ROTQ (7/8)
Title: The Roots of the Quadratic (7/8)
Author: nancybrown
Fandoms: Torchwood, Doctor Who
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Alice, Jenny, John Hart, OCs
Rating: R
Beta/Britpick: queenfanfiction, wynkat1313, temporal_witch, and fide_et_spe had a hand in fixing this. All remaining mistakes are mine alone.
Spoilers: up through CoE, one spoiler for "End of Time," one spoiler for Bay of the Dead
Warnings: character death, angst, child endangerment, mentions of sexual coercion, violence, timey-wimey temporal physics, and of course, Captain Bad Touch rides again
Words: 46,000 (8,300 this part)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
***
Chapter Seven
***
"We decided the birth should be in the Hub. Lucia wanted a friendly face to be her doctor. I was worried that my unique genetic code might be problematic in hospital. Of course the Rift went crazy in the middle of the delivery, and everyone who wasn't having a baby or delivering one had to deal with it. Five hours after my daughter was born, I finally got to hold her.
The moment I touched her, she started to cry." - from "Me: An Autobiography"
***
Hilda came in with her cloak engaged. Jenny examined the readouts. "Five colonies. The largest has five hundred humans." They'd set their arrival for a few years after the colony's founding date. They could fine-tune the rescue from there, Jack had said. Jenny suspected that they couldn't, actually, because of setting timelines into being, but Jack had a habit of overriding objections.
"Light arms only," Jenny told them. "If there's trouble," this was to Hart, "we defend ourselves, nothing more." The part of her that always heard her father's voice chided her for bringing even these. The part of her that worried for Alice told him to shut up.
She glanced at the men. They were in their Agent uniforms, while she had opted for her fatigues. Jack and Jenny had agreed that the locals would respond best to the imagery of authority. She'd noticed privately that while Hart seemed half-naked in anything, Jack stood taller and spoke with more command when he wore clothing that gave him power. Thinking back to the various encounters they'd had, and his common choice of periods military, she estimated an 82% chance that Jack already knew this, with an 18% chance that he did it anyway without understanding why.
"Let's go."
The first colony they chose was not the correct one. When Jack mentioned Ianto's name, the man they spoke to, the closest the colony had to a mayor, broke into a grin. "The diplomat? You're looking for the Thames colony. They're twenty kilometres away. It's a long walk."
"We'll manage," said Jenny, and took the directions carefully.
"When will you be returning to regular supply runs? We're running low on sugar, and there are preserves to get in."
Jack offered him a reassuring smile. "We're on intermittent service right now. Tell your people to expect regular shipments to this world starting in the Spring."
"The Spring? But that's so far away!"
The lie sat uneasily with Jenny, but when the man turned to her for confirmation, she nodded along with the false hopes. Jack's reasoning was sound: convince them they must survive the winter, that good times were just around the corner, and they would see things through for long enough to prove to themselves they could manage without help.
"You're one of the lucky ones, mate," said Hart. "Most colonies aren't getting their regular shipments back until late summer of next year."
The man's eyes grew big. "Well then, thank you. I'll let everyone know." He made a grimace. "Why did you say you were looking for Ianto? He's not got himself into trouble, has he?"
"No," Jack said. "Not at all."
***
Ianto was in trouble. Intellectually, he knew it in the way he was being manhandled, the way the rest looked upon him as the leader of their short, failed rebellion. They were going to die, all of them, but he was already singled out to die messily, and if Malik didn't stop trying to divert the Agents' attention, he'd meet the same fate.
And none of it mattered. Alice was dead, her eyes looking sightlessly at the open door, and Ianto could not even bend down to close them.
But then, why not? How many times could they kill him after all?
He shrugged off the hand on his arm and kneeled beside the body. "Don't move!" Trem snarled.
Ianto ignored him, even as his shoulder was roughly grabbed. He took Alice's hands and folded them, then closed her eyes. He looked around, uselessly, for some water. Cleaning and disposal of dead bodies, that was him. He'd cleaned Lisa's body. Bodies. His last act for her had been the most loving he'd been able to give, before they'd locked her away in the cold darkness. He'd prepared Jack's body after Abaddon, lingering as he did, scrutinising in vain for the faintest sign of life. If he'd been in the room with Jack when Steven had died, he would have been the one to clean the mess and wash the poor dead child. But there was no water in this room, nothing to wipe the blood from Alice's face, and Trem dragged him to his feet again.
"I'm so sorry," Malik whispered, as they were led out.
"No talking," Gerta said. She tended to Blays' wound. "Go to the infirmary." Blays lowered her head and scuttled off.
"They're not with us," Wayne said, nodding to the women. Trem hit him with his weapon, and Wayne shut up as they were led outside.
Trem and Gerta kept their weapons trained on the small group. The morning sun was just peeking over the edge of the horizon, turning the ripened fields to an orange-gold. Out beyond them in the pastures, Ianto could hear the lowing of the animals stirring to wakefulness. Gerta and Trem led the captives to a storage barn, empty of the grain which needed to be harvested, and left them locked in with almost nothing else. Two broken shovels wouldn't be enough to fight with when their captors came back with blasters.
Ianto sat on the ground, hands clasped around his knees. Paul and Wayne sat together against a wall, while Malik and one of the women -- Ianto didn't know her name -- searched the barn for an exit or a weapon.
One of the other women had cried quietly on their walk here. Ianto wanted to ask if she was frightened for herself or sad because Alice was gone, but his throat was too dry to speak. His bladder poked at him uncomfortably, and since he'd rather not die pissing himself, he got to his feet and found a quiet corner like an animal.
"We're all going to die," Paul said, his voice hollow. Wayne said something quietly comforting.
Ianto redid his trousers. They were all already dead. They'd died together once. They were going to die again. Alice never made it home because Alice was dead here, now, thousands of years after her birth, thousands of years after her son. Pointless deaths, all of them, always.
He turned, and he looked at the people he'd killed. Malik was clever and brave, and Paul was shy and strong, and Wayne was… Actually, he didn't know Wayne very well. The three women unfortunate enough to have roomed with Alice, he didn't know them at all, nameless to him as the day they'd awakened back on Narda. But everyone here had been nameless to him once, and they'd all had people who'd loved them, all left families behind, and now he was one of them again.
"I have an idea," he said. "It's not a good one."
"Any idea is better than none," said Malik.
"No, this idea is probably worse than no idea. No idea means just the seven of us are going to be executed." The woman who was sobbing cried harder. "This idea could in fact get everyone killed in the colony."
"We trust you," said Alice's friend.
"You shouldn't. I'm the reason you're here now." He went to Malik, and held out his hand. Confused, Malik took it. "Ianto Jones, Torchwood."
Wayne's eyes narrowed. "I know that word."
"We came in. We tried to intimidate the 456." At the confused looks from everyone who didn't know about the monster on the top floor, he added, "The aliens that were mind-controlling the children. They were in Thames House. They responded to our threat by killing everyone in the building. I died with you, but you died because of me." He didn't even try to say he was sorry. No apology was possible.
He took a breath, met everyone's eyes in turn. He read confusion, dawning to comprehension.
"Who was Alice?" Her friend stared back at him.
"Her son was murdered the following day because of the 456."
The woman nodded sadly. "She was one of us, then."
"What's the plan?" asked Malik. Ianto turned to him, saw the trust on his face. Wayne still looked unconvinced, but the rest listened eagerly, as if he was going to spout off something that made sense, as if he was about to rescue them with a miracle. This would be the point where Alice gave everyone a rousing speech about dignity and humanity and also the secret to winning a fight when one was outgunned by psychopaths, but Alice wasn't here.
If he did survive this, which he doubted, he swore to himself he'd give her a proper funeral, and if he didn't, he swore he'd try to take her killers with him.
"We're going to do what we should have done in the first place. But before that, I want to know your names."
***
Hilda set them down in silence four kilometres out. Jack checked his gun and holstered it. This should be an easy in and out job: swagger in, flash some Agency ID, get Alice and Ianto, no muss, no fuss. They passed through pastures wet with dew and redolent with dung. Jack had to drag John away from a sheep, but only the once, so it was a lovely morning stroll.
It was after they reached the edge of the pasture and the beginning of the ploughed fields that the vague unease he'd been experiencing blossomed into full-grown worry. "If this is one big farm, where are the farmers?"
"They're not shagging the sheep," John said irritably, but he watched around them warily.
"Wait," said Jenny. "Listen!"
They halted, and Jack strained his ears to hear what she did. He picked up one voice, coming from the direction of the village. He couldn't make out the words.
Jenny blanched. "Run!" She dashed towards the village without waiting, and Jack hurried to keep up with her. At a flat run over the short hills and through the stalks, Jenny was fast, her gun raised and her eyes blazing.
John ran behind them both, probably wondering if now would be a good time to vanish.
"What is it?"
"I made out the words 'rebels' and 'execution.' I didn't want to wait to hear more." She pushed through the rows and then stopped abruptly as they burst through the last one. Jack just prevented himself from ploughing into her, then John's full momentum hit him and that was a lost cause. Jenny nimbly stepped ahead as the two men fell to the ground behind her.
Jack scrambled back to his feet. Before them, all the colony's adults were assembled. In the centre, on a small platform, two Time Agents stood with their weapons drawn. Beside them were seven people with their hands tied. One of them was Ianto. Joy at seeing him alive mingled with horror at what was surely an execution, and Jack struggled to keep both emotions at bay. He searched the crowd for signs of Alice, saw nothing.
"All right," said Jenny in a low voice. "Here's the plan. On the count of three, you two wade in there, and demand an equal cut of the pie. While they're distracted … "
"ATTACK!" The scream went up from the crowd, and suddenly all hundred-odd colonists were shouting and running at the two Agents.
Jenny blinked. "This is also an acceptable distraction."
John said, "I'll go get Eye Candy, you two find your girl."
Jack opened his mouth to object. Jenny said, "Good plan." She grabbed Jack's hand. "Come on!"
