Time Doesn't Always Run Straight
To The Last Man
Part 4
So today is my 23rd Birthday (Australia time). Because of this I have decided to give you amazing readers the next chapter early. This is the last chapter of To The Last Man, then interlude. The interlude will be set straight after the evens of To The Last Man. Some really cute moments in here so hopefully you all enjoy it. Although there is some sad bits at the end. Thank you to every one who is reading, following, favorting and reviewing. You guys are just amazing
"So does this mean I get to see your home?" Tommy asks as they head out of the tourist information center.
Jestine shakes her head. "Don't have a home."
"Ok, where you live." Tommy mocks sighs, thinking Jestine is joking.
Jestine stops and faces Tommy. "When I say I don't have a home I mean that in every sense. I don't live anywhere."
"But you do. You have to. Where else do you keep your belongings, where do you eat and sleep?" Tommy answers.
Jestine continues walking again as she explains. "I have very few possessions. Generally I keep them on my person. Eating and sleeping I can do at the Hub."
"Don't the others think it is strange that you sleep there?" Tommy asks.
Jestine shakes her head. "They don't know." She pauses a moment. "You know how I said I was from another time period." Tommy nods. "I'm not like people from here. I'm different from most people. These differences mean I eat and sleep a lot less than what is considered normal here." Jestine explains.
"But still, where do you go when you aren't working?" Tommy senses he should stop asking, that he doesn't actually want to know the answers but he needs to know.
Jestine shrugs. "Spend most of my time working. When I'm not, I go to various bars and clubs." Jestine admits.
"But what about friends? I know you said you aren't from this time period but surely you have some friends." Tommy feels his heart breaking for Jestine.
"No friends, no family." Jestine shakes her head. "At least not anymore." She mutters bitterly.
Tommy wraps her in his arms, wishing he could help erase even some of Jestine's pain. He kisses the top of her head. "I know no-one can replace who you lost but if you let them in, the team could be your friends, maybe even a family. If you just gave them a chance."
Jestine doesn't reply but instead allows Tommy's warmth to surround her.
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Jack sighs as he sorts though some papers. He wished that they didn't have to send Tommy back tomorrow, especially not since him and Jestine had obviously become so close. He catches Ianto as he comes up to his office.
"This time tomorrow, he'll be back in 1918." Jack tells Ianto as he lingers by the doorway.
"In his own time. Would you go back to yours? If you could?" Ianto couldn't stop himself from asking, it was something that had been playing on his mind since they had awoken Tommy.
"Why, would you miss me?" Jack jokes, hoping to lighten what was promising to be a depressing conservation.
Ianto bites down his nerves. "Yep." He moves closer, wanting to be with his lover but not sure if Jack would want him.
"I left home a long time ago. I don't really know where I really belong. Maybe that doesn't matter anymore." Jack replies, wondering where Ianto was heading with this conservation.
Ianto sits on the edge of Jack's desk. "I – don't you get lonely?"
"Going home wouldn't fix that. Being here, I've seen things I never dreamt I'd see. Loved people I never would have known if I'd just stayed where I was." Jack answers truthfully as he meets Ianto's eyes.
"And I wouldn't change that for the world."
Ianto feels his heart swell. While in the past he may have had doubts, he knew Jack was referring to him amongst those who he had loved.
He leans forward and meets Jack's lips in a fiery kiss, both pouring all their passion into it.
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"You ok?" Owen asks Tosh over dinner. He had decided that tonight Tosh had deserved something special, a night to take her mind off things.
"I'm sorry Owen. I know you went to a lot of trouble for this." Tosh replies. She knew that the restaurant normally had a month's long waiting list.
"Nothings too much trouble for you." Owen smiles at Tosh while ignoring how corny and sappy he sounded.
Tosh smiles back at Owen. While he was often rude and short with people, he did have a soft sweet side if you just knew how to get to it.
"It's just I'm worried about Tommy. I know it's silly and that he's an adult and can look out for himself. I just don't trust Jestine though. It's silly. I trust her with my life but not with a frozen solider from 1918." Tosh sighs.
"Hey it's not silly." Owen reassures her as he takes hold of her delicate hands. Even before they had gotten together he had always marvelled at Tosh's hands. They were so small and gentle but capable of such amazing things.
"We both know that Jestine can come across as callous sometimes. But she does care about Tommy." Owen tells Tosh.
Tosh looks at Owen in surprised. Jestine didn't seem the type to care for many people, let alone after such a short period of time.
"You sure?" Tosh asks.
