Hey everyone! Welcome to The Protectors! Before we begin, a special thank you to Aurora (Aurora Sanders) and Ellie (LoveInEveryMoment) for the help they will be giving me! Creds for the characters of Ari and Leah go to Aurora (and she'll be helping me with those two a lot), and I believe Ellie will be drawing me pictures! They'll also be helping as betas!

Other people will be helping me beta along the way - for example, this one was also betaed by Meg (The JohnLocked Whovian). Thanks Megara! :D

Chapter One: HDP

Jack was quietly reading a book on his favorite park bench when the world went dark.

It happened to everyone, of course. Every Protector went through the process, many, many times, and Jack, having been in the business for seven hundred and thirty-one years, was no stranger to it.

Nor was it wholly unexpected. She was old, after all, well into her eighty-first year, and had been showing signs of nearing the end for months now.

But that didn't change the fact that when the world went dark around him, Jack Harkness let out an earsplitting, broken scream, unashamedly breaking the first rule of HDP (Human Death Protocol): Don't draw attention to yourself when exiting.

Exiting. The first stage of HDP. The all-too-familiar, painfully symbolic way a Protector learns of the death of their human. The last breath is drawn, the timestream - the globe into which a Protector immerses for decades - dissolves, and the world literally ends. Goes dark. Fades into blackness, following the same path as the human around which it revolved.

The world faded back into existence, but it wasn't the human world anymore. He was back on the Protectors' cloud-base, and he had to finish HDP.

Except he didn't want to. He didn't want to go into the poorly named Hall of Human Life and find the record of her death. He didn't want to find the death certificate and take it out of its sealed envelope and have to look at it. And he most definitely didn't want to bring that death certificate up to the office of the Lady Protector, Suzie Costello, and say "Your Ladyship, I present to you conclusive evidence that my human-"

He gulped. He'd have to say it. He'd have to say the sentence he'd dreaded saying for years and years.

That my human, Estelle Cole, is dead.

The "ceremony," if it could be called that, went by like a blur. He presented the paper, said the awful, terrible words, and Suzie stamped the Release-of-Duties form with her big red wax seal. And then he went home to his little flat and flopped down on the bed, dark blue wings spread out and falling over the sides because for some reason it had never occurred to the people in charge of Protector furniture companies to make beds wide enough for the average wingspan. Then again, the average wingspan was pretty big, around eight feet long.

There was a knock at the door. "It's me." The voice of Ianto Jones, one of Jack's best friends despite the ridiculous age gap - a seven-hundred-thirty-three year old Level Seven being friends with a four-hundred-thirteen year old Level Four was almost unheard of - came from behind the door. "I heard."

"Go away, Yan," Jack groaned.

"Jack, you can't just mope around-"

"-Yes I can," Jack retorted. "Go away."

"I brought coffee."

Jack sighed. Of course. Ianto knew full well that if there was one way to crack Jack Harkness, it was coffee. And Ianto made good coffee. Really good coffee.

"Fine," Jack sighed.

Ianto opened the door (it had never been locked, but he had the good graces not to open it right away) and handed Jack a mug of coffee before sitting down in a chair. They sipped in silence for a few moments, but finally Ianto spoke.

"I have a confession," he mumbled.

"Oh, God," Jack sighed.

"Why do you even say that?" Ianto asked. "I mean, we're not even religiously based."

"Es-it's a human thing," Jack said quickly. He didn't want to say her name. He just couldn't. "Anyway, your confession?"

Ianto sighed. "I didn't find out on my own. Ari told me."

"Oh, great," Jack muttered. Ariana, Ianto's older sister, was perfectly lovely, but she had always had disagreed with portions of Jack's relationship with Estelle. Namely, the fact that he had one.

"She's right, y'know," Ianto said softly. "You know why we shouldn't fall in love-"

"-The rule, yes, I know that," Jack said exasperatedly. One of the biggest, most important rules of being a Protector was to never fall in love with your human.

"No," Ianto said. "That's why we can't. Why we shouldn't is a different matter altogether, and I think that's something Ari can tell you herself."

Jack sighed. "So she's on her way?"

There was a knock at the door. "Asked and answered," Jack muttered. "Come in." The door opened, and Ariana walked in with her usual confidence. The kind of confidence that, to an outsider, might seem like swagger, but to anyone who actually knew Ariana, was everything but that. "Please, don't start," Jack begged.

"Oh, come on," Ariana almost laughed. "What did you expect me to say? I told you so?"

"To be honest, yes," Jack retorted. "You said for ages-"

"-Jack," Ariana interrupted. "There is caution, and then there is rubbing it in. I cautioned you about what you were doing, yes. But I'm not about to rub it in your face. If anyone said something like that to me when…" She trailed off, something dying on her lips.

Ianto put his hand on his sister's shoulder. "Tell him, Ari," he said. "It'll help him, I think… I hope…" The younger Protector sighed, fiddling with the watch around his right wrist, twisting it around and around, the way he always did when he was nervous. He barely used the watch, having a generally good sense of time, except when he wanted to time something… which was admittedly pretty frequent.

