The young man looked very different to the little boy that Jack used to swing around in his arms. The little boy who used to run towards the door, each time he knocked. The little boy who the captain would play soldiers, with nothing more than plastic dolls and cuddly toys on the bedroom floor. The little boy who would rush to tell him about school, his favourite TV shows. The little boy who sat, cross-legged on the living room floor, listening hungrily and questionably at Jack's wondrous stories and fairy-tales. Jack couldn't have been happier with Ste Carter.
But Jan was a different person. He was just as inquisitive and child-like on the surface, but something was off, Jack could feel it.
"…Jan?" Jack was aware of the similarities in the name, causing him to almost bite his tongue with each mention of it.
"You can call me Ste if you want, Uncle Jack," Jan laughed. "I've missed you, you know, Uncle. All those stories you told me, and UNIT, they've stuck with me. I always wanted to be like you, I just never realised, well I never realised anything," He chuckled again, raising up from off the bed. Jan paused, "You're not laughing."
"No, Jan. You should never have looked up to me like that. You should have never died, never been put into that position." Jack said curtly.
"I have had training, you know!"
"As a UNIT officer!"
"Is that all you see me as?! I'm not part of them, I'm better, Ok! All the lessons you taught me, I've listened to them. I've done my research!"
"You know about paradoxes. That's it! I didn't teach you any lessons, you can't idolise me, just… just listen to your mother."
Jan sat speechless.
"I am here in my capacity as Torchwood." Jack looked away, and studied the computer screens around the medical bay, "We've scanned you, you're perfectly healthy. Just eat more regularly and you won't collapse as often." The Captain glanced back at Jan, "Say goodbye to your mum, and then return to your timeline. When you're back there, get rid of whatever you're using to time travel."
"Ja-"
"Do it now. I'll be checking up on you until I've made contact with you in the future, is that understood." He didn't ask it like a question.
"And what if I refuse." Neither did Jan.
"Then I'll be forced to make you forget everything. You won't remember your life after or during UNIT, just your childhood."
"What, so I can be "normal"? Why are you so obsessed with that?!" Jan rose from the bed, attempting to reach out towards Jack.
"Think of your mum. Of your grandmother. Remember what she said…"