Jack- October 22nd, 2009, Part Four
Nov. 14th, 2009 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ericadawn16Title: But Time Didn’t Stop
Characters: Jack,Gwen Jack/Ianto
Rated: PG-13 ANGST COE Spoilers MPREG
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Jack receives a mysterious call to his mobile.
Author's Note: Starts after COE. Read the Martyn book yourself
Previous Segment: October 22nd, 2009, Part Three
Masterlist: http://ericadawn16.livejournal.com/63337.html
October 22nd, 2009, Part Four
There was familiar fluttering from the baby inside.
“I’m a mess,” Jack admitted and wiped the tears coming down with his hand, “and I don’t know what to do. Everything reminds me of your daddy or someone else and I can’t stay here anyway because of you so I have to find some way off this planet…”
His speaking was interrupted by that little jolt of happiness.
“That’s easy for you to say, you don’t have to do anything except grow and put up with me for nine months,” he retorted; patting his belly, “although that is a lot longer than most people care to put up with me.”
With a sigh, he picked up the book again.
“…And I worry about Ianto. I think he took it harder than anyone when I ran off. It’s going to take me a while to make things up to him. He is a decent, good man, and I’m lucky I met him,” Jack read his own words and thought about before that. There was a whole year that never was because that was the beauty of a paradox machine, once it was destroyed…everything returned to how it should be. It’s how he made it through the Master killing them; killing Ianto. He knew as long as they defeated the Master and destroyed the machine, he’d have Ianto back and he’d try harder to be a proper boyfriend. With relish, he had even destroyed the machine himself. This time, there was no loophole, nothing he could do. With less than halfway to go, he continued reading when he reached his notes on when everyone lost two days. They never found any explanation, but Martyn had a personnel survey on an employee named Adam Smith complete with a photo.
“I never hired anyone named Adam Smith and definitely not from Torchwood One. Your daddy was the only person I’ve ever hired from there,” he spoke and shook his head prior to yawning, “It’s like he thinks this Adam Smith is connected with our missing two days; ridiculous.” What made it worse was that he’d scanned two pages of Ianto’s diary and covered them almost up with the personnel survey, his notes and a post-it. From what he could see, the pages were from the diary that was destroyed. It was disappointing. He read through Martha Jones working with them and Owen’s temporary death to Gwen’s wedding. Considering Martyn’s obvious crush on her, it didn’t surprise him that it took up four pages although he was pleased to see in one small photo was he, Gwen and Ianto. Jack was telling some story and his lover’s head was turned in rapt attention. He smiled; remembering how he had cut in on his dance with Gwen and stolen him away. It was a huge step at the time for him to be that possessive in public even if they were surrounded by friends. Jack had liked it. Unfortunately, it was rare. Almost ten pages later, he found something else to make him pause.
“…Whatever John wants, I’ll have to do it. I can’t risk anything happening to Gray. He’s the only family I have left, and the only chance I have of forgiving myself for letting him go…We got lucky. And so did John. Because if he’d killed anyone – if he had hurt Ianto – I would have slowly ripped limb from limb…although I have to say, Ianto does look good all messed up and dirty,” Jack read his notes and sighed which turned into a yawn. Rhi said he was family that day in the cemetery and they were even more connected now. She’d want to see her niece or nephew and she should as soon as he knew how. It could be fun to have a sister-in-law, brother-in-law, niece and nephew. However, the last time he tried to play “happy Families”, that hadn’t worked out so well. His grandson was dead and his daughter refused to see him. He was expecting what was printed a few pages later; the next set of notes he wrote.
“…I didn’t deserve forgiveness. I deserved punishment. But it went a whole lot further than that…I forgave him…His mind was gone…Nothing left but hatred…And it was all my fault…Couldn’t kill him. Don’t think I ever will be able to…Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper died in the line of duty. I lost them. I failed them. It feels like a piece of me has been cut out. And while I can’t die, losing people I love is much, much worse. Every time, you think this time won’t hurt as much as the last, but it does, it gets harder every time. Owen, Tosh – you were the best. I miss you…The one glimmer of hope in all this? I still have Ianto,” Jack’s voice broke in the reading, he sniffed and yawned before continuing, “and Gwen. Whatever the future throws at us, whatever madness the Rift vomits out next, whatever we have to face – Torchwood will be ready…Ianto, I know you’re reading this over my shoulder…So get over here and take me out somewhere.”
He closed his blues eyes and admitted, “I never forgave myself. I never forgive myself. I blame myself each and every time because I should have been faster, I should have had more time, more preparation…”
He rubbed his bump and opened his eyes. Despite over two thousand years of living, he’d never learned how to live with himself and he didn’t know how he was supposed to do that. There was only one man who might understand…
“And he doesn’t answer his mobile!” the man complained and picked the book back up. He only had a few more pages to go.
