** There are Author's Notes at the end of the Introduction chapter. I placed them there so you don't have to scroll down to get to the story if you don't want to read the notes. Thanks!!!

~_~_~_~

Full Summary: Five years post "Children of Earth". Torchwood, several years back, went global. One based in North America is about to change. A former Torchwood Cardiff employee, though to be dead for years, is transferred there. They all have to adapt to the new situation. Two people, ravaged by life and personal tragedies, begin a romantic relationship. However, there is danger. Someone wants Jason Monroe out of the way. There is a conspiracy afoot. The American team is eventually forced to work with other Cardiff employees as they attempt to stop a madman from destroying everything. Along the way they all learn some horrible truths about manipulation, love and trust. And three individuals learn the hard way that the path to true love is littered with hardships and doesn't always have a happy ending.

~_~_~_~

TORCHWOOD AMERICA (Version 2.0)

Story Arc One

Chapter Zero

2009 was a difficult year for Torchwood Three. Captain Jack Harkness buried two of his employees, Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper when his brother tried to destroy the city of Cardiff as part of his revenge against the Immortal. Jack cryogenically froze his brother in the hopes that one day he would be able to heal the boy's tortured mind. He continued to defend the Earth with Gwen Cooper-Williams and Ianto Jones at his side.

Just when he thought that the pain of losing Toshiko and Owen had begun to fade, his life was ripped to shreds in the span of five terrifying days. This time the personal loss was so great that he felt as if he himself had died even when he knew that was impossible. He was left empty inside, a shell of a man.

In March 2009, aliens known only as the 456 returned to Earth. They bullied the British government into agreeing to give them a "gift" of 10% of the world's children for their own use. The government and UNIT (a government sanctioned group) reluctantly worked to deliver the children. Torchwood Three however wanted to stop the aliens. The Torchwood base was destroyed and Captain Jack was in the base when it was blown up. When he resurrected several hours later he was encased in a concrete cell. His team was able to rescue him and they hid away to continue to fight. Captain Jack's daughter and grandson were taken hostage in an attempt to get him to stand down and let the aliens take the children. Jack and his lover Ianto Jones went to speak to the 456 at the Thames House. Their plan to intimidate the alien, in order to buy themselves time, backfired. The alien representative released an airborne virus at the Thames House and it infected everyone inside. Captain Jack held his lover for the last time as the younger man confessed his love for the Immortal and subsequently died in his arms.

Devastated at the loss of his lover, Captain Jack was arrested and taken to a military facility. He was asked to help stop the aliens from taking the children as well as the Earth itself. With aid from the others, and his daughter's vote of confidence, he began to formulate a plan despite his grief. However he was out of time. There was only one way left to stop the 456. He then had to make the heart-breaking decision to sacrifice his grandson in order to transmit the frequency that ultimately killed the invaders. His daughter could not forgive him, which added to his sorrow.

Captain Jack Harkness traveled the Earth in an attempt to forget about his losses. It didn't work so he left the planet all together. He traveled for a while before he found his Doctor and slowly realized that he was meant to be alone. He willingly returned to Earth one year to the day that he buried his grandson and his lover. He returned to Torchwood Three, which was eventually rebuilt along the Rift in Cardiff, Wales and forced himself to carry on.

There were things that he did not know though. Terrible and mysterious things.

What Captain Jack Harkness did not know was that several years prior to the Battle of Canary Wharf, the Torchwood Institute had begun to expand on a global level. Yvonne Hartman, one of the heads of the Institute, had met with several world governments on behalf of the Institute. Together they set up bases strategically placed throughout the world to aid in the research of alien technology and the defense of Earth from alien threats. On every continent there was at least one Torchwood base staffed by researchers and field agents. They scavenged alien technology for study and use in the event of invasion.

Captain Jack learned about the existence of the other bases after he returned to Earth in early 2010. The events of the 456 had left its mark on the world. The world knew that there was something happening on their planet and they knew that there was something big about to come. World governments worked around the clock to provide their Torchwoods with the means to prevent and protect from alien invaders.

There were six bases in North America alone. One was known as Torchwood Bluemont.

It was at this base, located in a small town, where the stage was being set for a battle. A devastating battle.

Only Captain Jack Harkness didn't know it.

~_~_~

The base in Bluemont, West Virginia was situated along a Rift in Time and Space much like that of the Cardiff, Wales base. The biggest difference was that the Rift in Bluemont was more stable and predictable. Aliens and people of different eras of Earth came to Bluemont via the Rift all the time. Bluemont was full of Rift activity even though most of the time all that was found was technology.

