Time Doesn't Always Run Straight
Interlude 6
New chapter! Next up will be Reset, promising to be an interesting one. Thank you to everyone supporting this story, over 10,000 views. Special acknowledgement to FiBeeN for reading the whole story in a few hours as well as reviewing many times. Sorry if there are any errors, doing this very late at night after a long day and just about to fall asleep.
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine, belongs to BBC RTD and whoever else owns it. I only own Jestine and therefore make no money from this.
Tosh awakes with a start. She is disoriented and doesn't know what woke her. Then she hears a gutted moan. She looks around the conference room, trying to locate the sound.
Diagonal from her Ianto raises his head from the table. "What's going on?" He asks in confusion.
A groan interrupts them. Tosh turns in the direction of the sound. It's Jestine who is located at the end of the table. Tosh quickly glances around the table. Owen was showing signs of stirring while Gwen still had her head leaning against the table, a small pool of saliva forming under her mouth.
"What's the noise?" Owen mumbles as he opens his eyes. Ianto has already moved to Jestine's side. Every few seconds noise escapes her mouth.
"I think she's having a nightmare." Ianto replies as he watches. Jestine is scrapping her hands along the table, like she was trying to cling on to something. "What should we do?"
"How bad is it?" Owen asks as he rushes over to investigate.
"I did it for you too. After everything they did to you, isn't this what you wanted." Jestine slurs.
"What do you think she is dreaming about?" Tosh asks curiously.
"Who knows? Don't know if we even want to know, considering some of the shit she's pulled here, who knows what else she's done." Owen muses.
"So should we wake her?" Ianto asks.
"If you want to go near her you can. Last time she almost killed me." Owen informs them.
"Last time?" Ianto inquires as they watch Jestine squirm and continue to mutter.
"They took him from us, they deserved this." Jestine pleads in her sleep. "Don't leave me."
"After the incident with John Hurt." Owen admits. "She started yelling at one point. I pushed her shoulder to wake her up and ended with a knife at my throat."
Tosh steps back in alarm. "So what do we do?" They watch us Jestine continues to squirm, getting more agitated as the seconds tick by.
"You just need to do it right." Ianto tells Owen as he grabs hold of Jestine so her arms are secured before shaking her slightly. "Jestine, time to wake up."
"No, don't go." Jestine continues to mutter for a moment before tensing. Ianto braces as she struggles.
"Stop, you're safe." Ianto murmurs into her ear. Jestine struggles for a second longer before becoming aware of her surroundings. She looks around in shock and embarrassment.
"I…What's going on?" Jestine jumps up the second Ianto lets her go.
"You were having a nightmare." Tosh gently explains.
Jestine looks over to Gwen. "Why is Gwen sleeping on the table?"
"I don't know. I don't remember anything since…" Tosh frowns. She wasn't actually sure how long it had been since she was at her workstation.
Jestine looks around in a panic. "You two remember how we get here?" She interrogates Owen and Ianto. Both shake their heads.
"Last I remember is Jack and I returning from a rift alert." Ianto replies.
"Playing video games." Owen admits to his last memory.
Jestine curses. None of the team understood although it was familiar from previous occasions that Jestine had cursed. "Jack, do we know where Jack is?" She looks around frantically.
Ianto shakes his head.
Jestine nods. "Right. So we're missing an unknown amount of time and Jack is not with us." Jestine summarises the situation. "Missing memory likely from hostile aliens with the possibility that they have Jack."
"Maybe we did it to ourselves." Ianto suggests.
"Would you really choose to wipe any of your memory?" Jestine looks sceptical.
"If I needed to." Ianto retorts.
"Would have to be pretty drastic for me to." Jestine argues. "Still, let's work on the facts. We don't know where Jack is. Likely situations are he is somewhere else in the base or he has been taken captive. You lot stay here and I'll find him. If there is any sign of hostiles I'll inform you." Jestine turns to leave.
"You can't just go. There could be danger out there." Owen puts his foot down.
"That's why I'm going and not one of you lot. I can handle anything there is."
"We don't know what is out there. You are not going alone." Ianto argues as he pulls out a side arm.
Jestine looks about to argue before thinking better of it. "Fine. You come with me. See if we can find Jack and/or signs of what happened. Tosh see if you can find anything on the Data base. And I guess Owen you should keep an eye on Gwen." Jestine orders before swishing out the room. Ianto hurries to follow.