***
A plan hinging on convincing the two Agents that Wendy and Debbie weren't with them was doomed to fail. So when the attack was shouted anyway by someone he couldn't identify among the other colonists, Ianto stood still in shock for a crucial moment. Then he saw Trem turn his weapon from the prisoners and towards the crowd, and that broke the moment. Ianto rushed him head-first, thanking his ancestors for his hard skull as he did. The shot went wild, and he refused to think about where it had landed.
Malik and Wayne went after Gerta, who was less distractible than Trem. She fired precisely, hitting them both.
Ianto had no free hands to struggle for Trem's gun, could only use his weight and desperation to pin him. People crowded them now, feet crushing and kicking. Trem fired again, and someone screamed. Ianto smacked his head into Trem's with a sharp, agonising crack, as someone's arm came down and pulled on the weapon.
He couldn't see Gerta, couldn't see anything. Feet trying to reach Trem kicked his head, sending shooting pain through his skull. Stars exploded in front of his eyes, and still he pushed himself to keep all his weight on his enemy.
Two strong hands reached down and lifted him off Trem. Ianto struggled, but then, Gerta was over towards the nursery, retreating behind cover fire. People were falling under her blasts. So much death.
"Hello, Eye Candy," said the obnoxious voice. Ianto turned his head. Hart smiled at him, his hands still wrapped around Ianto's arms. "We leave you alone for five minutes and you start a civil war."
"It was three months!"
Hart's smile lingered, even as a chair was brought down on his head and he collapsed. Paul lifted the chair, ready to bring it down again.
"Wait!" Ianto said. "He's not one of them."
"He's wearing their uniform!" Anger filled his voice.
"He's an Agent. But he's with me. Sort of." Ianto disregarded Hart for a moment, seeking out Gerta. "Who got Trem's gun? We have to stop her." Shots fired his way and he ducked down. Paul untied his hands, and Ianto immediately went through Hart's loathsome pockets, looking for anything he could use, anything at all. His first pass turned up two guns, a knife, the small metal thing Alice had given Hart, a phial with glittery bits inside, two communication-looking devices Ianto couldn't identify, and something sticky wrapped in a serviette.
He handed the knife to Paul and the spare gun to Alice's friend Frieda, and shoved everything except the metal thing and the sticky into his own pockets in case he needed them. The shots had stopped. He stood. People were crying and shouting. Those still on their feet pounded on the door to the nursery.
Across the way, he saw Jack and Jenny headed towards him. He paled. Ianto turned away, and told Paul, "I'm going in after Gerta. Frieda, can you cover the outside?" She nodded. "If she comes out, shoot her. If she tries to negotiate, shoot her. She doesn't walk out of here."
"What about Trem?" Tanya had reached them. Trem was unconscious and battered. Hart was already waking.
"I don't care," he said, and meant it. There were standards for treating prisoners. The colonists would have to decide what their own standards were. Ianto wasn't planning on walking out of the nursery alive to find out.
He jumped off the platform and went to the door. Of course it was locked. He kicked at the lock, but the door held tight. Frustration built up inside him. Gerta was the type to systematically murder a building full of children just for fun. Inside, he heard shots.
Behind him, he heard Jack say in an odd voice, "There you are."
Jenny said, "This will be easiest if we do it together."
The last memory of Jack that Ianto had, they were shouting at each other. Jack wanted Ianto to leave the planet, leave him, get the hell out while he was still able to enjoy it, and when Ianto balked, Jack had called him stupid and childish and everything else to make him angry, and it had worked. Ianto told himself none of that mattered now.
An image of Alice dead on the floor appeared before him. When Jack's hand touched his shoulder and rested on his back, it brought no comfort.
"Count of three," said Jenny. "One, two, three!"
Together, they kicked the door, shattering the wood at the lock. Ianto had Hart's gun in his hand and he pushed in ahead of the others.
Gerta waited for them, her blaster pointed at the nearest child. Ianto took in the scene rapidly: Chrissy was unconscious or dead on the floor. Flora's body was draped over a cot. Harry was nowhere to be seen. Ianto and Jenny levelled their guns at her, while Jack's stayed loose.
"Don't come any closer," Gerta said. Her mouth pulled into a little moue. "Jarron. And Georgn. I wasn't expecting to see the two of you again." Ianto felt Hart walk into the room behind them.
Hart said, "We heard you were onto a good thing here and wanted in. Set ourselves up as gods in a bottleneck? Fantastic."
Jack put on his best You Can Trust Me Smile. "We'll even help you clean up the last of the rabble." His gun did move now, to point directly at Ianto. "There are four more colonies on this planet. Wipe one out, take the kids, and it's a whole new party."
She laughed. "With you? You broke the Agency, asshole. You're the reason we don't have anything left."
Jack's smile didn't slip. "Can you blame me? I wanted to get what was mine."
"We swiped plenty of tech," said Hart. "Even the magic sparklies." Sparklies? Ianto frowned. That was familiar. Why?
"You're going to need them," Gerta said. She held up her vortex manipulator. "I've set it to overload in about five minutes. Either the stock surrenders, or losing their brats will be the least of their worries."
Jack said, "Seems a little overkill." He spread his hands. "Anyway, we're here now to help you."
"Your help I can do without," Gerta said, and she turned her gun on him and fired. Jack went down without a sound. She laughed again. "What, no horrified outcries? Georgn, I thought you cared."
Hart shrugged. "Give him a minute." Ianto didn't let anything show on his face. Jack hadn't died in front of him in years. Good to know the stomach-clenching fear hadn't changed a whit. Jenny showed only mild annoyance.
"You want in? Fine. Shoot this shoe scraping," Gerta indicated Ianto, "and then round up the rest of the units for me. Blays and I will execute them."
"We will?"
From the door leading to the infirmary, Blays limped, her eyes bleary with whatever medicine she'd been given. Ianto wondered at that. Had he been the medic on duty, he'd likely have poisoned her.
"Get over here," Gerta said, annoyed. "You've missed all the fun."
Blays looked down at the bodies on the floor. "You said we were only going to execute the ringleaders. The woman's already dead, the other's in front of you." Jenny flinched at her words, looking to Ianto for confirmation. He couldn't meet her eyes, knew his face said enough.
"The natives were noisy." Gerta sounded bored.
Blays looked at the dead bodies again. Her eyes lingered on Flora. "You said there wasn't going to be any more killing. You said we were going to live like queens."
Hart said, "Did she promise you could nob all the units you wanted? That was what I did."
Jack gasped to life at their feet. Gerta and Blays both dropped their attention to him, stunned. Jenny rushed Gerta, kicking her in the side and tumbling to the ground with her when Gerta blocked. Both guns went spinning across the floor as fists and elbows and knees collided. Ianto aimed his weapon at them, but he couldn't risk shooting Jenny as they fought.
A blaster shot echoed through the room, lighting up the two women. They both went still.
Gerta rolled off of Jenny, and kept rolling as Jenny shoved her body away. Ianto offered a hand up, as all eyes went to Blays, who held her blaster in trembling hands.
"She said!"
"Yes, she did, love," said Hart, far more gently than Ianto would have guessed. "She promised, didn't she?" He reached out and took the blaster from her unresisting grip. Ianto held her with his own weapon, but had the feeling he didn't need it anymore.
A noise came from Gerta's corpse. Jenny knelt down and removed the dead woman's VM from her wrist. "She said 'overload.' That can't be good."
"Let me see," said Jack, taking it from her. "Oh, this isn't so bad." He started manipulating the controls. "Gerta's locked us out." He looked at Hart, who went pale.
"I need a ship," Jack said, starting to babble in fear. "Or a transmat. Give me your strap. If I can get this far enough away from the colony before it goes … " His eyes darted, met Ianto's. Ianto read an entire chapter of "Oh God, not again," in his gaze, and felt it right back.
Hart stood and swiped the strap from Jack. "Give me that." He moved the controls, much faster than Jack's hands. "Please. You never did know how to work one of these things properly. A little torque on the chronal array, and … "
The whine from the strap sharpened, and then all the breath was pushed from Ianto's body as Jack shoved him to the ground, covering him. All he could see was the fine wood grain of the floor, all he could feel was Jack. Their hands reached for each other and clasped, as the room filled with a weird sound like the inside of a drum bonged by a giant hand.
Then nothing.
When Ianto was sure he wasn't dead he turned his face to Jack's. His mouth was close enough to kiss, and the way Jack's breath caught told him he was thinking the same thing. Jack's free hand drifted over the curve of newly-firm muscle appreciatively. Ianto would be annoyed that Jack, upon dealing with a life or death situation, immediately turned his thoughts to sex, but Ianto's mind was already there, so he couldn't complain.
Then the events of the last hour (had it only been that short a while?) caught up with him, and he gently but firmly pushed Jack away. Jack's eyes asked questions Ianto couldn't answer.
"Where's Hart?" Jenny asked, getting to her own feet.
Jack frowned and searched the area. Then he got down to look at the floor where Hart had stood moments before. "If it went on overload, it would have killed everyone. He must have taken it somewhere before it blew." His face contorted. "It'll have killed him." Jack always carried his failures. Ianto placed a hand on his shoulder.
Jenny shook her head. "He hasn't met Alice and me yet. I'm not feeling a paradox ripping through the fabric of space. Wherever he is, he's still alive."
Something that she said, something that Hart said. Ianto dug into his pocket, wrapped his fingers around the glittering phial he'd taken.
"I have to go," he said, and dashed out, just as Chrissy started to come around.
***
Numb, Jack watched Ianto sprint out the door and away. "What the hell?"
"Stay here," Jenny ordered Blays, and she told the woman who was waking up, "Keep an eye on her. Don't harm her. She saved you." She grabbed Jack's hand and led him out to follow Ianto, heedless of the other colonists.
