This is only a short chapter.
Gift From A Demigoddess.
After a little time, both Phoenix and Jack got dressed again and stood outside of the hut.
"What happens now Phoenix? Are you coming back to the hub to train the team? Are you coming back with me?" Jack asks her as he takes her hand.
"I won't be coming back with you Jack. You need to talk to the team, see if they want to continue training as I can't train people who don't want to be trained. I will meet you tonight at the bay and you will give me the teams decision and I mean the team's decision," she tells him holding his hand tightly.
"What does this mean for us Phoenix, for you and me?" he asks her stroking the side of her face.
"There can't be an us Jack no matter how much we want it. You are with Ianto, happy with Ianto. There is no place for me in your life and in your relationship," Phoenix tells him full of regret at the fact that she can't have him.
"You know how I feel about you," Jack tell her looking her straight in the eyes.
"I know Jack," and at that moment, she knew what she had to do though she didn't want to do it.
Jack leans into her and kisses her and she kisses him back, savouring every second as she knew this would be the last time. As they kiss, Phoenix puts her hands on the side of Jack's head and face and closes her eyes. Within a second, she had accessed his memories and she took back the memories of them making love in the hut. The only memory she left that was real was their first kiss on the dead planet. She now took on the memories, his and hers but she knew she couldn't change his feelings for her but she tried to numb them so they weren't so strong.
The last memories that she left him was the ones they had just created, her not going back with him to the hub and meeting the that night to discuss her return to training. When she was done, she moved her hands away from him and she pulled her lips away from his, looking deep into his eyes. She could still see the love in his eyes but she hoped that she had done the trick and that it would soon fade.
"Time for you to go Jack. Time for you to go back to Ianto," Phoenix tells him, her heart breaking at having to let him go again.
"Can't I stay a little longer with you?" he asks her as the memory wipe starts to take hold.
"I wish you could Jack, believe me but it's time to go. I'll see you at the bay at midnight for the team's decision," she tells him as she let's go of his hand and accesses the Vortex Manipulator.
She sets the right co-ordinates for the hub but sets the time to an hour after they had arrived on the dead planet. As the Vortex opens, Jack turns to her.
"Promise me you will be there at midnight?" he asks her as she steps back from the Vortex.
"I promise Jack. I will be there," she tells him in an usually gentle voice.
He turns to the Vortex and leaves, the Vortex closing behind him. Tears start to fall from her eyes as she turns away from the Vortex and goes back to the hut. She steps inside and goes to the bed and lays down. She can smell Jack on her pillow, on her bed sheets and she missed him already. Both of their memories in her head, her feelings stronger because of them and she closes her eyes and cries.
Jack steps out of the Vortex to see that Phoenix had sent him back to the hub, the team all staring back at him as the Vortex closed behind him. His head was feeling fuzzy and Jack just put it down to the travel between Vortex's because he didn't know that Phoenix had stolen some of his memories, memories of them being together, making love.
"How did it go? Did you talk things through?" Ianto asks him as Jack walks towards him as he was stood by the office door.
"We talked things through. I should have had a fully grown son by now," Jack tells him, his sorrow still evident.
"Did you talk it all through? Why she didn't tell you and what happened?" Ianto asks him taking him into the office and closing the door behind them.
"She was going to tell me. She had just gotten back from the doctors when the call to arms came and we had to go," Jack tells Ianto.
"Does it help knowing everything?" Ianto asks him as Jack stands by his desk, leaning against it.
"It helps knowing the truth. I just don't know how I feel about everything. I've lost a child I didn't know I had with a woman I loved. Life has to move on, there are other things in my life apart from Phoenix. I have Torchwood, the team and I have you Ianto," Jack tells Ianto and puts his arms around his waist.
"Did anything else happen?" Ianto asks him hoping to god that nothing happened knowing that there were going to be some strong emotions involved in racking up the past.
"We kissed but not in that kind of way. It was more of a ……….I really don't know. Like a relief to come through it," Jack tells him not aware of the fact that that was what Phoenix had planted in his head.
"Nothing in it?" Ianto asks as Jack pulls him that little bit closer.
"Some love but love for woman I loved in the past and not like I have for you," Jack tells Ianto looking right into his eyes.
"Really? Love, me? Your going to have to show me some of that lovin," Ianto tells him playing it a little.
Jack leans forward and kisses him but as he does, he is sure that he has forgotten something. Something important, something he really wanted or needed to remember.