"Just when you think Torchwood can't get any stranger." Tosh turns to the computer.
"Tell me about it. It's like Ianto and Jestine swapped wardrobes." Owen comments.
"But what could have caused us to lose our memory?" Tosh muses, lost in thought.
Owen knows better than to try and get anything else out of Tosh while she is in her zone so instead settles back in his chair, waiting for Gwen to wake up.
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Jestine scans The Hub with her Vortex Manipulator. "Signs of human life in the cells but nothing else that shouldn't be there." She informs Ianto as he visually scans the Hub for signs that indicated what had happened the last few days.
"I would change out of this ridiculous thing.." Jestine gestures to the outfit she had been wearing when they fell asleep… "But we don't know what we are dealing with and we can't waste time."
"As ridiculous as your outfit is, rescuing Jack is more important than what you look like." Ianto stresses.
"Normally I would agree but I haven't got any weapons." Jestine confesses to Ianto.
Ianto nods in understanding. "Right, I'll go first then." Ianto leads them towards the cells.
They silently creep in, eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.
Ianto gasps as he sees Jack collapsed on the floor. He drops the gun and rushes over to Jack.
Jestine instantly picks up the gun, scanning the area for any unknown threats. Once she is satisfied the cost is clear she joins Ianto next to Jack. "He alive?"
Ianto nods in relief. "Asleep. Should wake up soon."
At that moment Jack starts to stir. "Ianto?" He asks blearily.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Jestine interrupts any moment the two men might have been about to share.
Jack frowns in thought. "Ianto and I coming back from a rift alert. You were still gone." He answers as Ianto helps him up. "What are you wearing?" He asks both of them.
"Could you estimate the amount of time you are missing?" Jestine ignores Jack's question, too focused on answers.
"We don't know why, we woke up in the conference room like this." Ianto explains. "The others are there. Tosh and Owen are awake and missing memories too. Gwen was still unconscious when we left but might be awake by now." Ianto summarises their findings since they had woken up.
"Do we know why we are missing memories?" Jack asks. He was trying to keep calm but it reminded him too much of when he had woken up with 2 years missing.
"Ianto thinks we might have done it ourselves. I suspect alien involvement." Jestine replies as she starts fiddling with her Vortex Manipulator. "Surely there would be something on this." She mutters away.
"You don't think we could have done it ourselves?" Jack asks Jestine.
"Neither of us would willingly take away our memories." Jestine replies confidently. "You think I would let anyone do that to me after what happened to you?"
Jack's reply is cut off by a hologram appearing from Jestine's Vortex Manipulator.
Jestine's hologram face peers from it.
"If you are getting this it means our plan worked and you are looking for answers." Jestine's voice echoes from her Vortex Manipulator. "You should have woken up with roughly 48 hours missing from your memories. I can not tell details, but it was the only option. An alien threat had infiltrated the team and the only way to eradicate the threat was to removal all traces of it. This included from our memories. While you may wish for more information, do not go looking for it. Those memories must stay forgotten. It is possible that you doubt the truth of this message. To that I tell you Trion."
The hologram fads as the three of them look on in silence.
"What does Trion mean?" Ianto asks Jestine.
"It means we did this to ourselves." Jestine replies before storming out.
"Code word. Time Agent trick." Jack explains gravely. "Proof that Jestine wasn't saying it under duress."
"But who is Trion?"
"The reason for Jestine joining the Time Agency." Jack replies. He reaches out to Ianto. Ianto allows himself to be pulled towards Jack. "Whatever the threat was, I'm glad you're ok."
"I was worried when you weren't in the conference room with us." Ianto confesses.
"You know I'm always alright." Jack comforts him.
"Just because you can't stay dead doesn't mean you don't hurt. I didn't know what state you might be in when we found you." Ianto cups Jack's cheek, caressing it. "I love you Jack and hate it when anything happens to you."
"Better me than you. I'll heal, you won't." Jack replies as he tangles his hands in Ianto's hair. "I love you too." He whispers before pulling Ianto in for a deep passionate kiss.
Ianto rests his forehead against Jack's when they finally part, both panting. "We should probably go see how the others are doing."
"Or we could just stay here." Jack waggles his eyebrows suggestively.
"Get everything sorted, then you can send them home early." Ianto orders Jack.
Jack sighs but pulls away from Ianto. He slides a hand from Ianto's hair to his hand, grasping it slightly. "Fine but then just you and me."
