Torchwood/Dr Who - fic - When It All Changes, Jack/team, PG
A bit of gap-filling and backstory for Fragments.
Title - When It All Changes
Author - laurab1
Rating - PG
Pairing - Jack/team
Length - 1245 words
Summary - When the UK came back to life, Jack Harkness started making Torchwood Three, in his image
Spoilers - New Who and Torchwood to TW 2.12 Fragments, and a bit of Old School
Disclaimer - alas, none of these people are mine
Feedback is loved and appreciated :) Enjoy!
When It All Changes
by Laura
Captain Jack Harkness inherited Torchwood Three from Alex Hopkins on Saturday January 1, 2000. He spent the next three days clearing up the bodies of his dead colleagues and inventorying the place.
Then he called Yvonne Hartman’s direct line, and severed all ties to Torchwood One. “Torchwood Three will no longer have anything to do with any of you,” he said. “We’re saving the world on our own, and honouring the Doctor, not denying him.”
When the UK came back to life, on Tuesday January 4, he started making Torchwood Three, in his image.
***
It was a somewhat unwise post on an engineering science forum about what he suspected was part of a Braxian ship that led him to Suzie Costello.
“Who the bloody hell are you?” she asked him, after he conned his way into her research lab.
Jack said nothing, just wandered around the lab, and then picked up the Braxian controller. Looking right at Suzie, he said, “You’re right, y’know; this wasn’t made on Earth. Ever. Captain Jack Harkness, Suzie Costello. D’you wanna come work for me, and play with all the alien tech you could possibly want?”
That was all it took. On February 1, 2000, Torchwood Three had two employees: Captain Jack Harkness and Suzie Costello.
***
Four years later, in March 2004, a sonic modulator “fell into his hands.”
Toshiko Sato was brilliant. She’d fixed the flawed plans without realising, and had made this device. This beautiful device.
Jack needed the girl.
He placed the modulator on his desk. Several calls and blackmail threats later, he had the name and location of the facility where she was being held.
Without trial.
***
Jack told Toshiko just how good she was now. And how much better he thought she could be.
(Thanks to him, of course.)
And then Torchwood Cardiff had three employees: Captain Jack Harkness, Suzie Costello and Toshiko Sato.
***
Jack only had battlefield medicine, and knowledge of how some of the alien medical equipment Torchwood Three possessed worked, which mostly saw them through. Until the end of 2004, when Toshiko lost a lot of blood, after being hit by an Altarian blaster. The aliens were swiftly sent back to their ship, then, along with his battlefield medicine, Jack had to resort to the energy inside him to save his girl.
“Toshiko,” he said, when he could speak.
“Jack? What was that?”
If he knew himself, he might have told her. Instead, he just replied, “No-one dies on the Captain’s watch. No-one. All right?”
“Well, Captain,” Suzie stated, depositing a hypodermic needle into the sharps bin, “we need a proper doctor, then.”
“Not that that wasn’t lovely, Jack,” Toshiko said, and Jack could see in her eyes just how “lovely” she’d considered the “magic kiss“ to be. “But Suzie’s right. We do need a doctor. Extensive though it apparently is, we can’t just keep relying on your knowledge.”
“Okay, okay,” Jack conceded, opening the boot of the SUV, and throwing the sharps bin inside. “I’ll start looking tomorrow,” he said, slamming the boot closed. “Suzie, help me get Toshiko up, please.”
With Toshiko standing, Jack ordered, “You two in the back, I’ll drive home. No arguments.”
He saw his girls roll their eyes at him and his over-protectiveness, but decided to let it go. Opening the car doors, he ushered them inside. He climbed in himself, and then drove off at a rather slower pace than usual, so he could think.
***
Jack found Dr Owen Harper in January 2005, but had to let the situation play out before he hired the guy.
With Owen’s financee dead, courtesy of the brain-dwelling alien, Jack approached him. Then let the man rail on him, and be held and comforted by him.
Later, Jack showed Owen the Hub, and then, in March 2005, Torchwood Three had four employees: Captain Jack Harkness, Suzie Costello, Toshiko Sato and Dr Owen Harper.
***
“I think we’re ready, Alex,” Jack said to the morgue drawer containing his friend, the night after he’d hired Owen. “Hell, I hope we are. I just wish I knew what it was you saw.”
***
It wasn’t the Slitheen.
It wasn’t the Sycorax.
It was Torchwood One and their Ghost Shifts, Jack decided.
These so-called ghosts were nothing of the sort. From January 2007, the cases Torchwood Three went to investigate were all the same, and Jack knew the shape the “ghosts” were taking.
He’d fought the shape the “ghosts” were taking.
Cybermen. Well, some kind of Cybermen, at least. If they weren’t from Mondas, then where the hell were they from? And when the hell were they from, for that matter? He warned Yvonne Hartman to stop the Ghost Shifts, but she wouldn’t listen.
