Today was…slightly better than yesterday. Harper got up, still feeling a little queazy but overall she was able to calm herself down. She was seriously considering not going to class today. It just didn't feel right. Walking out into the hub, she noticed her father and Gwen looking closely at a screen.
"Morning," she said, "what's that you're looking at?"
The two looked up and noticed her. Jack was avoiding eye contact with her and Gwen clearly had no idea what had been going on.
"Just some case information," Jack responded, purposefully remaining vague.
Gwen looked back and forth between Jack and Harper. Even if it wasn't being said, there was an obvious tension that ran throughout the hub.
"Anything interesting?" Harper asked, "Something I can help with?"
"Don't you have a class to get to?" Jack replied, his gaze still fixed on the monitor.
"I don't feel like going today," she said, "it's not like I'm missing anything important."
Gwen had a puzzled look on her face, "I'm sorry are you two fighting again?" she asked.
Her comment made Jack look up from his work, "it's nothing," he said, "Harper, why don't you come take a look at this."
Harper smirked at her father's sudden change in tone. It made her feel like she had the upper hand and she was liking that idea. She strutted over to the screen that Gwen and her father were looking at. At first glance it seemed quite random.
"So what's all this then?" she asked.
"It's a massive spike in rift activity, way bigger than what we predicted with Tosh's formula," Jack explained, "there's been no signs of trouble yet so we're keeping an eye on it."
"Should we go take a look at the area where it's happening?" Harper suggested.
"We have no idea what might come out of it, if anything at all," Jack responded.
Just then Ianto came in with coffee for Gwen and Jack. He noticed Harper, "oh, I'm sorry. Harper, would you like something? Coffee? Tea?"
Harper looked up at Ianto, smiling, "no thanks, I'm fine for now."
Ianto nodded and sat down.
"Hey Ianto, do you know if there's anything significant about Caroline Street?" Jack asked, "all Gwen could give me was 'chippy lane'" he continued, making air quotes.
"Well that's what everyone calls it," Gwen interjected, "there's a lot of chip shops there!"
"In 1875 the last public execution was held on Caroline Street," Ianto stated, "there were also one hundred fifty deaths which resulted from a smallpox outbreak on the street"
"And you didn't think to ask the history major about the bloody history of the place?" Harper jeered.
"Would you honestly have been able to give me more information than 'it's got a lotta chip shops'?" Jack asked.
Harper sighed defeated, "well no but I just figured you'd want to…y'know…." she trailed off, "never mind."
While she had been half teasing her father, Harper felt sort of like she was being shut out. Sure, she wasn't technically working at Torchwood but she felt like if she was there, if she had been invited to take a look at the case, then she should be valued. She wasn't entirely sure if her feelings were legitimate or if she was just over thinking but there was no way she would let herself continue to be shut out.
"Well, all this talk of Chippy Lane's givin' me a craving for chips so I'm just gonna go over to Dorothy's for some chips," Harper proclaimed, getting up, "if anyone wants some…"
Ianto got up, "I'd like to tag along, if you don't mind. It'd be good to check and see if the rift activity is actually causing any trouble."
"No way," Jack said sternly, "it's too dangerous right now. If something comes through that rift while you two are there, you'll be completely unprepared. I can't risk anything happening to either of you."
Harper picked up a gun sitting on a table nearby, "I'll take a weapon. Don't worry, I'll keep your boyfriend safe."
Jack sighed, "get in the van. We're going to Chippy Lane."
The trip to Caroline Street, or Chippy Lane as most of them knew it, was awkwardly silent. Occasionally someone would try to make conversation but it would quickly end. They arrived to find the street the same as it was every other day. Bustling with people, but not being destroyed by some other-worldly force. Harper was the first to get out of the SUV. The others followed soon after.
"Right then, since there's nothing trying to kill us, I'm gonna go get chips," she declared as they passed Dorothy's chip shop, "if anyone wants some, let me know now."
"I could go for a haddock and chips," Gwen stated.
"Oh that sounds nice, I could go for one of those too," Harper said, "Right them, two haddock and chips, anyone else?" She looked at her father and Ianto expectantly.
Ianto shook his head, and Jack didn't seem to notice. He seemed focused on something else entirely.
"Well then, I'll be back in a second," Harper said, going towards the chip shop.
Jack hadn't noticed her go and was surprised to find that there were only two other people walking alongside him. "Where's Harper?" he asked, concerned.
Gwen looked at him, puzzled by his lack of awareness, "she went to get fish and chips, didn't you hear her say that?"
"No," he replied, "If I'd heard I would have stopped her. I don't want her wandering off."
"She's just over there, she'll be fine," Gwen assured him, pointing at the chip shop.
