A/N: Evening all! SO this chapter is quite a bit longer than most of my others (about 1,000 words longer!) But I got so excited by Jack's return that I just kept writing and writing and didn't know when to stop or what to cut out so I apologise now for its length! I would also just like to mention that I have made up my own adaptation of how Rhys proposed, I know in the show it mentions him getting a twinge in his knee and having to sit on the sofa or whatever it was, but I thought that a little more romance never goes amiss! Oh and if anyone's interested RS Thomas (Who I mention) is a Welsh poet and nationalist. Hope you all enjoy! Hannah xxx
As predicted the last 24 hours have been somewhat less of a holiday and more an endless and frantic going around in circles, trying to pick up on anything that we have missed, and solve this conundrum! Unfortunately we've had no such luck and UNIT are still expecting us to vacate the Himalayas in two hours' time, we'll probably never get to the bottom of it all now.
I was relived to secure a seat with Tosh on both of our flights this time, I was mentally and physically exhausted ad could really do without a long stretch of time in Owen's company. I surprised myself by being able to sleep for majority of our Delhi to Cardiff flight. Whilst I knew I desperately needed sleep and recuperation I hadn't hoped I might actually get some rest with all these questions still racing through my mind; I especially hadn't thought I'd be able to fall asleep in public.
When I woke up realising that I'd slept for nearly 7 hours I felt a little bad for Tosh for having sat with me and not with Gwen or Owen who were both wide awake and chatting. But as I turned to look at her an apologise I saw that she was sound asleep herself. I couldn't help smiling to myself at the sight ofher she looks so young when she's sleeping, all curled up in on herself.
There's not much of the flight to go now, hopefully only 20 minutes or so, and I am so glad to be returning to Welsh soil, I feel like I might start quoting RS Thomas.
We were all greeted with a surprise when we arrived at Cardiff airport, Gwen being the most astonished of us all. Rhys was there, unshaven and tired looking, clutching a large bouquet of flowers and holding a banner which we weren't quite close enough to be able to read.
Gwen ran over to him immediately, the rest of us following her at normal pace. She screamed when she was close enough to read his sign, then threw herself into his arms. Luckily he anticipated the move and quickly threw down the bouquet and banner to catch her, gladly accepting the passionate kiss that she met him with.
"Yes, yes! YES!" Gwen was shouting from the top of her lungs, still in his arms in the middle of the terminal.
I picked up the discarded items and read the message he had written on his sign: Gwen Cooper, will you marry me?
"I've been a bloody idiot" Rhys replied. "I love you Gwen Cooper and nothing can change that, you can work as many hours as you like, go anywhere you want and do anything you want to do. The only thing that's important is that you come home to me at the end of it all. I can't believe I almost let you go, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me and I want to be with you for the rest of my life" He finished, breathless by the end, and pulled out a sizable diamond ring from his pocket
"And I want to spend the rest of mine with you" She said, before kissing him once again.
The spectators who had gathered in the terminal started clapping, things had suddenly turned very 'Love Actually' …
We decided that it was best if we left them to it, they had a lot to catch up on and we would only be getting in the way. Besides, it looked like they might stay together like that, locked in an embrace in the centre of the terminal for a long while yet.
It was 4.00 pm and Owen decided he was going to go straight home, he "can't be fucked" with getting straight back into work after these past long 4 days (or was it technically 5 with the time difference?) so he headed off back to his flat. If Gwen had been here with us she probably would have made him come back to the hub, but Tosh and I couldn't be bothered with the argument.
When entering the hub, it was suddenly like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. The same niggling questions about what had really gone on in the Himalayas were still present in my mind, but I couldn't help but enjoy taking in the familiar and comforting surroundings. I'd missed this quirky little building.
According to the rift monitor, we weren't due any significant activity for the next day or two, so we decided that after hurriedly completing the reports on our expedition we would get off home to sleep off the jet lag. I left notes, on the desk of the tourist office and on Gwen's desk, telling her that we'd gone home but I suspect that she has other things in mind to do for the next few hours that didn't involve returning to work.