Consequently, in July 2007, the world went to hell: Cybermen on the streets. Daleks in the sky.
***
As Jack, Toshiko and Owen combed the wreckage of Torchwood One, destroyed by the Daleks and Cybermen, he discovered two names on the list of the dead: Rose Tyler and Jackie Tyler.
The Doctor had showed up, and saved them from their phantasmagoria.
Phantasmagoria of their own making.
But he’d lost Rose.
Toshiko found Jack swiping at his eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Not really, Toshiko,” he admitted. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
***
Jack drank half a bottle of whisky in one sitting, when they got back to Cardiff.
***
Ianto Jones, survivor of the Battle of Canary Wharf was therefore the very last person Jack wanted to, well, be stalked by, basically.
But then they caught a pterodactyl, that Ianto had already been feeding chocolate. There was a change in atmosphere when she dropped Jack on top of Ianto, and Jack then rolled them over. The Harkness charm worked, yet again. Jack could quite easily have kissed him, but the boy got up.
He hired Ianto Jones there and then, in August 2007, bringing Torchwood Three’s number of employees to five.
***
It was just as well Gwen Cooper had found them, Jack considered, as he zipped Suzie into a body bag, and closed the morgue drawer.
She’d managed to work past the retcon, so he was offering her a job, he decided.
And making sure she hung onto the normal life she had.
***
Ianto Jones was very lucky that Jack didn’t murder him, when his half-cyberised girlfriend, the not so dead Lisa Hallett, nearly murdered all of them.
***
And now, in 2009, after having a building fall on top of them, and far too many times when he’d almost lost all of them, John Hart appeared, for the second time in the space of a year.
With Jack’s brother in tow.
The brother he’d let go of, and thought dead.
“Jack?” Gwen asked, when the holograms blinked out, and John had finished spouting his threats. “What are we going to do?”
“He sounds bloody jealous, if you ask me,” Ianto said. “And he was jealous enough, the first time he tried to kill us all.”
“Toshiko?” Jack asked. “What did I tell you, four years ago?”
“’No-one dies on the Captain’s watch.’”
“Yeah. And don’t mention Suzie, any of you. Don’t know how the hell I missed that. C’mon, people, let’s take him down. You’re mine, all of you, and I’m not losing any more of you. No-one dies on the Captain’s watch. No-one at all.”
"Excuse me," said Owen, giving Jack a pointed look.
"Okay," Jack sighed. "No-one ends up even more dead than they already are, Dr Harper. Let's go, now."
-end-
Title - When It All Changes
Author - laurab1
Rating - PG
Pairing - Jack/team
Length - 1245 words
Summary - When the UK came back to life, Jack Harkness started making Torchwood Three, in his image
Spoilers - New Who and Torchwood to TW 2.12 Fragments, and a bit of Old School
Disclaimer - alas, none of these people are mine
Feedback is loved and appreciated :) Enjoy!
When It All Changes
by Laura
Captain Jack Harkness inherited Torchwood Three from Alex Hopkins on Saturday January 1, 2000. He spent the next three days clearing up the bodies of his dead colleagues and inventorying the place.
Then he called Yvonne Hartman’s direct line, and severed all ties to Torchwood One. “Torchwood Three will no longer have anything to do with any of you,” he said. “We’re saving the world on our own, and honouring the Doctor, not denying him.”
When the UK came back to life, on Tuesday January 4, he started making Torchwood Three, in his image.
***
It was a somewhat unwise post on an engineering science forum about what he suspected was part of a Braxian ship that led him to Suzie Costello.
“Who the bloody hell are you?” she asked him, after he conned his way into her research lab.
Jack said nothing, just wandered around the lab, and then picked up the Braxian controller. Looking right at Suzie, he said, “You’re right, y’know; this wasn’t made on Earth. Ever. Captain Jack Harkness, Suzie Costello. D’you wanna come work for me, and play with all the alien tech you could possibly want?”
That was all it took. On February 1, 2000, Torchwood Three had two employees: Captain Jack Harkness and Suzie Costello.
***
Four years later, in March 2004, a sonic modulator “fell into his hands.”
Toshiko Sato was brilliant. She’d fixed the flawed plans without realising, and had made this device. This beautiful device.
Jack needed the girl.
He placed the modulator on his desk. Several calls and blackmail threats later, he had the name and location of the facility where she was being held.
Without trial.
***
Jack told Toshiko just how good she was now. And how much better he thought she could be.
(Thanks to him, of course.)
And then Torchwood Cardiff had three employees: Captain Jack Harkness, Suzie Costello and Toshiko Sato.
***
Jack only had battlefield medicine, and knowledge of how some of the alien medical equipment Torchwood Three possessed worked, which mostly saw them through. Until the end of 2004, when Toshiko lost a lot of blood, after being hit by an Altarian blaster. The aliens were swiftly sent back to their ship, then, along with his battlefield medicine, Jack had to resort to the energy inside him to save his girl.
