Chapter 1
"It's coming from that alley, Jack." Spoke Toshiko through the earpiece.
"Can you pull up the CCTV? I want to know what's down there, now!" Jack shouted.
"ETA one minute." Gwen told Jack and Owen as she looked at the GPS.
"I'm trying to pull up the CCTV," Spoke Tosh.
"C'mon, Toshiko!" Jack egged on, "We need to know what's down there!"
"15 seconds," Gwen announced.
Jack pulled up to the alley and armed himself, as did Owen, Gwen, and Ianto. Jack turned to them, "Alright, we're going in blind and God knows what we'll find. Stick to protocol if one of us is injured or anything."
Ianto, Owen, and Gwen nodded in understanding and they all got out, keeping their arms at the ready. After shutting the doors, they flattened themselves against the walls of the buildings and waited for a moment. Then, Jack nodded at them and he continued on forward, Gwen and Owen at his flanks and Ianto at the back. They had gone down to the end of the alley, but nothing happened.
They all lowered their weapons and Ianto pulled out the scanner for Rift activity... Jack sighed, "Damn it... we missed it..."
Ianto shook his head, "Uh, no, Sir... we didn't."
Jack went to his side, "Where is it, then?"
Ianto looked down, over the scanner at the young girl lying on a heap of discarded sofa cushions, "It's her..."
Jack grabbed the scanner and looked between it and the girl, "What?"
Jack pressed his ear piece, "Tosh, do you have that CCTV footage, yet?"
"Yes, I just got it pulled up..." Tosh was silent for a few moments, "It's her, Jack... She's not there one moment, then there's a flash, and then she's just lying there. From the looks of it... she woke up for a few moments, looked at her legs, then laid back down. She hasn't moved or woken up since then..."
"Thanks, Tosh," spoke Gwen. "Owen, check her vitals..."
"Right," Owen nodded.
Gwen knelt down next to the girl and lifted her head onto her lap, her dark brown hair spilling over her lap. Owen knelt down next to Gwen and put his stethoscope into his ears, then pressed his fingers against the girl's neck to check for a pulse. He checked her heartbeat, then used a light to check her eyes, making sure that they reacted to the light. Owen continued to check her over and Gwen just held her, stroking the girl's soft locks as she continued to sleep.
Owen looked up at Jack and spoke, "She's fine, vitals are all normal..."
Jack nodded, "We'll take her back to the Hub... put her in a cell."
"But, Jack-" Started Gwen.
"We can't take any risks, Gwen... the Rift spit her out, so we know nothing about her. She may look human, but we can never be too sure..."
Gwen pursed her lips and nodded, looking down at the girl as Ianto grabbed the bag lying next to her.
"Harper Cole," Spoke Ianto, earning the attention of everyone's eyes. "That's her name... there's a driver's license. Harper T. Cole from Harlan, Indiana; United States. Birthday February 17th, 1996 and she's of various races..."
Jack sighed, "Let's just make sure that all of those races are human..."
Jack knelt down next to Gwen and picked up Harper, Ianto carried the bag that he got her wallet out of and the rest of them walked back to their vehicle. Gwen got in the back and held Harper's head in her lap as Owen sat beside her, Harper's legs across his lap, and Ianto sat in the front with Jack. Ianto continued to go through Harper's bag as Jack drove them all back to Torchwood.
"Her wallet is filled with the currency for here, not America... but there's no passport." Spoke Ianto.
"So someone, or something, had already planned to dump her in Cardiff..." Jack spoke, rolling his eyes, "That's comforting..."
Gwen sighed as she continued to comb her fingers through Harper's long hair, "She's just a child... not even 18, yet."
Owen rubbed Harper's shins as he looked at Gwen, "We'll take care of her, Gwen..."
"Jack?" Spoke Tosh through the earpiece.
"Yeah?" Jack responded.
"There's a young man here for you... I don't know how he got in the Hub and there's no trace of him on the CCTV."
"What exactly is going on, Tosh?"
"I don't know... he just said that a man by the name of The Doctor dropped him here and told him to ask for you."
Jack sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "Just what I need... Send him to my office!"
