2005
Date: January 3
"Sierra's here!" Mara called out with excitement as she ran out the front door.
Jenny glanced back at Jack and smiled. "Ready for chaos?"
He chuckled. "It's just two girls, Jen, how much damage could they really do?"
She snorted. "With my sister in the mix, you really have to ask?"
"Fair point."
"Hi miss Jenny," Sierra said as Mara dragged her towards the back garden.
"Hello, Sierra!" Jenny waved before she turned to Sue. "Thank you for letting her come today. Mara has been begging me for almost a month."
Sue smiled and handed Jenny Sierra's overnight things. "Oh, I wouldn't dream of keeping those two apart." She glanced over Jenny's shoulder at Jack. "Hello, I don't think we've met. I'm Sue Redfield."
Jack shook the hand that Sue offered. "Captain Jack Harkness, at your service. I'm Mara's Godfather."
"Oh lovely. Jenny has mentioned you," Sue said before she turned to leave. "Well, I best be off. Jamie has a doctor's appointment I need to get him ready for. Good to meet you, Jack." She waved as she ran back towards her car.
"And you," Jack said with a wave and a polite smile.
Jenny shut the door and spun around on her heel to face him. "I'm impressed. Not one flirtatious comment. Even your greeting was appropriate."
Jack rolled his eyes at her. "Ha ha, I'm so amused. Let's go get the cake ready."
Jenny grinned at him. "Lead the way, Harkness."
Date: November 23
"Jen, could you take a look at these readings?"
Jenny took another bite of her sandwich before she stood up from her station. "Sure, Suzie, why?"
The newest Torchwood team member looked up at her with wide eyes. "There's an unusually high reading of Huon particles massing." She pointed at her computer screen.
Jenny already knew about the unusual reading, she'd noticed it shortly after she started working for Jack. "It's not a current threat," she said. "It's just a shockwave. Something massive is happening in the future, 2013 to be exact, and all that energy is just rippling out. The closer we get to the center of the storm, the higher the reading will go." She tapped a couple of keys and the reading disappeared from the screen. "See? It's fine." She turned to leave.
Suzie's eyes were wide. "So, something in the future is going to happen to make the rift light up like a Christmas tree, and that's fine? No big deal?"
Jenny shrugged. "Well there's nothing we can do about it right now, so yeah. It's no big deal."
Her teammate let out a sarcastic puff of breath. "Well, I wish I could have your confidence."
Jenny took another bite of her sandwich. "It's not confidence, Suzie, it's faith."
Suzie raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Faith?"
Owen rolled his desk chair in their direction. "Jenny believes that whatever happens in 2013 will be stopped by her parents."
"Her parents?"
"Jack's Doctor and a woman named Rose Tyler," Tosh explained.
"Rose Tyler?" Suzie asked. "Wasn't she—?"
"The girl on the news who's recently gone missing?" Jenny supplied. "Yes she is. She met my dad in March of this year. She went traveling with him, with the intention of coming back the night she left, but Dad got the coordinates wrong—as he often does. He accidentally landed them a year late."
"But how—"
"Time travel, Suzie-Q," Jack bellowed as he came out from his office. "Jenny and her family are all time travelers."
Suzie turned her even wider eyes back onto Jenny. "Blimey."
Jenny winked, and turned back to her computer.
Date: December 16
Jenny was in a full blown panic.
Mara called to say she was going to the movies while Jenny had been driving to the market to do some grocery shopping. She'd told Jenny she would be with Sierra, so of course, Jenny had let her go. She'd told Jenny what movie they were going to see, Narnia: the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, so she expected her to be back shortly after she got home from shopping.
But when it was getting on past 3 and she still wasn't home, Jenny began to worry. She first tried her mobile, but after she went straight to voicemail for the tenth time, she decided to try Sue. When Sue didn't immediately pick up, she started to fear the worst. What if the Angels had gotten ahold of Mara? She had seen a rise in their activity on the Torchwood monitors lately. Or what if she'd been kidnapped by something worse? Or someone worse? What if she got into an accident? Jenny could just picture her little sister hurt or worse by the side of the road somewhere.
She closed her eyes then and reached out with her mind. Mara was there, and Jenny let out a slow breath of relief when she confirmed that she was unhurt. She was tempted to reach out to her little sister now to express how displeased she was with her choices, but restrained herself. She wanted to confront her in person for this.
Jenny opened her eyes when her phone rang.
She let out a slow breath to try to control her anger when she saw the caller I.D. "Sue?"
"Jenny, I'm so sorry. I meant to have the girls back before you were home, but we stopped for lunch and I just lost track of time. I'm so terribly sorry; I'm bringing them back now." Sue's voice was apologetic, and Jenny could hear Sierra and Mara chattering in the background.
Jenny sank down into an armchair and waited for Mara to get home. When she did, her sister quickly registered the raging anger and leftover panic that Jenny was trying desperately to control.
She looked up as Mara opened the front door, and clutched her mobile tighter in her hands when her little sister slowly shut the door before she turned to face her.
