Children of Earth: Day One- Part 1

Jack and I smiled and waved as the Doctor took off in his Tardis. The Doctor told us that he wanted to spend a bit more, one and one, time with his daughter and granddaughter. He was going to drop Amy off at a day spa world for relaxation while he took Susan and Jenny on a Universe tour.

Cline was back home on Messaline. Jenny had given her Chief of Security a cell phone and to call the Tardis whenever something important came up. Jenny had helped to get the people of Messaline get back on their feet by being in charge and then leaving Nathan, friends with Cline and her, in charge.

Nathan called last night telling that there were disagreements on how to distribute food, given that there was a food shortage and Nathan was dealing with riots. The Doctor didn't want Jenny to go just yet so Cline went back by himself.

"So, do you think he managed to get the correct time?" Jack asked me.

I looked around until I spotted a newspaper laying on a table, abandoned by someone. I ran over and checked the date. I snorted. "Nope. Look at the date. July 6th, 2009."

"I remember that date." Jack said. "The Queen called and wanted me in charge of her protection detail for five days at Windsor Castle. She said someone gave her a recommendation, but wouldn't tell me who it was. We weren't allowed to communicate with the outside world. Now, I'm not to sure it was a coincidence. That someone must have known that I would be in London today, again. When I got back to Cardiff, the hub was gone and we had to start over."

"Wait, FIVE days?" I asked Jack.

"Jack looked at me, yes, why?"

I sat down on a bench. This was another Torchwood episode, er, season. "Jack, right now, what's going to happen, This was on the Torchwood show."

"Ok." Jack said slowly. "So, one episode, right?"

I laughed coldly. "Not even close, Jack, this is the beginning of the plot to Series three. A five episode plot of Torchwood."

"Five episode plot." Jack echoed back. "So, it's bad, yeah? Wait, I remember having to move the Queen into her underground bunker for four days. Something did happen, I just wasn't told at the time what it was."

"Yes, Jack. It will be terrible and scary." I stood up and looked at my phone. It said 6:30am. "We have to get to Torchwood."

We got to Torchwood in a minute, because of my Vortex Manipulator. The Doctor had taken some time to teach me how it worked. I checked my purse. I had my phone, psychic paper and my sonic pen.

"Jack!" Ianto said, surprised as we walked in. "Aren't you supposed to be with the Queen?"

"I am with the Queen." Jack said. "And I am here also." Jack smirked. "Got an explanation?"

Ianto thought for a minute then his eyes widened. "Future!" Ianto blurted out. "Your from the future!"

Jack walked over and patted Ianto on the back. "Yep! 2010, to be precise."

Ianto looked crestfallen. "By only one year?"

"Ianto, you know you can't tell present Jack about this, right?" I asked him.

"Yeah… o-of course." Ianto stammered.

"Brilliant!" I said. "Now, I would like some coffee and a look on what we have to do today."

"Oh, Jack!" Owen coming down the stairs, not hearing the conversation we had with Ianto and asked, "Aren't you supposed to be with the Queen?"

Ianto quickly brought us each a cup of coffee and said, "There is a patient in St Helen's Hospital, a Mister Williams. The computers monitored an alien hitchhiker, of sorts, present in the body. We have to clear the Mister Williams of the evidence."

"Then let's go!" I said, wanting nothing more than to get out of the hub.

Jack and I stood holding, holding hands. Ianto and Owen stood next to each other, looking solum as Dr. Patanjali shouted, "Clear, Again!"

A nurse had the defibrillator over Mister Williams, rubbed it together again. "Charging, two hundred." The Nurse said.

"Clear!" Dr. Patanjali yells. But the patient does not revive. "I think we should call it. Everyone agree? Okay. Time of death, oh nine seventeen. Sally, I can leave it with you, yeah? I'll go and tell them."

The doctor comes over to Jack, Ianto, Owen and I. "I'm sorry. We did everything we could, but he didn't make it."

"Oh, that's a shame." Jack said, pretending to be sad and doing a horrible job at it.

"Very sad." Ianto said.

"Poor old Mister Williams." Owen said.

"It's very sad indeed." I said.

Dr. Patanjali gave us a strange look. "There'll have to be an autopsy, but I'd say his heart gave out."

"Brave old heart." Ianto said.

"You were neighbours, is that right?" Dr. Patanjali asked us.

"We live next door." Jack said, nodding to the three of us. "Community living house."

"He's got no family to speak of. All on his own. We'd just keep an eye on him, you know." Ianto said.

"Well, I'm sure he appreciated it. If only there were more like you four in the world."

"I know it's an imposition, but with us being such good neighbours. Can we see the body?" I asked sweetly.

"Bless him." Jack said.

"God rest his soul." Owen said.

"Say, do you think we could, er, just on our own." I asked.