"Okay..."
Jack sighed deeply as Ianto continued to go through Harper's bag, knowing that Jack was already edgy and didn't want to push him any further. Owen and Gwen just sat in the back, in silence, having heard everything over the comms.
Jack sighed deeply and stole a glance at what Ianto was finding in Harper's bag, "What else is in there?"
"Nothing much..." Ianto sighed, "Just some spare clothes, apparently... jeans, T-shirts, you know, the usual. Toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush... but no cellphone. Wait... here we go..." Jack looked at what Ianto had in his hands, "iPod..." Ianto turned it on and sighed, "Password..."
"I'm on it," spoke Tosh through the comms. "Her password is 'bburnley'... all of that is lowercase."
"Got it..." Ianto spoke.
Jack smiled a bit, "Benjamin Burnley..."
Ianto looked at Jack, "Sir?"
"I bet that's what her password stands for... Benjamin Burnley is the lead singer of Breaking Benjamin, they're an American band."
"Hmm..." Ianto went back to Harper's iPod, "Her background is some man..."
"Let me see..." Jack looked over, "Yep, told ya!"
Ianto took the device back and started going through it, "This is her phone..."
Jack knitted his eyebrows together as he kept his eyes on the road, "If someone was planning to drop her here, wouldn't they have taken her phone?"
Owen spoke from behind Jack, more to himself than anything, "Maybe she was in on it?"
Gwen just kept silent and continued to run her fingers through Harper's long hair, sighing. She didn't believe anything that they were speculating against Harper... Harper just looked too innocent to be in on anything, but as the saying goes it's always the ones you least expect. When the team got back to Torchwood, Owen was the one to carry Harper, and he took her to his area of the hub. Jack, Ianto, and Gwen all stood at the railing, watching as Owen took blood samples from Harper, swiped the inside of her mouth with a cotton swab, and checked her for any bruises, fractures, and breaks.
Tosh came over and was about to tell Jack something, but sighed as she looked at Harper, "Wow... she's beautiful!" Jack and everyone else turned their attention to her, making her shake her head, "I mean... Jack, that boy is-"
"Right here..." The whole Torchwood team turned to the owner of the voice and Owen went up to the railing, looking through the bottom to see a young man looking about 20-ish, tan skin, and dark dark brown hair an inch or two above the nape of his neck and right above his eyes, "and my name is Daniel, not that boy."
Jack pointed at him, "You're coming with me!"
Jack lead the way to his office and Daniel followed after him. Once inside, Jack looked him over... Daniel was of average height, probably about 5' 10" or something, he was skinny, but he looked to be toned, and he looked to be of Native American decent. Daniel was wearing a gray button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, the words 'New York' looking like they were spray-painted onto the front of his shirt, a white bandana around his neck, and black-ish pants. He looked to be in a gang or something, but something about his demeanor told Jack that he was different than he looked.
"Sit." Jack told him, sounding more like an order. Jack sat behind his desk and Daniel just waited for him to start with the interrogation he new was coming next. "Why are you here?"
"I don't know... The Doctor just dropped me off here." Daniel shrugged.
"There has to be a reason why..."
"All he said was that my time with him was done and that I need to live a normal life, now. He told me to ask for you, told me that you could get me set up..." Daniel leaned back and sighed, "I don't know how he expects me to do that... I don't age."
Jack's eyes widened, "What? How did that happen?"
"I don't know... all I know is that I had lost about a year of my life. I can't remember what happened for a full year-"
"You're coming with me!"
Jack hopped up and grabbed Daniel by his arm, dragging him out of his office, through the hub, and down to the cells. As they walked past the Weevile, Daniel wasn't phased, but his eyes widened as he saw Harper in a cell. Daniel managed to get himself out of Jack's grasp and press himself against the cell wall separating himself from Harper. Jack watched as Daniel continued to stare at Harper, his hands in his pockets. Daniel studied Harper as intently as possible, as if she would disappear when he blinked. Harper was just in a hospital gown that Owen had put her in, but Daniel could see every curve and dip of her body through the fabric. Harper's long hair was fanned around her head, her heart shaped face accentuating her full cheeks, the way her long eyelashes just kissed the tops of her cheeks, the light dusting of freckles across the tops of her cheeks and bridge of her nose, her dark semi-thin/semi-thick eyebrows with a perfect arch giving way to the lovely shape of her eyes, and the fullness of her rosy pink lips.
