Pairings/Characters: Ianto, Rose, Jack, Gwen, Owen, Tosh. Jack/Rose. Implied Jack/Ianto, Rose/Doctor, Jack/Doctor.
Timeframe: Early s2 Torchwood. Written before I saw 2x05. Brief refernce to 2x03. Doctor Who spoilers to 2x13.
Note: Part of the Jack/Rose Winter Ficathon. Written for unsedentary, who wanted: The Torchwood team, romance, the Rift. Well, as usual, I interpreted it my own way. I hope this turned out all right. Please forgive my rather horrific science, I'll try and make it as quick and as painless as possible.
Beta thanks go to the lovely purplebug, who probably should own my soul by now.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
The blonde girl walked past Ianto and headed down to the Hub. Startled, Ianto pushed forward and stood in front of her, reaching for the gun strapped to his waist – just in case. "Excuse me, Miss, but that's off limits – staff only."
She blinked. "You can see me?"
That's when Ianto recognised her.
-x-x-x-
At first, Jack's disappearance had caused confusion amongst his team, which gave way to concern and then panic. Eventually they had ransacked his office for the second time, this time rather than searching for answers about the rift they hunted desperately for a clue to where he could have gone.
The file about Rose Tyler was dusty and tucked towards the back of a filing cabinet. It contained a log of sightings – every year from the time she was days old to the time she was seventeen, and there were pictures accompanying these sightings. There was also a snippet cut from the List of the Dead. Rose Tyler had died, aged twenty-one, in the Battle of Canary Wharf. At Canary Wharf – though there was no indication she was ever a member of Torchwood.
She had no close surviving family members and there was no indication that Jack's disappearance was in any way linked to her. Ianto had replaced the file, mentally labelling it as unimportant. He'd barely thought of it, or Rose Tyler, since. She was just one tiny piece in the mystery of Jack's past.
-x-x-x-
Ianto hurried through the Hub, Rose Tyler at his side. She showed no curiosity at the sight, unlike most people on first viewing – suggesting that it wasn't hers. Had the others been out of earshot he might have asked her about it, but as it stood he had little desire to be labelled as crazy. Owen would have a field day with that one.
"I'm so glad you can see me," Rose said. "I've been here for weeks and no one has been able to see or hear me..." she trailed off, clearly haunted. Even now it was obvious that no one else had any idea there was a trespasser among them. "Sometimes, that woman – Gwen, isn't it – can almost hear me, I think. But I don't think she realises it."
"I'm sorry," Ianto said. They were almost at Jack's office and mostly out of earshot. "How did you get here?"
"I fell," Rose said simply. "One minute I was monitoring rift activity, I trip and the next thing I know, here I am."
"During the Battle of Canary Wharf?" Ianto asked, not quite sure how it all added up.
"No...well, I fell then, too. No, I was in Cardiff, Wales – Torchwood 5." Ianto must have looked puzzled, as she carried on. "I was in a parallel universe. It's a lot like this one, but not. Really not."
Ianto wasn't quite sure what to say to that.
They started up the stairs to Jack's office. Rose's legs moved as if she were climbing, but Ianto suspected it was a reflex, there was something not quite right about the action and her feet probably weren't making contact with the steps. She seemed to have to work more to get up.
"Once," she said, "someone said goodbye to me, through the void, across two universes, for two minutes – he burnt up a whole sun. What am I burning up? I've been here for weeks!"
Ianto had no answer, which was just as well, because he was pushing through the doors into Jack's office. He held them open for Rose, who shot him a strange look. He didn't understand until she spoke.
"The door doesn't stop me." Of course not, she'd just float right through it, but why she insisted on walking up the stairs was completely beyond Ianto.
Jack looked up as Ianto entered his office, but waited to find out what he wanted. "We have a situation."
-x-x-x-
Ianto had no idea how to approach this – had no idea what Jack's relationship with Rose was, or used to be: they could have been lovers, friends, she could even be his daughter. There was a chance that there was no relationship there at all. Maybe Jack followed her for all those years for a completely different reason. Maybe Rose was a very dangerous breed of alien – Beth was still fresh in all their minds after all.
