Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood or Doctor Who
"No hero is immortal till he dies."
-W.H. Auden
~ Part 1 ~
Out of all the strange things Jack Harkness had come across in his lifetime, this was the strangest. He, Ianto, and Gwen were searching for the source of a particularly high rift spike, when suddenly they stumbled into the lobby of a hotel. Whenever one of the Torchwood operatives attempted to leave, they would end up entering through the same door they exited from. After a few more minutes of the pointless endeavor, Gwen walked away to try calling Rhys, which Jack seemed to want to protest over but kept his mouth shut.
"What is this place, Jack?" Ianto inquired, taking in the 1980s exterior.
Jack shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted. "Never seen anything like this before ..." Jack walked up to the front desk, rung the bell, and waited for a beat. "Doesn't look like anyone's home." He turned to face Ianto again and indicated the wall clock hanging over the staircase. "Maybe we're in a time loop."
Ianto shuddered, remembering Jack's story of being trapped in a so called 'time loop' with John Hart for five years. "Bloody hell, we better not be," Ianto grumbled.
"If I sent a distress signal now the soonest it would reach the outside world would be in two years," Jack said.
"Brilliant..." Ianto mumbled.
"Ah, it wouldn't be too bad," Jack dismissed, smirk forming on his lips and voice dropping to pure seduction, "I'm sure we could find a way to pass the time."
Ianto rolled his eyes. "You're neglecting the fact that we still need sustenance and don't you think Gwen will get a tad bored if all she has entertaining her is the sound of us shagging in the next room."
"Well..."
"Oh god."
"Hey, you set yourself up for that one. Fine. No orgy. But maybe we could have her-"
Jack was cut off by a high pitched scream. The two men exchanged a glance. They ran down the hall, towards the source of the cry. Gwen was standing in the doorway of one of the rooms at the end.
"Gwen!" Jack called. "Are you okay?"
Gwen glanced over her shoulder and nodded. "Startled me is all," she said, laughing nervously. She crouched down to pick up her mobile phone then stoop up warily. Gwen motioned towards the room and stepped back so Jack and Ianto could see.
Standing in the middle of the room was a skeleton. It had no eyes, but it watched them just the same, gruesome face fixed in a wicked Cheshire Cat grin. Jack tilted his head slightly. The skeleton tilted it's head. Jack reached forward and slowly pulled the door shut.
"What's a skeleton doing in a hotel room?" Gwen questioned.
Jack shrugged. "Check some of the other rooms. We might find our answers behind one of them."
Gwen and Ianto nodded, both dispersing in different directions. The first door Jack opened revealed a room filled with snakes, hissing and slithering up the walls and over the furniture. The second door Jack opened brought nothing but darkness.
By the eighteenth door which showed Jack a room full of teenage boys clad in American football uniforms, he was bored. Jack slammed the door a little harder than he intended to. He stood in the ominously quiet hallway, glancing up and down the corridor as if checking for traffic. Jack moved to contact Gwen and Ianto to check on their progress, when something caught his eye.
A few doors down, across the hall there was a room with a number that didn't fit in the range he was searching through. Jack lowered his hand and cautiously approached the door. Above it was a label that read:
51
51 could mean anything. But to Captain Jack Harkness, it was beyond significance. It was home. He stiffened and something in the back of his mind protested his next movement. Jack ignored his inward conflict and was about to grab the knob of the door handle when...
"Don't touch it!" A young, female, American voice ordered firmly.
Jack whipped around and saw a young woman with light brown hair and confident hazel eyes, striding over to him. "Carlie Roberts?" Jack gaped with disbelief.
"In the flesh," Carlie said.
"Did you just get here?" Jack asked.
Carlie shook her head. "Been here for two days now." She suddenly threw her arms around Jack. "It's good to see you, solider boy. God, I thought I would be alone in this place forever. I'm the only survivor, Jack, the rest of my team is gone."
Jack pulled away with a frown. "What happened?"
"This 'hotel'," Carlie explained, "contains the fears of people."
For the first time, Jack noticed that Carlie's eyes were red and that she was shaking. He took her face in his hands, forcing her to meet his gaze. "It's going to be okay," he assured. "What happened?"
Carlie took a deep breath and let it out. "UNIT sent me and eight others to investigate some strange activity on the Canadian border. One moment we were in the basement of some old lady's cottage, the next we're in a hotel. We all broke off into groups so we could explore a little, try to figure out what the hell was going on..." she shook her head, eyes glazing over with a haunted expression. "The first to go was Andrew Henderson. He was twenty-five and this was his second week of working at UNIT. Andrew was a good guy, always willing and able and he had so much potential. I found him standing in one of the doorways, completely shell-shocked. The entire room was drenched in blood. I almost threw up, but then I saw his face. His skin was pale and..." Carlie bit her bottom lip. "And we all met back up after that, none of us having a clue what was going on. That was when Andrew got really nervous. Twitchy. He began to grow delusional and broke down." Carlie flickered her gaze as if expecting something to jump out at her. "He started repeating the phrase: 'Praise him'. Over and over."