Jack hadn't seen Alice anywhere, and his worry grew with every passing step. Was she locked up? Maybe she hadn't even been sent to this colony, and they'd have to start their search all over again for her. And then Ianto ducked into a building that screamed "dormitory," and ran down a corridor, and into a room that smelled of blood.
Jack reared back at the sight of Alice, broken and still on the floor.
"No … "
Jenny squeezed his hand, and where he should have seen the same shock, he saw only sympathy and grief. She'd already known. He let go and went to his knees beside his daughter's motionless form, took her cold hand.
Ianto sat at the other side. Jenny joined him. "She was leading our little rebellion," he said. "We had a plan, but someone must have told. When they came for us, she fought."
Jack choked back a sob of pride, as Jenny said quietly, "She always fought."
Ianto held out his hand. "I pulled this off of Hart. But I don't know how to make it work." His voice was small, pleading, and it took Jack a long moment to recognise the item in his palm. For a second, his heart stopped.
He took the phial from Ianto. "You know what these are?"
"They brought you back from the dead once. They brought all these people back."
Technology the Agency wasn't supposed to have, stolen from a dead race and used only under the strictest of watches because immortality in a bottle was not something to be idly left around. Jack uncapped it, let the golden dancing pinpricks, like fireflies on a July night, settle over his hand. They could do their work without him, but as the Doctor had once said, a bit of parental DNA never hurt. The nanogenes floated over Alice in a cloud and settled on her, repairing with tiny tools every imperfection they found.
Hell of a thing.
Alice gasped into life, her eyes flying open, and Jenny was the first one she latched onto as Jack tickled the genes back into their bottle. "What happened?" she asked, when she could breathe.
"We won," Ianto said, with a relieved smile, though his eyes were on Jack.
Jack watched her silently, unable to speak, satisfied himself with touching her hand again. She didn't pull away.
***
The colonists didn't trust Jack in his Agent's uniform, but Jenny noticed they all gathered around Ianto and Alice easily. The dead and wounded were brought into the infirmary one by one, and one by one they were cured, those who could be. The man called Harry had died days ago, and was beyond their reach. Four others had also died too early for the nanogenes to revive them. No-one brought Gerta and Trem to be healed.
Those from the colony who had died under Gerta's rule were given heroes' funerals later that day, while two who'd been murdered from a neighbouring colony were readied for return to their home. Jack buried the bodies of the two Agents alone in the evening as the first stars come out.
Jenny herself made sure she was never far from Alice. Having lost her once was quite enough. While Ianto handled the nanogenes, Alice organised the colonists, setting up a small cleanup crew among the able-bodied and getting the rest back to work on the harvest before the frost came. Jack pulled off his uniform and pitched in to help, probably (94% certainty) to allay their distrust. Jenny busied herself with showing a few of them how to reassemble the computer systems they'd deconstructed, but she kept her eyes on her friend.
"You're brilliant, you know," Jenny told Alice in a free moment. Alice just blushed.
When Jack was back from his work, and Ianto had healed his last patient, and Alice had handed the reins back to a newly-revived woman named Flora, they sat together at the dining hall for a very late tea. Flora joined them, her daughter half-asleep in her lap, sitting next to Alice. The other colonists left them space, although as they passed by, friendly hands brushed against Alice's and Ianto's chairs.
Ianto slid a piece of paper over to Flora. "This is everything I can tell you about the other colonies. You'll have to find another ambassador."
Jenny said, "Blays will need a trial, a fair one."
Flora nodded. "She'll get one. I'll see to it." Her eyes went to Alice. "Now that we really are on our own, we could use your help."
Alice took Flora's hand reassuringly. "You're going to do fine."
"We'd do better with you here. All of you," she added, taking in the rest of them, but her hand stayed with Alice. Jenny felt an unfamiliar emotion bubble inside of her.
"We can't," Jenny said shortly.
"I really can't," Alice said, more kindly. "I've been out there. I can't stay in one place when I have that chance again." She bent in and kissed Flora on the cheek. Again Jenny felt strange, as though the human woman was really a Hath in disguise. Suddenly she wanted to give her a nickname, a nasty or impertinent one for choice.
Then Alice pulled back, and Jenny noticed that she'd moved just a hair away from Flora and just that much closer to her, and the desire to show up the other woman faded, to be replaced with thoughts of where they could go next after this mess was finally sorted.
Jack said, "We can stay the night." Which, Jenny found out a few short hours later, meant, "We'll sneak out when you're asleep so there are no lengthy goodbyes." At the moment, all she saw was how he took Ianto's hand and held it tightly, and how Ianto squeezed back just as hard.
***
Winter was setting in fast this year, Malik thought. Five years since the founding of the colony, and the winters got tougher each time. Maybe that was just his imagination. Everything had seemed harder, at first, after the Time Agency had abandoned them.
Still, as he finished straightening up his office for the night, he mused that things could be worse. The crops had failed last year, but they'd traded with the other colonies for enough food to survive, and this year, they had a surplus to trade out for the cotton the Aeros grew. Wool was warm, but Malik was more than ready for a pair of boxers made from something less scratchy. Cotton would make nicer baby clothes as well, he thought, for when Flora's little one -- her third and the second with that mad wife of hers -- arrived and Flora could get back to helping him run this quaint little insane asylum.
The door opened from outside. Curious, Malik went to see who was coming in at this hour.
He stopped, staring. A man who looked a lot like someone who couldn't possibly be there, only younger, stood in the doorway with two little kids Malik had never seen before. The kids were crying, clearly scared.
"Is this the colony from London? MI-5 building?"
Malik nodded slowly. Surely Ianto recognised him?
Ianto thrust the kids at him roughly. "Take care of them." Then he turned and walked away.
Malik's mouth opened and shut again.
"Hello, kids," he said in a friendly if cracked voice, kneeling down to their level. The children began to cry harder. "It's okay. You're safe here."
The door opened again. Ianto hurried in. This Ianto looked like the one he remembered. Behind him, Malik saw Alice and the two people who'd come suddenly and vanished again. They were all wearing the same clothes he remembered from that day, he noticed, his common sense screaming at him inside his head that this was wrong.
Ianto said, "Did I just … ?" He saw the children. "Oh good. Thank you for keeping an eye on them." He grabbed the little hands and led the kids back to the doorway where Alice picked up one and the tall man the other.
Ianto paused, and then came back, helping Malik to his feet. His touch didn't burn, but it was warmer than he'd expect for someone who walked outside in the snow.
"Ianto?"
"It's all right. I can't explain now. Just tell everyone we said hello." Malik nodded again. Ianto clasped his arm. "Good man. Take care." And they were gone again.
Malik blinked. Having been dead twice and brought thousands of years into the future, this was not the strangest thing that had ever happened to him. However, since the first death was Ianto's fault and the second time, Ianto had been the one who'd wakened him, he had to admit the weirdest changes in his life revolved around a quiet Welsh fellow who liked to go on walks.
"It's a sign of good fortune," Chrissy would say later, as Malik described what had happened incredulously. "They're our guardian angels, I knew it all along," and when she said it, heads would nod in agreement. Malik's mother had told him about angels. He'd never much believed in them, but then he'd met a man who could bring people back from the dead. (Blays said she'd seen a man who came back from the dead all on his own, but that was Blays: nice enough when you got to know her but never quite there in the head.) As it was, the colony's children were often tucked in with nightly blessings that Auntie Alice would protect them in their sleep. Malik's littlest one always slept the night through when Sally said the words.
He still wasn't sure about angels, but Malik was pretty certain he knew a legend starting when he saw one.
***
Alice's heart did not break when she handed the child in her arms to Kamb, nor when Jack handed the other child to Kamb's husband. She didn't start to cry when the twins' siblings gathered around them, stroking and touching their hair in awe, then laughing and playing as though the family had never been broken. There was no lump in her throat to talk past, as Kamb embraced her gratefully, as Kamb and her husband offered their forgiveness to the men who'd stolen their children, as Alice declined for all of them Kamb's offer that everyone stay to celebrate the joyous return.
She didn't tremble as the four of them walked back to Hilda together, Jack's hand warmly on her shoulder, nor as they took off, the viewscreen focused on the new buildings of the village until they were gone from sight. Her voice didn't break wishing her father and his husband a good night when they went to their small cabin for some well-earned sleep.
Only after, when the lights dimmed in the main cabin and Jenny sat down beside her, a calm presence against her side, neither looking at the other, only then did Alice weep.
***
Jack felt tired, but in a good way, and hot and sticky, in an exceptionally good way. He hummed quietly in his throat as Ianto settled close against him in the narrow bunk, both heartbeats slowly returning to normal. Jack had only missed him for two days, but Ianto had said they'd lived at the colony for months. The changes in his physique lent credence to the time frame, and Jack already had charted with delight the new planes and curves on Ianto's otherwise familiar body. Someday, Jack would have to outline all the time slips they'd experienced in their long relationship, put them as another chart in his book.
He was positive Ianto wasn't psychic and still he wasn't surprised when Ianto said, "Any idea how you'll work this into the book?"
"You said I wasn't allowed to go into detail about our sex life."
A snort. "Time travel. Kidnapping. Prison. Alice. This may be ringing a bell."
"I'm sure I'll think of a way to make it sound exciting. All that 'running for our lives' stuff should punch up the boring bits about farming."
"I'll have you know that farming is very interesting. I've developed a new appreciation for plants."
"Remind me to introduce you to some Delvians."
Ianto sighed, and the sigh turned into a sleepy yawn. "Plant people?"
"Only species I've ever met who use sun lamps as sex toys."
He made a noise that Jack translated as either "You are so full of shit" or "Going to sleep now." Jack took the opportunity to steal a soft kiss.
Ianto was quiet for a long time. "Jack?"
"Hm?"
"We had a fight. A big one. It would have been a couple of years ago."
He thought back. They'd had a few big arguments, but Jack's time sense wasn't as good as it had been, and he really couldn't remember which one had been two years ago, and which had been ten. Pondering now, he might also be remembering a fight or two he'd had with Jeanne, or even with N'ndy or Tel. "Assume I remember."
