A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry about the last chapter, it was very depressing but necessary. Just to make this clear, though the mother has died in this story and there are several less than satisfactory mothers in our Avengers story and even one in our Outsiders story, we both have great relationships with our own moms. It has nothing to do with our real life relationships, it just really does serve our plot. Now, this chapter is a bit depressing, too, unfortunately but . . . Please read, review, and enjoy! Thanks! :)

P.S. Really, guys, thanks so much for the reads, reviews, favorites, and follows. All of you are awesome and we really appreciate it.

Warning: A little more profanity than usual, but only because of the situation.

Chapter 10: Broken Hearts

Jack's Perspective

Jack took a deep breath and assessed the situation, Gwen moving to stand somberly by his side, tears rolling down her ashen cheeks.

Cameron was ghastly pale and seemed to have even lost the energy to cry. She just was sitting there quietly, so quietly, watching her sister beg and plead and cry over her mother. He couldn't hear the sirens yet, but they were coming, he knew it. They needed to leave before the police came and investigated because they were caught up in a huge mess, but he needed to let the girls have a moment with their mother. It was the least he could do.

"We have to go," he said solemnly after a few minutes. "We have to go now." Lulu's back stiffened like a board and she snapped her head around, her eyes icy daggers sharpened to a deadly point. She stood to her feet, her lips curling up into a snarl.

"Who the HELL do you think you are? I'm not leaving her, you got that? I'M NOT LEAVING HER! I don't fucking know you. Get the fuck out of here!" she lashed out, standing vigil over her mother's lifeless body. He was unfazed.

Cameron in nothing more than a whisper said, "Lulu, he's right, we need to go and take . . . We need to take her to a place where her body can't be publically viewed." In an almost robotic motion, the teenage girl stood, most of her weight being braced by Owen.

"I will go tell off anyone who may be asking questions outside, and bring the car right to the door," Gwen added, before taking her quick leave.

Lulu was trembling with fury and shock, her breath coming in rapid, uneven gasps. "No, no, no. No, this isn't fucking happening."

Jack approached Lulu with a mild caution. "Lulu, I'm-"

"No!" she screamed at him, backing away like a frightened animal. "Don't say you're sorry, that just makes it true! It's not true, this isn't happening! Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!" He raised his hands in a placating gesture.

Cam, ever the logical one, told Jack urgently as she melted into Owen's hold, "My mom . . . my mom was born in Cardiff, she grew up there. Sh-she loved it, never lost the accent. We were born there, too. We moved here when Lulu was a baby. She . . . she would want to be buried there."

"Then I promise that is what will happen," he said, his resolve unwavering, but he kept his voice soft and gentle for both girls' sakes. "Are there any things you desperately want with you? Now's the time to get them." He whispered so Lulu couldn't hear, "I don't think Lulu's in the state for that now, so could you grab anything that will help her through this?"

Cam nodded determinedly, and Owen helped her up the stairs.

Lulu's rabid eyes flickered after them, confused. "Why are they leaving? Why are they packing? We aren't going anywhere. Nothing happened, you see?" Jack could see her futile efforts to convince herself that everything was okay. It was her mind's way of protecting her from her living nightmare. "My mom's not dead. That's ridiculous. My mom's not dead."

She fell to her knees and grabbed Jasmine's hand, burying her head into her shirt. "Mom, please, wake up. Nobody will believe me! Show them, show them you're not dead. Come on, please, do it for me. Please wake up, Mommy, please."

He knelt down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder but she flinched away. "Lulu-"

"Don't call me that," she hissed, hovering protectively over her mother. "I'm Laurel to you. Lulu is what my family calls me. My mom gave me that nickname. She'll tell you, she will. She'll tell you once she wakes up."

Jack decided it wouldn't be beneficial to inform her he was family yet. He attempted to pull her away but she threw a wild punch at him, which he very narrowly dodged. "NO, GET AWAY FROM ME!"

She was becoming hysterical, tears streaming down her cheeks but Jack didn't think she was lucid enough at the moment to notice. His heart ached for the grieving little girl, he felt so terribly bad for her, but there was no time to express this now.

He wrapped her up in his strong, unbreakable hold as she struggled with all her might. "GET OFF OF ME!"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he murmured into her ear, dragging her away from her mother's corpse.

"NO, YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" she bellowed, doing anything she could to escape. Punching, kicking, pinching, biting . . . but he wouldn't let go. "Take me back to her! She's going to wake up any minute and I need to be by her side!"

"Laurel, I'm so sorry, but your mom isn't waking up, sweetheart. She isn't going to wake up." It hurt him deeply to have to be the one to tell her this, but this responsibility nearly always fell upon him.

