Part 3
Some seven years later. Time moves slowly but it never comes to a stop.
"I'm not sure I understand this," Jack began, "You received a message from the Rift?" He looked at Darrin while ignoring Mandy's smirk as she stood next to him.
"Here, it seems to be a card and it is addressed to you. I thought we would stop over and drop it off. Mandy and I were sent out to investigate a minor Rift activity and found the scene empty. This card," Darrin handed it to Jack, "came flying at us and almost put a nasty paper cut in Mandy's cheek."
Jack looked at Mandy who had her finger on the upper part of her right cheek where the tiniest of red marks appeared.
"Well at least you weren't hurt. But how do you know this is what came through the Rift?" He turned the card over to see his name done up in some extensive calligraphy.
"Temporal signature, it read high levels but we think it came in after we got there. It was like the Rift signal was a doorbell and when we got to the location the door opened and it came through. Do you recognize the writing?" Mandy looked at her part time boss as his thoughts turned to the contents of the card.
"Are you going to read it now?" Darrin sounded impatient. Jack glared at him. "Well it isn't every day you get mail via the Rift. This is something new, right? I mean you haven't had this happen before." His own curiosity to find out who or what would send his Great Grandfather a letter from somewhere in time got the better of him. He loved the man and found his life fascinating. But even though Mandy thought Darrin callous in his attitude, she was aware of how much Darrin loved Jack. Jack returned it to the young man, something he never could do with Alice and her son Steven. But Darrin was one his family now and Jack was happy with that.
Jack's smile negated the coldness in his words. When Jack said, "if it concerns you, I will let you know," thanking them and closing the door, both Mandy and Darrin knew that Jack was playing with them.
"Well I hope it is good news, maybe he won some intergalactic lottery or something like that." Mandy touched Darrin's hand as their eyes met.
"And here I thought it might be a paternity suit and or child support form Sigma Minor that has caught up with him." Lately he wanted to kiss her. She had such expressive eyes and her face so lovely but he didn't want to lead her on. He knew he wasn't right for her and at the same time he wasn't even sure she felt what he was feeling. Darrin smiled as he took her hand. "Lets get lunch and then I have work to do at the Hub. I'm supposed to meet NG in Archives."
If she cared for him beyond friendship, it didn't show to Darrin. She smiled up at him, the same smile she gave everyone. "John needs me for some help training those new kids. I still can't believe that he is that old since he doesn't age much at all. It must be those 51st century genes. Mark, Jack is a special case and Mark and John's kids aren't really aging like the rest of us. Jolein still trains with me. I love her as a sparring partner and she is so fast, making age seem like nothing. Leon feels the same way, though he isn't as toned, but I wouldn't doubt him. Both are someone I wouldn't mind having my back in a fight." She felt Darrin let go of her hand. The loss of his touch bothered her for some reason. "Hey, did I say something wrong?"
The car beeped when Darrin pressed the car door button on his key. With a soft purr the car came alive. He left her to go to the driver's side. To Mandy Darrin appeared to be sulking.
Keeping her voice calm and level she tried not to broadcast any emotions in her words. She didn't want Darrin to make more out it like he was so fond of doing with her. "Hey, as your partner for all intent and purposes you can tell me if something's up."
Darrin frowned when he caught sight of her face. She was masked again, keeping her true feelings hidden. It was like that damn smile she wore. It always told a different story from what was going on in her heart.
"Nothing," he began to lie until he saw a brief flash of how that word hurt her. "Okay, it isn't nothing. You never want to train with me. Mandy, we have been partners for almost 4 years but you never once asked me to train with you. Why is that?"
What she did next he didn't have in the list of planned responses from her. She started to laugh. "Since when do you care about the physical end of training? You have learned just enough to get by. Didn't you say that the only training you wanted was with a gun? You even had NG and Jack step in when John nagged you some years ago to learn some more fighting techniques. He stood down because he figured you weren't going into the field." She slammed her hand down on the top of the car. "Now you want to spare with me."
