Author Notes: Stories require drama. Completely happy characters do not encourage readers to keep reading. They want conflict. I have changed the character interaction and difficulties in this story completing the first "season" or "series." I have tossed out bread crumbs leading toward next "season." There are questions left unanswered. Others require thinking about it. The big question of course is how much of the result was intended. To what extent did Other Keara manipulate time?

I will add short stories for December and January at some point.

Section 1: Ice Ice Baby

Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales

Monday, February 18, 2020

Anwen Williams sat in the infirmary reading a book about Komodo dragons. Turtles were boring. Probably the most boring thing on the Galapagos Islands. Komodos were big, scaly, toxic predators. Much cooler. She wondered if that had been John's intention. Turtles. Blah.

"What?" John blinked.

She hadn't realized she spoke. "Turtles. They're boring."

John groaned. "Mutant turtles?" He sounded confused by his own comment.

"No. Sea turtles. Land turtles. Big, slow, boring turtles."

"Where am I?"

"Torchwood Three infirmary." Anwen stood and walked over to him.

"Oh, dear."

"Its been three days. What do you remember?"

"I don't know." John tried to move and tugged at the restraints. "What happened?"

"You were exposed to CN again." A beat. "What do you remember?"

"Jack. I have to find Jack." He struggled against the restraints.

"He's with Ianto."

"Gray buried him."

"John," Anwen said softly, "Jack is fine. The drug isn't completely out of his system, but he's fine. No one buried him."

"I was there. Gray buried him." John struggled.

Anwen removed her mobile from her pocket.

"Hey," Ianto said.

"John is awake. He's insisting someone named Gray buried Jack. I don't think he knows who I am."

"Is he restrained?" Ianto sounded worried.

"Yeah."

"The night he set off bombs in Cardiff, it had to do with Jack's brother Gray."

"Uncle Jack has a brother?"

John stopped struggling. "Uncle Jack?"

"How many years is he missing?"

"Several."

Anwen removed the necklace from beneath her shirt. It wasn't something she mentioned often. "John, do you know who I am?"

"No."

Anwen opened her wrist-strap and showed it to him.

"How…"

Anwen shook her head. "You're not allowed to forget me." Tears welled in her eyes.

"I don't have any children." John resumed struggling against the restraints. "I don't think."

"That is not funny, John Hart."

"Where is Jack?"

Anwen started crying and a nearby table started rattling.

Ianto Jones stepped into the infirmary doorway. The indoor wind storm was definitely unexpected.

"Anwen." He held his hands out in front of his. "You need to stop."

A metal table went flying across the room and clattered against the wall.

"John, what did you say?"

"I don't know who she is."

"Anwen, its the drug. He used a portal device to soon." A beat. "Please calm down."

When the bolts holding one of the cots started rattling, he hesitated and than stunned her. She dropped to the floor and the wind storm stopped.

"What…"

Ianto moved over to Anwen. He had no idea how to restrain her. "Do you remember the Rift over Cardiff?"

"Yeah."

"She can control it." Ianto lifted her carefully.

"Uh." A beat. "Who does she think I am?"

"You're dating an older version of in twenty years."

"I what?"

"Hey, look at me."

"What happened?" Anwen blinked. "My head hurts." She reached up and tucked her necklace under her shirt. "Was I sleeping?"

"You passed out in the infirmary."

"I thought the drug couldn't affect me."

Gwen stepped into the doorway. "Did you release him?"

"I don't know. I had this really bad dream." She sat up and looked around. "It wasn't a dream."

"Your mom is going to carry you to my office. You need to rest."

Gwen walked over.

"Why can't I stay with John?"

"I need to run medical scans."

"Did I throw stuff around?" Anwen asked as her mother picked her up.

"Yep."

John waited until the door closed. "Where's Jack?"

Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales

Wednesday, February 20, 2020

General Trefor Williams followed his mother into Torchwood Three. The sewer hub looked much the same. He reminded himself he needed to avoid saying anything negative about it or anything else that could upset Ianto. With his father flirting with imaginary aliens for the uncertain future, he needed to avoid causing problems.

"Explain this to me."

She hesitated. "Anwen was indirectly overdosed with CN. It affected her connection to the Rift."

"Affected it how?" He didn't know that was possible.

"She gets upset, can't control it and things start flying around the room."

He hesitated. "How did it happen?"

"John. He was drugged in the future, attempted to portal out of Africa, and Anwen rescued him from the Rift. She tracked him from Whitchurch hospital to Forest Farm without her wrist-com." Gwen held up her hands. "It gave her a time signature comparable to John's." She sighed. "Faced with a fatal exposure, he portaled again. Something went wrong. Anwen is telekinetic and John doesn't remember her."

The general rubbed his temples. "What's wrong with Jack?"

"He received a second overdose of CN in less than two weeks. The fatal overdose John escaped."

"Has the CN situation been resolved?"

"We don't know. Ronald Beaupre was found shot to death by the Port of London. Aman probably executed him in retaliation for the bounty in South Africa."

"Where is Aman?"

"Nova Scotia."

"Eryn is with them, I hope." Aman Oliveira and Luc Sarkisian from his time would have made for a complicated, dangerous combination.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I don't know Aman's connection to her. Luc married her."

"Future Aman attacked Nova Scotia. He didn't know anything about Luc."

"No idea."

"Gwen," a woman he didn't recognize said, coming from the back.

"Dr. Bree Nelson, this is General Trefor Williams."

Nelson stared at him. "Uh, Hart escaped from his restraints again. He tried to charm me into letting him out. Again."

Mom tapped her ear com. "Ianto, John is loose." She laughed. "That might give him a heart attack." She shook her head slightly. "Ianto suggested you catch him. John will know you're not Jack, but the shock will confuse him."

"John's as impossible to keep locked up as Jack."

"Yeah. Ianto GPS tagged your father. He can escape full backboard restraints."

"I have a question."

He smiled at Bree. "Only one?"

"God, there are three of them." Bree shook her head.

Mom laughed.

"Who am I being compared to?"

"Jack and John." Mom chuckled.

He groaned. "Does John have his wrist-strap? Or a tracker."

"No."

A thought occurred to him. "You're not leaving Jack and John alone together."

"We thought of that."

Bree held up a hand. "What am I missing?"

"Jack and John worked together a long time ago. They were close."

Mom laughed.

"Uh." Bree shook her head.

He realized something he should have asked. "Did you take Jack's wrist-strap?"

"Yeah. Anwen had to stop him from trying to go somewhere. Something about pretty aliens."

A hub alarmed sounded.

Anwen's voice came over the intercom. "Ianto, Uncle Jack is in the garden. He's talking to one of the carnivorous plants."

"Shit. John is on one of the first three levels. Unless he figured out how to get through the new section locks." She took off.

"More questions?" He asked Bree as she walked across the main floor with him.

"I don't know where to start."