![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: It Goes On (3/4)
Series: A Good Old Normal, Human Life
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: R
Word Count: 2048 / 8320
Pairing: Ten2/Alt.Master, Eleven/Jack Harkness (background Rory/Amy, Ianto/Jack)
Characters: Ten 2 (John Smith, Alt.Master, The Doctor (Eleven), Jack Harkness. Cameos from Donna, Wilf, Amy, Rory, Gwen, Martha, Rose, alt. Ianto, Suzie Costello, Owen Harper & John Hart (phew)
Summary: Continues straight after Data Compression. The Doctor has found John and the Master and he and Jack want some answers. Can they work together to save 'Pete's universe' and their own?
Warnings: potential non-con (of a time lord-y mind nature) in a past part
A/N: Set partly in 'Pete's universe' where The Doctor left Rose and Ten2 (John Smith) at the end of Journey's End, this follows on from A Good Old Normal, Human Life, Data Compression & Ianto's Dreams. Also as usual the fic is filled with pictures, because they are fun!
Title taken from Robert Frost quote; "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on."
Archived on AO3 here
**CATCH UP WITH PART ONE & PART TWO**
John rubbed absently at the bite marks on his shoulder as he lay in the aftermath of the Master’s rather extensive and inventive apology for invading John’s mind.
The initial pain had almost been worth what followed, especially with the echoes of what Jack and the Doctor had been doing skittering along his nerves alongside the Master’s touch.
Almost.
What the Master had done to him had been a prisonable offence amongst Time Lords, still was he supposed in the Master’s universe where the Time Lords had survived.
He could hear the Master as he wandered about the Tardis from where he lay on the control room floor, barely five feet from the door. John wondered if the Master had even contemplated what the consequences of his actions might be. For John and his partially human mind, that is. There wouldn’t be any repercussions for the Master from the Time Lords whilst he was on the run and in hiding.
The Doctor though he had felt what John felt; which had likely not been a good way to convince him that John could control the Master’s more violent tendencies. Perhaps the following pleasure would make him forget the initial assault on John’s mind?
It was doing a good job of distracting John himself, echoes of pleasure still skittered across his mind and his body.
He smiled to himself as he heard the soft footfalls of the Master approach him. A hand ran through his hair and he leant into it.
“I made tea,” the Master said quietly. “Do you want some?”
John hummed quietly not answering and opened his eyes to look at the Master. He looked uncharacteristically open, worried for John, and unfamiliarly guilty. John suppressed a smile; this was definitely progress of a sort. Sure he had had to go through agonising mental pain but... He sighed and closed his eyes again.
“John?”
He felt the Master lay down next to him. They stayed there quietly for e few moments before John fumbled for the Master’s hand next to him and laced their fingers together. The Master shifted next to him on his side and slowly inched closer until he had a leg slung over John’s, an arm round his waist.
John finally opened his eyes and met the Master’s own. Despite all of the contact John couldn’t even feel the slightest hint of the Master’s thoughts; it must have required a huge amount of effort. He smiled and leant down as the Master moved closer to John, their mouths met in an almost chaste kiss.
It slowly became deeper; warm and soft where earlier the kisses had been hard and biting. John could feel himself falling deeper into them, glad the Master had formed a barrier between their thoughts because he fleetingly thought that at this moment he could probably forgive the Master anything.
A painful twinge in his neck forced him to pull away eventually; it set off a chain reaction of awareness through his body of all the aches and pains from their earlier activity. He felt like he had bruises on his bruises.
“One of these days we’ll make it to a bed,” he grumbled.
The Master grinned, “That day could be today.”
John rolled his eyes, “The tea’s getting cold.”
“Sod the tea.”
“And we need to talk to the Doctor,” he added.
The Master shifted and grumbled into John’s neck.
“You want to use both of the Tardis’ to close the rifts?” Jack asked.
“No, idiot,” the Master snapped. “We want to use them to stabilise the rifts.”
“Why not close them entirely?” Amy asked from where she and Rory sat on the steps leading up out of the control room.