"'Praise him'?" Jack echoed.
Carlie nodded. "Not soon after, a beast came. It looked like a Minotaur. Of course we all hid on instinct. Jack, it devoured Andrew."
"The same thing happened to the rest of your colleagues," Jack concluded.
"All of them in forty-eight hours."
"I'm sorry," said Jack, genuinely.
"Thanks." Carlie whipped her eyes dry with the back of her hand. "Ianto said Torchwood was in my blood" - she laughed to herself ironically- "here I am, falling apart again. I'm hardly Torchwood material."
Jack pulled Carlie to him and kissed the top of her head as a gesture of comfort. "You deserve to break down," he said softly. "Are you doing okay?"
"Just finished the water bottle and granola bar I brought with me so I'm doing well despite the circumstances," Carlie sighed, then quiet suddenly, she lifted her head. "Wait. Ianto and Gwen are here aren't they." She didn't wait for Jack to answer and demanded, "Where are they, Jack?"
"Checking the rooms of the hotel," Jack said.
Carlie pushed out of Jack's arms, throwing her hands up. "I really thought you were smarter, Jack."
The immortal tried not to smirk, amused over how quickly Carlie's attitude shifted. "I'm sorry?" This apology coming out sarcastic instead of empathetic like before.
"I've got a theory," Carlie stated. "I mentioned before how this hotel has fears. Well, I think it has the fear of every person. Everyone has a room. When they open their door, they become terrified and lose all hope."
Jack began to catch on. "They begin to want death."
"Exactly. I guess that's why Torchwood here though, right. Dealing with everything from the Twilight Zone to Starfleet."
"Yeah, I suppose we..." Jack trailed off, recalling how compelled he felt to open the door to room 51. "Shit. The rooms. You're right..."
"Gwen and Ianto," they gasped in unison.
Jack and Carlie began walking up the hallway they were in. "Ianto? Gwen?" Jack said into his wi-com.
A few seconds later, Gwen's voice came through, "Yeah, Jack?"
"Stay away from the rooms. Go back to the lobby and wait for me," Jack instructed.
"Why? Did something happen-"
"I'll explain everything," Jack pressed, "just go and wait."
Jack inwardly pleaded that Gwen wouldn't argue with him over this. Eventually, she said, "Okay. See you soon, Jack."
Carlie gripped Jack's arm as they continued to walk. "Ianto," she reminded him. Jack nodded and tried to contact the young Welshman. When there was yet to be an answer, both Jack and Carlie were distraught.
"We hardly know anything about this threat," Carlie said, half to herself. "Where is he?"
"I'm not sure. But I promise you, no one else is dying. Not on my watch." Jack and Carlie continued to make their way down the twisting halls.
Carlie began to grow fidgety. "You don't think he..." she trailed off at the sound of low growling. Carlie exchanged a glance with Jack, the panic returning to her face. Jack reached for her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.
"I have an idea." He opened his wrist strap. "This'll create a map for us to follow," Jack explained. "We can find Ianto with it." A hologram flickered up, plotting out a map. Two blinking red dots appeared where Jack and Carlie stood, another dot was heading towards a large square at the far right corner; representing the lobby.
The fourth dot was just around the corner.
Sure enough, there was Ianto. He was standing blank-faced and a chillingly familiar battle cry played from the open door. Jack cursed under his breath and ran over to Ianto, pushing him out of the way. "Carlie, get the door," Jack said over his shoulder. "Carlie!?"
"No..." she whispered. Not to Jack, but to the nightmare in front of her.
The giant man made of steel bore holes into Carlie with soulless gouges where eyes should be. It took a slow, deliberate step forward. "DELETE!" It yelled and in the same moment, Jack kicked the door shut.
"You two okay?" He asked.
Ianto, who was now standing next to Jack nodded reluctantly. Carlie took a moment to gather her composure before replying, "I'm fine."
"Good," Jack said, "let's go meet Gwen in the lobby so we talk this out, yeah?"
"Okay," Carlie sighed. "That, uh...sounds good. Allons-y as the French say."
While they continued back to the lobby at at vigilant pace, Ianto and Carlie made small talk, Jack lost in thought over how this 'hotel' functioned.
"Took you long enough," Gwen huffed upon seeing them. She caught sight of Carlie. "Carlie? When did you get here? Oh, have you brought help?"
"Nope, sorry," Carlie said, "I'm in the same boat as you guys." Carlie gave Ianto and Gwen a shortened version of what she told Jack.
Gwen shuddered. "Only in Torchwood.
