Day 3.
This time you don't wake up as early, since you wake up on your own. It's about eleven in the morning. You have a feeling you won't go to Torchwood today. Not until it's night-time, because you want to intervene. You wash up and get dressed. Today, you're wearing skinny jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt with white stripes, black combat boots, a black leather with crystals bracelet with silver-tone brass studs, silver-tone brass skull, and an adjustable buckle fastening and your silver wristwatch.
You eat breakfast, since yesterday you hadn't and you hadn't noticed how hungry you were until Jack called you for lunch, and then brush your teeth before you start working on the transcript of the second episode.
Tosh calls you and asks you if you want to go to lunch with the rest of the team, but you decline, thanking her but telling her you have to work on what Jack asked you to.
You have lunch while watching another movie.
Then you start working again on the transcript, but even though you're three-quarters through, you're getting bored. So, you pick up a book and read a little. It's six in the evening when you put the book down.
You grab your green camo military jacket and put it on. You also grab your keys, both of your phones, and put them in your pockets as you leave your apartment.
You know you have to get to the Hub before Gwen does, even though you know she goes there at night, after two in the morning. So, you walk around the city, find a nice place where you can have dinner, and then walk around some more until you find yourself at the Millennium Centre and by then it's already night-time.
Even better, it's past two already.
You see Gwen at the water structure, and also Suzie. You can't see her, but you know it's her. You walk toward them, carefully, not wanting Suzie to see you yet. When they start talking, you start walking faster, never mind whether they can see you or not.
"Hello again. You were right. You told Jack we should liaise with the police. I was the only one who bothered. So, I was the only one who saw the report," Suzie says, before taking out the knife. "They got a good likeness." Gwen gasps, and you get closer to them, still not catching their attention.
"I'm arresting you for…" Gwen starts weakly, but cuts herself off to ask a more important question. "How do I know you?"
Before Suzie can answer, you step into the light and they finally notice you.
"What are you doing here?" Suzie asks you.
"Knew you'd be here," you reply honestly. You know she'll kill herself — and isn't that horrible to think about? —, so you don't see why you should lie. Who'd she tell? In this universe, there's no afterlife. And even if there were… would anyone believe her?
"How?"
Still, Gwen's here. She doesn't die. "Does it matter?" you evade the question.
"How do I know you?" Gwen repeats, but this time, you know the question also concerns you, not Suzie only. And you wish you could tell her, but this is it — her test of character. She has to show the strength of her character, and for that, she has to remember it all on her own.
Doesn't mean you and Suzie can't give her any clues.
The woman in question shakes her head. "I thought you might've saw it. And that can trip the amnesia, one image, if you're clever. He said you were good. Anyway. It's not much good now, I can't really... But you're gonna put up a fight. So I've got..." She reaches for her handbag, and you remember she pulls out a gun. "Um. Hold on. Sorry."
"Shit," you curse. But before you can do anything to stop her, Suzie pulls out a gun, after struggling for a moment with her handbag. She puts her bag on the ground as she points the weapon at Gwen, then at you, then back at Gwen again.
"Put it down," Gwen demands.
"You had to come back," Suzie whines.
"Put the gun down," Gwen repeats. She looks at you for help, but you shake your head. She won't put it down and you know it. The only thing you can do is keep her rambling, so she will delay the firing. You might know a thing or two about fighting, but disarming someone that dangerous with a gun pointed at your face, and not being close enough? Attempting anything right now would be suicide.
"You're the only one who can make the link. Well, the only one in public. Torchwood's gonna find out by morning, but I'll be gone. I don't know where. Far away. What am I gonna do? I loved this job. I really loved it. And now I've got to run. Oh, Christ. How can you do any other job after this one?" she asks, with regret filling her voice. You put yourself in her place, which is easy, seen as you've done it before.
"You don't," you answer. "Working at Torchwood must be amazing."
"It is." Suzie nods. She'd pointed the gun at you as you spoke.
"Please put the gun down," Gwen repeats. Instead, Suzie points the gun at her.
