Making Up for Lost Time
 

"Really, Doctor, you could explain what we're looking for, or what we're actually supposed to be asking about," Jack said as he followed the Doctor around. They'd been traveling together for a little while already, so Jack wasn't too frustrated at this point. Yet.

"Just anything out of the ordinary," the Doctor replied. "There are a lot of strange things happening around here, and I want to find out what's causing them."

"Oh, that's helpful," Jack said, rolling his eyes. "Anything out of the ordinary. You don't even know what ordinary is. Why don't we find someone else to ask rather than running all over?"

"Oh yes, by all means, let's ask the humans whether or not they've noticed the temporal anomalies cropping up all over," the Doctor pointed out, giving Jack a bit of a Look. "Because that will turn out so very well."

"Well maybe if you didn't phrase it like that," Jack said, rolling his eyes. "It's easy. We just find a few humans who live here and ask them if they've noticed anything weird in the area. They're more likely to point us in the right direction."

The Doctor just rolled his eyes and made sure he had his psychic paper handy. He got the feeling they were going to need it soon enough.

Jack picked a house at random and strode up to the door, making sure the Doctor was with him. He knocked and then stood back a little.

Jess opened the door in a pair of black guy's gym shorts and a gray tank top, and she quirked an eyebrow at the two. "What can I help you gents with?"

"Hello," the Doctor said, grinning a bit. Hey, he could act when he needed to. "Neighborhood watch, just going around to a few of the neighbors. You haven't noticed anything odd going on around here have you?"

"Odd how?" Marie came up behind Jess, looking at the two men curiously.

"Suspicious accidents, unusual people around, besides us, anything out of the ordinary." Jack grinned too, so far keeping his flirting down to a minimum.

Jess looked back at Marie. "You think they mean the thing?" And yes, she knew her sister would know what she was talking about, she was just having fun teasing the guys a bit.

"Thing?" That got the Doctor's attention. Things were just called 'things' unless there wasn't a word for them at hand.

"The thing in the park, yeah," Marie said, nodding. "I bet that's it."

"Probably."

"What thing in the park?" Jack asked.

"We'll show you. And don't bother flashing that at anyone else, it's blank." Jess nodded to the pocket he'd stored the psychic paper in.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on that. Now he was intrigued; nobody aside from Jack, really, had been able to see the psychic paper for what it was.

"Well, we should take a look at the 'thing,'" he said instead.

"Just let us grab shoes," Jess said, already in the process of pulling hers on. She grabbed her wallet and keys too, stuffing them in her pockets.

Marie slipped her shoes on and grabbed her wallet as well. No sense in leaving the house without it, there was no telling what she might run into later.

The Doctor just waited, watching them carefully. Something seemed a bit odd about the two girls, and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. They were too calm about a 'thing' happening. It wasn't right.

"Come on, this way," Jess said, taking the lead. She knew Marie wouldn't mind, and she was good with people.

Jack let the Doctor keep track of the first one, instead hanging back a few feet to walk with the second. "Hi, we haven't been introduced. I'm Captain Jack Harkness." He grinned at her.

Indeed, Marie didn't mind.

"Marie," she introduced herself. She raised an eyebrow a bit. "Captain, huh?"

The Doctor followed Jess, although he did keep an eye on Jack. Never could be too careful when it came to Harkness, after all.

"They call me the Doctor, by the way," he said.

"Yup. I've got my own ship. Or, you know, I did. Then there were some issues, but I'm hoping I'll get another one soon." Jack grinned at her.

"The Doctor?" Jess asked, looking at him. "Just the Doctor?" She was quiet for a moment. "Well then, Doctor, I'm Jess."

"I see," Marie said. "And just what were you a captain of?" Because now that he mentioned it, he had to elaborate. That was just how it worked.

"Good to meet you, Jess," the Doctor said. beaming briefly. "Now, what is this 'thing' you mentioned?"

"Kind of hard to explain, I've had a few ships." Jack shrugged. "Mostly I was captain of a time jumper."

"It's... kind of hard to explain," Jess said, leading the way into the park and over to a quiet corner. "Maybe you'll have a better explanation for us."

Marie blinked.

"A time jumper?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Then she broke out into a grin. "Now that sounds like fun."

"Probably," the Doctor agreed. Then he paused as they rounded the corner, and he blinked. "Well, look at that!" Hovering just near the corner where two sections of wall met, there was a distortion in space. It seemed to be generating a breeze and a high-pitched whine, and it shone ever so faintly gold. The Doctor recognized the gold as time energy.

"Oh you have no idea," Jack said with a grin. "It's a lot of fun. World War II, surprisingly fun, actually."

"Yeah, that. Thing." Jess shrugged. "A baseball fell out of it once, a few days ago."

"You're kidding," Marie said.

"Jack, enough flirting, come over here," the Doctor called. "It's a wrinkle!"

"Nope, not kidding," Jack said, winking at her. But he did go take a look.

"Huh. So how did a wrinkle end up here?"

"Isn't that the big question," the Doctor agreed.

"For those of us who don't speak weird, what's a wrinkle?" Marie piped up.

"It's a wrinkle," the Doctor said, gesturing to it. "A wrinkle in time and space. It's kind of a snag, where space and time have met and gotten a bit tangled up somehow."

"It's a Wrinkle in Time," Jess said, grinning at her sister. Jack eyed them both. They were way too calm about all this.

"Yeah, sure," Jack said. "So, a wrinkle, we need to get rid of the wrinkle now, right?"