2.
Tommy Brockless wasn't a special man. He had never been very good at school or with girls and he hadn't even been a very good soldier, or he wouldn't have ended up in that hospital because of shell-shock – which was just a nice way of saying that he was a coward, really. But then again, he would have never met his real father if all of that hadn't happened. So he was kind of glad it did.
Toshiko shifted in her sleep, cuddling closer to him, her warm skin brushing his, their naked bodies entwining even further. Tommy traced a careful hand down her back and then up again, around to where the swell of her breast started. Tonight had been his first time and Toshiko had made it everything it should be. He'd felt like such an awkward fool, fumbling and trembling, but Toshiko hadn't minded that. She was wonderful, beautiful, she was his, just for tonight… because tomorrow, he would go back to his own time and all this would end. Tommy was scared. He was nothing like his father who seemed to be able to walk into any danger with a smile on his face: the great Captain Jack Harkness who was anything but a coward, anything but awkward, anything but Tommy. Who had been there for him. Every single time Tommy awoke. In the years he didn't know who he really was and in the years after he found out. Always.
Just like that first time.
xxx
1919
It was like waking up from a long, deep sleep. Tommy slowly opened his eyes and found four people staring at him curiously. There was Gerald Carter. He knew Gerald from the hospital. And next to him, another familiar face: Harriet Derbyshire. The team's doctor was different, though. Douglas Caldwell was gone, the man with the stethoscope and the dark frown on the freckled face was a stranger to Tommy. As was the fourth team member – a man wearing a white shirt, dark trousers and a strange bracelet made from leather. He was the kind of guy the girls liked: tall, handsome, athletic, sky-blue eyes and dark hair.
Gerald smiled at Tommy. "Welcome back! Remember, you've got twenty-four hours before we put you to sleep again. Aside from some tests, it's up to you what you want to do in that time, but Captain Harkness," and he nodded at the handsome man, "has offered to keep an eye on you and to show you around."
And that was that.
The day was rather uneventful, because not much had changed in that one year. Nevertheless, Tommy was a bit overwhelmed by everything and didn't quite know what to do. So Harkness took the initiative, accompanied him into the shops and invited him to dinner and offered his couch as a place to sleep.
His flat was small, neat – which fit, he was a military man after all –, but impersonal. "I'm away a lot," Harkness explained. "Freelance agent means that I'm the one doing the travelling while the team stays in Cardiff." He told Tommy where he'd been: Africa, India, Italy, France, Spain, Germany and America. Most of the places Tommy had only ever seen on a map.
They parted as friends the next day. Tommy went to sleep in his drawer and Jack was there when he woke up the next time.
xxx
1928
The years went by. Tommy struggled with how fast everything seemed to change. The team was different almost every time he woke up. People died or left and new ones came. The only constant in all of this was Jack. He was always there, and even though he changed too, at least Tommy had someone to turn to.
Jack was a mystery. Sometimes, he was happy and all smiles, ready to listen to Tommy and to take him out wherever he wanted to go. But other times, like today, he was broody and quiet and Tommy didn't quite know what to make of that. They went to a pub and Jack drank a bit more than he should in Tommy's opinion. By eleven, Tommy left Jack to his own devices.
It was almost two in the morning now and Tommy lay on the couch in the darkened living room of the flat Jack had moved into a few weeks ago. He listened to Jack stumbling in through the front door and straight to the kitchen. Apparently, Jack hadn't stopped drinking after Tommy had left. Nevertheless, he was considerate enough to close the kitchen door before he started pottering around loudly. Tommy was worried. He'd never seen Jack in such a bad state.
Since Jack had always made a point of being there for him, Tommy decided he should return the favour. He got up and knocked on the kitchen door. The noises inside stopped and Tommy took that as a permission to enter.
The kitchen was dimly lit and Jack in his dishevelled shirt and the creased trousers looked miserable. He spared Tommy a quick glance. "Sorry for waking you," he muttered and sat down at the table with a bottle of scotch and a tumbler. A box sat on the table in front of him. It was made of metal and looked quite new. Jack poured himself a glass of scotch and swallowed its contents in one go.
