Jack: June 6th, 2009, part Two
Oct. 8th, 2009 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ericadawn16Title: But Time Didn’t Stop
Characters: Jack,Gwen
Rated: TV-14 ANGST COE Spoilers
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Jack and Gwen continue investigating the aftermath of the explosion.
Previous Segment: June 6th, 2009
Masterlist for series:
http://ericadawn16.livejournal.com/63337.html
June 6th, 2009, part Two
“We should check out the crypt,” Jack stated and she looked at Janet and the other cells with bodies, but she had to understand as he did, that there was nothing to be done with them right now. Following a different set of passages, they found it.
“But how can everything have power? I thought it was all powered through the Rift and our manipulator is lying in a million pieces right now,” Gwen spoke and crossed her arms.
“There must be an emergency generator or back-up, I just don’t know. I’ve never been involved before,” he complained and hated the tone of his voice. He shouldn’t be getting short with her when she was only trying to help and be professional about it. Taking a deep breath, he made his way to the drawers. There was no way he’d test the system by opening Grey’s number so he picked another one; older.
“Gerald Kneale, one of the few of us to leave. He died during the Blitz,” Jack told her as she came closer and they looked at the body; frozen and unchanged since 1941. Then, he remembered something…
“The earthquake!” he declared and laughed to her visible consternation, “In 1906, there was an earthquake, which we caused…not on purpose, but it totaled all the upper levels, including the train station, submarine dock and all those extra rooms.”
“We had a submarine?”
“We did until we lost it in the earthquake as well, but they wouldn’t let me down here to help…”
“Why?” the young woman questioned and he was pleased that he finally understood.
“Because my future self was frozen in a drawer!” he declared and laughed again, “But I never woke up, the entire time I was in here through the earthquake and Blitz and I slept through it all…no malfunctions in the system.”
Her brown eyes studied it all and he felt he had new respect for the place as well.
“So, we have the Crypt in working condition and the holding cells, but the equipment’s a complete loss. What are we going to about that? The server can’t possibly have everything. All those files on the Hub network, they’d all be…gone,” the Welshwoman spoke and frowned. However, something else clicked in Jack’s brain.
“’but if you need back-ups for anything, then Archie has everything’” Jack repeated from memory and braced himself on the stone wall.
“Who told you that?” she asked; her gaze downcast at her black boots.
“Ianto…he told me in a dream yesterday,” he told her and didn’t realize at first that he was playing with one of his coat buttons.
“He just happened to tell you exactly what we needed to know? Must have been some dream,” she commented and rearranged her arms.
“Yeah,” Jack agreed and thought of Ianto and his hands on his…
He closed his blue eyes and tried to concentrate on the present even though his best friend wasn’t in it. When he opened them, Gwen’s eyes were watery.
“The archives, we should…see how they look,” the man spoke and she nodded.
“He put so much work into them,” she uttered and the tears began falling. Closing the gap between them, he took her in his arms and their sobs intermingled.
“He would have wanted us to get it going again,” Jack said, rubbing the wetness off with the back of his hand. She offered her arm and he took it as they headed through the corridors and down. The first room of the archives held all the personnel files for the entire history of Torchwood Three. Off to the side were a table, chair and sofa. A worn copy of Bridget Jones’ Diary lay on the wood; waiting for its owner to return even though Ianto would insist it was Gwen’s book. Some boxes had fallen on the floor yet most of it had remained undisturbed. This was great news. He started running for the next floor and could hear Gwen following after him. Floor after floor was the same; virtually unharmed from the explosion. His speed picked up as his excitement increased until he was only a couple of floors from the very bottom of the structure. Gwen arrived a bit later and had to catch her breath.
“And I thought you two were just fit from all the shagging…if we need to rebuild any of this, I vote for a lift,” she spoke, straightening herself and looking at him, “Why’d you stop?”
“There wasn’t any water. We were upstairs on the main floor with the basin and there was no water. It must be backed up somewhere. That’s one thing I do recall about 1906,” Jack explained, “The lowest levels flooded.”
“But how come there’s barely a scratch on some of these levels? You can barely tell there was an explosion at all,” she pointed out and she was right in that regard.
“After the earthquake, the lower levels were reinforced from an attack on the main Hub especially when LockDown is in place,” he told her, sticking his hands in his coat pockets.
Her brown eyes widened.
“And Ianto knew that?”
He looked down at his military boots and thought he’d make it through the sentence better than he did, “Ian…Ianto knew everything.”