I really wish that I hadn't let PC Wilson have our personal contact details, at the time I thought he'd never need them; it was just a formality in case they couldn't get a hold of Torchwood at the hub. Of course tonight was the one evening that we were actually needed when we weren't already in work; the police had received reports of a 'blow fish' joy riding a sports car through the centre of town. Marvellous. At least he thought to call my mobile and not Owen's, I wouldn't like to imagine how that conversation might have gone.
Reluctantly I notified the others and called them in to work, Gwen seemed to particularly resent me dragging her in away from Rhys, but the situation needed dealing with. Owen was equally displeased, but Tosh seemed agreeable enough – then again she's always lovely.
This has been some wild and peculiar evening indeed! There's so much buzzing around inside my mind, but as usual in these situations, I will endeavour to record everything as logically and ordered as I can manage.
Once everyone had arrived Gwen decided that it would be best if we all went out in the SUV to catch the 'buggering blow fish' as quickly as possible. She acted as nice as pie with the sweet, confused old lady when asking her if she had seen a blow fish riding a sports car, so I hope that she wasn't in too bad a mood with me for taking her away from Rhys. Of course this hope was disproved when she started an argument with Owen; at least she didn't vent her anger towards me.
Despite all the impossible things that have happened this evening, one thing I still can't quite believe is that Owen dared make Gwen "take the wheel" as he fired at the cars tyres, was he purposefully trying to wind her up? It did look impressively 'James Bond' though…
We ran into the house where we heard the gun shot coming from, and entered to face a drugged up blow fish, holding a young woman at gun point. I feel guilty that whilst faced with this awful situation I had the time to feel hurt by his words: "promoted beyond his measure". I've worked so hard over the past few months trying to believe that I have what it takes but he managed to shatter my confidence and echo my doubts in just those few words.
As I stood there, gun in hand, him coaxing me to shoot… I just couldn't find a way to bring myself to do it. I was more than shocked to see the bullet puncture straight through his head; I looked to my gun in disbelief – had I done it? I looked around and saw my answer. There he stood, larger than life, coat in tow, gun in hand. Jack.
"Hey kids, did ya miss me?" He grinned.
I blinked exaggeratedly, I just couldn't believe that he was really here; surely this was some sort of optical illusion, a cruel trick of my mind. But no, after a minute or two of stillness and silence, he was still there. I wanted to run and take him in my arms and kiss him or slap him or both. To breathe in those strong pheromones, to feel his skin against my own and run my hand through his hair. To shout at him, to curse him for leaving me abandoned, for breaking my heart. There was a war going on between my emotions, my heart and my brain were aching with the strain of it all. It reached the point where someone had to break this stifling and tense environment.
"Hello Sir" I said quietly, fighting to swallowing the lump that had developed in my throat.
He laughed at that, but neither I nor any of the others could manage to say anything more as we walked back over to the SUV or on the drive back to the hub for that matter. I could feel him trying to make eye contact with me in the mirror of the car but I deliberately stared out of the window for the entire journey.
Things were starting to seem incredibly surreal by the time we were back inside the hub. After months of being in control, Gwen automatically began dishing out the orders whilst Jack just stood there looking lost, and almost disheartened by the way that we had been coping without him. So I threw in a joke about making sushi from the body of our blow fish, I'm not even sure he caught it.
Suddenly Gwen lashed out, screaming at him, voicing what all of us had wanted to say for the past half an hour. Toshiko asked him where he'd been, all he said was that he'd found his doctor, like I had discovered soon after he left. The smile on his face when he said his name was unreadable, or rather the many meanings behind that smile cancelled each other out to remove any significance from it. He seemed to be happy and sad and relieved and scared all at the same time.
"Are you going back to him?" I found my lips questioning before my mind had consciously made the decision to pose this dreaded question.
