Many thanks to Jackjenfan and TenRose4ever for your kind reviews. :)
2000
Date: January 3
"Mara, someone very special is going to be here for your birthday," Jenny said as she placed a plate of banana pancakes in front of her little sister. They were her new favorite food, and although they were a painful reminder for Jenny of their parents, she made them for her anyway.
"Who?" Mara asked as she watched Jenny cut her pancakes.
"Your uncle Jack," she said as she handed Mara a fork.
"I have an uncle?"
Jenny pursed her lips. "Well, sort of. He's a very close friend of Mum and Dad's, and I work with him. He didn't get to meet you when you were a baby, so he wants to meet you now."
Mara reacted as Jenny hoped she would. She smiled widely. "When is he going to get here?"
"Oh, soon," Jenny said as she glanced up and saw Jack walking towards the front door.
Mara shot to her feet and ran for the door. "Uncle Jack is here, uncle Jack is here!" she cried out happily.
Date: February 8
"You know, capturing these things would be a lot easier if we had more team members," Jenny commented as she stared at her target through a periscope.
Through her earpiece, she heard Jack sigh with frustration. "Just take the target out. And make sure you watch out for—"
"The poisonous purple spines on its back, yeah, I know. I have run into these creatures before, Jack."
"I just don't want to have to explain to your sister why you look different after regenerating. Plus, you know, you'd have to get a new driver's license."
She chuckled. "And we all know what a hassle that is when you have psychic paper."
She could almost hear him roll his eyes at her. "Just shoot straight, Tyler."
"Will do, boss," she said, and sucked in a deep breath. She waited until her target had started tearing into the chicken meat they had set out as bait, and then released the trigger on her exhale.
Her target let out a screech before it fell with a hollow thud.
Jenny shot up to her feet and ran towards the creature. "Careful!" Jack shouted. "They're tough little bastards. It could still be conscious."
Jenny rolled her eyes. "I gave it a maximum dosage. We'll be lucky if it's still even alive."
"Be careful anyway," Jack said.
She huffed, and reached for the creature. "Fine, Dad." She was just about to pull the blow dart out of the creature's back, when it reared up with a screech.
"Jenny!" Jack cried out when the creature slammed its back into her.
She gasped when hundreds of purple spines lodged themselves into her stomach. She stumbled back as the creature ran back into the shadows. "Jack," she gasped, and let out a hysterical breathy laugh. "I think I need a doctor."
Jack was already at her side. He caught her by the shoulders when her knees started to give out. "I got you. Call your dad while I get you to the van."
She gasped again and frantically tried to reach out for her dad, but screamed when she was met with a wall of fire. "The poison has attacked my telepathic centers," she said in between her wheezing. "Just—just get me back to the hub." She could already feel her body going into overdrive to fight off the toxins that were coursing through her bloodstream. She could feel all of her instincts pointing towards regeneration, but she steadfastly refused. There had to be another way around this.
Jack broke more than a few traffic laws to get them back to the Torchwood hub in record time. As he drove, Jenny gritted her teeth and yanked out the spines that were still lodged in her abdomen. She wanted to cry out in pain every time she pulled out a spine, but forced herself to bite down on a nearby pen instead.
As soon as they were parked, Jack threw the doors of the van open and picked Jenny up with ease.
She gasped with pain when he accidentally jostled her.
"Sorry," he said in a clipped voice.
"Don't—" she coughed. "Don't worry about it."
Jack hurried them down into the medical lab portion of the hub. He gently laid her down on the metal table and spun around to rummage through the drawers. "I know there's a cure in here somewhere."
"For humans," Jenny said in between her gasps for air. She could feel the poison moving into her lungs now. "I'm not human, Jack."
He turned towards her. "There is another way."
"No!" she shouted. "I'm." She wheezed. "I'm not regenerating." She coughed and shook her head. "But there is another way."
"What?" Jack rushed to her side. "Tell me!"
"Put me in a coma," she said. "It'll slow down the poison and give my body time to produce the proper enzymes to cure myself."
Jack was shaking his head before she could finish her sentence. "No way! That would definitely kill you."
She shook her head. "Time Lord Biology. There's a chance it could work, Jack, but not if you don't act now."
Jack bounced on his feet as he stared down at her. "Fine," he snarled and reached in another drawer for a full syringe. "But if you die, it's your fault that Mara will be all alone."
She swallowed, and felt sweat starting to break out across her forehead. "Take care of her while I'm gone, Jack."
He sucked in his cheeks, but nodded before he injected her with the syringe.
Jenny closed her eyes.
