A/N:

Sorry this one is so long! I wanted to get everybody in... there's one more short one after this... or at least I think it's short, I'm still working on it.


Chapter Twenty Eight:
In the Aftermath

"When I stand before thee at the day's end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing."

Rabindranath Tagore


Gwen took her son back into her arms with a grateful sigh. Next to her, Rhys smiled. He thanked her parents for looking after him. Then she looked up at Sam. "Thank you too, Sweetheart," she smiled.

He shrugged, "I didn't do anything special."

"Sure you did," you put up with my mother… but she didn't dare say that aloud even though she could tell Rhys was thinking the same thing.

"I'll just get his things into the car," her husband offered, taking the quick cowards' way out. Still, some days aliens were easier to deal with then family.

"We should be going," Gwen began. "Thanks again, Mam."

"What really happened?" she wanted to know.

"It's… it's a long story," and she was weary to the bone. All she wanted to do was get her family home, have a long hot soak and go to bed. "All that really matters is that everything's all right now, yeah?"

Her father gave her a stern look; clearly that was not all that mattered. "Gweneth," he only called her that when he was angry with her, "that policeman friend of yours came around looking for you. Andy. He said…"

"Never mind what he said, Tad, it's all been sorted out. You'll see. Come on," she said to Sam, "we should be getting home."

"Gwen, please," her mother begged as her father caught her by the arm. "Why don't you ever talk to us anymore?"

"Look, I'm completely knackered, why don't you two come over on Sunday for dinner and we can talk then, all you like, I promise," please forgive me, Darling, she thought in her husband's direction. But it worked like a charm. Her father let her go and she and Sam made their way to the car as fast as they could.

…………………………………………………………

Jethro Gibbs said his good-byes to Alice and Steven Carter and turned around. Abby was giving him a look… "What?" he asked her.

"Nothing," she smiled innocently. "I just think you two looked kinda cute there for a second… in a creepy that's my boss's daughter sort of way," she added as an after thought.

Tim cleared his throat. "Well. Erm. Would you like to come back to our place?" he asked the other man awkwardly.

"I don't know, McGee, does your place have a shower?" he inquired in a sarcastic tone. They were all pretty ripe.

Abby grinned broadly. "You'll love our apartment! I decorated most of it before Timmy moved in, of course. Only, our spare room isn't much of a spare room…but we'll figure something out."

"I'm not staying that long, Abbs."

"Well you have to stay at least a couple of days, Gibbs! I have to show you around Cardiff! And we can go visit Ducky. Oh God… and we have to find Myfanwy!" she said to Tim. "It's been a week and no one's been feeding her!"

"Abbs, she can hunt on her own," he said to her.

"Do I even want to know what kind of 'bird' you're talking about?" Gibbs asked them.

Tim favoured him with a wry smile. "Probably not."

"She's a pterodactyl," Abby told him anyway. "And she is not used to hunting on her own," she added in Tim's direction. "Jack and Ianto caught her almost four years ago," she explained to Gibbs.

"Where…? And when you say pterodactyl…?"

"She means a pterodactyl," Tim assured him.

"She was stuck in a warehouse," Abby supplied. "She came through the Rift. We have to find her, Timmy."

"Abby, at least three farmers have reported 'stolen', missing and mangled sheep in Barry in the last week and you know that's where she goes at night, we've tracked her there before. She'll be fine. Besides, what would you do if we found her? It's not like we can take her back to our place."

"Well Jack will just have to come up with something, he's Jack. It's his job to come up with answers."

"Why don't we let him and Ianto have a night off…we can discuss it tomorrow, ok?"

She sighed. She huffed. She gave in. They all deserved a night off. "Just as long as you promise me we can go looking for her tomorrow. I need to know she's all right."

"I promise, Abbs. We'll go looking first thing in the morning." He gave his old boss an apologetic look.

"Do you think Janet's ok, too?" she asked him.

"I'm sure she's fine, too."

………………………………………………………………..

Gil Grissom opened his front door; a military jeep sat in the street and Sara stood on his porch. She looked haggard, exhausted. But when she smiled at him her whole face seemed to light up.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

He looked past her one more time at the jeep, recognizing her boss, his partner… a couple of her co-workers. He stepped aside and let her into the lounge. Harkness flashed a grin his way and waved, as the driver pulled out.

