Sammie opened her eyes and tried to remember where she was. She groaned as she realised that she was in the torchwood institute and the memories of yesterday came flooding back. She swung her legs out from under the duvet and went to get out of the bed, almost at once she wished she hadn't as she misjudged where the floor was and ended up falling onto it was a thud. She sat up and swore fluently and brushed the hair out of her eyes and there in front of her stood Captain Jack Harkness trying to hide his smile as he saw the young girl scowl up at him
"Morning" he said trying not to laugh
"Whatever" she growled
He gave her his hand and he pulled her up "I have to say you really have a mouth on you" he grinned
"Thanks" she said pushing her hair out of her eyes once more
"Anyway I just wanted to ask you to meet me in the meeting room in thirty minutes" he said as he turned to leave the room leaving the young girl standing there looking puzzled.
Sammie started to get ready for a new day in the torchwood institute, she looked in the bag that Ianto had left there yesterday and chose a black t-shirt with shoes on it and a pair of black jeans, she tied her hair up in a pony tail and began putting her make-up on, she chose dark colours to match her outfit as she wasn't in a good mood today. She left the room and entered the main part of the hub wondering where the meeting room was, soon after a few minutes looking she found it and entered.
In the room there was a glass table surrounded by chairs which were seating the forms of the team, around the room there were some screens with lots of numbers flashing across them. Sammie sat down on the remaining chair next to Ianto keeping her eyes on the floor; she wasn't used to having all the attention on her. When she looked up she saw that everyone's eyes were on her and she coughed nervously.
Jack took this as a cue to begin "Ok so lets get down to business" he said flashing one of his winning smiles at everyone in the room
All of the team fed back information of cases they had been working on and Sammie listened intently and heard talk of creatures she had never heard of, occasionally Ianto would explain what was going on and Sammie would listen, her eyes as wide as saucers. After a while talk turned to Sammie.
"Is she staying?" Owen asked bluntly and Sammie shot him a dirty look from across the table
"Yes, it's the safest option, if you're ok with that Sammie?"
"As if I have a choice" she said bitterly
Jack ignored the tone and carried on "So today I want to run some tests just to see what you can do" and Sammie nodded, Jack continued talking but Sammie didn't hear him, something inside of her had just been opened like a light turning on in a dark room and she closed her eyes for a moment
"I want to run some tests" Jack said to Emma who was holding Sammie on her knee
"Jack she's too young"
"She's two now and we need to see how strong they are" Jack replied and Emma sighed
"But Jack…" she began
"Just to see what she can do"
"Are you going to take her there?"
"I have to it's the safest place to do these tests"
"Jack, I don't want her to go into there, in fact I don't want her to know about Torchwood for as long as possible, the less she knows about it the better"
"You'll have to tell her one day"
"I know…" Emma replied sadly
Jack stood up and lifted Sammie from Emma and tickled the infant under the chin, the young girl gurgled happily in response,
Soon they were in a deep dark room, Jack set the girl down she tried to run away, ready to explore her new surroundings
"Sammie..." Jack said in a gentle but firm tone
"Daddy" she giggled
"Ok Sammie let's see what you can do" he said softly
When Sammie opened her eyes again, she saw the whole team were staring at her with opened mouths; Jack stood up and tried to turn on the lights which had blown themselves out in the few minutes that she had her eyes closed
"Ok…" he said "Sammie I want you to come with me now" he said as he led her out of the room, soon they arrived in a deep dark room and Sammie gasped
"I've been here before" she said
"Yeah, but you were only two then"
"Why did I come here?"
"We ran some tests on you"
"Who's we?"
"Me and your mother"
"My mum worked for torchwood!"
"Yeah"
"Then why did she stop?"
"Because she had you and she decided that she didn't want you to become involved with torchwood"
"Bit late now" Sammie sighed, there are so many things I didn't know about my own mum, what else could she of hidden from me?
"Sammie?" Jack said softly
"Yeah?"
"Are you ready?" and she nodded
Jack sat her down on the edge of the table and started to prepare a needle
"What's that for?" she said nervously
"I need to put a line into your arm, for the tests"
Jack knelt down and too the girls arm, and went to find a vein, her eyes watched every move that he made, he pushed the needle in her arm and she winced as it went in
"Sorry" he said as he got back up, and went over to a complicated piece of equipment
"What's that?" Sammie said fighting back tears
"It's complicated but basically it measures energy" Jack said looking back at the girl "Now what I want you to do is close your eyes and think of your happiest memory" he said and Sammie nodded and closed her eyes
The scene changed to a park in the summer, a group of young teenagers were running around the park spraying each other with water and screaming and laughing
A young boy grabbed Sammie and poured water over her head and she screamed in a mixture of delight and annoyance. She turned round and gave him a gentle push, and turned to walk away but he grabbed her and they fell into an embrace, the moment Sammie felt her lips touch his she felt like she would burst with happiness, that single moment brought happiness that she had never felt before, all around them there friends wolf whistled and teased the young couple.
Sammie opened her eyes and saw the darkened room was now filled with shades of pinks, oranges, yellows and reds; she turned to look at Jack
"Did I do that?" she asked and he nodded
"Ok now this is going to seem horrible but now think of your saddest memory
Sammie closed her eyes again
The man stuck out his hand and said "I'm Captain Jack Harkness"
Sammie shook his hand gently but she still had a bemused expression on her face
"Ok this may sound like a really stupid question but how do you know my name?"
"It's a little confusing but I knew your mother and…"
"Knew…" Sammie said softly and Jack closed his eyes realising his mistake
"Sammie…"
"What happened to her?"
"She…she…"
"What the hell happened to her?" Sammie said getting angry
"Sammie she's dead"
Sammie closed her eyes wishing it was all a dream when she looked at Jack again he saw she had tears silently falling down her face
"I am so sorry" he whispered
"No….no it's not true she was fine this morning how….when?"
"She…she was attacked by a shadow we couldn't save her in time"
"What's a shadow?"
"A shade from the dark realms"
Jack put a comforting hand on her shoulder but she shook it off and glowered at him
Sammie opened her eyes and nearly screamed, all around her swirled menacing shadows reaching out and trying to grab her, the room was filled with cold dark colours and there were areas so dark, Sammie couldn't bear to look into their depths. Jack walked over to her and put his arms around her, just him being there made her feel batter
"What is that?" she cried as the shadows faded back to where they came from
"Energy" Jack repeated, "It's what we all see when you channel energy from a sad or painful memory", I wanted to show it too you as this room can made the energy stay for a longer time than it usually does"
Sammie nodded and the peace was interrupted by Owen walking into the room
"Did she see it?" Owen asked
"Yeah" Jack nodded and Owen put a comforting hand on Sammie's shoulder
"I told you that you were wrong" he said softly and Sammie responded with a mixture of crying and laughter
"Now you need to learn how to control it" Owen said
"How?"
"I don't know yet" Jack replied "But that's enough for now"
Jack led the shaken girl out of the room, while she tried to get the memory of the shadows out of her mind.