"You should maybe slow down a bit," Tommy suggested.
"Why? Don't have to work tomorrow and I never wake up with a hangover anyway."
"But it's not healthy."
Jack laughed. "Oh, don't worry about me." He opened the box with clumsy fingers.
Tentatively, Tommy stepped closer. "You've been in a strange mood all day. What's going on?"
Jack shrugged. "Just had a bad kind of week."
"Your trip to America?"
Jack frowned and his fingers brushed over whatever was hidden in the box. "Might as well have been a trip to hell." He didn't elaborate and Tommy didn't dare to ask. He sat down, waiting patiently.
After a few minutes of silence, Jack said, "Nothing good stays with me. Lost lovers, lost children… my brother. I lose friends all the time."
Tommy slid his chair closer to Jack and peeked into the box. Drawings. Pictures. Showing people. Men and women. And one drawing of a boy with shaggy hair posing in front of a strange-looking city on a beach. To both sides of him stood two adults – his parents maybe.
"This is my life," Jack said. "A box full of pictures." He shifted some of them around with trembling fingers and then put his head in his hands as if he was losing the fight against tears.
Tommy looked at the photograph that had been exposed: a tall, dark-haired woman with the most beautiful blue eyes and a gentle smile.
Before Tommy could stop himself, he whispered, "That's my mum."
"Lost your mum, too," Jack muttered and then drank straight from the bottle. He laughed mirthlessly. "And here you are after all these years, completely by coincidence. Life's strange, sometimes."
Tommy frowned and took the picture. "How did you know her?"
"Cardiff, 1893." Jack smiled gently, lost in memories.
Tommy just felt nauseous. "She was just a friend, right?" Because his parents had already been married in 1893. Sure, he knew that his father had strayed more than once, but his mother would never… would she?
Jack seemed to sober suddenly. He looked startled, almost, and even though he hurriedly said "Just a friend", Tommy knew that wasn't the truth.
"Oh God," he muttered. "You…" He got up. "And you knew all this time! You knew that she's my mother! How could you not tell me?"
"It's complicated. It was just three days. Just-"
"What other secrets are you keeping from me?" Tommy asked. Jack bit his lip and looked away. Tommy yelled, "I want to know!"
Jack got up with a stumble, now clearly angry himself. "We were together eight months before you were born, Tommy! Do the math!"
Tommy took a step back, shaking his head in disbelief. "Oh no! You don't get to tell me that."
"It's true!"
"It's not." But it was. He'd heard his parents fight when he was in bed and his mother had discovered that his father d cheated on her – yet again. Tommy had heard him yelling "You don't have any right to judge me, Constance. Because that boy upstairs may not even be my son." She'd always promised that Tommy was, "Please, believe me"… Tommy had never doubted her until this moment. "You bastard!" he hissed. "And you knew all this time?"
Jack's shoulders slumped. "I found out when they put you in cryo."
It was too much, all of it. Tommy had to get out, get some air, get away from that man. He turned away.
"Tommy-"
"No!" he answered, whirling around to Jack and pointing an accusing finger at him. "I don't want to hear it. Leave me alone. Don't talk to me ever again." He left the flat after hurriedly picking up his trousers, shoes and shirt and returned to the Hub. He didn't see Jack again that year.
xxx
1929
Tommy saw Jack when he woke up. Jack probably didn't want him to, but the lingering shadow in the entrance to the med bay was definitely him. And even though Tommy was determined never to speak to him again, during the day, he realised that he missed him. He missed his easy companionship and the way he seemed to know what Tommy was going through. That was why, in the evening, Tommy turned up at Jack's flat. When Jack opened the door, he was only wearing a loose pair of trousers and his hair was tousled. He stared at Tommy as if he couldn't quite believe he was there.
"Can I come in?" Tommy asked hesitantly.
Jack nodded and opened the door wider.
"Did I wake you?" Tommy asked and walked to stand in the middle of the small living room. It was still as impersonal as the last time he'd been here. It made Tommy's heart ache to see proof of Jack's loneliness.
Jack closed the door and crossed his arms. His eyes flitted towards the bedroom before settling on him again. "No, don't worry about it."
