Chapter Twenty-Seven
Not long after I started cleaning up the mess of papers that Ianto and Owen had made, Jack joined me. We worked in silence, making sure that everything was put back in its place and the key to the Rift was removed. Jack even changed the code to his safe. He didn't want Owen thinking he knew what was best and trying to get access to the artefacts, since it was where he kept some of the most dangerous things they had encountered over the years.
Jack and I didn't really talk as we worked, simple content to be in each other's company. But once everything was in its place, Jack smile.
"I wanted to thank you." Jack said softly.
"What for?" I asked with a tilted head.
"For understanding." Jack answered stepping forward and gentle placing a hand on my cheek. "Not many people would be happy with their partners kissing someone else."
"A monogamous relationship, I'm not going to ask that of you." I smiled softly. "You're a very sexual individual Jack. Kissing people, that's your way of greeting your friends or people you know. Flirting, that's practically how you greet everyone. I also know, that there is going to come a day when sex with me isn't going to be enough, and I understand and accept that." I reached up and touched Jack's cheek in a mirror of what he was doing to me. "One day, I might even be able to join you."
"You're amazing." Jack whispered his eyes darkening in lust before he reached down and captured my lips in a searing kiss.
When he pulled away, I felt weak in the knees, and I was struggling to catch my breath. "I'm ready," I whispered against Jack's lips not looking away from his eyes.
Jack groaned slightly, the lust in his eyes darkening. "Are you sure?" Jack withheld himself from doing something, simple holding me in his arms.
"Yes. I trust you Jack, with everything." I closed the miniscule distance between them and kissed Jack.
Jack's hands shifted: his right hand moving from my cheek to cup the back of my neck, while his other hand moved from my hip to the small of my back so he could hold me closer to him. My hands rested on Jack's shoulders, leaning into Jack's warmth and support.
Jack released my lips and began attacking my neck, electing a moan as I tilted my head to the side in order to give him more access.
We were pulled apart by the sound of the rift alert blazing through the hub. This wasn't a standard code three alert which indicated low level rift activity. This was a code one, indicating that the rift was spiking at its highest level recorded.
"Damn." Jack span to the computer, the arousal and lust killed stone dead.
"I'm getting reports from eight different areas." I typed rapidly at the computer next to Jack. "Looks like people out of time."
"Right. Split the addresses. Keep coms open. We sedate and bring them back here. Take the SUV with a cage, that way you can hold multiple prisoners. Contact the police, they need to know we're on this." Jack started giving orders running to the vault to get their back up weapons.
"Do we call in the others?" I asked, putting the gun Jack threw me into my ankle holster since I had my primary in the holster at my hip and another two in the holster at my rib cage. Jack was armed in the same way except for the addition of the gun in his shoulder holster.
"Not unless we need the back up. Tranquiliser darts and injections." Jack passed me two clips and a silver case. The case went to an inner pocket while the clips went onto the belt.
"Keep your eyes open." I told Jack just before we separated to get in different cars.
"And your head on a swivel."
Jack and I spent the night running around Cardiff, hunting down people who had been pulled through time and the Weevils which were extremely agitated. The police ended up involved in a shooting with people from the civil war era, who had ended up dead before they could get there and contain the situation.
When it started spreading from Cardiff to the rest of the world, they started getting phone calls from the government, UNIT, the CIA, anyone with a foot into this sort of thing. Since they were the only ones on duty and they were on emergency footing, the calls got sent straight through to Jack and I, and all we could tell them was we hadn't the opportunity to work out what was happening. But we'd figure it out.
*^*^*^*^*^January 8th*^*^*^*^*^*
Finally, at six o'clock they phoned in the rest of the team. With the news broadcasting 'the end of days' and with the number of instances increasing they needed to get proactive because at the minute they were simple reacting. They needed someone to start looking into what the hell was causing all this and stopping it.
With the team at the hub researching, Jack and I were still out in the field just trying to restore calm. Finally, they corralled the Weevils into the sewers where they would hopefully remain until we could deal with them. There may have been a stray Weevil that they missed in the round up, but the majority of them were in the sewers, unable to get out (if only for a short amount of time).
It was just after eight when they got back into the hub, and summoned everyone to the conference room so they could be updated. Jack and I were stood, hugging cups of coffee and listening to Ianto who was reading quotes from the bible.
"And I heard but did not understand, and I said, Master, what is the End of all these things? And he said, go, Daniel, for the things are closed up and sealed until the end of time. Daniel 12, verse 10."
"Sounds a bit close for comfort." Gwen frowned.
"This machines on the blink." Owen said, frowning at the Doctor's hand which had been moved into the conference room temporarily. "Keeps losing power. Sorry, don't let me stop your portents of doom." Owen turned to stare at Ianto. "Or have you finished?"
"No, plenty more where that came from." Ianto returned to his book. "Abaddon, the Great Devourer, who'll lead the world into shadow."
"Yeah, thanks, Ianto." Jack cut in. "I can do without the superstition. You people love any story that denies the randomness of existence."
"Thanks. That makes me feel better." Ianto muttered snapping his book shut.
"Jack and I have been fielding calls from the alphabet soap all night. Everyone has the same question: is this anything to do with us?" I got the ball rolling with this question, prompting everyone to begin reporting on their findings.
"I've run a profile on every reported temporal anomaly and tracked any physical or temporal pattern." Tosh sat bringing up the map she had made. The red lines all tracked back to the rift.
"Shit." Gwen swore.