"Sara?" he questioned. More than haggard, she looked like she'd been through hell and back. He wondered how much of that had to do with the events of the last week.

"Are you ok?" she asked him; she seemed to be lingering back, just a little more than usual.

"Me? Are you all right?"

Her grin broadened. Warmed. She took a step closer. "I am now. But I wouldn't mind a shower."

He nodded, but reminded her that she didn't have anything to change into, she'd taken her clothing… she didn't seem to have brought it back with her.

"Mind if I borrow a shirt?" she asked; all she wanted to do was curl up in his bed and sleep for a week anyway.

"Of course not. But…Sara," he took her gently by the arms. He ran his hands down her battered, bruised arms until he was holding her hands. "What happened? Where have you been?"

"That's… it's a really long story, Gil," she told him truthfully. "But if you'll order some Chinese and let me take a shower, I promise that I'll tell you everything."

He gave her a speculative look. "You told me you work was classified."

"After today…the last week… I've realized that some things shouldn't ever be kept a secret," she leant in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "At least not from the man I want to share the rest of my life with."

He blinked. "Does that mean…?" he hadn't brought up the subject of their stalled engagement since she told him she wanted to take it one step at a time. Friendship. Dating. He hadn't even broached the subject of moving in together. "Are you saying you…?"

"I want to marry you, Gilbert Grissom. I want to live the rest of my life with you because I love you and I can't imagine my life with anybody else. That means there are some things about my life, my job, you need to know, starting with what really happened this week. With what almost happened today. What Torchwood stopped from happening." She wiped the moisture from her cheeks.

All those children… and all, apparently, so some aliens could get high… shooting up kids… they were literally shooting up with human children. They only knew it because Jack had had Mickey hack into the internal feed, just so he could see for himself that the 456 had really vanished. That they were really gone. She was sure they were all going to be looking at the night sky just a little more wearily for the next few months anyway.

"Sara?" Gil's voice brought her back to where she was… his apartment. Him.

"Just hold me a minute? Please?"

He wrapped his arms around her and held on tight without asking any questions; she would talk to him when she was ready and no matter what she had to say, he would listen.

…………………………………………………………………

Jason bolted out of the house at the sight of the SUV pulling up into the drive. "PAPA!! TAD!!" he cried as his parents climbed out.

Jack pulled his son up into his arms and held on as tight as he could, his eyes closed tight as well against the tears that threatened to overwhelm him. Against everything that threatened to overwhelm him.

"Papa! Squishing me!" the boy protested into his shoulder.

He loosened his hold, but didn't let his son down, "Sorry about that kiddo," he shifted him over to his hip and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. "I just missed you so much…"

"Why are you crying?" Jason wanted to know.

"'Cause I'm so happy to see you," Jack gave him another, gentler, squeeze. He didn't know how to say how afraid he was that he would never see him again, how when he did see him, he was reminded of everything he had never had with his daughter, would never have with his grandson…how sorry he was over everything he'd lost already with Jason. How grateful he was to have him, here, now… "I love you," was all he could come up with.

Jason smiled, "I love you too," he hugged him tight. "I love you too," he said to Ianto over his Papa's shoulder.

The younger man smiled and leant over, pressing a kiss to Jason's forehead, encircling his partner's waist with his arms. He spoke in Welsh to tell Jack's son that he loved him too, he always would, no matter what. Jack snaked his free arm around him a moment…

But by then Ella was at the front door with Seren; Jack carried Jason into the house and she handed her granddaughter off to the younger of her two fathers. "It's good to have you back—both of you," her gaze took in both men.

"It's good to be home," Ianto told her, snuggling his daughter in close to his chest.

"I've ordered in Chinese," Ella told them. It was typical of them both to forget to eat. "You two should get cleaned up. And by that I mean just a shower, gentlemen," she said that more in Jack's direction than his husband's.

He grinned, "No promises, Mom," he winked. But then he kissed her cheek. "Thanks for taking care of them for us," he told her softly.

