Hidden By Aliens

Captain Jack Harkness

Jack brought Tosh out for a quick mission. He pulled up the van to a derelict building, covered more in graffiti than the original paint. Tosh was speaking into her phone in rapid Japanese.

As Jack walked up to the door, Tosh huffed. She clapped her phone shut. "It's my grandfather's eighty eighth birthday today." Tosh excused.

"I thought you'd gone to all this trouble for me." Jack teased.

"Eighty eight is a joyous year for the Japanese. I'm off to London to watch grown men throw rice." Tosh reported.

"You can get that in the Balti after stop tap. Okay, down to business." Jack turned to the building. "What have we got?" He opened the door.

The building on the inside looked the same as from the outside. Every available space was painted on. The halls were full of floating dust, and furniture broken from lack of use.

"The Ritz dance hall." Tosh reported. "It's been derelict since 1989 but someone's complained about hearing music drifting out. Music from the 1940s?"

Jack walked towards the grand staircase. As he walked up, he heard the familiar music. "Shush. Listen." Classic music came down from the stairs, that wonderful 1940's music. "You coming up?"

Tosh followed with excitement.

Jack ran to the ballroom at the top of the stairs. The once great dancing hall was a wreck. And calling it that was kind. "Wow. Look at the chandelier. No neon lights back then. Just dashing young soldiers and pretty young ladies." He turned towards Tosh. She was looking around at the desecrated dance hall. Jack went to pick her hands for a dance. "And as they danced, the girls would look into their partners' eyes, smile softly and say-"

"Jack, mind my laptop." Tosh warned, when Jack tried to twirl her around. She took a step back from her boss.

He showed no disappointment in the rejection. "I was thinking more along the lines of, and how long before you head off to war?" He teased.

Tosh rolled her eyes. She walked down a different staircase. They were still searching for the source of the music. It didn't help that they hadn't seen where it came from the first time.

"Come on. There's nothing here but memories and dust." Jack instructed.

Just when they passed to the next floor, the music started up again. It was louder this time. Jack turned back up the stairs. When he came to the ballroom- the room that had been a painted, dusty mess- it was so alive.

A dance was in full swing. Soldiers were spinning around pretty girls. The room was brightly lit for the dance, as a band played in the back of the room. People were chatting and laughing on the last night of excitement.

Jack remembered these parties. They had been so fun. He had missed them as these parties became less standard for leaving soldiers.

"They look so real." Tosh spoke from behind him, sounding breathless at the spectacle.

Jack checked his Vortex Manipulator. It would be able to say if what he was seeing was real. It beeped with results. "They're not ghosts. It's a simple temporal shift." Jack grinned. "Ha ha! And it's beautiful."

He remembered his first time in this time.

He remembered watching the Doctor and Rose dance.

Terra had filmed it. The two shared a secret smile as the Doctor and Rose realized they had been moved.

He had found himself thinking about Terra a lot more lately. Not just because of the Time Lady he was working alongside at Torchwood. He knew soon, their timelines would sync up again. It had to be soon, right? After what Jack heard about over Christmas, what he'd peaked at certain UNIT reports, Terra and the Doctor had been there.