For a single, heartbreaking moment, he felt her go limp in his grasp and thought perhaps she had succumbed to her grief. But then she completely lost it. "NO, YOU'RE LYING! STOP LYING TO ME! I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU!"

He tried to allow her words to fall on deaf ears but he felt a stab of pain following each and every word. It was senseless of him to feel that way, considering she didn't even know he was her father and she was just lashing out because he was there, but he couldn't help it.

That was when Cam and Owen hurried down the stairs, several duffel bags in their hands. Her eyes were lifeless and he knew she was shutting down. He needed to get them both back to the plane. Owen nodded at him, then gestured to the crime scene, indicating that he would take care of both bodies, as well as all the DNA. Jack dipped his head in thanks.

Owen then handed Cam the duffel bags, which she unsteadily managed to carry. Jack felt relieved that it looked like her throat and arm wounds truly weren't as bad as they appeared at the time. They were rather shallow, but still painful.

Lulu finally gave into her sobs so he wrapped his arm under her knees and lifted her into a bridal hold, then let Cam rest her head against him as he slowly guided them out the door.

Owen had wrapped up her throat and shoulder nice and tightly though the bleeding from the shallow cuts had lessened considerably, but she was still weak so she leaned most of her weight onto him. He didn't mind at all.

The cops still weren't here yet so he helped Cam and the duffel bags into the rental car then draped his military coat over the left back seat of the car so Lulu wouldn't bloody it up. Blood covered about eighty percent of her body; it was gruesome to see and imagine what she had been through.

Jack ordered Gwen to help Owen take care of the bodies, so she slipped inside to do so. Lulu's sobs had quieted down to silent, ceaseless tears and Cam pulled her against her, letting her cry into her shirt. Cam's light blue eyes were still empty and vacant.

When Jack caught a glimpse of Owen backing out the door, he rapidly commanded, "Girls, close your eyes."

Lulu remained defiant in her irrational state so Cam numbly covered both of their eyes as Owen and Gwen carried the man's then Jasmine's corpse outside, carefully stowing them away in the back. Lulu's form was wrought with trembles as she heard the shifting of movement in the back, then the loud shutting of the back door. It had to be horrible for both of them, knowing their mother's body as well as her murderer's was right behind them.

Lulu's bout of crying started up again and Gwen climbed into the back as Owen hopped into the front. Cam blanketed her little sister with her arms and Gwen rubbed at the girl's shoulders, stroking her hair, undaunted by the blood. She whispered sweet nothings into both of his daughters' ears and it occurred to Jack how great of a mother she would make.

Jack snuck a glance over at Owen and noticed he was unusually white, white as a sheet. It had been traumatic for all of them to witness.

Jack revved up the engine and backed out of the driveway. Now he was beginning to hear the first of the sirens, but he knew they would be out of there before the police arrived.

The only sound piercing the crushing silence was Lulu's sniffles and attempts to stifle her sobs and Gwen's quiet murmuring to comfort the inconsolable girl.

An hour or so later. . . .

The drive to the jet was long and arduous, but they made it. Their first stop had been to the hotel room of the late Gregory Munch's to collect the alien artifacts. Jack had sent Owen and Gwen inside so he could stay with the girls, and it didn't take long.

It was about three in the morning now and the sky was a rich inky black, symbolizing their collective moods.

Lulu was shivering; the dried blood must have felt awful on her skin. He helped her out of the SUV then draped his military coat over her shoulders like he was dressing a small child. She looked positively tiny in that jacket; it pooled on the ground near her feet.

Soon enough, they were all situated on the jet, both bodies residing safely in the other room. The faithful pilot knew by now to not question any of it; anything could go down in Torchwood.

Lulu, understandably exhausted from the day's events, dozed off on one of the couches with Cam by her side. The girl looked so much younger in her sleep.

After takeoff, Cam slid out of her seat and took a seat across from Jack. She had a look about her that told him she was scared, but unwilling to acknowledge the fact. Owen and Gwen tactfully left the main sitting room.

"Where are we going?" she asked firmly, looking Jack straight in the eyes.

"Our base in Cardiff, that is where you will be staying till we figure all this out," he explained. She nodded, fiddling with her thumbs. He could tell that there was a few questions eating away at her and he waited patiently for her to spit them out.

"And what will be happening to us?" she finally said and an invisible weight visibly lifted from her shoulders. "I won't be old enough to take custody of Lulu for a few months and between that time plenty of people will grow curious of our sudden disappearance. Also, where will we stay? All our money is in our . . . in her bank account."

"It will all be figured out with time, don't worry, Cameron. You can stay with me until everything is sorted out and then you can choose where you want to live," Jack answered honestly. He was contemplating everything. This is one case where his fairly vast knowledge couldn't help him in the slightest, he had to figure it out as he went along.

