Torchwood, Doctor Who, and The Sarah Jane Adventures do NOT belong to me. I really wish they did so I could save so many awesome characters *cough*Ianto*cough*, but alas they do not.
Please note that this story is AU. Torchwood is between Small Worlds and Coutrycide, Doctor Who should be in season 3, and The Sarah Jane adventures is during The Temptation of Sarah-Jane.
XX
"How the hell could you let those things take that little girl?" Gwen asked angrily the next morning while Evie's neck still had a crick in it because curling up against Jack, while good for a few minutes, or even an hour, is not a good way to sleep.
"Would you rather we lost the entire world for it?" Evie replied venomously, "That's what would have happened if we hadn't let them take a sad little girl, who'd rather play in the woods than deal with her family. They would have frozen the world to punish us."
"But that girl!" Gwen argued right back. There was no logic to her arguments, just sheer righteous anger, "We should have helped her."
"We tried. She wanted to go with them, and they only wanted her. There wasn't anything we could do!" Evie yelled back. Owen, Tosh and Ianto were all standing to the side watching as the two strong-willed women shouted across the desk level of the hub. Evie was not in a good mood, because even though everyone (save Ianto) had come in late, she and Jack hadn't woken before them, so they come out of the office half dressed, not seeing the time to find everyone there. So Evie was wearing Jack's clothes because she refused to put on her dirty clothes from the day before, and they were several sizes too big, and highly uncomfortable.
"Okay, you two stop it!" Jack yelled down from his office, "You're both off duty, starting now."
"What?" Evie asked incredulously looking up at him, "But it's Thursday. All kinds of crazy stuff happens over the weekend."
"Yeah, but neither of you are any use if you can't speak a civil word to each other," Jack said sternly. He stood watching until Gwen had packed up her things and stormed from the hub, without a single word to Jack, or anyone else. Evie gathered up her own things, but she didn't leave right away.
"Jack," Evie said stepping up the short flight to where Jack was standing still.
"Evie," Jack replied with a raised eyebrow. Evie rocked herself up on the balls of her feet and kissed Jack sweetly.
"I'll be in tomorrow morning," Evie said with a smile, "And if you want I'll bring a spare set of clothes and spend the night again."
"No, you're taking the SUV and going to see Sarah-Jane," Jack said handing Evie a set of car keys.
"What?" Evie said backing up sharply on the stairs, "But – you need me."
"We'll be fine for one weekend, I need you to relax for a while. You've been working nonstop for weeks. It's time for you to have a little break." Jack told her kissing the top of her head. Then he nudged ever-so-lightly on her back and led her out of the hub through a side tunnel to the garage where they kept the two SUVs (it was also where Gwen, Tosh, and Owen parked their cars). Jack helped Evie into the SUV and kissed her again before closing the door and watching Evie drive off, rather reluctantly.
Evie went home, took a bath to get rid of the crick, packed some clothes and went out for a late lunch. She finally realized it would be stupid to leave on a Thursday afternoon, and she went home. She left the next day about noon and made the two hour drive to Ealing.
XX
"Evie!" Sarah- Jane sounded excited as she opened the door to find Evie standing on the stoop, "What are you doing here today?"
"I got kicked out of the hub and practically forced out of the city," Evie admitted with a little rueful grin.
"Why on earth?" Sarah-Jane asked stepping aside to let Evie in.
"Gwen and I got into a fight, and put off duty. Then Jack says I've been spending too much time at work. He finally kicked me out. He literally walked me out of the hub!" Evie said in mild outrage, "What's worse is he made me take the whole weekend off, so I can't even go back in till Monday!"
"Why are you so anxious to get back to work?" Sarah-Jane asked with a mildly incredulous look.
"Oh! That's right! I hadn't told you yet," Evie said smacking her own forehead lightly, "Jack and I have started dating, and he spends all his time watching the rift from the hub, that's why I've been taking extra hours, to be with him. But I spent the night Wednesday, at the hub with him. Nothing dirty, don't give me that look!"
"You and Jack?" Sarah-Jane asked leading Evie into the kitchen, "Not what I would have expected."
"I didn't really expect it either," Evie admitted as Sarah-Jane made tea, "It all started because I woke up on the hub couch – naked – and Jack was laid out behind me in a similar state. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what had happened."
"Mum?" Luke's voice called from the front hall.
"I'm in the kitchen Luke," Sarah-Jane called back, "We have a visitor."
"Oh," Luke said walking into the kitchen and seeing Evie perched on the edge of the counter, "Hi Auntie Evie."
"Hey Luke," Evie replied with a grin. Luke was followed into the kitchen by a boy Evie assumed was Clyde from the phone calls (she had never been over when Clyde was before), and a pretty Indian girl Evie didn't recognize from any descriptions.
"Evie, this is Clyde and Rani," Sarah-Jane said gesturing first to the boy, then the girl, "Clyde, Rani, this is Evie Smith."
"So, are you Sarah-Jane's sister?" Clyde asked looking between the two women for any resemblance.
"Oh, no!" Evie said with a wide grin, "I'm Sarah-Jane's aunt!" Clyde's mouth dropped open and Rani looked completely disbelieving.
"How old are you?" Clyde asked after a moment.
"Twenty-six," Evie answered with a grin saying quite clearly that she knew something they didn't, "Time-travel's a bugger isn't it?"