"Sorry I asked," he mumbled as he got in the car.
Mandy was shocked. She never saw Darrin react that way. Most of the time they joked with each other. Now it seemed she had hurt him, emotionally affecting him somehow. The experience puzzled her and she thought on it on the silent ride back to the Hub.
"You're quiet today. Did Jack freak out at the card?" NG asked while thumbing through an old textbook he found at the antique dealer this morning. "This book may look old but it isn't from Earth. I came across it by accident while looking for a new cookbook for Jack at that odd store on Queen St. You know the one, the one that Dan says reeks of Rift contraband? Well I was hoping to find a Victorian cookbook, maybe have a theme night at the house for fun. We haven't done that in a while. Jack's been telling the kids about his cleaner adventures when he first got here and they have started to get into that time in history. Gods, they are something else. It was funny; Mark said that Jack taking up cooking turned out to be a blessing. He thought the idea was going to head down the same street as John's venture into food preparation. We were all grateful when John stopped cooking. Thank god Torchwood needed him back full time." He smirked; remember the apple pie he had to swallow while downing a pint of whiskey. He shivered as the memory of that foul taste came back.
NG then began to wonder when he started to call his parents by their first names. He assumed it started with the all the new recruits that Dan took in on trial during the last three months. It just made it easier to say first names since most of the kids wouldn't be around for any length of time. They were just trainees and not likely to last beyond a certain point.
For the most part they were drifters, young people that ended up slumming in Cardiff because it seemed a great place to be. That seemed normal until the situation got strange when an abnormal amount started coming into the city. They started to live in tents, some in yards of residences, but the rest in parks and even a few in NG and Ianto's spots under the docks. Seemed that some of the youth said they were drawn to the place after visiting a site on the Internet with a promise of adventure and intellectual freedoms. Simple enough it seemed. After all, it wouldn't be the first time young people flocked to a city to unite. It was after all part of history. Now it was Cardiff's turn to be the voice of a generation.
Some of them showed a great aptitude for working in Torchwood when they didn't find the group of other drifters to their liking. Somehow either they found Torchwood or Torchwood found them. Of the many that came through the cog doors, only three had been asked to try out for a position at first. But the group grew daily and more and more that entered seemed to be qualified. So Dan saw it as an opportunity to find more field agents. Jack agreed saying they had a big enough budget might as well start to swell the ranks. The number was up to almost thirty but only ten would be chosen.
The drifters on the street were another matter. They just wanted to have a place to commune and find themselves. They were peaceful, neat, respectful of property and for the most took on odd jobs to get work or sold their wares that they made in self made impromptu street fairs they designed in the parks. It was all very legal, permits gotten and such so the Police were at a bind as to what to do. Captain Andy Davison was just as baffled as Scotland Yard was. After all, they weren't breaking the law not even vagrancy or loitering in the parks after hours. Someone made sure they had legal rights to stay there. So they did over time the numbers became ridiculous, so much so that the residents started to complain.
Andy Davison didn't know what to do. On a lark he went to see Gwen, she had been retired from Torchwood and happily so for many years now, raising her wonderful grandchildren from Becca and Harry while the pair worked at Torchwood. Rhys helped as well after he got back from helping Rhys Jr. with the farm. He spent almost five years living on it with Gwen and recently with Harry and Becca's kids, Jack and Nigel the twins and little Anna Gwyneth. Seemed Harry wanted his kids away from Torchwood from time to time. So Gwen shuffled the kids back and forth for years until Rhys Jr. sold the farm and told them he was leaving for Thailand to try his hand at professional poker.
The "over my dead body" from Gwen just made the young man laugh. Smiling just like her, he said "Mum, I still have life in me, there is still room for dreams. I'll call every day and all of you can visit." They did once but Gwen said she had seen enough and taking care of grandkids seemed to suit her.