"It was my pleasure," she eased Jason away from his father and told him to go wash up for dinner. "Which will be here in fifteen minutes," she reminded Jack and Ianto. But she couldn't help but smile. She might never understand what her son saw in the quiet Welshman that he hadn't seen in Roan—they were so alike in so many ways—but she couldn't deny that they were good for one another.

…………………………………..…………………….

"I just called to make sure you two made it home ok," Jack told his daughter when she picked up the phone on her end. He'd showered and food had arrived, but he needed to know she was all right. He needed to hear the sound of her voice.

"We're fine, Dad. Thank you."

"Steven…?"

"He slept most of the way home. Ate a huge supper," she laughed, just a little. She was still shaken, he could hear it in her voice. She might even still blame him for what had happened… he supposed it was his fault. She was his daughter. If she was someone else's kid, she wouldn't have gotten caught up in everything. "What about the rest of the children?" she asked him, then. "I know what the news is saying, but… is it really over?"

"It's really over," he promised.

"Thank God."

"Look, Alice, maybe we could… sometime… just you and me… maybe dinner…?" he asked hopefully.

"Please don't, Dad. There's no room in my life for you."

He swallowed hard, closed his eyes. He had tried so hard not to hope, but… "I ah… I guess… yeah. Ok. I shouldn't have asked. I'll just stop by… you know… Steven's birthday…if…if that's still all right?" please… please don't take that away, too…

"I know he'd love to see you, Dad. I just can't do more than that. Please try to understand. It's not you. It's… every time I look at you all I see is myself growing older. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. I understand." He hung up before she could tell him that she loved him…

…………………………………………………………

Ianto settled Seren back into her crib. He remembered when she'd looked so tiny in it, but now… he smiled. She was growing up so fast. His smile deepened when he heard Jack slip into the room…felt him slide his arms around him. He leant back into his chest and laid his hands over his partner's arms, revelled in the strength of those arms and how they made him feel. Safe. Secure. Warm inside. He closed his eyes feeling as if he could stand there forever, just being held. "Is Jason in bed?" he asked at length.

"Yeah, just tucked him in," he laid a soft kiss to his partner's neck.

"I should go say good night."

Jack nodded. Neither moved.

Finally Ianto turned in his arms and draped his own arms over his husband's shoulders. He looked into those blue eyes of his. Those amazing blue eyes. He knew about the phone call to his daughter, even though he knew Jack hadn't wanted to tell him. He had, he'd been too upset by it not to. He'd helped him pick up the pieces… there were still pieces that needed picking up.

"You make me so very happy, Jack," he told him softly. "I want you to know that. I want you to know that I love you…so much." He leant in, pressed his lips to the older man's mouth for a soft kiss. "I will never leave you Jack. Not ever. I love you with all of my heart and nothing is ever going to change that."

"Even when you realize that you're growing old while I stay the same?"

"Even if I live to be a hundred."

He kissed his Welshman again. Nothing in the world would make him happier than to have him live that long. But no matter what, in the end, he would still lose him. Ianto would die. He would bury him…he would move on, and be left with nothing memories of the best days of life… Earth. Cardiff. A man with blue grey eyes and a sharp wit.

"Why don't I go tell Jason good night," the younger man suggested quietly. "And… then maybe meet you in our room?"

Jack smiled. "Ten minutes?"

The other chuckled, "That's ten minutes and counting," he told him.

Jack pressed another kiss to his lips before exiting their daughter's room. Instead of going straight to their bedroom, however, he detoured down to the kitchen because he was very sure there was still one can of pineapple left in the cupboard…

…………………………………………………………………….

Having his former boss asleep in his spare room was no easier, Tim decided, than trying to sleep in Gibbs' spare room. In fact, it might even be more intimidating.

He would have gotten up to go write, but the spare room was also his office and there was no way he was going to try writing with Gibbs in there. He sighed. He rolled over. He still couldn't sleep.

He supposed he could sneak into the spare room and grab his notepad off his desk and go into the kitchen and jot down some ideas… at the very least, that was better than tossing and turning all night.

"Timmy?" Abby said as he started to get out of bed.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you."

