THE ADVENTURES OF THE DOCTOR'S AMAZING HAND

Chapter Twenty Six

By the time they reached Dover it was nightfall. Both Rose and Ianto slept some more while John kept watch over them. When Tom stopped, John scurried back into Rose's jacket while Tom took the tarp off. They climbed out and noticed a man standing nearby holding a lantern. beyond him was a big, white rowboat with another man sitting inside it.

"This is Theodore and the man in the boat is Charles. They're going to row you across the channel."

"Get in the end of the boat though under the tarp," Charles said with a thick Scottish accent. "That way no one will see ya if we're spotted."

Rose and Ianto nodded. They took turns thanking Tom.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Tom said after they both shook his hand and thanked him. "You two are nutters in my opinion. I just hope the world gets saved after all this."

"So do I, but I have faith in the Doctor," Rose said.

"I'm glad you do because I wouldn't do what you two are doing. I admire your bravery though and good luck on your mission. And I'll remember what you said and spread the word around London so you won't have to come back and do it."

"Thank you," Rose replied.

Tom and Theodore walked them to the boat and he stood and waited until they were in back and under a heavy tarp before he turned and went back to his truck. Reaching the door, he turned and saw Theodore push the boat away before getting into the front and rowing with Charles. Tom waved to them and then got back into his truck so he could get back to London before the Toclafane found out what was going on.

Throughout the night, Rose and Ianto lay under the tarp listening to the sloshing of the water and smelling the salty sea air.

"Yup, this is what I've always wanted to do, lie under a tarp in the middle of the English Channel," Ianto said. "One of my boyhood dreams."

"I know it's uncomfortable but hopefully the Toclafane won't fly all the way out here."

"I wouldn't count on it, Rose. Those things swarmed all over the Earth, you know. Where were you living when they attacked?"

"I was in a parallel universe," Rose said. "I had no idea any of this happened until the Master used a paradox machine to pull me through. I used to live here before I got stuck over there. I was there with the Doctor at Canary Wharf that day, same as you. I nearly got pulled into the void with the Daleks and Cybermen until my dad saved me but the gap closed on us and it stranded me over there until now. The paradox machine is what allows the Toclafane to be here. They came from the future and they can kill their ancestors without canceling each other out as long as the machine keeps working. The Doctor wants to destroy it but not yet. But when he does, everything the paradox machine was used for gets sorted out and that means I go back to my original universe and possibly lose my memory of all this. John wants to find a way to keep that from happening, me leaving, I mean, but I don't know if it's possible."

"Do you want to go back?" Ianto said softly.

"No. I mean, my mum and little brother and my ex-boyfriend Mickey are there but the Doctor is here and so is John and I don't want to leave either one of them."

John felt elated when he heard her include him and tell Ianto she didn't want to leave him. Love swelled inside him until it made his whole hand feel like it was on fire.

"I hate what's happened here but in a way I'm glad because if the Doctor needs eleven months, that's eleven months I have until we have to figure out a way to prevent me from going back. I only wish him and Jack were off the Valiant and with us now."

"Same here. I don't know if Jack said something to you when you were up there, but he and I..."

Rose stared at him when he coughed nervously. Then she understood what he was trying to say.

"You and him are lovers?"

Ianto nodded.

"So both of the men we love are prisoners," Rose said.

Ianto nodded.

"Yeah, I'm just as concerned as you are about him. I realize he can't really die but still...the Master might learn about that and use it against him," Ianto said.

"He has. I know the Master's killed him before."

Ianto closed his eyes, his heart in complete anguish while he imagined Jack in pain as he died again and again in cruel, heartless ways. Rose touched his hand sympathetically.

"We'll get him back, I promise. We'll save him and the Doctor and Martha's family from the Master," she said.

Ianto nodded. They fell silent for awhile and then Rose finally spoke.

"Ianto, about Jack being immortal, do you know how that happened?"

"No, he's never told me," Ianto said. "I just know that he's been that way for as long as I've known him. It was a shock the first time I saw it happen but now I'm used to it. I just wish that Owen and Tosh and Gwen had the same ability."

Rose took his hand in hers and gave it a sympathetic squeeze.

"Doctor said that if he destroys the paradox machine, everything will go back to the way it was before. Before the Toclafane came, I imagine."

Ianto gave her a hopeful look.

"Then my friends would come back, they'd all live again like this never happened."

"And the rest of the people the Toclafane killed and hopefully the Doctor would become young again although he never really said when the Master did that to him."

"But if all this happens, you must go back to the other universe," Ianto said.

She nodded.

"Yeah, but if nothing can be done to keep me here, it'll be worth it if your friends are restored to ya and the Earth goes back to the way it was," she said.

"I'll help John try to think of a solution, a way to keep you here," Ianto said. "It's not fair for you to go back if you don't wanna go especially if the man you love is here."

Rose smiled and patted her jacket.

"The men I love," she corrected.

She chuckled at the odd look on Ianto's face.

"What can I say, he's a part of him...or was and I've grown very fond of him now."

John felt like doing flip flops when he heard that. But a moment later, he calmed down and thought when he realized he was basically in competition with himself for the affection of a human girl. He reflected on that a moment. It was hard to believe that one human girl could make him feel this way but he loved Rose like no other and he knew the Doctor was the same way. This one simple human girl had the power to make them both feel weak at the knees and he knew if he had a body he would offer it in service to her and do whatever she asked. He knew it was very hard for the Doctor to deny her anything without feeling guilty. It was the main reason why he had allowed her to risk time and space for the sake of getting a second chance to be with her father at the moment of his death and he would have done no differently. He wasn't sure if such a thing as soul mates existed, but if it did, Rose would be his without a doubt. Both Rose and Ianto fell silent and John crawled out of her jacket, wincing inwardly at the feel of the wet wood on his fingertips while he walked around. He saw Rose staring at him silently, her eyes blazing with love. He turned to see Ianto had a different look on his face. He was curious but at the same time he could tell that he was thinking about what Rose said about being in love with him and getting creeped out by that. It made him laugh inside knowing that he had done the same thing his original owner did, got Rose Tyler to fall in love with him and with less parts than he had. He could picture the Doctor's reaction upon hearing that Rose had fallen in love with a living body part. It gave him pause though, this rivalry between them. Would that cause the Doctor to condemn him and leave him stranded without a TARDIS? But if so, why leave Rose with him? The dream still puzzled him and in addition to that, the heartbeart was getting closer and closer with each passing moment and that also gave him cause to worry since he had no idea why he was hearing it or what it meant, only that he felt that it meant that things would change forever for him when the heartbeat finally caught up with him and that possibly the dream he had been dreading so much would finally come to pass.

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