Julian was leaning against Owen's desk, peeking over his shoulder at the report he was attempting to write about one of the recent autopsies. They had been watching the policewoman from an earlier crime scene on and off. She had been following them for quite a while and even turned up at the hospital where the others had tried to deal with a Weevil "I think you should put in the condition the body was in," she pointed out "You know… The…"
"Yeah, you're probably right," he nodded, adding several notes to the paper in front of him "What do you think about…?"
"No, that shouldn't be too important. Especially since it can be explained through…"
Owen nodded "True. I forgot about that."
Tosh looked up from her screen, once again fascinated with their exchange "How do you two know what the other is trying to say?"
"Practice," Julian shrugged "We've been around each other for ages and I think the better you get to know a person, the more you're able to predict what they're trying to say or do."
Owen snorted "Makes planning surprises for her a bitch."
Julian nudged his shoulder "You still try."
"Of course, I do," he exclaimed, pretending to be wounded "You're my sister."
Jack clapped his hands above them, breaking up the conversation before it could get out of hand "Everyone in position. She's on her way down." He glanced at Julian pointedly "Talking to you, Jules."
"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled, sliding off the desk to walk over to her own "I'm going." She had to finish her reports for UNIT anyway. Might as well do them while pretending they were all very serious.
Contrary to Owen, Tosh and Suzie, Julian was still a part of UNIT. She only started working with them after the events of Canary Wharf when Owen had decided to keep her close. UNIT had jumped at the idea to have inside information into the workings of Torchwood Three. Since Jack had taken over they had been a bit of a wildcard and both UNIT and Torchwood One had been trying to get a man inside to feed them information about the Captain and the things they dealt with. Not that Julian was telling UNIT a lot more than they wanted to know. They were aware that her brother was on the team and as such, they didn't expect her to hand over secrets. The whole thing was more of a permanent transfer anyway. The reports were just a formality.
Owen – or Adam as Julian usually called him in private was as good as her brother. When she first met him over nine hundred years ago, she had been slightly leery of him. She hadn't been sure what to think of him at first. Especially after she found out that he had the same… condition as her. This had been shortly after her first death and back then she had still been pretending to be a man. Her parents had wanted a boy and when she was born the fifth girl, he took his chance and told everyone that he had been blessed with a boy. It took her a good twenty years to gather the courage to reveal her true gender to Adam. There had been a couple of close calls during that time but either Adam had known beforehand or he had been oblivious of her hesitance to bathe around him.
The moment Julian started typing, her fingers faltered. The young woman from upstairs was walking through the cog door that Jack had opened earlier. Her steps were hesitant as she was clutching the pizza boxes to her chest. Julian glanced up from her monitor to watch the policewoman stumble past her.
"I can't do this," Owen cried out, throwing his hands up. Both he and Tosh had started giggling almost immediately "I'm sorry. I'm rubbish. I give up."
"He set me off," Tosh accused, pointing at Owen.
Julian snorted at them as she sat back in her chair, throwing a balled-up paper at her brother's head "You suck, Owen."
"She's right," Suzie rolled her eyes "That lasted nought point two seconds."
"Hmm. She's actually carrying pizza," Owen noted in surprise.
Jack laughed from his office and got up "Come on. She was gonna say here's your pizza and I was going to say, how much? And she says, oh, whatever, twenty quid, and I say, ooh, I don't have any money. I was working on a punchline. I'd have got there but it would have been good."
"I sincerely doubt that," Julian mumbled, earning a snort from Owen and a glare from Jack. She grinned at Jack "Sorry."
"Here's your pizza," the policewoman pointed out "I think I'd better go."
Jack straightened up, his eyes narrowing on her. Did she really assume she would just walk out of here? "I think we've gone past that stage."
"You must've been freezing out there," Suzie told the other woman with an amused grin "How long were you walking around? Three hours?"
The PC gaped at them "You could see me?"
