Story disclaimer: I own none of the following. Many of the references in this story are owed to the writers and the rest of the team(s) involved in the creation and production of Torchwood and Doctor Who. Without them, this story would not be possible. My character Teya owns me. I am making no money from this or any of my other fics posted on this site.
Scene Twelve – London, 2000
Jack was more alone that year than he had been in a very long time. One moment he'd been in a mood for celebration; the century had turned twice, bringing his predicted meeting with the Doctor ever closer, a new millennium had been ushered in, bringing with it the creature that Jack had fondly nicknamed the "Millennium Bug" before kicking both its butt and its eighteen poison stacked legs. The next moment his world had been torn apart by having returned to the Hub to find that his boss, Alex, had looked into an alien device and subsequently killed the other members of the Torchwood team. What the man had seen, Jack could only guess, for Alex had described it only as "the storm", before killing himself with a single shot to the head. Jack was left surrounded by bodies and blood, more alone than ever before.
Jack didn't know if it was that sense of loneliness, or one of business unfinished, that made him return to Torchwood London. But return he did, leaving the Hub for the first time since moving in there permanently. He was met by Yvonne Hartman, the head of Torchwood London. She greeted him as an equal despite the fact that she had a massive team and he now had no-one. She granted him access to Teya for a short while after a few direct questions as to his business with her. Jack answered as honestly but vaguely as he could, unwilling to share their history with a stranger.
"I should warn you, she isn't the being she was when you brought her in." Yvonne smiled as she betrayed that she had had full access to the file, and that smile was understanding enough to show that she was fully aware of his and Teya's history. "Prisoner 5167 underwent some thorough interrogations in her early days here. According to her file, she had a real fire, had to be sedated every time she was taken from her cell. Now though..."
Jack had cut Yvonne off at this point, unable to listen any more. His apprehension did not show as he followed a guard down the cell block. He was afraid, a rare thing in the man who couldn't die. The cell block was brightly lit, the whole area clinical, white and bare. He passed Weevils, eight of them, all snarling and pawing at the re-enforced glass doors in a vain attempt to get their hands on the guard and the guest. They passed a green-skinned alien that dared to take on Jack's form and gaze at him out of his own haunted blue eyes, but Jack barely spared the creature a glance, remaining aloof to it all as he followed that guard towards the end of the block.
Jack flinched visibly as a Blowfish threw himself against his cell door, yowling and yammering like a beast. The guard pointed the long tube he was carrying at the Blowfish, a stream of energy cutting through the glass as if it wasn't there to seize the alien in its grasp and shake him viciously. The Blowfish screamed for the duration of the attack, hunkering down when it was released and glaring balefully at the guard. Jack watched this interaction, a part of his mind marveling that the cell door remained intact and untouched, acknowledging the memories that sprang up of his first mission for Torchwood, but his eyes had already fixed on the alien in the cell opposite the Blowfish.
She did not even seem to register his presence as Jack dismissed the guard with a curt word. Having already had his gun, vortex manipulator and swipe-cards removed from his person before entering the cell block, the guard was happy enough to leave Jack with the prisoner. Teya's emaciated body was curled up in the far corner of her cell, head resting on her arms to keep her head up off the cold floor. She wore a black vest top and shorts that did nothing to hide the bruises and scars of her time in Torchwood, the top of her left arm forever marked with a Torchwood tattoo with her prisoner number 5167 across the top.
Tears welled in Jack's eyes for her, hating to see this vacant shell that had once been a woman so full of life and passion... He had destroyed her, as surely as Alex had destroyed the last Torchwood Cardiff team. What had he done? What tests and torture, what cruelties had Jack submitted her to? He crouched down to be more on her level, pressing his hands flat against the glass of her cell, desperate to reach out to her. "Oh Teya, I'm so sorry..."
"You'll get nothing out of her." The Blowfish offered quietly after a moment's silence, his words clipped and harsh, barely understandable. Jack rose again, his eyes never leaving Teya, but the Blowfish must have sensed that Jack was listening. "She hasn't consciously spoken since I was brought in."
"Consciously?" Jack queried, glancing over his shoulder.
"Sometimes... sometimes she cries out in her sleep for someone called Jack. Sometimes like she's calling to a friend or lover, sometimes like she wants to kill him... Are you Jack?"
"Cap'n Jack Harkness." The introduction rolled off his tongue, but there was no heart in it. The Blowfish retreated to the back of his cell, in the pretence of giving them some privacy. And at last, at those words, Teya glanced up to let her gaze lock with Jack's. Her expression was piteous, her pale eyes almost white, a sure sign that she wasn't receiving enough nutrients, and though her eyes were empty, her utter misery was expressed in the single tear that rolled down her face. The only sign of the stubborn fire that had once occupied the Everlarth was when, slowly, gingerly, as if her body were made of paper, Teya turned her back on Jack, uttering a pitiful whine so full of pain that it tore Jack's heart...