Jolein Sr. puffed away on a cigarette on the back patio while her son just stared at her.

"What, nothing to say my angel heart?" She hadn't called him that since he was very young. But he seemed young to her right now. She sighed as she thought of that adorable little boy that was so full of love and happiness until the Universe thought it best to play with him. She missed that child, but somehow it was all right for her son was still next to her unlike the other two children that she lost so long ago.

He read her mind easily. She was letting him or she just didn't know her guard was down. Mark mused because she was getting old she had gotten sloppy. He saw the gray hairs more prominent now and how her face was stressed with wrinkles brought on by her nasty habit of smoking. And as if a brick had hit him, he read her true reason for being home. She was dying. The nasty habit had infected her lungs and it was just a matter of time before she left this world. He stared at her now, wondering what he would do without her.

"You survived before, Angel heart, without me." She saw the pain in his face as it hit home. "Not even going to get mad for reading your thoughts? Mine are up for grabs now. I have nothing to hide anymore. It doesn't matter what I think, might as well say it since I don't have to care anymore. I won't be here to suffer the consequences of my verbal wit. I don't have very long. I came home to love a grandson I didn't like for a long time. Is that wrong?" She threw the remains of the cigarette to the ground, stamping it out into the lawn with her shoe. The next thing she knew Mark was hugging her, leaving the tears in check and inside. She was glad of that; she didn't need to have him crying just yet. She did enough of that for both of them when she believed he was dead. He can shed his tears when she was cold and in the ground.

With a shiver she changed the course of her mood. She felt it just wasn't the right time to think of being a dead thing lying in the ground and rotting. Her defeat hadn't gotten to that point yet.

"I love you, Mum." He said as he tightened his grip. "Lets make this the best of times." He pulled away; flashing that smile of sunshine she remembered from the time he was born.

"Always that smile! Did you show your Master that smile?" He nodded so she continued. "Then he must have been special. I'm glad that he treated you well. But I still feel bad by this. I swore to myself I wouldn't get reflective over the past. It is done. But I will let that Brat of yours know that I love him until I can't breathe and the light fades. So let's go see him. Okay?"

It wasn't okay, none of it was ever okay, but he nodded before adding. "Give me a moment to love you alone?" She nodded back, pulling Mark back to her.

John watched mother and son's exchange and was aware that things weren't right. He silently cursed Jolein for coming home just now. Mark would often become more obstinate with Jolein around. John for one didn't love his mother in-law like a good son-in-law should. His feelings were more akin to fear since their first encounter. Jolein somehow proved to be a tough broad as Jack called her, using a 1940's gangster accent. And she at first liked John, but then tended to use his infidelity against him because John had made Mark unhappy with the affair. To Jolein it was a sin to make her son upset. So John became the bad guy. Then there was the whole thing about trying to isolate his family from the world, trying to convince his kids they were better than everyone because they were of 51st century stock and the world would turn on them if people knew truth about their origins. That never flew right with him. His kids were 21st century and had to learn to live in this century. So one night he had it out with the old broad and told her to stay out of his children's and his life, that she was not to talk nonsense to his kids any more. For the most part she listened. It was still important to her to have the family around so she bit her tongue keeping her notions to her self.

But Jolein stayed around less and less until, after stating her beliefs one more time she left, John had hoped for good. Mark was sad over this but he understood it was for the best. But now the old broad was back and John's hairs on the back of his neck were standing at attention.

"Dad, she is just here for NG, I think, though I'm getting something else. Does Nana look well to you?" Leon was next to his Dad who stood a few feet away from the window watching his husband and mother-in-law chat.

John studied Jolein Sr. for a moment before shaking his head. "I think we know the reason she came home. She is sick." He felt Leon's sadness and wrapped his arm around his son. "Hey, let's not go there until we have to. Now lets change the subject. What can you tell me about your brother?"

a

"You should start the BBQ up and feed our guest Jack. Is anyone still working at Torchwood or are they all here on assignment?" He smirked, suddenly liking the attention for a change.

