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Gwen flicked through the mail, even after working there for quite a while she still couldn't believe people actually mailed them, walking up to Jack's office. Nothing was of note, all useless pieces of information they'd already worked through, but then there was this one letter, in a yellowed envelope addressed only to 'My Captain'. She walked straight in, seeing Jack sat behind his desk with his phone tucked between his ear and his shoulder as he typed on his computer. He shot her a smile, indicating her to wait a moment before turning back to his conversation.
"Look, Steve, I promise I'll look into it." He told the man on the other side of the phone, "You know I will, when have I ever lied to you before?" He chuckled, "You know what, don't answer that. I'll catch you later." He hung up, grinning at Gwen, "He'll believe anything I tell him." He explained before leaning back in his chair, "What can I do for you?" She held out the letter.
"It's to 'My Captain'." She told him as he took it off her, "Seems to be rather old paper." He used his finger to prise open the flap. Inside was a plain blue card, a blue he knew all too well and he opened it up, confetti bursting out and covering his desk. Gwen was surprised at just how happy he seemed as he read the inside 'Told you! Outside, 2 mins x'. He shot up, running around Gwen who chased him to the stairs, Ianto appearing and looking just as shocked at his behaviour.
"Where's he going?" He asked Gwen, who just shrugged in reply and the pair followed him up, meeting Owen on the way who was just as lost as they were.
"Jack?" Gwen started as they joined him by the large water feature that hid their exit point, "What's going on?"
"Oh, my friend's coming." He replied and they all looked at each other, wondering if they were all thinking the same thing.
"Is it that 'Doctor' bloke?" Jack shook his head.
"Nope." He grinned, "Someone even better." The air filled with a wheezing noise that none of the hundreds of tourists seemed to hear, and the TARDIS slowly came into existance in front of them. Owen was suspicious of it, Gwen amazed and Ianto almost pouted at the fact Jack seemed to be so excited over the arrival of this person. The door opened and Jack started slightly at the blonde Danni that stepped out, dressed up in a pair of skinny black jeans and a grey flowery tunic dress. She had a little black bow in her hair as she turned on the spot at the door closed behind her and the TARDIS flew away. She sighed sadly, watching it go before turning and smiling slightly in surprise at the four people who had come to meet her.
"Well, I wasn't expecting a landing party." She told them, "But how lovely."
~0~0~0~
"So, was that a 'mean Ten'?" Jack asked with quotation marks as he lounged back in his office chair. He'd taken her hand and rushed her back into the base, chattering on about how glad he was to see her looking so healthy again. She didn't really know what that meant, so she'd shrugged and told him just that.
"No, that was Eleven." She replied quietly, not really caring how he knew about 'mean Ten'. She'd probably explained it to him sometime in his past, so she didn't have to worry about that now.
"You mean the one with the bow tie?" Jack asked and she nodded, "But he didn't even come out to say goodbye. You told me he hated being away from you." She nodded, about to explain what had happened when the door opened and Ianto walked in carrying a tray with three cups on.
"Sorry," He apologised for interrupting them, "I just thought you'd like a drink. I didn't know if you'd want tea or coffee, so I brought both." Danni smiled fondly, standing up and taking the tray off him. She placed it on the desk and pulled him into a big hug, the man freezing underneath her tough.
"Oh, it's so good to see you Ianto." She muttered before pulling back, looking him up and down. She let him go and motioned up and down him with her finger, "But you don't know who I am, do you?" He shook his head, about to explain himself but she sighed, flopping back into her chair, "I knew it. It's that look, you see? All my friends shoot me it at some point. It's the 'who the hell is that?' face." She turned to Jack, smiling fondly, "You did it to me too, remember? In the hospital with the gas mask people." He chuckled, nodding in remembrance.
"You jumped on me screaming my name." He recalled, "What an entrance."
"You're Danni?" Ianto asked in surprise and she nodded, grinning slightly.
"So you do know who I am?" She asked.
"Sort of." He replied, "I've heard of a lot about you. I was just expecting you to be, well..."
"Ginger." She finished and he nodded.
"Yeah." She reached up, twirling a strand around her finger, deflating slightly.