However at the first mention of Rose's name, Jack correctly guessed that at some stage Ianto has seen her file, and he was not happy about it at all. Only a strange comment from Rose – about dancing at Big Ben – passed on by Ianto, convinced Jack that he might be telling the truth.
"I'm calling the Doctor," Jack said firmly as he reached for his phone.
His Doctor. Somehow, Ianto wasn't surprised that this was how Rose was connected to Jack. It still didn't make sense, but then that was the whole point. Jack's Doctor never had.
"NO!" Rose shouted, loud enough to hurt Ianto's ears. "You can't." She grabbed frantically at Jack's arm, her fingers sliding through his flesh as if it wasn't there. "No! He can't." She looked up at Ianto, desperate. "Tell him he can't!"
"Don't, Jack. I don't think that's what she wants you to do."
"Rose..."
"Tell him—" and Ianto repeated her words for her— "if I see him, I'll want him to stay, and I can't. I have to go home."
Jack looked ready to argue when Gwen burst in. "Is everything all right?" she asked. "I thought I heard shouting."
-x-x-x-
Fifteen minutes later they were all in the conference room. Rose was standing hesitantly by the door, and Jack was pacing up and down. Tosh and Owen were watching Jack in confusion. Ianto divided his time between Jack and Rose. Gwen mostly focussed on Jack, with occasional puzzled glances at the door. She'd admitted that at times she thought she could see and hear something, but had never been completely sure – and then something had always come up that had distracted her from reporting it.
"So, you're telling us that the Hub is haunted?" Owen asked, sceptically.
"No. Rose Tyler isn't dead. As far as we know, as far as she knows—" he glanced at Ianto, who looked over at Rose, who nodded— "she is alive and well. She was in a parallel universe and fell through the rift on her side and is manifesting on this side."
"So, she's now haunting Torchwood," Owen repeated. Jack's lips thinned and both Gwen and Tosh glared at him.
Bolder now, Rose walked over to Owen and poked him in the side of the head. Automatically, Owen reached up to scratch that spot. Rose poked him in the shoulder and then the neck.
"That's her," said Ianto, amused. Rose grinned.
"All right! Sorry," Owen gasped as Rose ran her entire hand through his torso.
"Apology accepted."
"I'll go get a scanner, if we can get a read on the energy she's producing, we may be able to pull her through." Tosh stood and moved to the door.
"No! I have to go back." Ianto relayed her message, and everyone stopped, Tosh turned back from where she stood.
"That might not be possible," Jack said to the thin air. Rose moved around so she was standing in Jack's line of sight. Gwen was blinking and frowning at the same general area.
"I have to go back."
"Rose..."
"No, Jack, you have your world to protect. I have mine."
"You said," Ianto interjected at this point, "that your friend burned up a sun to say goodbye." Jack's gaze was sharp when it settled on Ianto's face. "How do you know that you have a world to go back to?"
"I have to go back," Rose repeated stubbornly. Ianto didn't bother to repeat for her.
"I'll get my equipment," Tosh murmured. "We'll know more then."
"It's strange," said Gwen after a moment. "She's been here for weeks, and it hasn't caused a ripple in the monitors. Not once."
"That's because I'm not really here." This time when Ianto spoke for Rose, no one had anything to say.
-x-x-x-
It was two days before anyone had any answers to the problem that Rose presented. According to Tosh, the energy Rose was giving off should be registering on the rift monitor but wasn't. There was something holding the rift stable and supporting Rose at the same time.
Furthermore, it connected back to Rose's universe. However in order for Rose to get back to her universe – or Pete's World, as she murmured ironically once – they would have to bring Rose through on this side, secure the connection and send her back along it. Like some form of pulley system.
"Just like that," Rose murmured. She seemed darkly amused by the situation.
-x-x-x-
There had been a tense moment about six hours after they had formally started investigating Rose's appearance. Through Ianto, Rose had asked Jack what had happened to him on Satellite Five. The question itself had gone completely over Ianto's head, but the way Jack had reacted was familiar. This was Jack's past and he didn't want anyone interfering in it.
Rose, however, whether through obstinacy or through obliviousness, had pushed for an answer. Jack had refused, his answer becoming shorter and sharper, though he never quite managed to order her to stop asking.
Rose sulked, an act that probably would have had more effect had Jack been able to see or hear her.