When he glanced back up, he caught the way she nodded and put a hand to her mouth. Their eyes met and she offered a hand, but he just couldn’t. She had the perfect life that he could never have: a doting spouse and a baby on the way. Whenever he tried, lives were ruined. His mind couldn’t even look at her at this second. He trudged onward into the depths and the wet concrete splashed under his feet. The captured spacecraft and larger unfunctioning equipment were half-submerged on this level so he could only imagine what the other two floors must look like.
“Jack…” came Gwen’s voice beside him, “I know you’re in pain…if you just want to talk…”
“I don’t,” he interrupted and studied the top of a Drahvinsian Star Cruiser, “We should move those Weevils to the Crypt.”
They climbed their way back without another word. In fact, not a word was spoken until the third time they had to stop for Gwen to vomit.
“It must be being preggers, it’s like I can smell everything and everything makes me want to throw up. I’ve never had a problem with this type of work before, not since I’d just started as a cop,” she apologized while being bent over and trying to regain her color.
“Just stay here, or in the passageway, I’ll take Janet,” Jack told her and took the Weevil in his arms, bending at the knee before straightening. She was the last of the bodies. There had been four others…more blood on his hands. After laying her in a drawer and manually pushing it back, he wasn’t surprised to see that Gwen had followed him.
“It was good that the archives were spared, they’re even still organized,” she spoke with a forced smile. She was trying to get him to talk and he wouldn’t fall for it even though the memories came unbeckoned. There was Ianto standing up on a ladder so he could see his ass at a great angle, Ianto kissing him in his office after they looked at the old photo of Gerald and his group or that note he found in a book once about whether it was where it was supposed to be or not: If it isn’t, well, I’ll be a bit pissed off frankly. I spent a lot of time organizing these files in the basement. A. Lot. Of. Time.
His attention kept being drawn to drawer seven that had been empty since they sent Tommy back and he remembered that time in the semi-darkness.
“What are you thinking, Jack? Just tell me,” the Welshwoman pleaded and he took a breath.
“That dream I had yesterday,” he told her in the most uninformative way possible.
“My nan, the one that everyone said was crazy, used to say that the d…,” she started and was unable to finish the word he didn’t want to say either, “That they come and visit in dreams. She always claimed to be speaking to granddad or her sister or her great-aunt Gwyneth.”
It was real, or at least it seemed so real. As time passed, he had his doubts. It was so unlike any other experience he’d had when dying. However, she was right about this. She’d have to be told.
Next segment:
June 6th, Part Three
edf
Characters: Jack,Gwen
Rated: TV-14 ANGST COE Spoilers
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Jack and Gwen continue investigating the aftermath of the explosion.
Previous Segment: June 6th, 2009
Masterlist for series:
http://ericadawn16.livejournal.com/63337.html
June 6th, 2009, part Two
“We should check out the crypt,” Jack stated and she looked at Janet and the other cells with bodies, but she had to understand as he did, that there was nothing to be done with them right now. Following a different set of passages, they found it.
“But how can everything have power? I thought it was all powered through the Rift and our manipulator is lying in a million pieces right now,” Gwen spoke and crossed her arms.
“There must be an emergency generator or back-up, I just don’t know. I’ve never been involved before,” he complained and hated the tone of his voice. He shouldn’t be getting short with her when she was only trying to help and be professional about it. Taking a deep breath, he made his way to the drawers. There was no way he’d test the system by opening Grey’s number so he picked another one; older.
“Gerald Kneale, one of the few of us to leave. He died during the Blitz,” Jack told her as she came closer and they looked at the body; frozen and unchanged since 1941. Then, he remembered something…
“The earthquake!” he declared and laughed to her visible consternation, “In 1906, there was an earthquake, which we caused…not on purpose, but it totaled all the upper levels, including the train station, submarine dock and all those extra rooms.”
“We had a submarine?”
“We did until we lost it in the earthquake as well, but they wouldn’t let me down here to help…”
“Why?” the young woman questioned and he was pleased that he finally understood.
“Because my future self was frozen in a drawer!” he declared and laughed again, “But I never woke up, the entire time I was in here through the earthquake and Blitz and I slept through it all…no malfunctions in the system.”
Her brown eyes studied it all and he felt he had new respect for the place as well.
“So, we have the Crypt in working condition and the holding cells, but the equipment’s a complete loss. What are we going to about that? The server can’t possibly have everything. All those files on the Hub network, they’d all be…gone,” the Welshwoman spoke and frowned. However, something else clicked in Jack’s brain.
“’but if you need back-ups for anything, then Archie has everything’” Jack repeated from memory and braced himself on the stone wall.
“Who told you that?” she asked; her gaze downcast at her black boots.
“Ianto…he told me in a dream yesterday,” he told her and didn’t realize at first that he was playing with one of his coat buttons.