Jason Monroe headed the Torchwood base in Bluemont. He was born in 1968 and was raised in Michigan with his five older siblings. After graduating high school in 1986 he married his high school sweetheart Kate. He attended Michigan State University but dropped out to enroll in the State Police Academy two years later. After graduating he worked on the police force for a few years before the International Police Force recruited him in 1993. He worked diligently to stop crime on a global level for nearly seven years. In 1998 he discovered he discovered that Kate had betrayed him and their marriage ended on a bitter note two years later. Jason and Kate had four children together, the last born just before the divorce was finalized. The first few months they shared custody but Jason's job proved too time consuming and stressful for him to be able to spend much time with his family. He gave up shared custody only after Kate agreed to allow him to visit his children whenever he was able and to let them visit him as well. This enabled him to focus on his career and still provide for his family.

He felt guilty for traveling the world fighting crime instead of going to all the school plays and reading bedtime stories like he used to but he tried to stay active in their lives. Holidays were spent as a family and weekly phone calls and daily e-mails became the norm for the Monroe's.

With his career taking off Jason caught the attention of Yvonne Hartman. The head of the Torchwood One base in London quickly found herself impressed with the no-nonsense attitude of the man. He got the job done and always managed to stay within the lines, although sometimes just barely. He didn't care what people thought of him when he had to make tough decisions. He understood that sometimes sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. He was not afraid to make those sacrifices if there was no other, more humane, way to do it.

Hartman's personal assistant called Jason in March 2001. The woman piqued his interest in the mysterious organization known as Torchwood however; he turned down the offer of a job. For several months he was plagued with phone calls and e-mails from the assistant before he finally agreed to come to London (at Torchwood's expense) and talk to Hartman. He boarded a plan in August of 2001, five months since the first phone call.

Once he arrived at the Torchwood Tower he met with Hartman and actually spit out his coffee when she said that they protected the world from aliens. He told her that he had no interest in joining some "X-Files" fan club. That changed when she led him down deep into the recesses of the Tower. There, in reinforced cages, were numerous aliens. Some had been stumbled upon while others were hunted. All were locked behind clear glass like animals in a zoo. Or like criminals.

"If it's alien, it's ours'," Hartman said with a smile.

She explained the origins of Torchwood and its original mission -- to stop an alien known only as The Doctor. She went into detail about how there were four bases in the U.K. and how there had once been a base in India. She said that the Board of Directors, headed by Mr. Franklin, wanted to expand the Institute. The Board wanted to use its power and intelligence to protect the rest of the world from alien threats. To do that they needed more bases and more Torchwood agents.

Jason's impressive résumé had all ready earned him a reputation at the Institute. He was shown the entire base and over the course of several days he made the decision to resign from Interpol and join Torchwood. He returned to the States and told his family that he was joining a special ops agency and needed to go to London for training. He explained that he would be gone for over two years and would most likely not be able to come home and visit. By January 2002 he had sold his house and his car, finished a mound of paperwork for Interpol, resigned his position and then said goodbye to the country he called home.

He lived and trained in London from January 2002 until December 2004. For nearly three years he worked closely with Hartman as well as the others handpicked by the Board to run a Torchwood base. He watched and learned everything he could about Torchwood and aliens. He used his police skills to help him learn the wrong from the right. He impressed everyone with his exceptional hearing, excellent sense of smell, fantastic eyesight, sharp tongue and quick wit. His ability to think on his feet, even with a gun in his face, caused him to rise to the top of Hartman's personal list.

After his training was complete to Hartman's satisfaction, Jason was assigned to a base in a small town called Bluemont, West Virginia. It was only minutes from a college town and about an hour's drive from the state capital. Having grown up in Lansing, Michigan and then living in London for a few years it was hard for him to go to a city where the local Wal-Mart was the most exciting place to go. He knew that was an exaggeration, but he was so used to being surrounded with big cities and big city excitement that at first it seemed a step backward. That of course changed when he learned why there was a base in West Virginia.

He was excited to learn that he was going to run a base that monitored a Rift. He had learned about the Cardiff Rift and had driven himself to learn all that he could about Rifts. He wanted to know where they came from, how they worked, if they could be controlled -- he was as excited about Rifts as children were over Christmas. To be on top of one was something he had only dreamed about since joining Torchwood. He knew it was not going to be easy. The Rift was likely to spit out anything from a 17th century hairbrush to a man-eating squid from another planet and he would have to be prepared to deal with it.

His team were all American, handpicked and trained by the Institute. Torchwood had liaised with the American Department of Defense for months and much of the funding for the North American bases came straight from the government.