"You travelled forward in time?" Rani asked in amazement.
"No! My older brother got snatched through a rift in time and space in Cardiff! He ended up in 1945, and I was busy at University," Evie said laughing at messing with the kids' heads.
"Evie and I only met a year ago," Sarah-Jane continued with a mildly disapproving look in Evie's direction. Mixing a 26 year old with three teenagers half her age probably wasn't the best idea, "Her current boss contacted me because she was looking for her brother, who had died a number of years previously."
"Where do you work then?" Clyde asked trying to sound disinterested.
"Torchwood," Evie answered, "My boss used to travel with the Doctor like Sarah-Jane here. He runs Torchwood Three monitoring the rift in Cardiff."
"So, do you deal with aliens too?" Rani asked eagerly as Sarah-Jane poured cups of tea for everyone.
"Oh, yeah," Evie said casually, "We've got a weevil called Janet in the holding cells. Every time we've tried to let her back into the sewers she's gone and gotten into trouble. So she just stays with us now. Oh! And we've got Myfanwy. She's a pterodactyl. Plus I got the job because I giant walking fish's blood got in my system and made me convulse."
"Ever saved the world?" Clyde asked probably trying to be superior.
"No, not yet. But with Jack around it's just a matter of time. Well, unless you count the whole 'fairy' incident. We might have saved the world on that one. But it wasn't one of our shining moments," Evie admitted with a grimace as she poured sugar into her tea.
"Fairies?" Rani asked disbelievingly.
"Well, people call them fairies. They're not really," Evie admitted stirring her cup, "They're not even alien. They've been here long before humans, and they take Chosen children. And they would have destroyed the world if we hadn't let them have that little girl. She wanted to go, but it didn't make it any easier letting her. Gwen's not really talking to me or Jack. Arguing sometimes though."
"Gwen?" Sarah-Jane asked, "I meant to ask a minute before, who's Gwen?"
"No, I didn't think I had told you," Evie admitted, "She's new. She used to be a police Constable. But she caught us testing the Resurrection Gauntlet and tracked us down. Jack thought she'd make a good field agent, and a good police liaison especially after she helped us catch Suzie."
"Who is Suzie?" Luke asked furrowing his brow in confusion.
"A woman I used to work with," Evie said sadly, "She had been killing people to test the Resurrection Glove on. Not all evil comes from the stars sadly."
There was a long moment of silence as everyone thought about that.
"Since you've been forced to take the weekend off, why don't you stay here with Luke and me?" Sarah-Jane offered.
"That'd be great! I'm not even allowed to take the SUV back to the hub until Monday morning," Evie admitted, "I'll miss Jack though."
"I think you need a break if he's chased you out of Wales," Sarah-Jane laughed. After a moment Evie joined in feeling much better. She could survive a weekend with family.
XX
"So, why was I woken at five am by very loud music?" Evie asked sounding severely annoyed looking into Luke's room where he and Clyde were lounging on Luke's bed with music blasting.
"What time is it now?" Clyde asked without even looking up
"Five," Evie grunted out. Why did Clyde and Luke decide to have a sleepover when Evie was staying over? It wasn't very good manners, and besides that they could have at least respected sleep.
"Sorry, Aunt Evie," Luke said turning the music down low so it couldn't be heard once the door was shut.
"Now, I understand you're teenagers, but I have a piece of advice for you," Evie said pulling her dressing gown tighter around her pajamas, "Sleep is good." With that Evie shut the door and went into the room next to it and fell in bed without bothering to take off the dressing gown or pull the covers around her. In moments she was fast asleep.
XX
After the early morning incident with the music things went smoothly. Evie dragged herself out of bed at seven-thirty and made herself some tea. She was one her third cup when Sarah-Jane came down half an hour later fully dressed and ready for the day. She even looked perky. She hadn't even had tea not to mention coffee!
So unfair.
"Sleep well?" Sarah-Jane asked fixing herself toast.
"Until this morning…yes," Evie said gulping down the last of the latest cup of tea.
"What happened this morning?" Sarah-Jane asked fixing herself a some tea.
"Luke and Clyde put music on loud enough to wake me," Evie told her, "I don't blame them. No doubt I did the same thing when I was younger. Or more likely I had music on at night, and kept everyone from falling asleep."
"Really?" Sarah-Jane asked raising an eyebrow. Just then Clyde and Luke came barreling down the stairs laughing about something (it was probably either something inane or it had to do with the whole 'I-fight-aliens-and-think-it's-normal' thing).
"Guten Morgan," Evie said out of nowhere making everyone look at her in surprise. Who would have thought she spoke another language? Evie started laughing at their expressions, it was just too much really, "That's the only thing I can say. I just wanted to see your expressions. Damn, I should have had a camera!"
"So," Evie said after she had stopped laughing, "Who wants to introduce me to Mr. Smith?"
"Why do you need so see him?" Clyde asked in suspicion.
"Well, because he's alien. And he has ridiculously large databanks that I would love to take a look into. Plus, I want to hi-jack his systems to update the Torchwood archives," Evie said the last with a shrug before getting up and washing her mug.
"There will be no hi-jacking of Mr. Smith's systems," Sarah-Jane told her sternly before leading her upstairs, "I think you'll like him though. He's recently grown a sense of humor."