"NG don't start, it is only your siblings, parents, grandma and Dan right now beside me." Anna chided. "Harry went back to the Hub to be with the rest of the team. You aren't our only case right now!" She shoved another cup of the piss water he hated into his hands.

He gulped it back thanking the Gods for not letting him throw it up. It was something that wouldn't have tasted good the second time around.

"Oh you are a funny man," Jack chuckled. "But it isn't a bad idea. I take it you are up for food then?" Jack smiled falling down stomach first on the bed.

"Yes, I am, as your children have told me. I need more than soup right now. Anna, can I have a real meal?" He batted his eyes at her.

"I don't see why not. If you up to it you can eat out in the garden. Besides, your Grandmother came all this way, why not have a little fun?" She messed up his hair.

"She came for me? Wow, didn't think she cared that much." He grew a little quiet.

"Of course she cares." Jack shook NG's leg to get his attention. "I didn't realize how you look a little like her when you pout." The pillow hit Jack in the head making him laugh.

"He does Jack, I agree." She smiled. "Well, I'm going to say hello to Jolein. It is wonderful to see her again. I'm also going to call Robert and tell him to come over with Tam. It's safe. NG isn't contagious, but you still have to take it easy." She wagged her finger at her patient.

"Yes Mum." He nodded. She pursed her lips before grinning as she left.

When Anna was out of earshot NG spoke. "Jack, have I made them not trust me by evading their questions?" He looked at the man lying stomach first on the bed with his chin propped up on his folded hands.

"It was your call not to tell them too much. You still owe me a story; I don't care what they want. But me, that is a little different. I need you to trust me as well." He didn't move, just watched the thoughts change NG's face as he tried to decide what he could say. The stress of deciding which parts were more important was apparent so Jack added, "but when you're ready, only when you are ready."

NG saw Jack's look. Relaxing a little, he responded. "I'll try to be ready sooner than later. For you, I'll give you as much as I can. But you have to give me a bit more time." 'I need that to get this correct.'

Jolein Jr. hugged Jolein Sr. before she walked out the door. In her hand was the shirt NG wore when he materialized back in this time. In her heart was a sadness that her Nana was dying. Jolein Sr. let her namesake know by planting it in her mind. She hid it from the others, sensing that in many ways that was what her Nana did with the rest of them. But it still didn't lessen the shock. Jolein Sr. silently asked that her granddaughter didn't let the news get to her. They still had enough time to be together, that was why she made her way home from the south of France. Also she wanted to be there for the birth of her new great grandkids. Something pushed her to this, something, maybe someone asked her to be here when they were born. So much for her plans to die alone.

Jolein Jr. also noted how her Nana was with NG. She was affectionate, something that she never had been with her younger brother before. NG seemed to like it, not at all put out by it and more than willing to return it. But Jolein had a feeling that something had passed between the two that the others weren't aware of when at one point the pair locked eyes and held each other in thought for a bit of time. For a moment it was like they stood still in time while the others around them kept moving. Then it was over as soon as the look started, they both blinked, Jolein Sr. grabbing NG's hand and went back to the conversations around them. But to Jolein it meant something else.

She started to think of Einstein and how he would say time looks different to those observing others in a moving bus and how those same people see time move differently as well when looking at the world outside. It was like that with the pair. They to the outside world were barely moving, but inside their minds they might have traveled for a hundred years. It was something along with the shirt she was going to look into tomorrow. Right now she headed home to wait for Alan when he arrived later that night.

"First a nice bath, then maybe a candle or two. I do have that lace top that I haven't worn yet." She smiled, checking her shoulder length light brown hair in the car's rearview mirror. "I should have gotten it styled today." She laughed out loud. "But there is no room for beauty with this job. I'm lucky to get make up on some days. Still, you seem to keep your youth. Sometimes I wish I had Leon's soft brown eyes like Papa. My John Hart peepers are a bit sharp for a woman." Still, they were the first thing Alan told me he loved, 'the way your eyes show so much alertness and intelligence compared with the beauty of the rest of you, you are a stunning rare thing.' He must have been drunk. She snickered at that. But he wasn't, he was a man in love.