“Toshiko,” he said, when he could speak.
“Jack? What was that?”
If he knew himself, he might have told her. Instead, he just replied, “No-one dies on the Captain’s watch. No-one. All right?”
“Well, Captain,” Suzie stated, depositing a hypodermic needle into the sharps bin, “we need a proper doctor, then.”
“Not that that wasn’t lovely, Jack,” Toshiko said, and Jack could see in her eyes just how “lovely” she’d considered the “magic kiss“ to be. “But Suzie’s right. We do need a doctor. Extensive though it apparently is, we can’t just keep relying on your knowledge.”
“Okay, okay,” Jack conceded, opening the boot of the SUV, and throwing the sharps bin inside. “I’ll start looking tomorrow,” he said, slamming the boot closed. “Suzie, help me get Toshiko up, please.”
With Toshiko standing, Jack ordered, “You two in the back, I’ll drive home. No arguments.”
He saw his girls roll their eyes at him and his over-protectiveness, but decided to let it go. Opening the car doors, he ushered them inside. He climbed in himself, and then drove off at a rather slower pace than usual, so he could think.
***
Jack found Dr Owen Harper in January 2005, but had to let the situation play out before he hired the guy.
With Owen’s financee dead, courtesy of the brain-dwelling alien, Jack approached him. Then let the man rail on him, and be held and comforted by him.
Later, Jack showed Owen the Hub, and then, in March 2005, Torchwood Three had four employees: Captain Jack Harkness, Suzie Costello, Toshiko Sato and Dr Owen Harper.
***
“I think we’re ready, Alex,” Jack said to the morgue drawer containing his friend, the night after he’d hired Owen. “Hell, I hope we are. I just wish I knew what it was you saw.”
***
It wasn’t the Slitheen.
It wasn’t the Sycorax.
It was Torchwood One and their Ghost Shifts, Jack decided.
These so-called ghosts were nothing of the sort. From January 2007, the cases Torchwood Three went to investigate were all the same, and Jack knew the shape the “ghosts” were taking.
He’d fought the shape the “ghosts” were taking.
Cybermen. Well, some kind of Cybermen, at least. If they weren’t from Mondas, then where the hell were they from? And when the hell were they from, for that matter? He warned Yvonne Hartman to stop the Ghost Shifts, but she wouldn’t listen.
Consequently, in July 2007, the world went to hell: Cybermen on the streets. Daleks in the sky.
***
As Jack, Toshiko and Owen combed the wreckage of Torchwood One, destroyed by the Daleks and Cybermen, he discovered two names on the list of the dead: Rose Tyler and Jackie Tyler.
The Doctor had showed up, and saved them from their phantasmagoria.
Phantasmagoria of their own making.
But he’d lost Rose.
Toshiko found Jack swiping at his eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Not really, Toshiko,” he admitted. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
***
Jack drank half a bottle of whisky in one sitting, when they got back to Cardiff.
***
Ianto Jones, survivor of the Battle of Canary Wharf was therefore the very last person Jack wanted to, well, be stalked by, basically.
But then they caught a pterodactyl, that Ianto had already been feeding chocolate. There was a change in atmosphere when she dropped Jack on top of Ianto, and Jack then rolled them over. The Harkness charm worked, yet again. Jack could quite easily have kissed him, but the boy got up.
He hired Ianto Jones there and then, in August 2007, bringing Torchwood Three’s number of employees to five.
***
It was just as well Gwen Cooper had found them, Jack considered, as he zipped Suzie into a body bag, and closed the morgue drawer.
She’d managed to work past the retcon, so he was offering her a job, he decided.
And making sure she hung onto the normal life she had.
***
Ianto Jones was very lucky that Jack didn’t murder him, when his half-cyberised girlfriend, the not so dead Lisa Hallett, nearly murdered all of them.
***
And now, in 2009, after having a building fall on top of them, and far too many times when he’d almost lost all of them, John Hart appeared, for the second time in the space of a year.
With Jack’s brother in tow.
The brother he’d let go of, and thought dead.
“Jack?” Gwen asked, when the holograms blinked out, and John had finished spouting his threats. “What are we going to do?”
“He sounds bloody jealous, if you ask me,” Ianto said. “And he was jealous enough, the first time he tried to kill us all.”
“Toshiko?” Jack asked. “What did I tell you, four years ago?”
“’No-one dies on the Captain’s watch.’”
“Yeah. And don’t mention Suzie, any of you. Don’t know how the hell I missed that. C’mon, people, let’s take him down. You’re mine, all of you, and I’m not losing any more of you. No-one dies on the Captain’s watch. No-one at all.”
"Excuse me," said Owen, giving Jack a pointed look.
"Okay," Jack sighed. "No-one ends up even more dead than they already are, Dr Harper. Let's go, now."
-end-