"You hate it, don't you?" Jack realised and she nodded.
"Can't stand it." She muttered, looking at it, then her knees as she let it fall around her face again.
"Then why dye it?" She sighed, tears springing to her eyes as she refused to look at either of the men.
"Because the Doctor likes my red hair."
~0~0~0~
Jack rarely went home after work, preferring to spend his time at the hub around the people he cared about and the job he loved, but some things were just not appropriate for an office setting, so he'd bundled Danni into the back of his car and taken her to his place. After taking her to a friend he knew to sort out her hair. She obviously wasn't happy with it, and he wasn't having that so he'd insisted that she tried to dye it back to a colour at least close to her original, so that as it grew out she wouldn't have to deal with it being blonde. She'd refused until he'd threatened to call the Doctor back and then she'd relented. She was currently sat on his sofa, almost cuddling the cup of tea he had made her in a sulk as he flopped down beside her, chucking an arm over the back.
"So, what's the moron done now?" She giggled slightly, watching the liquid in her cup settle flat.
"Have I ever told you about River Song?" She asked him and he frowned in thought.
"The woman who marries the Doctor?" He tried and she sighed.
"That's the one." She didn't carry on and Jack nodded slightly before sitting up straight in realisation.
"Wait, he actually married her?" He exclaimed angrily.
"On the top of a pyramid. It restarted reality, but that's not happened yet." She confirmed, "He told me he'd always loved her and married her, right after asking me to marry him." Jack shook his head, looking rather angry and he reached into his pocket.
"Right, I'll call him back and then punch him right in..." She placed a hand over his, stopping him dialling the Doctor's phone.
"No, don't do that." She told him quietly, "The thing is, I don't think he does love her. And she certainly doesn't love him. Not like that, anyway."
"How do you know?" He asked and she leant back.
"Because she's my friend." She explained, "In my old universe, she does love him. She's completely obsessed with him, actually." She twisted slightly, resting her head against the back of the sofa, "She was stolen from her parents and raised by the Silence to be their weapon against the Doctor. She was perfect, because she's part Time Lord from exposure to the Vortex during conception."
"Oh." Jack said, "I see why that would be useful." Danni nodded.
"She was brainwashed with everything bad the Doctor had ever done." She continued, "And over time that grew into an obsession. Then, after she actually succeeded in killing him, it twisted in her head and she fell in love with him. He loves her back, they get married. It's all good. But in this universe, something went wrong."
"What?"
"Me." She replied, "When she was little, the Silence held her in an abandoned orphanage and would occasionally feed her to an Apollo spacesuit." She waved away his confused look, "Yeah, it's not really worth explaining right now. In my universe she gets out on her own, but I helped in this one. In freeing her, she was able to escape and return to her parents. I saved her, so it was me she was interested in. The part of her brain that had been obsessed with the Doctor was replaced by me. So, nothing twisted, she doesn't love him."
"Right, I get that." He told her, pulling her over so she was resting against him. She snuggled herself onto his chest, "What about him, though? You said he told you he loved her." She nodded.
"He did." She agreed, "But I... I've met many future versions of the Doctor, much later than the one on top of that pyramid. I can tell you they love me. A lot." She looked up at him, "It used to really scare me how much he loved me. Still does, because I'm going to have to leave him eventually. Everyone always does, and I don't want him to get hurt."
"Okay, so he doesn't love her." He conceded. He did actually know that, other Danni's had told him about the Eleventh Doctor. And shown him pictures. He stifled down the snort at the thought of that ridiculous bow tie, "Why did he marry her?"
"To get her to touch him, to restart time and stop the universe from eating itself." Danni replied instantly and he frowned.
"I'm not really seeing the problem." He admitted, "He doesn't love her, she doesn't love him and he's hopelessly hung up on you. It's just a piece of paper."
"Not even that." She corrected, "It happened in an alternate time line. It's not even a proper marriage."
"So why are you so upset?" She sighed.