"I have travelled, Nana to a place where this all began. This time I have such an insight to what I am. But I still don't know the words to tell the others what that is. Nana, I never meant to be a brat to you. I love you. But for now all I can say is that whatever happens now, it is supposed to. I just wish everyone won't suffer when I leave for good." It wasn't the same room though she sat on the bed talking. They were outside, somewhere not of Earth with a gray storm heavy sky, the purple color of angry clouds hung in spots turning light when the lighting made a jagged mark in the sky.

"NG, all this time I knew you would change. I had an image of you in my head since before your Papa was born. I use to think that you would be my lover." She giggled at the sudden repulsion from her grandson in his thoughts. "Then I thought you would be my child, but now I know you are my future. I wouldn't, nor would your Papa have existed if it weren't for you being here and now. So as long I have breath I will be here for you. I know what it is you've become. But I can't tell you what I saw, that is for you to find out."

His Nana seemed so much smaller than the raging world around them. To NG it was not a world but somewhere else not set in the Universe he knew. It was far way from his reality. It had a conscience all its own, full of life and emotion as the sky opened up and buckets of tears in the form of rain poured on NG and Jolein from the Being's sadness.

He tossed and turned as his dream relived the conversation. He felt hot again, but kicking the covers off alerted Jack, lying next to him of his distress.

"Hey, you are burning up again." Jack wrapped one arm around the restless NG and used the other hand to feel his forehead. "I'm calling Anna." He went to move.

"Don't, it can wait. I had such a bad dream." He was shaking from the chilled air against his sweating skin.

Jack reached for the blankets, pulling them up around NG's shaking body. "Okay, do you want to tell me about the dream?" He hoped that maybe NG would.

"Nana was telling me that I have a purpose when she was here before, that my existence was to make all theirs happen. So I must have relived the conversation in my dream. But in the dream we were somewhere unknown, like we were standing on a world that was fully conscience in thoughts and feelings. But it was scary, very angry at our conversation."

He felt Jack tighten his arms around him before he continued. "Jack, I'm not sure of anything except one thing. The moonstones called to me and I answered. Ianto was the moonstones here to guide me to Boeshane and its beginnings. I know why it all happens. I also know that I won't be able to stay here forever. And as far as what Dan and the others were trying to hide, I know I'm endangering all of you." He didn't move from his side just lay there shaking with small tears leaving his wide-open eyes.

"Hey, we will figure this out, I promise. But for now, lets get you out of this wet shirt and into something warm. I'll give Anna a call after. Tea, real tea to warm you, not what she has been giving you, then we will cuddle and wait for her. Okay?" He kissed NG's head coaxing the young man onto his back. NG looked at Jack with such trust when he nodded yes that Jack almost felt his heart break in two. He wanted to keep NG safe, but he also wanted to keep the world safe. Something deep inside dreaded the choice he might have to make when the time arose to do what had to be done.

One of the worst things John Hart ever did wasn't in his past but in his present to one of his own children. He knew that it was like passing a death sentence on NG by limiting his movements. But his youngest for the most part according to Dan's latest study, wasn't really in this time period most of the time. The bracelet was failing, and he was aware that NG knew it as well. So close to having the triplets and if his ability kicked in he would be very pregnant and again traveling somewhere unknown. John shuddered to think of what might happen to his youngest and his grandkids if they were thrown out in some unknown place again. NG was better trained for the most part, telling his Dad that he was grateful for all of his survival skills after his last trip. But John just knew he had to fix the Vortex Manipulator. It would be a safer way for NG to find his way home. But even then, John couldn't guarantee it would even work correctly to do just that. The Doctor had messed with all of three to the point of ridiculous, so many components malfunctioning at once. He realized after he started to fix the shards into the devices that more than likely even that would fail to guide NG back. He just hoped that he could get a better handle on what was wrong and fix it before NG left again.

