrupt anything. But enough to produce a mild shield around the area of collapse. Fortunately, there was a mountain range in the far north. And the main mineral formations that ran through the mountains were veins of quartz. The perfect natural, unlimited power source for our plans.”
Pete picked up the story for a bit. “So while Rose was out running with her team, the Doctor and I - and our crew - dismantled the cannon and transported it to Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the range, and started the conversion process. Wires were rerouted and control panels reconfigured. But most importantly, we removed the lanubium crystals. They were used to focus the cannon for the dimensional jumps and weren’t needed any more.” Pete sighed. “Everything was going smoothly. And then . . .” He stopped, closing his eyes as the memories came flooding back. Jackie reached out to him soothingly.
“The alien activity slowed down, and we weren’t needed in the field that much,” Jake said. “It took us a fair few days to fill out all of the incident reports, but after that we had plenty of time to check out what was happening around the office.” He shook his head. “It was then that Rose found out that the cannon was gone and, well, she went ballistic. All she talked about during our missions was using it to get back to here, and she was planning on intensifying its power so that she could break down the barriers separating the universes. She was very desperate, and with the cannon missing, well, I’d never seen her so livid - and that’s saying something.”
Jackie nodded. “She came home that night screaming and cursing at everyone in her path. It was horrible, and she continued her ranting day in and day out. She became downright cruel to all of us - even Tony.” She stroked her son’s hair as he continued to sleep. “But especially to the Doctor. She accused him of stealing the cannon to spite her and trapping her in that universe so that she’d have to accept being with him instead of letting her come back to this world. And she cursed you out something fierce, Doctor.” Jackie said, looking at the Time Lord. “She called you a smug, superior git and felt that you had no right to decide how she lived her life and how dare you abandon her - imprison her in that universe with, in what her opinion, was a defective copy of you.” A tear slid down her cheek. “It was so bad that I didn’t recognize her any more. My own daughter, and she was a stranger to me. I even began to hate her! It got to the point where we were considering having her sectioned and medicated.” She sighed heavily, and Pete kissed her head to soothe her. “And then last night she came home smiling,” she continued. “Hugged and kissed all of us like nothing had ever happened. Even played with Tony for a bit and had tea with us.”
“We accepted it at face value,” Pete took up the narrative once again. “We wanted to believe that everything was finally okay, even though there was that nagging doubt - that gut feeling that things had gotten even worse. And we should have gone with that feeling.” His throat tightened and he stopped speaking.
Jackie continued the story. “For the first time since we had gotten home, Rose took Tony up to his room to read him his bedtime story. She tucked him in, and he was fast asleep when I went up to check on them. And when I looked in Rose’s room, I thought she was sleeping, too. I kissed her forehead . . .” Tears welled in her eyes, and Pete held her tightly.
“We all went to bed thinking that everything was going to be fine.” Pete said.
There was a silence of several minutes before the other Doctor began speaking again. “It was around 7 this morning - well, this morning for us. Pete and I were having breakfast. There was . . .” His voice failed for a moment, and he cleared his throat before continuing. “There was an earthquake. Or what we thought was an earthquake. The whole house shook, shattering windows and overturning furniture. We could hear Tony screaming from upstairs and ran up to check on him, Jackie and Rose. Jackie was already in Tony’s room comforting him, but there was no sign of Rose. When we looked in her room her bed was made and her backpack was gone. We assumed she had gone into work early. Pete was about to call the office, but Jake called us first.”
“It was my turn for the overnight shift,” Jake said. “I did an inventory of the highest security vault like I do on every overnight, and realized that the lanubium crystals were missing. When I checked the log, I saw that Rose had signed them out last night, before she left. I was just about to call Pete when the earthquake hit - headed for the office instead.” He gave a shaky sigh, still disturbed at what he had seen. “On the monitors - one of our satellites captured the source of the earthquake. There was an explosion on Ben Nevis.” He paused for a minute, swallowing hard before continuing. “The entire mountain blew apart.”
“Oh my God!” Gwen exclaimed.
The Doctor looked at his twin. “Rose,” he said softly.
“Yeah,” the other Doctor confirmed. “Rose. After we all turned in last night, she must have slipped out of the house and commandeered a zeppelin to take her to the mountain. She reinstalled the crystals in the dimensional cannon, not realizing all of the modifications that were made. And when she powered it up . . .” he trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. There was a long, heavy silence.
“27 of our techs were working at Ben Nevis. They were obliterated in an instant,” Pete finally said. “But that wasn’t the worst of it. When the Doctor and I got into the office, we realized the effects of the cannon exploding went far beyond what we originally thought.”
“By combining the power of the modifications with the energy of the lanubium crystals, Rose didn’t just destroy the mountain - she tore apart the very fabric of our universe,” the other Doctor elaborated. “We had less than 24 hours before everything was gone.” He looked at the child who was sound asleep on Jackie’s lap. “Tony was going to die before he ever had a chance to live.”
There was a long silence as everyone in the room realized the horror of what had taken place. Finally it was Pete that spoke up.
“I wasn’t going to give in and let my son go down with the universe - not if there was any way of getting out. The Doctor and I went through every bit of information and technology in the Torchwood archives. It took several hours, but we found a way.” He sighed. “It was limited, though. We could only save ourselves.” His voice broke.
The other Doctor continued for him. “We had five transport buttons left - the ones that were used during the Canary Wharf battle. The energy from the cannon explosion charged them just enough and, after setting their coordinates to the rift here in Cardiff, we were able to jump through one of the cracks in the universe wall before it collapsed completely. We landed just in front of the fountain.” He nodded towards Jack. “It wasn’t even 5 minutes before Jack found us.”
“The rift alarm went off,” Jack said. “I looked at the CCTV and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I ran out to the plaza as fast as I could. And once I brought them into the hub here, I knew I had to call you.”
The Doctor nodded. “Quite right.”
The room fell quiet once again. For the moment, there was nothing more to be said.