Into Gethsemane (10/11)
Title: Into Gethsemane (10/11)
Author: nancybrown
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Lois, Johnson, Rupesh, Martha, Mickey, Tish, Rhys, John, Alice, Steven, OCs, many cameos
Pairings: mostly canon
Rating: R
Warnings: AUTHOR CHOOSES NOT TO WARN (but will answer PMs for any content questions)
Spoilers: up through COE
Words: 60,000 (3,600 this part)
Betas: eldarwannabe and fide_et_spe both performed major heavy lifting on this story, and have my deepest thanks for their efforts
Summary: A secret movement within the government successfully placed Lois Habiba as a spy inside Torchwood, and the trap is ready to be sprung. Meanwhile, Jack has received worrisome news, leading Gwen and Ianto from one danger into another. Loves, loyalties, and everyone's lives are on the line as the force behind the conspiracy finally comes to light.
A/N: Final fic in a fake third series where Lois, Johnson, and Rupesh have joined the team. Can be read as a stand-alone but will make more sense in context of the other stories.
Master Post
Chapter Nine
***
Chapter 10
***
The Hub stopped shaking.
The two bodies slumped over together, heads lolling. Martha was already there, but so was Jack, and he caught Ianto's slumped form while Martha removed the leads and checked Gwen's vital signs. Pulse, good. Respiration, good. Martha prodded Gwen's shoulder, then flicked open an eyelid to check for light response.
"I think she's just unconscious." She moved to check Ianto, and found the same. "Help me get them down to Medical. I can monitor them better." Martha tilted her head at Patanjali, and said to Jack, "I could use his help."
Jack only hesitated a second. "Fine. Rupesh, get your arse to Medical. If you do anything I don't like, I will shoot you myself. Don't think I won't."
As Perry and Mickey came to help move the patients, Martha mentally catalogued Owen's old inventory. She'd have to keep their vital signs under observation. She would have to check for brain damage. The maniac in the red uniform had said something about frying their brains, and Jack had clearly believed him.
Halfway down the stairs, Alice's voice came over the speaker again: "Hello, anyone there?"
Tish was closest to the intercom at Gwen's station. A few seconds of fiddling with the switch, and she said, "Torchwood here. Captain Harkness is back in command."
"Good. Dad, you need to get up here now."
Jack laid Ianto carefully on the slab, mindful of not bumping his head. With a brush to his cheek, so fast Martha almost didn't see it, he ran back up the stairs. Martha turned on the main monitor.
Jack said, "Alice, this isn't the best time."
"Is the world still in danger?"
Jack shot a look to Medical. "No. I think we're safe now."
"Then you have to come. It's Frank."
There was a pause, full of calculation. "I'll see what I can do."
The readings on her display promised good things. Blood oxygen levels were normal. No abnormalities in heart rhythms. Electrolyte levels in both Gwen and Ianto were skewed but not highly out of range. She nudged Patanjali. "Start IVs. We'll get some potassium into both of them."
Jack said, where she couldn't see him, "I need you to take me to Glasgow."
"I am not your bloody taxi service."
Martha wished she had an instruction manual for the equipment. All they had were Owen's notes. "Doctor, have you ever figured out the setting to perform a CT scan with this?"
"Not that I'd want to experiment with right now."
From above them, Jack was wheedling with his old partner. "Just let me borrow it, then. I'll be right back."
"Oh, did you tell that to the bird you stole that Chula ship from?"
She could transport them to a proper hospital, bluff their way into A&E. Better, she could dial up UNIT and get her hands on equipment she was familiar with. Or not, she amended. They were all still fugitives from the law.
"Mickey, could you dig out some blankets from the cabinet?" Something Owen had shown her once tickled at her memory. When he'd died, they'd run every scan they could on him, including checking his brainwaves, which he should by all rights not have had. He'd designed parts of the interface himself, he'd said.
Martha called up the control panel screen on the interface and selected the 'mindflayer' option.
"Brilliant." Two scans showed up in high-resolution on her screen. Everything was completely normal.
From above she heard, "Fine. If you don't come back, I get your office."
Jack said, "Perry, you're in charge until they wake up or I get back. Do whatever Martha and Mickey say."
Mickey shouted up, "Wait, does that mean we're in charge?"
"No."
"Jack?" Martha called. He came over to the railing. A wrist strap was held in one hand. "They're going to be okay."
A relieved smile blossomed on his face. Then he looked down at the strap, and with a flash, he vanished.
***
Jack materialised in the courtyard outside of Torchwood House and gave himself a moment to catch his breath. Cold air snapped into his lungs. But he felt steadied. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept.
John's wrist strap was warm in his fingers, the leather band a different texture than the one Jack wore. He could take it and go, like John had insinuated, like Jack himself had told Martha he might.