“He just happened to tell you exactly what we needed to know? Must have been some dream,” she commented and rearranged her arms.
“Yeah,” Jack agreed and thought of Ianto and his hands on his…
He closed his blue eyes and tried to concentrate on the present even though his best friend wasn’t in it. When he opened them, Gwen’s eyes were watery.
“The archives, we should…see how they look,” the man spoke and she nodded.
“He put so much work into them,” she uttered and the tears began falling. Closing the gap between them, he took her in his arms and their sobs intermingled.
“He would have wanted us to get it going again,” Jack said, rubbing the wetness off with the back of his hand. She offered her arm and he took it as they headed through the corridors and down. The first room of the archives held all the personnel files for the entire history of Torchwood Three. Off to the side were a table, chair and sofa. A worn copy of Bridget Jones’ Diary lay on the wood; waiting for its owner to return even though Ianto would insist it was Gwen’s book. Some boxes had fallen on the floor yet most of it had remained undisturbed. This was great news. He started running for the next floor and could hear Gwen following after him. Floor after floor was the same; virtually unharmed from the explosion. His speed picked up as his excitement increased until he was only a couple of floors from the very bottom of the structure. Gwen arrived a bit later and had to catch her breath.
“And I thought you two were just fit from all the shagging…if we need to rebuild any of this, I vote for a lift,” she spoke, straightening herself and looking at him, “Why’d you stop?”
“There wasn’t any water. We were upstairs on the main floor with the basin and there was no water. It must be backed up somewhere. That’s one thing I do recall about 1906,” Jack explained, “The lowest levels flooded.”
“But how come there’s barely a scratch on some of these levels? You can barely tell there was an explosion at all,” she pointed out and she was right in that regard.
“After the earthquake, the lower levels were reinforced from an attack on the main Hub especially when LockDown is in place,” he told her, sticking his hands in his coat pockets.
Her brown eyes widened.
“And Ianto knew that?”
He looked down at his military boots and thought he’d make it through the sentence better than he did, “Ian…Ianto knew everything.”
When he glanced back up, he caught the way she nodded and put a hand to her mouth. Their eyes met and she offered a hand, but he just couldn’t. She had the perfect life that he could never have: a doting spouse and a baby on the way. Whenever he tried, lives were ruined. His mind couldn’t even look at her at this second. He trudged onward into the depths and the wet concrete splashed under his feet. The captured spacecraft and larger unfunctioning equipment were half-submerged on this level so he could only imagine what the other two floors must look like.
“Jack…” came Gwen’s voice beside him, “I know you’re in pain…if you just want to talk…”
“I don’t,” he interrupted and studied the top of a Drahvinsian Star Cruiser, “We should move those Weevils to the Crypt.”
They climbed their way back without another word. In fact, not a word was spoken until the third time they had to stop for Gwen to vomit.
“It must be being preggers, it’s like I can smell everything and everything makes me want to throw up. I’ve never had a problem with this type of work before, not since I’d just started as a cop,” she apologized while being bent over and trying to regain her color.
“Just stay here, or in the passageway, I’ll take Janet,” Jack told her and took the Weevil in his arms, bending at the knee before straightening. She was the last of the bodies. There had been four others…more blood on his hands. After laying her in a drawer and manually pushing it back, he wasn’t surprised to see that Gwen had followed him.
“It was good that the archives were spared, they’re even still organized,” she spoke with a forced smile. She was trying to get him to talk and he wouldn’t fall for it even though the memories came unbeckoned. There was Ianto standing up on a ladder so he could see his ass at a great angle, Ianto kissing him in his office after they looked at the old photo of Gerald and his group or that note he found in a book once about whether it was where it was supposed to be or not: If it isn’t, well, I’ll be a bit pissed off frankly. I spent a lot of time organizing these files in the basement. A. Lot. Of. Time.
His attention kept being drawn to drawer seven that had been empty since they sent Tommy back and he remembered that time in the semi-darkness.
“What are you thinking, Jack? Just tell me,” the Welshwoman pleaded and he took a breath.
“That dream I had yesterday,” he told her in the most uninformative way possible.
“My nan, the one that everyone said was crazy, used to say that the d…,” she started and was unable to finish the word he didn’t want to say either, “That they come and visit in dreams. She always claimed to be speaking to granddad or her sister or her great-aunt Gwyneth.”
It was real, or at least it seemed so real. As time passed, he had his doubts. It was so unlike any other experience he’d had when dying. However, she was right about this. She’d have to be told.
Next segment:
June 6th, Part Three
edf
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 12:39 pm (UTC)I'm curious to see where you are taking us.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-09 03:55 am (UTC)Thanks for reading!!!