A long time ago, Torchwood four disappeared from the earth. No one knew exactly what had happened to this branch of Torchwood to disappear from one day to another but as always rumours were spreading across the globe. The infamous object one was rumoured to have something to do with it. Others thought it had something to do with aliens. Or pissing off the right kind of people. But as Torchwood four wasn't there to defend themselves they would always stay guessing. So saying it was a surprise, to find a man standing on his doorstep who was claiming to be from Torchwood four, was an understatement. Ianto Jones, a young man of only 23 years old, was currently downstairs in the interrogation room waiting to speak with someone. Through the CCTV Jack could see that the boy was sitting there with a stony face, nervously twitching his thumbs, while he waited.
" What should I do?" He asked the always clever Toshiko who was standing by his side watching the CCTV. He looked at her petite form and watched her think.
" As far as I can find he's just a normal bloke. But the weird thing is that I can't find an Ianto Jones with his description. There's no one who looks like him who was born about twenty years ago." She told him, watching her screen.
" Just talk to him. Find out if he is a fraud!" Came the harsh voice of Owen. The man - when he was even on time - always had a bad attitude. But Jack forgave him as he knew all of what happened, it was hard for the young man. Losing your fiance so suddenly and in such a freaky way wouldn't be good on anybody. It was a bit different from how other people grieved but he accepted that this is what Owen needs. Needs human contact, needs the drunken state of mind. Needs the oblivion.
"Alright, let's see what this young man has to say," Jack said and made his way down towards the interrogation room he'd wandered to so many times already. Walking down the stairs he opened the door, looked up at the camera once before closing the door and giving Ianto Jones all the attention he wanted. He sat down on the chair on the other side of the table and stared the young boy in the eyes. Ianto stared back and never gave in. Jack had been hoping that if he'd only stare long enough the kid would give in and break. But after half an hour he was still staring into Ianto's soul and thought enough was enough, they were supposed to work on a case of missing people today.
" Alright, Ianto what is it that you want from us?" Jack asked as stern as he could. No nonsense from now on. He signed the words and at the same time spoke them so his team could hear at least what he was saying. The young man had come to them frantically talking with his hands and no one else had been able to understand him except Jack. A long, long, while ago he'd learned BSL for a co-worker who was deaf. It helped that he was incredibly sexy, so most of the time he would just be saying something flirty to him.
" I've told you already Captain Harkness. I need your help." The man pleaded with him. There was nothing normal about this situation, but then again was it ever at torchwood?
" Okay, just imagine for a second that I believe your story about being from Torchwood 4, what should I do about that? How would I be able to help if you couldn't even help yourselves?" He asked of the man in front of him.
" I don't know, maybe some alien tech or something? Or maybe you could ask Torchwood two to ask if they have some information?" Ianto said frantically. His eyes were searching the room while his mind was working overtime.
" Ianto? Do you know which year it is?" Jack asked sympathetically, the mention of Torchwood two, who had dismantled a long time ago, made him realise something was wrong. Torchwood four had been missing for decades so that could only mean that this Ianto Jones if he was real, was from about a century ago. The suit he was wearing looked definitely like something from pre-war now he thought about it.
"Uhm 1904?" He spelled to Jack with his hand, doubting about what was going on. The question about the situation hung in the air but Jack couldn't ask it.
"Ianto this is 2005! A century has passed since you've last been at Torchwood." The young man fell silent and failed to give him any answers.
"This...this can't be true. There has to be a mistake!" The young man began to say, the panic was clearly visible on his face and Jack actually began to feel sorry for him. He, above all others, knew how much it hurt to be out of your time. To be trapped in a place so unfamiliar to you. Stretching out he took Ianto's right hand in his, in a sort of calming way. If there had been someone who cared for him after he was abandoned and had to find his own way after the doctor had left him, things would've gone a lot different he presumed.
"It's okay, what is the last thing you remember?" He exclaimed and kept stroking Ianto's hand with his thumb. It had been something his mother had done when he was younger and stressed out of his mind, taking his hands and quietly stroking her thumb across his hand. It indeed had actually calmed him. It was easier to sign with two hands so Jack let go of Ianto's hand while he spoke, but was determined to claim it back afterwards.