With a sigh, he trudged through the snow to the swept front walk. The door was unlocked, which worried him. "Alice?"
"We're in here!" piped Steven's voice from a bedroom on the first floor. Jack hadn't been here in years, but his feet remembered the way. Frank lay on one of the fine, old beds. Steven sat on top of the covers with him. Frank was patting his hand.
"Hey, old man," Jack said, and with a great deal of relief, he hugged Steven. "Where's Alice?"
"She's taken the caretaker's car," Frank said in a reedy voice. "She's gone to fetch Bonnie. Her house isn't far from here. It's too far for Phil Jr. or Sarah to come now." The speech wore him out, and he closed his eyes.
"Hey," Jack said, coming to a knee beside the bed. He nodded to Steven. "Can you go play and keep an eye out for your mother? Don't touch anything."
"Okay." He scooted off the bed and waved to Frank before going into the hallway.
"He's a good lad," said Frank. "Alice is a good girl. You ought to be proud of them."
"I am. I'm proud of all of you." A hard knot was in his throat. Frank's skin was ricepaper thin over the bones of his hands, showing each delicate vein and each dark spot. He'd grown smaller since December, shrinking into himself, and looked as though he weighed as little as the baby he'd been. If Jack breathed too hard on him, Frank would blow away. "When Alice gets back, we'll take you to hospital together, and you two can keep complaining about me in the car."
"I'm not going anywhere, not when I'm able to complain." He coughed, and Jack helped hold his back. In the hallway, he heard Steven playing with something he hoped wasn't dangerous or expensive.
"We'll get you to the doctor."
"Which one of us do you think you're lying to, old man?" He was tired, but his blue eyes were as clear as when he'd been a boy.
Jack opened his mouth to protest, but the protest died under that tired, loving glare. "I'm going to miss you."
***
Alice hoped this was the right address. The middle-aged woman who opened the door looked at her suspiciously. Alice didn't think she saw a resemblance at all, but who could say? "Bonnie Harrison?"
"Bonnie!" shouted the woman over her shoulder, without taking her eyes off Alice. "What do you want with her?"
"We've found her father, but he's very ill, and she needs to come with me right now."
Another woman appeared, in her sixties perhaps, with a false blonde dye job that nevertheless made her look like someone's stylish grandma. She could have been Jack's mother. "Who are you? Where's my father?"
"My name is Alice. Please, hurry."
She turned, and placed a kiss on the other woman's cheek. "Call my brother and sister, let them know he's been found. I'll call them directly." She took a bag from behind the door. "Let's go."
When they were in the car and driving back to the site, Bonnie said, "I know who you are, you know."
"You do?"
"Yes. My brother Rob met you once."
Alice thought back, confused. "I don't think he did."
"It would have been 1976 or '77. He said a man met up with our father to introduce him to his wee girl. Dad tried to pass him off as Uncle Phil's son, but Rob said he looked so much like Dad. And Uncle Phil was gay." Alice had been told her long-deceased brother was just as equal-opportunity as Jack, but that didn't matter now.
Bonnie said, "There's been a younger man visiting Dad. I met him, just before Christmas, but Dad wouldn't introduce us. And you were the one who took Dad from the home." Her voice remained calm and steady, which was impressive as she'd just got into a car with someone whom she believed had kidnapped her elderly father.
"I was," Alice admitted. "Frank wanted to go on one last holiday. My brother and I arranged it."
"And now?"
"He's dying. He asked to see you."
"There isn't much of an inheritance, you know."
"What?"
"Rob said the man he met would be the right age to have been born during the war, before Dad and Mum met. Dad's always had secrets. It's all right," she said, finally looking at Alice. "I wish he'd told us he had another son. Is he still alive, your dad?"
How to answer that? How to answer any of it? "It's just Jack and me now. And my son, Steven. You'll meet him."
Bonnie nodded. "That will be fine. As I said, there's not much of an inheritance. We were always comfortable, but Dad never had extra to his name. Maybe when this is all settled, you and your brother could come round to dinner. Rob's gone, but everyone would be pleased to meet you."
Alice had grown up far away from any family. With her mother in hiding, she'd only been allowed to know one aunt from the Moretti side. Jack's life had been a closed book to her. She hadn't met Phil, had barely formed a relationship with Frank. But here was a whole new set of family members welcoming her.
"I think I'd like that. Thank you."
***
"Those drop scones Mum tried to make," Frank said, and they both laughed. Meg never had been much of a cook, but she'd got it in her head that she ought to fix all the meals even during the times Jack had been there and could have prevented catastrophe.
He could see Meg in Frank, in the shape of his frown, in the quirk and sparkle of his eyes, though she'd sworn until her death the stubbornness wasn't hers at all.
