TITLE: To Separate The Lies From Truth
PART THREE OF SERIES: The Five Elements (AU Verse)
SUMMARY: Jack and Ianto investigate the Ritz!
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or Doctor Who which is unlucky because Jack and Ianto deserve much better!
Words: 2900
Notes: Still not quite finished the final chapter, but I just had to post today! It's Ianto's birthday!
Chapter 25: Beginning Of The End (2008)
7th January 2008
The SUV pulled up outside an old, boarded up building. Ianto imagined it must have looked grand once, but time hadn't been friendly to the place, graffiti and posters scattered on every surface.
"Where are we?" He asked, loosening his seatbelt. "I thought Tosh was covering today?"
"It's Tosh's grandfather's eighty eighth birthday today, she's on her way to London." Jack answered, getting out himself. "Something about watching people throw rice."
"Beiju." Ianto supplied, at Jack's confused glance over the hood of the car, he explained further. "Eighty-eight is a celebratory year for the Japanese, but I'm more surprised you managed to get it past UNIT. A visit is harder to hide than a phone call."
"Her five-year contract expires in less than 6 months, so I pulled a favour." Jack answered vaguely, as he pushed open the large arch door. "Anyway, down to business. The Ritz dance hall, derelict since 1989 but someone's complained about hearing music drifting out. Music from the 1940s?"
"Your favourite era, judging by your coat." Ianto expected a retort, but looking up from his PDA, it seemed Jack hadn't properly heard him, the latter gazing upwards as if straining to hear something.
"Shush. Listen." Without another word Jack bounded up the grand staircase in front of him. "You coming up?"
In the quiet, Ianto could now hear what Jack had. It was a quiet tinkling of music, but reaching the top of the stairs, it fell silent once more.
"Wow. Look at those chandeliers. No neon lights back then. Just dashing young soldiers and pretty young ladies, dancing the night away, knowing that their partners would soon be off to war." Ianto silently let Jack reminisce fondly as they passed more graffiti on the wall that led down another set of stairs to the rear, but eventually the latter sighed. "Come on. There's nothing here but memories and dust."
Ianto didn't believe one could tempt fate, but he was truly thinking of reconsidering when laughter and swing music, lounder than before, reached them from behind. Sharing a glance, they both turned and ascended up the stairs again.
The place looked as if it had a complete transformation. The chandeliers glowed overhead, filling the room in soft light, as couples milled about, dressed either in their uniforms or in brightly coloured dresses. Quiet conversation and laughter echoing around in equal measure, while the music they'd heard from downstairs was playing from another room, which must have been the ballroom.
"They look real."
"They are." Jack had the strap of his VM open, scanning the room as he spoke. "It's a simple temporal shift. Ha ha! And it's beautiful."
Jack was right, but Ianto really didn't have the same level of enthusiasm. Not when they didn't know what was causing it. "Jack, we should get out."
They made their way down to the foyer, but leaving the brightness of the Hall, Ianto was surprised to notice it was dark out. It's been morning when they'd arrived, and it definitely hadn't felt they'd been inside for more than 20 minutes.
"It's night." Ianto remarked, scanning the streets. The SVU had gone too, yet he knew it was almost impossible to steal. "Were we in there longer than we thought?"
Jack was silent, and turning he caught what his lover had seen. A large advertisement poster stood out among the brick wall, new and un damaged unlike all the others that'd previously covered the walls.
1941
Kiss The Boys
Goodbye Dance
Saturday 20th January 1941 7.30pm
At The Ritz
"No." Jack confirmed. "We've travelled."
~ * o ~ * o ~ T ~ o * ~ o * ~
20th January 1941
(Although RTD is lazy unlike me and couldn't be bothered to check that this isn't a real date. 20th Jan 1941 was a Monday not a Saturday as the poster said.)
Ianto pressed speed dial on his mobile, but didn't bother lifting it to his ear, as the inevitable dial tone whined immediately. He knew it wouldn't work, but it never harmed to try. "Phone's dead. I can't get through to the Hub."
"Let's get back inside." Jack returned hurriedly, not looking surprised either. "We shouldn't stray too far from where we crossed."
As Jack guided them back into the dance hall, Ianto could tell the Captain was putting on an excitable front, but both their shields weren't strengthened enough, for Ianto not to feel his puzzlement and worry mixed within.
"How did we cross to 1941 in the first place?" Ianto asked quietly, fully aware of everyone's looks as they passed through the crowds. "The predictor didn't show any activity today, and that didn't seem like any usual rift spike, but...er…people are staring at us."
"We need to try to blend in." Jack took off his earpiece, as Ianto slipped out of his own overcoat. He'd already taken off his own earpiece when they'd first realised they didn't work and thankfully, Ianto had chosen more bland colours for his suit choice today, but his tie held stripes of pink, which – while it was not the 50's – would not go down well in this era.
"And your tie." Jack added. "Bright colours for men weren't a thing until at least the 70's."
"It's easy for you to say." Ianto replied, pulling off his tie and shoving it in his pocket. "When I say I know everything, I don't mean everything from 1941."
