Time Intertwined
A/N: Sorry that I didn't post in my usual style (that is daily) but I was out all day Saturday and I didn't receive any reviews for the last chapter so I was unsure if the chapter got uploaded (after checking it did). If you are reading my story please give a review no matter how small, it makes me want to post more chapters, unless I can't be half arsed to post more.
Chapter 9
Over the next two days Marcus and Jack even though they were in the same hotel, didn't spot each other, their movements and objectives different. During those two days Marcus re-acquainted himself with the country town from thirty five years ago, revelling in the old fashioned values. Luckily for him back in this time people were more accepting of strangers, not like in 2010, when people would be wary of strangers snooping in their town. Each night Marcus fell asleep dreaming of seeing his daughter again alive and well, saving her and correcting the mistake that he and his dad made those many years ago.
Jack had a similar experience, enjoying the hospitality of yesteryear but being mindful not to change the timelines. His thoughts each night were of Ianto, how he missed him, and hoped him wasn't missing him or worst doing something stupid to get himself back in time to where Jack was. His thoughts drifted to John, thinking that he might have gone forward to 2010 when Jack wasn't there to get to Ianto, well he would have to get back at much the same time as when he first was snatched, how he was going to do that he didn't know but he would find a way.
On the third day Marcus was walking down the narrow stairs of the hotel only to see Jack sitting in the lounge area. Jack being unable to sleep, his thoughts and anguish over Ianto preventing peaceful sleep so he just gave up and decided to sit staring at the burning embers of the fire in the fire place thinking of his options.
"Oh…um" Marcus mumbled as he made out to run off.
"Marcus" Jack said gently so as not to alarm Marcus, "I'm not going to stop you, you're here now, our problem is how we get back"
"After I rescue my daughter. You have a wrist thingy" Marcus said confidently, "like John"
"I'm afraid my vortex manipulator is not workable" Jack said, "not like John's"
"But I saw you use it to control the doors in the underground headquarters of your organisation"
"But not to travel back in time or forward for that matter, it has limited use" Jack said, "actually John was only able to travel through time with the power of rift. I'm sorry Marcus, there is no way back"
"Couldn't we go back to the rift?" John asked with the innocence of a child.
"And what, try to convince the Torchwood of this time that we need to go back to 2010" Jack said out loud but wondered silentily if he could gain entry into Torchwood as he didn't start to work at the Cardiff branch of Torchwood until twenty years later or so.
"When my dad and I go back to the girl…my daughter" Marcus gulped, "she wasn't not there, maybe she is transported back to her proper time"
"Yes, of course, she was found in her correct timeline" Jack said but thought dead, he didn't say dead, he didn't want to alarm Marcus.
"Then couldn't we be in that same place when she is sent forward in time and we would be transport too" Marcus said hopefully.
"Mmmm, it's a possibility" Jack said thoughtfully, thinking that may be a definite possibility as the rift could have randomly picked her up and then just as randomly deposited her back hence why they found her dead, in her timeline. Now that Jack thought about it more systematically, strange as it was, it was very feasible for the rift . People were taken by the rift all the time but they usually were deposited after drifting in time and space and always damaged by the experience as Flat Holm island could testify to. But it seemed that Marcus's daughter was transported only in time, backwards in time, then her dead body taken back to her time line, almost like closing the loop. Strange, Jack thought, very strange, but strange is what he loved dealing with best, he just wished that Ianto was here with him, helping him to solve it.
He just needed not to change the time lines; the Doctor told him many times that the time lines shouldn't be changed. He thought that Marcus's future daughter shouldn't have been in this time line so this murder in this time period shouldn't have happened.
Later that day they made their way to the bush track and tried to work out a plan to prevent the girl's murder. Marcus was glad of the help and company and Jack was glad to be able to talk to someone who had lived in 2010 so he could run some ideas of how they would get back. They also paired with Bryn and his mates playing darts at the local pub during the evening and enjoying more of the homemade meals.
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On the faithful day after eating breakfast Jack and Marcus walked to the Radyr Wood to the familiar bush track where Marcus said his father and he would cycle. Jack explained that they needed to be mindful of not meeting up with his younger self, explaining that he couldn't allow himself from the now and the past to meet. Marcus led Jack to the part of the track where he remembered he and his father saw the girl running towards them. He remembered it clearly as this part of the track curved as the visibility of track further on was not clear, the main reason why the man who killed his future daughter went undetected by them when the girl came running towards them. From this point on, he walked in the direction of where the girl was running from so he could stop the man from getting close to the girl.
Armed with a kitchen knife Marcus and Jack hid in the undergrowth, and tried to get comfortable and kept a watchful eye on the track knowing that they had just under two hours before the younger Marcus and his father would cycle down this way. Jack reminded Marcus not to say anything to the girl that he was her father, just someone rescuing her and to get her to the spot where she was found, dead, in the future, only this time she will be alive and they will hitch a lift on the rift.
Jack wished he had his gun, his trusty Webley but when he was swished to this time he was only wearing his trousers and shirt that he hastily put on when he heard Ianto over the comms as he raced out of the bedroom.
An hour and twenty minutes later at short distance from the hidden pair, a familiar blue swirl of light appeared and out tumbled a girl. Marcus whispered that this was the same girl that he, as a boy saw thirty five years ago; she was wearing the same black running shorts and pink t-shirt. Almost at the same instance a man tumbled out as the blue swirl of light closed. Gaining the advantage she kicked out at the man, her foot connecting sharply with his groin. The man yelled out in pain falling to the side, his legs raised to his chest and his hands between his legs. The girl ran off in the direction that Marcus knew was where he and his father were cycling.
The man tried to stand several times but his legs kept on buckling out from under him as the pain in his groin overtook him. Groaning in pain the man again unsteadily got up and staggered in the direction where the girl ran off to. Marcus, stunned as the events quickly played out in front of him, stood up at the same moment as the man staggered up, Jack following him. Full of adrenalin and knowing that he needed to act now, Marcus leapt onto the man, dragging him to the ground, momentarily stunning him. Marcus fell to the side and his eyes stared down the path where the girl ran down to see that she had run father off down the track, enough not to be seen from where they were. "Jack is she safe?" Marcus asked frantically of Jack as he too looked down the track knowing that where the girl was running to was their way home, back to 2010, back to Ianto.
The attacker quickly realises that the man who jumped him was distracted and looking down the track and not paying him any more attention and in a quick motion pulled out a large knife and plunged it into Marcus and pushed him away. Jack momentarily undecided whether to tangle with the man who stabbed Marcus or to follow the girl. If he was to follow the girl to where the next rift spike would occur that would take her back to 2010 then he would get the chance to return back to 2010. But Jack doesn't get to make that decision as the attacker propels himself at Jack with the knife held high.
A/N: I love reviews they make me smile, as well as letting me know if you are enjoying what I am doing is good for you.