"I have so much to tell her," said Frank. He'd spoken of his wife, his son, his brother, how he looked forward to seeing them again. Jack held his tongue because they'd discussed this a long, long time ago. If Frank was comforted by the thought of rejoining his loved ones, so be it. Jack was there to comfort.
He heard the large front door open. "That'll be Alice and Bonnie." Jack leaned over the bed to kiss Frank on the cheek. He refused to acknowledge the tears forming in his own eyes.
Bonnie came into the bedroom, followed by Alice, followed by the blonde woman from the prison. She had a gun aimed at Alice.
Jack was on his feet in an instant, standing between the gun and Frank.
The woman smiled thinly. "Even better. We weren't expecting you, Captain. Trefusis!" she called over her shoulder. "In here!"
"Sorry, I never did catch your name," Jack said. He made eye contact with Alice, who made a simple, 'I don't know, either' expression, layered with distinct overtones of, 'This is clearly your fault and let me assure you we will talk about it in great detail once you get us out of this mess.'
"You think you've destroyed our plans for bringing back the Master, but as before you have only delayed them. We can use the materials at this site to recreate the conditions we require."
Oh. Another one of the Master's loonies. He didn't know the white-haired, stout woman who came in holding Steven roughly by one arm. "Found this one playing in the kitchens, Governor."
The Governor (of what? Jack tried placing her, but nothing came) said, "Isn't this convenient? The whole family in one place. We know who the pensioner is, and here's your daughter, your granddaughter, and the little lad as well. We'll be taking all the command codes now, or I will start shooting. You have ten seconds." She turned her arm and aimed at Steven's head.
Everything slowed to a crawl.
Bonnie turned to her. "My father doesn't have command codes, you ignorant cow. He's an old man." Her wrath turned to 'Ignite' in a flash, and that was Meg through and through as Bonnie advanced against all good judgement. "How dare you barge into a sick room like this!"
The Governor startled, bringing her gun back, but she'd taken her attention away from Alice, which was a fatal mistake. Alice's elbow was in her stomach in an instant, driven by rage at the threat she'd just made to Steven. Another arm swung out, knocking the gun away towards Jack, who grabbed it as Alice punched the Governor in the jaw.
A shot rang out, and Jack's eyes dropped to the gun in his own hand, but he hadn't fired.
Frank sat up in his bed, his pistol in a trembling hand, lowering it as the woman called Trefusis fell to the ground, her hand covering a growing wound on her shoulder, shock on her face.
"What terribly unpleasant people," Frank said, settling against his pillows, and breathing very hard.
"Dad," said Bonnie, rushing to him.
Alice shook her hand, rubbing life back into it as Jack stowed the gun and went to Steven's side. He nodded to Alice. "We'll have to do something about them." He was sure there was a cache of Retcon somewhere on the grounds. About ten years each ought to do the trick.
Alice dropped her sore hand. "I'll help you get them out of here. Give Bonnie a few minutes alone with Granddad Frank."
"Huh?"
"I'll tell you later."
***
The phone rang. Hart stared at Tish pointedly.
"I'm not the bloody PA around here."
"No, but one's under house arrest and the other's under observation."
Tish picked up the receiver. "This is bloody Torchwood, no-one's available to take your damn call."
"Right. Not hiring you to answer the phones," said Jack. "You do know the Prime Minister calls sometimes, right? And the Queen?"
"You so owe me."
"I do, beautiful." She heard the smile across the line, and was momentarily appeased.
***
Ianto was sitting up. Martha wouldn't let him out of Medical yet. She was too busy prodding at his completely-healed gunshot wound and examining the perfectly-rejoined break in his arm, as well as the various scars and old injuries he'd barely remembered anymore but had been part of his record. John had given him a quick patch-job to flush out the sedative when he'd rescued him. Apparently, the patches were even better than expected.
"You're sure you're you?"
"I'm sure!"
"I'm going to check your genetic code. If you're a clone, there'll be some drift."
"I'm not a clone, Martha." He'd be cross but she looked so stern there in Owen's old lab coat poking out over her pregnant belly that he was finding it hard not to laugh. It was less hard when she had Rupesh take a cheek swab.
Gwen covered her mouth with her hands, losing the battle much faster. Someone had fetched Rhys, and he sat beside her now, face stiff in suppressed amusement.
"It's for you," said Tish out of nowhere, thrusting the phone at Ianto.
Jack said, "Tish says Rupesh is sticking something into your mouth? I want pictures."
"Where the hell are you?"
"At the Glasgow site. Are you all right? Are you both all right?"
"We're fine. How's Frank?"
"It won't be long. A few hours, maybe." And Jack would be there with him at the end. "I'll bring Alice and Steven home after. I can come back in a couple of days." Amongst everything else they needed to do, Ianto would take Jack's good suit in to the dry cleaner's.