"I came back for you." He replied softly. For just a second my heart stopped beating, in that second I believed that he really did care for me, that he felt terrible for leaving me alone, that I would forgive him and we could just be happy together.
And then he spoilt it: "For all of you" He finished. Yes, that sounded much more like reality.
Before anyone had the chance to speak again, we all had a million questions to ask, the rift alert sounded and it was all systems go. I've been writing in this for the past 10 minutes whilst Tosh tracked down the location of the activity and everyone loaded up the SUV. I just needed to write everything down in case… in case he disappears again and I am left wondering if this was all just a dream.
We tracked the traces of rift energy down to a car park on the outskirts of the city, a body had been found by the police and he appeared to have been grabbed by the neck and thrown off the building. Strangely enough, there where traces of rift radiation on the areas of his body that had been impacted by whoever, or whatever, had murdered him.
Just as we were leaving the crime scene, Jack's wrist watch started beeping – that never happens. It was a holographic message for him from a man who we later found out was his ex-partner Captain John Hart and the murderer of the above mentioned victim. Jack ran off to meet him and commanded that we didn't follow, I felt sick seeing him leave, not knowing whether he would come back this time, so I thought as quickly as could and hailed down a taxi.
Tosh discovered that there were police reports of a bar disturbance in the area that Jack had been headed, it was fairly safe for us to assume that he was involved. On the drive to the bar (Bar Reunion, rather fitting really) the team didn't hold back from criticising Jack, for just swanning back in then abandoning us again. I wanted to be angry, I knew I should be, but the fact that I was just glad he had come back at all and my loyalty to him kicked in, so I defended him as I always do. Things really are a lot more fun when he is around…
For example, we entered the bar to find him with this Captain John Hart holding him to gun point. I don't know why I asked him to elaborate on his description of partners; I could easily have guessed that he was referring to something other than work. I could see it in Jack's face as he stared at him, the confusion between love and hate that he had for this man, even when he was flirting with him I could see something less light-hearted behind his eyes. Or maybe I imagined it, wanted it to be there because I hated the fact that he was flirting with someone else right in front of me. I can't believe Tosh thought he was cute!
So we're back at the hub now and Jack has agreed to help John neutralise these radiation canisters that have fallen through the rift. Brilliant, just brilliant.
I've just seen Gwen and Jack on the CCTV footage having what started off looking like a fairly heated discussion, but ended in him taking her into an affectionate embrace. I think she told him about her engagement, but I'm still jealous, that's more contact alone with him than I've had yet.
What is it about this John Hart; Gwen's flirting with him now as well. I really don't see the attraction, yes he's good looking I suppose but he is really coming off as, quite frankly, a bit of a jerk. Though I have an underlying suspicion that she's doing it to catch Jack's attention, or wind him up at least.
Gwen paired us off, putting Jack and I together, I wasn't sure if I was dreading it or beside myself with excitement. Either way, I didn't have much time to think about it as we quickly got into the SUV after locating our canister to an office block about half a mile away. 4
There was so much I wanted to ask him and needed to say to him, but now was most certainly not the right time. Cowardly, I resorted to putting the radio on to avoid making small talk on the drive there.
Things may be more fun when Jack is around, but things are equally more dangerous and manic. This has certainly not turned in to the evening we expected when I called everyone in to attend to the blow fish situation…
As we reached the upper most floor of the office block Jack finally broke our awkward silence, flirting in what appeared to be a nervous manner. I don't think I've ever seen Jack nervous in the whole time that I've known him.
The way that he was acting, talking of photocopying my… I just hope it doesn't mean that he expects things to go back to the way they were before. To that casual and purely physical relationship we had, to me dying inside at the thought of meaning nothing more than sex to him. I can't bear to put myself through all of that again, but I'm almost certain that I will if it is my only option to be with him in any sort of way. I couldn't deal with it right then, so I tried ignoring him, focusing on the task in hand, but I have never been brilliant at focusing around Jack.
