Secrets with Problems 3/?

[samecgh]

Rating: PG (innuendo)
Summary: Owen makes some new friends. Jack finds out about the old companion and a little more about the enemy.
Disclaimer: I am not any of the people on Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005) or Torchwood. Sorry, I don’t own it.
  

Last Part

Two arms picked him up and he turned his face toward the nearest shoulder. His hands immediately grabbed onto the breeches that were there. Jack started rubbing his back to calm him down. Getting a full look at the person in front of him, he didn’t notice The Doctor coming up by him. The person was buttoning the second to last button on a fitted (to him, tight) jacket. In fact, everything looked fitted on the boy. Too bad for him, the person in front of him barely looked sixteen or seventeen by human male standards. Jack tried not to make a glance over him.

“Now really, Doctor, do you mind telling me what exactly is going on?” the boy asked.

“I would like to know the same thing. Doctor?” Jack turned to where the boy was looking.

His right hand was scratching the back of his head while the other was searching for something. “I’ll tell you in a minute. Ah, it’s still there.” He opened a door into a garden area. One corner had a small jungle gym with a swing set and a slide. Jack whispered to Owen for a minute. He nodded and allowed himself to be dropped so he could run over to the swing part and sit down. He started moving while they sat on a near bench.

Jack turned back to the two men. “Now what exactly is going on?”

“First off, Jack, this is Turlough. A former companion during my fourth regeneration,” he started, turning to Turlough to finish, “Jack traveled with me in my eighth and ninth regenerations. More time in my eighth. Helped me out during the Dalek problem that happened recently.”

“Doctor,” Jack insisted, trying to get more information out of him. He watched Owen get off the swing and go up the stairs that led to the slide.

“Turlough, stay here and watch him.”

Turlough nodded, “Yes, Doctor.” He focused his whole attention on Owen as they walked out of the room.

“Turlough originally came on to kill me, by manipulation of the Black Guardian. He wasn’t very good, or he didn’t want to kill me. Stayed on for a little while after that, saving myself and a few others over the course of his stay. Left after finding out about Trion changing their policies. They were allowing the exiles back. His father and brother were among them. He went back with them.”

“What’s happened, Doctor?”

“I was chasing an old enemy that I thought had died. I tracked him to Trion. He de-aged Turlough to the exact point that he had left. He was going to kidnap him when I found him. Use him against me.”

“Is the person here?”

“Yes. They landed somewhere around Cardiff.”

“Who is he? Or is it a she? Indeterminable gender?”

“I am tracking him. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“One of your old enemies is in Cardiff; your former companion and my employee are younger and vulnerable. I’m worrying.”

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Turlough was wrapped in his own thoughts when someone tugged on his sleeve. Owen looked up at him. “I’m hungry.”

“Well, let’s get you something to eat. If the Doctor has anything.” He stood up and held a hand out. He half expected it to go unnoticed but he felt a hand slide into his and he didn’t have to look down. They walked down to the kitchen. His louder footsteps were echoed by the smaller, faster footsteps of Owen.

The kitchen actually looked human enough. Owen struggled up into a seat while he looked for something a little human. He found a box of cereal and milk in the cooler. He set the bowl in front of Owen while he went on making something from memory. The only sounds came from crunching and light metal scrapping metal as Turlough stirred. He plated his just as Jack and the Doctor came in.

“Turlough, you didn’t make enough for us.”

“I’m sorry, Doctor, I didn’t know you wanted any.” The Doctor grabbed a banana while Jack grabbed a piece of fruit that a pear’s skin, the shape of a mango with its seeds on the outside. He sat down next to Owen while the Doctor leaned against the counter.

“How long would the machine’s effects last normally?”

“Normally, the ray would be set by the amount of years they had to go back. Younger is longer. Owen and Turlough have been turned back around twenty, twenty-three years. They would be these ages that you would have around five to seven months. More severe cases have them fully raised back up. That was the setting on the one used on these two.”

“They’ll have to go back through everything.”

“There’s also a reversing process on the machine that brings them back to their proper ages and nothing more. We’ll use that to turn them back.” Jack finished the fruit and dropped into a compressor that must have been changed since he’s lived onboard. Owen was moving to get off his seat and almost fell to the floor if the Doctor hadn’t caught him and brought him down slowly. Owen looked up at him for a couple of minutes before picking up his bowl and setting it in the sink and running off.

“Jack, what was that about?” The Doctor wondered.

“He had a bad childhood; I don’t know how bad,” Jack vaguely described. He was staring into the distance when his phone started to ring. “Ianto how was the search?”

“I have the tech. It seems to be charging. There were no others turned into children.”

“Great, things may just be getting better.” He turned back to the others. “We found the tech; Ianto’s bringing it.”

“Brilliant, I’ll recalibrate and we can have these two back to themselves before tomorrow,” The Doctor announced, going to the console room to wait.

Jack looked at Turlough. “He may have just jinxed us.” Turlough tightly smiled. “I know how you feel.”

 

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