“Because there needs to be one Tardis on each side whether we stabilise or seal them, and if we sealed them that would leave one us unable to travel back across the divide,” John explained.
“And? I mean that’s his reality anyway,” Jack gestured toward the Master. “And you seemed all set to live there with Rose from what the Doctor tells me.”
“There are Timelords there, and we’re not exactly in their good books,” John said.
“What did you do?” Rory asked.
“A myriad of things,” the Master replied. “But it’s him they’ll be more worried about. Considering they killed my- the Doctor in my universe they’d think nothing of doing away with a half human copy,” the Master’s distaste was as ever clear in his tone. John crossed his arms more tightly around himself. Jack shifted slightly where he leant against the console next to John and pressed against his shoulder with his own in reassurance.
“So the plan is to stabilise the rifts then, sorted,” the Doctor said.
“Right,” John nodded.
“Okay,” Amy and Rory agreed.
“So,” the Doctor paused for a moment, “Exactly how do we do that?”
The Master rolled his eyes, “I’m surrounded by idiots.”
Rory and Amy had gone sight-seeing around the bay and the Doctor and the Master were busy arguing via video link from their separate Tardis’. John and Jack sat on the stone steps and looked out across the Plass.
“Why did you-”
“Jack, don’t.”
“I just don’t get it; Rose was what you wanted right? I mean it seemed to be what he wanted.”
“Yeah? Then maybe he should have stayed with her instead of abandoning us both,” John replied.
“He didn’t abandon you, he wanted you both to be happy,” Jack protested.
“He wanted to not have to deal with us, he didn’t want the responsibility.” When Jack looked set to protest again John added, “I should know, I’m him.”
“No, you’re not. You’re part him and part Donna I guess, but you’re you. You’re not a copy,” he added.
“Thanks,” John replied quietly. He looked away and blinked rapidly for a moment. Jack kicked his foot lightly and gave him a big wide toothy grin when John turned back to face him.
“Look I guess I’m never going to understand it but I want you to be okay. And I’m not sure you’re going to be okay with him.”
John laughed, “Me neither. But I’m a lot more okay with him than I was with Rose. I don’t have to pretend, or try so hard it’s just...” he shrugged.
“All right, I guess I’m definitely not in a place to judge anyone,” he smiled self depreciatively. “But we’ll get the Doctor to do up your phone, so you can ring him or me if you need us.”
“That sounds good.”
“Good.”
Their comfortable silence was broken after a few minutes by the ring of Jack’s phone.
“Hello?...Gwen slow down what’s-....For how long?...Yes I know but she’s always woken up afterward...Cardiff. Look I’ll ask the Doctor if we can come get you, he can have a look at her and-...Yes of course I’ll hurry...Bye.”
“What’s going on?”
“They can’t wake Martha up.”
“She’s been having these episodes,” Gwen explained to the Doctor as he hovered over Martha, currently laid out on a bed in the Tardis medibay. “The few times we managed to get her under observation when it’s happened, her vitals they just stop. And then she wakes up and she’s fine.”
“What do you mean stop?”
“As in the first time we thought she was dead,” Jack replied.
“And when she woke up, what did she remember?”
“Darkness, nothing,” Gwen said.
“I don’t know,” the Doctor ran a hand through his hair. “A few seconds ago the Tardis stopped registering her entirely,” he looked up at the screen hanging above the bed.
“It might have something to do with our little colliding universes problem,” John suggested from where he stood in the doorway.
“How?” Jack asked.
“Martha, in the other universe, Martha died. Maybe she’s seeing darkness because there’s nothing of her there. The Master has seen flashes of his self from this universe. Ianto collapsed when he entered the Master’s Tardis and he was hit with memories from here-”
“Ianto?” Gwen asked, shocked.
“Yes, he-”
“He’s alive there?”
“Yeah, he is. He was the Torchwood liaison to the Prime Minister, but we left him with Roseand Torchwood in Cardiff.”