"You do realize my sister is clueless about all of this and so am I, to be truthful. Do you expect us to trust you?"

"No." He couldn't lie to her, to either of them, not after what they had just been through. "I don't expect you to. I hope you will come to, though, and . . . I'm going to need your help explaining this to her."

"Of course," she said and now it appeared there was nothing else to say, but Jack found himself wanting to distract her from the overwhelming grief she was most assuredly feeling.

"So, you're seventeen, right?" She nodded and he knew perfectly well that she knew he was trying to sidetrack her, but she didn't comment. "And Lulu . . . ?"

Cam looked over at her little sister with warmth flickering in her lifeless eyes. "God, she's just a kid." She insisted again, as if trying to make sure he was listening, "Jack, she's just a kid. My God, she turned only turned fourteen a little less than a month ago, around the same time she earned her degree."

He just listened because that's what he thought she truly needed right then. Just for somebody to listen. "My middle name's Samantha, by the way. Her middle name's Kristy and her full name's Laurel. My mo- we always call her Lulu."

He didn't bother to tell her that Lulu very clearly reminded him of that.

A brief smile passed over her face. "I remember the rare times my mom called us by our full names, it's so strange. One time my mom called Lulu by her full name just to test it out or something, and she didn't even respond. That was a strange misunderstanding. It was just so unnatural for us. We had a good laugh about that," Cameron giggled. Jack in return smiled at her and when she realized what was happening, the emotion seeped out of her and all the warmth left her eyes.

"The corpses needs to be held thirty-six degrees Farenheit and kept in a sterile location, which I am assuming is not the case in this plane." Her explanation was so very monotone; he suspected that she used science to shield her real feelings. This was the first time he had heard her use the knowledge of her profession like that.

"We will fix that in Cardiff, but you are correct. But with these circumstances, it was the best we could do." Jack didn't understand how she was so easily talking about her mother like this, then he remember her career as a medical examiner. She was likely thoroughly desensitized to death, although this was her mother.

"Also, upon landing I need to contact my superiors and inform them of our whereabouts in regard to national security. The cases we have been presented within our careers would be compromised if we were to go off the radar unexpectedly."

Jack couldn't help but feel even more sorry for the girl. People coped in different ways but he had seen shutting down and hiding it destroy people, including himself. "All will be handled later, you don't need to worry about that currently. Right now, why don't you get some rest while I brief my team?"

With nothing more than a nod, Cameron returned to her seat with her sister and stared blankly at the ground. Currently he couldn't do anything for the two so he got up and headed to the back where Owen and Gwen worked with Tosh on the case.

"Okay, where are we at with this situation?" he said into his com so even Tosh could hear.

"The kidnapper's name was Jeremy Lida. He is known to the FBI and CIA for transporting goods throughout the U.S. No one has been able to catch the man nor has anyone been able to locate any shipments, therefore we don't know what contraband is being moved. Many assume it's drugs or weapons but after today's events I think he may have been moving alien technology," Tosh informed them, typing away at her computer. "I'm still looking into his motives."

"The idea of living forever to anyone is tempting and I know that millions of people would pay ungodly amounts for something that valuable," Jack began but was cut off by Gwen.

"Whoa, Jack, you owe us some explaining before we jump into this case headfirst." He had a sinking feeling about what she was preparing to throw in his face. "Owen told me that you think Cameron is your daughter. What about Lulu? Both girls take after you, Jack."

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Gee thanks, Owen, he thought, annoyed. "I don't know what explanation to give because truthfully I just learned about it myself. All I can tell you is that Jasmine once lived in Cardiff and nearly eighteen years ago, she and I had a fling."

"So is only Cameron your daughter? Because from what I see, they both are, which means you went back for seconds," Owen oh so helpfully pointed out.

The anger Jack had suppressed before was beginning to rear its ugly head once more but he tried to ignore it- the woman just died for God's sake. "I ran into her again a couple years later. She just never told me about our first child, Cam, and must have thought it unnecessary to contact me later and let me know about the second one either," he explained, also taking this moment to fill himself in on the blanks. "Cameron must have been around three then because she's seventeen now and Lulu just turned fourteen."

Gwen looked down at her shoes sadly. "So young."

"Well, Cameron isn't that young . . ." Owen exclaimed, looking at his lap, a sly smile coming over his face. "She sure doesn't act like it."

Jack eyes shot up to Owen and he scowled at him. Shameless as ever. Sighing, Jack said, "I will be in the main room if you need me. And Owen? Just . . . don't."

Jack walked into the main room and took a seat, watching his sleeping daughters. His mind reviewed, with much difficulty, everything that had happened in no more than a few hours. It was amazing how so much could change is such a short amount of time.