Just as she said that, a light appeared and a small, yet angry mob of people came through the rift. They looked as though they were from the mid-nineteenth century, possibly 1875. People cleared the street in fear when members of the mob started charing at them.
"Gwen, Ianto, try to contain them," Jack ordered, "I'll go get Harper."
"And what do we do about the possibility of smallpox?" Ianto asked.
Jack paused, "you're smart, you'll think of something."
As chaos continued to erupt in the street, Jack ran into the chip shop. Harper saw him and looked puzzled.
"What's the whole frantic act about?" she asked, "I'm not in danger or anything."
Then all of a sudden, as if on queue, a member of the mob charged in, headed straight towards Harper. Jack jumped in front of his daughter before the person could get to her then wrestled him to the ground.
"Get out! Now!" Jack told Harper.
So much for not being shut out, Harper thought. "No way in hell!" she said, "I'm stain' right here and helping out. You need as many people as you can get in the field."
"Harper we don't have time for this right now, just go!" Jack ordered, struggling to keep the angry person from the past pinned down.
Harper rolled her eyes before grabbing a nearby chair and knocking the man out with it. She turned to her father, "you still think I should go?"
Jack didn't respond which Harper seemed to take as a no, so she cocked her pistol and with a smirk, exited the chip shop. In reality Jack was worried as all hell about his daughter. She had no idea what she was doing but was under the delusion that she knew it all. She was cocky as ever just because she had knocked some guy out with a chair. In moments like this especially, it annoyed Jack. Nonetheless he knew he had to make sure she was okay so he quickly got up from his position on the floor and ran back out of the shop. The situation outside had only worsened. The angry mob seemed to have become obsolete and now Gwen and Ianto were fighting off some giant bug-like creature. Jack looked around to find Harper. She seemed to be assessing the situation, she was clearly overwhelmed. Just as Jack was about to get her out, she made a move.
"Hey! Over here!" she yelled, waving at the giant bug creature.
Oh god, she was trying to create a diversion. Jack knew this was a bad idea. The creature started to move towards Harper. It would kill her for sure. Jack rushed over to push her out of the way.
"Oi!" Harper exclaimed, "what the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"
"Saving your life," Jack responded.
Harper was beyond finished with her father's constant underestimation of her abilities. She was going to show him that she knew what she was doing.
"Don't you bloody patronize me," she snarled, stepping in front of Jack. She pointed her gun and started shooting at the creature. Her aim was horrible but her adrenaline rush overtook her lack of ability. She kept on shooting as it got closer. Even if she was terrified, she couldn't give up. No, she was going to prove herself to her father or die trying. It had been her mission for fourteen years, why not keep it up? She kept on shooting but kept on missing.
Jack could not believe how stubborn this girl was. She was facing something many times her size and doing a shit job of fending it off. There was no way she could win this. All of a sudden his worst fears were realized. The creature was towering over Harper. She tried to shoot at it but she was out of ammo. Just as it was about to bite her, Jack jumped in front, pushing Harper onto the ground beside him. He felt a sudden sharp pain as the all too familiar feeling of death took hold.
Harper stared in shock at her father, who lay dead on the ground beside her. Her shock was so great that she didn't notice the creature gearing up to take her as its next victim. She was snapped out of her shock when she heard a loud blast and turned her head to see the creature falling to the ground. She looked over to see Gwen with one massive weapon, then looked back down at her father. Even though she knew he'd come back to life at any minute, she had still killed him. She felt even for guilt then she had before. Now she had not only intruded on his life but she had taken it.
It was Ianto who finally managed to fully snap her out of it, "come on," he said, "let's load him into the van." He and Gwen picked Jack up and put him in the back sear of the van while Harper trailed behind.
"Don't feel bad," Ianto assured her, "he dies all the time, we're used to it by now."
Harper nodded and climbed in the back seat. For the drive back to the hub Harper was silent. Gwen and Ianto were chatting away in the front but Harper didn't feel like joining their conversation. All of a sudden she heard a gasp from the seat next to her. She jumped, startled and turned to see her father, alive again.
"Holy shit!" she exclaimed, "is it always this dramatic when you come back?"
Jack glared at her, "we'll talk back at the hub."
Oh god, those words scared her. A talk meant one massive ass guilt trip. At least that was what it meant when she was five years old. Of course, she figured she really did deserve this one. Still, she felt enough guilt on her own, she didn't know if she could handle having it amplified.
When they got back to the hub, Harper trailed behind the team slowly, procrastinating on the inevitable guilt trip that she was about to receive.
"Alright Gwen, Ianto, keep an eye on rift activity, try to find out exactly what came through. Ianto, see if we've got smallpox," Jack ordered, "Harper, my office! Now!"