" I remember saying goodbye to mam in the morning. I remember talking with Tad, who was the head of Torchwood four, about an alien object we had found. Later when I went to the archive something happened. The ground was shaking and everything moved. Things were in disarray and when the shaking stopped we gathered together asking each other who knew what happened. Later when Sarah was going out to fetch some food from her mother she was screaming as the ground beneath us had disappeared. It was all pitch black. It took us some time but we managed to find a way to transport me here. Tad said there was a Torchwood in Cardiff here, he told me to ask the help of Captain Jack Harkness, so I managed to find it. That's all, as far as I know, it's only been a few days ago." He began to sign so quickly that Jack could barely keep up, his eyes looking down at the table while he told the story.
" How is it that you have a Welsh accent when you were living in North Ireland?" Came to his mind before he could even ask about how they managed to find a way.
" Born and raised in Wales. We moved to Northern Ireland when I was 15. As soon as I was 18 my Tad let me work for Torchwood, only paperwork at first of course and managing the archives." The young man told him quietly before he claimed back his hand - once more - and brought it to his own pockets. Both hands disappeared into those silken pockets and disappeared from view. Secretly he was quite disappointed about that as Ianto's hand had felt so nice and soft. They felt nothing like the rough ones of his own, it was a nice change for once.
" So how did you manage to come here? I'm quite intrigued. " He exclaimed, adding a little wink at Ianto, but at the same time staying quite serious. It seemed like one of the moulds on the wall had caught the young man's attention as his eyes had directed to the patch on the wall. Sighing, he waited for the Welshman to answer him. When finally Ianto began to sign again, Jack felt like he really should do something for the young man, the only problem was, he had no idea what! There was no way - as far as he knew - to do this without the doctors help. And right now he needed the doctor so much it hurt sometimes. It hurt to have to live with the doubt that maybe there would come a day when he could finally get the peace of death, but secretly he knew that that wasn't going to happen. He was the freak, the man who couldn't die. Carefully Ianto produced a little object from his pocket, a tiny triangle with a button in the middle.
" It's from another planet, we managed to adapt it a bit. If you think about a place badly enough and you can visualize it then it transports you to that place it said in the paperwork. I volunteered to be a lab rat. Never actually thought it would work." Ianto exclaimed, fixing his eyes on the little triangle on his hand palm. The mysterious object seemed to have safed only one person from the lot. There were actually no files on Torchwood four, somehow everything that had ever existed of and about that place had been gone. Vanished out of existence.
" So why do you need my help? Can't you go back and rescue them?" Jack asked politely, leaning back on the chair he managed to get his chair on two legs.
" I can't," the tears started brimming in the Welshman's eyes.
" It's a one-way trip." He explained further. At this point, Captain Jack Harkness lost his balance and fell flat on the floor. A strange distorted laughing pierced the air, and if he was honest he knew that upstairs they were laughing at his antics too. Fuck, he would be laughing at himself if this hadn't been a serious situation. After he'd put the chair right again and sat down he could still see some laughing lines on the young man's face even though his face had turned serious again. Like an emotional whiplash. For a second he directed his face towards the still beeping camera.
" Tosh, can you come in here?" He talked to the air, and at the same time signed so Ianto knew what was going on, he knew she would've heard it. So hopefully she would be here in no time at all, otherwise, he needed to walk up and leave the Ianto again.
Only seconds later Tosh came running in.
" You called?" She asked quite sarcastically. An eye roll would've gone well with it but sadly it never came.
" Yes, could you take a look at Ianto's transportation device? Look if you can adapt it and make it a two-way door?" He asked her not even watching Ianto, who had tried to put the device back in his pocket. When he turned back around he could see Ianto just putting his hand back in his pocket and the device gone.
" Ianto… if you want us to help you'll need to hand over the device to her." He watched the younger man sternly and saw how he recoiled a bit further away from them.