“Suzie Costello?!” Jack asked shocked.
“I think so, why?”
“She’s not exactly what you’d call stable,” Gwen told him.
“Here maybe, she seemed okay there. And Ianto can definitely take care of himself,” he added with a smile.
“What- Hang on, John who?” Jack asked.
“He was a Time Agent, John Hart.”
Gwen barked out a laugh, “You’re kidding. That’s just...”
“At least he has Rose,” Jack said faintly.
“Was he blacking out?” the Doctor asked as he continued to frown at Martha’s still form.
“Erm, no he just,” John paused. “Well he sort of collapsed when he stepped inside the Master’s Tardis and after he seemed to have memories from this universe.”
“How do you know they were memories from our Ianto?” Gwen asked.
“Because he’d never met Jack in that universe, but he could remember him after he collapsed.”
“Hmm,” the Doctor crossed his arms and looked up at John. “And you said the Master experienced something similar?”
“Yeah, we- he remembered something you said to his counterpart sometime after,” he paused and glanced at the Doctor, “you left us behind. It didn’t hurt him though, I just assumed that was because he’s a Timelord and Ianto is human.”
“Probably. But if the blackouts are a symptom of your counterpart’s death, like with Martha-”
“-Why did Ianto get the memories and not the blackouts?” Jack finished.
“Exactly, so maybe-”
Martha sat up with a loud gasp. Gwen rushed to her side and grabbed her hand. “It’s all right sweetheart, you’re all right.”
Once Martha had her breath back she glanced round and her eyes landed on John who still stood in the doorway. “Doctor,” she smiled.
“That would be me,” the Doctor stepped into her line of sight. “Now, I need you to explain exactly what you just experienced.”
“Tardis calling Torchwood Three,” the Master singsonged to the Tardis consol. “Come in Torchwood Three.” John saw the Doctor role his eyes on the monitor where he was patched in to the comms. from his own Tardis.
“Good afternoon sir, it’s good to hear from you,” Ianto’s voice came through the console speakers and his image fizzled into view on the screen a moment later.
“Mr Jones,” the Master nodded. “All’s well on the home front I trust?”
“Not so much,” Rose stepped into view at Ianto’s shoulder.
“What’s happened?” John asked; he elbowed the Master aside lightly so he could step in front of the screen.
“We’ve had more reports of people being admitted to hospitals and psychiatric wards with similar symptoms as Ianto,” Rose explained. “And Ianto has been getting worse-”
“Rose,” Ianto chastised.
“What? You have!” Rose glared at him. When she turned back to the screen she frowned. “Who’s that?”
“That?” John tapped the Doctors face on his monitor. “That would be the Doctor, Rose.”
“Oh,” she paused. “You regenerated again.”
“Yeah, new face. And a new Tardis actually, well a remodel anyway-”
“Doctor,” Jack interrupted. “We need to get to the point here,” he told him, although his eyes frequently wandered back to the screen where Ianto was watching him closely.
“Just to add we’ve also had several reports of an increased number of hospital admissions for blackouts.” Ianto glanced away from the screen for a moment. “Some of the cases reported that patient’s life signs ceased entirely for the few moments to minutes that they were unconscious.”
“The same thing has been happening to Martha, we’re assuming it’s because her counterpart in your reality died a couple of years ago,” the Doctor explained.
“Martha Jones, Tish’s sister,” John clarified.
“But Ianto, you’re not having blackouts?” Jack asked.
“No, just flashes of memory.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense, you-”
“Jack,” the Doctor interrupted quietly.
“Right, sorry.”
“We’ve got a plan, but we’re going to need your help.” The Doctor grinned at them. “You’re going to be the tether that holds the universes together.”
“Or more specifically, keeps them from collapsing into each other,” the Master corrected with a roll of his eyes.
John grinned. “Sounds like fun, right?”
“Buckets of fun, sir,” Ianto replied.