"How did we work it out?"
"What do you mean?"
"The Agency wiped my memories, I think to erase the time they thought I was on Narda with you. The last thing I remember, we were fighting, and I was considering leaving you the next time a supply ship came through, and you wanted me to go."
Jack remembered now. It had been a hard winter, and they'd been forced to close quarters even more than usual. Jack had been writing about a particularly difficult period in his life, full of old pain and bitter loss, and he'd been moody reliving the memories. In other times, Ianto would have been a listening ear and a quiet shoulder, but he'd been caught up in one of his own occasional bouts of self-doubt, feeling worthless as a kept man stuck on a planet with no real purpose. Two snippy, sullen people with no-one else to talk to, of course they'd taken it out on each other, saying things neither one meant, and worse, things they did mean but normally wouldn't say.
Ianto shivered against Jack, but didn't pull away. "I've been trying to picture how we got past that."
"Oh. Well." They'd stopped speaking entirely. Jack had taken to sleeping in his study. They moved around each other in the house, not staying in the same room any longer than necessary, nursing their grudges for weeks. And then … "When you first saw me at the colony, what did you think?"
"'Oh God, I got Alice killed.'"
Jack's stomach tightened. With an effort, he relaxed. "After that. When she was better."
"I thought I was so pleased to see you, I could burst."
"Me too." He pressed his lips against Ianto's shoulder. "We got over it. All right?"
"All right." Something in his eyes flickered, and Jack thought he might still be obsessing on the past. Then he said, "When she woke up, I thought you were going to cry."
"Almost did. Still respect me?"
"I have to respect you now?" Ianto's smile teased, but the distant look was still in his eyes. "I can't remember the last time I saw you that happy."
"Oh, I can think of a few times," Jack said as he let his hands wander, but Ianto's expression didn't change even as Jack stole a quick kiss. "You okay?"
Instead of replying, Ianto returned and deepened the kiss, taking Jack's breath away. When they finally broke, panting and ready for more, Jack said, "Not complaining, but what was that for?"
"Two years to make up for, yeah?"
Jack felt his mouth move into a grin. "Yeah."
***
Ianto had always wanted to visit a floating city. The constant rush of high winds outside the dome was a bit much, and he should have anticipated the vertigo when he'd made the mistake of looking over the edge into the clouds, but seeing Jack jump around like he was home made it all worth the trip.
"We're five hundred years past the time where we picked you up," Jenny had said last night when they'd docked to refuel and take on supplies. "There aren't any records of you in the intervening time." She hadn't said, "And we're dropping you off here," but that part was understood. Jack had wandered off while the rest of them had slept, and had come back hours later to say he needed to show them something in another part of the space port.
"Do you like her?" Jack was dancing on the balls of his feet again, nervous and eager.
Ianto took in the bulky, ungraceful lines of the ship. Her? "Not very Star Trek, is it?"
"Star Trek was made up. This is the real deal. No time circuit, obviously. We can't all steal Chula tech." This was aimed at Jenny, who shrugged it off as she inspected the ship's landing gear. "But she's got hyperspace capability, a renewable-source engine, and a cloak in case we get into trouble." Which was Jack-speak for, "When I get bored and cause some."
Ianto stared at Jack suspiciously. "You've already bought it, haven't you?" Five hundred extra years of compound interest had not hurt Jack's accounts at all. Yesterday they'd gone on a shopping spree to restock Hilda and to outfit themselves more appropriately for the time period. Fashions for men leaned towards fitted trousers, long sleeves and black or brown loose waistcoats. Ianto felt ridiculously Han Soloish, but the appreciative looks Jack was giving him more than made up for it.
"I got a really good price. You're gonna love her." Ianto let Jack lead him into the cockpit (and never let it be said that Jack let an innuendo opportunity like that slip away unnoticed) where he explained to Ianto all the various controls. "I know how to soup up this engine type, won't take but a few adjustments once we find the parts. There's a salvage planet about a week from here that should have everything we need. Then I can really show you what she's made of."
As Jack started describing the modifications he wanted to make, years fell away from his face. This was the Jack who'd shone through in so many stories in his book, the one who stole a ship -- aeroplane or sailboat or star schooner -- and found adventure time and again. Of all the Jacks he'd met, Ianto had only seen this one out here amongst the stars.
For a man Ianto had known more than half his life, it was fascinating to find someone new under the surface who'd been there all along.
Jack's hands sketched out navigational concepts in the air, and Ianto nodded without comprehension. He'd have to learn this eventually, but he was willing to sit back for now and watch as the man he loved came alive in a way that was nothing like a resurrection and was entirely the same thing.
"You're gonna be a natural at vector calculation once you get the hang of it."
"Setting aside the book for a while, then?"
That grin. "Thought we could find material for some additional chapters." His attitude was all seduction-by-starship, but Jack's eyes were focused on the journey ahead, the alien shores yet to be reached. Given the most rickety of craft to pilot, Jack was free.
He hadn't missed the "we," either. Jack wasn't just showing Ianto his dream. He was also inviting him along. Ianto couldn't imagine what would happen if he said no, but he also had no intentions of finding out. There were worse fates than being offered a role in one of Jack's dreams.
"'And a star to steer her by.'"
"Hm?"
"Nothing." He took Jack's hand. "When do we go?"
Jack grinned. Then he looked out the viewscreen to see Alice and Jenny still waiting in the hangar, and his smile slipped. "Soon. We'll go soon."
'Soon' meant after a lavish supper at the best restaurant in the port, where the four of them were waited on hand and foot by half the staff as soon as Jack's credit was scanned. Ianto hadn't been to a proper restaurant where he himself wasn't an employee since his twenty-sixth birthday, and that only because Gwen had insisted she could watch things while Jack took him out. He turned the memory around in his head as they ate dishes which Jack tried to translate for them, and Jenny regaled them with the histories of the planets on which the foods developed. Stygian hare, fried wint leaves, baked bimpa, noodle dishes in white sauce, crisp breads to snap and dip, cool and refreshing soups between, it was a joy. Course after course came out, and even though Alice and Ianto had been on short rations these past few weeks, they were soon full up. Jack's eyes sparkled as he insisted on at least sampling the house wines and making a quick survey of the desserts. Ianto refused any of his own, but did take a taste of what Jack ordered: a creamy, lemony confection that was butter-light on the tongue.
As stalling tactics went, this was a winner.
Jack knew he would see Alice again, but he couldn't know if she would ever see him, if she would fly out of this floating city and be killed tomorrow. He was selfish enough to want to delay that just a bit longer, especially on a rare day when he was in her good graces, and Ianto could not possibly begrudge him. Jack was always happiest when surrounded by the people he loved, and every time, he lost them again. Sometimes, just sometimes, he was offered a second chance at getting things right.
Ianto's hand dropped below the table, and brushed reassuringly against the hard lump in his outside pocket. The secret of a proper second chance was recognising when and how to take it.
While the waiters cleared away the dishes, Jenny asked, "Where will you go first?"
"Salvage planet," Jack said. "Fix her up a little. I don't know after that."
"We could visit your home planet," Ianto suggested. He saw Jack's face tighten. "Or, you know, we could go somewhere else. Earth, even."
"No," Jack said, his expression warming slowly to the idea. "We can go to my home world. It's been long enough. I can show you where I learned to swim." And find out about his family, because Ianto knew Jack was dying to discover what had become of his mother after he'd fled the Agency so long ago.
Alice said, "The words 'skinny-dipping' are about to be spoken, aren't they?"
"Depends," Ianto said. "Smacking, yes or no?" They shared a laugh, which only grew at Jack and Jenny's matched perplexed faces.
When the bill was paid, and also the gratuity (made more generous after prodding from someone who'd had to live on tips more than once) they made their way outside to the constant false day of the spaceport, and there was nothing else Jack could use to stall. He spent a long time hugging Alice goodbye, and then Ianto pulled her into a hug as well while Jack shook hands with Jenny.
"I don't think I'll see you again," Alice said into his hair.
"Probably not." He moved his hand deftly.
"Take care of him for me. For as long as you can."
He nodded as they pulled away from the embrace. "It's my job."
***
Alice watched until the other ship was a tiny twinkle among the stars, and then she watched the place it had disappeared, pretending she could still see the lights long after she knew they were gone. Living non-linear meant she never knew if she would see him again, while knowing he would see her. Times and places throughout history she recalled, and every time she found him, by accident or design, he had a smile for her, and utter love. She had siblings, scattered across time and galaxies, but Alice was the one who poked into his timeline, the one he remembered when whole civilisations were becoming wisps in his mind.
Part of her would always hate him. Part of her would always love him. And no matter how many beings he loved and children he sired and worlds he protected and lifetimes he lived, part of him would place her highest in his heart whenever they met.
There was a cool hand on her arm.
"Tea?" Jenny's smile offered company or silence or both.
Alice took the tea and rested her head against Jenny's shoulder. "I don't deserve you, you know."
"There are a number of philosophical and religious schools of thought which claim proof of divine mercy in the fact that none of us gets what we deserve."
Alice watched the place where the lights had vanished, just there between two dim stars. "What do you think?"
"I think we all get better than we deserve in the people around us, and that's as close to divinity as you'll find." Jenny played with Alice's hair until Alice snorted and sat up and drank her tea, and felt a little better.
Later, when Hilda had turned the lights down for a sleep cycle, Alice went to remove her shirt and felt something in her pocket. There'd been a small bump when they'd hugged goodbye, and she hadn't thought anything, but now her fingers closed on something cold and smooth.
The phial lay in her palm, carefully sealed, its golden, glittery occupants visible through the polymer and bumping against it like fireflies. A folded note had been secreted with it:
Just because Jack saw someone die doesn't mean it stuck. - I.
Alice stared at the tiny bottle of nanogenes, and hope splashed through her, like water in a desert.
