Title: Pawns in the Game (4/8)
Author: Liz (surrexi on LJ)
Rating: PG-13 (mostly for language)
Spoilers/Timeline: a re-write of the Torchwood finale; spoilers for Doctor Who 2.13 "Doomsday."
Ships: Jack/Rose, implied OT3, slight Jack/Gwen and Jack/Ianto (about as much as was in the episode initially)
Summary: In the midst of increased rift activity, Rose Tyler appears in the plaza above Torchwood. Did the rift bring her there, or is something more serious happening in Cardiff?
Author's Note: Okay, if the Doctor isn't going to rip open reality and go get Rose, then I guess I'll just have to do it for him. Still, I don't own these people, so don't sue me. A thousand thanks to my wonderful betas tinuviel428 and autumnjoy.
"We're all full on the main vault levels," Ianto said. "Do you want me to activate the vaults below? It's just we've never used them since I've been here."
Jack nodded. "Do it. Gwen, Rose, with me. Let's run a check on our friend the dancehall manager."
Chapter Four
Jack, Gwen, and Rose were at the computers running their checks on Bilis when Owen and Toshiko returned from the hospital. Jack looked up as the gate opened.
"Owen. How was the hospital?"
"Laugh a bloody minute," Owen replied, his voice even more caustic than usual. Toshiko walked numbly to her workstation while Owen continued. "They've got an outbreak of the Black Death."
"What?" Gwen's mouth fell open in shock. "Oh my God."
Jack turned to Tosh. "Have they got it under control?" Tosh was staring sightlessly at her monitor and didn't respond. Jack slammed his hand down on her desk. "Tosh! How are they coping?"
"Um," she managed, startled out of her stupor. "Owen got the place quarantined and organized treatments for those who've been infected."
"Only consolation is, it's treatable these days." Owen's voice was full of frustration and barely-leashed anger. "But you know, what happens when the next carrier comes through, Jack? One with smallpox, or Ebola, or something from the future we don't even know about? What do we do then?"
Jack grimaced, then schooled his features to neutral. Rose tensed. She didn't know Jack's team, but she knew Jack. And Jack was close to his boiling point.
"Yeah, well, it's not doing us any good standing around speculating." Jack turned to head towards his office, his arm rising to reach for Rose, when Owen blocked his path.
"We need to be prepared! We're helpless! All we're doing here is putting sticking plasters on gaping wounds!"
Rose moved ever so slightly closer to Jack. Not that she'd have the brute strength to stop Jack from lunging at Owen in case his temper blew, but she felt better if she was close enough to at least try.
"What do you suggest, Dr. Harper?"
"I suggest you lead us! Tell us where the instructions for the rift manipulator are-"
Gwen cut Owen off. "Owen…"
"No!" he insisted. "I'm just saying what we're all thinking." Owen stepped closer to Jack, getting up in his face. "You're the big man here, you keep all the secrets. Not just about yourself, but about our own bloody jobs!"
Rose could practically feel the anger vibrating off Jack. "Um, gentlemen?" she tried to interrupt, but neither one paid attention.
"It's time you let us in on a few of those secrets, Captain. So tell us. How the hell are you going to get us out of this one?"
"You want to know a secret, Owen? I'll tell you a secret: there is no solution." Rose thought Jack was sounding far too reasonable, so she inched forward again and laid a tentative hand at the small of his back. He continued speaking as if he hadn't noticed. "I can't fix this, it's beyond me. And do you know why, Owen?" Some of the calm started to leak out of his tone. "Because it was never meant to happen. The first thing, the first goddamn thing that you learned when you joined Torchwood was 'don't mess with the rift'. But you, oh you thought you knew better, and you disobeyed orders and now everything that's happening is down to you."
"I only disobeyed orders to get you back."
"And now people are dying," Jack snapped out. Rose's fingers bunched in his shirt.
"What?" Owen responded immediately. "So I shouldn't have bothered? You'd be stuck in 1941, and by the way, you wouldn't have your precious Rose Tyler back. I don't see you complaining about her or locking her in a cell in the vault like the others."
Jack's voice went deadly calm. "You leave her out of this."
"Why? Why is she different? You cut me down because I took a risk and brought you back, and you get angry about every other person and alien that's fallen through the rift since then, but Rose bloody Tyler comes through and that's fucking daisies."
Jack clenched his jaw and merely reached to where Rose's hand was still clinging to his shirt and laced his fingers with hers.
Owen's eyes flashed. "Right. And who the fuck are you anyway? Jack Harkness? You don't even exist." He gestured to the team. "We've looked! So if you're not even a real person on top of being a bloody hypocrite, then why the hell should I be following your orders?"
"Get out." Jack's voice still retained the cold, dead calm of his previous statement. Owen blinked.
"What?"
"Get out!" Now Jack's voice fired up. It was a toss-up whether the cold fury or the fiery rage was scarier. "I'm relieving you of your duty."
Tosh and Gwen immediately began voicing their dissent.
"Bollocks, you are!" Owen exclaimed.
Jack closed the short distance between them, until he was practically nose to nose with Owen. "You're done here."