"Let me know what you need." His eyes caught John Hart's glance, and he tensed. He'd made promises, and John wouldn't let him forget. He might not have days left here. But Ianto would do what he could for Jack with the time he had.
"Ask Mickey to see Martha and Tish back to the flat. We're still wanted, and the three of them will be safest there in case of a counterstrike at the Hub." Ianto hadn't even considered that possibility. The bad guys might have been defeated, but it wasn't over yet. They were all wanted criminals, and their enemies knew exactly where they'd gone to ground.
"All right."
There was a pause between them, where two normal people would have said their "I love yous" but that wasn't who they were. "Be safe. I'll be home soon. And call your sister."
"To tell her what?"
"Just the important part. You're alive."
Unable to say anything meaningful in response to that, or to the mixed emotions in Jack's voice -- joy that Ianto was out of harm's way, misery that his child had at most a few hours left to live -- Ianto cleared his throat and replied, "I'll do that."
As he gave the phone back to Tish, there was a raucous noise from the cog wheel door. He tensed, sore but ready. Jack had warned them. Ianto hadn't thought their foes would regroup and attack so soon. He jumped off the examination table and hurried up the stairs, cursing that he hadn't gone to the armoury.
"Let her go now! I'm warning you!"
Ianto came up short at the sight of a dishevelled man wielding what looked like the fake sword from the wall of the TIC. (Lois thought it added character, Ianto thought it was twee.) He waved his sword threateningly at Mickey.
"Hold on, mate," Mickey said, arms raised.
Even as Ianto's brain clicked into place, recognising the intruder, Tish shouted over the railing to Medical: "The wet blanket's here."
Tom lowered his sword arm. "Tish? Are you all right? Have they hurt you?"
"Hello," said Ianto, waving. "We're fine, everything's fine."
Martha came up the stairs, huffing. When she caught sight of her husband, and his attempt to rescue her with an aluminium replica, she burst into giggles. Tom looked hurt, and she straightened her face, contrite.
"Why are you here?" she asked, a chortle escaping as she reached him and definitively pushed his arm down.
"Your mother told me you'd been arrested, and that Jack was involved. I came to find you."
"I told you to go hide," said Tish, but no-one paid her any attention.
Martha said, "Here? You came to rescue me from a top-secret, super-technological alien fighting base with a toy sword?"
Now he did frown. "Look. I ... "
Martha kissed him. "That's the bravest thing you've done in this whole timeline for me. Thank you."
Tom's look of surprise and pleasure at his wife's smile said more than enough. A tiny, mean part of Ianto thought she was playing him. Another part, that spoke in Jack's voice and reminded him of an old conversation they'd had, said everyone's relationship looked a bit weird from the outside.
For random example, some people might look at a couple of blokes, one of whom hid from the other a few major fucking details -- say, he's immortal and hundreds of years old, or that he's got adult children, or that he's been surreptitiously guiding his lover into becoming a walking Rift manipulator -- and those people would think, "This is not a healthy relationship." They might examine certain facts, like how Estelle Cole and Gwen Cooper were both only children, while Ianto had a sister with a family. They might wonder cynically if preserving bloodlines had been the deciding factor in the matter.
Ianto watched Martha with her husband. Perhaps she'd been attracted to him for the man she'd known he could be, but she'd married the man he was here and now, so did it matter to her or to him why she'd first noticed him? Didn't it matter more that when he'd been told she was in danger, he had done everything in his power to come to her rescue, to protect her?
"Let the world hang, I want this one person to be safe," was a terrible way to run a secret organisation dedicated to saving the planet. But not everything was about secret organisations or saving the planet.
Tom handed Ianto the aluminium sword with a sheepish expression and followed Martha down to the med bay. Ianto left it by the door, to take the thing back to the TIC later. He'd give the sword a quick buff and polish before hanging it back on the wall, though. Stupidly grand gestures made for the sake of love ought to have something nice to recollect them by.
***
Alice fixed Steven a late supper and put him to bed in one of the upstairs rooms. The manor was posh, elegant. She idly imagined living here, amongst the dark wood panels and the stored alien technology. It'd be a place to start over, far away from her usual secrets, away from Jack. Steven could make new friends here. Alice could meet new people.
It was a nice fantasy.
When Steven was sleeping, she went back to the lavish kitchen and fixed tea. She took three mugs on a tray to the hallway outside Frank's room, and sat down. A few minutes later, Bonnie walked out, eyes red. Without speaking, Alice handed her some tea.
They waited together. Down the hallway, a grandfather clock ticked sombrely to itself, counting down the seconds for those who didn't have eternity.
Jack walked out of the room. Alice held up his tea, but he set the mug aside gently and instead took her into his arms and held her for a long, long time.