Date: February 12
The first thing she felt when she regained consciousness was fear. Not her own fear, Mara's fear. Her little sister was asleep, she could tell, but even in her sleep, Mara radiated terror.
Jenny sucked in a breath of air, and opened her eyes, only to immediately close them against the blinding light above her.
"Welcome back," she heard a voice say.
She blinked as spots began to clear from her vision, and turned her head. Jack was there on the floor leaning against the tiled wall behind him.
She swallowed, and cringed at how dry her throat was. She lifted her arm, and felt the tug of the IV drip attached to her right side. She blinked, and glanced over at the machines that were monitoring her vitals. "Where's Mara?" she croaked.
"In my office," he said, and looked down at his hands. "You really scared her."
Jenny closed her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"She couldn't hear you," Jack hissed. "In her mind. It hurt her." He glared up at her. "You didn't tell me that was going to happen. She was alone for four days."
She swallowed, and slowly sat up. "I told you my telepathic centers were compromised." She coughed, and pulled in a slow breath. "What about my dad? Did he…?"
Jack shook his head. "He stayed away. As far as I can tell, he doesn't know."
"Good," she said with a relieved sigh. "He can't know I'm working for you. At least not right now."
Jack's jaw ticked. "That was a really stupid mistake."
Jenny's shoulders slumped. "Jack, let's not do this right now. I want to see her."
He let out a slow breath before he nodded. "Okay." He stood, and Jenny tried to follow. He held up a hand. "Whoa, where do you think you're going?"
"With you," she said.
He shook his head. "No, no way. You're going to lie back down and I'm going to go get your little sister."
She swallowed, but nodded. "Okay." Jack turned back towards the stairs. "Jack."
He paused. "Yes?"
She bit her lip. "Thank you."
He nodded, and gave her the smallest of smiles. "You really think I'd let you die on me?"
She chuckled, and coughed. "Jack?"
He paused again, and let out a huff. "Yes, Jenny?"
She pursed her lips. "Should…should anything ever happen to me—"
"Jenny, you're going to be fine."
"But if it should," she continued. "I want you to take Mara. I want you to be her Godfather."
Jack raised his eyebrows with surprise. "Me?"
She nodded. "You're the only other person I and my parents would trust to protect her besides ourselves."
His lips quirked up into a genuine smile then. "Okay then. I'll do it."
Date: March 12
Jenny stood up from cleaning the toilet and snapped her gloves off. She paused. The house was too quiet. Even in her mind she could feel Mara trying to be quiet.
"Mara?" she called out as she exited the front bathroom. "Mara, where are you?"
She happened to glance over towards her bedroom. The door was completely shut, which only confirmed, in her mind, that Mara was up to something. Jenny knew she'd left it open this morning.
She opened the door quietly, and found her little sister on the floor with her blue diary opened in her hands. "Mara, what are you doing?" Jenny demanded.
Her little sister jumped and quickly shoved a piece of paper back into Jenny's journal before she slammed it shut. "Nothing."
Jenny knew full well she was reading the poem that their parents had told her to write when they'd come to her in a dream. It was something they did rarely - only when they needed to tell her something important. In this case, they wanted her to write something they wanted to Mara to read on her sixteenth birthday, when this would all be over.
She marched towards her sister. "You know you're not supposed to read that yet." She quickly snatched the book out of Mara's hands.
Mara bit her lip as she peeked up at her from her eyelashes. "What's that poem called?"
Jenny sucked in her cheeks and gave her little a hard stare. There was no point in not telling her now. "TARDIS Child."
"Did Mum and Dad write it?" Mara's voice cracked, and that made Jenny's rigid posture soften.
For a moment, Jenny considered telling her the whole truth. What could be the harm in her knowing? That way she would be better equipped should she ever—TARDIS forbid—come into contact with the Angels.
But then Jenny remembered why she and her parents hadn't told Mara. Her little sister deserved a childhood that was as close to normal as possible. One where she wasn't afraid of every dark corner and passing stranger, and that could only be achieved if she didn't know the truth.
She quickly shook herself back into the present moment and turned to put the book back in her chest. She shut the lid and changed the code on the lock yet again. She knew full well that Mara would simply crack the code when her back was turned, but there was no harm in setting it anyway.
Jenny slowly sat down in front of Mara. She put out her hands and Mara quickly placed her smaller ones in hers. She gave a tremendous sigh, nodded, and said, "Yes, it was written by our parents." There was no point in denying that much.
"Why?" Mara asked with large eyes.
Jenny only smiled. She could tell her little sister's thoughts had turned towards the snippets of the dreams their parents had come to Mara in. But still, she couldn't tell her the whole truth. Not yet.
"I'll tell you when you're older."