***
Epilogue
Author: nancybrown
Fandoms: Torchwood, Doctor Who
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Alice, Jenny, John Hart, OCs
Rating: R
Beta/Britpick: queenfanfiction, wynkat1313, temporal_witch, and fide_et_spe had a hand in fixing this. All remaining mistakes are mine alone.
Spoilers: up through CoE, one spoiler for "End of Time," one spoiler for Bay of the Dead
Warnings: character death, angst, child endangerment, mentions of sexual coercion, violence, timey-wimey temporal physics, and of course, Captain Bad Touch rides again
Words: 46,000 (8,300 this part)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
***
Chapter Seven
***
"We decided the birth should be in the Hub. Lucia wanted a friendly face to be her doctor. I was worried that my unique genetic code might be problematic in hospital. Of course the Rift went crazy in the middle of the delivery, and everyone who wasn't having a baby or delivering one had to deal with it. Five hours after my daughter was born, I finally got to hold her.
The moment I touched her, she started to cry." - from "Me: An Autobiography"
***
Hilda came in with her cloak engaged. Jenny examined the readouts. "Five colonies. The largest has five hundred humans." They'd set their arrival for a few years after the colony's founding date. They could fine-tune the rescue from there, Jack had said. Jenny suspected that they couldn't, actually, because of setting timelines into being, but Jack had a habit of overriding objections.
"Light arms only," Jenny told them. "If there's trouble," this was to Hart, "we defend ourselves, nothing more." The part of her that always heard her father's voice chided her for bringing even these. The part of her that worried for Alice told him to shut up.
She glanced at the men. They were in their Agent uniforms, while she had opted for her fatigues. Jack and Jenny had agreed that the locals would respond best to the imagery of authority. She'd noticed privately that while Hart seemed half-naked in anything, Jack stood taller and spoke with more command when he wore clothing that gave him power. Thinking back to the various encounters they'd had, and his common choice of periods military, she estimated an 82% chance that Jack already knew this, with an 18% chance that he did it anyway without understanding why.
"Let's go."
The first colony they chose was not the correct one. When Jack mentioned Ianto's name, the man they spoke to, the closest the colony had to a mayor, broke into a grin. "The diplomat? You're looking for the Thames colony. They're twenty kilometres away. It's a long walk."
"We'll manage," said Jenny, and took the directions carefully.
"When will you be returning to regular supply runs? We're running low on sugar, and there are preserves to get in."
Jack offered him a reassuring smile. "We're on intermittent service right now. Tell your people to expect regular shipments to this world starting in the Spring."
"The Spring? But that's so far away!"
The lie sat uneasily with Jenny, but when the man turned to her for confirmation, she nodded along with the false hopes. Jack's reasoning was sound: convince them they must survive the winter, that good times were just around the corner, and they would see things through for long enough to prove to themselves they could manage without help.
"You're one of the lucky ones, mate," said Hart. "Most colonies aren't getting their regular shipments back until late summer of next year."
The man's eyes grew big. "Well then, thank you. I'll let everyone know." He made a grimace. "Why did you say you were looking for Ianto? He's not got himself into trouble, has he?"
"No," Jack said. "Not at all."
***
Ianto was in trouble. Intellectually, he knew it in the way he was being manhandled, the way the rest looked upon him as the leader of their short, failed rebellion. They were going to die, all of them, but he was already singled out to die messily, and if Malik didn't stop trying to divert the Agents' attention, he'd meet the same fate.
And none of it mattered. Alice was dead, her eyes looking sightlessly at the open door, and Ianto could not even bend down to close them.
But then, why not? How many times could they kill him after all?
He shrugged off the hand on his arm and kneeled beside the body. "Don't move!" Trem snarled.
Ianto ignored him, even as his shoulder was roughly grabbed. He took Alice's hands and folded them, then closed her eyes. He looked around, uselessly, for some water. Cleaning and disposal of dead bodies, that was him. He'd cleaned Lisa's body. Bodies. His last act for her had been the most loving he'd been able to give, before they'd locked her away in the cold darkness. He'd prepared Jack's body after Abaddon, lingering as he did, scrutinising in vain for the faintest sign of life. If he'd been in the room with Jack when Steven had died, he would have been the one to clean the mess and wash the poor dead child. But there was no water in this room, nothing to wipe the blood from Alice's face, and Trem dragged him to his feet again.
"I'm so sorry," Malik whispered, as they were led out.
"No talking," Gerta said. She tended to Blays' wound. "Go to the infirmary." Blays lowered her head and scuttled off.
"They're not with us," Wayne said, nodding to the women. Trem hit him with his weapon, and Wayne shut up as they were led outside.
Trem and Gerta kept their weapons trained on the small group. The morning sun was just peeking over the edge of the horizon, turning the ripened fields to an orange-gold. Out beyond them in the pastures, Ianto could hear the lowing of the animals stirring to wakefulness. Gerta and Trem led the captives to a storage barn, empty of the grain which needed to be harvested, and left them locked in with almost nothing else. Two broken shovels wouldn't be enough to fight with when their captors came back with blasters.
Ianto sat on the ground, hands clasped around his knees. Paul and Wayne sat together against a wall, while Malik and one of the women -- Ianto didn't know her name -- searched the barn for an exit or a weapon.
One of the other women had cried quietly on their walk here. Ianto wanted to ask if she was frightened for herself or sad because Alice was gone, but his throat was too dry to speak. His bladder poked at him uncomfortably, and since he'd rather not die pissing himself, he got to his feet and found a quiet corner like an animal.
"We're all going to die," Paul said, his voice hollow. Wayne said something quietly comforting.
Ianto redid his trousers. They were all already dead. They'd died together once. They were going to die again. Alice never made it home because Alice was dead here, now, thousands of years after her birth, thousands of years after her son. Pointless deaths, all of them, always.
He turned, and he looked at the people he'd killed. Malik was clever and brave, and Paul was shy and strong, and Wayne was… Actually, he didn't know Wayne very well. The three women unfortunate enough to have roomed with Alice, he didn't know them at all, nameless to him as the day they'd awakened back on Narda. But everyone here had been nameless to him once, and they'd all had people who'd loved them, all left families behind, and now he was one of them again.
"I have an idea," he said. "It's not a good one."
"Any idea is better than none," said Malik.
"No, this idea is probably worse than no idea. No idea means just the seven of us are going to be executed." The woman who was sobbing cried harder. "This idea could in fact get everyone killed in the colony."
"We trust you," said Alice's friend.
"You shouldn't. I'm the reason you're here now." He went to Malik, and held out his hand. Confused, Malik took it. "Ianto Jones, Torchwood."
Wayne's eyes narrowed. "I know that word."
"We came in. We tried to intimidate the 456." At the confused looks from everyone who didn't know about the monster on the top floor, he added, "The aliens that were mind-controlling the children. They were in Thames House. They responded to our threat by killing everyone in the building. I died with you, but you died because of me." He didn't even try to say he was sorry. No apology was possible.
He took a breath, met everyone's eyes in turn. He read confusion, dawning to comprehension.
"Who was Alice?" Her friend stared back at him.
"Her son was murdered the following day because of the 456."
The woman nodded sadly. "She was one of us, then."
"What's the plan?" asked Malik. Ianto turned to him, saw the trust on his face. Wayne still looked unconvinced, but the rest listened eagerly, as if he was going to spout off something that made sense, as if he was about to rescue them with a miracle. This would be the point where Alice gave everyone a rousing speech about dignity and humanity and also the secret to winning a fight when one was outgunned by psychopaths, but Alice wasn't here.
If he did survive this, which he doubted, he swore to himself he'd give her a proper funeral, and if he didn't, he swore he'd try to take her killers with him.
"We're going to do what we should have done in the first place. But before that, I want to know your names."
***
Hilda set them down in silence four kilometres out. Jack checked his gun and holstered it. This should be an easy in and out job: swagger in, flash some Agency ID, get Alice and Ianto, no muss, no fuss. They passed through pastures wet with dew and redolent with dung. Jack had to drag John away from a sheep, but only the once, so it was a lovely morning stroll.
It was after they reached the edge of the pasture and the beginning of the ploughed fields that the vague unease he'd been experiencing blossomed into full-grown worry. "If this is one big farm, where are the farmers?"
"They're not shagging the sheep," John said irritably, but he watched around them warily.
"Wait," said Jenny. "Listen!"
They halted, and Jack strained his ears to hear what she did. He picked up one voice, coming from the direction of the village. He couldn't make out the words.
Jenny blanched. "Run!" She dashed towards the village without waiting, and Jack hurried to keep up with her. At a flat run over the short hills and through the stalks, Jenny was fast, her gun raised and her eyes blazing.
John ran behind them both, probably wondering if now would be a good time to vanish.
"What is it?"
"I made out the words 'rebels' and 'execution.' I didn't want to wait to hear more." She pushed through the rows and then stopped abruptly as they burst through the last one. Jack just prevented himself from ploughing into her, then John's full momentum hit him and that was a lost cause. Jenny nimbly stepped ahead as the two men fell to the ground behind her.
Jack scrambled back to his feet. Before them, all the colony's adults were assembled. In the centre, on a small platform, two Time Agents stood with their weapons drawn. Beside them were seven people with their hands tied. One of them was Ianto. Joy at seeing him alive mingled with horror at what was surely an execution, and Jack struggled to keep both emotions at bay. He searched the crowd for signs of Alice, saw nothing.
"All right," said Jenny in a low voice. "Here's the plan. On the count of three, you two wade in there, and demand an equal cut of the pie. While they're distracted … "
"ATTACK!" The scream went up from the crowd, and suddenly all hundred-odd colonists were shouting and running at the two Agents.
Jenny blinked. "This is also an acceptable distraction."
John said, "I'll go get Eye Candy, you two find your girl."
Jack opened his mouth to object. Jenny said, "Good plan." She grabbed Jack's hand. "Come on!"