"Don't worry. You're with me." Jack exclaimed. "Now how about a drink?"
Ianto turned to look at the bar behind them, where several guests were ordering drinks. "And how do you expect to pay for it?"
Jack patted his pockets useless then frowned remembering the change of currency, and Ianto couldn't help but hide a grin at having realised something before him, but it was cut off suddenly as a young man dressed in uniform barged past him towards the bar, snatching the hand of a well-dressed woman chatting with her partner, and pulling her unexpectedly onto the dance floor.
Ianto caught himself before he fell, but his stumble didn't go unnoticed by Jack. He sensed his lover's irritation before he'd moved, but wasn't quick enough to act as Jack strode into the centre of the floor and grabbed the sleeve of the man's uniform.
"Do you mind?"
"I'm only borrowing this one, mate."
"Maybe she doesn't want to be borrowed." Jack took the young lady politely by the hand, and led her across to her partner who'd followed them. "I'd say she's set her eye's higher."
The punch to Jack's jaw was unexpected, spinning him around as pain flared through both of them.
"Jack!"
Recovering quickly however, Jack shoved the man hard in retaliation, knocking him to the floor as Ianto blocked Jack's attempts to move forward for a second time.
"Jack, what did you just say about blending in?"
"Cut it out, kiddo" Another American RAF Captain stepped in front of the man, then turned to address them all. "Sorry about that. The men are a bit lively tonight. It's last day of OTU tomorrow. Apologise to the gentleman, George."
"I was only dancing."
"I think it was your fist in his face he didn't like, not your foxtrot." With the one line, Ianto knew he liked his newcomer.
George turned to Jack, reluctantly. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay." Jack grinned. "You barely got me."
The laughter from onlookers, caused some new embarrassment to flood through Ianto shields from George, as some friends thankfully led George away, before he could try anything else. Ianto breathed a sigh of relief as the crowd that'd formed soon began to break up now the show was over.
"Hey, are you a volunteer too?"
"Yeah." Jack offered out his hand to shake as the Captain who'd stepped in, caught up with them.
"I'm Captain…" The words came out together and jumbled that the two Captain laughed awkwardly.
"You go first." Jack offered.
"I'm Captain Jack Harkness. 133rd Squadron."
Ianto saw the smile freeze on Jack's face, before he'd registered the words himself. Surprise echoed through his brain, so much that it was almost impossible to decipher who's was who's. However, it wasn't just surprise that he read from Jack, but guilt which only grew his own confusion.
"Look this way, please." The vaguely familiar voice of the doorman broke the atmosphere, and Ianto had barely turned towards the sound before a camera flashed in his face.
~ * o ~ * o ~ T ~ o * ~ o * ~
7th January 2008
An incessant beeping of an alarm woke Owen from where he slept on the sofa. Groaning, he rolled over, recognising the vague figure of Gwen standing at the workstation. He really shouldn't drunken so much the night before, but after finally coming off his medication for his injury, he might have overindulged just a little.
"What the hell is that!?"
"Tosh's Rift monitor programme." Gwen replied, not turning to look at him. "The Rift's been opening more and more recently, without the predictor alerting us beforehand.
"Yeah, well, I've noticed that. Doesn't take a genius."
"Tosh reckons the equations are forming some sort of pattern." Gwen explained. "I don't know though, it's a bit over my head."
"Why am I not surprised?" Owen taunted, joining her at the monitors. "But, er, why wasn't I told about this?
"Well, you've been off, haven't you?"
"Not by bloody choice was I? Where was the spike?"
"Sage Street." Gwen answered, then paused. "Hang on, that's where Jack and Ianto went earlier. I'll call him."
"Ianto?" Owen asked confused. Maybe his headache was messing up his memory. "I thought it was Teaboy's day off."
"Jack swapped it with Tosh's. She's on her way to London." Okay, why was it beginning to feel like nobody had told him anything recently. He rubbed his throbbing head, as Gwen dropped the phone from her ear, frowning. "The line's dead."
"Usually that's not good."
"I'll get down there now." Gwen returned, snatching up her car keys. "You try access Tosh's files."
"Who put you in charge!?" Owen shouted at her retreating form, but it was pointless.
He slumped in the desk chair, snatching some of Gwen's painkillers from her desk drawer and dry swallowing. They weren't as good as his own personal batch, but they'd do for now. Tosh had given the team some basic computing lessons, but it'd still take forever to get into the files. Why did Tosh have to take today off, of all days.
He didn't hear anymore from Gwen, until the alarm of the Cog door blared once more with her entrance and by then the mass of printouts and files he'd collated from the archives – Ianto was going to put him on decaff for months if he found out - meant he'd migrated upstairs for more room.
"Hey. I've got into Tosh's files." He finally looked up as Gwen made it into the boardroom. "Any sign of the charming duo?"
Gwen shook her head. "The SUV was there, but no sign of them. I'd had a good look around but most of the doors are locked."
"Great." His usual sarcasm dripped from his voice, but Gwen ignored him.
"What do we know about the building then?"
