Ghosts

Gridlock

It takes the Doctor twenty-three minutes to arrive, which is pretty good considering the TARDIS is supposed to have six people flying it. He lands in front of the door, so we'll have to come and go through the other room.

Of course I'm just sat there freaking out because holy sock puppet in a sausage factory the TARDIS just landed in the same room as me and I'm going to meet the Doctor and -

My inner fangirl shuts up as the Doctor steps out. I just stare. It's his tenth regeneration, which is my favorite, but I'd probably prefer nine if he had gotten another season. I'm sorry, not died. And I say die because nine is dead. Yes we still have ten and nine lives on through ten but he's dead.

I cut myself off (I get really rambley when I fangirl) and look at the Doctor, who looks around the room. "You're alone?" he asks Jack.

"You could say that. I feel as if the ghosts of my team are still with me." Jack replies, with a grin that says that there's something he's hiding.

"That's oddly believing of you Jack," the Doctor says, unsure how to react, as he's too busy looking at the equipment in the room to interpret Jack's smile. "How'd you get all this stuff here alone?"

"You want me to pretend to come in from the other room?" I ask Jack. He looks at me with relief.

"Well I do have one new teammate. She's young but she doesn't have much choice but to join us. She's in the other room. Let's talk in there. There's more room. And yes we got two rooms." Jack gives me a meaningful look and I rush to get into the other room before the Doctor so he doesn't see me, um, manifest.

I get into the other room, but what am I supposed to be doing that kept me in here and not in the other room with Jack? After freaking out for a moment, I decide to pretend I was in the bathroom. I go in, flush the toilet, and start washing my hands. When I step back out, Jack and the Doctor are just coming in.

"This is Hazel. And I assume you know who this is?" Jack says, and I nod and keep myself from squealing as little. Okay, not really a squeal but a squeak.

The Doctor looks at me appraisingly. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

He goes back to looking at me. I'm not great at reading people, but I think he likes me, despite the fact that I'm in Torchwood at 16, but can tell that something is off about me. "So how did you get to be a part of Torchwood?"

"Not really much of a choice." I can tell he doesn't like my answer but doesn't pry. "Any ideas for vashta nerada protection or prevention?"

By this point Tosh, Owen, and Ianto have entered the room. Ianto's standing close to Jack, and Tosh and Owen standing almost as close. I catch Ianto's eye and jerk my head toward them. He nods at me. He's noticed too. I doubt Jack has though. For an intergalactic playboy he's shit at this sort of thing.

"Not really, I mean we could light up the whole city, that would prevent them from coming, but that would be really hard to pull off. And it's almost impossible to reason with them."

"So we need to light up city. This should be interesting." Jack sounds thoughtful, I assume he's thing of ways to pull this off."

"What if they just go to another city though, if they can't have this one?" Ianto asks. I stare at him blink a few times, then repeat the question so the Doctor can hear it and I don't have to answer it. The Doctor has a similar reaction to mine.

"Well, it would take an amount larger than what's usual for Earth, so we need to prevent a swarm that large from forming," Tosh speaks up. This time Jack repeats for the Doctor.

"That's genius," the Doctor says to Jack, who smiles at Tosh, who grins.

*~*

Okay, this is really hard to write because I really don't know how to get rid of the vashta nerada. I pretty much written myself into a corner. If anyone has an idea for how to get them out of this please tell me. Because if I know where this is going I can write longer chapters. I think that was a bribe. I'm not sure. Imma shut up now.