Thank you for all the comments! More secrets ahead!
Spring came to Cardiff and with it came changes for the team. Gwen spent most of her free time working on her wedding plans and Owen was certain that Jack and Ianto had something going on between them. Not a relationship, more like friends with benefits. Fine by him; if it kept Ianto from bringing any more threats into the Hub and kept Jack from being disagreeable, they could shag like bunnies for all Owen cared. Some things didn't change. Owen still spent most of his evenings out on the pull and Tosh was completely immersed in working on her rift predictions.
Then Ianto spotted some funny weather patterns and when Jack awoke from his dream about the dead soldiers and rose petals, he knew immediately what it meant. Faeries!
Not long after, he learned that his former lover Estelle was lecturing on the creatures. He dragged Tosh away from her computer programs to go with him to the lecture.
"A lecture on faeries?" Tosh repeated dubiously. "Like Tinkerbell?"
"Not at all like Tinkerbell," Jack replied. "They're mischievous at the best of times, dangerous, even deadly when they feel threatened or don't get what they want."
After the lecture, Tosh wanted to get a closer look at Estelle's photographs. Jack smiled and told her he could arrange for that. Tosh was caught by surprise when Jack introduced Estelle as an 'almost relative.'
The handsome older woman laughed. "You really do take after your grandfather. It's a shame you didn't get to know him. He was so suave and sophisticated. But he was lost in the final days of that tragic war. "
If Tosh was confused by this, she was stupefied when back at Estelle's house; Estelle began to reminisce about Jack's grandfather. They'd looked at Estelle's pictures and listened politely to Estelle's beliefs that the faeries were benign creatures. Jack tried to discourage this view, telling her that they were dangerous and she could get hurt. She'd laughed and offered them some drinks, which they had politely declined. She'd had two martinis when she began to speak of more personal things.
"I was thinking about him the other night. We only had one New Year's Eve together. It was awful. Horrible supper club, I didn't have a nice dress, so I borrowed this hideous frock from my sister. It was two sizes too big and a very unflattering color, and my shoes didn't match it at all, but your grandfather, bless him, made me feel like I was the most beautiful and special woman in the world."
She sighed and showed them a picture she had on a sofa table. "You look so much like him, whenever I see you, it takes me a moment to realize that it's not him at after all," she said handing the picture to Jack and Tosh.
The picture was of Estelle and a man looking exactly like Jack. Across the bottom of the photo, 'December 31, 1943' was inscribed. Toshiko realized that it was probably taken on the New Year's Eve Estelle had spoken about. Estelle confirmed this laughing. "Yes, they had a photographer there and Jack insisted that we have our picture taken. I didn't want to, I knew I looked a fright but Jack said that we should have a memory of our first New Year's together. His words turned out to be prophetic. He was drafted within months into a highly classified intelligence position. I'd get an occasional cryptic letter and then they stopped. It was only after the war that I learned that he had been captured in Italy and executed as a spy."
"It's the only photograph I have of him. To think you found his diary, read about me and tracked me down so many years later. And then taking the time to check up on your grandfather's former lover; it never ceases to amaze me."
Jack barely had the car in gear for the drive back to the Hub before Tosh was peppering him with questions. "Who was that man in the photograph? That can't be you can it? But that story she told was almost identical to the story you told me. How could your grandfather be here during World War II if you are American?"
Jack just smiled and shrugged. "We Harknesses get around a lot." Tosh had many more questions to ask but when saw the look of pain and sadness on Jack's face, she decided against it.
Sadly, Jack was right about the faeries. Estelle ended up dead and the team ended up bargaining for the life of a little girl named Jasmine.
"You can't just give her to them," Gwen whispered in horror to Jack.
"They'll destroy the world Gwen, if we don't. What would you have me do?" he said as they confronted the faeries in the forest.
To the faeries, Jack bluffed, "You can't have her, ask for something else."
"What have you to offer us? Another to take her place?"
"I offer myself," Jack stated calmly.
"We have no use for a man not of this world, but you bring others that might do." The faerie looked at the Torchwood team and laughed.
"Two of you have the blood of a Chosen in your veins. Would one of you take her place?" the faerie said indicating Jasmine.
