Disclaimer: Doctor Who is the property of the BBC. I do not pretend to lay claim to any portion of it or its characters.

Chapter 1: 1941, the Height of the London Blitz

The ground shook and Captain Jack's eyes flew open and he bolted up right, looking around him in confusion. He knew, or at least he was fairly certain, that he had fallen asleep in a hotel suit on a luxury cruise spaceship orbiting the planet Alpha Centuri in the year 2010. Yet, here he was clearly awake in a small barracks in what appeared to be the 1940s.

It took his mind a couple of seconds to process this, but it soon dawned on him that he had been here before. This is were he had stayed when he was posted here during WWII...the first time. "What the hell?" he muttered to himself. What had he had to drink the night before? He certainly didn't remember having that much and what he did have had not been that strong.

He pinched himself. Nope. It wasn't a dream, that much Jack was sure of. What was going on? It didn't make sense. Had he been kidnapped? No, that didn't make sense either. For one thing, where the guards? Besides, what sort of kidnappers would hold someone hostage during the Blitz?

Jack's eyes roamed the room, searching from sort of clue as to what was happening. Nothing. Then his eyes spotted a calendar on the far wall. He peered closely at it. He frowned. The date...why was today's date so familiar?

The ground shook again and Jack found himself being thrown to the floor. He groaned and got up. He moved to where he remembered the bathroom to be, and looked in the mirror, certain that he had a bruise on his head. What he saw caused his jaw to drop in surprise. He was young...well, younger.

Several years seemed to have just vanished from his face. This was just getting weirder and weirder. Jack was starting to freak out. He shook his head. It's simple, he tried telling himself, you just traveled back in time and you don't remember doing it. It's no big deal! But Jack knew that it was a big deal. He rushed back to the other room and cast another glance at the calendar and then he knew. Today was the day that he first met the Doctor and Rose.

Jack noticed a clock on the wall and he studied it carefully. It would be another three hours before he spotted Rose hanging from a barrage balloon. He shook his head, desperately trying to remember exactly what he had been doing at this time and on this day.

Just then Jack heard the sound of foot steps echoing down the hall and then he suddenly remembered that he and Algie would be entering the room in a matter of seconds. Jack spun around looking wildly for some place to hide; it would not do for his younger self to see him. His whole time line would go up in smoke and if there was one thing Jack had learned from the Doctor, it was that one couldn't change their own time line, but it was too late. The door opened.

"Jack!" Jack took a deep breath and slowly turned around, expecting to see his younger self and Algie standing behind him, but instead he saw only Algie. "There you are! I've been looking all over for you. I thought you said, you'd join us for a game of poker. What happened, old chap?"

Jack just started at him. He felt himself getting colder and colder each second. This could not be happening! Had he been wrong? No, he clearly remembered going to the game and coming back with Algie. If there wasn't an younger Jack Harkness with him...

Now, Jack knew a lot about time travel. As a former Time Agent and then as a companion of the Doctor he had done plenty of it. But all those times, his own time line had not been effected, but now...now, Jack realized that he had not simply traveled back in time, he had traveled back on his own time line. Was that even possible?

"I say, Jack," say Algie peering at him in concern, "are you alright? You like ill." Jack shook his head and but on his most charming smile.

"I'm fine, Algie, and I'm sorry about missing the game...but...um...something came up at the last minute."

Algie frowned, puzzled. "What?"

"Something important...and private, Algie. I'm afraid, I can't discuss it with you." Algie opened his mouth to ask more questions when the door opened and more of Algie's old friends and comrades in arms entered the room.

There was a general chorus of greetings and Algie's question as to why Jack hadn't joined them for the poker game was repeated. Jack gave the same answer, but refused to say more. In truth, what could he say? No one would believe him anyway.

The next few hours passed while the others all talked and shared jokes. They tried to get Jack to join them, but Jack was not in the mode. His mind was far away. He was now absolutely certain that he had gone back on his own time line, as impossible as that sounded but how?

There was only person who could possibly answer his question: The Doctor, but that presented a new problem. The Doctor would not know him, so how would he trust him? It had taken the Doctor some time to warm up to him the first time they met, what would make this any different? Then suddenly Jack remembered the time. He looked at the clock. It was time for him to meet Rose.

He jumped up so suddenly that the others all stopped talking and looked at him. "Jack?" said Algie. "Are you alright?" Instead of answering, Jack just grabbed his binoculars from out of his pocket and went to the window. Rose would be there and he would save her just like he had last time and then, just like last time, she would lead him to the Doctor.

There was one problem though: Rose wasn't there. She was not hanging from the rope of a loose barrage balloon, in fact, there was no balloon there at all. Jack blinked. Was he too early? Or, a lump rose to his throat, was he too late? He sincerely hoped not.

A mental image of Rose falling to her death came to him and he bit back a cry. He prayed silently and then cast another glance at the clock. He was neither early or late...he was right on time. He looked back outside. Still no Rose and still no balloon. Jack felt the world falling out from under him.

"Jack?" He felt a hand on his shoulder. Algie. "Are you alright?" He didn't answer. Instead he spun around and rushed out of the room. He was down the stairs and out of the building in no time.

What was happening? This was wrong...very wrong! For only the third time in his life, Jack felt like breaking down crying. He was trapped in his past with no Doctor and no Rose. What he was he to do?

He knew what he had to do. He would find his ship...then he would do whatever it took to find his friends. The Doctor and Rose, right now, no one was more important to him then them. He had to find them...he would find them.

He remembered that he had parked his ship by Big Ben and he quickly made his way there. He was not more than a block or two away when he froze. Standing in his path was a small child, a boy no more than six years old. Normally Jack this would not have bothered Jack in the slightest, but this boy was wearing a gas mask. "Are you my mummy?"

Idiot! Jack cursed. He had been so focused on finding the Doctor and Rose that he had completely forgotten what had happened after he met them. All of his memories of this time came back to him and knew that he would have to put off finding his friends...for now.

Right now he had more important matters to deal with. This was, he recalled guiltily, his fault and he had to fix it. He had to undo the damage that the nanogenes had unintentionally caused. He had to set things right. He also had to stop a bomb. How he was to do all this without the Doctor and Rose, he had no idea, but he had to try. He was Captain Jack Harkness, a former Time Agent, a former companion of the Doctor, and he had to do this...alone. It was what the Doctor would want and it was for his and Rose's sakes that he would fix it.