"Yeah, it will," Ariana snapped. "Help him to know why I have such a fatalistic attitude."

"Ari, stop it," Ianto pleaded, tugging at Ariana's sleeve. "I honestly think it'll help."

"Fine," Ariana sighed. "Tell me you have coffee for me." Ianto smiled and handed Ariana a mug. "Best brother ever."

"You rulebreaker," Ianto teased. Biological siblings weren't really "a thing" in the society of Protectors; in fact, they were technically frowned upon, but this hardly mattered to Ariana. She had taken Ianto under her wing - literally - from the start. "Now please just tell him."

Ariana sat down on the bed across from Jack. "Well, you know Leah was my human before she died, right? Well...she was...more than that. She was my Estelle."

Ianto looked over at Ariana with a raised eyebrow. "What?" she asked, immediately reacting defensively. "It's so obvious. The way he used to look at her. The way he's acting now. I mean, it's honestly better for him, at least she died of natural causes..."

"Ari, we don't know…" Ianto started.

Ariana rushed to recover her words. "I mean, Leah died in a car accident. We don't really know whether the driver had a bad motive or was just drunk." With a little laugh, she added, "and you know me, I always want someone to blame."

"Wait. So you're saying...You were in love with Leah?" Jack looked at her with wide eyes. "I wouldn't have thought…"

"Someone as cynical as me could fall in love?" Ari cracked a smile. "Yeah, me neither." But her somber expression quickly came back, as if she was trying to keep her thoughts away from the memories. "But Jack, we're not designed to fall in love. Especially not with humans. I learned that the hard way."

Jack sighed. "Looks like I've learned my lesson, then." Ianto snorted. "What?"

"What, you're just going to give up? Jack Harkness has learned his lesson, and that's the end of that? Come on, Jack. I've known you forever. You don't just give up."

"What are you saying?" Jack asked. "I'm not going to try to fall in love the next time around. If I do have a next time around-"

"-You're required to," Ianto interrupted. "You can't retire-"

"-Until I'm a Level 10," Jack sighed. "Shit. Well, I didn't try to fall for Estelle. I just did. It just happened."

"It's true," Ariana interjected. "For me and Leah… it just happened. God, Ianto, I wish you could understand, if it didn't hurt so much."

Ianto laughed. "Well, at least I have a ways to go before that's even a thought," he half-joked. "I mean, Lisa's so little." He pulled a picture out of his pocket of a giggling baby.

"We've seen," Jack sighed. This had to be the five billionth time he had seen a picture of Ianto's human, six-month-old Lisa Hallett.

"She is cute," Ariana pointed out. "Well, anyway, I should go." She turned to leave, but then remembered something. "I have an idea for someone you can protect," she said.

"Who?" Jack asked. He scowled. He knew he only had thirty days before he'd be required to choose a new human or else be exiled for ten years to a sort of jail, stripped of his powers and his wings. It was a pretty ridiculous punishment system, but it was what it was. And he didn't want to choose a new human so quickly. It didn't seem right, didn't seem respectful for what Estelle had meant to him-

"Stop daydreaming," Ianto said sharply, tapping Jack's shoulder. "Ari, you'll have to say all of that again; Jack wasn't listening."

Ariana gave a smile. It was rare that she was more mild-mannered than her brother, Ianto tending to be so quiet. "I said, the little girl I protect now, Alicia, her parents just had another baby."

"Is she young enough?" Jack asked. A child had to be chosen within the first six months to be protected - just another ridiculous rule.

"Just under five months old," Ariana replied. "The deadline for her is the same day as the deadline for you."

Jack sighed again and cursed under his breath. He didn't want to take another human. He just didn't. But losing his wings, and being forced into exile for ten years - losing his friends, not just Ianto but Christopher. Christopher was a Level 7, like he was, right around the same age, and they'd been friends from the start, hundreds of years before Ianto was even born. And he'd miss Ariana, too. Sure, they had disputed over the whole Estelle thing - he winced at how casual his thought process was - but he liked her a lot and didn't want to lose her.

"Fine," he muttered after a few minutes. "I'll do it."

"You don't even know her name," Ianto chastised.

Ariana laughed. It was always funny when her brother tried to act older than he was.

"Alright." Jack gave his first smile of the day. "What's her name?"

"Gwen," said Ariana. "Her name is Gwen Cooper."

Hey guys! Lia here! So, here's the first chapter of The Protectors! Hope you guys liked! Thank you SO MUCH to Aurora (Aurora Sanders) for helping me with this chapter; it was she who introduced the characters of Ari and Leah in this one. Also, thanks to Meg (The JohnLocked Whovian) for beta-ing! :D

Make sure to checkout all the things - especially the petition on my profile!

And as always, love and ducks to the Lone Shippers, hugs to supporters, thanks to Eleonora, Noe, Hanul, and Kizzie, shoutouts to my chosen-sisters, high fives to my collaborators, and cookies for all!

Love,

Lia xxx