just an ordinary boy - Impossible Adventures Through Time and Space - 3/?

Title: Impossible Adventures Through Time and Space
Summary: A breach in time and space is affecting this world and the world where Rose and her Doctor have been living.
Characters: Rose, her Doctor, the Torchwood team...and a few surprise guests
Rating: T



Part One Part Two

The Hub
Six hours later


The Hub is busy. Gwen, Ianto and Jack are taking readings on Rift activity, quizzing the boy on everything he can remember about the device.

Martha Jones arrives in the midst of all this, breezing into the Hub and looking startled to find a young boy the center of so much commotion.

“Hello!” she says. “I was just on my way through back to London!” She’s taken aback by the lack of response. “What’s going on?” she asks. “Is this a new recruit?”

Jack gives her a quick kiss of greeting. “Good to see you again, Dr. Jones. What’s the occasion?”

Martha looks puzzled. “Occasion for what?”

“For stopping by on your way through back to London.”

“Jack, are you feeling okay? I got a message to get here as soon as I could! I was coming home from holiday.”

“A message? From who?”

“Well, I don’t know! I sent Tom on ahead home. I’m due back at the hospital tomorrow, Jack. If this is your idea of a cute joke, I don’t have time for it.”

“Martha, wait.” Jack grabs her arm and helps her out of her coat. “We didn’t send you any message. I know how you feel about working a normal job. But since you’re here, stay a minute, give us your input?”

“What’s going on?”

Jack quickly fills her in on what’s been happening. Martha nods slowly, accepting the parallel world theory without a pause.

“We’re not sure what’s happening just yet,” Gwen concludes. “Any ideas you have would be appreciated, though.”

Martha hesitates. “I really don’t have a clue,” she confesses. “I haven’t had any dealings with this sort of thing for a long time.”

“You didn’t notice any unusual activity out there?” Jack asks.

Martha smiles wryly. “‘Unusual’ for me is not what it used to be. But no.”

Ianto stands up, claiming Martha’s attention. “I’ve looked him over, but a trained doctor would be helpful in this case. Would you mind?”

“Of course.” She looks at the boy. “I’m Martha. Mind if I take a listen to your heart?”

The boy considers her for a moment and shrugs.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Martha murmurs, and ushers him to an exam table.

“My name’s Martha,” she says again as she puts on a stethoscope. “What’s yours?”

He doesn’t respond. Martha listens to his heartbeat and his breathing.

“Sounds normal enough,” she says lightly. “Is there something wrong with your tongue? Do you know how to talk?”

“Of course I do.”

“Oh. You didn’t answer me. I assumed you were either being incredibly rude or you weren’t able to talk.”

He frowns.

Martha shines a light into his eyes. “Anyway, like I said, I’m Martha,” she continues, just like they’ve been having a normal conversation all along. “Just got back from a week in the French Alps. My husband and I went on a skiing holiday. Had loads of fun, between the snow and the hot chocolate.” She smiles a bit, but he continues to stare at her.

“What did you say your name was?”

“I need to get home,” he says.

“Where is home?”

Again, he doesn’t answer her. Looking over his shoulder at Gwen and Jack, who are conferring over a computer monitor, he shakes his head.

“Do you know where home is? Where your family is?”

For the first time he looks straight at Martha. He’s only a boy, and he looks uncertain and frightened.

“What is it?” she asks gently.

He starts to speak and then shakes his head.

Martha finishes her exam and leaves him sitting on the table.

“He looks fine,” she reports to Jack. “No signs of trauma. Perfectly healthy. What’s wrong with him? Why won’t he tell me his name?”

“He won’t tell us anything,” Gwen says. “Just that he was in Torchwood when he was suddenly brought here somehow.”

“If he came from Torchwood - any Torchwood - there are people there who will be looking for him,” Jack states. “His father was there - he’ll notice that his kid is gone.”

“What makes you think that anyone else can cross over or come through and find him?” Martha asks.

Jack holds her gaze for a moment. “Martha Jones, you’ve done some amazing things in your day. You know what’s possible with a bit of faith and a dash of hope.”





Another surprise guest comes knocking. This one gets a look of annoyance from Jack and puzzled interest from Gwen and Ianto.

“I picked up all this strange activity on my scanners,” Mickey Smith tells them, ignoring the lack of a greeting. “Figured this was the place to be.”

“What scanners are those?” Gwen asks.

Jack looks decidedly ungrateful. “We’ve got a spike of something, yes. There was no need for you to come down and help out, though.”

“You don’t have enough manpower as it is,” Mickey tells him. “Three of you against the Rift? How much longer can you do your job properly that way? How many disasters have been caused because you couldn’t handle it all?”

Jack is almost speechless with rage. “What do you know about my team and how we do things here?”

“I know that it’s long past time you hired some more help to replace-” Mickey doesn’t get to finish his sentence. Ianto hits him in the back of the knees with a chair.