"I wasn't asleep. I was thinking."

He turned so he was facing her; there was something about the tone of her voice that worried him. "What were you thinking about?" he queried, trying to tell himself not to worry at three o'clock in the morning.

"Us."

He paused a moment before repeating the word back at her as a question: "Us?"

"You know, as in you and me."

"I know what 'us; means, Abbs, I just… you're not having second thoughts are you?" he asked, trying very hard not to freak out.

"Yes. That's exactly what I'm doing."

"Abby…" he couldn't quite tell if she was being serious or sarcastic.

"It's just…what I said before, about you and me… you know, us, having kids…"

Tim blinked. "Kids?"

"You know, miniature humans… are you sure you're awake enough for this conversation, Timothy?"

"Yeah," he lied. "But ah, you wanna maybe tell me exactly what you were thinking?" he asked her.

"Just that… that maybe it's worth it. Having kids, I mean. Look, I know there's every chance…I mean… if any one of us had been in Thames House with Jack that person would be dead and that person could have been either of us—except that it wasn't, but it could have been. We could die at any moment. Weevils, Raxacoricofallapatorians," (she was the only person besides Jack who could say that word without stuttering), "Sontarans, Cybermen, you name it. We could be killed by any of those things on any given day! But we could die just crossing the street, getting hit by a bus, just like anybody else. We could get struck by lightening or… or number of stupid random things. And maybe our chances of dying by alien tech or eaten by an angry dinosaur is higher than the average person's, but being afraid that you're going to die has never stopped anyone from having kids before, so why should it stop us?" she asked him. "Unless… unless you don't want to now, after everything that's happened, because I would totally understand if that were the case—"

"Abby," he cut her off. "I would love to have children with you."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Good," said their groggy, grumpy houseguest. "Now that you have that settled, do you think you can go back to sleep so that I can go back to sleep?"

"Sorry," they said, nearly in unison.

"Don't apologize. Just go to sleep," he grumbled, very carefully keeping his grin to himself.

…………………………………………………………………

Martha was only a little surprised to find Jack on her doorstep at eight o'clock in the morning. "So much for sleeping in," she teased, letting him in. She was still in her robe and slippers.

"I brought coffee," he offered, holding up the cup carrier from Starbucks. "Tom around?"

"In the shower."

Jack grinned (leered was more like it).

"Don't you go getting any ideas, Captain. You've got your own husband." There was just a hint of a question on that last word.

"He's at home sorting through the paperwork to get the Hub rebuilt," he explained.

"How bad is it?" she asked over her shoulder as she led the way towards her kitchen.

"I think we're looking at at least six months to even begin working out of there again," he told her the truth. He slid out of his coat and handed her one of the cups of coffee.

"Jack… your brother…"

"It looks like the vaults are intact," he told her. "So's the internal power supply." He waited for her to have a seat at the table before taking the chair opposite her. "I was able to trigger an internal lockdown before the bomb went off. That protected the vaults, my safe… it opened the cells," he was not looking forward to all those Weevils loose in the city. The only ones they took in were the ones that were bent on making trouble for the human population of Cardiff. Sooner or later, they'd have to be rounded back up again.

She nodded, sipped her coffee. "Can I ask… did you… did you feel it? The bomb, did you feel it, or did it just go black?"

"I felt it."

"Jesus, Jack."

He shrugged. "It wasn't my best day. But it wasn't the worst way I ever died, either."

"How do you do it? How do you pick up and move on after something like that?" because he had, hadn't he? He was sitting in her kitchen. He'd obviously been by the Plass… yesterday he'd saved all those children. And now he was having coffee with her as if it was any normal Saturday.

He smiled and reached over, laying his hand on top of hers. "I do it because of what I have to come back to. My team. My friends. My husband," his smile warmed. "Jason. Seren. I come back for the people I love. People like you."

"Is it really worth it?"

"Yes. Right here. Right now. This planet. This time. It's worth it."

"So," Martha took another sip of her coffee. "I'm sure you didn't come here so I could ask you macabre questions about what it's like to die. What can I do for you…watch it," she cautioned just as soon as his brows shot up. She was grinning. "I'm a married woman, remember?"