Pulling Rose behind him, Jack pushed past Owen towards his office.
Owen scoffed loudly. "So that's it? The whole fucking world is going to shit and you're firing me?"
"For God's sake!" Gwen burst out. "Both of you! We need to stick together on this, all of us!"
Jack turned to look at his team. "If I can't rely on you, if I don't have your complete trust, you don't belong here." He gazed at each in turn. "That goes for the rest of you. Anyone here who agrees with Owen, leave now." If it hadn't been for the fact that Rose was still holding his hand and he'd squeezed it rather tightly, she might have thought he was confident no one else would leave. But his fingers didn't relax until it became clear that the rest of the team was frozen in place.
"So now we know how it is," Owen said bitterly. "Guess that leaves me twenty-four hours to savor the good times."
Gwen looked up sharply. "What do you mean, what are you talking about?"
"Oh, think about it, Gwen. Nobody leaves this place intact. Sometime in the next twenty-four hours…" he paused, trained his gaze on Jack. "I get Ret-conned. All my memories erased. I don't know where or when. But he'll get me."
Jack's face was expressionless. Beside him, Rose knew hers was probably bordering on incredulous. She didn't think now would be the time to interrupt, however, so she simply began rubbing circles on Jack's hand with her thumb.
"Jack," Gwen said in a shocked voice. "This has gone far enough." Jack said nothing, moved not a muscle.
"So I guess this is goodbye," Owen finally said. He put his gun down on a table and headed for the door. "Good luck with the end of the world." He glanced at Gwen and felt a pang of sadness. "I'd say thanks for the memories, but…"
"Jack, for God's sake!"
But Jack didn't respond to Gwen's outburst, or Toshiko's pleading expression, or the pained shock in Ianto's eyes. He didn't react as Owen left the Hub. When the doors closed behind Owen, and Jack's team was staring at him with a mixture of shock and pleading, he closed his eyes. He needed a moment. Just one moment.
"I'll be in my office, with Rose. Keep looking for Bilis. Come get me when you find him."
Without another word, he led Rose back to the office. He sat down at his desk and, resting his elbows on the scarred wood, he put his head in his hands. Rose stood across the desk watching him.
"Are you really going to wipe his memory?" she asked tentatively.
"It's procedure," he muttered. He was furious with Owen, but even more furious with himself for letting his temper get the better of him. And furious with both of them for being pigheaded enough to land themselves in this position in the first place.
"How long has he worked here?"
"About two years," Jack murmured. He could see where Rose was going with this.
"Two years," she repeated. Jack raised his head and met her gaze, and she watched his expression carefully. "That's a lot of time to take away from a man."
"I'm well aware of that," he snapped, and Rose didn't think he'd ever spoken to her with so much bite. He hissed out a breath, frustration evident in his face. "As you know, which is why you brought it up in the first place."
Rose said nothing and moved to stand behind Jack's chair. She put her hands on his shoulders and rubbed gently.
"I'm counting on him not being able to stay away," he admitted after a few minutes of silence. Rose stopped rubbing, and Jack turned his chair so that he was facing her. "If he doesn't come back, give me an excuse not to, I don't know if I can…" He trailed off miserably.
Rose reached out and cupped his cheek tenderly. "You are such a good man, Jack Harkness."
He leaned into her touch. "I don't know about that."
"I know about that," she said firmly.
Jack gave a sad smile, then turned his head to press a soft kiss to her palm.
"Captain," Gwen said from the doorway. She'd stood there unnoticed since just after Jack had turned to face Rose, and she fought down the lump in her throat at the tender scene. "Ianto's wanting you for something to do with the vaults."
Jack nodded and rose from his chair. "And Bilis?"
"Tosh says she's almost got him pinned down."
Jack nodded. "Stay here," he said to Rose as he brushed by Gwen and left the office, leaving the two women alone.
After a moment or two of merely staring at each other, Rose broke the silence. "Are you going to interrogate me like Ianto did?" She tried a smile. "You two are almost as protective of Jack as I am."
"What is he to you, and you to him?" Gwen's arms were crossed over her chest, and her face had that policewoman edge she got when questioning someone.
Rose took a deep breath and opted for honesty. Seemed to be the best bet, woman to woman. "While I was in the parallel universe, there was only one person I missed more than I missed Jack. My mum, my best mate… they're still in the parallel universe. And even knowing that, even though I love them, I wouldn't trade what I have right now to go back to them." She paused meaningfully. "That's what Jack and I are to each other."
Gwen nodded, eyes wide. "Well, then," she murmured.
"I've got him!" they heard Tosh yell from her workstation. Gwen gestured out.
"We should probably…"
"Check it out, yeah," Rose finished. "Gwen."
Gwen looked over to Rose.
"I'm sorry. If I've made things even more difficult than they already would have been. Not sorry to be here, mind," she interrupted herself. "But I don't mean to cause you, or anyone else here, pain." She walked toward Gwen, smiling slightly. "You look very much like someone I met once, a long time ago. She was one of the bravest people I've ever known. For what it's worth, you don't just remind me of her because you look like her."
Gwen nodded. "Thank you."