***
Chapter Eleven
Author: nancybrown
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Lois, Johnson, Rupesh, Martha, Mickey, Tish, Rhys, John, Alice, Steven, OCs, many cameos
Pairings: mostly canon
Rating: R
Warnings: AUTHOR CHOOSES NOT TO WARN (but will answer PMs for any content questions)
Spoilers: up through COE
Words: 60,000 (3,600 this part)
Betas: eldarwannabe and fide_et_spe both performed major heavy lifting on this story, and have my deepest thanks for their efforts
Summary: A secret movement within the government successfully placed Lois Habiba as a spy inside Torchwood, and the trap is ready to be sprung. Meanwhile, Jack has received worrisome news, leading Gwen and Ianto from one danger into another. Loves, loyalties, and everyone's lives are on the line as the force behind the conspiracy finally comes to light.
A/N: Final fic in a fake third series where Lois, Johnson, and Rupesh have joined the team. Can be read as a stand-alone but will make more sense in context of the other stories.
Master Post
Chapter Nine
***
Chapter 10
***
The Hub stopped shaking.
The two bodies slumped over together, heads lolling. Martha was already there, but so was Jack, and he caught Ianto's slumped form while Martha removed the leads and checked Gwen's vital signs. Pulse, good. Respiration, good. Martha prodded Gwen's shoulder, then flicked open an eyelid to check for light response.
"I think she's just unconscious." She moved to check Ianto, and found the same. "Help me get them down to Medical. I can monitor them better." Martha tilted her head at Patanjali, and said to Jack, "I could use his help."
Jack only hesitated a second. "Fine. Rupesh, get your arse to Medical. If you do anything I don't like, I will shoot you myself. Don't think I won't."
As Perry and Mickey came to help move the patients, Martha mentally catalogued Owen's old inventory. She'd have to keep their vital signs under observation. She would have to check for brain damage. The maniac in the red uniform had said something about frying their brains, and Jack had clearly believed him.
Halfway down the stairs, Alice's voice came over the speaker again: "Hello, anyone there?"
Tish was closest to the intercom at Gwen's station. A few seconds of fiddling with the switch, and she said, "Torchwood here. Captain Harkness is back in command."
"Good. Dad, you need to get up here now."
Jack laid Ianto carefully on the slab, mindful of not bumping his head. With a brush to his cheek, so fast Martha almost didn't see it, he ran back up the stairs. Martha turned on the main monitor.
Jack said, "Alice, this isn't the best time."
"Is the world still in danger?"
Jack shot a look to Medical. "No. I think we're safe now."
"Then you have to come. It's Frank."
There was a pause, full of calculation. "I'll see what I can do."
The readings on her display promised good things. Blood oxygen levels were normal. No abnormalities in heart rhythms. Electrolyte levels in both Gwen and Ianto were skewed but not highly out of range. She nudged Patanjali. "Start IVs. We'll get some potassium into both of them."
Jack said, where she couldn't see him, "I need you to take me to Glasgow."
"I am not your bloody taxi service."
Martha wished she had an instruction manual for the equipment. All they had were Owen's notes. "Doctor, have you ever figured out the setting to perform a CT scan with this?"
"Not that I'd want to experiment with right now."
From above them, Jack was wheedling with his old partner. "Just let me borrow it, then. I'll be right back."
"Oh, did you tell that to the bird you stole that Chula ship from?"
She could transport them to a proper hospital, bluff their way into A&E. Better, she could dial up UNIT and get her hands on equipment she was familiar with. Or not, she amended. They were all still fugitives from the law.
"Mickey, could you dig out some blankets from the cabinet?" Something Owen had shown her once tickled at her memory. When he'd died, they'd run every scan they could on him, including checking his brainwaves, which he should by all rights not have had. He'd designed parts of the interface himself, he'd said.
Martha called up the control panel screen on the interface and selected the 'mindflayer' option.
"Brilliant." Two scans showed up in high-resolution on her screen. Everything was completely normal.
From above she heard, "Fine. If you don't come back, I get your office."
Jack said, "Perry, you're in charge until they wake up or I get back. Do whatever Martha and Mickey say."
Mickey shouted up, "Wait, does that mean we're in charge?"
"No."
"Jack?" Martha called. He came over to the railing. A wrist strap was held in one hand. "They're going to be okay."
A relieved smile blossomed on his face. Then he looked down at the strap, and with a flash, he vanished.
***
Jack materialised in the courtyard outside of Torchwood House and gave himself a moment to catch his breath. Cold air snapped into his lungs. But he felt steadied. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept.
John's wrist strap was warm in his fingers, the leather band a different texture than the one Jack wore. He could take it and go, like John had insinuated, like Jack himself had told Martha he might.