“You look tired,” Ianto says shortly. “Have a seat.”

Jack starts towards Mickey. Gwen stops him with a hand on his chest.

“You don’t get to make comments about my team, Mickey Smith,” Jack tells him.

Mickey sits down slowly. “Something is happening, Captain, and we don’t want to be caught by surprise.”

“Who’s ‘we’?” Gwen asks.

“And where did you come down from again?” Ianto asks suspiciously.

Mickey rolls his eyes. “You know I’m not gonna say.”

Jack manages to stop himself from giving a rude reply. Whatever Mickey Smith has been doing since landing back on this world, it’s secretive and mysterious. It is also, for the most part, far away from Cardiff and Torchwood, so he doesn’t press.

As long as he keeps his comments about Torchwood to himself, he can stay.

For a while.

“So what’s going on?” Mickey asks.

“You mean you don’t know?” Sometimes Jack just can’t help himself. To be nice to Mickey Smith now would just be a shame.

“I know something’s going on,” Mickey retorts. “Something big. That’s why I contacted Dr. Jones to meet me here.”

Martha stalks over to him. “You contacted- how did you get my number?” she demands. “How were you able to even find me?”

“I have my resources. We-”

“I was skiing with my husband! I can’t believe you sent me a message to come here! I can’t believe I did it! You are a -”

Ianto clears his throat and gestures to the boy. “We’ve a guest.”

Mickey turns around. “So? Who-”

There is no warning. No Rift settings going off, no loud noises. A beam of light appears in the middle of the room, startling them all. The light recedes, and out of the column of fading energy emerges a man. He wears dark jeans and boots, a black jacket over a white shirt. A black gun is strapped across his chest and braced against his hip. His face is grim.

The assembled Torchwood crew and guests momentarily stunned. Finally Jack starts to move.

“Stay back!” the man snaps. He holds them off with his hand as his gaze sweeps the room.

A tense silence lasts for several seconds. Martha takes a slow step forward.

“Stay back!” he repeats.

Another beam of light, another figure. A woman, dressed in jeans and a red jacket, holding a gun in both hands. Her partner exhales loudly.

“Where were you?” he demands angrily. “Stop off to buy a pair of shoes?”

The woman is scanning the assembled group, a look of tension and on her face. “There you are.” She looks relieved.

The boy had been standing beside Gwen. Now he’s watching the newcomers with cautious eyes.

“It’s okay,” the woman tells him. “Everything’s okay now. We’ve come to take you home.”

His face breaks out in a grin. “I knew you’d come get me.” He runs to the woman and is swept up in a hug.

His movement breaks the spell, and Jack, Martha, Ianto and Gwen all speak at once.

“Doctor!”

Mickey comes closer. “Rose?”

It is indeed the Doctor and Rose, but it’s the Doctor and Rose who belong to the other, parallel universe. They haven’t seen their Doctor in some time, but this isn’t him. He’s not wearing a brown suit and long brown coat. He has the same face and hair, but the look on his face is still dark and deadly serious.

Rose’s hair is much longer than Jack remembers it ever being. She looks impossibly young and impossibly pretty. He smiles at her and she smiles back, a happy, sunny smile just like she used to give to him.

“We’ve come for my brother,” Rose says. “He was caught up in a trans-dimensional time warp.”

Mickey blinks. “Is this Tony? Little Tony?”

“He was in the wrong place at the right time,” Rose continues. “Something swept through Torchwood.”

“Freak accident,” the Doctor adds. “Luckily we were able to follow him.” He looks around at his surroundings. “To here, of all places.”

Under the circumstances, Jack decides to overlook this jab at Torchwood. “You gonna stand there pointing your guns at us all day?” he asks.

Rose carefully sets her gun down. The Doctor relaxes his stance.

“They’re only for show, to be honest.” He nods at them. “Captain. Martha, Mickey. Gwyneth! Hello.”

“It’s Gwen,” Rose corrects him.

He grins. “Sorry. You’re very like her.”

Gwen would love to ask what he’s talking about, but she suspects she won’t get a chance.

“You look fantastic, Rose,” Jack says.

“You, too, Jack,” Rose says. “We’ve missed you.” Her gaze moves to Mickey. “It’s good to see you both again.”

“Says you,” the Doctor murmurs.

“Yes, says me,” she says firmly. “Hold on, Tony. We’re going home.”

“Lovely to see you all,” the Doctor says to the room in general. “Our love to the family.” He picks up Rose’s gun. “Rose?”

“Ready.”

There is no warning. One moment they are there, standing together, the next they have disappeared.

Mickey rubs his jaw. Jack stares fixedly at the spot where Rose and the Doctor had just been standing.

Ianto is standing with his hands in his pockets. “Interesting day,” he remarks.

“That’s one word for it,” Martha says.

Jack comes to his senses and glances around at them, looking annoyed. “Didn’t the Doctor once say that travel between parallel worlds is impossible?”

Part Four