wintercompanion | vail-kagami: To Wander, Between the Stars, Part 3a/3 (Jack/Ten) [R]

Title: To Wander, Between the Stars (3a/3)
Author:

nightrider101
Challenge: AU
Rating: R (overall)
Spoilers: Series 3 Finale
Warnings: Violence, mentioned rape
Summary: Jack never made that con in 1941. Instead his broken vortex manipulator strands him in the twenty-first century, where he finally meets the Doctor - who's been a prisoner of Torchwood for a long time.

They couldn’t have been gone for longer than twenty minutes, but by the time they came back to the cell, Dr. Roberts wasn’t there anymore. In her place Lisa Jones was sitting at the unconscious Doctor’s side.

The Time Lord’s head had been placed on a pillow, apart from that he was laying on the cold, hard stone floor. His hands were cuffed now, and there was a guard standing beside the door.

“There’s nothing physically wrong with him,” the nurse informed them. “Dr. Roberts said he’ll wake up any moment.”

“And where did she go now?” The irritation was back on John’s face. “For all her enthusiasm about working with the Doctor that woman seems to be making an effort to never be around when he’s awake.”

“She’ll be back in a moment,” Lisa said tensely.

“Well, she’d better! After all –“

The Doctor kept John from finishing the sentence by opening his eyes. For a moment he stared at the ceiling, then he blinked and his eyes were on John. His expression darkened.

“Good to see you awake again, my friend,” the leader of Torchwood said sweetly. “I think it’s time we have a little chat.”

He gestured for the guard to close the door. Jack had expected him to send Lisa out first, and possibly even him, but John seemed to ignore their presence. Feeling nervous all of a sudden Jack exchanged a glance with the nurse who obviously shared his unease.

“What exactly just happened?” John asked the Doctor, who was being helped to his feet by Lisa. “What’s going on with you and Saxon?”

“Saxon?” The Doctor’s face was blank. “The man who was just here? He’s called Saxon?” The seriousness in his eyes did nothing to ease Jack’s feelings. “Who is he?”

“You tell me,” John insisted. “I got the impression you know each other.”

The Doctor didn’t answer.

John stepped closer – his posture was threatening but all Jack could think was that the Doctor was a lot taller than him.

“I want to know what’s going on between the two of you, and you’d better tell me before I lose my patience. Because, believe me, if he gets elected Prime Minister and I don’t know how he’s connected to you he’s not going to find you if he ever comes here again. At least not in one piece.”

John was feeling threatened by the politician, Jack suddenly realised. The Ministry of Defence already had some influence over Torchwood – Once he ran the country it would be within Saxon’s power to take the institute over completely.

And if he was connected to the Doctor somehow, if he could in any way influence the man who was such a precious scientific and technical adviser for them even as a prisoner, how could they be sure that the politician hadn’t been leaving his mark on Torchwood’s work for years?

“Prime Minister?” The Time Lord seemed even more troubled than before, almost shocked. “He’s going to be Prime Minister?”

“You don’t know?” John snorted.

“How could I? It’s not like you’d let me watch the news channel.” Even as he spoke the Doctor seemed distracted. He appeared to grow more distressed with every second.

“But you do know him.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” the Doctor admitted. “I thought he was dead.”

“Right…” John tapped his lips with his finger. “Somehow I don’t believe you. I think you’ve had contact before.”

Jack noticed that he never asked how the Doctor could have seen the other man through the mirror. He looked at it, briefly, and found his own reflection glancing back. It seemed to have little in common with the man he saw in the bathroom mirror this morning. Funny how here, in a cell with an abused prisoner and a psychopathic man he called his friend, he looked like a stranger.

Only after a moment did he remember that the Doctor had some telepathic abilities. Jack hadn’t expected them to be strong enough to work without at least visual contact.

“Who is he?” This time it was John who posed the question. He got no answer.

John sighed exaggeratedly, turned around and ordered the guard to give him his gun. The man did so, after a second of hesitation. Instead of pointing the weapon at the Doctor John just said, “Thank you,” and shot the guard in the leg. With a scream of pain and surprise, the man fell to the ground. It mingled with Lisa’s shocked gasp.

“No!” the Doctor yelled. “Why did you do that? He’s done nothing wrong!” To Jack, used to the prisoner speaking quietly, the volume of his voice was almost as much a shock as John’s action. The Time Lord fell to his knees beside the guard, pressing his bound hands against the wound. Jack moved to help him, but John held him back.

“No, he hasn’t,” he agreed. “But you have. And now you’d better behave or someone else will get hurt.” The Doctor looked up, his eyes following John’s gaze to rest on Lisa. She stared at them, her eyes full of fear.

