Short Drops and Sudden Stops - CLOSED.

Jenny grimaced as she pelted down the street, a mob howling at her heels. Well not quite at her heels, but far too close for comfort. And it wasn't her fault they were chasing her either. Well not really her fault...maybe just a little bit her fault. Well how was she supposed to know she had landed on a planet with a slave trade!? They ought to have a beacon with a message broadcasting or something, then she wouldn't have even landed much less knocked out that man before he could kill the woman he was beating. And now the mob had her cut off from the spaceport and her shuttle. If she got away from this, she was never, ever going to come back to this horrible place. Not ever!

"Get her before she reaches the forbidden zone!" The mob seemed to surge forward as Jenny made for an apparently unguarded archway, fear driving her feet even faster so that she almost flew through it. A hundred yards or more she ran past that arch, until she ran through...something. And suddenly she wasn't there anymore. There had been replaced by somewhere really quite different.

And really far up - the sudden lack of ground beneath her feet meant that Jenny screamed quite loudly as she fell. Fell all of fifteen feet to land on the flat roof of a tall building.

As Ianto sat in the meeting room, quietly sipping on some of his lovely coffee, all alone, and at peace, he heard Tosh screaming something about the Rift activity spiking out of control, and nearly dropped the mug.

He looked at the door, waiting to hear more, but all he heard were steps - Gwen and Owen were probably on it. The problem was that those two were now also speaking loudly, and sounding nervous. Ianto got up from the comfortable chair and walked at a quick pace towards them, observing what it was they were looking at from afar.

It seemed like something had come through the Rift, but it didn't give the same readings as the garden variety weevil. Ianto knew Jack wasn't around - probably standing on some rooftop, or driving around like a maniac - so he used his bluetooth device to call the Captain.

"Sir? We have uncommon Rift activity. I suspect you should return to base."

There were the usual bumps, shakes and humming noises, as the TARDIS made her way through space and time. Nothing out of the ordinary, really. Nothing, that is, until the jar containing his old hand started to glow and shake and the TARDIS seemed to reverse direction (as far as possible when travelling through space and time) throwing The Doctor and Donna down to the floor, before coming to an abrupt stop.

The Doctor gave a small groan, shaking his head as he pushed back up from the floor and looked around him. Donna was in a similar predicament on the other side of the controls, but he could see her moving about.

"You alright, Donna?" he asked.

Pulling himself up by the railing, he checked the TARDIS instrument dials, but nothing seemed broken... and, according to the read outs, they were in twenty-first century Cardiff... again. The same place they'd been refuelling not ten minutes ago.

"Ah, Donna? You know how I said we'd check out the leisure worlds of Cerus 3? ...Seems we aren't quite there yet."

Looking slightly disheveled and very much annoyed, Donna pulled herself back to her feet, gripping the railing to support her weight. "I'm fine, in a manner of speaking," she mumbled, rolling her eyes. "You ought to learn to control this thing," she added as an afterthought, rubbing the back of her head gingerly.

It was after the not-so-thinly-veiled shot at the Doctor's skills in "driving" the TARDIS that Donna realized what he had said.

"We're where, then...?" she asked slowly, furrowing her brow. Deciding not to wait for an answer, she marched up to the doors of the TARDIS, pulling them open forcefully. Surveying the surroundings, Donna pushed the doors shut again and turned back to the Doctor. "Back in Cardiff, yeah? Why?"

Oh, how the Doctor wished Donna wouldn't cross her arms and stare at him like that. Of course, he refused to acknowledge the way it made him nervous. Like a school kid that'd just been caught doing something naughty by his teacher.

"Weeeeell!" He stretched the word out, stalling as he kneaded the back of his neck and tried to think through the possible explanations. He rubbed his chin. "You see, time is made up of timey whimy stuff, that sort of surrounds us, and sometimes, given the right trigger, it can snap back like a rubber band... dragging us along with it."

He waved his arms as he spoke, as if to make his words seem like more of a proper explanation.

Donna watched the Doctor with interest sketched on her face, nodding along as he waffled through an explanation. When he paused, Donna put her hands on her hips.

"Finished, are you?" she asked. Without waiting for a reply, she frowned at him and crossed her arms over her chest again. "You're just saying things. You're always just saying things. If that's all there is to it - this 'timey wimey' mumbo jumbo - then start it up again and lets go to the Cerus 3 leisure worlds. I could stand a vacation, you know. Sometimes traveling with you is worse than work," she went on.

Up on the top of the building she'd landed on, Jenny groaned as she rolled over and threw one arm over her face to block out the sun in her eyes. That had been a rough landing; sure, she'd landed on her feet, but the shock of the unprepared drop meant she didn't stay vertical. And since there isn't a howling mob, staying horizontal sounded like a very good plan at the moment. A very good plan indeed.