The team looked at each other in confusion. Ianto stepped forward. "I will go."
The faeries buzzed about this offer. One faerie came close to Ianto and searched his face. "Very pretty and brave. But unsuitable. We almost never take a man child. And you are too old and too corrupted by the world. I see great horror in your eyes. Metal and fire," she paused as she felt excruciating emotions move through her, "and the violent loss of many dear to you. One particularly close and violent death whose pain cannot be removed. Unsuitable, step back."
Ianto moved back.
"Will the other not step forward?" When no one moved the faerie pointed her finger at Gwen. "What about you, child? Do you not know about the Chosen blood you carry?"
Gwen was so frightened she couldn't move. She shook her head 'no' violently.
"Come here," the faerie growled and Gwen felt herself propelled forward. The faerie was so close Gwen could feel her rancid breath on her face. She was examined in complete silence. Finally the faerie spoke.
"Woman child. You are older than we would like, and while you are not an innocent, you have not been exposed to much of the evil this world has to offer. You are a lesser choice but since you would be paying the debt owed by your mother, we would find this substitution acceptable."
She turned to Jack. "Do you give me this woman as a substitute for the child?"
"I cannot," Jack replied. "Her life is her own, and it is her choice. If you take her unwillingly, she will be of no use to you. We both know that."
The faerie hissed in frustration. How she hated this not-of-this-world-man. She would have taken the dark haired woman without her consent for spite as well as the girl if only to defeat this unnatural man standing before her. Now she could not.
She held her hand out to Gwen. "Come with us child. You will live forever with us. Immortality, that is what is given to a Chosen." Gwen was crying. She didn't want to go, but a little girl would perish if she didn't. Before Gwen could speak, Ianto interrupted.
"That's a lie," Ianto spit out. "If she was a child it might be true. But even then it doesn't always work, does it? And when it doesn't, you return them broken to their kin. That's what will surely happen to Gwen if she goes with you. She's not a child and she's not a true Chosen, but you would drive her mad in order to preserve your pride."
The faeries laughed. "A shame, if we had found you sooner, we would have taken you man-child." She looked at Gwen. "Then we'll have to take the child won't we." When she saw Gwen hesitate, the faerie continued, "Do you object? Do you offer yourself in her place?"
Gwen couldn't look at the hideous creature before her. She shook her head.
"Speak child," the faerie shrieked. "Speak so all may hear and all may know your choice."
"No," Gwen said in a whisper. She looked up and made eye contact with the faerie. "No," she said louder, "I'll not go with you," she said and then lowered her eyes to hide her shame.
The woods echoed with laughter, and when Gwen looked up the faeries and the child Jasmine had disappeared.
The team walked back to the SUV each in their own thoughts. Between the story from Estelle and this afternoon's confrontation with the faeries, Tosh's brain was roiling in confusion; everything she knew about Jack, Ianto and Gwen had been turned upside down. She looked over and saw the bewildered look on Owen's face. "Well at least he's feeling the same as I am," she thought.
Gwen was still crying, between the little girl being taken and new revelations about her birth mother she felt shattered. Was her mother a Chosen? Why had she refused to go with the faeries? She hadn't wanted to know anything about Joanna Cooper, but if she didn't get answers to these questions, she knew she'd never have peace.
Ianto walked quietly behind the rest of the group. He always knew there was more to his mother's story then he had been told. But he doubted that his father would have known anything about the faeries, and his sister wasn't a Chosen or she would have been long gone. He was furious. They had taken his mother and turned her mad. And there was nothing he could do about it and no older relatives still alive to question. His mother was dead and that was the end to it.
Jack had known when he hired both Ianto and Gwen that there was something special about them. He could sense it, but couldn't identify what it was. He certainly never expected to discover that they were descended from Chosen children. But it made sense. He'd never seen anyone break through retcon faster than Gwen. And Ianto and his idactic memory, remembering everything he ever read or saw in the archives. Twentieth century humans didn't normally have those abilities.
Out loud he remarked, "You two are going to have some explaining to do when we get back to the Hub.
Owen walked ahead of the group. "I need a drink. Several in fact," he mumbled.
"I'll join you," Tosh said catching up to him.