"After the whole reboot right?" Evie asked following eagerly. A slightly less eager Luke and Clyde trailed behind.
"Yes. With his new directive he's changed completely. It's really impressive," Sarah-Jane replied.
The Attic wasn't that impressive at first look. It had a pillar in the middle with some little table things, and a two separate levels, and a large alcove on the upper layer filled with bookshelves with various states of disarray. But when you looked closer, as Evie did, you realized most of the gadgets were alien, and a number of the books were written in characters even Evie, with her experience with Torchwood's archives, had never seen before. On wall there was what looked a bit like a brick fireplace, from the outside. She you could see the shape, but not the opening for the fire.
It was that spot that Sarah-Jane and the boys focused on.
"Mr. Smith, I need you," Sarah-Jane sang out, obviously in a good mood.
"Good Morning Sarah-Jane. I see we have a guest," Mr. Smith said in a highly formal voice.
"Hello Mr. Smith, I'm Evie," Evie said with an urge to offer her hand for a handshake.
"Hello Evie Smith, Second-in-command at Torchwood Three, Cardiff," Mr. Smith greeted seeming to surprise Clyde. He hadn't been told she was second-in-command obviously.
"Do my records really say Evie Smith as my official name?" Evie asked with an ironic grin.
"Yes, Ms. Evie," Mr. Smith replied.
"I'll have to fix that then," Evie said crossing her arms, "Jack loves to mess with me doesn't he? Oh! Speaking of Jack, can you hack into the secured files of Torchwood concerning Captain Jack Harkness?"
"I'm sorry Ms. Evie. I require an authorization code from the commander of Torchwood Three," Mr. Smith replied.
"Ah, well, it was just a thought," Evie said with a shrug, "He won't tell anyone anything. I don't even know exactly when he started at Torchwood, isn't that nuts? In the last 1800s of course, but that's the best I've got."
"Sarah-Jane," Mr. Smith said as Evie talked to herself quietly about Jack and his secrets, "I have detected an energy spike."
XX
Of course within fifteen minutes they were well on their way to the site of the spike. Sarah-Jane tried to leave Evie behind, but Evie reminded her that she was a Torchwood operative and had been working with weird stuff almost as long as Luke had been alive. She had been included after that, although they had to take Evie's SUV instead of Sarah-Jane's car (too many people to fit in the little thing no matter how cute it was).
"So, no one is allowed in the very back of the SUV," Evie ordered as Rani ran across the road to join them, "Sarah-Jane's allowed, but I doubt she'd have any interest."
"Why?" Rani asked climbing into the back with Luke and Clyde.
"Because I've got stuff back there that no one without a lot of training should even touch. Like a gun. Oh, don't give me that look Sarah-Jane, I'm leaving it in the car, and it's just an energy spike of chronotrons. The only thing I'm bringing with me is my personal scanner. I built it myself so you don't even have to worry about it being s secretly evil alien creature." Evie said getting into the driver's seat, "Buckle up everyone."
The three teenagers in the back buckled up as they were told and Sarah-Jane followed suit in the front.
Two minutes after they left Sarah-Jane's house everyone was begging that Evie never be allowed to drive again.
"I don't know what everyone's problem with my driving is," Evie said as she swerved around the car that was in front of her almost hitting a car in the other lane in the process, "I mean Owen refuses to get in the car if I'm driving, and Tosh puts on a blindfold and earplugs. Jack even grips the armrests. Just because I drive at a reasonable speed…"
"Evie you are going sixty over the limit," Sarah-Jane gritted out, "Please slow down."
"It's not my fault the Speed Limit is sixty too low," Evie complained not changing her speed at all. It was then that a police car came up behind them with its sirens going. Evie obediently pulled over for all the world like this happened everyday.
"I forgot it's not Cardiff," Evie confessed to Sarah-Jane as she rolled down her window, "In Cardiff they don't stop the SUV, because everyone knows it's Torchwood's."
"You realize you were going Sixty over the limit?" The officer asked with a little pad of paper in his hand. It was probably to write her ticket.
"Well, sir, I was just on my way to deal with a possibly earth-destroying energy source," Evie said with this sweet, innocent little smile that had the officer smiling with her.
"Oh? Was it necessary to endanger lives then?" There a frown replacing the smile with the last bit.
"I'm very sorry, but yes," Evie said leaning forward and looking intense, "I'm really sorry, but we have to get going."
"I still have to give you a ticket," The officer said with a sigh.
"I know, I'm sorry for taking up your time, but we're really in such a rush," Evie said earnestly.
The officer wrote up a ticket (for a much smaller amount than it should have been), and drove off. As he left Evie grinned wickedly over at Sarah-Jane.
"My powers of persuasion just save us one hundred pounds on the ticket," Evie said tucking the ticket under her sun visor along with what looked like two other tickets.
"This happen often then?" Sarah-Jane asked looking at the little slips of paper.
"Oh, yeah," Evie said starting the car back up, "Every time I drive really."
XX
They were on some sort of promenade, or shopping center, except more run down. Actually, Evie had no idea where they were. Which was a bad thing, because she was sort of their ride home. She had brought (as she promised) a scanner. It looked sleeker and newer and more futuristic than Sarah-Jane's, but it was calibrated to pick up specific energy readings and those specific readings were all to do with time.
