The Orphan in the TARDIS

Chapter Fourteen

The Time Lord and his best friend get back to the TARDIS just as the two hours end. Jack watches as the duo approach, taking in Sophie wrapped in the tweed jacket, shivering, her hair plastered to her forehead. "What the h*ll happened?" he asks, dashing over.

"There was an issue. But it's all fine. Lyn's fine, right."

"Y-yeah, just p-p-peachy," she says, promptly sneezing after. Sophie marches for the TARDIS doors.

"Okay, I'll just tell them about everything we saw!" the Time Lord shouts after her. "Oi, remember to bring that tweed back."

Sophie waves her hand back at him, before sticking her thumb up. The Doctor smiles, watching as she treks into his blue box. The second the door shuts behind her, he let's all the tension uncoil from his shoulders, and he leans against the pole beside him.

"What happened," Jack asks him, placing his hands on the Gallifreyan's shoulders.

"They already have another target. I could've found out what it was, but then one of them shoved her into the river. There was no way I was gonna leave her. Me, and my stupid morals."

"Hey," Jack angrily starts, seizing the Doctor roughly by his braces straps, "Don't you ever, ever, get mad at yourself for being empathetic. You wouldn't be you without your morals," he finishes, grabbing the Time Lord's cheeks, and pressing a kiss to his forehead.

"I guess I can always trust you to knock some sense into me."

"Hey, what're friends for?" He tosses his arm over the Doctor's shoulder, ushering him over to the Torchwood team. "Now, we'll show you what we found."

Tosh steps forward, holding out a small object in her palm. "I found this near an alley. It seems to be alien tech. I offered to scan it, but Jack said to take it to you."

The Doctor leans toward her hand, inspecting the object. His hand snaps forward, plucking it from the woman's hand. "Oh, wow, you are beautiful, aren't you," he whispers to the device now resting in his hand.

The Time Lord continues to coo at the object, until Jack interrupts him, "Do you want to be alone with that thing, Doctor?"

The Gallifreyan snaps his head to the immortal, awkwardly straightening his bow tie, his cheeks colouring pink. "So, where did you find this?"

"It fell off the coat of the Venuciuian that we were following," Jack tells him.

"When Gwen started after it, he took a corner too quickly, and his coat caught on a pipe. That fell off of it. I saw it, and thought it might be important. So, is it?"

"Oh, Toshiko Sato," the Time Lord starts, a smile spreading across his face, "you are absolutely brilliant!" He grabs her cheeks, kissing her chastely in his excitement. The woman steps back startled, but Time Lord pays no heed, spinning quickly, whipping his sonic out from within his coat. "See, what you found, it's very, very important. In fact, you may have just made all our jobs so much easier."

"Well, what is it?" Gwen asks him, getting tired of the way he seems to be bloviating about nothing.

The Gallifreyan's head snaps to the annoyed Welshwoman. "Oh!" His hands fling to the air beside him, "It's a tracker."

"A tracker?"

"The Brotherhood all wear trackers in order to know where they all are. If one gets captured by the Shadow Proclamation, or some other authorities, they'll simply activate their explosive, killing them instantly."

Ianto, Owen, Tosh, and Gwen take a few steps back from the Time Lord, and the device in his palm. "Are you saying that's a bomb then, sir?" Ianto asks.

"Huh, what? Oh, you thought," he starts, flailing his arms around in the air, almost clapping, but remembering the device, "No, the bombs are embedded under their skin, this is just the tracker." He tosses his sonic screwdriver to the hand with the device, simply batting it back to his other hand, "Although, the Venuciuian this belongs to probably just lost his head." The Time Lord looks a bit sad for a moment, before snapping back to his smiling face.

He points his screwdriver at the tracker, a hologram appearing over it. Blue dots sprout up within the map of London. They're moving every which way, spread out across the whole of the city. "So that's them, then." Owen says, pointing at the hologram. "How many of those b*st*rds are there?"

The Doctor once again turns, this time glaring at their doctor, his jaw dropped, "Like I said before, watch your language, Dr. Harper. The last thing you want is to get on my bad side. But, to answer your question, too many for us to handle on our own. We need to grab them all, too, or it could be bad for London."

"How bad?" a voice calls from the TARDIS doorway. Everyone's head snap to the girl standing there. Her hair is just slightly damp, braided, draped over her shoulder, and she stands in some dry clothes,the Doctor's tweed jacket still wrapped around her shoulders.

"Buckingham Palace being burned to the ground bad," the Time Lord says, ushering her over to him. "See," he points into the hologram map with his screwdriver, and Sophie walks over, leaning against his shoulder. She looks at where his screwdriver is pointed, one of the lights shining bright from the center of Buckingham Palace.

"Well, that's very much not good," Sophie comments, "What's our plan?"

"You and I are going to the palace," he starts, pointing at the two of them. "Jack," he snaps his fingers, pointing to the immortal, "You are going to have to do what you never want to. Call UNIT, there's too many for just us to deal with."

"Well who from UNIT do you want me to call?"

"I don't really care. Mace, Magumbo, Bambera, Lethbridge Stewart, choose someone!"

"Martha?"

The Time Lord's eyes widen, "Uh, do you have too? I don't need a lecture about how I need to take care of myself."

"Is that why you married your killer?" Sophie questions him.
The Gallifreyan turns, eyes wide, he points a finger at her, "You, just, shh."

"I'm calling Martha."

"If you must. Miss Sato, catch." He tosses the tracker to the woman, while grabbing Sophie's hand. "Find them, but don't kill them, please. Come along, Lyn."

He tugs the girl away, leaving the Torchwood crew standing in the middle of the sidewalk. "He's completely insane," Owen murmurs.

Jack smirks walking the Time Lord leave, rambling on about something to Sophie, "Yeah, he is, but that's what makes you love him." He turns, looking at the rest of his crew, "Tosh, keep an eye on that tracker. Yan, get me UNIT on the phone.