"The cracks in time trace back here to the Rift." Jack said with a grim frown. "This city, this hub, is the centre. What you're seeing around the world are ripples and aftershocks. The Rift is splintering because of you."
Owen flinched back as though Jack had slapped him. "What?"
"You opened the Rift without knowing what you were doing, without the complete equation to stabilise the affect. You've caused the temporal cracks to widen. Time is seeping through." Jack explained.
Owen's pride suddenly surged to the front when faced with the consequence of his actions, and that insulted pride resulted in anger. "If it wasn't for me, you three would still be stuck in the 1940s. So are we going to sit around crying into our lattes, or are we going to do something about it?"
"Tosh, Ianto, I need you to get locations of all those who have fallen back through time. Then we need to go out and bring them back to the hub." Jack informed them.
"And do what with them?" Owen asked.
"We'll deal with phase one first, then I'll tell you about phase two." Jack snapped, the lack of sleep and the night fighting making him sterner than normal, especially when confronted with a situation that could result in the end of the world because of Torchwood.
"You can't control time. You can't send them back. What are you gonna do?" Owen shouted.
I grabbed Jack's arm and shot him a look, preventing Jack from shouting back. Losing their tempers would not help. "We'll think of something." Jack said with conviction. When he saw the doubt and worry on his team, he looked each of them in the eye and tried to project confidence. "Hey, this is not the end of the world. I'm certain of that."
A beep came from the computer in front of Ianto which was set up and scanning all the emergency services.
"Priority one attendance at the hospital. Mortality rate's gone through the roof. They're sealing off the area and designating a hot zone."
"I'll go." Owen volunteered immediately.
"Tosh, go with him" Jack ordered. It was better for their team to be teamed up right now. Splitting up would be detrimental to the team's safety even if it would increase their reach. It was at times like this he wished that he had managed to build a bigger team that he could trust.
"No thanks, I'm fine on my own." Owen glared sullenly.
"And you'll be even better with me alongside. Shut up and come on." Tosh didn't take his shit, simple leading Owen from the room.
"Did you have to pick on him in public like that?" Gwen scolded once Owen was gone.
"All of our actions have consequences." Jack answered.
"And all your staff have feelings, Jack. Even Owen."
"Well, you would know." Jack snapped back, not in the mood to deal with Gwen's sentimentality right now. He had been on the go since they got back from being trapped in the past, and being trapped in 1941 wasn't exactly easy. That was the perils of being the team leader, he couldn't step back.
"He brought you back. Would you rather be stuck in world war 2?" Gwen demanded as her phone rang. "Hello!" she snapped.
Considering the other calls they had to take, Jack followed Ianto's directions while I went with Gwen to the police station.
"Listen, I didn't know who else to call." Andy said urgently when they walked into the police prescient. There was loud banging and Latin being shouted from the cells which the PC led them towards. "Double murder. Stabbed two blokes in Penarth. Brutal, it was. No mercy. What are we supposed to do? He doesn't speak a word of English, and he's dressed as a bloody Roman solider."
I slid the panel across the door so I could look into the cell. There was a Roman solider on the other side, shouting angrily and running at the walls, trying to get out.
"He's not dressed as a Roman solider, he is a Roman solider, and he's shouting in Latin." I corrected. Well, Roman was the furthest back they had come across so far. Which wasn't a good sign. The further back the time rift, the worse the splinter and the fall out.
"Only word I could pick out was Gelligaer." Andy admitted.
"Gelligaer." Gwen corrected his pronunciation. "There's a Roman fort out at Gelligaer. Built around 75AD."
"He was likely marching to the fort when time split. We're fortunate that the entire battalion didn't slip through when time splintered."
"Excuse me? Hi. Any time you feel like talking sense." Andy waved his hand like we had forgotten about him. I hadn't, but Gwen tended to operate better if we treated her like she didn't understand what was going on and we explained the obvious.
"The solider came through a crack in time." I told Andy. With everything going on it wouldn't hurt to explain this to a PC.
"She's not serious, is she?" Andy leaned around me to talk with Gwen while I looked back into the cell to assess the solider within. "This sort of thing just doesn't happen, not in Cardiff."
"Just because you can't understand it, doesn't mean it isn't true." I quipped back, stepping away from the door moments before the solider slammed into it.
"I know it sounds mad, Andy, but…" Gwen stared at her friend, trying to convince him to believe.
"All right, Mulder and Scully." Andy said in defeat. "Say I do believe you. Which I don't because it's bollocks. Say I do. How exactly are we meant to handle a prisoner from two thousand years ago? I mean, has he got the same rights as anyone else? How's this gonna work with CPS?"
"We'll take him off your hands." I answered, pulling one of the hypodermic needles out from the case Jack gave me. It was too close quarters to use the tranquiliser filled bullets without running the risk of killing the solider.
"You know, I bet Jack's going to really regret not coming with us. An exuberant Roman solider, that his idea of an excellent morning." I smirked opening the door and quickly stepping into the cell.
The Roman solider wasn't hard to drug since he was so furious that he couldn't think straight. I got under his guard and jabbed the needle into his neck. Within moments he was unconscious.
"All clear." I called and Gwen opened the door. "PC Davidson, if you come across anyone like this man. Disarm and put them in a cell until we can come and pick them up. If you feel it's too dangerous to approach them, then simple set up a perimeter and call us. Your Captains can get hold of me." I lifted the Roman solider up and marched from the station.
I paused at the end of the corridor when I noticed Gwen wasn't following me. "Oi, Cooper, get moving."