The North American Torchwoods had a much better working relationship with the various agencies available than their U.K. counterparts. Jason used his previous jobs in law enforcement to get on good terms with the West Virginia police and sheriffs. The National Guard, FBI, CIA and Interpol were also instrumental in aiding the North American bases. There was a secret panel made up of government workers whose purpose was to provide funding and cover-ups as well as military assistance as needed. Aliens came to the U.S., but the people of the country didn't know it.

There was another major difference in the North American bases in relation to the U.K. All five bases -- California, Texas, New York, West Virginia and Canada-- communicated regularly. Technology and information was exchanged all the time. In fact, one of Jason's field agents had come from the Texas base.

The lack of communication between North America and the rest of the world was a sore point for Jason. His own communication with London was Hartman and even that was limited. He also knew that the other U.K. bases rarely spoke, let alone work together. He and the other North American leaders refused to go down that path. They even sent regular status updates to the all the other branches in an attempt to maintain some sort of camaraderie.

When Jason joined Torchwood there were four bases. Torchwood One was in England and was filled with snooty researchers who often shared the same opinions that Hartman did. Two was in Scotland and was primarily research. Three was in Wales and was the most obnoxious of all. While protecting the Earth and watching the Rift they also blatantly proclaimed who they were and were often sloppy in their cover-ups. Their leader, Captain Jack Harkness, was a big show-off and his team acted independently. Four was in Ireland. It was similar to One in what it achieved but with far fewer people and much less attitude.

Jason had quickly grown to dislike Hartman. He could respect her for what she was attempting to accomplish but he did not approve of her methods. He also seriously doubted that her aims were merely to protect the Earth from alien invasion. She had another, more sinister agenda. However he kept those thoughts to himself. He would do his best to change the way Torchwood was run by using his own methods for his base.

The in early 2006 Torchwood Four disappeared. There was no warning, no reason for the disappearance. Jason began to seriously doubt the intelligence of the Institute as a whole. How in the world could an entire base half a block long and three stories high just vanish without a trace? And what about the staff? There had been over one hundred people employeed there. All but a handful had been at work that day. So many families had no idea what had become of their loved one. Concern growing in the pit of his belly, Jason had contacted Hartman's direct line. She was less than encouraging as she tried to assure him that everything would be all right. Hartman told him that they were looking for the base but he could tell that she was worried. She had somehow lost one hundred people. Their fates were as much her fault as any aliens.

But Hartman didn't learn from her mistakes.

In November 2006 came the "Ghost Shift Experiments." Hartman signed off on the order to tap into the other dimension, believing it to be a weapon that Torchwood could use. Instead, maniacal robots known as Cybermen tried to take over the Earth. More alien robots, called Daleks, arrived and engaged in a battle with the Cybermen. Torchwood One was at the heart of the battle and all but twenty-seven Torchwood employees were either killed or converted, including Yvonne Hartman. The devastation became known as the Battle of Canary Wharf because the Tower's location was where it first began.

In North America, Jason and his colleagues could only watch as the Torchwood Tower fell. Torchwoods Two and Three distanced themselves even more from the Institute and continued to work independently. This made it easy for the North American bases to do as the rest of the world's Torchwoods were doing. Many of the other Torchwoods had all ready distanced themselves from the Institute. They still had to take orders from the Board as Mr. Franklin and several of them had been hidden away while the battle occurred. No one knew where the Board was now but they were still employeed by the Institute and so could not turn completely away. They did however ignore all of the signs that there was something bigger going on.

That was a mistake.

It was March 2009.

"We are coming. We are coming."

Jason watched in horror as his youngest child and some of her friends spoke in unison.

The 456 had returned to Earth after many years from the first encounter. After five of the most terrifying days of Jason Monroe's life he and the rest of the North American bases received official reports from the Board concerning the fate of Torchwood Three. They did not know the details, but they knew that Torchwood Three had been completely destroyed and its team in ruin. The report stated that the Rift at Cardiff would be left alone and that the base would not be rebuilt. Typical of the Institute.

However, just like Captain Harkness, there were things that the North American bases had not been told.

They had not been told that Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper had rebuilt their team and continued to defend the Earth from their new underground base at Cardiff.

That was another mistake. One that would change the lives of so many forever.


Torchwood America (Version 2.0) Story Notes:

First off, thanks to everyone for reading my story! And thank you so much for your patience as I rewrite this story!! You're the best!

The repost of "Torchwood America" is not complete but I have the basic storyline written. When I first started writing this story it was merely a way for me to deal with the aftermath of the massacre that was called "Children of Earth" and was posted chapter by chapter literally hours after each part was written. I had no idea where the story was going but had a blast trying to figure it out. I'm sure most, if not all, of my fellow writers have experienced this phenomenon at least once in their lives. If you haven't, then I highly recommend you sit down and just start writing without thinking anything through. It's a bit of a rush as well as a bit terrifying!