So Gwen while watching the seven-year-old boys and little AG as the little three-year-old girl was called, she did some investigative work. The street fairs were perfect to take the children to. Well AG liked it but the boys complained in unison how they would rather go play their video games especially the ones that Stu made. Since it was nearly summer and the days were hot enough, Gwen felt it was a good time to go over to visit Ianto and play in his pool. Jack said they could anytime they wanted to.
"He was being nice and it would be nice of us to call first before going over, don't you think?" They mumbled yes in unison.
It was then that it hit Gwen that this street fair seemed wrong. For all intents and purposes they were at a street fair with musicians playing, jugglers juggling, people selling their wares and such but it was mechanical in appearance. Not only that, it seemed everyone involved in the fair was too polite to his or her customers. She believed in good customer service but as she watched some forty something toss food back at one of the venders calling it "pig slop" she was sure the younger man would tell him to sod off. It didn't happen. He just said, "Sorry we have displeased you," and handed him back his money.
Okay, some people are just really very nice, didn't have an aggressive bone in their bodies and would be happy not to cause a scene. Bollocks, she thought, no human likes to have food thrown at him or her in anger, maybe as a fetish but not in an actual real life abusive way. She saw the same with a woman at a dress stall and then someone tripped a mime on purpose. The abuse was taken from the public and not a swear word, curse or dirty gesture was returned. That simply wasn't human, Gwen thought. All at once Gwen saw the place as if something else was going on, something almost out character with human nature something that would be a Torchwood something.
The kids splashed around in Jack and NG's pool while Gwen sat at the patio table recalling all that she had seen to Jack. "They might have just been acting out of respect to the population of Cardiff they have been squatting on. You know Gwen, something that you have forgotten how to do being big mouthed at even the best of times." His face couldn't hide the grin.
"Jack Harkness, you take that back! I have been around the bizarre enough to know when something is amiss. I asked Dan to run the team down to have a look. Leon is looking up the website that summoned them all here to begin with." There was a loud splash that found Little Jack at the deep end of the pool. She stood screaming at the boy. "Get yourself out of that end of the bleeding pool, Jack Williams or so helping you will see my handprint on your backside! Ianto don't just stand there, you're the expert swimming, get him out of there!" She sat back down.
Jack's eyebrow shot up with the use of her colorful vocabulary. "At least the nice virus hasn't infected you."
She swatted at him. "Stop. I know what I know, my instincts haven't failed me yet you Sod!"
"Yes, definitely you!" He stood before her hand hit him again. "Okay, I'll ask around. I just think we are seeing the youth being just that, being youth and finding a different groove to live by then the rest of us. It is after all time for this to happen. What is it, every twenty or thirty years we have a change in ethics and morals? Wish you could see the jump in the 51st century with its movements. Man, those were some intense scenes, deeper and more existential than you could imagine." He smiled.
"You don't have any idea what you are saying." She laughed out loud.
"No, I don't," he smiled. "But it sounded like I did."
"That's odd, I just started thinking about our current influx of the super happy nice zombies and I got lost there in thought, Darrin. Sorry for that. I was thinking about why I started calling my parents by their first names and one thing led to another and here we are. That's right the book. It isn't in our language or any Earth language. But it has some roots in Latin. I'm finding that to be very interesting though I'm sure it is will bore you to tears as to why I would. But I have been able to translate some of it and it may just help us out of our current crisis. If you can call it crisis, I picked up a few nice shirts and some Christmas presents form a few of the vendors this morning. I have to say the products are well constructed." He went back to the book then typed a few more lines onto his laptop.
Darrin perked up his interest a little bit when he heard what NG said. "The how Latin became the base wouldn't bother me. That means that some race found Latin interesting enough to integrate it with their own language. Though why Latin, it is so dull to speak. It would also mean that the visitation was some time ago if the aliens contacted early Rome. But that also seems just as dull to visit such a place. What did Roman have that they couldn't get somewhere else?" He seemed generally confused, causing NG to raise an eyebrow at him. Darrin could be Jack like at times but he was never very adventurous with his thoughts. Jack would have had a theory to throw at him by now. Darrin just didn't have that type of mind, but he was good at clearer thinking and could pull data out of one area to use as comparison in another. That was a great skill to have in a job like this. It helped the others to perform their jobs better if they could find some mention or direction to proceed in.