-x-x-x-
The rift machine screamed and the readings went wild as they pulled Rose through. Then all of a sudden it went quiet.
Rose Tyler was kneeling on the floor, head bowed, breathing heavily. She looked no different to Ianto, but from the way the others focussed directly at her, instead of where they thought she might be, he could tell she was visible to them all.
"Oh," she said and looked up. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed on the floor in a dead faint.
-x-x-x-
Rose woke in Jack's office. Not the most comfortable place in Torchwood, but probably the most private – if that was what Jack wanted. And right now, the way he'd sealed them off from the rest of his staff gave a good indication that that was exactly what he wanted.
She sat up, joints clicking from disuse, which considering she'd been trapped in the Void for god knows how long was hardly surprising. It could have been worse though, she could have remembered the nothingness.
"Jack?"
"Hello Rose." And he deliberately moved into her line of vision. He hadn't changed much from the last time she had seen him, not physically anyway. Despite the fact the intervening years had been less for her, she had changed far more. She was still blond, still young, but not quite as bright, not quite as shining. She was not nineteen anymore.
He helped her up, offering her both hands and tugging her to her feet. She swayed against him, legs unsteady as yet, and grinned in vague embarrassment as he propped her up, wrapped her arms around his waist and then his own around hers.
She tilted her head back to meet his eyes and watched as his mouth spread into a wide grin. Jack's smile, is what she always thought of it as – the smile from a journey through time and space where all they did was laugh.
And then he kissed her.
-x-x-x-
Ianto had asked Rose how she knew Jack, and Rose, as vague as Jack had ever been, would only say that they had 'travelled together', omitting when and where this travelling might have taken place. She denied being his lover during that time, admitting that they'd both been in love with someone else.
Jack would only say she was the prettiest thing to fall out of the sky and not sleep with him.
-x-x-x-
Sex probably wasn't inevitable, and it probably wasn't the wisest course of action, but it wasn't going to happen straight away.
"I missed you," Jack told her.
"I missed you," she replied. "I thought you were dead. Why aren't you?" Jack probably shouldn't have assumed that the conversation held through Ianto was over. Rose was persistent when she wanted to know something.
"The Doctor didn't tell you? You don't know?"
Rose shook her head. "Everything I know about Satellite Five I remembered myself, and that wasn't much. He wouldn't say anything other than I was better off not knowing."
"You are." And Jack sounded very firm on that. In annoyance Rose leaned back. Her legs, while strong enough to keep her from falling, still wobbled alarmingly, so he caught her and pulled her back against him. She glowered.
"That's not fair."
"Rose, if the Doctor didn't tell you, I'm not going to. You can ask him that yourself." They both knew that that wasn't going to happen – they'd already had this conversation.
"Where is he anyway? When did you see him?"
"Not long ago. If it makes you feel any better, he didn't want to see me. Ran all the way to the end of the universe to get away from me. If you ever want to know exactly where you stand..."
"He doesn't look back. Was there anyone with him?" She kept the conversation moving.
"Martha Jones. Nice girl. Saved the world."
Rose grimaced, clearly jealous and trying to fight it. "Haven't we all."
Jack chuckled at her expression and tone; he wasn't going to tell her about all the amazing things he knew Martha was capable of. If the two women met, they'd likely be friends, but right here and now, telling Rose would only make her more jealous – just as the idea of Rose had made Martha jealous.
Instead he settled for, "And just like the rest of us, she loved him very much. She was just smart enough to walk away before it destroyed her."
Rose pushed away from Jack, turning so they were no longer face on. She studied the contents of his desk top, but without really seeming to note the varied objects strewn around. "How is he?"
"How he always was." He might have been better at some point, but the appearance of the Master had been a huge set back, and Jack really hadn't had much time with him otherwise.
"Why aren't you dead, Jack?" Had Rose been looking at him, she would have seen Jack's expression at her particular choice of words.
"Apparently, I was far too good looking to die." There was humour in his voice, but it was dry and it didn't match his face. Rose still wasn't looking at him.
"We left you." Rose's tone was pained.
"I survived."
"I'm sorry."
"Hey." He gently tugged her around to face him. "It's ancient history. Really ancient."
"How long has it been for you?"