But the data was off; whatever the Doctor did to break them in the first place was being a bitch to repair. He flashed on NG's face for strength and courage to get the job done. It was working as another circuit came to stabilized and was fixed.

"I promise NG, I will not fail you." He felt arms wrap around his neck, smelling Mark with his nose. "Can he believe in me, Lovely?" He rested the VM down on the table, reaching around to bring Mark into his lap. "Mark, I can't do this anymore, pretending I can fix this so NG can use it. One circuit in three days just isn't enough. I need this done so I can help him survive out there and he can trust me here. I know he does to some extent but I have to have this working so he knows he is safe." Mark buried his face in John's neck.

With a graceful feel of a man that has touched others minds his whole life, Mark led himself to that secret spot John had just for him. "It will work out. NG is just being NG. We know he is scared and he knows we are as well. He's thinking it out and will love you no matter if the VM works or not. But in the meantime, lean on me just a little and let me help. We will find a way"

John sighed into Mark's stronger mind and let his husband heal his troubled soul yet again. It was always pleasure with Mark tending to John's soul and allowing him see just what needed to be done wasn't unreachable as he liked to think.

He smiled as Mark planted a quick kiss on his lips before he led John to their bedroom.

"I don't deserve you, Lovely. You are too good for this bad man."

The response was in his head. "Ha, and here I thought I was the bad one. No John, you deserve all the good you can get. That is why I'm with you." He heard the echo of Mark's isolated mental laughter. Before leaving at Mark's urging he reached for his laptop to run a simulation for his idea.

The days passed and NG's fever stayed. It wasn't a good sign and once again he was confined to bed. He slept for the most part but it still troubled them all. Mark for one was remembering something similar that happened to him when he was pregnant with Ramanh. NG's fever was running the same course as his did. Mark knew what was in store for NG next. Bad chills that went to the bone would follow if it were the same fever. The question that bothered Mark was how did NG get it. Was it contact with Loyalwin's people that bought it on?

Jack was in the living room when Anna kicked Mark out of NG's room. It seemed he was feeding some type of fear through his empathy that was upsetting her patient. He asked his son one simple question and Anna asked him to leave.

"Did they violate you, NG? Did they touch you?" It was simple enough and the only way that Mark could come up with for NG catching this fever. Mark to this day still didn't know how he got his fever. But Mark believed at first it was his body getting used to the alien/half human in his body. He then overheard the doctor say that it was because Loyalwin had contaminated him when they had coupled many times after he conceived. Loyalwin, Mark could feel, didn't believe that to be the truth. But there was something that just didn't fit and nagged at him in the back of his mind as alien propaganda. The only one that could give him a full answer to his questions, especially the one about if his kind already knew about NG from the beginning and Mark had been hand picked for the purpose of procreation, was Loyalwin. There was also the nagging sensation that his moonstone had something to do with it. Now Mark knew about NG's encounter with the moonstones, it would seem in Mark's mind that maybe they played more into the whole story than just NG's ability to time travel.

He sat down next to Jack radiating his state of mind. Jack began by saying "I don't need to be an Empath to know that the part with the moonstone is bothering you. He still hasn't given me the whole story though his relationship with the stones he readily gave to Jolein. I think that was NG's way of telling us the important part. I swear, Mark, I have no idea anything but what I have said. He also knows we have a plan for him if things go badly. He hasn't told me what he feels about it, or if we are upsetting him." Jack leaned back on the couch and sighed. "He has been too sick to voice much but his fear of losing himself. I'm not sure what he means by that. He is also having bad dreams and from what I gather they are terrifying him. What did you say that got you thrown out of the room?" Jack stood when Anna came into the room. To Mark's surprise and joy Jack forgot the question freeing Mark from answering. He didn't think he could tell Jack that he thought the Creatures assaulted NG sexually; it was the wrong time to add that to the already mounting problems.

