Pathways in Time

Story 4 – War Wounds
Take one Jack, a pinch of Torchwood, a dash of interdimensional carnivore, and stir.

Things run smoothly for a few months; no evil dictators threatening their decapitation, no alien invasions of galactic scale, no Daleks to glide in at the last second and screech EX-TERM-IN-ATE in the rather monotonous way that they do.

Then a run-in with a temporal Vortesaur while gliding through the Vortex throws everything for a loop. Ramsey, perhaps, or maybe one of his descendants; the thought gives him another twinge for Charlie, which he angrily locks away. The TARDIS materializes somewhere on the edge of Cardiff, Wales, and right into the laps of Torchwood-3.

None are more surprised to see them at the scene of the emergence then one Jack Harkness. None are more flustered, awed, and pissed as all hell either. Thankfully the appearance of Ramsey-the-Second out of the spatial rift prevents Jack from doing too much harm to the baffled Time Lord.

Martha still gets to put her schooling to use, once the inter-dimensional bird of prey has been tossed back into the Vortex, and he manages to explain a few things to Jack. The man is considerably subdued and willing to listen; especially after the Doctor alone witnessed him get up from a fall that should've liquefied him.

Yes, I regenerated. Yes, Rose is alive. No, we can't reach her.

No, I can't undo what she did.

You've changed, Jack notes thoughtfully out loud, and he has to pause and consider it. He still darts about like a hummingbird on Red Bull, still prattles his way out of situations with rapidfire technobabble, but some of that enthusiasm has been lost. He's quieter. But that's alright.

Jack's changed too.

He offers to take Jack with them, but the ex-Time Agent declines. Torchwood still needs him around for a while yet.