“…Talk to me, people, whenever you want to about this. About Tosh. About Owen. Because I’m going to. At every opportunity about these fantastic, amazing, brilliant people we were all lucky enough to call our friends…” he read and sighed. He finished the book and set it on the nightstand where it dripped onto the wood. Instead, he dropped it onto the thick carpet and rolled on his side.
“We’re going to sleep and then I’m going to order room service, probably something with chocolate,” he spoke and closed his eyes. After he woke up and ordered chocolate Profiteroles and Bouillabaisse, he noticed how his mobile had a voice message. He dialed up his box and heard Gwen’s voice, “Jack, I’ve been checking your email and Ianto’s and a window popped up for today. I know it’s your anniversary. If you want to talk, call me back. I miss you.”
“Liar,” he accused himself because he’d begged them to talk with him about Tosh and Owen and was now avoiding talking with Ianto with her, “but at least, she hasn’t taken him out of the system. She must be waiting for me to be there.”
For a week, he stayed in Paris, being pampered as if that could improve his mood. It was only a momentary relief from everything. He called Gwen back once and she told him how the new Hub was really coming together, but they didn’t speak long.
On this day, he was sitting on a bench at Chautemps Square and watching the people especially the parents with their kids. There were cute kids who were struggling to walk and pointing at everything and squealing, but there were also kids throwing fits and kicking their parents and throwing their juice bottles to the ground. He couldn’t even remember babysitting Steven as an infant and it appeared that a lot had changed since Alice was a baby. However, as he watched the babies, he tried to imagine what it would be like when his own was born; feeding him and dressing him and helping him to sleep or it could be a girl. Whichever sex, it was going to take a lot of work. Even Alice still had Joe at that point. Then, his mobile chirped. He answered it on the second ring and said, “Captain Jack Harkness here.”
No sounds came from the other end.
“Hello,” he tried again and a thought struck him, “Melissa? Melissa!”
The line was dead.
“I think your half-sister just called me,” he said and when he heard it aloud, he knew it was certain. She had mentioned before that she always knew that it was him at the door before looking. It wasn’t clear whether it was their father-daughter connection or she’d inherited something from his unusual genes. He looked up the incoming number (486)870103 and dialed it back.
October 29th, 2009
Characters: Jack,Gwen Jack/Ianto
Rated: PG-13 ANGST COE Spoilers MPREG
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: Jack receives a mysterious call to his mobile.
Author's Note: Starts after COE. Read the Martyn book yourself
Previous Segment: October 22nd, 2009, Part Three
Masterlist: http://ericadawn16.livejournal.com/63337.html
October 22nd, 2009, Part Four
There was familiar fluttering from the baby inside.
“I’m a mess,” Jack admitted and wiped the tears coming down with his hand, “and I don’t know what to do. Everything reminds me of your daddy or someone else and I can’t stay here anyway because of you so I have to find some way off this planet…”
His speaking was interrupted by that little jolt of happiness.
“That’s easy for you to say, you don’t have to do anything except grow and put up with me for nine months,” he retorted; patting his belly, “although that is a lot longer than most people care to put up with me.”
With a sigh, he picked up the book again.
“…And I worry about Ianto. I think he took it harder than anyone when I ran off. It’s going to take me a while to make things up to him. He is a decent, good man, and I’m lucky I met him,” Jack read his own words and thought about before that. There was a whole year that never was because that was the beauty of a paradox machine, once it was destroyed…everything returned to how it should be. It’s how he made it through the Master killing them; killing Ianto. He knew as long as they defeated the Master and destroyed the machine, he’d have Ianto back and he’d try harder to be a proper boyfriend. With relish, he had even destroyed the machine himself. This time, there was no loophole, nothing he could do. With less than halfway to go, he continued reading when he reached his notes on when everyone lost two days. They never found any explanation, but Martyn had a personnel survey on an employee named Adam Smith complete with a photo.
“I never hired anyone named Adam Smith and definitely not from Torchwood One. Your daddy was the only person I’ve ever hired from there,” he spoke and shook his head prior to yawning, “It’s like he thinks this Adam Smith is connected with our missing two days; ridiculous.” What made it worse was that he’d scanned two pages of Ianto’s diary and covered them almost up with the personnel survey, his notes and a post-it. From what he could see, the pages were from the diary that was destroyed. It was disappointing. He read through Martha Jones working with them and Owen’s temporary death to Gwen’s wedding. Considering Martyn’s obvious crush on her, it didn’t surprise him that it took up four pages although he was pleased to see in one small photo was he, Gwen and Ianto. Jack was telling some story and his lover’s head was turned in rapt attention. He smiled; remembering how he had cut in on his dance with Gwen and stolen him away. It was a huge step at the time for him to be that possessive in public even if they were surrounded by friends. Jack had liked it. Unfortunately, it was rare. Almost ten pages later, he found something else to make him pause.