‘John has always planned to kill her eventually,’ Jack thought numbly. ‘And she knows. Hell, she knows it!’

And so did the Doctor.

“Don’t,” he begged quietly.

“Then answer me!” John demanded. “Who is Saxon to you? What are you planning?”

“I’ll tell you everything,” the Doctor promised. “If you swear not to hurt her, or anyone else in this room.”

For the first time Jack got the idea that this also included him. As John’s old friend and part-time lover he had felt excluded from his homicidal tendencies but as John looked at him now he wasn’t so sure anymore. The look the Doctor threw him said that the Time Lord worried for him as much as the nurse and the wounded guard. Somehow this concern made Jack feel worse than he ever had, and yet…

“All right,” John agreed. “They’ll be fine. But you should hurry up, before our friend here bleeds to death.”

“He calls himself the Master,” said the Doctor, while applying pressure to the guard’s wound. “He’s an old enemy of mine. He looks human but he’s an alien, and if he wants to become Prime Minister, he needs to be stopped.” His gaze was intense. “Whatever he has in mind, it’s definitely not ‘the best for this country’.”

“What are the two of you up to?”

“Nothing! Until half an hour ago I was sure he’d died.” There was real desperation in the Doctor’s eyes, but Jack wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with the gun or the fact that John would never believe him.

The guard had stopped whimpering. He was staring at John, at the gun, with fear and disbelief etched over his face – maybe finally realising who was the true villain here.

“I don’t believe you,” John declared, turning and shooting the guard in the head. Blood splattered over the floor, the wall. Lisa screamed.

The Doctor didn’t show any reaction at all. After a second he uselessly felt for the man’s pulse, and when he rose to his feet, Jack saw barely restrained fury in is face.

John had his back turned to Jack. He should grab him, get the gun, Jack thought, because there was no way he’d let the girl go to tell everyone what had happened here. But John’s reflexes were quick, and he’d shoot Jack if he attacked him. Jack knew it and did nothing.

“Again,” John said with long suffering patience. “What are you planning? How long has he been in contact with you? The truth, please.”

“You don’t want to hear the truth,” the Doctor spat. “You want to hear a confirmation of the facts you have made up in your mind. Nothing else will satisfy you.” He moved slowly, until he was standing between Lisa and the gun.

Jack knew it wouldn’t save her.

John suddenly changed the topic. “Can you fix Jack’s vortex manipulator?”

“Theoretically,” the Doctor admitted reluctantly and John turned to throw a quick grin at Jack.

“See? Interrogation is so much easier if you spice it with a little violence.” Jack glared at him.

“Why not practically?” John addressed the Doctor again.

“I don’t have the right tools.”

“And if you had?”

“Then I wouldn’t do it.”

This time Jack couldn’t keep himself from speaking. “Why not?” He took a step forward.

“Because the energy of the vortex manipulator would serve Mr. Hart here as a power source for a weapon that could completely destroy the human mind at the touch of a button” the Doctor informed him. “He didn’t tell you?”

Jack turned sharply, but John completely ignored his stare.

“Annoying me is more important to you than poor Lisa’s life?” he asked. “Because I’m gonna shoot her if you don’t help me.”

“What part of ‘I don’t have the right tools’ didn’t you understand?” the Doctor sneered. “And you’re going to shoot her anyway. You’ve just proven once again that your promises are worthless.”

For a second his eyes met Jack’s and the conman read the unspoken plea in them. There was only one way to keep Lisa alive: Taking out John. But for that the Doctor needed Jack’s help. The alien would keep the armed man’s attention on himself, giving Jack a chance to grab him from behind.

Jack desperately wished he hadn’t had all his weapons taken away when he first entered the building. Pointing a gun at John’s head, forcing him to think twice about this would have been easier than to physically attack him and hope he wasn’t shot first. And John would hardly accept his apology afterwards. No, he would have him killed just like Lisa. Even if they managed to get out of this room, they’d never leave the building, and no one would believe them if they told what had really happened to the guard. Who was the Doctor fooling? Fighting John would at best buy them time they couldn’t use for anything. Jack hated the idea of Lisa dying but he wasn’t going to die with her.

The only way to escape John’s wrath would be to take him out of the picture permanently.

The thought came unbidden and inevitably. The Doctor glanced at him again and Jack found himself unable to move. This was the moment where he determined what kind of man he was. This was where he chose his side: The right one (an old lover and his own safety) or the good one (a kind-hearted woman and the most heroic man he had ever met).

He came to a decision half a second before John lifted his other arm and suddenly had a second gun pointing right at Jack’s face.

“Sorry, Doctor,” he said. “I couldn’t help noticing how you tried to make dear Jack act against me. And since he’s a bit soft at times, he’d feel awful later for doing nothing. So I thought I’d spare him the torment by taking the decision away from him. I hope you don’t mind.”