When he asked me to go on a date with him I was so shocked, that I completely swerved past the question in a very Jack like manner. After pressing, I eventually gave him the yes that he was waiting for, the yes I always knew I would give him no matter how hurt I had been by his leaving. In fact I think I said yes twice.
I began searching across the office floor left half in a daze through what had just happened, but was suddenly brought back to reality when I heard the lift arriving on this floor, bringing with it the arrival of my number one favourite person, John Hart. He had hurt them, Toshiko and Gwen and Owen, he done something to them and he was giving me the command to run and save them. I didn't know what the hell I was supposed to do; we were dealing with a complete maniac. I was dreading turning up late, too late to save them.
I tried frantically phoning Jack to ask for his help and to warn him, but I kept getting re-directed to voicemail, I had a horrible feeling that he was already with Hart or that he had done something to Jack as well.
I found Tosh and Owen, I had to break in to the warehouse that they'd been searching in, clearly John hadn't wanted them to escape. They were injured, Owen particularly, but they were alive and that was the main thing. We hurriedly got back in the SUV to try and find Gwen, after a great deal of searching and a stroke of genius on Tosh's part; we found Gwen paralysed in one of the storage containers. Thankfully we were prepared and had the anti-toxins kit on hand ready to save her, we had been cutting it a bit fine for time though.
We arrived back at the hub to find John there, without Jack, trying to assemble some sort of 3-dimensional puzzle. Immediately all four of us drew our guns out, I don't think he expected us to be quite so efficient.
He was further stunned when Jack waltzed back into the room, I remember being shocked when I first saw him come back to life and I must admit it still puzzles me.
John admitted that he was not carrying out his dead girlfriend's request, but that he had murdered her in order to get to her Arcadian diamond whatever that was. I don't understand what Jack ever saw in this man.
Jack ordered us all into his Office, Hart included, and curtly demanded that he opened the puzzle. I think Jack might have been beginning to question what he saw in John as well. It may have been slightly inappropriate for me to bring out my stopwatch as the explosive that the puzzle released latched on to John, but I couldn't help myself.
My heart was in my mouth when Gwen offered to sacrifice herself and John in order to save Cardiff. I admire her bravery, but I don't know what we'd all do without her. We were determined to find an alternative way to put everything right.
Thinking fast under pressure, Owen grabbed samples of all of our bloods, and injected the cocktail into Hart, confusing the explosive as to his DNA. By some miracle it worked, but as Jack threw the exploding disc back into the rift, the damage it did managed to reset time back to the moment when Hart arrived at the start of the evening. Like he had never been here.
After John left, going back through the rift, we all headed back to the hub. But as soon as we arrived Jack changed his mind and decided to send everybody home. When he came up to me I was expecting I usual tricks to follow: "Meet me in the office in five" or "take off everything but your tie and come to the archives" or "Is your stopwatch handy?" But no, he simply came up to me, pulled me into a hug from behind and said:
"Are you ready for that date now, we have the chance to re-do this evening, we might as well do it well" He said softly, his breath tickling the back of my neck.
In that moment, in his firm yet gentle grip, his scent overwhelmingly attractive and wafting around me, I so easily could have said yes. But I needed time to think, I had to get everything ordered in my head properly first, decide what I wanted and what I was no longer prepared to put up with. And, more importantly, to decide exactly how I feel about him now, the war between love and adoration and anger and resentment was still going on inside my mind. So I replied with:
"I'm sorry Jack, I'm not ready, I need time to process everything, to work out where things stand. I can cope with this evening not going well, but I can't stand the thought of our first date going badly" I finished with a smile, hoping he wouldn't be too disappointed.
"I suppose I can forgive you Ianto Jones seeing as you managed to use my name" He replied with that familiar, beautiful grin, almost managing to cover up the look of discontent in his eyes.
He sighed as I pulled away from his arms and left the hub. I have a feeling that tonight will be a long and sleepless one.