Hey me again. For some reason I found this chapter difficult to write, I dunno why. But here it is. Small worlds...
Jack had fallen asleep on his desk rather than going home for the night, recently he had been doing this more and more. This night though Jack was having a very vivid dream, A train whistle blows. Jack is in a moving train car and dressed in an old period captain's uniform.
Jack stirred in his sleep like this dream is distressing him; Jack stares at the dead bodies. The dead man has his mouth stuffed with something. His head lolls forward and the red rose petals fall out. Jack suddenly woke, he looked scared and haunted, and he took a few minutes to get his breathing back to normal. He looked down at his desk and found a single red rose petal; he picked it up and dropped it when he heard a noise behind him.
Ianto was still in the hub working at his station.
"You shouldn't be here." Jack told him, Ianto turned to face Jack.
"Neither should you." Ianto replied and turned back to his station to concentrate on the computer.
Jack followed and put one hand on the Welshman's shoulder, "What have you got?"
"Funny sort of weather patterns." He sighed. Little did the men know that the 'funny sort of weather patterns' were going to be just another fun day for the torchwood team.
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Jasmine was walking home from school. A man in the car was waiting down on the road below. Jasmine continued to walk home, the man in the car turned and followed her. The driver, Mark Goodson, pulled up along Jasmine under the bridge.
"Your mum asked me to fetch you ... cos she's a bit late." He said driving alongside Jasmine.
He stopped the car and got out, "I promised your mum I'd fetch you, so get in the car." She tried to get past him. He blocked her path. She moved the other side, he blocked her path and grabbed her arm. "Did you hear me?"
Jasmine gasped. He kept a hold on her. She pulled, trying to get out of his grip. When suddenly a gust of wind hits Mark, he releases his hold on Jasmine and was thrown back against his car. The wind increased and Mark hit his head against the car, cutting his lip. He touched the cut and looked up. There is no wind where Jasmine was standing. Mark struggled to get the car door open. He slipped inside and rolled the window up. Jasmine just smiled and left, skipping down the path home.
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Gwen, Bella and Jack were walking along the sidewalk. Apparently, Jack was taking them somewhere.
"What exactly are we doing here?" Gwen asked, walking beside Jack trying to keep up with him. Bella was trailing behind them looking tired.
"I've had an invitation from an old friend." Jack stated. Bella tried and failed to hide a yawn, "Keeping you up?"
"No, just didn't sleep well last night." She said, she had black circles under her eyes and had to wear more make up than normal to stop people from noticing.
"Here we go." Jack said turning into a building,
"Fairies? Are you kidding me?" Gwen scoffed,
Bella agreed with Gwen, "Seriously dad?" They followed Jack and Bella noticed the poster hanging on the bulletin board: FAIRIES: FACT OR FANTASY.
Estelle stood in front of the room talking with the small group of attendees. She had a projector up with the photos of the fairies on the screen behind her. "I suppose I'm one of the fortunate few who have been allowed to see our little friends."
The door opened. Jack, Bella and Gwen entered the room. He smiled at Estelle who brightened when she saw him. "And it's been no easy task. One needs to have the patience of a saint and the blind faith of a prophet." Estelle continued.
The trio sat in the back row and listened to Estelle's lecture, "But for me the long wait has been worthwhile."
Jack quickly glanced at Gwen; Bella sat on the end trying so hard not to fall asleep, Estelle's lecture didn't help trying not to sleep.
"This is my first picture. Not that clear, I know, but the ring of stones can be seen quite distinctly."
"I don't believe this." Gwen groaned, Bella nodded, Jack just looked at them and shhed them.
More photo's of the 'fairies' "Well, of course, I'm not the world's best photographer. But this little person is just about visible. I was so lucky to have seen them, so privileged to witness such a magical moment. Because fairies are shy, you see. But I know in my heart that they're friendly, loving creatures. Thank you." The people listening applaud her and then got up to leave.
"Wrong. She always gets it wrong." Jack commented, Gwen and Bella looked at him. Jack walked up to Estelle and started reviewing the slides, Gwen and Bella off to the side, letting Jack do whatever he was doing.
"Estelle, when did you take these?" Jack asked,
"A couple of nights ago." Estelle said.
"Where?"
"In Roundstone Wood." Estelle said.
"Not far from here." Gwen offered.
"So good to see you again, Jack" Estelle said, Jack ignored that comment, "Oh, look, there's the wood." She handed Jack a photo and he sighed.
"What's wrong?" Bella asked.
"Oh, Jack and I have always disagreed about fairies. I only see the good ones. He only ever sees the bad." Estelle explained.
"They're all bad." Jack put in.
Estelle shook her head, "No. I refuse to believe that."
"I suppose one person's good could be somebody else's evil." Gwen said,
Estelle smiled, "That's what his father used to say." Bella's head flew up and she looked at Estelle. "Oh, Jack, if only you had seen them there in the wood. They were happy. They were dancing. The fairy lights were shining."
