[Cardiff] A New Start for Martha Jones

It had been one weekend of helping her search for a flat, a few phone calls to help her with a local clinic for those odd hours that Jack promised Owen she'd take just so he could have a bit of "alone" time... whatever that meant. Then it was emails exchanged over a few months and despite the team still being a bit on edge about just where the hell he'd run off to after he'd come back to life once more, he needed someone else that had seen things... that knew just how bad this all could have been... there at his side.

Martha was like a breath of fresh air for him, breathing new life into a Hub that had seen so much happen, and had so much collapse around them. The trust was still a bit uneasy, still hard to get a grip on and even if he could have avoided the strain of his return, he knew that it was going to take some effort to get things back to basics. Jack hoped that Martha would be a step in that direction, back to the normal flow of things around Torchwood.

She'd arrived at the first of the year and he returned her message telling her that she could come take a tour of the facility one evening after everyone had gone. Just to get her acclimated and ask any questions she might have, without the pressure from everyone else learning who she was, and most of all what she knew of Jack. He showed her the galley, and the offices. The vaults and anything else she wanted to ask about. It was a rarity for him to be so open with someone, but Martha was different, and he knew that above all else she'd take caution with all the information he was giving her.

He issued her a cellphone with a GPS point in it and a few other Torchwood amenities and then took her to the hospital where she would be working in their clinic. He was trying to give her as much information as he could, and as much help as she needed because in reality she was helping him in a few more ways than she could have even known.

They agreed she'd start on the seventh, and that he'd already talk to his team a bit and let them know what he thought was important, and that it was her experience with this sort of thing that made her the right choice. It took them a few days of questions, of silent looks amongst each other wondering who would be the one to get replaced and after the way Owen had been toward the end everyone was eyeing him. Two days of that and Jack had enough. He made the speech, he told them that he knew how bad things were, that he'd seen a few more things while he was gone, things he didn't know how to deal with and that he knew that they weren't enough. That big things were coming, still coming and four plus Jack wasn't going to be enough. No one was leaving, no one was getting replaced... they just needed more. He needed more.

Now it was Monday morning, and Jack was there early. Ianto too, which was mostly because he probably had known that Jack would be early. A light hand to his side in reassurance that he appreciated everything and a smile over the brim of the cup of coffee that he had taken as soon as it had been brewed, "Best coffee in Cardiff, Martha's going to be lucky to work here."

Leaning on the rails he saw her... and the Doctor discussing things on one of the monitors outside near the fountains and Jack just waited. It was a choice she'd have to make, and it was going to be a hard one too, Jack knew it. So he just waited, and watched as the rest of the team slowly filed in taking in their morning coffee and settling into routine.