"He promised me he wouldn't." She sat up again, fidgeting because she was angry, "He spent all the time from Doctor-Donna," She held her hand out, showing a distinct line before looking up at Jack with a thoughtful look, "Do you still have his hand?" She asked, surprising him. He shook her head, "Right, so from the Doctor-Donna," She bounced her hand once, enforcing the line, "Which is roughly now, to the top of the pyramid." She held her other arm out as far as she could, using her other hand to indicate the end of the time line, "Which is about 200 years, promising me he wasn't going to marry her. Constantly, every little paranoid voice in my head was silenced by him promising me he wasn't to do it. And he did it anyway." She turned, tucking her foot underneath herself, "There are so many ways to get someone to touch you. He didn't need to break that, but he chose to. I've never asked to promise to marry me, or to never go off with other women when I'm dead and buried. We've tried to make the best of what quite frankly is an awful situation, I don't think I've asked too much of him. But how can I believe in anything if he did that to me?" She looked up at him, tears glistening in her eyes as she silently begged him for an answer. She had no idea what to do. Part of her wanted to move on, but how could she when a very large part of her was questioning everything he said to her. What if he was lying, again? What if he wasn't, but would backtrack at a later date? She didn't know if she could live like that.
"Because," Jack leant forward, cupping her face in his hand, "Because he bloody loves you."
"But..." She started but he shook his head, wiping a tear away from her cheek.
"He does." He repeated, "But we both know Bow Tie's an idiot." She giggled, nodding with a sniff, "I mean, do you know why he wears it? Seriously, did you not think to stop him?" She laughed again and he smiled at the smile on her face, "He's an idiot, and he probably really didn't know what else to do. He's spent 200 years insisting that he wasn't going to do it, it was probably the only thing running through his head."
"Okay, I can accept that." She stated, "But then why ask me to marry him? He said that if I told River to touch him, then we'd get married." Jack rolled his eyes.
"Because he wants to marry you." He replied incredulously. She shook her head, her brows furrowing and she raised a finger as she took a breath to argue before pausing, holding the breath for a moment. Her finger went to her lips as she looked off to the side, considering what he had said before she turned to him, eyes wide.
"Hold on." She exclaimed, "Are you telling me he actually was proposing?" Jack chuckled and shook his head, standing up and stretching.
"You're both as bad as each other." He told her, "I'm getting a drink." He headed to his kitchen, pulling out a bottle of vodka.
"Son of a bitch!" He heard her shout and he chuckled again, raising the shot of alcohol to his lips as the flash of light from her disappearing illuminated the hallway outside.
~0~0~0~
Martha kept looking left and right, jumping at flickering shadows as she entered the disused warehouse. In one hand she held a white plastic bag filled with portions of chips. There was a fire flickering in the middle the Doctor sat next to it using a large wooden bobbin as a desk for the laptop. Jack stood slightly apart from him, typing on his vortex manipulator. He looked up as Martha approached.
"How was it?" He asked her.
"I don't think anyone saw me." She replied as she pulled out a portion for him, "Anything new?"
"I've got this tuned into the government wavelength so we can follow what Saxon's doing." He pointed at the manipulator and she glared annoyed at him.
"Yeah, I meant about my family." She stormed towards the Doctor, handing him his portion.
"It still says the Jones family taken in for questioning." The Doctor told her, "Tell you what, though, no mention of Leo."
"He's not as daft as he looks." She replied with a smile, it falling as she realised what she was saying, "I'm talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?" Jack walked over and sat in a chair they had found, munching on his portion of chips.
"Nice chips." The Doctor pulled one out and bit into it, nodding in agreement.
"Actually, they're not bad." He ate the rest of it before going back for more. Martha sat on a disused barrel as she shot Jack a look. He replied with one of his own and she nodded in the Doctor's direction.
"Oh bastard!" A female voice cried and in a flash of light Danni skidded across the floor on her front. She sat up next to the bobbin coughing slightly and she looked around.
"A warehouse? Oh for gods sake, why is it never a beach? I want to go to Space Florida!" She exclaimed angrily. The Doctor smiled wildly at her, helping her up and she sighed unhappily.