Not quite able to restrain her curiosity, even though she was still rather stiff and sore, she moved her arm and propped herself up to take a look at whatever happened to be at eye level. Buildings, blue skies, one sun...another city, another planet. And still no howling mob. Time to relax and soak up the sun...maybe the heat would soothe some of the aches and pains of that rough landing.

As one would expect, no word came from Jack, which got Ianto quite frustrated, and made him go out and deal with the problem himself. He figured he could do that now, since he had been doing field work. So, he hopped on the SUV, with Tosh in his ear giving him directions, and drove to the supposed crash site.

As he asked if any of them had any idea what he was "up against", none of them could give a proper answer. Toshiko told him that it was the top of a building, and that it didn't look like anything of large proportions.

Ianto hoped he could handle it, as he parked the SUV near the building, and hopped on the lift.

The Doctor couldn't help but cringe as Donna put her hands on her hips. Hands on hips was just a little worse than crossed arms, and meant he was really in trouble. He stood quietly as she let loose her less than happy opinion of his explanation, bouncing contritely on the balls of his feet until she was done.

"But, Donna? Don't you want to know why we're here? Something pulled us back, pulled the TARDIS back. We can't just go now. I promise there's plenty of time to go to Cerus 3 later." His expression hovered somewhere between enthusiastic child and hurt puppy, an expression that always worked on his previous companions.

"Come on, Donna, don't be such a spoil sport!" With that, he swung the door back open and stepped out into the Cardiff sunshine. "It's still a beautiful day!"

Donna watched the Doctor's expression change. "Oi, don't you give me that look. It won't work on me!" she insisted.

"Come on, Donna, don't be such a spoil sport!"

She sighed, resigned, as he pulled open the doors of the TARDIS and announced to her that it was still a beautiful day, thinking to herself that a beautiful day in Cardiff couldn't possibly be as beautiful as a dreary day in the leisure worlds, from what he'd told her before they'd taken off from this same spot a few moments earlier.

"All right; haven't got much of a choice, have I?" she muttered to herself before stepping out of the TARDIS and following him. She looked around and noticed nothing interesting enough to have pulled them back to Cardiff and let out another sigh.

That was when she noticed a flash of light breaking the stillness of the sky over a building nearby. It looked like lightning to her, only, not quite the same. "I think I found the reason we're here," she muttered, nudging the Doctor with an elbow while pointing toward the light with her free hand.

Ianto had finally gotten to the top floor of the building, and climbed the set of stairs connecting it to the rooftop as he was drawing his gun carefully.

He opened the door and came out to the rooftop, pointing the gun at nothing in particular, rotating around himself, only to find a seemingly human blonde creature looking out to the skyline of Cardiff. Ianto swallowed hard.

"Uhh... Turn around slowly, with your hands in the air." He said, aiming his gun at the possible human. It was definitely not a weevil, though, weevils didn't have the habit of dying their hair blonde.

"I think I found the reason we're here!" Donna nudged the Doctor with an elbow while pointing toward the light with her free hand.

"Brilliant! I knew there was a reason I kept you around, Donna Noble!" The Doctor sent his most infectious grin toward his companion, taking her arm in his and marching happily towards the source of the light.

From the outside, the building seemed fairly ordinary looking, one black SUV parked out the front, but otherwise it was pretty much quiet at this time of day.

"Come on, let's take the stairs." With that, the Doctor dragged Donna over to the outdoor fire escape and began to climb at a steady pace.

Jenny heaved a sigh as she heard a door bang open and a male voice order her to assume a harmless position. "So much for laying around in the sun." Turning around with her hands in the air, she gave the nice-looking fellow a bright smile. "Sorry, didn't realize I couldn't fall through a hole in the air unannounced. I'm harmless, really."

Ianto was speechless. She did look very human, but she spoke about the Rift, albeit not with the technical terms. He realized it had been her who had fallen through the Rift, and the reason why the activity had spiked, and also, the reason why he was here. Alone, he might add.

Ianto still didn't pull the gun away, but walked closer, blinking from the sunlight.

"How did it happen? How did you fall through?" He asked the young woman, thinking now she might not have been entirely human, for she was unusually beautiful, the way one doesn't think can be possible, what with all the human flaws the human condition itself entailed.

"I knew there was a reason I kept you around, Donna Noble!"

"Oh, what? It's not my lovely face or my amazing ability to charm, then?" she joked, linking her arm with his. Always an adventure with the Doctor, apparently, even in Cardiff, Wales.

And then, he suggested they take the stairs. She looked up at the building and the smile melted off her face almost as quickly as it had appeared. The building was insanely tall. She sighed.

"Let's take the stairs..." Donna mimicked, frowning. "Do you always have to do everything the hard way?"

Following the Doctor up the stairs of the building, Donna looked around the staircase. "A bit dank..." she muttered, pulling a face.

"Fall's about right. I was running from this group of madmen, then suddenly I was falling and landed here. Wasn't very pleasant." She took a step closer, still wearing that bright smile. "You wouldn't mind if I put my arms down, would you? Only I think I banged my shoulder up when I landed, because it hurts."