"Quite a lot, but nothing out of the ordinary." Owen returned, then chucked the computer remote to Gwen so fast she fumbled to catch it. "Make yourself useful and go through the digital records."
"You could be nicer about it."
"And pigs can also fly." Owen snarked, shuffling through the blueprints and documents scattered across the boardroom table. "Right, the Ritz dance hall opened in 1932, shut down in 1989. Due to be demolished in… one week." Great, why did these things always have a deadline? "Now, the reported music is from the 1940s..."
"Owen. Look, there."
Gwen's voice interrupted him, and he turned seeing where she'd frozen the computer monitor on a single still image out the batch commemorating the history of the dance hall. An image displaying, in clear black and white, Jack and Ianto, the Captain mid-handshake with another.
"Call Tosh." Owen ordered, not taking his eyes off the photo. "They've slipped through the rift."
~ * o ~ * o ~ T ~ o * ~ o * ~
20th January 1941
Jack had disappeared not long after their introductions to the Captain, Ianto wondering what Owen would say to Jack using his name, but he could tell he hadn't gone far. Usually, Ianto knew Jack wouldn't have separated from him, but he wagered their bond did have some advantages, namely that Jack would know instantly if something was wrong, and that Ianto could track him down if needed.
Which is what he was doing now. He'd given Jack a few minutes of privacy, but they did need to start finding a way out of here before they got trapped in 1941 forever. Following the familiar white spark that signified Jack's presence, he tracked the latter down to a quiet office at the rear of the building.
"Jack?" He pushed open to door slowly to see Jack slumped on a bench seat.
"I never thought I'd actually meet him." Jack started as introduction, looking down at his hands, which were twisted in his lap. "Captain Harkness I mean. It's not my name. It's his. I took his. Sometimes, Ianto, you can know too much history."
Ianto settled beside Jack on the bench seat silently, choosing the right question from the load in his mind. "Is this about the things you mentioned you don't like about the past?"
"Mostly. Not to say I've not done things as Jack Harkness I don't regret every day, but who I was before, you'd probably not even recognise." Jack paused, but eventually looked up at him before he continued. "This period. This year – I've lived through it twice. You know the second, but the first, I was undercover. I needed a false identity, so I took his name."
"Why his?" There were many identities he could have chosen to use, and Ianto couldn't say whether or not it was a coincidence, that he was here at the very moment they were.
"It was convenient." Jack replied. "I say 'undercover', but truthfully I was on the run from my old job, running cons to try and get back at them for stealing my memories, but instead it's where I first met the Doctor."
"That long ago?" Ianto returned, surprised.
"Yeah, and I need the identity of someone high in authority, so I could move around unnoticed." Jack sighed, and Ianto caught a wave of awkwardness at the memory of his con running days.
"But if you chose his identity to steal, then he…"
"Dies, in battle." Jack finished, solemnly. "Tomorrow."
Ianto couldn't say anything, but he didn't need to. The tone of the room was already low and Ianto didn't believe it could have gone any lower, but it did.
"Tomorrow's their last training exercise. Just another day. They go out on a sortie and are surprised by two formations of Messerschmitt's. He destroys three of the enemy. His men listen to his whoops of joy over the radio. Then it all goes quiet. He can't bail out because his whole plane is on fire, but his men all make it back to safety."
Jack's gaze was fixed to the floor in front of him, as always when he was so entrenched in a memory.
"Sorry I never said anything, but I've never thought it important recently. I've always figured I failed to look up the good his name established, but truthfully, it's the only name that actually feels like me now. I suppose it's the name I've had the longest."
"What are you doing in here? Who are you?
They jumped to their feet startled, as the camp and anachronistic looking doorman, who'd taken their photograph earlier, entered the room, interrupting Ianto's attempts to reply.
"Captain James Harper, and this is Ianto Jones. Sorry to intrude, we needed somewhere private to discuss strategies."
"I'm Bilis, the Manager." He made his way over to his desk, eying them both actually rather more suspiciously than needed, given Jack's probably legitimate excuse given this time period. "You're not in full uniform, Captain."
"On leave." Jack covered quickly. "Forty-eight hours."
"Indeed." Something about the way Bilis spoke, unnerved Ianto, but even after lowering his shields, he couldn't quite put his finger on it before they were unsubtlety dismissed. "I'd take it kindly if you could take your strategizing elsewhere."
Jack nodded once and turned. Ianto moved to follow when he felt something in the air suddenly shift. He shook it off, focusing on Jack.
"Right, we need to start finding a way to get a message back to the Hub." Jack started as soon as they'd closed the door to Bilis office, walking a few strides ahead of him. "The only way to get back is the way we came, but if they are going to use the Rift then the opening needs to be controlled closely or the consequences..."
A flash of movement in his peripheral vision drew him up short. His eyes tracked changes around the room, shadows that hadn't been there before that then vanished the moment he laid eyes on them.
"Jack? Something…"
Then everything froze.
Notes: Happy Birthday Ianto!
Next chapter up in two days, I'm going to bang out on finishing the final chapter asap! It took ages to figure out where I was going for the last episode, but now it's all in sections and I am sooooooo close.