Evie had built the scanner a few months after she started at Torchwood, for the sole purpose of research on time and its functions. Of course that was before Jack had ordered her to complete her thesis, but she had wanted to look into things just for the entertainment of it. Time was a mystery after all. It's perceived linearly, but there was no proof that it was actually linear.
Sarah-Jane's and Evie's two devices registered the energy signature as being the same place. So they headed there directly.
The problem was when they had pinpointed the position and gotten close a little boy came running out of the room that they had figured out was the source. So of course before the adults could do anything the teenagers reacted. Namely Clyde.
"Hey, you! Stay there! Stop!" Clyde yelled at the boy. Of course the boy went rocketing away. What confused kid wouldn't do the same. His clothes seemed to indicate a different time. Not because you couldn't still buy the clothes he was wearing, it was just that no kid his age would be caught dead wearing them.
"Get after him!" Sarah-Jane yelled and Clyde and Rani started running while Luke, Evie, and Sarah-Jane spend to a quick jog. Clyde and Rani were left to chasing down the ten-year-old while the other three made their way into the room that the boy had just vacated.
"It's gorgeous," Evie said with a sigh looking almost as much at her scanner as at the fissure itself. The waves and lines of the energy readings and the numbers scrolling down one side of the display were every bit as beautiful as the moving orange field of light in front of them.
"A time fissure," Luke breathed with wonder, "We're staring into time."
"That poor boy must have wandered in and ended up here. It's happened before. Missing people, lost in time," Sarah-Jane said sadly looking at her own readings on the tiny screen of the device she held.
"But if we stepped through there, we could travel in time. Amazing!" Luke said with a helf-step closer to the fissure. Sarah-Jane held out an arm to stop his progress.
"Uh-uh! It's not safe. We'll send the kid home. I'll use the converter to reduce the energy ratio and close the gap. I hope," Sarah-Jane said the last two word with a flippant surety that told Evie she was sure of the sresults.
"We should retcon him," Evie said tapping a button on her device which changed the colors of the disply for better contrast in the darkened room.
"What?" Luke asked looking thoroughly confused by the term.
"It's an amnesia pill," Evie told him looking up at the wave of orange light, "He takes it before he steps through the fissure, he'll have time to get somewhere comfortable, and he'll fall asleep. When he wakes up he won't remember his gaunt through time."
"We can't do that to him," Sarah-Jane gasped.
"Yes, but we have to preserve the timeline and this stuff has been approved for use since the 1910s. It's Jack's own formula, come from the 51st century, and I'm in charge of the usage, and I know the exact dosage for anyone," Evie said using her 'convincing powers' (as Clyde had labeled them not ten minutes ago) on her niece and great-nephew, "Besides there's not been a single bad reaction, except once in the 1920s when someone was dosed sixteen separate times by someone without the proper experience to know the dosages. And even then, the damage was reversible using a piece of alien tech in the archives."
"NO," Sarah-Jane answered resolutely, "We are not Torchwood. And we will not become them."
"Not quite right," Evie said calmly, "You all, aren't Torchwood and won't become them. I'm already Torchwood. And it's far too late to keep me from becoming one of them."
Before the argument could escalate Clyde and Rani came running in with the little boy between them.
"Sarah-Jane! We got him," Clyde announced proudly making his way across the room.
"What's going on?" the boy asked sounding worried from behind Clyde.
"Don't worry everything's going to be all right," Rani told him pushing him very lightly, to nudge him towards Luke and the two older women.
"Hello. What's your name?" Sarah-Jane asked turning around to look at him. The boy really wasn't that bad. He had combed-over black hair and he was wearing round black glasses. In fact he reminded Evie a little of how she imagined Harry Potter probably looked during the first book. Granted his eyes weren't green, and his clothes were well made and obviously originally his (and outdated, but the poor boy couldn't help that).
But then again, he looked like the kind of kid who was a smarmy git.
"Oscar. Who are you lot? Where am I?" he asked looking scared. But then Evie saw a glint in his eye. He was acting. He was a very good actor, but he was acting (and overdramatizing things).
"Don't worry about that. You're going home, Oscar," Sarah-Jane said with a gentle smile and she turned to her device for a half second to press a button on it. It opened up a doorway into the fissure. Then Sarah-Jane continued, "Just step through. You'll be safe. There's nothing to be scared of."
"Go through. I promise you'll be safe," Rani said with a gentle voice and smile like she was talking to a petulant three-year-old.
"No. I'm scared," Oscar refused. Sarah-Jane was about to act when Evie spoke.
"I'll walk you through," Evie said with her 'charming' smile, "I've always wanted to travel through time." Evie held out her hand and it looked like Oscar was going to refuse when Evie gave him a hard look. So Oscar took her hand reluctantly and let Evie lead him through.
"Don't you dare retcon him!" Sarah-Jane called.
"I already got told off," Evie said rolling her eyes," I won't." With that Evie walked into the fissure with Oscar holding her hand and trailing behind.
On the other side was a grassy meadow and an old windmill.
"What are you playing?" Evie asked gripping the boy's hand tighter to keep him from running off, 'You were lying and acting and I want to know what that fuck you're up to."
"I was sent," Oscar said with n angry grimace as he tried to free his hand.
"Why?" Evie asked gripping even tighter.