"It gets inside you. You do this job for long enough, and you end up thinking, 'How come we get all the Weevils and bollocks and shit?' Is that what alien life is? Filth? But maybe there's better stuff out there, brilliant stuff, beautiful stuff. Just... they don't come here. This planet's so dirty, that's all we get — the shit," she complains.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Gwen says, but you do.
"Well, Weevils are 'shit'," you agree with her — it's kind of hard not to when it comes to those little… aliens —, but you're not done yet. She points her gun at you. "Alien life… Well, it depends. Some creatures, like the Ood, are nice and trusting. Then you have the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Weeping Angels and stuff. Believe me, Weevils are nothing compared to that. And let's not forget the Vashta Nerada…" You trail off. "Those are nasty. And the Star Whales or whatever they're called. They're beautiful, but they can't come here. It would destroy the city if it came through the Rift. Honestly? Weevils aren't that bad compared to everything else that can come through."
You've said too much. You know that, but Suzie is about to die, and it's not like Gwen understands anything that you're saying. Suzie probably doesn't either, for that matter. Ood, Weeping Angels, Vashta Nerada… The only ones she might know are the Daleks and Cybermen, but is that enough to prove the point you're trying to make? Is it enough for her, anyway?
"How do you know so much?" Suzie narrows her eyes a bit and shakes her head. She ignores you and starts complaining again. And you understand — this is her goodbye letter, of course she'd rather reveal her motives, purge her guilt, than to question you on stuff you'll probably refuse to answer anyway. Suzie's smart; she must know you won't say anything. So, why bother, when her time is so limited? "I wish I could forget."
"Why did you kill those people?" Gwen asks.
"For the glove," Suzie answers. She motions, as if she were to move closer to where Gwen and you are.
"Just — stay where you are."
"I needed the bodies. That's how it works. Violent death. And it was so easy. To bring them back, I'd position myself behind the head, so they'd never see me twice," Suzie explains what you already knew.
But to Gwen it's completely new, and her astonishment and incomprehension is quite evident when she remarks, "You killed three people."
"It was the only way. The more I use the glove, the more I control it," Suzie continues her explanation.
"I don't understand. What glove? Where have I seen you before?" Gwen keeps asking questions, and you wonder if she remembers already and she's just pretending or if she genuinely doesn't remember yet.
Probably the latter. Breaking through the retcon must be painful — headache-inducing at the very least — and she hasn't shown any signs of pain yet.
"If I can get enough practice, then think what that glove could do. If I could get it work all the time, on anything, beyond the two minutes, if it could work permanently, it could resurrect."
Jack starts rising from the platform, and you know this is the moment you have to prove yourself. Besides, you've always wanted to knock some sense into her. "Look — that's crazy. I mean, yes, the glove could resurrect, but there's a natural order. Someone lives, someone dies. If you try and resurrect someone, and it works, then you'll die. You can't fight natural order. That has some serious consequences." You remember the episode of Supernatural when Dean tries to get a little girl to live but everything goes sour. That can't happen — not here, not for real. "You can't mess with resurrection. And imagine if you could resurrect someone without dying yourself. Then what? You decide who comes back and who doesn't? 'Cause I'm sure you'd be the one using the glove, right?" She nods, but you weren't really expecting an answer, your rant well underway. "Then what? Deciding who dies and who doesn't makes you a monster. And besides, you'd be playing God, which isn't exactly smart or right."
"You don't understand." Suzie shakes her head. "Resurrection on demand for the whole world, that's good. It really is. And I wouldn't just choose who to resurrect. Anyway, that's what I've been working for, all day and all night. The rest of them go swanning about, but I'm working. You've got to get inside this stuff. Surrender yourself to it. I did, with the knife, and the glove, and that's why the perception filter isn't gonna work on me." Like you suspected, she turns around fast and shoots Jack. The bullet hits him in the center of his forehead, and he falls onto the ground, between where Suzie is and where Gwen and you are. You flinch — the gun is loud and the blood is crimson and dark and real —, but you don't react any more than that since you know he's going to come back. Because you know he can't die. And, as cold as that may sound, you're used to watching him die.
"What? Who is he—? Where did he come from?" Gwen asks. "What have you done?"