"Okay, he is delirious right now. I can't figure out what it is. I took some good old fashion blood samples and I'm going to run them back to the Hub and have a look. Also, Dan says he needs to stay there for a bit. Something odd fell through the Rift and needs immediate attention. He will send you a report soon." She hugged him then Mark before gathering her things to leave. She turned at the door and said, "don't worry, we will find the answers." She closed the door with a gentle snap.

Mark watched Jack as he stared at the door. "You need to get some rest. You look drained. I know you think you don't need sleep, but you kind of need a few moments to recoup. Go rest with NG. I'm going to go home to my husband and my bed." He craned up to hug Jack rather uncomfortably planting a kiss on his far head while on tiptoes before leaving for home.

Jack didn't move after Mark walked out taking in the silence of an empty house before heading off to check on NG and curling up next to his furnace-hot body. He stopped off at the bathroom to freshen up the cold water in the bowl by the bed and get another glass of water for NG. NG for the most part had fallen into a fitful sleep as Jack observed while striping down to his under clothes. Placing a fresh cool cloth on his head, Jack snuggled up to NG before whispering, "get better soon, I love you." He closed his eyes and slept.

Mark went home to an empty house. John had gone to the Hub to give Dan a hand locking the door to his workshop. Mark just couldn't break in to get at the Vortex Manipulators. It was wrong for him to undermine John's trust and he didn't want to not have a working one. So he decided to go in their office and go online for a bit. He needed the mindless chatter of the Internet just to clear his head. It was then he saw something he was sure he wasn't meant to see. Lying on John's desk was a picture of Ben. He was naked in a bed Mark didn't recognize. Ben was handsome. Mark started to remember the need he also had at one point for the man. He was smiling at the person taking the picture, sweaty from horseplay and rosy cheeked from lovemaking. Mark smiled, knowing who Ben was lovingly looking at. Mark recognized that face from his own reflection when John was concerned. He didn't care about the picture as much as John was hiding things from him again. Seeing Ben must have stirred up old feelings that seemed too never die.

It was a moment later once Mark got past logic that picture upset him. It made him more upset than he ever had been before with John. John's hidden secrets were the main problem in their relationship for a long time but every time they got healed another wound opened for Mark to fester about. Now John, in Mark's eyes, was being a sneak. Something Mark just didn't like, at least not this way and for all this time Ben still was keeping John and he from being totally together. He sighed, as he looked one more time at the picture before leaving the room.

In the bedroom he buried those feelings and went to the place inside himself that he kept especially for NG. He set it up when the boy was born so when things got tough he could go there and just be. But this whole drama was about NG. And right now Mark needed to help his son. The only way to do that was to steal a Vortex Manipulator from John. That meant a working one, if John ever got them fixed.

Mark didn't just rant to himself in his closed world, he vented his frustration. It was imperative that he went to see Loyalwin for answers to all his questions in person. It would be easier to just make John see the truth but it would never had swayed the ex-Time Agent so Mark convinced himself he would steal it. First he would have to set the mood. So with a quick impulse he phoned John and told him he had found Ben's picture and he was packing his bags.

That got John's attention and playing right into Mark's hand, he headed home, swearing all the way about how stupid it was to leave the picture out in the open. It was late with the sun was almost up in the sky and he was very tired. But Mark was non-stop with his rant about the whole Ben mess. It was at one point when he sobbed on the phone that John felt it that was the depth of his betrayal letting Mark down yet again with his lust. This was tearing Mark apart. Mark was ripping himself apart over Ben's very existence and John was feeling all the pain.

"Lovely, you have to calm yourself. I have said in the past this isn't your fault. I'm to blame. We need to think clearly and the last thing I need is to be worrying about you. We have enough on our plate with NG. Ben just stirred some things in me I had hoped died." He kept his eyes on the road as he went over the words from earlier. Somehow, John knew, this was far from over even if Mark did calm down and forgive him again.

He was right for it started as soon he closed the front door and found Mark facing away from him in the living room.