"Like a Venus Fly-Trap," Ianto pointed out. "Lures it's victims by drawing them in with something that appears harmless but deadly on the inside."
"Exactly," Carlie agreed.
"Christ, Jack," Gwen quipped, arms crossing over her chest, "here you are telling us to go opening these death traps, didn't you consider the risks?"
Jack glared at her. "Despite what you may think, Mrs. Cooper I don't actually know everything."
"Wasn't saying you did, Jack," Gwen said evenly.
Awkward tension hung in the air until Carlie suggested, "We could kill the beast. No wolf to feed means the sheep go free, right?"
"Nothing's ever that simple," Jack said.
"Unfortunately," Ianto quipped, "it would make our jobs a whole lot easier."
Jack noticed that Ianto wasn't shaken by seeing the Cyberman. "Ianto, can I talk to you for a second?" Ianto glanced at Gwen and Carlie who shrugged. The Welshman walked over to Jack. "You don't have to pretend like what you saw didn't scare you."
"It didn't," Ianto said, "Well...it didn't exactly bring the cheeriest of thoughts to mind, but I'm not afraid of them anymore. I faced that fear long ago, Jack."
Jack looked unconvinced. "Alright."
"We'd best keep an eye on Carlie though. She's confident and brave. But she...panics."
"I know."
"You didn't think so back on our little expedition to Mariana's Trench," Ianto pointed out, voice ever calm.
"What is it with you and Gwen?" Jack grumbled. "Its like you mark specific dates on the calendar that say: 'Make Jack Harkness' Life a Lot Harder'."
"You've improved on your sarcasm. You're becoming very fluent."
"Cheeky bastard."
"What would you do without me."
Jack chuckled. "Probably fall apart. You've seen me go without that incredible coffee of yours, not a pretty sight."
"Is Captain Harkness actually admitting he isn't the most gorgeous man in the world 24/7," Ianto tutted.
"I'm not that narcissistic, am I?"
"On a good day I suppose you're not that bad."
Jack smiled, feeling a sudden surge of affection for the younger man. He touched Ianto's cheek, his breath ghosting over Ianto's lips when Carlie cleared her throat.
"Sorry to interrupt, boys," Gwen added.
Carlie said, "Gwen and I were poking around the front desk while you two were otherwise occupied."
Gwen held out a pad of paper. "We found this in one of the drawers."
Jack took the paper. He read it out loud: "Hello. Now, don't panic because you're perfectly safe if you stay where you are. My friends and I dealt with the beast being held here, but my guess is it another will eventually take it's place. Terrible system they have in this galaxy, I should really have a word with them about it because really, what were they thinking costing so many lives- sorry. This is a holding cell. The guards keep their prisoners fed by luring the Minotaur's food supply to it. Stay away from the doors because if you find yours, what you see stays with you. Start praising and you lose faith in what you believe in. Your faith is what the Minotaur eats. It absorbs your faith and after that there's nothing that can be done for you, I am sorry. Be strong. Humans are strong so I'm not worried. Good luck."
"Do you know who left it?" Ianto asked.
"Nope," Carlie said, "Whoever it was didn't leave their name. But...flip the page."
Jack did and a wide grin stretched across his face.
"What? You know whoever left that, don't you," Gwen interrogated. "Come on, who is it?"
"Someone we can trust," Jack answered enigmatically. "It's settled then. We're going to stay here and wait. The guards will have to check on the Minotaur at some point. That's when we'll make our move."
"So. We just sit here and twiddle our thumbs?" Gwen said.
"Yes."
Gwen sighed. "Well thank god I've got Carlie to keep me company, you to are impossible to be around when you get bored." She giggled to herself. "Oh, Carlie I have to tell you about this one time when-"
Jack coughed meaningfully and Ianto said, "I'd rather you not."
"Oi! If you two are planning on going at it like rabbits, then I should be able to make light conversation with a friend. Don't you think so, Carlie?"
Carlie was non-responsive. She stared at the wall clock, lucid hazel eyes now glazed over and distant.
"Carlie?" Gwen said tentatively. She put a hand on Carlie's shoulder. "Are you alright, Carlie?"
Carlie blinked once. Twice. "Huh?"
Ianto said, "Carlie, you look pale. Do you need to sit down somewhere?"
"What? No. No, I'm good. Thank you," Carlie said, stumbling over her words. "Gwen. How about that story?"
Gwen nodded eagerly, flashing Jack and Ianto one of her infamous gap-toothed grins. "Glad to." She and Carlie went and sat on the stools behind the front desk to talk.
"And she calls us the intolerable ones," Jack sniggered in mock offense.
Ianto frowned. "Who was that note from, Jack?" Jack held the pad of paper in front of Ianto, a quick sketch of the TARDIS on display. "Ah. So we wait. Sounds like a plan."