"Do you have any more photos?" Jack asked,
"Yes, at home." She said.
Jack smiled at her, "Right. I need to see them all." They smiled at each other, Gwen watched them carefully and Bella was focusing on the comment about Jack's dad, she's wanted to know about her dad's side of the family since she moved to Cardiff.
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Mark Goodson staggered out of the market and almost fell onto the sidewalk. He spotted a police officer and ran over to her grabbing her by the vest, "Oh, God, help me! Help me, please!"
"All right, mate. Just calm down." She told him, he pushed her aside and tried to get into the car, he opened the door and she slammed it shut. "Hey, hold on, will you?"
"I said, just bloody help me!" He said, grabbing her by the vest again.
"Right, that's it ... you crazy bastard!" She said clearly she'd had enough. She grabbed him and pushed him down on the hood while grabbing his wrists to handcuff him behind his back.
"No! No, please ... help me." He pleaded.
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Jack, Bella and Gwen helped Estelle carry her things into the house. Gwen put the screen against
the door while Jack put the stack of books and the projector down on the table. Estelle put her bag down on the sofa, then moved toward Jack. "Oh, thank you, Jack. This is Moses." She indicated the cat. Gwen looked at the cat sitting on the sofa.
"Hello, Moses." She said, Bella quietly laughed. Estelle handed Jack the portfolio of her photos.
"They're mostly just pictures of the area." Estelle explained, Jack looked through the photos, she moved to pick Moses up. "Come on, my darling, it's quite time you went outside, isn't it?"
She smiled at Jack and left the room with the cat. Jack continued to look through the photos with a smile on his face. Bella looked around the room at the photos on the mantle. She noticed a photo of Jack in a uniform she picked it up and went over to him.
"This is you." She said, Jack stopped what he was doing and looked at it shaking his head.
"Sorry. No, that's my dad, your granddad. He and Estelle were quite an item once upon a time." He told her, taking the photo and putting it back. "They were inseparable."
"Then why did they part?" Bella asked, Jack picked up another photo and showed it to Bella.
"It was wartime, he was posted abroad, she volunteered to work on the land. It just happened that way." He said. Bella moved over to Gwen and showed her a very old photo of Jack and a very young Estelle sitting on a park bench. "There you go Bells, bit of family history."
Gwen stepped outside the house and into the back yard. She touched a hanging wind chimes and it rings. Estelle stepped out of her garden to smile at Gwen. "If you don't mind me asking, did you know Jack's father after the war?"
"No. We lost touch. Why?" Estelle asked.
"Did all three of you ever meet? You, Jack and his father?" Gwen asked casually.
"No. Never. Jack contacted me a few years ago. I was so surprised. He's so like his dad. Same walk, same smile. I hope he's still alive. He'll be in his early nineties now. And now Jack has a daughter himself." Estelle smiled.
"You could always ask Jack about him. And I know Bella would love to know about Jack's family." Gwen offered.
"I have, but he doesn't seem to want to talk about his father." Estelle said sadly.
Jack walked out of the house still carrying the photos, "Estelle, when you next see these creatures you call us immediately, understand?" She nodded, "Night or day, it doesn't matter, just call us. And be careful, it's important to me."
Gwen turned back to the house and stood next to Bella who was waiting in the doorway.
"But, Jack, I've nothing to worry about." Estelle said.
"Just be careful. Please." Jack almost begged. Gwen and Bella watch as Jack put his arm around Estelle's shoulders and kissed the top of her head. Bella and Gwen turned to each other giving knowing looks.
Jack, Bella and Gwen were leaving the house. Jack closed the door behind him. "Estelle shouldn't be living in town. She belongs in the countryside."
"How often do you get to see her?" Gwen asked.
"We meet up now and again." Jack said and the trio walk back down the sidewalk.
"Whenever she's seen her "fairies"?" Bella mocked putting finger quotation marks around the word fairies.
"She calls them fairies. I don't." Jack said ignoring Bella's mocking.
"What do you call them?" Gwen asked, into the conversation.
"They've never really had a proper name." Jack revealed.
"Why not?"
"Something from the dawn of time - how could you possibly put a name to that?" Jack said.
"Are we talking alien?" Bella said, hoping to get stuck into something so she doesn't have to worry about sleeping for a bit.
"Worse."
"How come?" Bella said lopping her arm around his.
"Because they're part of us, part of our world, yet we know nothing about them. So we pretend to know what they look like. We see them as happy. We imagine they have tiny little wings and are bathed in moonlight." Jack said.
"But they're not?" Gwen asked.
"No. Think dangerous, think something you can only half see like a glimpse, like something out of the corner of your eye with a touch of myth, a touch of the spirit world, a touch of reality, all jumbled together." Jack said, "Old moments and memories that are frozen in amongst it. Like debris spinning around a ringed planet - tossing, turning, whirling. Then backwards and forwards through time. If that's them we have to find them ... before all hell breaks loose." Gwen and Bella looked at each other.