With a sigh, he trudged through the snow to the swept front walk. The door was unlocked, which worried him. "Alice?"
"We're in here!" piped Steven's voice from a bedroom on the first floor. Jack hadn't been here in years, but his feet remembered the way. Frank lay on one of the fine, old beds. Steven sat on top of the covers with him. Frank was patting his hand.
"Hey, old man," Jack said, and with a great deal of relief, he hugged Steven. "Where's Alice?"
"She's taken the caretaker's car," Frank said in a reedy voice. "She's gone to fetch Bonnie. Her house isn't far from here. It's too far for Phil Jr. or Sarah to come now." The speech wore him out, and he closed his eyes.
"Hey," Jack said, coming to a knee beside the bed. He nodded to Steven. "Can you go play and keep an eye out for your mother? Don't touch anything."
"Okay." He scooted off the bed and waved to Frank before going into the hallway.
"He's a good lad," said Frank. "Alice is a good girl. You ought to be proud of them."
"I am. I'm proud of all of you." A hard knot was in his throat. Frank's skin was ricepaper thin over the bones of his hands, showing each delicate vein and each dark spot. He'd grown smaller since December, shrinking into himself, and looked as though he weighed as little as the baby he'd been. If Jack breathed too hard on him, Frank would blow away. "When Alice gets back, we'll take you to hospital together, and you two can keep complaining about me in the car."
"I'm not going anywhere, not when I'm able to complain." He coughed, and Jack helped hold his back. In the hallway, he heard Steven playing with something he hoped wasn't dangerous or expensive.
"We'll get you to the doctor."
"Which one of us do you think you're lying to, old man?" He was tired, but his blue eyes were as clear as when he'd been a boy.
Jack opened his mouth to protest, but the protest died under that tired, loving glare. "I'm going to miss you."
***
Alice hoped this was the right address. The middle-aged woman who opened the door looked at her suspiciously. Alice didn't think she saw a resemblance at all, but who could say? "Bonnie Harrison?"
"Bonnie!" shouted the woman over her shoulder, without taking her eyes off Alice. "What do you want with her?"
"We've found her father, but he's very ill, and she needs to come with me right now."
Another woman appeared, in her sixties perhaps, with a false blonde dye job that nevertheless made her look like someone's stylish grandma. She could have been Jack's mother. "Who are you? Where's my father?"
"My name is Alice. Please, hurry."
She turned, and placed a kiss on the other woman's cheek. "Call my brother and sister, let them know he's been found. I'll call them directly." She took a bag from behind the door. "Let's go."
When they were in the car and driving back to the site, Bonnie said, "I know who you are, you know."
"You do?"
"Yes. My brother Rob met you once."
Alice thought back, confused. "I don't think he did."
"It would have been 1976 or '77. He said a man met up with our father to introduce him to his wee girl. Dad tried to pass him off as Uncle Phil's son, but Rob said he looked so much like Dad. And Uncle Phil was gay." Alice had been told her long-deceased brother was just as equal-opportunity as Jack, but that didn't matter now.
Bonnie said, "There's been a younger man visiting Dad. I met him, just before Christmas, but Dad wouldn't introduce us. And you were the one who took Dad from the home." Her voice remained calm and steady, which was impressive as she'd just got into a car with someone whom she believed had kidnapped her elderly father.
"I was," Alice admitted. "Frank wanted to go on one last holiday. My brother and I arranged it."
"And now?"
"He's dying. He asked to see you."
"There isn't much of an inheritance, you know."
"What?"
"Rob said the man he met would be the right age to have been born during the war, before Dad and Mum met. Dad's always had secrets. It's all right," she said, finally looking at Alice. "I wish he'd told us he had another son. Is he still alive, your dad?"
How to answer that? How to answer any of it? "It's just Jack and me now. And my son, Steven. You'll meet him."
Bonnie nodded. "That will be fine. As I said, there's not much of an inheritance. We were always comfortable, but Dad never had extra to his name. Maybe when this is all settled, you and your brother could come round to dinner. Rob's gone, but everyone would be pleased to meet you."
Alice had grown up far away from any family. With her mother in hiding, she'd only been allowed to know one aunt from the Moretti side. Jack's life had been a closed book to her. She hadn't met Phil, had barely formed a relationship with Frank. But here was a whole new set of family members welcoming her.
"I think I'd like that. Thank you."
***
"Those drop scones Mum tried to make," Frank said, and they both laughed. Meg never had been much of a cook, but she'd got it in her head that she ought to fix all the meals even during the times Jack had been there and could have prevented catastrophe.
He could see Meg in Frank, in the shape of his frown, in the quirk and sparkle of his eyes, though she'd sworn until her death the stubbornness wasn't hers at all.