"A long time. It doesn't matter. It did – I thought it did – but it doesn't really. Now, do you really want to spend your last hour in this universe rehashing ancient history?"
This time it didn't stop with one kiss.
-x-x-x-
He could have taken her down to his bed, for complete privacy, but he sometimes took Ianto down there, and neither Ianto nor Rose would appreciate that kind of sharing.
Had they been sensible about this, they would have removed as few items of clothing as possible. But they had enough time to be indulgent and so took it for what it was worth: the intimacy of skin against skin, warm human bodies, beating hearts and pounding blood. Propped on Jack's desk, Rose wrapped her legs around his waist, anchoring her weight with her arms around his neck, as he leaned forward and into her.
No, they had never been in love, but they loved, and there had always been attraction. Both had wondered what might come from their desire, but there were lines they knew better than to cross. Lines that still existed, but had been worn thin by time.
Desire became urgent, and Rose pushed herself closer to Jack, as he angled deeper and groaned at the change in pressure. Rose whimpered and buried her face in his shoulder.
And then it was all over, Rose was shaking and muffling her cries against his skin, her legs squeezing tightly and lifting her up. Moments later, Jack's hand tightened on her waist with enough force to bruise and he gasped in release.
For long moments the only sound was their quieting breathing. Jack pulled back to look at Rose, and his grin was a picture of mock roguishness as he asked, "Was it as good for you as it was for me?"
Her smack was mostly for his very bad cliché.
-x-x-x-
Later on, she paused during dressing to look him over. "All that talk and I finally got to have the great Jack Harkness."
"And?"
She grinned, tongue poking out from between her teeth and she never knew how close she came to nearly having the great Jack Harkness twice.
"It was worth it." She bent to tie a shoelace.
He bent down also, gently gripped her wrists and tugged her up and against him. She cocked an eyebrow.
"I'll trip and break my neck," she warned.
"I don't want you to go." From Jack, that was quite an admission. He had walked away from the Doctor – the man he'd been in love with for more than a hundred years, but he wasn't sure he was strong enough to walk away from Rose as well. With her, standing here, he was reminded all the more strongly of the way he used to live his life.
She grimaced. "Sorry." And she leaned up to kiss him before breaking away and bending back down to tie her shoelace.
-x-x-x-
Rose Tyler came up out of the Hub, and into the Information Centre, bringing with her the scent of Jack and sex. Ianto didn't look up to greet her. She stood off to one side and shifted from one foot to another, seemingly nervous. He wondered if she was going to apologise, but she didn't say anything.
"Can I help you?" he asked at last, when the tension reached a level even he was uncomfortable with.
"I just... Thank you."
"Are you going?" There was no good way to respond to that thanks. When the person was saying 'thank you for seeing me when no one else could', 'you're welcome' seemed a little trite.
"Five minutes according to Toshiko. I just wanted to say goodbye."
He did look at her then, and she didn't look any different to the girl he had found haunting Torchwood two days ago. A little more rumpled, perhaps, but mostly the same.
"Goodbye," he said.
-x-x-x-
"Goodbye, Jack." Standing next to the rift machine, Rose began to fade away.
"This isn't goodbye." He sounded very firm on that.
"Please don't make this harder than it is," she begged, and for the first time there was no hiding the grief in her eyes.
"I'll see you in hell." It was the same pained grin he gave before marching off to his death on Satellite Five.
"Maybe literally, if this doesn't work," Rose said. And then she was gone.
-x-x-x-
The team are hovering and none of them are sure how to approach Jack now. This wasn't the first time he'd said goodbye to a friend, to a lover, while they watched.
Ianto would wait for privacy to approach, so he met Gwen's eyes. He didn't understand their relationship – Gwen and Jack – and he doubted they did either. Or at least he knew Gwen didn't, Jack hasn't said either way. Not that Gwen ever brought it up, but she was far more transparent.
"Jack?" Gwen asked.
"Can you see her?" Jack's tone was even and normal.
"No," Gwen confirmed.
"Ianto?"
"She's not there."
"There's no energy ratings, no static, no interference," Tosh confirmed, glancing up from her reader.
"I have some phone calls to make." Jack turned and headed up to his office.
Owen muttered something about secrecy and Torchwood. No one had anything else to add.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-