"Course you can. Just come and find me, once you're done. And I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you." I smiled sadly. Dr. Patanjali left.

"He thought we were together, like a couple. He said, you two. The way he said it. You two." Ianto said.

"I am with someone else, you know that, Ianto." Ianto glanced down at our joint hands, his eyes widening at the sight of our wedding rings.

"Don't worry, Ianto. You'll be there for the wedding. Laser saw." I said.

"Thank you." Ianto says.

I handed the laser saw to Jack and he slices open the corpse's abdomen. "Tongs."

"Tongs." Owen handed Jack tongs.

"Almost got it." Jack says.

Dr. Patanjali came in saying, "Sorry, one more-" and stopped short when he saw Jack pulling a heart-size black mass from Mister William's body.

"There. Now, look at it. That's not human, is it? Does that look human? No, it does not. It's just a hitchhiker he picked up. It didn't kill him."

"Some say they're positively beneficial. They release endorphins into the bloodstream. He died a happy man. And I've got Tupperware." I said, putting the mass into the tupperware box I had and putting it into my backpack.

"And we're very considerate, we don't leave any mess." Jack seals up the wound he made. No scar was left. "Thank you very much. We'll just get out of your way." We walked out of the room.

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute!" Dr. Patanjali called after us.

Dr. Patanjali chased us all the way out to our black SUV. "Whatever it was, that was mutilation. I should report you."

"Then why don't you?" I asked.

"But that thing. What the hell was it, that hitchhiker?" Dr. Patanjali stumbled over the wording of hitchhiker.

"Try putting it into a report." Jack stated.

Dr. Patanjali eyes widened. "You're Torchwood."

"Never heard of them." Owen said.

"Ianto, get the car started." I commanded. Ianto did as I said.

"There are bodies going missing."

"How many?" I asked.

"This whole city talks about you."

"What bodies? Where?" Jack asked.

"It started two months ago. Bodies, taken down to the mortuary, then the records just stop. Five of them. Five in two months. And none of them white. One of West Indian descent, one African, three Chinese. All male."

"What was your name again?" I asked.

"Rupesh. Rupesh Patanjali."

"What do you think?" Jack asked.

"NHS." I responded.

"Yeah. Too much red tape. Sorry. But good luck with it." Jack said.

"Don't. Look, wait a minute!" Jack, Owen and I get into the car and Ianto drives away.

"You are gonna get us killed!" Ianto says as we walked into the hub seeing Gwen and Tosh already at work.

"No, you get killed, not me. You'd die like a dog. Like an ugly dog."

"Aren't you supposed to be with the Queen?" Gwen asked, sensing the tension in the room. I mouthed 'thank you' and she nodded back. Ianto and Jack had been arguing for the entire ride home and it was giving me a headache.

"Future." I stated.

"Oi, Chuckle Brothers. We found something." Tosh said, causing us come over to Gwen and Toshs screen.

"Yeah? Well, I want you to do a check on Saint Helen's Hospital, specifically the morgue." Jack said.

"There's a computer, do it yourself. Meanwhile I've been getting reports this morning of seventeen traffic accidents happening right across the country, all the way from Glasgow to Saint Ives." Gwen said.

"Is that above average?" Jack asked.

"Well, they all occurred between eight forty and eight forty one. Seventeen road traffic accidents happening in exactly the same minute, and every single one of them involving children." Tosh said and I winced.

"That'll be the school run." Owen said.

"All of them were just standing in the road. Not crossing the road, just standing. I saw it myself, Jack. Two kids on Market Street. Well, they just stopped." Gwen said.

Ianto checked his computer. "Same reports from France. Fifteen road traffic accidents. All timed around nine forty. They're an hour ahead, so it was simultaneous."

"All involving children?" Gwen asked.

"Yep. Hold on, still cross-referencing. Here we go. Reports coming in. RTAs in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg. Germany, India, Egypt, Guyana Spain, Portugal, Bosnia, Tokyo. Singapore. At eight forty GMT, most of America was asleep, but even there, we're beginning to get reports. I think we can assume it's all of them. As far as we can tell, at eight forth this morning, every single child in the world stopped."

"Seen anything like this before, Jack?" Tosh asked.

Jack scoffed. "No way, kids." I knew Jack was lying.

"Jack." I said softly. "Can we talk? Privately?" Jack and I walked up to Jack's office and I closed the door. "Jack, I know what you did in 1965 to those children you took on a bus. It's okay. I know you didn't have a choice."

Jack's expressionless face crumbled and he slid against the wall down to the floor, sobbing. I sat beside him and held him as Jack cried, rubbing circles on his back and saying, "Shh, Jack. It's okay.

Some comments on Reviews:

Rosetheowl: Actually, Owen and Tosh were supposed to die during Exit Wounds and Ianto during Children of Earth... But for what I am planing for them in Children of Earth... Spoilers! Shhh.