"To lure Sarah-Jane Smith to this time and place,"
"Why?" Evie asked, "Sarah-Jane wouldn't let anyone abuse time travel. She traveled with the Doctor. She wouldn't come back here unless there was something amazing about it. What's the emotional attachment?"
"It's Foxgrove," Oscar grunted pulling on his hand again, "Tell her it's Foxgrove of July 1951. She won't be able to stop herself." Oscar was laughing at the last even as he struggled with his hand.
"What if I don't tell her?" Evie asked not easing her grip.
"You'll miss it all," Oscar said with an evil looking grin, "All the action and excitement. Ask Sarah-Jane about Foxgrove. She'll tell you everything."
"Maybe I will, and maybe I won't," Evie said releasing Oscar's hand in a way that pushed his smaller form away from her, "I should retcon you after all. But then Sarah-Jane would kill me if she ever found out."
Evie sighed and looked at the boy again before turning and leaving through the portal she just exited just a moment before.
XX
When Evie exited the fissure she had adopted a pseudo-happy looking grin, and at Sarah-Jane's concerned expression she laughed.
"I didn't retcon him," Evie said placating the older woman, "I promise his memories are completely intact."
Rani and Clyde pause for a moment not having heard the conversation earlier. But then they crowded her with questions.
"How did it go?" Rani asked eagerly.
"Interesting," Evie admitted truthfully, "I think I've learned all kinds of new things about the nature of time, and my scanner was functioning the whole time, so I undoubtedly got some good scans of travel through the fissure."
"And Oscar?" Sarah-Jane asked sternly.
"He was running off to the village out there when I came back here," Evie told her truthfully.
"Where did it lead?" Clyde asked. Evie paused for half a moment to consider what might happen if she told the truth, and decided she would, and she would keep a close eye on Sarah-Jane to keep her from doing anything stupid. Be a good aunt and all that.
"Foxgrove, July 1951," Evie admitted watching Sarah-Jane's reaction from the corner of her eye. Sarah-Jane had frozen an expression of confusion and a dilemma written across her face, "Not interesting really. Just a little town in the countryside. Pretty, but I can get a similar view up in Wales."
A moment later Sarah-Jane had collected herself and she announced, "Right, better close it up."
"We could go through there into another time. We might never get the chance again," Rani said trying (and mostly succeeding) to sound convincing. Evie should give her lessons, with a little practice she could get out of more tickets than even Evie. Of course, she was probably less likely to get them even after she started driving.
"Can't we just have a look? Five minutes?" Clyde begged. Evie looked to Sarah-Jane. She was struggling a little, but she finally answered.
"No, I'm sorry, Clyde. But it's too dangerous. You've seen it in the movies, you go back, change one tiny thing, it has terrible consequences," Sarah-Jane said convincingly. Evie inwardly sighed in relief. She knew she wasn't done being 'good aunt' but at least she wasn't going to have to stop catastrophe right that moment.
"But you've traveled through time in the TARDIS," Rani complained.
"Yeah she did. But she was travelling with the Doctor, and he's a Time Lord with a lot of experience. And he travels in a time machine, which probably helps to protect from paradoxes," Evie told her crossing her arms and looking over to Sarah-Jane who nodded in agreement before touching a button on her device. The fissure in front of them became unstable, wiggling around a bit as it shrunk. Until suddenly it was gone.
"Job done. Let's go home," Sarah-Jane said in a monotone staring at the place where the fissure had been. The three teenagers filed out, and Sarah-Jane followed them, letting Evie bring up the rear. Just before Sarah-Jane left, she turned like she was going to have one of those dramatic looking back at something amazing and terrible and sad moments, but when she saw Evie behind her she moved out quickly.
Evie stopped herself and stared a moment through the door as it shut, before taking the last few steps forward and grabbing the door handle just before the door swung shut. She pulled it open sharply and left the room without looking back.
XX
Evie watched Sarah-Jane carefully when she went up to the Attic, right after they got back to the house, but she had no reason to stop the older woman, and instead started a simple dinner of Spag Bol. Luke had followed Sarah-Jane upstairs, and Evie assumed she could get Luke to tell her what had happened. She was, after all, Luke's favorite aunt.
It was close to an hour after that when the two came down the stairs to find Evie setting the table and pouring glasses of milk for all three of them.
"You didn't need to cook," Sarah-Jane protested when she realized that Evie had already finished all of dinner.
"Well, you seemed off about something," Evie said bringing the food over to the table, 'So I figured I'd help a little since I was already down here, and I am imposing a little."
"You could tell?" Sarah-Jane said her shoulders slumping a little.
"I think Clyde and Rani missed it," Evie told her comfortingly, "But you froze the very second I said where the fissure let out. What's the big deal about this place?"
"It's the town where I was born," Sarah-Jane said after a long moment of silence. In the pause Evie dished food onto her own plate and passed the dish over to Luke, "The month before my parents died."
Evie dropped her fork and looked up at Sarah-Jane with her eyes wide. She had known the date of her brother's death, but she had never known a location. Suddenly it made sense why Sarah-Jane could be lured with that time. In fact Evie could just as easily be lured herself. A chance to see her big brother again…
"Aethelred?" Evie asked her voice quiet and timid in a way that neither Luke nor Sarah-Jane had ever heard it before.
