Chapter 8

Jack kissed Chloe as the Sheriff's car pulled out of site. "I don't know about you, but I'm famished," Jack said when their mouths finally separated. Chloe laughed and grabbed the plates that had never gotten used from the night before. They had breakfast consisting of fruit, cheese, and crackers. They passed on the wine and opted instead for some bottled water Jack always kept in the SUV. After breakfast Chloe excused herself to the park restroom. Jack walked down to the shore absorbed in his thoughts. Along the way he picked up some skipping stones.

Jack tossed the first stone and watched it skip across the surface. The blue sky was reflected in the water. It had happened again. He smiled. How it had happened so soon after Ianto's death, he didn't know, but it had. He was over 2,200 years old and had come to know his emotions pretty well. Usually it took a least a decade or more after the death of his last partner, but he had fallen in love again. The next stone skipped across the water. Ianto's face appeared in mind, his beautiful Welshman. There was no guilt or pain when it came to moving on. Those who ended up being long term partners with Jack (husbands, wives, boyfriends, or girlfriends) knew about his condition before committed to him. Jack knew Ianto would want him to be happy. In fact, Jack knew he had been the only man for Ianto and Ianto would probably fancy the brave, brilliant woman he now loved. "You would have liked her, lover. I know she would like your god like coffee skills. She's a lot like you. Strong, organized, and loving. She is protective of her friends like you were of our team. I want to have a relationship with her. I'm not going to waste time pushing her away because I'm scared, like I did with you. You healed me, my beautiful Welshman." Jack raised the last stone to his lips and tossed it. He turned around and saw Chloe sitting on the SUV tailgate watching him, her legs swinging. She had a contented smile.

Chloe had enjoyed watching Jack skipping stones across the water. It seemed as if with each stone his spirit had become lighter. When he had turned around, he had his dazzling smile on his face, but he looked years younger. Jack walked back towards her. Even though he was just walking with no effort being put into it for sex appeal, Chloe was still entranced. "Hey handsome," Chloe said when Jack got close to her. She hopped off the tailgate and wrapped her arms around his neck. She pulled him down to her height and kissed him passionately.

"Chloe there are some things I want to talk about," Jack said his voice serious. Chloe looked at quizzically, a nervous smile replacing the one she had worn a moment before. He looked Chloe in the eyes, took her hand, and kissed it. Chloe's nervousness for the most part evaporated. Jack grabbed one of the picnic blankets and took Chloe by the hand. He led her to the shore. He picked out a lace in the sun and put out the blanket. He motioned for her to sit. After she sat, Jack sat next to her. "Chloe, you a very special person. I would like very much for you to be my girlfriend…"

"Jack Harkness, are you asking me to go steady?" Chloe interrupted. She grinned as she grabbed one of his hands.

"Yes I am, Chloe Sullivan, but being in a long term relationship with me comes at a price." He looked down and then back into Chloe's eyes. "Everyone has secrets Chloe. Mine come in volume sets, but if we want to have any chance of having a good relationship, I need to be upfront and tell you mine. At least the big ones and the ones that won't rip a hole in the space-time continuum the size of Belgium."

With all of the drama that Clark insisted on causing with his secret, Chloe was elated that Jack had chosen to start their relationship with sharing his secrets with her.

"First major secret is that I used to work for a semi-secret organization called Torchwood. Our job was to monitor Earth and watch out for alien contact. I was the commander of the organization at the end. Or eventual mission was to determine if the aliens we encountered were hostile or not. If they were hostile, my team and I would kill them." Jack felt Chloe tense up, and saw her back go straight.

"But most of the time the aliens we encountered were just peaceful folk looking to exist without making trouble. We would keep tabs on them and try to make sure things went peaceful between them and humans. On extremely rare occasions we would run into aliens that were interested in helping out their adopted planet," Jack said. "Aliens like Clark."

Chloe gasped in shock and brought her hand to her mouth. "Is that why you met me in the Talon? Torchwood send you to me to get to Clark?" She started to cry and tried to turn away from Jack as he brushed his hand against her cheek.

"Absolutely not! I saw you there and sat down because a beautiful young woman had the confidence and courage to invite me to sit at her table. Imagine my surprise when Clark showed up. Chloe, Torchwood is my past. I don't work there anymore. They don't know about Clark. In fact, I made sure any reference of Kryptonians were kept out of the files as a favor to a drinking buddy who has since passed away."

"Who?" Chloe asked, her tears drying up. She wanted to believe Jack. So far nothing he had done had jeopardized Clark. "Who was this drinking buddy?"

"Clark's biological father, Jor-El," Jack said. Those words confirmed Jack knew Clark's secret and wasn't just guessing.

