Torchwood's Flower

Chapter 31: Midnight

It had been a few days since the incident with Grey, and in the meantime, Iris had spent time with Jack and Ianto, not willing to leave the 51st century man alone. The entire Torchwood team had been taking a break and slowly came back to things to make sure that they still dealt with Rift activities.

Once they got into a hang of things, Iris could sense the impatience from her bond with the Doctor building up, as if he had not been traveling after she last saw him. Soon enough, Jack seemed to brighten up from his sadness of losing his brother the way he did, and Iris smiled brightly along with him, glad that he was able to come back from the event.

But she was also glad and relieved that she had been able to save Owen and Tosh from the traumatic deaths as she had seen in the show in her own world.

As more time passed, the team had fully come back to do work, returning to their pattern of things as the city of Cardiff repaired itself. One day, however, as Iris and Jack were discussing about something that had fallen through the Rift that he had wanted her to look at with Tosh, Iris' phone rang.

Iris quickly answered her phone, giving Jack an apologetic glance, making him smile warmly as he merely ruffled her hair. Annoyed, she swatted his hand as she said,

"Hello?"

She had to take the phone away from her ear as Donna yelled into her phone, "You'd better come to the TARDIS right now! He's flipping out because he wants to go to some flipping tour thing."

Iris chuckled at that and asked, "Why haven't you two gone?"

She could feel Donna's eyeroll as the woman answered her with, "Because he wants someone to go on the tour with him. And I want to go to the salon. Let's take a break he says, and knowing him, the tour is going to be a disaster."

Iris sighed and looked over to Jack, who seemingly heard Donna as he tried hard not to laugh, but seemingly failed to do so. He just smiled at her before giving her a small, but meaningful peck on her forehead, telling her to go ahead and travel.

Within the past few days, she had been unable to keep still for more than a few hours, her Time Lady-self refusing to remain idle. Iris smiled back and quickly agreed to the travel plans, relieving Donna of having to babysit the Doctor.

Despite her asking whether Jack wanted to join, the man shook his head, claiming that they had to go back to take charge of Torchwood and relieve Owen from having to lead the team.

With that, she soon found herself next to the Doctor, who was still trying to persuade the other companion to join in on their trip. However, Donna remained adamant on her dislike for the trip as she emphasized through her phone,

"I said, no."

Iris rolled her eyes as the Doctor visibly pouted, making puppy eyes at her, as if Iris had any power over Donna's wish to relax and not potentially run around. However, she was inwardly panicking as she recognized this trip. It was Midnight. Of all trips to come back to the TARDIS for, she had landed on this one. Iris quelled the panic as she listened to the Doctor say,

"Sapphire waterfall. It's a waterfall made of sapphires. This enormous jewel, the size of a glacier. Reaches the Cliffs of Oblivion, and then shatters into sapphires at the edge. They fall a hundred thousand feet into a crystal ravine."

A part of her mind thought that perhaps, if this was Rose's mother, Jackie, who had been on the other phone of the telephone, she might have come with. However, this was Donna Noble, a woman so fiercely independent in her own mind, that even the thing that would make her the richest woman of the world, would not change her mind if she intended to take a break.