"Yes," Sarah-Jane admitted dishing her own dinner.
"Do you think we could get away with seeing him?" Evie asked her eyes wide, "Just for a moment. I haven't seen him in years, and he's my brother."
"I was considering the same thing," Sarah-Jane admitted as they all dug into her food half-heartedly, "A chance to see my parents, just once. Maybe see why they left me." The last was added quietly, almost like she wasn't sure if she wanted Evie to hear at all.
"They left you?" Evie asked incredulously, "I know my brother didn't like little kids, but he put up with me well enough, and I can't see why he would leave his own child. He was attached to family. We were the most important things to him when we were kids. I can't see his family as an adult being any different."
"My Aunt Levine said much the same thing. But I could never quite believe her," Sarah-Jane told her quietly, "They just left me in my pram next to the road. They just abandoned me."
"There must have been something really huge going on to bring Aethelred to that," Evie said shaking her head. She started eating, and it effectively ended the conversation.
XX
Evie decided that instead of sleeping in the guest room upstairs, she would sleep on the couch downstairs (completely dressed with socks and shoes). She was fairly sure that Sarah-Jane was going to at least try to go back in time through the fissure.
Of course, if Sarah-Jane went Evie could say she was just going to keep the older woman from doing anything rash. That was, of course, a blatant lie. Evie was dressed in a long blue skirt and simple white blouse that she couldn't remember why she chose to bring. The skirt had a slight poof to it, so she figured it probably wouldn't look too out of place in 1951. But then, Evie had never really been into history. As much as time and the concept of time fascinated her, the idea of what happened during certain times never held any interest to her.
But Evie felt she was right when Luke came down and stood in the shadows behind the stairs, not even noticing Evie sitting in the equally dark room on the other side of the stairs. Then they found themselves correct when they heard the floor upstairs creaking ever- so-quietly until they saw Sarah-Jane by the door.
"Leaving without me?" Evie asked leaning on the doorframe now. She had moved as soon as they heard the creak.
"I see you've dressed for the occasion," Sarah-Jane commented looking at Evie's outfit. Although both pieces were things that it was easy to imagine Evie wearing, the combination looked a bit fifty's retro, and it was obvious what she was about.
"Of course," Evie said raising an eyebrow, "I see you have too. Pink looks good on you."
"Don't leave without me," Luke said stepping forward.
"Wouldn't even think of it," Evie replied opening the door and letting the other two Smiths out.
XX
"Are we sure we should do this?" Sarah-Jane said getting jitters at the last moment.
"Yes, because I want to know what the hell my brother was thinking leaving his kids without parents," Evie said using Sarah-Jane's device to open the fissure, "Come along Smiths." With that Evie stepped through and found herself in the same midday meadow above the village.
A moment later Sarah-Jane and Luke followed her through and the fissure shut itself behind them, rather abruptly.
"Will we be able to open it? Or should we travel to Cardiff to give a note to Jack to call his Doctor?" Evie asked lazily, as though she traveled through strange fissures in time everyday.
"Yes, it should be perfectly fine," Sarah-Jane said looking at the device that Evie had tossed into her hands after opening the fissure back.
"Then let's go find my brother and figure all this out," Evie said leading them down a worn path through the meadow. It really was some very nice countryside, but as Evie had told everyone earlier it wasn't anything she couldn't find in Wales in she went out of the city a little ways.
The village was very small, but it was pretty. The village square had a monument of some kind, and there was a sign pointing towards some field off on the other side of the village from where they had come in.
"Looks like everyone will be there," Evie commented and the trio followed the signs to a pretty little small-town carnival type thing. It was like a big barbeque, or something. There were sack races and tossing games, and food, and tents full of things that Evie wasn't quite sure of.
"Look at this," Evie said looking around eagerly, "I've never been to something like this. This would have been a great date if Jack were here. I mean look, it's a prefect date." Evie said the last with a happy spin to take a look all around her.
"Maybe," Sarah-Jane said with a little smile. Evie's mood seemed so happy and energetic that Sarah-Jane and Luke couldn't seem to help but smile at her antics. Evie seemed more alive now than she had the whole time Sarah-Jane had known her. It was like she was missing something that used to be a part of her, and now it had gone missing.
"Sarah-Jane," A voice said in a cooing baby voice. The three time-travelers turned to look around at the voice. It was a young woman (maybe three years older than Evie at the very most) and she was holding a baby wrapped in a white blanket.
"She's beautiful," Evie said offhandedly looking at the little girl, "She reminds me a lot of my brother. She looks a lot like his baby pictures."
"Barbara where's—" A man said walking over to where Evie and Barbara were, "Evie? You shouldn't be here!"
"Hello Aethelred," Evie said wrapping her arms around her beloved older brother, "I've missed you so much."
"Evie!" Aethelred said unnecessarily before drawing Evie close to him in a tight hug. In seconds they were both crying and laughing and being completely emotional.
"Evie? Your sister Evie?" Barbara asked as the two siblings began to calm down.
"Yes, Barbara, meet my little sister. And Evie, I want you to meet Barbara, my beautiful wife," Aethelred said pulling away from Evie, but one of his arms was still looped lightly over Evie's shoulders.
"Hello Barbara," Evie said stepping forward and offering her hand to shake, "And I want you two to meet my niece Sarah-Jane and my great-nephew Luke."