John felt the tension return when to their almost peaceful relationship as Mark said he would forgive John if he gave him one of the VM's and explained to John why. When he told Mark out right that to use the VM to go to see Loyalwin was out of the question it was only natural that his lovely good natured husband threw yet another lamp across the room. In frustration Mark slammed the bedroom door, knocking the rather odd African mask that John had purchased many years prior off the wall. To Mark it was far better to have the drama than to talk John's fears out like adults.

John looked at the mask now broken into many pieces. He tilted his head from side to side at where the debris finally settled deciding it looked much better in pieces than it did as a whole. He sighed as he gathered the pieces up and returned to his workshop. Unlocking the door, he put the pieces of the mask to the side and turned on the LED work lamp. He took a seat and with a sigh began tinkering with the VMs again trying to see if he could get the shard to fix the damage. He opened his laptop up to find his idea may work. And with a hope he put the idea into practice.

Mark for the most part locked himself in their room and waited. He gently worked his way through his mind to watch John's progress; easing around the outer edges of John's mind so as not to alert the man he was being mentally watched. It was around an hour later that a very sleepy astral Mark was woken up by John yelling, "I fixed it. The Doctor isn't that clever, I found away around the sonic screwdriver's damage! Thank you moonstone!" Proud that he was, he rubbed his belly before sniffing around his armpits. "And I stink, so time for a shower." Leaving the repaired VM on his desk and forgetting to lock the door in his triumph, he left the room glancing once at his bedroom door. "I hope Mark left the door unlocked. I feel the need to make up." He smirked, knowing his husband would always forgive. Forgetting though wasn't always a thing with Mark. He did remember everything and so at some point this fight would be used to build on another with much needed lumber. But for now a shower and a few simple thoughts he hoped reached NG.

Mark caught John's caring thoughts sent off into the void for their ill son. It made Mark more determined to do what he must do. Find Loyalwin and get some answers to bring back that cure for NG. "It is similar to the fever I had when I was carrying Ramanh." He was so convinced of it as he opened the door to their room, closing it so as not to tip off John. He tiptoed into the hallway and waited for the sound of the kids' shower to go on before he continued to John's room.

It was John's that was fixed. Mark held it to his nose taking in John's smell. "You know I love you and this isn't about us, right? Sorry for over playing the Ben hand but it had to be a distraction otherwise you would have held me back from what I must do for NG's sake." He said to himself before he strapped the VM onto his wrist. It felt good, like the one he got from Darby, rather empowering. Clearing his mind to John's VM, he concentrated on Loyalwin sometime in the future. When he found that powerful mind he had felt so many times, gathering his energies in that spot so he could link with the right time, he hit the buttons and vanished.

John ignored the missing item from his desk as he glanced in his room. He had one thought on his mind, well two, bed and his husband next to him. It was when he found the door open and the bed not slept in that the image of the missing item came back. He ran dropping the towel to the ground and went for the workroom.

It was as missing as Mark. "Shit, you stupid fool. I have no idea if that will work correctly or not. Mark, damn it!" He picked up his mobile and called Jack.

"We have a problem, Mark decided to take the Vortex Manipulator I fixed out for a test drive. I know where he went, but you have to promise to keep this from NG. I'm hoping that what I did fixed it and he will come back. But just in case, I'm going to ask Dan to see if he can trace Mark and I will get working on one of the others. Kiss NG for me, tell him we both love him." He didn't hear a sound from Jack on the other end.

Finally Jack focused on what he was hearing. "He went for the cure. Gods, he is crazy but I got to love him, as I know you do. His blind luck has worked before, lets hope it does now." Anna was heard as she entered the room. "Got to go, John. Keep working!"

John thought he heard that NG's fever had spiked, he ignored it and his nakedness as he went to work one of the other VMs after calling Dan.

Well into dark and weary he finally had another up and running. "Well, Lovely, I can come after you if something goes wrong." He yawned. "The bed is going to seem to big tonight. But I'll try to find your mind, just for a caress and to tell you I love you." His feet heavy, legs tired he walked to the bedroom clasping face first on the bed.

End Chapter 36

TBC