***READ PART FOUR***
Series: A Good Old Normal, Human Life
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: R
Word Count: 2048 / 8320
Pairing: Ten2/Alt.Master, Eleven/Jack Harkness (background Rory/Amy, Ianto/Jack)
Characters: Ten 2 (John Smith, Alt.Master, The Doctor (Eleven), Jack Harkness. Cameos from Donna, Wilf, Amy, Rory, Gwen, Martha, Rose, alt. Ianto, Suzie Costello, Owen Harper & John Hart (phew)
Summary: Continues straight after Data Compression. The Doctor has found John and the Master and he and Jack want some answers. Can they work together to save 'Pete's universe' and their own?
Warnings: potential non-con (of a time lord-y mind nature) in a past part
A/N: Set partly in 'Pete's universe' where The Doctor left Rose and Ten2 (John Smith) at the end of Journey's End, this follows on from A Good Old Normal, Human Life, Data Compression & Ianto's Dreams. Also as usual the fic is filled with pictures, because they are fun!
Title taken from Robert Frost quote; "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on."
Archived on AO3 here
**CATCH UP WITH PART ONE & PART TWO**
John rubbed absently at the bite marks on his shoulder as he lay in the aftermath of the Master’s rather extensive and inventive apology for invading John’s mind.
The initial pain had almost been worth what followed, especially with the echoes of what Jack and the Doctor had been doing skittering along his nerves alongside the Master’s touch.
Almost.
What the Master had done to him had been a prisonable offence amongst Time Lords, still was he supposed in the Master’s universe where the Time Lords had survived.
He could hear the Master as he wandered about the Tardis from where he lay on the control room floor, barely five feet from the door. John wondered if the Master had even contemplated what the consequences of his actions might be. For John and his partially human mind, that is. There wouldn’t be any repercussions for the Master from the Time Lords whilst he was on the run and in hiding.
The Doctor though he had felt what John felt; which had likely not been a good way to convince him that John could control the Master’s more violent tendencies. Perhaps the following pleasure would make him forget the initial assault on John’s mind?
It was doing a good job of distracting John himself, echoes of pleasure still skittered across his mind and his body.
He smiled to himself as he heard the soft footfalls of the Master approach him. A hand ran through his hair and he leant into it.
“I made tea,” the Master said quietly. “Do you want some?”
John hummed quietly not answering and opened his eyes to look at the Master. He looked uncharacteristically open, worried for John, and unfamiliarly guilty. John suppressed a smile; this was definitely progress of a sort. Sure he had had to go through agonising mental pain but... He sighed and closed his eyes again.
“John?”
He felt the Master lay down next to him. They stayed there quietly for e few moments before John fumbled for the Master’s hand next to him and laced their fingers together. The Master shifted next to him on his side and slowly inched closer until he had a leg slung over John’s, an arm round his waist.
John finally opened his eyes and met the Master’s own. Despite all of the contact John couldn’t even feel the slightest hint of the Master’s thoughts; it must have required a huge amount of effort. He smiled and leant down as the Master moved closer to John, their mouths met in an almost chaste kiss.
It slowly became deeper; warm and soft where earlier the kisses had been hard and biting. John could feel himself falling deeper into them, glad the Master had formed a barrier between their thoughts because he fleetingly thought that at this moment he could probably forgive the Master anything.
A painful twinge in his neck forced him to pull away eventually; it set off a chain reaction of awareness through his body of all the aches and pains from their earlier activity. He felt like he had bruises on his bruises.
“One of these days we’ll make it to a bed,” he grumbled.
The Master grinned, “That day could be today.”
John rolled his eyes, “The tea’s getting cold.”
“Sod the tea.”
“And we need to talk to the Doctor,” he added.
The Master shifted and grumbled into John’s neck.
***
“You want to use both of the Tardis’ to close the rifts?” Jack asked.
“No, idiot,” the Master snapped. “We want to use them to stabilise the rifts.”
“Why not close them entirely?” Amy asked from where she and Rory sat on the steps leading up out of the control room.
“Because there needs to be one Tardis on each side whether we stabilise or seal them, and if we sealed them that would leave one us unable to travel back across the divide,” John explained.