"Oh, that's bloody brilliant, isn't it? You're the wrong one, how am I supposed to be mad at you when you've not done anything yet? I'm getting sick of this, I just want to stay still for two bloody minutes!" She checked who else was there and smiled when she caught sight of Martha and Jack.
"Ah, Captain Flash and Martha Jones. Together, that means" She looked up in thought, "the end of the universe," She tallied off her thoughts on her fingers as she went, "that means Master returning, that means Vortex Manipulator back, Martha's mum being double crossed, on the run, chips..." She trailed off for a moment before pointing at her, "Ah Ha!" The three jumped as she exclaimed happily, "The Sound of Drums! Where are we up to? We're in a warehouse, so, oh are you about to tell them about the Master? Let me get comfortable." She walked over Jack and perched herself on the arm of his chair, "Hello again, Captain. I've just come from you, you know?"
"Hello again, Danni-Girl." He replied, not at all fazed by the fact she'd been with another version of himself, "Love the new outfit." He told her, looking her up and down.
"Why thank you. You don't look half bad yourself." Jack shifted so he could talk to her properly when the Doctor coughed impatiently.
"Can we not flirt now? Please?" Danni rolled her eyes before motioning him to continue, crossing her arms. This was an younger version of the Doctor, obviously, but it still didn't stop her being slightly angry at him. Not as angry as she had been, bloody Future-Jack, but still rather cross. At least with a younger Doctor she could pretend nothing had happened. Ten didn't do anything wrong, so she could rationalise not being angry with him. Martha-Doctor didn't even make the promise, so it was fine. She nodded, having convinced herself that it was okay to not be angry at him. Not because of the fact that he'd proposed to her. Or the fact she suddenly really wished she'd said yes. Oh god, she was pathetic!
"So, Doctor, who is he?" Jack asked, bringing her back with a hanging of her head, "How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?"
"And what is he to you? Like a colleague..." Martha added.
"A friend, at first." The Doctor told them before eating another chip.
"I thought you were gonna say he was your secret brother or something." Martha admitted. The three paused with chips up to their lips, Danni helping herself to Jack's, and they stared at her in disbelief.
"You've been watching too much TV." The Doctor told her. She replied with a half-hearted chuckle and they all continued eating.
"But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect." Jack prompted, trying to get the conversation back on track.
"Well, perfect to look at, maybe. And it was, it was beautiful." He leant back in his chair, getting comfortable as he reminisced, "They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords." The three watched him intently, only being able to imagine what it was like. Danni stood and moved to sit on the arm of his chair, rubbing his arm to try and comfort him, she knew how hard it was for him to talk of his home, of what it was before the Time War. "The oldest and most mighty race in the universe looking down on the galaxies below sworn never to interfere only to watch. Children of Gallifrey were taken from their families at the age of eight to enter the Academy. And some say that's when it all began. When he was a child; that's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism...it's a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of time and space, just a child. Some would be inspired some would run away and some would go mad." He shook himself out of this memories, "I don't know." He began eating his chips in earnest.
"That's so horrible." Danni whispered, slightly upset at the thought of not only the Master having to stand there going mad, but the Doctor having to look into that unbearable majesty. He looked up at her, surprised at her response and he squeezed her hand before offering her a chip.
"What about you?" Martha asked gently. Danni paused mid-bite.
"Oh, the ones that ran away. He never stopped." She replied with a smile. Jack's manipulator beeped and he put his chips down to check it.
"Encrypted channel with files attached. Don't recognise it." The Doctor finished up his portion, leaning forward and licking his fingers clean.
"Patch it through to the laptop." Jack looked uncomfortable.
"Um, since we're telling stories, um, there's something I haven't told you." He admitted. The Doctor frowned but Jack ignored him as he attached the manipulator to the laptop.
"It's not fair. Your manipulator is so much more useful than mine." Danni moaned quietly as she watched him work.
"Mines not broken."
"Anymore." Danni added before leaning in close, "Don't worry, once you explain what you've done with your branch, he'll understand." Jack paused and looked at her, confused before laughing slightly in disbelief.
"You're always one step ahead, aren't you Danni-Girl?" She brushed her fingers against her top smugly.
"That's what I've been told."