"I have so much to tell her," said Frank. He'd spoken of his wife, his son, his brother, how he looked forward to seeing them again. Jack held his tongue because they'd discussed this a long, long time ago. If Frank was comforted by the thought of rejoining his loved ones, so be it. Jack was there to comfort.
He heard the large front door open. "That'll be Alice and Bonnie." Jack leaned over the bed to kiss Frank on the cheek. He refused to acknowledge the tears forming in his own eyes.
Bonnie came into the bedroom, followed by Alice, followed by the blonde woman from the prison. She had a gun aimed at Alice.
Jack was on his feet in an instant, standing between the gun and Frank.
The woman smiled thinly. "Even better. We weren't expecting you, Captain. Trefusis!" she called over her shoulder. "In here!"
"Sorry, I never did catch your name," Jack said. He made eye contact with Alice, who made a simple, 'I don't know, either' expression, layered with distinct overtones of, 'This is clearly your fault and let me assure you we will talk about it in great detail once you get us out of this mess.'
"You think you've destroyed our plans for bringing back the Master, but as before you have only delayed them. We can use the materials at this site to recreate the conditions we require."
Oh. Another one of the Master's loonies. He didn't know the white-haired, stout woman who came in holding Steven roughly by one arm. "Found this one playing in the kitchens, Governor."
The Governor (of what? Jack tried placing her, but nothing came) said, "Isn't this convenient? The whole family in one place. We know who the pensioner is, and here's your daughter, your granddaughter, and the little lad as well. We'll be taking all the command codes now, or I will start shooting. You have ten seconds." She turned her arm and aimed at Steven's head.
Everything slowed to a crawl.
Bonnie turned to her. "My father doesn't have command codes, you ignorant cow. He's an old man." Her wrath turned to 'Ignite' in a flash, and that was Meg through and through as Bonnie advanced against all good judgement. "How dare you barge into a sick room like this!"
The Governor startled, bringing her gun back, but she'd taken her attention away from Alice, which was a fatal mistake. Alice's elbow was in her stomach in an instant, driven by rage at the threat she'd just made to Steven. Another arm swung out, knocking the gun away towards Jack, who grabbed it as Alice punched the Governor in the jaw.
A shot rang out, and Jack's eyes dropped to the gun in his own hand, but he hadn't fired.
Frank sat up in his bed, his pistol in a trembling hand, lowering it as the woman called Trefusis fell to the ground, her hand covering a growing wound on her shoulder, shock on her face.
"What terribly unpleasant people," Frank said, settling against his pillows, and breathing very hard.
"Dad," said Bonnie, rushing to him.
Alice shook her hand, rubbing life back into it as Jack stowed the gun and went to Steven's side. He nodded to Alice. "We'll have to do something about them." He was sure there was a cache of Retcon somewhere on the grounds. About ten years each ought to do the trick.
Alice dropped her sore hand. "I'll help you get them out of here. Give Bonnie a few minutes alone with Granddad Frank."
"Huh?"
"I'll tell you later."
***
The phone rang. Hart stared at Tish pointedly.
"I'm not the bloody PA around here."
"No, but one's under house arrest and the other's under observation."
Tish picked up the receiver. "This is bloody Torchwood, no-one's available to take your damn call."
"Right. Not hiring you to answer the phones," said Jack. "You do know the Prime Minister calls sometimes, right? And the Queen?"
"You so owe me."
"I do, beautiful." She heard the smile across the line, and was momentarily appeased.
***
Ianto was sitting up. Martha wouldn't let him out of Medical yet. She was too busy prodding at his completely-healed gunshot wound and examining the perfectly-rejoined break in his arm, as well as the various scars and old injuries he'd barely remembered anymore but had been part of his record. John had given him a quick patch-job to flush out the sedative when he'd rescued him. Apparently, the patches were even better than expected.
"You're sure you're you?"
"I'm sure!"
"I'm going to check your genetic code. If you're a clone, there'll be some drift."
"I'm not a clone, Martha." He'd be cross but she looked so stern there in Owen's old lab coat poking out over her pregnant belly that he was finding it hard not to laugh. It was less hard when she had Rupesh take a cheek swab.
Gwen covered her mouth with her hands, losing the battle much faster. Someone had fetched Rhys, and he sat beside her now, face stiff in suppressed amusement.
"It's for you," said Tish out of nowhere, thrusting the phone at Ianto.
Jack said, "Tish says Rupesh is sticking something into your mouth? I want pictures."
"Where the hell are you?"
"At the Glasgow site. Are you all right? Are you both all right?"
"We're fine. How's Frank?"
"It won't be long. A few hours, maybe." And Jack would be there with him at the end. "I'll bring Alice and Steven home after. I can come back in a couple of days." Amongst everything else they needed to do, Ianto would take Jack's good suit in to the dry cleaner's.