Ianto presses a quick kiss to Jack's mouth. "Once everything is sorted." He agrees.
They walk out of the cells hand in hand.
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"I don't believe you." Gwen yells at Jestine. "You probably did it."
"Why the hell would I erase the teams and mine memory." Jestine yells back.
"You're lying. You probably killed someone and retconned us so we wouldn't remember." Gwen screams.
"Whoa, what's going on?" Jack interrupts the yelling match.
"She retconned us." Gwen screeches as she gestures wildly at Jestine.
"I showed them the hologram but she doesn't believe me." Jestine gives Jack a look. He immediately understands that she left out the bit about Trion, it was to be kept a secret.
"Why would we willingly retcon ourselves?" Gwen glares at Jestine.
"There are aliens out there that prey on the mind. The only way to get rid of them is to erase all memory of them." Jack doesn't mention that there was no actual proof of these creatures, only myth and rumour.
"Seems convenient that she returns just as we lose our memories." Gwen argues.
"I'm missing memories too." Jestine huffs at Gwen.
"So you claim but we can't prove that's true." Gwen scowls.
"This is ridiculous. I'm going to grab some proper clothes, hopefully by time I come back you will have stopped being so stupid." Jestine glares at Gwen as she punches in buttons.
"You could try walking there like a normal person." Ianto remarks as Jestine disappears in a golden light.
"Was that necessary?" Jack glares at Gwen.
"She's lying. I know she did this." Gwen protests.
"She doesn't have access to the Retcon." Ianto interjects.
"Maybe she stole some or tricked one of us to get for her." Gwen argues.
"No Gwen. You need to let it go. Jestine was not responsible for what happened. Either learn to trust your teammates or leave Torchwood." Jack threatens.
Gwen opens and closes her mouth in shock.
"There isn't anything you can do here, you should go home, spend some time with Rhys." Jack nudges Gwen towards the cog.
"She's hiding things Jack and if you keep ignoring it someone will get hurt." Gwen warns before storming out.
Jack turns away from her. "You two can leave too." He addresses Tosh and Owen.
"I need to check on Jestine first. Before she left she has just been shot. Who knows what other injuries she got while she was away." Owen mutters as he heads to his desk.
"I just want to make sure nothing was compromised during the missing time." Tosh explains to Jack.
"What are these?" Jack turns around to see Jestine holding a bunch of roses. She was dressed in her normal leather pants and jacket, her weapons back in place.
"Those are flowers." Ianto replies. "Where'd you get them?"
"They were sitting on your desk." Jestine hands them to him. "There appears to be some kind of means of communication amongst them."
"A card, we call it a card." Ianto absently replies as he reads the card. He frowns at it.
"What does it say?" Tosh asks as she smells one of the flowers.
"To Ianto, love and apologies, Owen." Ianto reads out as he looks to Owen.
"Why'd you send him flowers?" Jestine looks quizzical.
"Probably someone's idea of a joke. No way I'll send Teaboy a bunch of roses." Owen snarks back.
"Are those roses?" Jestine moves to have a closer look at the flowers.
"Haven't you seen roses before?" Ianto asks.
Jestine shakes her head. "I thought they were just a name."
"The name comes from the flower." Jack explains. He smiles. "Knew a girl once called Rose, she was exactly like the flower."
"A plant?" Jestine asks confused.
Jack laughs. "No. She was beautiful and looked delicate, just like the petals of a rose but had a hidden dangerous side just like roses have thorns."
"Or like a wolf." Jestine suggests.
Jack looks at her in surprise. Wolf wasn't something most people associated roses with. Jack himself wouldn't even make the connection if it weren't for Rose. Jestine's statement niggles at the back of Jack's mind but Tosh interrupts his thoughts before they can fully form.
"Should I be jealous that my boyfriend is sending you flowers?" Tosh teases.
"Must have lost a bet or something." Owen mutters in reply.
"Who knows what happened the last few days." Ianto shrugs. "You should take them Tosh, they'll look lovely in your kitchen."
Tosh blushes. "Or Owen's."
Ianto grins. "Tosh, you didn't? And without telling me." He mocks shock. "How long have you been shacked up with him then?"
Tosh blushes again. "Only about a week ago. I was going to tell you but everything has been a little busy with Jestine gone and Gwen restricted to desk duty."
