"So you're keeping him, huh?" Jack asked, almost checking.
"Yer." I said, my eyes still on my baby.
Jack sighed, "You know I think I knew this before you did." He turned to Toshiko and made a motion with his hand. She seemed to understand what he meant as she moved away and left. Owen and Gwen left as well, together. Jack looked down at Jay and smiled, but it was a smile filled with sadness.
"Aren't you a cutie?" he asked the child, "May I?" he asked. I was suspicious but I allowed him to take Jay from my arms. He held my boy so gently in his arms and I had a sudden vision of Jack with a child of his own. Perhaps I was wrong, maybe I was just imagining it, but I thought I saw something in his eyes that was both joyful and sad. Like he'd once had a child, but that child had been ripped from his arms like I feared mine would be.
"If only you were human." He whispered, "Dolly Anderson. Your love of this little one will make your life difficult. Your life will never be the same. Torchwood is different than it used to be but we still have so many faults. We were once cruel and we still are so very unnice." He turned to look at me, "But perhaps that is a reason why we must now be so kind." He put Jay back into my arms and turned away from me; looking, if at anything, way off into the distance.
"We shall let you keep your child, but there will be consequences."
"Anything. I'll do anything for Jay."
He turned back to me and smiled, "That's good. That will make it easier. You will face trials but always keep that in mind, your blinding love of that child and make sure that you never question your decisions."
"What's going to happen to us?" I asked him.
"Torchwood will relocate you. From Owen's initial tests you kid seems ordinary enough. I appears it won't grow faster or anything too obviously abnormal but always remember that he is not fully human. Keep a diligent eye on his behaviour. Torchwood will be your family doctor, do not ever involve anyone else. Once you are settled you may never contact your family again. As far as they are concerned, you are dead."
I nodded solemnly. I knew, no matter how much I loved my family, I seemed to love this child more. Maybe it was because my family would be fine without me, but Jay; my sweet newborn was so vulnerable without me. Mom, Dad and Dan would be fine, if not a little sad. Then I remembered!
"What about my brother? He knows about Torchwood and the alien. He knows everything."
"I'm sure your brother can keep a secret, and if not we have something that can erase his memory."
Well that settled it. Jack had thought of everything yet I felt something was wrong. Again I was guessing but maybe it was that I was able to let go of the people I had always loved for this child I had just met. It was something I had never, not in my seventeen years on this Earth, thought about. My mother had once said that when you have a child it changes your brain, it makes you put it above yourself; and no one can ever understand that feeling unless you have a child yourself. I guess my mom was right 'cause how else could I explain this deep feeling that I now felt inside of me? Jack told me not to worry, he said everything would be taken care of and he left me to rest.
But I have to tell you now, this was by far not the end of my story; no, I would even go so far as to say that this was merely the beginning.