"Let me know what you need." His eyes caught John Hart's glance, and he tensed. He'd made promises, and John wouldn't let him forget. He might not have days left here. But Ianto would do what he could for Jack with the time he had.
"Ask Mickey to see Martha and Tish back to the flat. We're still wanted, and the three of them will be safest there in case of a counterstrike at the Hub." Ianto hadn't even considered that possibility. The bad guys might have been defeated, but it wasn't over yet. They were all wanted criminals, and their enemies knew exactly where they'd gone to ground.
"All right."
There was a pause between them, where two normal people would have said their "I love yous" but that wasn't who they were. "Be safe. I'll be home soon. And call your sister."
"To tell her what?"
"Just the important part. You're alive."
Unable to say anything meaningful in response to that, or to the mixed emotions in Jack's voice -- joy that Ianto was out of harm's way, misery that his child had at most a few hours left to live -- Ianto cleared his throat and replied, "I'll do that."
As he gave the phone back to Tish, there was a raucous noise from the cog wheel door. He tensed, sore but ready. Jack had warned them. Ianto hadn't thought their foes would regroup and attack so soon. He jumped off the examination table and hurried up the stairs, cursing that he hadn't gone to the armoury.
"Let her go now! I'm warning you!"
Ianto came up short at the sight of a dishevelled man wielding what looked like the fake sword from the wall of the TIC. (Lois thought it added character, Ianto thought it was twee.) He waved his sword threateningly at Mickey.
"Hold on, mate," Mickey said, arms raised.
Even as Ianto's brain clicked into place, recognising the intruder, Tish shouted over the railing to Medical: "The wet blanket's here."
Tom lowered his sword arm. "Tish? Are you all right? Have they hurt you?"
"Hello," said Ianto, waving. "We're fine, everything's fine."
Martha came up the stairs, huffing. When she caught sight of her husband, and his attempt to rescue her with an aluminium replica, she burst into giggles. Tom looked hurt, and she straightened her face, contrite.
"Why are you here?" she asked, a chortle escaping as she reached him and definitively pushed his arm down.
"Your mother told me you'd been arrested, and that Jack was involved. I came to find you."
"I told you to go hide," said Tish, but no-one paid her any attention.
Martha said, "Here? You came to rescue me from a top-secret, super-technological alien fighting base with a toy sword?"
Now he did frown. "Look. I ... "
Martha kissed him. "That's the bravest thing you've done in this whole timeline for me. Thank you."
Tom's look of surprise and pleasure at his wife's smile said more than enough. A tiny, mean part of Ianto thought she was playing him. Another part, that spoke in Jack's voice and reminded him of an old conversation they'd had, said everyone's relationship looked a bit weird from the outside.
For random example, some people might look at a couple of blokes, one of whom hid from the other a few major fucking details -- say, he's immortal and hundreds of years old, or that he's got adult children, or that he's been surreptitiously guiding his lover into becoming a walking Rift manipulator -- and those people would think, "This is not a healthy relationship." They might examine certain facts, like how Estelle Cole and Gwen Cooper were both only children, while Ianto had a sister with a family. They might wonder cynically if preserving bloodlines had been the deciding factor in the matter.
Ianto watched Martha with her husband. Perhaps she'd been attracted to him for the man she'd known he could be, but she'd married the man he was here and now, so did it matter to her or to him why she'd first noticed him? Didn't it matter more that when he'd been told she was in danger, he had done everything in his power to come to her rescue, to protect her?
"Let the world hang, I want this one person to be safe," was a terrible way to run a secret organisation dedicated to saving the planet. But not everything was about secret organisations or saving the planet.
Tom handed Ianto the aluminium sword with a sheepish expression and followed Martha down to the med bay. Ianto left it by the door, to take the thing back to the TIC later. He'd give the sword a quick buff and polish before hanging it back on the wall, though. Stupidly grand gestures made for the sake of love ought to have something nice to recollect them by.
***
Alice fixed Steven a late supper and put him to bed in one of the upstairs rooms. The manor was posh, elegant. She idly imagined living here, amongst the dark wood panels and the stored alien technology. It'd be a place to start over, far away from her usual secrets, away from Jack. Steven could make new friends here. Alice could meet new people.
It was a nice fantasy.
When Steven was sleeping, she went back to the lavish kitchen and fixed tea. She took three mugs on a tray to the hallway outside Frank's room, and sat down. A few minutes later, Bonnie walked out, eyes red. Without speaking, Alice handed her some tea.
They waited together. Down the hallway, a grandfather clock ticked sombrely to itself, counting down the seconds for those who didn't have eternity.
Jack walked out of the room. Alice held up his tea, but he set the mug aside gently and instead took her into his arms and held her for a long, long time.
***
Chapter Eleven