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Now back at the hub the team were reviewing the slides. Bella was sitting down resting her elbows on the table and her head resting on her hands.
"This is the youngest girl. And the girl's cousin." Tosh said.
"I blame it on magic mushrooms." Ianto suggested
"What you do in private is none of our business." Jack said.
"He did once, it wasn't pretty." Bella said absentmindedly, not even realising that she had said that. Everyone stopped what they were doing, and stared at Bella and Ianto.
"Oi. You were meant to keep that a secret." Ianto said lightly hitting her head so her head slipped off her hands.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to say that." Bella said gibing Ianto an apologetic look.
"Anyway but these photographs were fake." Gwen said swiftly moving on.
"Conan Doyle believed in them." Owen piped up.
"He was gaga at the time." Gwen said,
"And Houdini." Owen suggested.
"Self-publicist." Gwen said.
"How do you know so much about it?" Jack spoke up.
Gwen rolled her eyes, "I wrote an essay on the Cottingley glass-plate photos when I was at school." Owen sniggered, "And when the girls were old ladies they admitted they were fakes."
"So where was this sighting then?" Tosh asked putting up Estelle's recent photos on the wall monitor. Gwen stood up to look at the monitor.
"In a place called Roundstone Wood." Jack said.
"I know it. Has an odd history." Owen said.
"How d'you mean odd?"
"It's always stayed wild. In the ancient times it was considered bad luck to walk in there or even to collect timber. Even the Romans stayed clear of it." Owen said.
"I've had no report of any sighting." Tosh said.
"You won't. These things come in under the radar, but they play tricks with the weather, so set up a program for unnatural weather patterns." Jack said,
"Right." Tosh said.
"Are you saying our machines can't pick them up?" Bella asked, Jack shook his head.
"Nothing can."
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Bella and Jack were walking through the path. Owen was tagging along carrying the kit. He
looked up at the treetops. Jack was fiddling with his watch.
"Gwen asked Estelle about your dad. She said she'd never seen the pair of you together." Bella said trying to get more information about her family.
"Why would she? She lost touch with him after the war. I just happened to catch up with her later." Jack said still fiddling with his watch.
"Oh." Bella said looking away. They eventually reached the rock formation.
"The stones in those photographs." Jack said.
"You know, this whole area was forest in primeval times. Most of the development areas have been built on ley lines." Owen said. Jack was still studying his watch.
"Anyone could have made this circle." Bella suggested.
"Why do you keep doubting me? I spell out the dangers, you keep looking for explanations." Jack said turning to her.
"No reason. I'm just saying. Sheesh, chill" Bella surrendered, and glanced behind her. A fairy landed Just behind her, she quickly did a double-take.
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Mark Goodson was sleeping in his cell that he had been put in when, a wind blew into the
cell. Goodson opened his eyes and turned to look up at the ceiling. The shadow of a figure swooped across the shadows on the roof. Goodson turned and screamed.
The echoes of Goodson's screams filtered into the bullpen. The Custody Sergeant and
the WPC looked up from the magazine they're looking through. When the scream ends abruptly. The custody sergeant took his keys out. He and the WPC headed into the back cells to check on Goodson.
The custody sergeant showed Jack and Gwen to the back cells. "I thought I'd seen everything until now. We had him locked up, for Christ's sake, on his own. He was shouting the odds. Said things were following him."
"What kind of things?" Jack asked.
"Shadows, he said. And he was going on about being choked." He said, as Bella joins them. The sergeant unlocks the cell door.
"There were four other prisoners. They saw nothing." Bella said.
"Where are they now?" Gwen asked.
"We've had them transferred." Bella said simply.
"CCTV?" Jack reminded,
"Tosh is dealing with that." Bella said, the sergeant gets the cell door open and shows them back to the cell.
"At first I thought he was a drunk or a nutcase, or both." He explained.
"Right, I want this place locked off." Jack said and they all set off to work. "Name?"
"Mark Goodson. Worked in town. Business consultant." Bella said looking at the body as Gwen looked around the cell.
"Cause of death?" Jack asked.
Bella knelt beside the body and went into doctor mode, "Well, going by the pinpoint hemorrhages on the eye-lids and around the hairline, I'd say oxygen deficiency. But it's odd. There's no fingertip bruising on the face, no areas of pallor." Jack looked at her with a sense of pride knowing that his daughter knew what she was talking about.
"Nothing to suggest that pressure was applied?" Gwen asked.
"No." Bella shook her head and stood up next to Gwen, "Yet he suffocated alone in a locked cell?"
"Looks like it." Gwen looked puzzled. Bella looked back down and noticed something.
"Wait a minute."
She picked up some forceps out of the open kit and took a red rose petal deep out of Goodson's mouth. Gwen gasped. Jack looked grim. Bella took out two more rose petals.
"That's just nasty" Bella said pulling a face
"I've never seen anything like that before." Gwen said with a similar look to Bella's.
"I have." Jack said grimly.
Part 2 ...