"Mara!" she cried, and jumped to her feet. "Where the hell have you been? I was about to call the police!" She knew full well where she'd been from her talk with Sue, but she wanted her little sister to explain herself.
Mara froze for a moment before she swallowed nervously. "I told you. I went to the cinema with Sierra. You were out and I was bored. I left you a voicemail before I went. We stopped for lunch afterwards and it took longer than I expected, that's all."
Jenny crossed her arms as her anger started to get the better of her once again. "I was willing to let the trip to the cinema slide, but when you didn't show up when you said you would, I started to worry. You can't just go off like that without asking me first! Especially without telling me if you're running late."
"Well, I'll do that next time," Mara said, and turned to leave.
Her little sister's nonchalant attitude made Jenny's anger go through the roof. "Don't you speak to me like that young lady!" she shouted, and grabbed Mara's arm before she could stop herself. "What if something had happened to you? You can't just go off anywhere you want anytime you feel like it! I was worried sick!" She shook her little sister a bit, and felt a pang of guilt when Mara yanked her arm away.
"Why not?" she demanded. "I never go anywhere without you! You're always hovering—trying to hold my hand across the street and keeping me locked in this house! Why can't I do normal things? Sierra's decided she wants to go to a proper school this year. Why can't I? What's the worst that could happen to me?"
Jenny ground her teeth together as the many scenarios she worried about daily all flashed through her mind. "You could get kidnapped, or killed, or—"
"Just because you're afraid of the world doesn't mean I am!" Mara shrieked before she turned and ran for the back door. She grabbed a blanket off the couch as she passed it by, and didn't turn to look back at Jenny as she slammed the back door shut.
Jenny stood frozen in place for a long moment, but finally, relaxed her muscles with a slow breath. She looked up to the ceiling and sighed heavily. "What would you do?"
As she'd expected, her mind stayed silent in answer to her question. She pulled in a deep breath, and felt all of the anger leave her body as she exhaled. In its place, she felt a wave of guilt wash over her. What was she doing? Mara had been perfectly safe with Sue as a chaperone, she'd known that. Since when had she turned into such a raging control freak that she couldn't let her little sister go out with her best friend?
She swallowed, and slowly walked over to the back door. She looked out into the back garden and flicked on the outside lights. She could see Mara shivering as she sat huddled in her blanket on one of the lawn chairs.
She sighed, and opened the door. "Mara?" she called. "Mara, I'm sorry. Please come back inside. You'll freeze out here."
She reached around for her boots and coat when her little sister remained unresponsive. She pulled on the garments quickly and went out into the back garden. "Mara?" she called again as she walked towards her sister. She leaned down and shook her once she was close enough. "Mara, you need to come back inside before you freeze to death."
Mara blinked, and looked up at Jenny before she nodded. "Yeah, yeah, okay." She stood and started to follow Jenny back inside.
Jenny immediately went to retrieve a warmer blanket and a hot cup of tea for her little sister once she was back inside. Mara had started to shiver more violently as soon as she'd woken her, and Jenny knew she needed to get her temperature back up quickly.
Mara accepted the mug she offered, and nearly spilt the tea all over herself when another tremor rocked through her.
Jenny sat next to her on their larger couch, and stared down at her hands for a moment. She knew what she had to do now. "I'm sorry for the way I acted today. It was wrong of me to yell at you like that, but I was just so scared." She sniffed, and was surprised to feel the sting of tears against her eyelids. She blinked them away furiously before Mara could notice. "Mum and Dad charged me with keeping you safe, so I can't help but go a little mental when you disappear like today. Nevertheless, it was wrong of me to take out that worry on you the way I did, and I'm sorry."
Mara was still for a moment before she smiled softly and went to snuggle into Jenny's side. "It's alright. I should've called you."
Jenny swallowed, and forced herself to smile back. "Yeah, you should've. Remember that next time, yeah?"
Mara's eyes widened. "Next time?"
She smiled again, and this time it was genuine. "Well, I can't keep you locked in this house forever, can I?"
Mara bounced with excitement. "Does this mean I can go to school?"
Jenny bit down on her lip as she considered that. She could feel how strong Mara's desire to attend school was, but she still wasn't sure she would be safe enough. "Let's take baby steps here, alright? Maybe in a year or two I'll register you for school."
Mara's face broke out into a beaming smile then. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She threw her arm around Jenny and nearly spilt her tea again.
Jenny laughed as she steadied her. "C'mon. Off to bed with ya."
Mara kissed her cheek and hopped up. She left her mug of the tea she'd barely touched on the kitchen counter before she half ran, half skipped off to her room.
Jenny smiled to herself, and settled back into her chair to enjoy the rest of her tea. She took a sip, and glanced up at the ceiling again. "Thank you," she whispered.
For one moment—just the briefest of seconds—she thought she could feel her mum's presence in her mind.
She immediately sat up. Mum? She scrambled to reach out as she felt her mum's presence start to fade back into the background.
She swallowed; she thought she'd missed her, but then—
It's all going to be okay.