The man with the gun was a little closer now, but not near enough. And she would really rather not have to try and disarm him yet. Not without adjusting to the sore spots a little more first. So, talking it is, and maybe she could convince him that she was really quite harmless.

The Doctor ignored Donna's usual protests, taking her hand and pulling her along. They eventually reached the top and The Doctor came out onto the roof, puffing slightly from th exertion.

He looked up to see a man, pointing a gun toward his general direction, though not at him... in fact he seemed not to have noticed The Doctor's entrance just yet, his full attention on someone else. Between the man with the gun and The Doctor, was a young blonde woman... so familiar-looking, even with her back turned to him, that the sight made both the Doctor's hearts clench for a moment with sadness and grief.

But it couldn't be... It wasn't possible...

"Jenny?" he whispered.

Ianto noticed her eyes shifting from himself to his gun, but he didn't say anything about it. He lowered the gun very slowly, slightly nervous that the young woman would try anything. He couldn't trust her just yet.

"Go ahead, just don't try anything." He said, anyway. "Do you need medical attention?"

Ianto suspected she had banged more than her shoulder falling right from the sky. He wondered where she had been before, and deemed this girl very lucky - it's not everyday you find yourself safely into another dimension when you're running from an angry mob.

Suddenly, there was another - unknown - male voice behind him, and Ianto aimed the gun again, turning around to face him.

Donna noticed the man with the gun before anything else, because he turned to face them; they were now his focus of attention. She held up her hands reflexively. "Oi, we're not armed," she spoke before she knew the Doctor would say the same. "What say you lower that thing before you hurt someone?" she asked the man.

Her eyes flickered for a moment in the direction of the blond girl with her back to them. She furrowed her brow. That's when it registered in her head what the Doctor had whispered. "Jenny..." she breathed, doubtful and awestruck all at once.

"Thanks." She lowered her arms with a wince, her left shoulder complaining. But she ignored it for the moment, as the cute man had gone from holding her at gunpoint to offering medical attention. She could probably use some, but after that hallucinogenic painkiller incident a month ago, she didn't really trust anything. So she would just have to strap it up and hope it wasn't too damaged.

Oh, he wanted a reply, didn't he? "No, I think I'll skip for the moment. Need to see how bad I still hurt later." When he raised the gun again, she took half a step back before looking where he was actually pointing it. And what she saw quite drove the aches and pains right out of her head.

A much brighter smile than she'd ever shown Ianto lit her face as she saw who it was. "Dad?"

Ianto was a little confused, which meant, above everything else, that he was not lowering his gun any time soon. He looked from the odd couple to the blonde girl, and back again, seeing the looks of recognition in everyone's eyes.

"Oh, brilliant, a family reunion, is it?" He mumbled to himself, furrowing his brow as hard as he could, wondering where the hell could Jack - or even Gwen, Tosh and Owen - be at this time. He mumbled something angrily at his bluetooth, but even Ianto himself wasn't sure what it had been. Something to do with "surrounded" and "outnumbered". Maybe he had only mumbled those two words, who knew?

"Dad?" The girl turned around and all of a sudden there was no doubt in the Doctor's mind at all.

Behind him, he heard Donna breath out her name as well.

"Jenny? Is it really...? How is it possible? Oh, who cares, give your old man a hug!" The Doctor's voice dropped down to a slightly choked sounding growl as he strode toward Jenny, arms spread wide and a smile to match.

For the moment, the man with the gun was completely ignored.

Aches? Pains? Man with a gun? All completely ignored as she ran the short distance separating her from her father. She flung her arms around him and squeezed him in a tight hug, delighted words spilling out as he proved to be quite real.

"Oh Dad, I'm so happy to see you!" Everything else could wait. Even the cute man with a gun, though she hoped he would realize that they were harmless by the time they were done hugging.

The Doctor caught Jenny mid-run, wrapping his arm around her while they bounced and rocked, squeezing each other tight and laughing.

He pulled back, holding her at arms length for a moment as he studied her face, just to make sure she was real.

"Jenny! You're alive!" he chimed redundantly. "Really, really, properly alive. In the flesh and present and ...not dead! That's brilliant!" he babbled happily, before repeating his earlier exuberant display of hugging.

Donna couldn't help the smile from taking over her expression as she watched Jenny and the Doctor embrace. For a person who was, at best, reluctant to accept the pretty blond as family, much less offspring, the Doctor had really given a turn around just before Jenny had been shot. The waves of happiness coming off the two of them were intoxicating and contagious to Donna.

"It's really good to see you, Jenny," she said, taking her own turn for a hug. Without letting the smile fall from her face, Donna gave a furtive glance in the direction of the man still holding the gun. "Going to introduce us to your friend?" she whispered into Jenny's ear before pulling away to examine Jenny properly. Indeed, she was not only alive and well, but still in one piece. Donna could barely believe her eyes, but there would be more time for question later - when there wasn't a stranger in a suit staring down the barrel of a gun at them.