Harper took a deep breath and made her way into her father's office. A horrible feeling of dread built up in her stomach. She wondered if the events of today had ruined her relationship with her father for good. So much for fourteen years of searching.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Jack asked sternly.
Harper just stood there and shrugged, glancing at the ground.
"You had no idea what you were doing!" he continued, raising his voice, "you could have been killed! You're damn lucky that I stepped in and you're damn lucky that I can't die or else one of us, probably me, would be dead right now!"
Harper felt like she was being talked down to, she had been prepared for a guilt trip but still, she couldn't just stand there and let this happen. Not this time. "You think I don't feel bad about this?" she yelled, "I fucked up, alright! I'm human! I'm bloody human Dad! I fuck up!"
"Well that seems to be all you do when you're in the field!" Jack responded, raising his voice to her level, "this is the second time I've had to save you! I can't keep dragging you along and be constantly worrying about you!"
"Then don't!" Harper interjected, competing with her father for volume, "you didn't worry about me for a good fourteen years. Why start now?"
"Don't you think for one second that I didn't worry about you," Jack said, standing up, "not a day went by when I didn't wonder if you and your mother were okay."
"If you were really that worried then you would never have left!" Harper's voice was starting to break, "but instead you just shoved all your problems behind you and distracted yourself with Torchwood. Not only that but you went and replaced my mother with your bloody secretary!"
It was one thing for her to attack him, but Ianto, that was where Jack drew the line, "don't you dare bring Ianto into this," he said firmly.
"And why the bloody hell not?" Harper demanded, "it's the classic shit Dad move. Leave the family and go off to bang your secretary. I don't see how you can think I'm just going to be okay with all of this!"
"Harper you don't understand. I did what I had to. I did what was best for you and your mother."
Harper shook her head, "no, if you were really doing what was best for me and Mum, you would have stayed. You wouldn't have put me through a lifetime of trying to find my father. Remember those two years you stayed with us? I loved them. I loved you Dad and when you left I cried for a bloody long time. I thought I had failed you, like I failed my mum. I spent my entire teenage life trying to make you proud again and it felt like I never could. Then I searched and I searched and finally I found you, then what do I get? I get you trying to push me around and telling me what to do and trying to…manipulate me into forgetting the past but I can't do it. I can't forget my entire life!" Tears were pouring down Harper's face. She couldn't keep anything repressed any longer. It had all finally spilled out. Well, more like blown up. In both their faces.
It was hard for Jack to hear her words. To hear her tell him to his face that he was the cause of all her problems. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to say. All that came out was, "I'm sorry."
Harper looked up at him and stared him right in the eye, "that's it then?" she scoffed, "that's all you've bloody got? After all that you've done? You abandon me twice, you treat me like a child and that's it?"
Jack opened his mouth to speak but Harper continued on.
"And you're a bloody hypocrite too, you know that?" her volume started to rise again, "you call my boyfriend a heartbreaker when you're no better yourself."
Jack sighed, "you're never gonna let that go are you?"
Harper scoffed, "oh so I'm just supposed to let that go? I'm supposed to let the fact that my own dad's a hypocritical slut?" She shook her head, "well you can fuck off for all I care."
She'd had enough of this conversation. She needed to get out, now. Without another word she headed towards the door.
"Where do you think you're going? Jack demanded.
"Out," Harper stated, "and don't even think about trying to stop me. I've killed you before and I'll do it again if I have to." She turned around and walked out.
Jack took a heavy breath and sat back down in his chair. He thought about everything Harper had said and everything he had said back. Sure, some of the things she had said were unfair but so were some of the things he had said. He felt like a complete asshole. Worse than a complete asshole. 'Hypocritical slut' was probably an accurate description of what he felt like at that point. Whether Harper would forgive him or not, he had no idea. Hoping was all he could do.
It was about midnight when Harper got back in. After taking a breather and getting advice from a few of her friends (including, but not limited to, a very wasted Olly Abbottshire) she had come to one conclusion. She needed to leave. There was too much history that couldn't be forgotten. Too much that her stubborn mind could not let go of. Maybe finding her father hadn't been such a good idea after all. She had to get out and soon.
Once all her bags were packed she headed back up to her father's office. He saw her with the bags and instantly got on his feet.
"What's with all the bags?" he asked in a tone much calmer than the one he had before.
"This was a bad idea," Harper stated, "me coming to find you and then…I don't even know what I was thinking when I decided to move in. I can't do this anymore. There's too much that I can't forget. I'm sorry."
A silence fell, Jack was in shock. Almost as much shock as he had been in when he first saw Harper. He didn't know how to respond. "Whatever you think is best," he said.
"Well then, goodbye," Harper said, turning around and leaving the Torchwood hub for what she thought was the last time.