Barbara and Aethelred both froze completely and looked over at the older woman and the fourteen-year-old boy standing a little ways back from Evie. There was a moment was intense staring before Barbara rocketed forward and wrapped Sarah-Jane in a hug. The older woman looked awkward for about half a minute before she wrapped her own arms around her mother she had never known.
"So, Aethelred, I heard you changed your name. What on earth for?" Evie asked after Barbara and Sarah-Jane started their own conversation about something.
"Well, Eddie's a bit easier to say isn't it? Besides if my records say Eddie Smith instead of Aethelred Smith my accent makes more sense," Aethelred said making his accent exaggerated for just a moment.
"Are you ashamed to be Welsh?" Evie asked with a faked shock at the very idea, "I'll have you know I live in Cardiff these days."
"Really?" Aethelred asked with true surprise.
"Yeah, I moved up to Wales after Mam died. She left you the house and everything in it by the way," Evie said looking over at him, "I wasn't even mentioned in the will. I've been wondering if maybe everything I remember is fake."
"No," Aethelred said grasping Evie's shoulders and turning her to look him in the eye, "I promise that much of what you remember is real. Just a few things were fubbed okay? I can't tell you why, because you made me promise not to tell you. But you have to believe me that everything will be okay."
"Why did I make you promise? When did I?" Evie asked with a broken look on her face, like her very last option had been torn from her fingers.
"I can't tell you," Aethelred said with a sad shake of his head, "C'mon. You look like you need a drink. I know you don't like them, but sometimes you just need to get roaring drunk." With that Eddie dragged off his little sister to a tent which was serving alcohol, and bought her an ale, and watched as she drank it down.
Evie drank another and another after that until she had finally gotten herself completely pissed, and Aethelred took her out of the tent and half-carried her to a bench near the booth he and Barbara were supposed to be manning and laid her down as she sobbed.
"I just want everything to be normal!" She wailed looking up in Eddie's general direction, her eyes unfocused, "I just want a normal boyfriend and a house and a normal job. But I have Torchwood, and I think I've fallen to Jack. And he's not normal!" She was wailing and sobbing and it was suddenly very clear why she should never be drunk.
After close to twenty minutes of all this she was coughing and hiccupping and her eyes were drooping.
"I'm sorry Evie," Eddie whispered as she was drifting off, "I just can't tell you."
XX
"My damn head," Evie groaned sitting up almost two hours later. It was long enough for the alcohol to have mostly worked through her system. It was odd, because it took almost everyone Evie knew hours longer for alcohol to get through their systems.
It was then that Evie looked up and realized she was indoors somewhere.
"What happened?" Evie asked turning her head slowly to see if anyone was nearby. Eddie, Barbara, Sarah-Jane, and Luke were nowhere to be seen. But an older woman (perhaps around five years older than Sarah-Jane) was nearby and seemed to be the right person to ask.
"The weather took a sudden turn for the worst," The woman said calmly, and semi-quietly, which was great for the state of Evie's head.
"Like, unnaturally sudden?" Evie asked wondering about the concerned look on the woman's face. She didn't seem like the type to feel sympathy for someone who drank herself into a fit, and passed out.
"Well, yes, I suppose that's one way to put it," The woman replied and looked towards the door. While the woman was turned away Evie sat up, disregarding her killer headache, and the rebelling of her stomach and got off her bench. When the woman turned back she had a scolding look on her face, "You really shouldn't be getting up. I know what that kind of alcohol does to people."
"I'm sorry, but I have to find my brother," Evie told her, "And that can't exactly wait. Not if things are going strange, like they tend to around me."
At that moment a distressed Rani came running through the doors looking completely out of place in her jeans and leather jacket.
"Where's Sarah-Jane?" She asked in distress.
"Don't know," Evie said walking over to the girl, "How about we go find her. She'll have been tracing a signal of some kind. So we'll just trace their temporal distortions." Evie said pulling her streamlined device out of her pocket.
Two seconds later they were off tracing a signal.
There were a total of five temporal disturbances, but two of them were Rani and Evie, so Evie went chasing after the other three, which were conveniently grouped together. Which also meant that their friends and family were either in danger, or about to be.
When they entered the abbot's churchyard Rani immediately ran to Sarah-Jane with some weird message about the 'abbot's gate.'
"So, Eddie, what did you do this time?" Evie asked in a half-playful voice.
"I didn't do anything," Eddie told her looking significantly at his daughter.
"Sarah-Jane if you've brought Reavers down on us, so help me god I'm going to steal Mr. Smith and all your alien dealing rights," Evie told her with a glare.
"They're my parents!" Sarah-Jane protested.
"Yeah, he's my big brother," Evie said staring at her, "And if there was a non-paradox way to save him I'd be all for it. But because the very act of saving his life creates a paradox, because a man is living who should not have been…I'm sorry Eddie, but there's nothing I can do."
"That's okay," Eddie said grasping Evie's shoulder lightly, "You've been babbling about time your whole life. I have an idea of how it works."
With that Eddie and Barbara left the churchyard, almost as if Eddie knew exactly what was about to happen. It's possible he did, but whether or not he did, the Trickster began to manifest himself in the 'abbot's gateway.'