***
A plan hinging on convincing the two Agents that Wendy and Debbie weren't with them was doomed to fail. So when the attack was shouted anyway by someone he couldn't identify among the other colonists, Ianto stood still in shock for a crucial moment. Then he saw Trem turn his weapon from the prisoners and towards the crowd, and that broke the moment. Ianto rushed him head-first, thanking his ancestors for his hard skull as he did. The shot went wild, and he refused to think about where it had landed.
Malik and Wayne went after Gerta, who was less distractible than Trem. She fired precisely, hitting them both.
Ianto had no free hands to struggle for Trem's gun, could only use his weight and desperation to pin him. People crowded them now, feet crushing and kicking. Trem fired again, and someone screamed. Ianto smacked his head into Trem's with a sharp, agonising crack, as someone's arm came down and pulled on the weapon.
He couldn't see Gerta, couldn't see anything. Feet trying to reach Trem kicked his head, sending shooting pain through his skull. Stars exploded in front of his eyes, and still he pushed himself to keep all his weight on his enemy.
Two strong hands reached down and lifted him off Trem. Ianto struggled, but then, Gerta was over towards the nursery, retreating behind cover fire. People were falling under her blasts. So much death.
"Hello, Eye Candy," said the obnoxious voice. Ianto turned his head. Hart smiled at him, his hands still wrapped around Ianto's arms. "We leave you alone for five minutes and you start a civil war."
"It was three months!"
Hart's smile lingered, even as a chair was brought down on his head and he collapsed. Paul lifted the chair, ready to bring it down again.
"Wait!" Ianto said. "He's not one of them."
"He's wearing their uniform!" Anger filled his voice.
"He's an Agent. But he's with me. Sort of." Ianto disregarded Hart for a moment, seeking out Gerta. "Who got Trem's gun? We have to stop her." Shots fired his way and he ducked down. Paul untied his hands, and Ianto immediately went through Hart's loathsome pockets, looking for anything he could use, anything at all. His first pass turned up two guns, a knife, the small metal thing Alice had given Hart, a phial with glittery bits inside, two communication-looking devices Ianto couldn't identify, and something sticky wrapped in a serviette.
He handed the knife to Paul and the spare gun to Alice's friend Frieda, and shoved everything except the metal thing and the sticky into his own pockets in case he needed them. The shots had stopped. He stood. People were crying and shouting. Those still on their feet pounded on the door to the nursery.
Across the way, he saw Jack and Jenny headed towards him. He paled. Ianto turned away, and told Paul, "I'm going in after Gerta. Frieda, can you cover the outside?" She nodded. "If she comes out, shoot her. If she tries to negotiate, shoot her. She doesn't walk out of here."
"What about Trem?" Tanya had reached them. Trem was unconscious and battered. Hart was already waking.
"I don't care," he said, and meant it. There were standards for treating prisoners. The colonists would have to decide what their own standards were. Ianto wasn't planning on walking out of the nursery alive to find out.
He jumped off the platform and went to the door. Of course it was locked. He kicked at the lock, but the door held tight. Frustration built up inside him. Gerta was the type to systematically murder a building full of children just for fun. Inside, he heard shots.
Behind him, he heard Jack say in an odd voice, "There you are."
Jenny said, "This will be easiest if we do it together."
The last memory of Jack that Ianto had, they were shouting at each other. Jack wanted Ianto to leave the planet, leave him, get the hell out while he was still able to enjoy it, and when Ianto balked, Jack had called him stupid and childish and everything else to make him angry, and it had worked. Ianto told himself none of that mattered now.
An image of Alice dead on the floor appeared before him. When Jack's hand touched his shoulder and rested on his back, it brought no comfort.
"Count of three," said Jenny. "One, two, three!"
Together, they kicked the door, shattering the wood at the lock. Ianto had Hart's gun in his hand and he pushed in ahead of the others.
Gerta waited for them, her blaster pointed at the nearest child. Ianto took in the scene rapidly: Chrissy was unconscious or dead on the floor. Flora's body was draped over a cot. Harry was nowhere to be seen. Ianto and Jenny levelled their guns at her, while Jack's stayed loose.
"Don't come any closer," Gerta said. Her mouth pulled into a little moue. "Jarron. And Georgn. I wasn't expecting to see the two of you again." Ianto felt Hart walk into the room behind them.
Hart said, "We heard you were onto a good thing here and wanted in. Set ourselves up as gods in a bottleneck? Fantastic."
Jack put on his best You Can Trust Me Smile. "We'll even help you clean up the last of the rabble." His gun did move now, to point directly at Ianto. "There are four more colonies on this planet. Wipe one out, take the kids, and it's a whole new party."
She laughed. "With you? You broke the Agency, asshole. You're the reason we don't have anything left."
Jack's smile didn't slip. "Can you blame me? I wanted to get what was mine."
"We swiped plenty of tech," said Hart. "Even the magic sparklies." Sparklies? Ianto frowned. That was familiar. Why?
"You're going to need them," Gerta said. She held up her vortex manipulator. "I've set it to overload in about five minutes. Either the stock surrenders, or losing their brats will be the least of their worries."
Jack said, "Seems a little overkill." He spread his hands. "Anyway, we're here now to help you."
"Your help I can do without," Gerta said, and she turned her gun on him and fired. Jack went down without a sound. She laughed again. "What, no horrified outcries? Georgn, I thought you cared."
Hart shrugged. "Give him a minute." Ianto didn't let anything show on his face. Jack hadn't died in front of him in years. Good to know the stomach-clenching fear hadn't changed a whit. Jenny showed only mild annoyance.
"You want in? Fine. Shoot this shoe scraping," Gerta indicated Ianto, "and then round up the rest of the units for me. Blays and I will execute them."
"We will?"
From the door leading to the infirmary, Blays limped, her eyes bleary with whatever medicine she'd been given. Ianto wondered at that. Had he been the medic on duty, he'd likely have poisoned her.
"Get over here," Gerta said, annoyed. "You've missed all the fun."
Blays looked down at the bodies on the floor. "You said we were only going to execute the ringleaders. The woman's already dead, the other's in front of you." Jenny flinched at her words, looking to Ianto for confirmation. He couldn't meet her eyes, knew his face said enough.
"The natives were noisy." Gerta sounded bored.
Blays looked at the dead bodies again. Her eyes lingered on Flora. "You said there wasn't going to be any more killing. You said we were going to live like queens."
Hart said, "Did she promise you could nob all the units you wanted? That was what I did."
Jack gasped to life at their feet. Gerta and Blays both dropped their attention to him, stunned. Jenny rushed Gerta, kicking her in the side and tumbling to the ground with her when Gerta blocked. Both guns went spinning across the floor as fists and elbows and knees collided. Ianto aimed his weapon at them, but he couldn't risk shooting Jenny as they fought.
A blaster shot echoed through the room, lighting up the two women. They both went still.
Gerta rolled off of Jenny, and kept rolling as Jenny shoved her body away. Ianto offered a hand up, as all eyes went to Blays, who held her blaster in trembling hands.
"She said!"
"Yes, she did, love," said Hart, far more gently than Ianto would have guessed. "She promised, didn't she?" He reached out and took the blaster from her unresisting grip. Ianto held her with his own weapon, but had the feeling he didn't need it anymore.
A noise came from Gerta's corpse. Jenny knelt down and removed the dead woman's VM from her wrist. "She said 'overload.' That can't be good."
"Let me see," said Jack, taking it from her. "Oh, this isn't so bad." He started manipulating the controls. "Gerta's locked us out." He looked at Hart, who went pale.
"I need a ship," Jack said, starting to babble in fear. "Or a transmat. Give me your strap. If I can get this far enough away from the colony before it goes … " His eyes darted, met Ianto's. Ianto read an entire chapter of "Oh God, not again," in his gaze, and felt it right back.
Hart stood and swiped the strap from Jack. "Give me that." He moved the controls, much faster than Jack's hands. "Please. You never did know how to work one of these things properly. A little torque on the chronal array, and … "
The whine from the strap sharpened, and then all the breath was pushed from Ianto's body as Jack shoved him to the ground, covering him. All he could see was the fine wood grain of the floor, all he could feel was Jack. Their hands reached for each other and clasped, as the room filled with a weird sound like the inside of a drum bonged by a giant hand.
Then nothing.
When Ianto was sure he wasn't dead he turned his face to Jack's. His mouth was close enough to kiss, and the way Jack's breath caught told him he was thinking the same thing. Jack's free hand drifted over the curve of newly-firm muscle appreciatively. Ianto would be annoyed that Jack, upon dealing with a life or death situation, immediately turned his thoughts to sex, but Ianto's mind was already there, so he couldn't complain.
Then the events of the last hour (had it only been that short a while?) caught up with him, and he gently but firmly pushed Jack away. Jack's eyes asked questions Ianto couldn't answer.
"Where's Hart?" Jenny asked, getting to her own feet.
Jack frowned and searched the area. Then he got down to look at the floor where Hart had stood moments before. "If it went on overload, it would have killed everyone. He must have taken it somewhere before it blew." His face contorted. "It'll have killed him." Jack always carried his failures. Ianto placed a hand on his shoulder.
Jenny shook her head. "He hasn't met Alice and me yet. I'm not feeling a paradox ripping through the fabric of space. Wherever he is, he's still alive."
Something that she said, something that Hart said. Ianto dug into his pocket, wrapped his fingers around the glittering phial he'd taken.
"I have to go," he said, and dashed out, just as Chrissy started to come around.
***
Numb, Jack watched Ianto sprint out the door and away. "What the hell?"
"Stay here," Jenny ordered Blays, and she told the woman who was waking up, "Keep an eye on her. Don't harm her. She saved you." She grabbed Jack's hand and led him out to follow Ianto, heedless of the other colonists.