"Hey, the more the merrier…"

"Oi!"

He laughed. Then, "Actually, I am here for a reason, Martha," he told her earnestly. "Remember when the Doctor suggested you find a new job?"

"I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm not interested in being your second-string medic, Jack. Besides, Bobby's a fantastic doctor, you don't need me."

"You, Martha Jones would never be my second string anything," he assured her, taking a deep swig from his own cup. "And I'm not offering you a job as a medic."

She frowned. "What are you offering then…? Jaaaack…" she added to the look on his face.

He shook his head, continuing to smirk. "How would you like a job as head of Torchwood London?"

"What? Torchwood…what?"

"I need someone in London, Martha, someone I can trust. It won't be like before, it won't be that big. Just you and a couple of other people keeping an eye on things for me here."

"Which other people?" she wanted to know.

"You'd get the final say on your own staff of course… but there are a couple of names I'd like you to consider," he admitted to the suspicious look in her brown eyes.

"Who?"

"Lois Habiba."

"Done."

"Camille Johnson."

Silence.

"Martha…"

"The woman put you in a block of concrete, Jack! And do not hand me some bullocks story about her following orders."

"I told her to come back and talk to me in six months if she was still interested in working for Torchwood."

"And you want to pawn her off on me? No. No way. I am not having her in my office!"

"Does this mean you'll take the job?" he queried, brows raised.

She sighed. She drank her coffee. "You knew I was going to say yes before you even got here, didn't you?"

He smirked. "I had a hunch."

"Fine. But I'm not having that Johnson woman anywhere near me. If she wants to join Torchwood, she can take her chances in Cardiff. Maybe Ianto will feed her to that pterodactyl of yours."

He chuckled; his Welshman had made a very similar suggestion when he broached the subject of Camille Johnson with him last night. "All I'm asking you to do is talk to her in six months—if she's still interested in the position. How much harm can that do?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "All right. In six months she can come talk to me. But I'm not making any promises, Jack." She finished her coffee. "Now. How soon can Lois start?"

Jack grinned. "I'm picking her up in fifteen minutes," he drained the last of his cup and stood to leave. "Kiss that gorgeous husband of yours for me—"

"Hang on!" she grabbed hold of his sleeve. "Where are you taking her? Wait… you don't seriously expect me to work out of that dirty old warehouse do you?"

"I figured it would be a place to start."

"Fine, I'm not working all day. In case you haven't noticed it's Saturday."

"Since when do aliens keep banker's hours?"

……………………………………………………………

"Yes, Gran, I know it's a Saturday," Lois said into the receiver, hopping on one foot to get her shoe on. "It's a new job, and my ride will be here any minute."

"Want to know is what happened to that post you had last week? You said it was going to be long term," her grandmother protested over the phone. "You mucked it up again, didn't you?"

"I didn't! It didn't work out, that's all."

There was an exasperated sigh followed by an extended silence. "I swear, girl," she finally said, "If you don't find yourself a man…"

"Gran, please, I don't have time for this argument, not today." She swore under her breath when she passed by the window and saw Jack Harkness getting out of the big black SUV that had just pulled into the car park. "I have to go, Gran, but I'll call you later, I promise." She hung up without further ado and dashed out the door. Leave it to a man from the future to be early!

……………………………………………………..

Ianto spent most of the morning on the phone arranging for contractors to rebuild the Hub. The proverbial shit was going to hit the fan at Whitehall next week and he knew it; he wanted to get the reconstruction started before that happened. The problem was figuring out how in the hell to hire a work crew for a super secret base… and the answer was that Torchwood was going to lose a lot of his its secrecy. And maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, he mused. He shuffled the last of the papers into place. Jason was just coming down the stair.

"Where's Papa?" he asked.

"He had to go to London to see Dr Jones this morning."

"But it's Saturday!"

"I know, but you know your Papa."

"Always working," they intoned together.

Ianto chuckled. "He promised he'd be home in time for supper."

Jason sighed. He looked so much like his father when he pouted… which probably said more about his husband than his step son.

"Tell you what, I was going to go and see my Mam and sister today. Do you want to come along?"