“…Whatever John wants, I’ll have to do it. I can’t risk anything happening to Gray. He’s the only family I have left, and the only chance I have of forgiving myself for letting him go…We got lucky. And so did John. Because if he’d killed anyone – if he had hurt Ianto – I would have slowly ripped limb from limb…although I have to say, Ianto does look good all messed up and dirty,” Jack read his notes and sighed which turned into a yawn. Rhi said he was family that day in the cemetery and they were even more connected now. She’d want to see her niece or nephew and she should as soon as he knew how. It could be fun to have a sister-in-law, brother-in-law, niece and nephew. However, the last time he tried to play “happy Families”, that hadn’t worked out so well. His grandson was dead and his daughter refused to see him. He was expecting what was printed a few pages later; the next set of notes he wrote.
“…I didn’t deserve forgiveness. I deserved punishment. But it went a whole lot further than that…I forgave him…His mind was gone…Nothing left but hatred…And it was all my fault…Couldn’t kill him. Don’t think I ever will be able to…Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper died in the line of duty. I lost them. I failed them. It feels like a piece of me has been cut out. And while I can’t die, losing people I love is much, much worse. Every time, you think this time won’t hurt as much as the last, but it does, it gets harder every time. Owen, Tosh – you were the best. I miss you…The one glimmer of hope in all this? I still have Ianto,” Jack’s voice broke in the reading, he sniffed and yawned before continuing, “and Gwen. Whatever the future throws at us, whatever madness the Rift vomits out next, whatever we have to face – Torchwood will be ready…Ianto, I know you’re reading this over my shoulder…So get over here and take me out somewhere.”
He closed his blues eyes and admitted, “I never forgave myself. I never forgive myself. I blame myself each and every time because I should have been faster, I should have had more time, more preparation…”
He rubbed his bump and opened his eyes. Despite over two thousand years of living, he’d never learned how to live with himself and he didn’t know how he was supposed to do that. There was only one man who might understand…
“And he doesn’t answer his mobile!” the man complained and picked the book back up. He only had a few more pages to go.
“…Talk to me, people, whenever you want to about this. About Tosh. About Owen. Because I’m going to. At every opportunity about these fantastic, amazing, brilliant people we were all lucky enough to call our friends…” he read and sighed. He finished the book and set it on the nightstand where it dripped onto the wood. Instead, he dropped it onto the thick carpet and rolled on his side.
“We’re going to sleep and then I’m going to order room service, probably something with chocolate,” he spoke and closed his eyes. After he woke up and ordered chocolate Profiteroles and Bouillabaisse, he noticed how his mobile had a voice message. He dialed up his box and heard Gwen’s voice, “Jack, I’ve been checking your email and Ianto’s and a window popped up for today. I know it’s your anniversary. If you want to talk, call me back. I miss you.”
“Liar,” he accused himself because he’d begged them to talk with him about Tosh and Owen and was now avoiding talking with Ianto with her, “but at least, she hasn’t taken him out of the system. She must be waiting for me to be there.”
For a week, he stayed in Paris, being pampered as if that could improve his mood. It was only a momentary relief from everything. He called Gwen back once and she told him how the new Hub was really coming together, but they didn’t speak long.
On this day, he was sitting on a bench at Chautemps Square and watching the people especially the parents with their kids. There were cute kids who were struggling to walk and pointing at everything and squealing, but there were also kids throwing fits and kicking their parents and throwing their juice bottles to the ground. He couldn’t even remember babysitting Steven as an infant and it appeared that a lot had changed since Alice was a baby. However, as he watched the babies, he tried to imagine what it would be like when his own was born; feeding him and dressing him and helping him to sleep or it could be a girl. Whichever sex, it was going to take a lot of work. Even Alice still had Joe at that point. Then, his mobile chirped. He answered it on the second ring and said, “Captain Jack Harkness here.”
No sounds came from the other end.
“Hello,” he tried again and a thought struck him, “Melissa? Melissa!”
The line was dead.
“I think your half-sister just called me,” he said and when he heard it aloud, he knew it was certain. She had mentioned before that she always knew that it was him at the door before looking. It wasn’t clear whether it was their father-daughter connection or she’d inherited something from his unusual genes. He looked up the incoming number (486)870103 and dialed it back.
October 29th, 2009
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-11-15 01:52 am (UTC)Thanks for sharing!
no subject
Date: 2009-11-29 06:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-15 10:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-29 06:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-15 08:34 pm (UTC)Is he going to reach Alice? Can't wait to find out.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-29 06:49 am (UTC)I'm still hoping not every chapter will require tissues especially as it goes farther along...
No, he didn't reach Alice but she is trying in her own way.
thanks
no subject
Date: 2010-03-24 05:36 am (UTC)I don't know if this is just me wishing Ten wasn't gone, but I had a vision of Ten running away from something with a random temporary companion, the camera cuts to a shot of his mobile ringing on the TARDIS console, back to Doctor and another Alien running with a fireball catching up on them, back to mobile, then Jack saying that...and it was quite amusing to me...
no subject
Date: 2010-04-14 02:44 pm (UTC)Thank You