Tommy shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have pushed you away."
"You had your reasons. It would've been better if you hadn't found out."
Tommy's eyes widened. "No! Really, that's… well, it's not okay, but it's… right. I should know things like that. I was… a bit overwhelmed, that is all. My parents weren't very happy with each other and this is… kind of proof."
Jack sighed deeply. "You should know that I don't regret what happened between Constance and me. I don't regret that you came out of it. I just regret not having known sooner. I missed all the important things in your life."
Tommy smiled slightly. "Well, I'd say that being frozen to be woken up every year and then one day save the world from being ripped apart is quite important."
Jack laughed. "You're right," he muttered.
"I don't want to lose your friendship."
"That's good, since I don't want to lose yours, either."
Tommy swallowed. "And I don't want to wake up one year and find you gone without you knowing how important you are to me. You're practically… all I have left."
"I won't go anywhere," Jack answered quietly.
"One day you will. They all do," Tommy said softly. "Every time I wake up I find someone gone and someone new in their place."
"Won't happen with me." Jack looked solemnly at him and took a deep breath. "I can't die."
Tommy stared at him, then he laughed. "Don't be silly."
"I'm not. Something happened to me and now I can't die. I've been on Earth since 1869. Originally, I come from outer space, another world, even another time. The future. How I ended up here is a long story and maybe I can tell you next time you wake up. But… I can't die… ever apparently."
Tommy stared at him. "Impossible!"
"You should know that it isn't. You've seen Torchwood. You've seen what we're dealing with." It sounded incredible, but somehow, Tommy felt that what Jack was telling was the truth. "That's why I moved into a new flat last year. I was living in the other one for ten years and since I don't age, people started to notice that I don't change. I had to get away from there."
Tommy was still stunned. "That's… my father is immortal. My father is an immortal alien from the future outer space!"
Jack laughed. "I'm human, don't worry about that. Well… mostly human." He winked at Tommy and Tommy found himself grin.
Suddenly, a male voice came from the bedroom, "Jack? Are you coming?" Seconds later, a tall, dark-haired man appeared in the bedroom door. He was naked and didn't seem the least bit ashamed about it, even when he noticed Tommy. "I'm waiting," he said.
Jack smiled at him. "I'll be right with you."
"Looking forward to it." the man said with a wink and went back to the bedroom.
Tommy let the implications of what he'd just witnessed sink in. "Oh!" was all he could say.
"Yes." Jack suddenly seemed a bit tentative. "I hope that's not a problem for you."
Tommy released a breath and thought about that for a moment, remembered the disgusted way his father had always talked about "those men", remembered his friends making jokes about boys who liked the musical theatre … and found that he didn't care. "After everything you've told me tonight?" he asked. "I don't think so."
Jack smiled happily. "Well, I'm afraid I've got to go and send someone home, now. Wait for me here. We can talk some more."
Tommy nodded.
xxx
The next years were almost a blur. There and then gone again with Tommy only ever experiencing twenty-four hours of each of them.
The city changed: new, modern buildings were built and then replaced by even more modern buildings; the bay changed dramatically and became a meeting place with restaurants and pubs and small shops and – last but not least – the Millennium Centre.
The people changed: breaking out of the stiff conventions established over decades and becoming rebels, then settling into new conventions.
And Jack, he changed too: Tommy saw many lovers come and go, saw or heard about those who really meant something to Jack (poor Greg, poor Michael and poor Estelle) and he spent three wonderful evenings sitting down at a table for dinner with Lucia and Melissa, then one year alone with Jack, the shadows of his lost family clinging to his father.
Then, in 2000, Jack was a lonely fighter, not even a team to back him up and too much alcohol in the cupboards of his office. It stayed that way for quite some time, until Tommy was woken up and looked into the smiling face of Suzie Costello and saw a shy man lingering in the shadows who introduced himself as Ben Brown. But Ben was gone soon, and in his stead came Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones.
And now, Tommy was lying here, the weight of decades he'd barely lived in on his shoulders, and it would end tomorrow. Tomorrow, he would stop whatever was happening to the Rift. And he would never see his father or Toshiko again. He pulled her closer and buried his face in her hair.