"Wait a minute. You're telling me that not only did you know Jor-El, but you were drinking buddies? Clark is immune to alcohol," Chloe said.

"Oh yeah, Jor-El and I got along pretty well, even if he was pretty uptight. That's why I came up with a special cocktail that took into account his special heritage. We ended up calling the drink a 'phantom zone'," Jack laughed.

Chloe relaxed some and thought back to what he had said earlier and asked, "Belgium?"

Jack laughed, "Yeah, it's a common misconception that reality altering paradoxes will destroy the entire Universe. They only cause holes the approximate diameter of Belgium. Sounds small, but it is enough to blow up a planet." Jack watched Chloe for her reaction and when she just nodded he went on. "Ok, that covers the second to last major secret, one that I don't share with hardly anybody. I'm a time-traveler. I was born in the 55th Century. I joined a group of scum bags called the Time Agency. We were basically mercenaries, conmen, and general bastards. They wiped my memories and ended up traveling time-space on my own. I was just a conman, living from grift to grift."

Chloe had let go of Jack's hand and looked at him silently, contemplating what he had said. "Is that where the charm comes from, being a conman?" Chloe asked.

"No, the charm is all natural, just like that scent you keep smelling. It's not cologne, it's my 55th Century pheromones," Jack said.

"You smell that good all the time, awesome!" Chloe exclaimed as she took Jack's hand in hers again. She was getting over her initial shock. "Jack, I don't if there is a polite way of asking this, but are you a human or alien." The cloud that passed over Jack's face almost brought Chloe to tears again. "I'm sorry, was that the wrong thing to say? Because I don't have anything against aliens. I had a crush on one all through high school and dated one recently."

"That brings me to my last major secret. I was born on another planet to human parents, but I don't think I qualify as human anymore," Jack said. Before Chloe could say anything Jack went on, "Something happened to me, something far in the future, something beyond my control. I was…changed. I'm not like any living being that ever was or according to my best friend will ever be. Chloe, I can't stay dead. I'm over 2,200 years old. Granted I spent about 2,000 of those years in a meditative trance buried in a shallow grave near Cardiff, Wales, so I only count 200 of those years as field time."

"When you say 'stay dead' do you mean you've died before?" Chloe asked.

"Yep, shot, stabbed, choked, poisoned, and more recently I had a bomb implanted in my abdomen that tore up a city block. None of it sticks. I just keep coming back to life," Jack said.

"I've only done it once. Waking up in the morgue was terrible," Chloe whispered as she tightened her grip on Jack's hand.

"Those slabs are freezing, and don't get me started on the medical examiners," Jack laughed.

"I know, I nearly froze my ass off and when I woke up without clothes on, yuck, who had been touching?" Chloe laughed with Jack. She had finally found someone she could share her experience with. Although he sounded like he had a lot more experience with it than she did. She was perfectly content to leave it that way. "Anything else?"

"Those are the secrets I can tell you. The rest deal with time…and you know, Belgium," He shot her a grin. "The other thing you should know wasn't a secret. My last long term relationship was with a man. His name was Ianto. We worked together at Torchwood and I got him killed because of a mistake I made." Tear fell from Jack's eye. Chloe reached up to wipe it away.

"The coffee guy?" Chloe asked.

"The coffee god," Jack responded with pride.

Chloe stood up. When Jack started to stand Chloe motioned for him to stay. "I need a few moments alone to think, Jack. I'll be back." With that she walked back to the SUV.

Jack watched her walk away with fear in his heart. Few things actually scared him anymore. Rejection after opening up like that was top of the list. After about 15 minutes, Chloe came back and sat next to him. "That's a lot to process, but living in Smallville you learn to roll with weird punches. With all things considered I guess I should say, I'll go steady with you," Chloe said. Chloe thought the smile on his face could light up the Vegas Strip. She leaned over and began kissing him.

They had only begun kissing when her cell-phone rang. Chloe answered the phone when she saw it was Lois. Lois asked how she was and told her about her plans to go to the Kent farm to research Jack I order to win their bet about where Jack had worked before. Chloe looked at her new lover and smiled, "Yeah, good luck with that," Chloe said half sarcastically half encouragingly. "Hold on, Jack is motioning to me…What? OK. He said he wants me to give you a hint. He says to talk with the Sheriff. Hey! That tickles…I got to go Lois, I'll talk to you later." Chloe hung up as Jack tickled her sides. She tossed the phone aside and pushed him over. "You are in for it, Mister!" She laughed. They tickled and wrestled with each other until they ended up out of breath with Chloe on top of Jack. She leaned down to whisper in his ear, "Do you remember last night you asked me if I wanted to go back?" He nodded. "I told you 'Never'. I mean it. I never want to go back. You're stuck with me Captain Harkness."