"I've got it!" Darrin jumped up and ran over to get another book far on a top shelve towards the back wall. He climbed the up ladder like a squirrel heading up a tree and when he had the book, he jumped down with a "here." He flipped through the pages in haste. He tapped the page when he found what he was looking for as he walked back to NG. "It says the Doctor was in Rome or rather Pompeii. Do you think he had anything to do this with this?" He scanned the book to see if there was anything else connecting the situation today to the past occurrence with the Doctor.
NG wasn't listening because he found something in his translation that bothered him. "This mentions something odd and there was a connection between Rome and this book. But I can't work out the word." He concentrated for a moment before a smile crossed his lips. "Got it! Darrin, good catch with the Doctor, but I don't think there is a connection but I think that slavery has a lot to do with this or something like that. I'm not sure but what I think this book is a text book for this race." He squinted as he tried to get their name. "Oh I think I have to work on that one a bit, the name isn't working with the Latin."
Darrin blinked, not knowing what NG was talking about. His mind had wandered off now thinking of Mandy's taunts. How she must think him a fool for being so weak minded and afraid to fight.
"She laughed at me," he whispered. Not realizing he had been heard.
"Hum, who laughed at you?" NG looked up for a moment then went back to the book.
"Mandy, she laughed when I asked her why she never trained with me. I'm her partner and she never thinks of me as a fighter. I must be the only one here that can't fight."
"Not true. Leon can't, well not hand to hand very well but he is a deadly shot with a gun. Besides why care about that, you have a brain and a gift for this." He waved his hand around the room at all the stacks and shelves of knowledge around them. "The pen is mightier than the sword as I will prove to you with this book. Besides, we have a least ten more people that are going to be hired. She can get another partner and you can stay here, the place you love best." He jotted down a few more notes before flipping the page over.
"I don't want her to have another partner." Darrin plainly stated.
NG heard it then, his mind going right to reading Darrin's thoughts on its own. Darrin had feelings for Mandy and it bothered him.
"Hey, I understand. Let me talk to Dad and maybe he'll beef up your skills a bit, just to give you a little more confidence." He didn't want Darrin to know he was inside his head. He knew the real reason. Darrin had fallen for Mandy but didn't realize it yet.
"Thanks, NG, I knew you would be a help. And I owe you." Darrin always felt at ease around NG; there was something about him, like his Papa, Mark that made him feel comfortable. He wondered if it was their skill at empathy. He prided himself at learning some blocking skills but with those two, Darrin mused that nothing would stand in their way.
"So," NG stood stretching a bit. "Why don't you come with me to find Leon and Jolein? I can tell you along the way why I think this book is a study on slavery." He grabbed the book heading to the door as Darrin trotted up next to him.
"You mean it's just a book on the study of slavery." He seemed confuse.
"Not the study in the sense of a moral study, it is a study on the best ways to keep an efficient slave labor force. This race, the name still unable to say correctly, I'll have a chat with the alien database topside to see if it knows, must have spent along time in ancient Earth's Roman period studying how to be a perfect slave trader and handler. But here is the best part, the one where I'm told how clever I am. I have found out why they are gathering in Cardiff."
Darrin looked impressed one moment and then totally baffled the next as they continued the walk up to the next level after they entered the stairwell. "Okay, why Cardiff? Do these aliens plan a big slave trade here?"
NG shook his head. "That isn't why, seems to easy like that and easy isn't part of Torchwood cases. This race called these people here to sell off or use as slaves. I would guess they want free and cheap transportation for their cargo to a central location. They are going to use the Rift opening it up, I assume, in the park when enough people have gathered."
