Title: Fallout, Part TwentyFour

Author: Emma

Characters: A whole bunch of folk.

Rating: Starts PG, but hey, it’s got Jack in it!

Disclaimer: Oh, please. If I owned them, would I let some of those idiots write the scripts? And if I were making any money off them, would I be where they could find me?
Author's Note: This fic is CoE compliant

Part One is here; Part Two is here; Part Three is here; Part Four is here; Part Five is here; Part Six is here; Part Seven is here; Part Eight is here; Part Nine is here; Part Ten is here; Part Eleven is here; Part Twelve is here; Part Thirteen is here; Part Fourteen is here; Part Fifteen is here; Part Sixteen is here; Part Seventeen is here; Part Eighteen is here; Part Nineteen is here; Part Twenty is here; Part TwentyOne is here; Part TwentyTwo is here; Part TwentyThree is here

            “I’m going to have to call the Doctor.”

            “Why?”

            “I need to look at the stuff that John took from doctor Woolf’s office.” Martha collapsed into the guest chair facing Jack’s desk. “God, I’m tired. Tom is threatening to move into the lab just so he can see me from time to time.”

            “What’s so urgent? I thought Donna and Yan were fine.”

            “Oh, they are. It’s just that…There’s something showing on Yan’s genetic scans that I don’t think should be there, even after I factor out the Time Lord DNA. Actually that’s the problem. I can’t factor out all the Time Lord DNA.”

            “That doesn’t make sense”

            “You think I don’t know that?” Her nails clicked on the metal arms of the chair as she drummed impatiently. “When I examined Yan’s DNA samples I found an odd thing. The majority of the Master’s DNA was inserted by replacing nucleotide pairs in certain sections. Since they are made of different molecules, they stand out like sharks at a guppy convention. But here’s where it gets weird. Some of the nucleotides have different phosphates groups. And something even odder is that the backbones of Yan’s DNA show the presence of non-human sugar molecules.”

            “What are you saying, Martha?”

            “I’m saying that if I didn’t know better I would say Ianto’s DNA was already carrying non-human genes.”

            “That’s impossible. Torchwood London tested every employee. Anything alien would have ended up in a dissecting table. Probably alive.”

            “That’s an ugly thought. But I think these findings would have been written up as mistakes in the replication process. Oddities. Most of them were in places where they would have made no difference. Except one, and that one…”

            “Keep going,” Jack encouraged. “That one…”

            “That one could be a trigger for the creation of a secondary DNA strand. A totally non-human one.” She sighed. “That’s as far as I can go. Maybe the Doctor can do better.”

             “Have you told Yan yet?”

            “He and Tish are working on something this morning. I’m seeing him this afternoon. Do you want to be there?”

            “No. I don’t think he’s ready to deal with… anything involving me yet.”

            “Jack…”

            “It’s all right, Martha. I’ve come to terms with it as much as I can.”

            “Is that why you’ve been working yourself into exhaustion every day? Or why you’ve put together a succession plan just in case you’re not here?”

            Jack rubbed his eyes. “I’m not going to disappear on you, Martha. I give you my word. I’m tired of leaving disaster in my wake. This time, when I leave, everything will be in place. Torchwood will be ready.”