"She didn't say so but you can see it when they look at each other." Owen answers.
Tosh thinks back on the brief interactions she has seen of Tommy and Jestine. Her stomach drops as she realises Owen is right. She hadn't thought that Jestine could be the one to get hurt but now it seemed to be a real possibility.
"Neither me or her like to talk about our emotions but maybe once Tommy is back you and her can have some girl time together or whatever it is that you lot do when one of you are dealing with a break up." Owen suggests.
Tosh nods in agreement while smiling at Owen.
"Now that we have dealt with that, how about we enjoy our night. God knows we both deserve it." Owen leans forward and gives Tosh a quick peck on the lips.
"I agree." Tosh smiles as Owen sits back down.
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Tommy and Jestine are in a hotel room, lying on the bed together. Jestine rests her head on his chest, listening to his breathing.
"I never asked. Back in 1918, did you have anyone?" Jestine asks.
She can feel him nod. "Yeah. Ellie. We courted for two years." Tommy answers sadly.
"What happened?" Jestine knows that tone of voice.
"I, uh, stopped seeing her… the last time I was home on leave." Tommy explains. "The war changed me. I couldn't carry on like before."
Jestine turns so she is now facing him. "I'm sorry. No-one ever tells you how hard it is to go back." Jestine gives him a tender kiss before the fall into silence.
"What did he say?" Tommy breaks the silence. "What happens to me?"
"You get sent back to France." Jestine informs him.
"Then what?" Tommy asks.
Jestine sighs. "I'm sorry."
Tommy nods. Jestine doesn't need to say the words for him to understand. "Do they find my body?" He knew there was a chance he would die when he signed up, he just hoped that he would be buried at home rather than in some foreign country, far from everything he had ever loved.
Jestine nods, unable to speak. She had seen war before, the lifeless bodies of so many soldiers but it didn't dull the pain of knowing what laid ahead of Tommy.
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"I would miss you." Ianto tells Jack as they lay in bed.
"I promise I'm not going to leave you again." Jack strokes Ianto's hair.
"What if The Doctor asks?" Ianto speak out loud his deepest fear since Jack had gotten back.
Jack sighs. He had hoped with their developing relationship that Ianto would be starting to lose some of his insecurities but it seemed not. "Ianto, I promise I will never leave you like I did before. There may come a time when The Doctor needs my help. But I promise I will come back. I will always come back for you. I wouldn't want to travel with The Doctor when I have you waiting here for me." Jack takes a deep breath, realising that it was now or never. "Ianto Jones, I love you and I wouldn't give that up for anything."
Ianto startles at Jack's admission. While he had known for a while that Jack loved him, he never expected him to say it out loud. "I love you too Cariad." Ianto tells him before pulling him in for a deep kiss to show Jack just how much he loved him.
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Tommy rolls over to see Jestine staring out the window. He watches her for a moment, the morning rays lighting her profile like an angel.
"It's time." Jestine tells him as she turns around, her face falling into shadow.
Tommy nods, even if he is full of nerves.
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The atmosphere was tense as Jestine and Tommy enter the Hub.
"Jestine." Jack calls out as he sees the pair enter. "Need to speak to you."
Jestine glances over at Tommy before heading to Jack's office.
"What you want to talk about?" Jestine asks, still standing.
"I just wanted to check up to see how you were coping given everything that is going happening today."
Jestine rolls her eyes. "I don't know why you all keep asking me. I am fine. I don't like what we have to do but I will survive. I've survived worse." Jestine replies.
Jack's heart clenches at Jestine's statement. He could only imagine what else Jestine had been through in her life. "We understand that this could be difficult for you. If you need to talk, we are here for you."
Jestine gives a small smile. "I do appreciate your offer but I will be ok."
"But the offer stands at any point." Jack reminds her before dismissing her.
He watches sadly as Jestine immediately joins Tommy back in the main part of the Hub. He could only hope that this wouldn't hurt Jestine too much.
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The Torchwood team and Tommy enter a ward of the hospital.
Owen and Tosh put down their kits while Jestine hands Tommy the rift manipulator.
Jack sighs before telling Tommy. "You know we can't be here when it happens."
Tommy nods, moments before the rift alarms blare and the building shakes.
Tommy bravely steps forward and away from the group. Jestine steps forward to his side.
"Come on." She gently encourages him to continue forward.
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The team continue walking through a corridor when Tommy suddenly stops.
"Shh!" He tells them. They hear the echoes of someone singing.
They wait a moment.
"We're safe for now." Jack directs them to keep moving.
Suddenly a nurse carrying a lit lamp turns the corner in front of them and walks down the hallway. Tommy follows her with Jestine close behind him.
Tommy starts running with Jestine pounding after him as they enter the ward.
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Tommy looks around the ward but there is no sign of the nurse.
"Where is she?" He asks as the rest of the team joins them.
They look at him silently.
"In 1918?" He asks when he suddenly remembers.
"Tommy, I think you'd better come with us. Don't worry. I'm Gerald, this is Harriet. We'll look after you." Gerald's voice is echoy, distorted, faint.
"Torchwood took me." He tells them.
Tommy looks around the ward, suddenly seeing himself in 1918. He watches himself asleep in the ward.
"Tommy?" Jestine asks, he voice taking on the same faint characteristic sound as Gerald's had before.
Tommy turns around to see both her and the rest of the team not far behind. He shakes his head as it becomes too much for him and runs from the room. The lights flicker as Jestine takes chase after him.
"Stay here." Jack orders the team as he follows.
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"I won't do it. I can't go back." Tommy mutters distressed as he leans against the wall of a back room.
"You've got to." Jack tells him.
"No! I know what'll happen. They'll send me back to the Front. I'll be back in the trenches." He turns to Jestine. "Help me."
"You have to." Jestine tells him.
"Why me?" Tommy asks as he purposely drops the rift manipulator. "You're no better than the generals. Sitting safely behind the lines, sending us over the top. Any one of you lot could go, but you're not, are you? You're sending me." Tommy tells them.
Both Jestine and Jack wince a little at the comparison.
"We belong here." Jack tells him.
"I've been shoved from pillar to post all my life by the Army, by Torchwood." Tommy advances towards Jack.
Jestine steps between them.
"All this time I've had, it means nothing." Tommy looks at Jestine accusatory.
He goes to the back wall and leans against it, slowly sliding down till he is sitting huddled against the wall.
Jack heads over and kneels down.
"Tommy." He tries and encourages him by grabbing his arm.
"Get off." Tommy pushes Jack off him.
"Tommy, get up." Jack orders.
"No!" Tommy yells back.
"Jack, leave us." Jestine asks him.
Jack looks between the two for a moment before getting up.
"You've got two minutes." He tells Jestine before leaving.
Jestine picks up the rift manipulator before walking over to Tommy. She sits down beside him, also leaning against the wall. He moves away but she just moves closer.
"Hey, you're a hero. You know that?" He turns to look at her. "You stop the time-shift. You save everyone. You save us all."
Tommy shakes his head. "I can't do it."
Jestine sighs. "You can. We need you to."
"I don't want to be a hero. I want to stay here with you." Tommy pleads with her.
Before Jestine can reply The Rift starts to rumble.
An unnatural wind blows as Jestine turns and looks behind her. The sounds get louder and louder as Jestine and Tommy hold onto each other.
A bright light shines, forcing them to cover their eyes. The sounds subsides.
"Hello?"
Jestine and Tommy look up at Gerald and Harriet.
"Tell them." Jestine tells Tommy.
"Tell us what?" Gerald asks the two strange people that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"You need to tell them what to do. We need you to stop it. You're the only one. If you don't, it's the end of everything." Jestine tries to get Tommy to talk.
"Tommy!" Jestine tells him urgently.
He looks down at the Rift manipulator, then gets up quickly. He heads over to Gerald and Harriet.
"Take me! I'm in there in the ward in 1918. You have to take me so I can be here now." He tells them but they don't move.
"Just take me!" He demands.
The Rift starts roaring and the wind stirs up again. Jestine and Tommy both close their eyes as the lights get extremely bright. Jestine and Tommy look around once it is done. They are back in the present day.
"I'll be gone soon." Tommy tells Jestine.
"Remember ... the rift key. Use it." She tells him.
She glances at the door, then leads in and kisses him.
"You need to get back to bed. Like you were never away. Then use the key. Remember Tommy." She glances back towards the door. "It's nearly time."
He nods at her just as the crunching and roaring sound starts up again.
Tommy grabs the key and heads towards the door. He turns back and looks at Jestine.
She smiles at him sadly as he heads for the door, an unnatural wind blowing around him. She watches on as the bright line shines once more.
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Tommy looks around the storage room he had ended up in, clutching at the rift key. A nurse walks in.
"What are you doing? You shouldn't be in here." She scolds him before pushing him out and grabbing some linen off the shelf. She then heads out after Tommy.
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Jestine runs towards where the team was. Her heart was heavy, she would never see Tommy again but he had done what needed to be done.
"Go, go!" She yells at them.
The team turn and run the other way, with Jestine pausing to glance back. Jack grabs her arm, pulling her with him not wanting her to be dragged back into 1918.
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Gerald and Harriet move to the bed near the end of the room. They see Tommy sitting up in bed.
"Tommy, I think you'd better come with us." Gerald tells him as he moves the covers aside.
"Why?" The Tommy from 1918 asks.
"Don't worry. I'm Gerald, this is Harriet. We'll look after you." Gerald tries to reassure him.
"Who are you?"
"We're Torchwood." Gerald tells him as he gets up.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere safe. Trust me."
"It's all right. Keep going." Gerald ushers him along once he has his coat on.
"Don't look back." Gerald warns as he sees Tommy from the future enter with the nurse.
He glances back at Future Tommy once before leaving.
"You should be in bed." The nurse once again scolds Tommy.
As he takes his jacket off the nurse turns down the blanket, letting Tommy get into bed.
"Still warm, at least. Not been gone long." The nurse mutters as she leaves.
Tommy sits in the bed looking very scared and confused.
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The team returns to The Hub. The mood is sober, all of them giving Jestine space as she mourns for Tommy.
As they are putting down their kits, the alarms start to blare.
"Whoa. What's happening?" Gwen looks around in confusion.
Tosh quickly starts typing away at her computer.
"The time-shift. It hasn't stopped." Jestine jumps up from the old couch.
"Toshiko, show me the city, now!" Jack hopes that Jestine is wrong.
Tosh quickly pulls up a satellite view of the city on the monitor. A white light appears where the time shifts occur. In seconds of them watching more and more lights start to appear.
"It's spreading out from the hospital." Tosh tells them.
Jack nods as he tries to think of a solution.
"What the hell are they?" Owen asks from his monitor.
"Chunks of the past erupting into the present." Jack explains.
"They're everywhere." Ianto exclaims.
"What about the rift key?" Gwen asks.
"Tommy isn't using it." Jestine tells them.
"Why not?" Ianto asks.
"He's gone back ninety years ago, he's shell-shocked. He has just forgotten weeks of his live. Pick your reason." Jestine tells them tersely.
"But he needs to use it or else…" Tosh trails off.
"He doesn't remember. Someone needs to remind him to use it." Jestine explains.
"Which means going back to 1918." Gwen exclaims. "Whoever goes will be stuck there."
"No." Jestine indicates to her wrist-strap.
"The rift is being forced open. You can't. It's too dangerous." Jack protest.
"If I don't go the past will force itself into the present. Time will disintegrate." Jestine argues.
"There has to be another way." Jack pleas.
"We don't have time." Jestine mutters as she starts pushing buttons. "I have to. He trusts me."
Jack isn't happy but nods realising he doesn't have any other choice. "Good luck." He tells her moments before she disappears."
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The hospital has fallen into madness and chaos. The patients scream as the building shakes and the lights flicker. Tommy sits up in his bed, looking around terrified.
"Tommy." Jestine calls as she appears in front of his bed.
"Tommy." She says again as she sits on his bed.
"It's me. Jestine." She tells him as he turns and looks at her.
"Who?" Tommy asks in confusion.
"I'm here to help you." Jestine informs him.
Tommy looks down at the rift key he is holding and then offers it to Jestine.
"Is this yours?" He asks.
"No. Do you know what it is?" Jestine asks him, but he isn't focusing on her, he look off to the side at someone nearby.
Jestine grabs his shoulder, dragging his attention back to her.
"Tommy, it's a key. You have to use it." She explains.
"I'm scared." Tommy tells her.
"Nothing wrong with being scared." Jestine reassures him.
"That's why I'm here. I'm a ... I'm a coward." Tommy tells her.
"No, no you are not." Jestine argues.
"What am I fighting for?" Tommy asks.
"For the future, for me." Jestine tells him as she strokes his cheek. "Because you're my brave, handsome hero. Tommy, use the key."
Tommy nods before holding up the rift key and twisting the latch on the side. The dial turns, opens and wisps of golden rift light escapes out from the key. He turns the latch back and it closes again.
"Thank you." Jestine tells him before kissing him as the building shakes and roars.
"Goodbye." Tommy tells her as an extremely bright light engulfs them both.
Thank you for taking the time to read. Please please give me a birthday present and send a review, tell me what you thought about anything. Any and all feedback is appreciated and loved.