"And before we go any further, who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?" Jack spoke up, raising his eyebrow at Owen in particular.
Owen raised his hand sheepishly "Er yeah, that'd be me. I'm sorry. I'm a twat."
"Wow," Julian gasped teasingly "That only took you what? Several years to admit. I'm so proud of you, Owen."
"Shut up," he grumbled, hitting Julian's arm playfully.
The woman took a step forward, her eyes focussed on Jack and Jack alone "That man at the hospital, that porter, what happened to him? That was real, wasn't it? He was attacked."
"He's dead," Julian chimed in, drawing her attention to herself.
"But there's no one gone missing," she pointed out in confusion.
Tosh was the one who took over the explanation "We took the body, retrospectively changed the work rota, planted a false witness who saw him leaving the hospital, giving him an alibi for the next forty-eight hours, so when his body's pulled out of the docks next Tuesday night, he's only been missing for three days."
"He was murdered," the policewoman clarified.
"Yes," Tosh nodded.
"And you covered it up?"
Tosh shrugged "That's my job."
"And the other man, John Tucker?" the PC frowned at Jack "Last night in the alleyway, I saw you."
Jack raised his eyebrows in amusement, pushing off the doorframe "And what did you see?"
"You revived him," she said.
"No. What did you see?" Jack asked more firmly.
"You resuscitated him," the woman tried again.
Julian rolled her eyes and made her way over to where Owen and Tosh were inspecting the pizza, stealing a piece. She shrugged at her brother before joining Ianto in the small kitchen "So, what do you think of Ms WPC?"
"She seems… determined," Ianto said, causing Julian to snort out a laugh.
"That's one way of putting it," she agreed "Not sure I like her… She seems pushy. Plus, I don't really like the fact that Jack let a civilian in here."
Ianto shot her a look "Should you really judge her? I mean, you know Jack. He isn't big on the whole military thing that Torchwood One and UNIT have going on."
Julian ran her hand through her hair with a sigh "I know. But I still don't like it. Even with Retcon, he shouldn't go around telling people just because he feels like it. This life, it's not for everyone."
"If you say so," Ianto mumbled, his lips twitching. He did like talking to Julian. Not only did she not judge him for being with Torchwood One like all the others did before but she also understood how it had been during the battle. Jack and Owen had only come afterwards, scavenging through the remains but they hadn't seen the attack.
The team were all lingering around the main hub, waiting for Jack to come back with Gwen. When he finally did, the woman had a perplexed look on her face "Owen Harper," Jack nodded to the medic who looked up "Gwen Cooper."
"Doctor Owen Harper, thank you," Owen corrected, winking at Julian. She snorted, ducking her head to hide her amusement. It was a bit of a game between them. Him boasting about his doctorate and her trying to divert the attention from herself when people mentioned her rank.
Jack rolled his eyes at the two of them "Julian Morgan, liaison and field agent. Toshiko Sato, computer genius. Suzie Costello, she's second in command. And this is Ianto Jones," Jack's tone turned flirty as he leered at Ianto playfully "Ianto cleans up after us and gets us everywhere on time."
"I try my best," Ianto nodded with a small smile.
Jack leaned over to Gwen "And he looks good in a suit."
"Careful," Ianto teased, the response being one of his go-to responses to Jack's flirting "That's harassment, sir."
"But why are you telling me their names?" Gwen questioned, ignoring the flirting between the two men "I'm not supposed to know, am I? This is classified, isn't it?"
"And yet you stormed in here and couldn't leave damn well alone," Julian told her.
Jack sighed "Jules."
"No," she shook her head "You might find that to be endearing but it isn't, Jack. What we do, we do to keep people safe. What the hell do you think civilians would do if they find out about aliens? We're just barely keeping it from them as it is."
"Julian," Jack repeated, trying to get her to stop.
"No. I'm going to let you handle it the way you want to but if anything goes wrong it's on your head," Julian snapped, whirling around to head down to the archives. She was so tired all of a sudden. The tone that woman had when asking whether the information was classified just caused something in Julian to snap.