………………………………………………………………

Lisa Cuddy regarded the couple on the other end of the video conference. It was early her time, but it wasn't like she was sleeping much anyway. "Is it really over?" she asked Chase. She was having a very hard time looking at his girlfriend.

"It's over," he told her. "Do you still want to know what happened?"

"I don't think so," she told them the truth. He had promised to tell her everything if she really wanted to know but all she wanted was to know that it was over. That her daughter was safe, that whatever had happened, it would never happen again.

He nodded. "Sometime next week the story is going to break, anyway," he said. Sara was right, the people had the right to know what their leaders were willing to sacrifice—what they weren't willing to sacrifice. "Lisa," he said, calling her by her first name for maybe the first time ever. "My boss is always saying that the twenty first century is when everything changes. The truth is that aliens have been visiting this planet for thousands of years. But this is some kind of turning point. We have to be ready. Not just Torchwood, all of us, everybody."

"There are some things I'm not ready for, Bobby. Some things no one is."

"Whether you're ready or not," Wendy told her softly, "things are changing."

…………………………………………………….

"Are you all right?" Ianto asked his sister quietly. They were sitting on the swing on the back porch watching Remy and Jason playing in the garden. Ianto had managed to get past his mother with only minimal explanations about last week. He was too relieved to realize that it was unusual for her not to have pushed him harder for answers. He knew Gavin hadn't said anything to her, he and Gav had spoken on the phone on his way over. He never would have suspected that she already knew that he didn't work for the Tourist Bureau.

Nerys looked up at him. "How do you do it, Ianto?"

"What do you mean?"

"How do you carry on? After everything you saw last week, how do you just carry on with your life?" She wanted to know.

"It's the only way to do the job I do, Ner. It's the only way I can be with someone like Jack."

"I barely slept last night. Every time I close my eyes, I saw that…that thing. Only instead of that poor little boy, it was Remy…"

He folded his arms around her while she sniffled; she was trying so hard not to cry. She didn't want the kids to see, she didn't want to have to try and explain, come up with a lie that they would believe.

"Have you talked to Mickey since yesterday?" her brother asked her.

"I don't want to talk to him. I want to know how you go to sleep at night. How you get up in the morning and have breakfast with your husband after you've watched him die and come back to life and…and keep on going without going completely mad!"

He held her tight a moment, considering his options. Her options. "I can help you forget last week, Nerys," he told her, "like we did with Dafydd." She knew they'd erased a whole year from his memory. "But you have to be sure it's what you really want, because once you take the amnesia pills, that's it, you won't remember what happened."

"I want to be able to sleep at night. I want to be able to close my eyes and not see those things."

He nodded. He understood better than she realized the desire to just forget...

………………………………………………………………

Dekker looked up when the cell door opened. He smiled at Harkness. The immortal man. "You've come to kill me." It wasn't a question.

"Nope."

He frowned.

Jack glanced at Dekker's empty lunch tray. "In a hundred years I won't remember your name. In about an hour, you won't remember mine."

"What?"

"It's called retcon, and I put enough of it in your… whatever that was… to erase the last forty years of your life. Me. The 456. All of it."

"Why?"

"Because death is easy—believe me I know. People are always killing me. But life…life is hard. So I'm sentencing you to live, Mr Dekker. Who knows, maybe you'll even get something right with the time you have left."

………………………………………………….

Nerys stared at the little two white pills her brother had given her. They were tiny, innocuous looking things.

Take them with a glass of water and have a lie down. They're laced with a mild sedative… when you wake up, you won't remember anything from last week…

She ran a glass of water from the tap. Just two pills and she would forget those horrible things…she would forget cuddling with Mickey in that old warehouse. She would forget that Jack had died…come back…died again… come back… She would forget the way he'd stood up to the aliens. She would forget everything they had all risked to stop them.

She would forget the part Jack played in what happened in 1965. She would forget the part she'd played in saving all those children yesterday.

She dropped the pills into the sink and dumped the glass of water in after them. She fished her mobile out of her jeans' pocket and dialled Mickey's number. She didn't ever want to forget the way he'd held her and told her he loved her, even if it meant she was going to have to remember how terrified she'd been.