“And? I mean that’s his reality anyway,” Jack gestured toward the Master. “And you seemed all set to live there with Rose from what the Doctor tells me.”
“There are Timelords there, and we’re not exactly in their good books,” John said.
“What did you do?” Rory asked.
“A myriad of things,” the Master replied. “But it’s him they’ll be more worried about. Considering they killed my- the Doctor in my universe they’d think nothing of doing away with a half human copy,” the Master’s distaste was as ever clear in his tone. John crossed his arms more tightly around himself. Jack shifted slightly where he leant against the console next to John and pressed against his shoulder with his own in reassurance.
“So the plan is to stabilise the rifts then, sorted,” the Doctor said.
“Right,” John nodded.
“Okay,” Amy and Rory agreed.
“So,” the Doctor paused for a moment, “Exactly how do we do that?”
The Master rolled his eyes, “I’m surrounded by idiots.”
***
Rory and Amy had gone sight-seeing around the bay and the Doctor and the Master were busy arguing via video link from their separate Tardis’. John and Jack sat on the stone steps and looked out across the Plass.
“Why did you-”
“Jack, don’t.”
“I just don’t get it; Rose was what you wanted right? I mean it seemed to be what he wanted.”
“Yeah? Then maybe he should have stayed with her instead of abandoning us both,” John replied.
“He didn’t abandon you, he wanted you both to be happy,” Jack protested.
“He wanted to not have to deal with us, he didn’t want the responsibility.” When Jack looked set to protest again John added, “I should know, I’m him.”
“No, you’re not. You’re part him and part Donna I guess, but you’re you. You’re not a copy,” he added.
“Thanks,” John replied quietly. He looked away and blinked rapidly for a moment. Jack kicked his foot lightly and gave him a big wide toothy grin when John turned back to face him.
“Look I guess I’m never going to understand it but I want you to be okay. And I’m not sure you’re going to be okay with him.”
John laughed, “Me neither. But I’m a lot more okay with him than I was with Rose. I don’t have to pretend, or try so hard it’s just...” he shrugged.
“All right, I guess I’m definitely not in a place to judge anyone,” he smiled self depreciatively. “But we’ll get the Doctor to do up your phone, so you can ring him or me if you need us.”
“That sounds good.”
“Good.”
Their comfortable silence was broken after a few minutes by the ring of Jack’s phone.
“Hello?...Gwen slow down what’s-....For how long?...Yes I know but she’s always woken up afterward...Cardiff. Look I’ll ask the Doctor if we can come get you, he can have a look at her and-...Yes of course I’ll hurry...Bye.”
“What’s going on?”
“They can’t wake Martha up.”
***
“She’s been having these episodes,” Gwen explained to the Doctor as he hovered over Martha, currently laid out on a bed in the Tardis medibay. “The few times we managed to get her under observation when it’s happened, her vitals they just stop. And then she wakes up and she’s fine.”
“What do you mean stop?”
“As in the first time we thought she was dead,” Jack replied.
“And when she woke up, what did she remember?”
“Darkness, nothing,” Gwen said.
“I don’t know,” the Doctor ran a hand through his hair. “A few seconds ago the Tardis stopped registering her entirely,” he looked up at the screen hanging above the bed.
“It might have something to do with our little colliding universes problem,” John suggested from where he stood in the doorway.
“How?” Jack asked.
“Martha, in the other universe, Martha died. Maybe she’s seeing darkness because there’s nothing of her there. The Master has seen flashes of his self from this universe. Ianto collapsed when he entered the Master’s Tardis and he was hit with memories from here-”
“Ianto?” Gwen asked, shocked.
“Yes, he-”
“He’s alive there?”
“Yeah, he is. He was the Torchwood liaison to the Prime Minister, but we left him with Roseand Torchwood in Cardiff.”
“Suzie Costello?!” Jack asked shocked.
“I think so, why?”
“She’s not exactly what you’d call stable,” Gwen told him.