Jack watched her leave "Owen…"
"I'll just go check on her, won't I?" Owen mumbled, hurrying after his sister.
Ianto's eyes widened "Don't touch anything in the archives," he called after him when Owen shot him an amused smirk "Owen, I mean it."
"Wait," Gwen spoke up, looking up at Jack with doe-like eyes "What are you gonna do to me?"
"Huh?" Jack blinked before he shook his head to focus on the situation. He would talk to Julian later "What do you imagine?"
Gwen shrugged uncomfortably "Well, I've seen too much. Your names and everything and the Weevil. And you can dump a man in the water and lie about his death…"
"Okay," Jack laughed, sounding unconcerned "Tosh, finish that calibration tomorrow morning. Ianto, tell Owen to get a hold of Chandler and Bell cause I think they're lying. Be there if he needs backup. Suzie, I know it's a pain in the ass but I need the costing on the glove research. And as for you, you're coming with me. This way." He gestured to Gwen, striding over to the invisible lift.
Gwen groaned dramatically "I'm getting tired of following you."
"No, you're not and you never will," Jack called over his shoulder.
"Hey," Owen whispered when he found Julian curled up on the floor on the far side of the archives. He sank down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders "You okay?"
Julian nodded, burying her head in Owen's shoulder "I don't know why I went off just then," she admitted quietly "I'm tired, Adam."
"You're thinking about him again, aren't you?" Owen asked quietly, tightening his grip "Oh, Juli."
"I miss him so much," Julian sniffed, her thoughts circling back to Henry again and again. She had been trying to not think of him during the day but had ultimately failed. The banter between her and Owen had helped a little but in the periods of silence, she just couldn't help it.
Julian was at her new favourite place, kneeling on the grass in front of her husband's grave "Jules?" a familiar voice sounded from behind her "I never meant to do this to you. If I could have made it home sooner…"
Julian gasped, looking at the man with tears in her eyes "Henry? They told me you were dead?" Almost a year ago, the Empress of Africa came back with Henry missing. They had told her that he died… That he wouldn't come back.
"I don't know how to explain," he admitted, catching Julian when she threw herself at him "All that matter is that I'm home now."
That night, they were lying on their bed. Julian was tracing the scar on Henry's chest. From the placement, she knew that it had been deadly but it seemed impossible. There was no way that Henry died… was there? "This is a gunshot wound, Henry. What happened to you on that ship?"
"How do you –?" he broke off, swallowing heavily.
"I know plenty of things," she smiled, nudging his cheek with her nose "You can trust me, Henry."
Henry shook his head mournfully "You wouldn't believe me. I hardly believe it myself sometimes."
"Somehow I doubt you can tell me anything I didn't know before," Julian mumbled, pressing a kiss to Henry's cheek before she snuggled closer to his side "You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to share. You're allowed to have secrets. I hope you know that."
"Henry?" Julian mumbled, blinking the sleep from her eyes. She shot up when she saw her husband holding a knife to his wrist "What are you doing?"
"This is the only way you'll believe me," he told her, adding pressure to his wrist.
Julian shook her head, almost falling from the bed "You don't have to prove it to me. I believe you. I will always believe you."
"I'll come back to you," he argued, his eyes wild. She was just trying to get him to put the knife down. That was the only reason she said that she believed him. If she believed then she wouldn't be this worried for him "You'll see that my story is true. I'm immortal."
Julian held her hands out towards Henry "I do believe you, I do. Just because you're immortal and will come back doesn't mean I want to see you die, love."
Henry froze before the knife dropped from his shaky hands "Oh, Jules. I love you."
"I love you too," Julian smiled, breathing in his familiar scent.
A few days after Henry had told Julian about his immortality, Adam came for a visit. He had never actually met Henry before, not even at their wedding. Of course, the first time she saw him in ages, he brought bad news. It was typical.