The house was dead quiet after Jack got home. He took off after reading the card. He needed to take off; it was that kind of message. He needed to think it out so he went to the cemetery for some quiet. That didn't help at all; he kept feeling like Ianto wanted to talk to him. Any other time, Ianto would have been a welcomed voice, but today it was about the here and now, not his late husband. So he left, telling his past lover he would come back and chat another time. Jack knew that it really wasn't possible for Ianto to be a ghost; he knew it was more likely to be leftover moonstone energy still charging the image of Ianto. But it was nice to think that Jack could still talk to his Welshman if needed.
As darkness fell in the living room, Jack flicked a light on. He knew NG should have been home with the kids already. Jack wondered if they're not being home was something planned that he forgot about. He didn't think he had missed anything but even though NG and he had great communication sometimes things mentioned in passing vanished in time as other thoughts took over the mind. It happened to the best of couples. He couldn't lie to him, so if he missed something he couldn't make up a story to get out of it. They as a couple never played that way, it didn't work for them. Besides, NG was a natural born lie detector and over the years he had figured out Jack's mind. So Jack had no place to hide a lie, NG knew all his mental secret spots.
Jack started to frown, which turned to a touch of panic as after calling NG on his mobile. He could hear NG's mobile ringing outside. He walked quickly out the back door and scanned the area. He saw it then, a welcome sight of brown hair and lean body doing laps in the pool. Jack loved watching NG swim; the man was so toned after all these years. He had barely aged. Anna thought that it had something to do with the moonstones preserving him. After all Jack would often think, he belongs to those damn stones more than he did to him.
The brown head popped up when he saw Jack watching. He swam over to the edge of the pool. NG said "Hi," as he propped his head on the cement edge of the pool. "It was a nice night for a dip. Care to take off your clothes and join me?" He read Jack's mood before he swam up to him. He could tell that this wasn't good. NG swore one thing to Jack, that most of Jack's thoughts were private and all Jack had to do was build a wall if he didn't want him in there. Jack hadn't done that in years, so the sudden wall as NG tried to enter Jack's mind had him worried about the letter Jack got. But he didn't rush him. He waited for Jack to say something.
"Not now. Where are the kids?" He asked, offering his hand to NG. NG accepted and was hoisted out of the water by Jack. Jack placed his lips on NG's wet ones for just a second before getting the towel lying on the chair nearby.
"Thanks." NG said when he took the towel. "They are conveniently at my parents. With the letter and my news we are going to need a night to talk." He started to dry off.
Jack sighed. "The letter wasn't that bad, just confusing. In a way I'm kind of happy about it. I just don't understand why now." He didn't want to know what NG's news was. "Do you want to go first?" He watched NG walk over to the chair to grab his robe.
"You mentioned your letter first, so go ahead." He sat down in the chair as he watched the remainder of sunset fade triggering the lights in the yard to go on. It was a nice night, warmer than most and the lights made it seem surreal. Right now anything Jack was going to say was going to be met by a nice calm soul full of understanding. He just hoped Jack would be as equally understanding and calm. He had a feeling when NG was done with his news that wouldn't be the case.
"So I did." Jack didn't pull up a chair but just stood in front of NG like he was going to make a sales pitch. NG didn't like this one bit.
"Well it would seem that out of the blue, The Doctor has decided to visit me. Well us, but he doesn't know about us. It isn't the visit that is bothering me, it is why now does he decide to do this?" Jack blinked when he found NG was wrapped around his neck kissing him. "Okay, I don't get it, what is this for?" He seemed very confused, not the effect NG was hoping for.
"Don't you see, we can ask him nicely if he could figure Andie and I out and give us a hand in understanding more about us! Though I'm judging by past experiences with The Doctor you are worried this isn't a social call." He moved away from Jack to see him sulking a bit.
"Well he'll be here for dinner, yes dinner; I know it is odd, in four days our time. Gods only know if that is his time. He really is bad with timing for someone whose whole life is about Time. I'm going to be busy preparing." He reached for NG. "So lets not worry about the what if until he gets here. I may just be making more out of this than needed. So what is your news and can I kiss your neck while you talk, if it isn't too distracting?" He heard a soft moan from NG when his lips caressed his scar. It was still rough in spots but it had faded somewhat but just as sensitive to Jack's touch.