Jack hadn't seen Alice anywhere, and his worry grew with every passing step. Was she locked up? Maybe she hadn't even been sent to this colony, and they'd have to start their search all over again for her. And then Ianto ducked into a building that screamed "dormitory," and ran down a corridor, and into a room that smelled of blood.
Jack reared back at the sight of Alice, broken and still on the floor.
"No … "
Jenny squeezed his hand, and where he should have seen the same shock, he saw only sympathy and grief. She'd already known. He let go and went to his knees beside his daughter's motionless form, took her cold hand.
Ianto sat at the other side. Jenny joined him. "She was leading our little rebellion," he said. "We had a plan, but someone must have told. When they came for us, she fought."
Jack choked back a sob of pride, as Jenny said quietly, "She always fought."
Ianto held out his hand. "I pulled this off of Hart. But I don't know how to make it work." His voice was small, pleading, and it took Jack a long moment to recognise the item in his palm. For a second, his heart stopped.
He took the phial from Ianto. "You know what these are?"
"They brought you back from the dead once. They brought all these people back."
Technology the Agency wasn't supposed to have, stolen from a dead race and used only under the strictest of watches because immortality in a bottle was not something to be idly left around. Jack uncapped it, let the golden dancing pinpricks, like fireflies on a July night, settle over his hand. They could do their work without him, but as the Doctor had once said, a bit of parental DNA never hurt. The nanogenes floated over Alice in a cloud and settled on her, repairing with tiny tools every imperfection they found.
Hell of a thing.
Alice gasped into life, her eyes flying open, and Jenny was the first one she latched onto as Jack tickled the genes back into their bottle. "What happened?" she asked, when she could breathe.
"We won," Ianto said, with a relieved smile, though his eyes were on Jack.
Jack watched her silently, unable to speak, satisfied himself with touching her hand again. She didn't pull away.
***
The colonists didn't trust Jack in his Agent's uniform, but Jenny noticed they all gathered around Ianto and Alice easily. The dead and wounded were brought into the infirmary one by one, and one by one they were cured, those who could be. The man called Harry had died days ago, and was beyond their reach. Four others had also died too early for the nanogenes to revive them. No-one brought Gerta and Trem to be healed.
Those from the colony who had died under Gerta's rule were given heroes' funerals later that day, while two who'd been murdered from a neighbouring colony were readied for return to their home. Jack buried the bodies of the two Agents alone in the evening as the first stars come out.
Jenny herself made sure she was never far from Alice. Having lost her once was quite enough. While Ianto handled the nanogenes, Alice organised the colonists, setting up a small cleanup crew among the able-bodied and getting the rest back to work on the harvest before the frost came. Jack pulled off his uniform and pitched in to help, probably (94% certainty) to allay their distrust. Jenny busied herself with showing a few of them how to reassemble the computer systems they'd deconstructed, but she kept her eyes on her friend.
"You're brilliant, you know," Jenny told Alice in a free moment. Alice just blushed.
When Jack was back from his work, and Ianto had healed his last patient, and Alice had handed the reins back to a newly-revived woman named Flora, they sat together at the dining hall for a very late tea. Flora joined them, her daughter half-asleep in her lap, sitting next to Alice. The other colonists left them space, although as they passed by, friendly hands brushed against Alice's and Ianto's chairs.
Ianto slid a piece of paper over to Flora. "This is everything I can tell you about the other colonies. You'll have to find another ambassador."
Jenny said, "Blays will need a trial, a fair one."
Flora nodded. "She'll get one. I'll see to it." Her eyes went to Alice. "Now that we really are on our own, we could use your help."
Alice took Flora's hand reassuringly. "You're going to do fine."
"We'd do better with you here. All of you," she added, taking in the rest of them, but her hand stayed with Alice. Jenny felt an unfamiliar emotion bubble inside of her.
"We can't," Jenny said shortly.
"I really can't," Alice said, more kindly. "I've been out there. I can't stay in one place when I have that chance again." She bent in and kissed Flora on the cheek. Again Jenny felt strange, as though the human woman was really a Hath in disguise. Suddenly she wanted to give her a nickname, a nasty or impertinent one for choice.
Then Alice pulled back, and Jenny noticed that she'd moved just a hair away from Flora and just that much closer to her, and the desire to show up the other woman faded, to be replaced with thoughts of where they could go next after this mess was finally sorted.
Jack said, "We can stay the night." Which, Jenny found out a few short hours later, meant, "We'll sneak out when you're asleep so there are no lengthy goodbyes." At the moment, all she saw was how he took Ianto's hand and held it tightly, and how Ianto squeezed back just as hard.
***
Winter was setting in fast this year, Malik thought. Five years since the founding of the colony, and the winters got tougher each time. Maybe that was just his imagination. Everything had seemed harder, at first, after the Time Agency had abandoned them.
Still, as he finished straightening up his office for the night, he mused that things could be worse. The crops had failed last year, but they'd traded with the other colonies for enough food to survive, and this year, they had a surplus to trade out for the cotton the Aeros grew. Wool was warm, but Malik was more than ready for a pair of boxers made from something less scratchy. Cotton would make nicer baby clothes as well, he thought, for when Flora's little one -- her third and the second with that mad wife of hers -- arrived and Flora could get back to helping him run this quaint little insane asylum.
The door opened from outside. Curious, Malik went to see who was coming in at this hour.
He stopped, staring. A man who looked a lot like someone who couldn't possibly be there, only younger, stood in the doorway with two little kids Malik had never seen before. The kids were crying, clearly scared.
"Is this the colony from London? MI-5 building?"
Malik nodded slowly. Surely Ianto recognised him?
Ianto thrust the kids at him roughly. "Take care of them." Then he turned and walked away.
Malik's mouth opened and shut again.
"Hello, kids," he said in a friendly if cracked voice, kneeling down to their level. The children began to cry harder. "It's okay. You're safe here."
The door opened again. Ianto hurried in. This Ianto looked like the one he remembered. Behind him, Malik saw Alice and the two people who'd come suddenly and vanished again. They were all wearing the same clothes he remembered from that day, he noticed, his common sense screaming at him inside his head that this was wrong.
Ianto said, "Did I just … ?" He saw the children. "Oh good. Thank you for keeping an eye on them." He grabbed the little hands and led the kids back to the doorway where Alice picked up one and the tall man the other.
Ianto paused, and then came back, helping Malik to his feet. His touch didn't burn, but it was warmer than he'd expect for someone who walked outside in the snow.
"Ianto?"
"It's all right. I can't explain now. Just tell everyone we said hello." Malik nodded again. Ianto clasped his arm. "Good man. Take care." And they were gone again.
Malik blinked. Having been dead twice and brought thousands of years into the future, this was not the strangest thing that had ever happened to him. However, since the first death was Ianto's fault and the second time, Ianto had been the one who'd wakened him, he had to admit the weirdest changes in his life revolved around a quiet Welsh fellow who liked to go on walks.
"It's a sign of good fortune," Chrissy would say later, as Malik described what had happened incredulously. "They're our guardian angels, I knew it all along," and when she said it, heads would nod in agreement. Malik's mother had told him about angels. He'd never much believed in them, but then he'd met a man who could bring people back from the dead. (Blays said she'd seen a man who came back from the dead all on his own, but that was Blays: nice enough when you got to know her but never quite there in the head.) As it was, the colony's children were often tucked in with nightly blessings that Auntie Alice would protect them in their sleep. Malik's littlest one always slept the night through when Sally said the words.
He still wasn't sure about angels, but Malik was pretty certain he knew a legend starting when he saw one.
***
Alice's heart did not break when she handed the child in her arms to Kamb, nor when Jack handed the other child to Kamb's husband. She didn't start to cry when the twins' siblings gathered around them, stroking and touching their hair in awe, then laughing and playing as though the family had never been broken. There was no lump in her throat to talk past, as Kamb embraced her gratefully, as Kamb and her husband offered their forgiveness to the men who'd stolen their children, as Alice declined for all of them Kamb's offer that everyone stay to celebrate the joyous return.
She didn't tremble as the four of them walked back to Hilda together, Jack's hand warmly on her shoulder, nor as they took off, the viewscreen focused on the new buildings of the village until they were gone from sight. Her voice didn't break wishing her father and his husband a good night when they went to their small cabin for some well-earned sleep.
Only after, when the lights dimmed in the main cabin and Jenny sat down beside her, a calm presence against her side, neither looking at the other, only then did Alice weep.
***
Jack felt tired, but in a good way, and hot and sticky, in an exceptionally good way. He hummed quietly in his throat as Ianto settled close against him in the narrow bunk, both heartbeats slowly returning to normal. Jack had only missed him for two days, but Ianto had said they'd lived at the colony for months. The changes in his physique lent credence to the time frame, and Jack already had charted with delight the new planes and curves on Ianto's otherwise familiar body. Someday, Jack would have to outline all the time slips they'd experienced in their long relationship, put them as another chart in his book.
He was positive Ianto wasn't psychic and still he wasn't surprised when Ianto said, "Any idea how you'll work this into the book?"
"You said I wasn't allowed to go into detail about our sex life."
A snort. "Time travel. Kidnapping. Prison. Alice. This may be ringing a bell."
"I'm sure I'll think of a way to make it sound exciting. All that 'running for our lives' stuff should punch up the boring bits about farming."
"I'll have you know that farming is very interesting. I've developed a new appreciation for plants."
"Remind me to introduce you to some Delvians."
Ianto sighed, and the sigh turned into a sleepy yawn. "Plant people?"
"Only species I've ever met who use sun lamps as sex toys."
He made a noise that Jack translated as either "You are so full of shit" or "Going to sleep now." Jack took the opportunity to steal a soft kiss.
Ianto was quiet for a long time. "Jack?"
"Hm?"
"We had a fight. A big one. It would have been a couple of years ago."
He thought back. They'd had a few big arguments, but Jack's time sense wasn't as good as it had been, and he really couldn't remember which one had been two years ago, and which had been ten. Pondering now, he might also be remembering a fight or two he'd had with Jeanne, or even with N'ndy or Tel. "Assume I remember."