An old friend of theirs had died the day before and the two of them wanted to be there for the funeral, so Julian quickly scribbled a note for Henry, explaining where she had gone and promised him that they would talk more about what he had revealed once she returned. She had been ecstatic after she realised that Henry really had become immortal. She had been about to tell him why it had been so easy for her to believe his story when they were interrupted by Julian's sometimes friend Nora.
They returned home three days later to an empty house. Well, empty apart from Nora. Which was weird since while Julian was somewhat friendly with Nora, she never invited her to her house "Nora?" Julian asked "What are you doing here? Where's Henry?"
"I'm sorry, Julian," Nora shook her head, grimacing at the name. She didn't really care much for the other woman. Henry, on the other hand, she wanted to have for herself. Before Julian had come to live in the city, she thought that she and Henry would marry but that had proven to be a wrong assumption on her part "Henry told me to tell you that he couldn't be with you anymore. He fell in love with someone else before he came back and he didn't know how to tell you."
Julian's smile faded from her face "What?" she breathed, shaking her head "No, that's impossible. He would never do that to me." Adam reached out to wrap his arms around her, glaring at Nora.
"I have a letter," Nora pointed out, holding out a piece of parchment.
"No," Julian whispered, her eyes darting over the familiar handwriting. She turned to hide her face in Adam's chest as tears started to fall from her eyes.
"Juli? Julian?" Owen's voice snapped her back to the present.
She blinked a couple of times and reached up to touch her wet cheeks "It's nothing."
"It's been two hundred years. Don't you think that he moved on?" Owen asked quietly "I don't want you to hurt, Juli but it's been a long time."
Julian stiffened in his arms. It wasn't because of what Owen had said, it was the way he said it "You know something."
"What? No," he back-pedalled, realising what had just happened.
"Adam. Tell me. What do you know?"
Owen sighed, resting his forehead on Julian's "A few years ago, before Torchwood, before England, I met this woman. This nurse… Do you remember when I was hit by a car?" Julian nodded silently, willing him to continue "I begged her to kill me… When I said that I was immortal, she believed me. Almost as if she knew it was possible."
"Henry," she breathed "You think she knew Henry?"
"Who else is there?" Owen asked "As far as we know there's only three immortals like us on this Earth."
Julian took a deep breath "Do you know where he is?"
"No," Owen shook his head with an apologetic grimace "I believe the nurse thought I wanted to hurt him… She killed herself right in front of me."
"Why have you never told me?" Julian asked, playing with a button on Owen's shirt.
Owen shrugged "I didn't want to get your hopes up. I've been trying to find Henry for a while now but there are surprisingly many Henry Morgan's everywhere and that's not even accounting for the fact that he might have changed his name."
Julian nodded, closing her eyes for a moment "I want to go home." It had almost been two hundred years to the day that Henry disappeared. He had been the only person Julian really, truly loved. After he was gone, she tried for a relationship several times but no man…
Owen let out a sigh and kissed Julian's cheek "Come on. Let's order some Chinese, buy some ice cream and watch bad horror movies."
"How could I refuse an offer like that," Julian laughed wetly "I love you, Adam."
"Love you too, little one," he murmured. Had it not been for Julian, Owen would have lost his mind a long time ago. It was hard living forever, always waking up after dying. The pain, the suffering… But what made it bearable was not going through it alone. Meeting Julian was easily the best thing that had happened to him and he wouldn't change it for the world.
Hey guys. This is going to be part of my Christmas present to you guys. I did my best to write for as many Fics as possible for Christmas but the rest didn't work yet. For the Fics that haven't been updated in this wave, I'll try to get an update out till March (I have exams in February, so I should be able to get stuff done until March).
For those interested, feel free to join my Facebook Group (NicholasFlamel's Corner) where I post snippets of chapters I write, ideas I have and finished/abandoned Fics. Link: groups/687956758591756