"Who is she?" Daniel asked Jack, not looking away from Harper.
"Her name is Harper..." Jack told him, "We found her about an hour ago... come on."
Jack took Daniel by the arm once more and lead him around to the other side of the cells and opened the door to the cell right before Harper's. Jack put him in there and Daniel tried to run out, not understanding what Jack was doing. Daniel stood there and turned around to find Jack at the transparent wall that he had once looked at Harper through, in another cell.
"Why did you put me in here?" Daniel asked him. "I'm not a threat!"
"We don't know that, yet." Jack spoke. "Just because you were dropped of by The Doctor, if you really were, doesn't mean you don't pose a threat."
"But, I'm not!"
"You don't age, Daniel... God knows what else you can or can't do!" Daniel was silent and Jack turned to go, "Sleep tight."
Daniel threw himself against the transparent wall as he shouted, "I'm 30 years older than I look! I can't die!"
Jack had heard everything and turned to look at him for a moment, seeing in Daniel's eyes... he was telling the truth. Jack turned back towards the door and made his way back to the hub, finding Owen at his computer.
Jack looked at Owen's computer screen, "Find anything, yet?"
"Yes, actually, I have," Owen spoke, then pointed at the screen, "I can't identify what this drug is, but she's got a high amount of it in her system." Jack took one look and his eyes widened, Owen noticed, "Know what it is?"
"Caltricloride..."
"Excuse me?"
"It's an alien anesthesia..."
"You mean to say that she was taken by aliens, and they drugged her up... to do what?"
"Run a scan on Daniel, see if the same thing is in his system."
"Okay..." Owen did as he was asked and the results came back quickly, "He has all kinds of things in his system..."
"He's traveled through time, he's going to, but I'm just worried about the Caltricloride."
"Okay... he does have it in his system, but it's a very small amount. Are you saying that they were both taken by the same aliens?"
"I don't know..."
"Everything else is fine with them... what did they do to those two?"
"Caltricloride is an alien anesthesia used in surgeries with high amounts, almost lethal amounts of pain."
Owen looked at the screen that showed Harper still asleep and Daniel sitting with his back against one of the concrete walls of his cell, his arms around his knees, and his eyes closed, "What did they do to them? And who are they?"
"I don't know who they are, but I know what they did to them." Owen turned to Jack and everyone else had been listening, now stepping forward to surround Owen's computer as they listened to what Jack had to say, "They made Daniel and Harper invincible, indestructible... immortal."
Tosh shook her head, "That's impossible..."
Gwen was wondering if Harper and Daniel were the same as Jack... not able to die and never being able to age.
Jack spoke, "After all the things you've seen and done, you're saying that being immortal is impossible? We were able to bring people back to life with the Resurrection Glove, right? They always said that bringing the dead back to life was impossible..."
Tosh shook her head, "You're talking about never dying, though, Jack. Even though we did bring people back to life, it was only for a couple of minutes, not forever... and half of the time it didn't even work."
"Sometimes you just have to believe in the impossible, Tosh."
Tosh remained silent and Gwen pressed her lips together as they all looked at Daniel and Harper on the screen. Everybody leaned forward a little more as they saw and heard Harper start to wake up... Harper put her hand to her forehead and groaned as she opened her eyes, hissing in pain at the brightness of the lights. When her eyes adjusted, she opened them and she started gasping as she looked down and saw that she was in a hospital gown.
"Wh-what?" Harper gasped, "Oh, God... Wh-where am I?" Harper stood up quickly and put her head against her forehead as she sat back down, "Whoa... what the hell happened to me?"
The Torchwood team saw Daniel turn more towards the wall that connected to Harper's cell and he spoke, "Calm down... you're okay, Harper."