"How did we work it out?"
"What do you mean?"
"The Agency wiped my memories, I think to erase the time they thought I was on Narda with you. The last thing I remember, we were fighting, and I was considering leaving you the next time a supply ship came through, and you wanted me to go."
Jack remembered now. It had been a hard winter, and they'd been forced to close quarters even more than usual. Jack had been writing about a particularly difficult period in his life, full of old pain and bitter loss, and he'd been moody reliving the memories. In other times, Ianto would have been a listening ear and a quiet shoulder, but he'd been caught up in one of his own occasional bouts of self-doubt, feeling worthless as a kept man stuck on a planet with no real purpose. Two snippy, sullen people with no-one else to talk to, of course they'd taken it out on each other, saying things neither one meant, and worse, things they did mean but normally wouldn't say.
Ianto shivered against Jack, but didn't pull away. "I've been trying to picture how we got past that."
"Oh. Well." They'd stopped speaking entirely. Jack had taken to sleeping in his study. They moved around each other in the house, not staying in the same room any longer than necessary, nursing their grudges for weeks. And then … "When you first saw me at the colony, what did you think?"
"'Oh God, I got Alice killed.'"
Jack's stomach tightened. With an effort, he relaxed. "After that. When she was better."
"I thought I was so pleased to see you, I could burst."
"Me too." He pressed his lips against Ianto's shoulder. "We got over it. All right?"
"All right." Something in his eyes flickered, and Jack thought he might still be obsessing on the past. Then he said, "When she woke up, I thought you were going to cry."
"Almost did. Still respect me?"
"I have to respect you now?" Ianto's smile teased, but the distant look was still in his eyes. "I can't remember the last time I saw you that happy."
"Oh, I can think of a few times," Jack said as he let his hands wander, but Ianto's expression didn't change even as Jack stole a quick kiss. "You okay?"
Instead of replying, Ianto returned and deepened the kiss, taking Jack's breath away. When they finally broke, panting and ready for more, Jack said, "Not complaining, but what was that for?"
"Two years to make up for, yeah?"
Jack felt his mouth move into a grin. "Yeah."
***
Ianto had always wanted to visit a floating city. The constant rush of high winds outside the dome was a bit much, and he should have anticipated the vertigo when he'd made the mistake of looking over the edge into the clouds, but seeing Jack jump around like he was home made it all worth the trip.
"We're five hundred years past the time where we picked you up," Jenny had said last night when they'd docked to refuel and take on supplies. "There aren't any records of you in the intervening time." She hadn't said, "And we're dropping you off here," but that part was understood. Jack had wandered off while the rest of them had slept, and had come back hours later to say he needed to show them something in another part of the space port.
"Do you like her?" Jack was dancing on the balls of his feet again, nervous and eager.
Ianto took in the bulky, ungraceful lines of the ship. Her? "Not very Star Trek, is it?"
"Star Trek was made up. This is the real deal. No time circuit, obviously. We can't all steal Chula tech." This was aimed at Jenny, who shrugged it off as she inspected the ship's landing gear. "But she's got hyperspace capability, a renewable-source engine, and a cloak in case we get into trouble." Which was Jack-speak for, "When I get bored and cause some."
Ianto stared at Jack suspiciously. "You've already bought it, haven't you?" Five hundred extra years of compound interest had not hurt Jack's accounts at all. Yesterday they'd gone on a shopping spree to restock Hilda and to outfit themselves more appropriately for the time period. Fashions for men leaned towards fitted trousers, long sleeves and black or brown loose waistcoats. Ianto felt ridiculously Han Soloish, but the appreciative looks Jack was giving him more than made up for it.
"I got a really good price. You're gonna love her." Ianto let Jack lead him into the cockpit (and never let it be said that Jack let an innuendo opportunity like that slip away unnoticed) where he explained to Ianto all the various controls. "I know how to soup up this engine type, won't take but a few adjustments once we find the parts. There's a salvage planet about a week from here that should have everything we need. Then I can really show you what she's made of."
As Jack started describing the modifications he wanted to make, years fell away from his face. This was the Jack who'd shone through in so many stories in his book, the one who stole a ship -- aeroplane or sailboat or star schooner -- and found adventure time and again. Of all the Jacks he'd met, Ianto had only seen this one out here amongst the stars.
For a man Ianto had known more than half his life, it was fascinating to find someone new under the surface who'd been there all along.
Jack's hands sketched out navigational concepts in the air, and Ianto nodded without comprehension. He'd have to learn this eventually, but he was willing to sit back for now and watch as the man he loved came alive in a way that was nothing like a resurrection and was entirely the same thing.
"You're gonna be a natural at vector calculation once you get the hang of it."
"Setting aside the book for a while, then?"
That grin. "Thought we could find material for some additional chapters." His attitude was all seduction-by-starship, but Jack's eyes were focused on the journey ahead, the alien shores yet to be reached. Given the most rickety of craft to pilot, Jack was free.
He hadn't missed the "we," either. Jack wasn't just showing Ianto his dream. He was also inviting him along. Ianto couldn't imagine what would happen if he said no, but he also had no intentions of finding out. There were worse fates than being offered a role in one of Jack's dreams.
"'And a star to steer her by.'"
"Hm?"
"Nothing." He took Jack's hand. "When do we go?"
Jack grinned. Then he looked out the viewscreen to see Alice and Jenny still waiting in the hangar, and his smile slipped. "Soon. We'll go soon."
'Soon' meant after a lavish supper at the best restaurant in the port, where the four of them were waited on hand and foot by half the staff as soon as Jack's credit was scanned. Ianto hadn't been to a proper restaurant where he himself wasn't an employee since his twenty-sixth birthday, and that only because Gwen had insisted she could watch things while Jack took him out. He turned the memory around in his head as they ate dishes which Jack tried to translate for them, and Jenny regaled them with the histories of the planets on which the foods developed. Stygian hare, fried wint leaves, baked bimpa, noodle dishes in white sauce, crisp breads to snap and dip, cool and refreshing soups between, it was a joy. Course after course came out, and even though Alice and Ianto had been on short rations these past few weeks, they were soon full up. Jack's eyes sparkled as he insisted on at least sampling the house wines and making a quick survey of the desserts. Ianto refused any of his own, but did take a taste of what Jack ordered: a creamy, lemony confection that was butter-light on the tongue.
As stalling tactics went, this was a winner.
Jack knew he would see Alice again, but he couldn't know if she would ever see him, if she would fly out of this floating city and be killed tomorrow. He was selfish enough to want to delay that just a bit longer, especially on a rare day when he was in her good graces, and Ianto could not possibly begrudge him. Jack was always happiest when surrounded by the people he loved, and every time, he lost them again. Sometimes, just sometimes, he was offered a second chance at getting things right.
Ianto's hand dropped below the table, and brushed reassuringly against the hard lump in his outside pocket. The secret of a proper second chance was recognising when and how to take it.
While the waiters cleared away the dishes, Jenny asked, "Where will you go first?"
"Salvage planet," Jack said. "Fix her up a little. I don't know after that."
"We could visit your home planet," Ianto suggested. He saw Jack's face tighten. "Or, you know, we could go somewhere else. Earth, even."
"No," Jack said, his expression warming slowly to the idea. "We can go to my home world. It's been long enough. I can show you where I learned to swim." And find out about his family, because Ianto knew Jack was dying to discover what had become of his mother after he'd fled the Agency so long ago.
Alice said, "The words 'skinny-dipping' are about to be spoken, aren't they?"
"Depends," Ianto said. "Smacking, yes or no?" They shared a laugh, which only grew at Jack and Jenny's matched perplexed faces.
When the bill was paid, and also the gratuity (made more generous after prodding from someone who'd had to live on tips more than once) they made their way outside to the constant false day of the spaceport, and there was nothing else Jack could use to stall. He spent a long time hugging Alice goodbye, and then Ianto pulled her into a hug as well while Jack shook hands with Jenny.
"I don't think I'll see you again," Alice said into his hair.
"Probably not." He moved his hand deftly.
"Take care of him for me. For as long as you can."
He nodded as they pulled away from the embrace. "It's my job."
***
Alice watched until the other ship was a tiny twinkle among the stars, and then she watched the place it had disappeared, pretending she could still see the lights long after she knew they were gone. Living non-linear meant she never knew if she would see him again, while knowing he would see her. Times and places throughout history she recalled, and every time she found him, by accident or design, he had a smile for her, and utter love. She had siblings, scattered across time and galaxies, but Alice was the one who poked into his timeline, the one he remembered when whole civilisations were becoming wisps in his mind.
Part of her would always hate him. Part of her would always love him. And no matter how many beings he loved and children he sired and worlds he protected and lifetimes he lived, part of him would place her highest in his heart whenever they met.
There was a cool hand on her arm.
"Tea?" Jenny's smile offered company or silence or both.
Alice took the tea and rested her head against Jenny's shoulder. "I don't deserve you, you know."
"There are a number of philosophical and religious schools of thought which claim proof of divine mercy in the fact that none of us gets what we deserve."
Alice watched the place where the lights had vanished, just there between two dim stars. "What do you think?"
"I think we all get better than we deserve in the people around us, and that's as close to divinity as you'll find." Jenny played with Alice's hair until Alice snorted and sat up and drank her tea, and felt a little better.
Later, when Hilda had turned the lights down for a sleep cycle, Alice went to remove her shirt and felt something in her pocket. There'd been a small bump when they'd hugged goodbye, and she hadn't thought anything, but now her fingers closed on something cold and smooth.
The phial lay in her palm, carefully sealed, its golden, glittery occupants visible through the polymer and bumping against it like fireflies. A folded note had been secreted with it:
Just because Jack saw someone die doesn't mean it stuck. - I.
Alice stared at the tiny bottle of nanogenes, and hope splashed through her, like water in a desert.
***
Epilogue