" Okay, but don't break it. Please, I need to find a way back."
-0O0-
It was hours later when Jack made his way towards the young man again. He'd given him one of the bedrooms - for when they couldn't go back to their own place - and left him to get some shut-eye. He knew there was no way in hell Ianto Jones would fall asleep in this unfamiliar place, but he told himself he could at least give the man some privacy while he tried to cope with what had happened. With the documents in hand, he walked towards room 4, a nice plush bed surrounded by sky blue walls, and knocked on the door. It didn't take long before the door was opened and out popped Ianto's young face.
" Yes sir?" He asked with droopy eyes, his hands faltered a bit and his short messy hair was all over the place. He must've been mistaken because it looked like Ianto Jones had actually been sleeping until he'd woken him up.
"I'm sorry if I interrupted anything," he couldn't help but look up and down Ianto's disheveled body. The suit jacket had gone and a few buttons on the top had been popped open and showed some chest hair. He actually had to bite his lip to stop himself from smirking or telling some innuendo. Ianto weaved his hand through the short but messy bit of hair on his head and Jack's eyes followed them imagining those hands doing something else entirely.
"Sir?" Ianto asked after a sleepy moan. Being snapped out of his daydream or even better his fantasy, he stared into the young man's eyes.
"Uhh sorry yeah, I found some information about your family." He said pointing to the folder under his armpit.
" Oh, okay." He said stepping away and opening the door for him. Jack followed the young man into his room where the captain sat down on the chair next to the bed. Ianto sat carefully down on the - probably- too soft mattress and awaited what Jack was going to tell him.
''So you and your father have been erased from the past, there's nothing to find about you two. But I started investigating a bit and the names you gave me of your mother and sister, Glenda and Rhiannon Jones right? Well, I could find a few things about them. Tracked them back and made a family tree for you.'' Jack took the picture out of the map and gave it to Ianto. Ianto took his time scanning the page and when he finally put it down he was just blankly staring at the captain.
''I have…. family? He eventually signed. The confusion was etched on his face, taking pity on him, Jack stood up and sat down next to him on the bed.
" Let me tell you what I found," Jack told him and waited for Ianto to give him permission. When the nod finally came he was glad to start the story he'd produced in his head.
" Your mom, she died a year after the disappearance of torchwood four, heart attack they stated. Your sister met a guy and they had two children, David and Mica, as you know. David stayed single all his life. But when Mica was 16 she was introduced to Greg Harkness, a survivor of the first world war. They married shortly after and had twin boys Jack and James. Jack, Greg and David died in the second world war. James survived, found a wife, got a daughter and was found dead in a ditch 5 years later. Their daughter Angela had a son who's currently working for torchwood one. Both Angela and Jesper are still alive but the last living family you have left. " He had no idea if it was actually a good idea to tell Ianto this, but in the back of his mind, he knew that Ianto was stuck here. Even tosh with her brilliant mind wouldn't be able to let the rift allow two-way transportation through that little button device she was currently trying to adapt. It took Ianto some time to process all he'd told, it was quite a story actually even though it had been summarised a lot. It was weird though, knowing that the man from whom he had taken his name was actually family of this young man in front of him.
" Thank you, " he said putting his hand on his chin and moving his hand forwards.
" Sorry " he signed by closing his first and moving it in a circle on his chest, going over his heart with every circle he made. It is the sign which has been used the most in the UK throughout time.
-0O0-
He knew it couldn't have happened. He knew that there was no way for Ianto to go back without the help of the doctor. Tosh, his beautiful smart Tosh, had tried everything she could, but in the end, it was a lost cause. Defeated, Ianto had sat down on the ground that day. There were only so many things he could help this young man with, but they'd tried their best.
In the end, it wasn't enough. One day they would find torchwood four back, but that day wouldn't come soon enough to Ianto Jones. In the meantime, he would keep Ianto company and help him through this difficult time, like the men out of time they were.
This fic is part of the Torchwood Bingo Fest 2020.
I hope you like it and leave a review.
XXXFredAndGeorgeForever