According to the look on the Doctor’s face he did mind. He also appeared to believe John to be lying, that Jack would have helped him. And a part of Jack wanted to live up to his expectations, prove himself worthy of that trust, given to him by the only person who’d ever thought highly of him despite having no reason to do so. But the gun pointed at his face made remain still.

There was desperation in the Doctor’s eyes when he realised he couldn’t do anything, and Jack was struck with the irony of the fact that the alien, despite his situation, was the only one in this room not in danger of losing his life.

All three men were surprised when Lisa suddenly stepped out of the Doctor’s shadow. On her face Jack saw fear but also acceptance as she said, “You won’t always get away with murder, Hart.”

“That’s ‘General’ to you,” John corrected her. “But as last words go, it wasn’t so bad, if a bit cliché.” He fired.

And managed to move the gun the very last second so the shot went astray and only hit the Doctor’s arm as he knocked Lisa to the ground. The second shot followed a second later and then Lisa was laying in her own blood, the back of her head a destroyed mess.

“I thought you’d do something like that,” John said coldly, looking down at his prisoner. “Though I’d like to know what exactly you were hoping to archive by that. For being such a genius, you are incredibly stupid sometimes.”

Jack’s growing dislike for his former partner turned to hatred as he gave him an arrogant smile.

The Doctor was curled up on the ground, not even able to clutch the wound right below his shoulder, due to his cuffed hands.

“Bastard!” he gasped. “She’s done nothing to you!” He looked at the still body of the nurse lying beside him and started to cry, helpless, silent tears running down his face.

“It’s what happens to the people who get involved with you: they die.” John turned briefly to leer at the alien. “This is your fault, Doctor. And after we’ve found the right tools for you to work with, we’ll see how many more have to be killed before you finally show some cooperation.”

The Doctor let out a broken half sob. Jack could see he really did blame himself for what had happened to Lisa.

“I told her to get out,” the conman heard him whisper, almost inaudibly, as he knelt down beside him. “I told her…”

“Hold still,” Jack murmured, not knowing what else to say. “Let me look at that wound.”

The Doctor glanced up at him with tears in his eyes, so hurt and desperate, but not broken. Not yet completely broken.

His lips formed a name and Jack found himself nodding ever so slightly. He’d had the same thought.

“You’re not looking at anything.” Suddenly John was standing beside Jack, pulling him to his feet. “And you’re not telling anyone what really happened here.” He led Jack to the door and contacted the guards outside over his earpiece to make them open the lock.

“We can’t just leave him lying there!” Jack protested. “He’ll bleed to death.”

“Oh, he’ll be taken care of, don’t worry,” John assured him. “But not by you.”

The door opened and John gave a surprisingly convincing performance for the two guards even as he shoved Jack outside. He gestured at the bloody mess inside the cell, told the shocked men his version of how their colleague had died. Then he cursed the dead man, ranted how he had reminded the guards over and over again they should keep in mind how fast the Doctor could be, and that he would kill whenever he got the chance – even people who had been nothing but kind to him, like poor Lisa. It was pure luck that made John take him out before he could shoot him and Jack as well.

Jack hadn’t known he could act this well. He saw the two men’s expressions change from disbelief to fury as they looked at the injured alien on the floor. The urge to tell them the truth was strong but he knew better than to do so. They wouldn’t listen to him, and John would never let him see the Doctor again, if he didn’t simply kill him.

(It made perfect sense but Jack failed to convince himself that it was common sense that made him act this way, and not cowardice.)

To make matters worse Dr. Roberts still hadn’t come back. Jack didn’t like her but she would at least care for the Doctor’s wound properly. And with her presence the guards wouldn’t touch the alien, no matter now angry they were. Jack was sure of it.

His heart sank when John ordered the two men to take care of the Doctor’s injury themselves.

“Make sure he lives,” he added, and Jack knew his words didn’t just refer to stopping the bleeding.

“They’ll kill him!” he exclaimed once the guards had closed the door of the cell after them.

“Uhm, no,” John replied. “I just told them not to. They’re too smart to go against my orders. Won’t even cripple him. Well, maybe a little.”

Alone in the corridor, Jack had no reason to hold back. John stumbled backwards after Jack’s fist hit his face.

“You murdered them!” he hissed. “There was no need for that!”

John rubbed his jaw, though Jack could tell he didn’t mind the violence. “Our friend might think twice about being stubborn next time.” He grimaced. “Though he has failed to learn that lesson before…”

“When you killed Dr. Roberts’ predecessor and blamed him for it,” Jack suspected. “You asshole! You’ve completely lost it!” He didn’t say ‘I don’t recognize you anymore’ because John had always been like this. In the old days it had just never such an impact on Jack.