There was some shouting and arguing and Evie stayed out of it. She had never dealt with the Trickster before, but he didn't seem like a character to want to deal with. So she let Sarah-Jane do the talking.
They eventually left, because Sarah-Jane was going to fix the car. Evie knew that neither she nor Sarah-Jane could ever tell Eddie and Barbara to drive off to their deaths, but Evie also knew that Eddie would do it. As soon as he realized how time was supposed to go, he would do what he had to, and the very idea brought tears to Evie's eyes.
In the village square Sarah-Jane made use of her sonic lipstick and fixed the car (which shuddered completely unrealistically, and Evie had to wonder whether or not Sarah-Jane was just showing off), and the four time travellers stood next to the car unable to move or think of leaving, because they were about to lose two very good people.
"Evie," Eddie said coming up the road with Sarah-Jane in her pram, and Barbara walking beside them. Somehow it seemed sad and dramatic, but maybe it was just Evie's knowledge of what was about to happen making it so.
"Aethelred," Evie said her voice choked with emotion. They stood a few feet apart for a moment before Evie flung herself at her older brother, "Don't leave me alone again."
"I'm not," Eddie said hugging her and rocking a little from side to side, "You have my daughter, and my grandson, and you were babbling earlier about your boyfriend and your friends at work. And I'll always be here for you. Maybe next time you travel in time you'll come see me."
"I can't make time travel work, there are too many missing numbers, and some of my concepts don't work…" Evie babbled clinging to her brother.
"You'll see me again," Eddie whispered into her hair before releasing her, still sobbing, and went to say goodbye to his daughter (both of them), and Luke.
They all had a moment of emotion as Eddie and Barbara got into the car. But just before Eddie drove the car up the road, he opened the window.
"Evie!" He called to his sister who had turned away, "Go see my older three too, yeah? Introduce them to the universe. And never forget that time is just a little 'wibbly-wobbly.'" The last Eddie said with a wide grin confusing the hell out of everyone in the square (even baby Sarah-Jane seemed to have a confounded look on her face).
With those last words Eddie and Barbara had driven off, and that was the last of the lives of two horrible brave people.
XX
The four travellers returned to their own time, not a one of them looking back at the village where the baby Sarah-Jane would be found soon, and passed off to her aunt as soon as they realize that Eddie and Barbara were dead. The place where Eddie and Barbara were even down driving into a tractor, which would kill them instantly. The place where even now time was fixing itself, and the Trickster was being sent into the nothingness from which he came.
On the other side of the fissure Clyde was waiting looking excited and happy. He expression drooped a bit when he realized that Evie's eyes were red-rimmed, and her face was covered in tearstains, and that Luke and Sarah-Jane looked on the verge of tears, and Rani looked solemn and serious. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize that something bad had just happened.
The whole group took Evie's SUV back to Sarah-Jane's and Evie locked herself in the guest bedroom, while Sarah-Jane retreated to the Attic. Rani and Clyde went back to their homes, and Luke was left in the front hall looking lost. He finally went up and comforted his mum, who seemed to be in the better shape of the two, but also seemed to be the type to bottle emotions more.
While Luke and Sarah-Jane talked in the Attic, Evie cried herself to sleep.
XX
Evie went back to Cardiff the next day, in the morning. But instead of going home she went to the hub. She parked the SUV in the garage and took the tunnel into the upper archives. The hub was empty. There was probably a weevil chase going, and Evie dropped her weekend bag on her desk before taking the steps up to Jack's office.
She sat in Jack's big comfy desk chair and dozed off.
When she woke she was definitely in a bed. And if forced to guess, she would figure it was Jack's bed, because it was a rather hard bed in a small space, and if someone had tried to carry her any long way, she would have woken.
It took Evie a moment to realize not only was she in Jack's bed; she was in Jack's bed with Jack lying next to her.
"Morning Evie," Jack said wrapping an arm around the blond.
"Morning Jack," Evie murmured turning to look over at him.
"You okay?" Jack asked with true concern, and it just brought the few barriers Evie had managed to build between herself and the pain crumbling down.
Jack just held her and let her cry for hours, until she was cried herself out again, and was calm.
"Ianto should be in, do you want me to get you some tea, or coffee?" Jack asked brushing Evie's disheveled hair out of her face.
"No, just stay with me?" Evie said looking straight into Jack's blue eyes, full of so many years and so many emotions.
"Sure," Jack said pulling her close. Evie fell asleep in his arms again.
When she woke Jack wasn't there, but she wasn't that worried about it. She was just wondering why he had bothered to stay as long as he had.
XX
So…this chapter was very relationship centered, but I did have a lot of clues about who Evie is, and I'm hoping to hear some speculation from your guys now that I've dropped more hints.
Originally I was going to do a different Sarah-Jane Adventure's episode, but then I saw this one and I realized that "The Temptation of Sarah-Jane" would be a great way to drop some clues. So there was a lot of stuff about time going on in here, as well as all the stuff about Eddie and Evie's relationship, and Sarah-Jane and Evie's relationship and I had a good Jack/Evie moment at the end, which I love really. Especially the last line.
Remember this is just after Small Worlds, and Evie will be insecure in her relationship because of the whole Jack/Estelle thing, and also Gwen's obvious attraction to Jack.
So, please everyone tell me what you think of this chapter, and whether or not you would like to see more of Sarah-Jane and her team.