"Who are you?" Harper gasped as she stood up and backed against the wall furthest from the wall connecting her and Daniel's cells as she looked around for where his voice could be coming from. "Where are you?"
"I'm in the cell next to you-"
"Cell? You mean like jail?"
"No, not jail..."
"Where are we, then?"
"Torchwood."
"What's Torchwood? I've never heard of it..."
"They're not the police or the government... they're a law unto themselves." Harper was silent, "They specialize in alien-"
"Aliens? Okay... now, I must be in an institution."
"It's true, and you're not in the nuthouse, Harper."
Harper scoffed as she paced, "Right..."
"I'm serious..."
Harper had figured out that his voice was coming from the wall furthest from her, so she sat down against it and looked out the transparent wall with her head turned, "Let's say that I believe you. I don't, but let's say for a moment that I did..."
"Okay?"
"If they specialize in aliens... then, why am I here? Why are you here? If you are really human..."
"Jack-" Gwen started.
Jack cut her off, "Shh!"
Daniel sighed as he touched the wall separating them with his hand, "They don't know me... I've traveled with an old friend of the boss's, or so I've been told that they were friends." Harper turned a little and put her hand against the same spot as his on her side of the wall, listening to what he had to say, "I've traveled through time, seen so many things... but I don't die or age. They don't know if they can trust me or not..."
Harper's voice was soft, "Why? Why can't you age, or die?"
"I don't know... all that I know is that I've lost about a year's worth of my memories."
"What did it feel like when you had woken up?"
"I felt drugged... like I had been put under heavy anesthesia."
"That's what I feel like..."
"What happened to you?"
"I don't know... the last thing I remember was that I was walking to my friend's house, to spend the night."
"That would explain the nature of items I found in her bag." Ianto spoke, more to himself than anyone else.
"Next thing I knew," Harper continued, "there was this flash of light and then everything went dark. When I woke up, I was in an alley and from what I could hear of shouting towards the street... I wasn't in America anymore. I knew that a week had to have passed..."
"How did you know it was a week?" Daniel asked.
"Don't think it's gross or anything..."
"Promise."
"I could tell by the hair on my legs... When I was going to my friend's house, I had just shaved that night, and when I woke up the hair on my legs had grown back like I hadn't shaved in a week."
"That's one way to tell... pretty smart, too."
Harper smiled a little, "How did you know you had been out for a year?"
"I was just left on the roof of a building... I managed to get down and walked around. I wasn't in America, either... I was in London. The date on a paper confirmed that I had been blacked out for about a year..."
"Do you have any idea what could've happened?"
"No... I don't. All I know is that something happened and I should've died... but I didn't. My bones and everything healed, but I didn't die like I should've. 30 years have passed... and I haven't aged one bit."
"Do you think that's what happened to me?"
"Maybe... I also noticed that any scars or anything I may've had were gone. Are any of yours gone, if you had any?"
Harper looked down at her legs and gasped, "Mine are gone, too!"
"Maybe we did go through the same thing..."
"Owen, bring up her medical records." Jack told Owen.
"Right," Owen brought them up, "She has normal allergies, you know, pollen and tobacco, stuff like that."
"Did she ever get sent to the hospital for anything?"
"Let's see... tonsils out when she was seven, emergency operation on her legs when she was 16, and oral surgery twice when she was 16 and when she was 17."
"What happened to her legs?"
"Um... car accident. The whole front end of the car smashed... the driver and passenger died, but Harper and one other made it. The other one that made it got out with only a concussion, Harper's legs were crushed, and the other two in the front seats died on impact."
"Who was it in the car with her?"
"Um... according to the report, it was just her and a group of her friends. It won't give any other information on the accident..."
Harper continued to talk to Daniel, "What's you're name?"
Daniel straightened out his shirt as he stood up, "Daniel Sherwood..."
"I'm Harper... Harper Cole."
"Nice to meet you, Harper."
Harper smiled as she rest her forehead against the wall she was sitting against, "Yeah..."
Author's Note: This is just a story I came up with while watching Children of Earth and had to write. The title is named after the song Lifeclock by Adrian Von Ziegler. I will continue as soon as possible! Review? :3