The idea for "Torchwood America" came to me one day when I was watching TV and started thinking about remakes of series from one country to another. I tried to imagine what would happen if a U.S. television production company got a hold of TW. Scary. I mean, the characters would be too stereotyped or too carbon copied to be fun. Everyone would have classic good looks, Ianto would be flaming (and called Jonathon or something else non-Welsh), Tosh would be a typical geek who cleans up nice (instead of as beautiful as she is) and the others would go the same way. So instead of writing (which I never considered…) Torchwood as an American institution, I chose to write this as a spin-off. Spin-offs are hard enough to make work, remakes are nearly impossible. There are some good remakes, but most aren't worth it. The only advantage to an America Torchwood remake would be longer seasons. But if the characters weren't portrayed well and the stories intriguing, would that even matter?

Initially I was intending to have the story be only about Ianto and Jason meeting and falling in love. They would have to deal with Ianto's feelings for Jack but the only times Jack would appear would be in flashbacks/memories. The fate of our beloved Torchwood Cardiff branch would never have come into play. This was so that whenever series 4 happens I would not be contradicting anything with that. After all, if Ianto and Jack never met up again then Jason would have a clear (though bumpy) field to be with Ianto.

HOWEVER! When I started a chapter with bits of the Janto relationship (a first draft that never got posted, thank goodness! It was horrible!) one of my muses started talking in Jack's voice. He wanted to know why he couldn't be in it in real-time. So I scrapped the first draft and rewrote it. The chapter where Gwen first emails Jason is the result. Muse Jack still wasn't satisfied. He wanted Jack to fight for Ianto. After all, you have to agree, it would add drama and angst (angst is my forte!). So I decided to bring Jack slowly into it. I also wanted to expand on Jason's life and character. That's why I brought Kate and the kids into it.

But still the muses weren't happy. They wanted more. Greedy little bastards, aren't they?

So I started to look at the story from start to finish instead of just flying blind from one part to the next. I noticed the little things and wanted to correct them. I sat down and read the entire story from A to Z, making notes as I went. Whenever I took a break from writing I was reading or watching DVDs. Torchwood fan fiction and novels as well as the entire TV series. That's how I picked the villain (Mr. F). The writers/producers/directors of Torchwood had so many great opportunities to add drama and flare without having to get too many new faces or take away from the quirkiness that made the show a unique science fiction program. Suzie and Gray alone had so much potential. If they try to use them now (and explain how they survived the Hub's destruction in a plausible manner) it would seem too forced and tired.

Perhaps that's why I chose those very people to feature in my story. We know so little about Jack's home world it's a shame. And Suzie should have been a recurring villain in the show, eventually teaming up with Gray in the end.

I have rewritten MUCH of "Torchwood America" and I hope you like it. Chapters have been combined and expanded on. Many of the minor characters (Jenny, Sam and Miranda) are given personalities. I try to show everyone's flaws since no one is perfect. Jack is in it sooner, but is still in Cardiff for a bit. There's more on the Janto relationship as well as the "lost" memories of the Iason relationship. There are more familiar faces trying to help them solve the puzzle. Plus, there's so much more to Jason himself than meets the eye. You're all in for a few surprises!

In closing: This story will take place in 3 sections. The first is primarily Jason and Ianto getting together with drama and angst and a bit of Jack for dessert. The second is sort of an interlude where Jack arrives and we get to see his thoughts, Ianto's thoughts and Jason's thoughts on the reunion (probably one chapter, but maybe three). The third section is where they all have to fight to stop Mr. F from taking over and deal with the consequences of his meddling. Ianto will have to choose who he will live his life with. No, can't tell you. But I will tell you this, when the third section is complete, there's room for a sequel. But that will depend on the readers as well as life and my muses. I'm also rewriting "After the Fall", so a sequel might have to wait.

Quick question for you all, so please voice your opinion: I'm considering writing more stories featuring Jason Monroe, as I quite adore him. If I could work him into more stories without connecting him to "Torchwood America", would you like that? I think he's a good rival for Jack (not just for ianto's affections, either) as well as just fun to play with in general. So what do you think? Alternate universe stories with Jason or not? Of course, it's up to me in the end, but I more than value all of yours' input.

~_~_~

Now! On with the story! Please read and enjoy "Torchwood America" (Version 2.0)! Email me at twiantojones , through my profile page or just click the review button to tell me what you think. Hopefully, Version 2.0 is better than the original! Time line will be included every few chapters.