Jestine frowns at the conversation. "What does it mean to be shacked up?"
"Living together." Tosh explains, blushing. "Owen and I are living together."
Jack grins. "Do I need to give him the speech?" He teases.
"You think I'm stupid enough to hurt Tosh?" Owen remarks.
"Well it did take you years to ask her out." Ianto points out.
"What do you mean by the speech?" Jestine questions Jack.
"In this case it was a joke but when daughters start dating fathers will often warn the boyfriend about hurting her." Ianto explains.
"Oh." Jestine exclaims. "I guess that's sweet, that they care." She replies sadly.
"If you ever date, I'll do the warning for you." Jack jokes.
Jestine glance briefly at Jack. "Yeah, sure. I guess we can't just say I apologised to Gwen during the missing time?" Jestine quickly changes the topic.
Jack laughs. "Good try but no. I know you two have conflicting views but you need to learn to get along. And part of that involves you apologising to her."
"I know. Where is it that she goes when she is not here?"
"Do you really think turning up at her place is a good idea, especially after the fight you two have just had?" Ianto shakes his head at Jestine.
Jestine shrugs. "Is there really going to be a better time? She always has problems with what I do. She'll be as angry with me tomorrow as now."
Jack sighs. "Wait till tomorrow, at least then she would have time to calm down from today."
Jestine huffs but doesn't argue. "Sure. Tomorrow then. Anything else?"
"I need to check you over. Who knows what trouble you got yourself into while you were away." Owen orders Jestine.
Jestine smirks. "Well there was this guy at the bar…"
"Do not want to hear it, just get to the medical bay." Owen gags at the thought as he moves to the medical bay, Jestine in tow.
"I think we should drop Jestine off on our way home. Make sure she actually gets some sleep instead of getting into trouble." Jack suggests.
Ianto nods. "I'll just check where she lives." Ianto heads to the workstations.
"It isn't on the records." Tosh informs him before he gets there.
"What do you mean?" Jack asks Tosh.
"The address she gave was to some junkyard in Shoreditch, London." Tosh replies.
Ianto reads the file over Tosh's shoulder. He sighs. "We'll talk to her about giving correct information."
"Sorry, I should have checked the information better when she first joined." Tosh apologises.
"It's not your fault. Anyone of us could have, we were just too busy to do it." Ianto pulls Tosh in for a hug.
Jack feels a twinge of guilt. He should have thought more about the team before he had ran off with The Doctor. He was very lucky that they had been here when he got back.
"Oi, hands off the girlfriend." Owen mock glares at Ianto.
"Medical exam over already?" Jack eyes Jestine.
"Completely healed, no sign at all of any injury." Owen grumbles. "Claims they can do that in the future."
Jestine rolls her eyes. "You really should start believing me on these things."
"Right, we're all heading off once you two have packed up." Jack feels like a father interrupting a squabbling match. "And you," he points to Jestine, "need to give us your correct information tomorrow."
"I gave you all the correct information I can." Jestine replies.
"Like your home being a junk yard in London?" Jack mocks.
Jestine rolls her eyes. "Ok, so some of it is a little wrong."
"Is it that difficult for you to just tell us the truth?" Jack queries.
"Yes, yes it is sometimes." Jestine glares at him.
"What's so difficult about telling us where you live?" Jack challenges.
"Because I don't live anywhere." Jestine snarls.
"What? You have to live somewhere. Where do you go when you're not here?" Tosh enquiries.
Jestine shrugs. "Here and there. Bars mostly or just skip ahead."
"What about sleeping and eating? Where do you keep your belongings?" Ianto asks.
Jestine shakes her head. "Don't sleep that much, certainly not enough to get a place. I just sleep here. And don't really have much stuff."
"But you still have to keep them somewhere." Ianto argues.
"I keep them on me or in a bag in my locker." Jestine confesses.
"Is that all you have?" Owen questions in disbelief.
"At the Time Agency we were taught to travel light." Jestine replies defensively.
"But we all had bases where we kept our stuff. You don't have anything from when you were younger?" Jack knows the answer without asking.
"What things could I possibly have? You collect photos and objects from your school days, from your jobs. Friends and family. Where would I have gotten it from? I never got any of that." Jestine yells at them.
Jack reaches out for her but her glare stops him. "Can we just not do this?" Jestine pleads with them. "It's a touchy subject. If it's alright with you all I just want to go and get drunk."
