Interlude - Between Rescue and Return

I wish you could have seen her face when she noticed me. It was a picture. As it should have been. Seeing a friendly face after two decades locked in the most secure prison in the universe … well, it doesn’t bear thinking about.

So, I suppose I should start from the beginning, or at least somewhere near it. I’d heard that the Doc had been locked up, and it took a long time to work out how to get to her. But I finally made it to the cell next to hers. She was speaking to all the other prisoners as she passed them on her way to and from the exercise yard; a Weeping Angel, an angry Ood, all sorts.

She spotted a Silence she’d noticed and forgotten, and then I butted in. “What about this face? Remember this?”

Her eyes opened wide as she stared at me. “Jack? Jack!”

I had to make a joke, of course. “I knew you would look better in these colours than me. Hello, Doc.”

She gasped and asked the silliest question. “What are you doing here?”

I rolled my eyes and replied. “What do you think I’m doing here? Breaking you out.”

I held up the little glowing blue ball so she could see it. “Temporal-freezing gateway disinhibitor bubble. Catchy, right? If it were me, I’d have called it a breakout ball. Freezes time temporarily, breaks through walls. Only problem is... it doesn’t last long.”

I activated the bubble and stepped through the electric fence to stand at her side. I gave her my best Captain Jack smile and said, “Hi!”

Her response was insulting. “Have you had work done?”

I laughed. It was such a great feeling to talk back and forth with the Doc. “You can talk! Now shut up and run.”

I updated her as we ran the bubble down the corridor. “I heard a rumour you were in here, so I committed a few crimes. Well, maybe a lot of crimes. Maybe more than I should have.”

Of course, she had to ask, “What sort of crimes?”

I put on the offended innocent look and replied, “You’re going to take the moral high ground with me when I’m breaking you out of prison? Be grateful!”

She did one of those manic squints she did so well and changed the subject. “How long has this thing got left?”

I grinned. “11 seconds till expiry! Go!”

We broke through the wall and arrived in the room I was aiming for just before the bubble burst. Great timing by me.

Making conversation while I scrabbled around for the item I’d hidden earlier, I told her, “It took 19 years to get to the cell next to you. Hope you had enough to occupy your mind?”

She frowned. “Too much.”

I fished out my secret contraband and showed it to her. “Here we go. One secretly stashed vortex manipulator.”

Just then, the alarms went off. I laughed. “Wondered how long that would take. We need to go now.”

She stared at the vortex manipulator and asked in wonderment, “How did you manage to smuggle that in here?”

! grinned and gave a standard Captain Jack reply. “You really want me to answer that?”

I grabbed her in a big hug. “Oh, I’ve missed you...very much. Let’s go.”