For Jack, he found out long ago that Gwen and Ianto couldn't be more opposite. Gwen needed to know everything and wouldn't stop until she learned each secret. Ianto knew everything and had a grasp of when enough was enough; to back off of a situation he didn't quite understand. Gwen was ambitious and strong, but would still be sympathetic to the cruelest of serial killers. Ianto was quiet and hid the brightest flames of his personality, but wouldn't hesitate to eliminate someone for their wrongdoings. Only on thing in the shades of their differing personalities was the same. They would both die for the man who lives forever.
"You know, Gwen did have a good idea," Jack said, "what do you say? Let's 'go at it like rabbits'."
"With them right there?" Ianto mused.
"They won't mind," Jack dismissed.
"They won't, won't they?"
"Are we really going to pretend as if Gwen doesn't secretly watch the CCTV footage while we're out hunting weeviles?" Jack took Ianto's hand and pulled him around the corner so they were just out of sight. "Better?" He didn't wait for Ianto's answer and leaned forward, pressing his lips against the younger man's. When Ianto started returning the kiss, Jack smiled and wrapped his arms around the Welshman, bringing him closer. Ianto stroked his fingers over the skin of Jack's neck as the kiss deepened, his tongue probing insistently until Jack's mouth parted. When they paused for air, Jack traced his thumb over Ianto's lips.
"Better," Ianto repeated, somewhat breathlessly.
Jack laughed and nearly kissed him again when there was an unexpected cacophony. They ducked back around the corner and saw Gwen crouch down. Ianto got there first. One of the stools had been knocked over and Carlie sat with her knees pulled up to her chest.
"Carlie," Ianto gasped. He glanced over at Gwen. "What happened?"
Gwen shrugged helplessly. "One moment it's all fun and gossip, the next she's completely spooked."
Ianto knelt so he was at Carlie's eye level. She acknowledged him but her gaze went right through him. "Carlie, talk to me."
"We can't wait forever," Carlie whispered.
"We won't," Ianto assured.
Gwen nodded in agreement. "Just be patient, sweetheart," she said.
Carlie shook her head furiously. "No, no, no...what if Jack's wrong?" She glared at Jack. "What if you're wrong. You can't honestly keep your promise, can you?" Her voice was uncharacteristically hard. Seething and bitter. "You said you wouldn't let anyone else die, but..." Carlie bolted to her feet. Jack noticed that her hands were shaking and for the first time noticed her wet, reddened eyes. "...but I am, Jack...I am...I am and that is so..." She smiled brokenly as an eerie laugh escaped her throat. "So...wonderful."
Ianto and Gwen jumped up, alarmed. "Carlie, you don't know what you're saying," Gwen warned.
"Gwen, don't you see?" Carlie giggled, cheeks now streaked with the salty tears. "We'd never make it out anyway. He"- she indicated Jack- "he lies. He lied to me already. But that doesn't matter. Because since we'll die anyway we can just forget everything. Our lives don't matter."
"Don't talk that way," Ianto said, making a move to wrap his arms around her.
Carlie stumbled backwards away from him. "You two trust so blindly," she said pityingly. "Why don't you just let it go...and praise him."
The same, low snarling that Jack and Carlie heard before came again.
"Praise him..." Carlie echoed.
Jack walked over to Carlie and forced her to hold still. "I know you're scared, Carlie. And that's okay. It is. Everyone get's scared."
Carlie narrowed her eyes at him. "Even you, Captain?"
Jack nodded. "Undoubtedly. But you can't give up on me. You have to trust me. Plus, I think Ianto would have my bollocks if I let anything happen to you."
Carlie gasped, breaking the trance and she released a choked sob, falling forward into Jack's arms. "Oh god. What just happened..."
Jack tightened his embrace around her. "You're going to be okay." He looked over at Ianto and Gwen. "I think we'd better find somewhere else to wait."
"That escalated rather quickly," Gwen sighed, plopping down on the beige couch of the common room. "I thought we were going to lose you for a moment there, Carlie."
Carlie who was sitting on a white, rose-pattern love seat with Ianto confessed, "So did I."
Jack was pacing and reading the note over. Obviously they couldn't survive the entire time on keeping the faith. Being the Doctor, of course he would neglect to write in a way to kill the Minotaur.
Jack began to idly wonder if he'd be safe to open the doors. It wasn't like the Minotaur would be able to kill him. The curiosity got to be too much. "I'll be right back," he informed the rest of his team.
"Where are you going?" Gwen asked.
"The note said to stay in one place and we've already been moving around like a school of fish," Ianto pointed out.
"I'll be back," Jack said, striding out of the common room. He searched for the odd 51 and stopped in front of it. "Okay, Bates Motel. Hit me with your best shot." Jack reached forward and threw the door open.