“Here maybe, she seemed okay there. And Ianto can definitely take care of himself,” he added with a smile.
“What- Hang on, John who?” Jack asked.
“He was a Time Agent, John Hart.”
Gwen barked out a laugh, “You’re kidding. That’s just...”
“At least he has Rose,” Jack said faintly.
“Was he blacking out?” the Doctor asked as he continued to frown at Martha’s still form.
“Erm, no he just,” John paused. “Well he sort of collapsed when he stepped inside the Master’s Tardis and after he seemed to have memories from this universe.”
“How do you know they were memories from our Ianto?” Gwen asked.
“Because he’d never met Jack in that universe, but he could remember him after he collapsed.”
“Hmm,” the Doctor crossed his arms and looked up at John. “And you said the Master experienced something similar?”
“Yeah, we- he remembered something you said to his counterpart sometime after,” he paused and glanced at the Doctor, “you left us behind. It didn’t hurt him though, I just assumed that was because he’s a Timelord and Ianto is human.”
“Probably. But if the blackouts are a symptom of your counterpart’s death, like with Martha-”
“-Why did Ianto get the memories and not the blackouts?” Jack finished.
“Exactly, so maybe-”
Martha sat up with a loud gasp. Gwen rushed to her side and grabbed her hand. “It’s all right sweetheart, you’re all right.”
Once Martha had her breath back she glanced round and her eyes landed on John who still stood in the doorway. “Doctor,” she smiled.
“That would be me,” the Doctor stepped into her line of sight. “Now, I need you to explain exactly what you just experienced.”
***
“Tardis calling Torchwood Three,” the Master singsonged to the Tardis consol. “Come in Torchwood Three.” John saw the Doctor role his eyes on the monitor where he was patched in to the comms. from his own Tardis.
“Good afternoon sir, it’s good to hear from you,” Ianto’s voice came through the console speakers and his image fizzled into view on the screen a moment later.
“Mr Jones,” the Master nodded. “All’s well on the home front I trust?”
“Not so much,” Rose stepped into view at Ianto’s shoulder.
“What’s happened?” John asked; he elbowed the Master aside lightly so he could step in front of the screen.
“We’ve had more reports of people being admitted to hospitals and psychiatric wards with similar symptoms as Ianto,” Rose explained. “And Ianto has been getting worse-”
“Rose,” Ianto chastised.
“What? You have!” Rose glared at him. When she turned back to the screen she frowned. “Who’s that?”
“That?” John tapped the Doctors face on his monitor. “That would be the Doctor, Rose.”
“Oh,” she paused. “You regenerated again.”
“Yeah, new face. And a new Tardis actually, well a remodel anyway-”
“Doctor,” Jack interrupted. “We need to get to the point here,” he told him, although his eyes frequently wandered back to the screen where Ianto was watching him closely.
“Just to add we’ve also had several reports of an increased number of hospital admissions for blackouts.” Ianto glanced away from the screen for a moment. “Some of the cases reported that patient’s life signs ceased entirely for the few moments to minutes that they were unconscious.”
“The same thing has been happening to Martha, we’re assuming it’s because her counterpart in your reality died a couple of years ago,” the Doctor explained.
“Martha Jones, Tish’s sister,” John clarified.
“But Ianto, you’re not having blackouts?” Jack asked.
“No, just flashes of memory.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense, you-”
“Jack,” the Doctor interrupted quietly.
“Right, sorry.”
“We’ve got a plan, but we’re going to need your help.” The Doctor grinned at them. “You’re going to be the tether that holds the universes together.”
“Or more specifically, keeps them from collapsing into each other,” the Master corrected with a roll of his eyes.
John grinned. “Sounds like fun, right?”
“Buckets of fun, sir,” Ianto replied.
***READ PART FOUR***
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
Anyway, this is very interesting. I like how Jack got all conflicted about Ianto's flashes (Figure it out Jack! You can do it!), his talk with John, The Master's sense of humor and Ianto's remarks.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject