Ch2: The Mysterious Welshman

Jack hates being alone. Being alone, well, that usually entitles him to a ticket to Hell. What with his recent captivity, being placed in a chilling vault and those horrible memories that he can't run away from, so much potential lost, so much sacrifice, so much deaths…

Alone. Hell. Cold. Death. Alone. Hell. Cold. Death.

First, Owen Harper – the most brilliant and sarcastic human doctor he had ever encountered. Then, Toshiko Sato, the amazingly gentle girl who could hack her way to almost anything and everything. Lastly, the only person who showed him how to feel vulnerability, being human again – dying in his arms while declaring his love for him, saying that Jack won't remember him in a thousand years' time… Even now he can't still say the name of the only man he had ever loved, and so quickly lost.

All three of them cut off from the normal, safe life because of him.

All three of them fought off alien invasion, dying in the process because of him.

All three of them dead, without anyone in the world knowing that they had died to save billions of people they hadn't known.

He's alone for two days with nothing but these grave thoughts inside his head. It makes him almost suicidal; if not for the fact that he can't even bloody die.

Jack snapped out of his thoughts as a Japanese girl wearing a maroon overcoat knocked on the other side of the vault, waving a steaming mug.

"Tosh, is that really you? I thought you were…" Jack felt an inevitable grin spread on his weary face for the first time in ages. "Never mind! You're alive! Ha!"

"So, you're really Jack?" Toshiko unlocked the vault and sat on the floor beside Jack, handing him a steaming mug of black coffee. "It looks like you could use a cup of coffee. We can't convince Janto to come here and give this to you himself. He's still upset. You're the last thing he expects to come out of the rift!"

"Yeah, that blue light… I suppose I'm right – stuck in a parallel world, am I? Is there a parallel me? Parallel Owen, parallel Gwen, parallel…" And there, Jack still can't say his name. He took a huge gulp of the scathing coffee and thought of something less suspicious. "Um, parallel Torchwood."

Tosh just looked at him expectantly, obviously waiting for him to say some more, but he just couldn't bring himself to say the name. Even thinking of it sends shivers down his spine, knocks his heart cold.

"And by the way, who's Janto? The man down here two days ago?" Jack asked calmly, trying hard not to feel the blatant confusion that was slowly etching on his face.

"The way you speak of him… I might think that there's no Janto in your world?"

"There isn't. Not that I know of, anyway," Jack shrugged. "Which was quite a shame? He's gorgeous. Gorgeous as his name, that is."

That earned an incredulous look from Tosh. Jack raised his hands (and eyebrows) in surrender. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing… I'll just pretend I didn't hear that! Let's get you out of here. Everyone's dying to see you again, sort of." Tosh held Jack's hand and tugged him to stand. "Come."

In his entire existence, 'dying to see you again' is probably the most literal and discouraging phrase Jack could ever think of.

But Tosh's right – everybody seems pleased to see him (again?)

"Jack!" Gwen rushed, hugging Jack in a stranglehold. "I can't believe it's really you!"

"You're looking good, Miss Cooper!" Jack squeezed Gwen and patted her on the back. Good old times!

"I told you, that man simply won't die!" Owen chuckled.

"Rift or no rift, it is Jack!" Rhys went beside Jack, grinning. He's holding a four-year-old little girl. "This is our Anwen, pretty girl, she is. She's quite a looker, like her Mum."

"…And nothing like her bloody father, thank God for that!" Owen added.

Rhys scowled at Owen and handed Anwen to Jack. The little girl smiled at him. Jack instantly felt strangely at home. Wherever the parallel Jack is, he sure is lucky, because he's loved.

"Janto?" Anwen asked, her head lolling slightly in confusion.

Jack smiled at the little girl reassuringly and said, "No, Anwen. My name's Jack. I'm Captain Jack Harkness."

"Cap'n Jack…" Anwen repeated, her eyes looking at Jack judgingly, and then she smiled. Rhys sighed in relief. He looked around, evidently looking for someone.

"Where's Janto Jones?"

There was a brief silence before...

"Rhys!" Three voices – Owen, Gwen and Tosh – said Rhys's name disapprovingly. Jack reckons that it's the Torchwood code for 'Shut your bloody mouth!'

This statement made Jack wonder why this Janto had this surname. Janto Jones, his name is. His name is one letter different from the name freshly and painfully etched in Jack's heart – Ianto Jones.

So who is he to Jack?