A shadow moved at the end of the corridor, cast by a person staying wisely out of sight. Jack had to keep John from spotting it, to prevent him from killing anyone else.

“And about my vortex manipulator: when exactly did you plan on telling me you just wanted to turn it into a weapon? I thought you wanted to go home!”

“I do! Though I have to say I’ve grown fond of this place.” To Jack’s relief John’s eyes stayed on him. If he turned around, he’d just have to hit him again.

With pleasure.

“No need to worry though,” the other man continued. “There’ll be enough energy left for a few jumps when I’m finished with it.”

“If the Doctor ever fixes it for you,” Jack pointed out. He didn’t say ‘for us’. And somehow the fact that he wouldn’t get away from here this way didn’t seem so important at the moment.

“Oh, he will. Eventually.”

“How can you be so sure? You’ll just keep killing people no matter what he does. And he’ll know, because he can read your mind. How did you ever think he would trust me, if he could see my – and your – intentions clearly in our heads?”

“He can’t read our minds. Don’t worry.”

“Then why did you say he was telepathic?”

“Because he is.”

“You’re not making sense here, John, and right now I’m not feeling particularly patient.”

John sighed. “His telepathy only works if he touches you, but we’re suppressing it with drugs anyway. Sometimes he still senses things, though. That’s how he knew about Saxon, I guess. Makes sense if they know each other.”

“Ah, yes, Saxon.” Jack snorted. “You know, if they had regular contact, the Doctor would hardly have given it away by his reaction.”

John only shrugged. “There are many ways of contact. I’m not taking any risks.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Leave that to me.” John seemed ready to go.

“You’re going back to your office?” The question was completely unnecessary. It only served to warn whoever was lurking around the corner to get away now.

“Yep. Things to organize. You’d get bored. I’d advise you to find something to keep yourself occupied until I’m done. Some of my employees are good in bed – you have my permission to distract them for work. I think you need to blow off some steam.”

“Right,” Jack said. Keeping an employee from work was exactly what he had in mind.

With one last look at the closed door, he turned around and followed John out of the complex.

Dr. Roberts finally showed up just before they reached the main base. When asked about her absence, she told them she’d been running a test on the Doctor’s blood to find an explanation for his sudden fainting spell and Jack silently cursed her for her timing. John ordered her to get back to whatever she’d been doing and don’t go to the cell before she was called there. She just shrugged in response and walked away.

As he hurried through the base, Jack couldn’t stop wondering why the Doctor had pushed Lisa out of the way – he couldn’t have really believed that would save her. In the end he came to the conclusion that the Time Lord just couldn’t help himself. A friend was in danger and he had to do something. No matter how useless. He wasn’t the kind of man who’d just watch, even if it were hopeless.

Unlike Jack.

Eventually the ex-time agent found a large hall full of desks, and he stole a pen and a piece of paper to scribble a short message. It took him a moment to spot Ianto Jones, sitting on a desk in the last row. Poor bastard. He didn’t know yet.

The speaker in the wall cracked to life as Jack approached him, and he suppressed a shudder when John’s voice asked Mr. Jones to come to his office immediately. Now his wife was gone Ianto wouldn’t live for much longer. The Doctor knew that just as well as Jack – for that reason he’d mouthed Ianto’s name to him earlier.

This was one thing Jack could do for the Time Lord.

Ianto’s eyes widened when he left his working place to find Jack standing in front of him.

“Let me walk with you for a bit,” he said.

Once they were in the corridor and no one was in hearing distance Jack whispered, “Don’t go to the General. Leave here at once before he has a chance to grow impatient and alerts the guys from security. He’s finally decided to kill you.”

Ianto paled. He opened his mouth to reply but Jack stopped him.

“Your wife has already been warned. She’ll meet you at the airport. It’s best for you to leave the country for a while. Don’t go home to pack. Empty your bank account, you’re going to lose it anyway.” He slipped the folded note into the younger man’s pocket without him noticing. “Good luck.”

Jack waited only long enough to see him nod before he turned and walked in the other direction. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ianto heading for the lift – quickly, but not quick enough to look suspicious. He might actually stay alive for a few days.

Eventually he’d find Jack’s note. It would tell him that his wife was dead, and that he should never come back here – Jack would take care of John. It was a blatant lie, but he had to stop them young fool from getting killed attempting to take revenge on Lisa’s murderer.

The note also said that the Doctor had tried to protect her. Somehow Jack wanted him to know that.

He turned around a corner and ran into Dr. Roberts.

“We have to talk,” she said.

Part 2 <-> Part 3b

vail-kagami: To Wander, Between the Stars, Part 3a/3 (Jack/Ten) [R]

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