"I can talk while you kiss my neck, not like I haven't done that before." He closed his eyes while Jack worked his magic. "I was at that odd antique store, the one that gives off that Rift contraband feel, looking for an antique cookbook for you, you know one from the latter Victorian era and found something far better." He waited for Jack to respond after he started of kiss his back as he felt his robe fall to the ground.
"I'm listening, still nibbling but listening." NG swore he heard Jack's excitement in his words.
"Well the book I found was alien and it somehow tied in to the Zombie hippies that Gwen and the others have been investigating. It turned out the book had a word for it. Video emo."
Jack paused, leaning his chin on NG's shoulder. "Seeing depressing attitudes?" NG didn't bite at the joke. "I know it is Latin for I see, I purchase. You found a book in Latin big deal, what does that have to do with the movement in Cardiff?"
"Not really Latin, an off branching of it. It is as if aliens based their language on Latin and it really plays havoc with the translation. I just spend all day on the deciphering of the damn thing. But it gets weird because the book was a text book."
Jack gave up the nibbling and came around to face NG with a quizzical look on his face. "And how again does this deal with the squatters?"
"Video emo is a term you will be familiar with as an organism that latches on to the part of the brain that deals with want. You know it as an Paltcen."
Jack's eyes bugged out for a moment. "They are banned, illegal by not just the Time Agency but most of the Universe in my time. And how the hell did they infect these people since they are a transmitted wave pattern made of a cyber material? They are built in the host's brain with thought." Jack stopped the foreplay and was now angry. "Damn Gwen for noticing this and I don't want to deal with this now."
"Well, the Rift is a signal magnet. All you need is a website with the proper pattern, the seed is planted, it then grows in the host brain and before long they are in Cardiff selling wares that aren't human made for species off planet. But that isn't all." He saw Jack's eyes get wider.
"Like that would be it. Just say it fast, this way I don't have to pop a blood vessel. I did that once and the death was unpleasant. But that isn't why I'm angry, just that it is always something more. Now say it quickly." He pouted while NG continued.
NG spoke it fast as Jack requested. "They are prepping the group of vagabonds to sell as slaves and they will use the Rift to transport them to a central location before then they are making a tidy profit selling stolen alien contraband."
"But wait, we have seen the website and nothing happened to us." He had his hand on his hips looking smug.
"That is easily explained since our brainwave patterns don't work off of lower intellect. We function above the subliminal ads that the average gets ensnared with; we also don't fall pray to trends. Our minds are geared to work on complex problems most of the time. We ran test. It is very scary to see just how easily led the human race is." NG shifted his weight around on his feet, not wanting to get to the next part.
Jack caught NG's body fidget and let out a sigh. "What else? There is something else you are holding back." He didn't want to hear it; he just knew where this was going.
"Leon found where the signal was coming from. I talked it over with Dan and Dad and they agreed it was the best alternative to waiting this out."
Jack huffed almost heading over to the innocent chair behind NG to toss it. "NG, I know where this is going. I won't let you, it is far too risky!"
He was holding Jack tight in a heartbeat. "This is why I gave the kids to my parents. I knew it wasn't going to be a long night of talking. And we don't need them upset if I do this." He tried to kiss him but Jack squirmed away. "Jack, I can go through the Rift and stop the signal. I can bring back them back here for questioning. Maybe it will stop others from thinking the Earth is vulnerable. But I know I can do it safely and return to you and kids. Jack, I have to do this. Don't you see this is what I am, what I was truly meant for?" He was pleading with him while Jack kept shaking his head no.
"You know how I feel. You said yourself you didn't want to be used by Torchwood, that you didn't want to be come its puppet. But you are stepping right into those shoes. I don't know if I can stand by and let them use you." He moved away from NG even if he wanted nothing more than to hold him at that moment.
"I know, but I'll call the shots. No one can control me or use me unless I allow it."
End Chapter 50
TBC