"Stupid move," you mumble, but it's night-time, and it's so silent around you that everyone hears you.
Instead of answering, Suzie points her gun at you. Her resolution falters, and points at Gwen first.
"Please don't," Gwen pleads.
"I can't let any of you go." She switches back at you and you know you're going to be the first one to go down. Any minute now, Jack, you think, fear abruptly coming back. You swallow and make a step backwards out of instinct. You don't go for a run, though. Instead, you force yourself to stay where you are.
"Please," you plead, trying to buy yourself some time. Come on, Jack… Please.
"I've got to." She gets ready to fire, and you close your eyes and take a deep breath before opening your eyes again. If Jack doesn't wake up now, you'll be dead, and you won't have saved them. You'd have died in vain. A tear slips down your cheek, and out of the corner of your eye, you notice Gwen is also crying. She's probably overwhelmed by fear and — oh, there's the headache. She's also remembering everything she'd forgotten.
That's when Jack stands up, catching your attention, and you sigh, relieved. The bullet hole is still visible on his forehead. You can't look away from that morbid sight.
"Put the gun down," he says, and Suzie turns around, eyes widening. The bullet hole closes.
"Suzie, it's over," Jack says. "Now come with me." He holds his hand out to her.
Suzie hesitates, eyes flickering between Gwen and you and Jack. She puts the gun under her chin and fires. You wince at the sound. It's louder than you thought. She falls to the ground, dead.
Gwen gasps, and you turn to look at her. You know Jack is looking down at Suzie's body, probably remembering all the times he'd seen his teammates die. Gwen looks between Suzie's body and Jack, then once at you, but she glances back at Jack, and you remember how she once admitted she loved Jack. This time though, she says, "I remember." And she falls to her knees. The shock is probably too much for her.
While Jack is doing all that stuff you know he'll do, like putting the glove in a locked box, ask for whatever the guys took, and put Suzie's body in the morgue, you and Gwen are in the kitchen at the Hub. She's drinking a glass of water, trying to recover from the shock. Honestly, you're numb, but you force yourself to look fine — to be fine —, even if you're still a bit shaken from when Suzie was ready to kill you.
Then Jack comes back and takes you and Gwen to the rooftop of the main Millennium Centre building. It's dawn, and honestly, it's as beautiful as in the episode, but you can't quite focus on that, the events of the night still haunting your thoughts.
It was far more terrifying in person.
"Owen and Toshiko, you didn't tell them that you were shot in the head and survived," Gwen says.
"You didn't tell them either." The way he says it, you know he means both of you, not just Gwen. "Followed my lead. Keep doing that, and you might just get through this."
Gwen sighed. "But she killed you."
This is the moment when Jack tells her about how he died. "I can't die."
"Okay."
"But I can't. Something happened to me a while back — It's a long story," he cuts himself off, and you know that he never said "It's a long story" in the show. He explained the little he knew about his own death and resurrection. Huh. This is how you know you've started to change things already.
"So, nothing kills you?" This, you remember. Gwen's pertinent question. She never stops with those, and, quite frankly, you hope she never will.
"Well, it kind of freaks people out, so... best if you don't say anything."
"It doesn't matter anyway. You'll only wipe my memory again," Gwen says, resentfully. You understand her, because if that had happened to you, you'd be pretty cross with them. Who would want to forget something like that?
"Why would I do that?" Jack asks. So, he's still going to employ her. You sigh. So maybe you won't be working for Torchwood after all. Not from the inside anyway. Gwen gives Jack a weird look. "You were right. Maybe we could do more to help. And having a liaison with the police is a good idea."
"So, you'll help?" Gwen asks.
"Yep," Jack answers. This is weird. Different. He isn't going to employ her. You get hopeful. Maybe he will employ you after all. He turns to you. "I read your transcript. Pretty accurate. Torchwood's got a vacancy. Job going to spare. Do you want it?"
Maybe you should go with Gwen's dialogue. Her "But… what do you need me for?". But Jack knows you want the job and, hell, you know it too, and you want it bad. "I think you know the answer to that."
Fuck, yes.