"As your doctor I would advise you against that." Owen comments. "But as your friend I say as long as you let us come with you."
"Friend? Really?" Jestine asks in astonishment. "You consider us friends?"
"We all are." Jack reassures her. "I know you don't want to talk about it but we are here for you."
Jestine's gaze flickers over the team before she gives a small smile. "Thank you. I've not had many of them before."
"Team night out." Jack declares before things can get too emotional.
"Should we let Gwen know?" Ianto enquires.
Jack pauses in thought. "I guess we should. Get her to invite Rhys with her. Let him get to know the team a little more."
Ianto nods before heading to Jack's office to make the call.
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Jestine nurses a whisky as she watches Rhys, Owen, Tosh and Gwen play pool.
"What happened while you were away?" Jack asks as he sits down next to her.
"Like I told Owen, there was this guy at the bar…" Jestine teases.
"You don't have to tell me but I know something happened." Jack responds seriously.
Jestine glances at him before sighing. "Lots of things happened. Not a lot of it was good."
Jack sits silently, waiting for Jestine to open up as she chose.
She smiles. "I helped a few people. Had some fun." Her smile fades. "Lost an old friend."
"I'm sorry." Jack murmurs. He knew that pain only too well.
"He died defending his people. He was happy with that." Jestine replies, her voice strained. "He died only minutes before reinforcements arrived. If he had just hung on a little longer." She slams her glass down.
Jack shots the barman an apologetic look.
"He helped me through some tough times." Jestine continues after draining her drink. "I lost all purpose. He gave me a purpose. Now what do I have?"
"You have the team, you have Earth to fight for." Jack replies.
"No I don't. I shouldn't even be here." Jestine replies forcefully.
"Why not?" Jack argues.
"Timelines." Jestine replies.
"It doesn't matter that we knew each other at the Time Agency." Jack pacifies her.
"If only it was just that." Jestine laughs bitterly.
"What do you mean?" Jack asks harshly.
"Our timelines cross, a lot." Jestine replies. "Our past, present and futures are all mixed in together. By being here I risk messing with that."
Jack chuckles. "I was born in the 51st century and have lived here since the late 19th century. If I haven't messed up the timelines by now you should be right." Jack jokes.
Jestine glares at him. "This is no joking matter. You don't understand the complexity involved with our timelines. It isn't as simple as we met in the wrong order. We influence each other's lives so much that even a slight deviation could be devastating to the timelines. And with you being a fixed point in time that could lead to unknown ramifications throughout time and space."
"Then tell me who you are." Jack demands.
"I can't. There are things that must happen that you can't know. There are things that happened that you must never find out about." Jestine protests.
"What does that mean?" Jack grabs Jestine's arm as she makes to get up.
Jestine wretches her arm free. "It means we both hurt each other over and over again and there is nothing we can do about it." She hisses before storming off.
"What was that?" Ianto asks as he watches Jestine burst out the bar.
Jack sighs. "Timelines apparently."
Ianto shots Jack a confused look but he doesn't elaborate. "Tosh was wondering if you wanted to play a game." Ianto changes topic.
"Sure, why not." Jack walks with Ianto to the pool table, glancing over his shoulder at the still swinging door that Jestine had slammed out of.
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"Whoa!" Rhys calls out as he is almost bowled over by the door flinging open.
"You ok?" He asks as he realises the person responsible was Jestine.
"Fine." She replies curtly.
"What happened?" Rhys wasn't about to be fobbed off. While he didn't know Jestine well, he had actually liked her, despite Gwen's protests. And he wasn't about to let her go running off upset.
"Just leave it." Jestine insists.
"You're upset, I'm not going to let you run off like that. Anyone could take advantage of you." Rhys argues.
Jestine laughs. "I appreciate the sentiment but that isn't likely."
"Still, you're upset. Did Gwen say something to you?" Rhys loved Gwen dearly but sometimes she needed to learn when to keep quiet.
"No, not Gwen." Jestine replies.
"What was it then?" Rhys asks.
Jestine sighs. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."
"You're my friend, of course I'll worry about it." Rhys immediately retorts.
Jestine is taken a back. "You're my friend?"
"Aren't I?"
"I just never considered it. You barely know me, don't friends know lots about each other?" Jestine asks in confusion.
"We faced guys cutting up a giant space whale. It's one of those situations that overrides normal social rules." Rhys chuckles.
Jestine frowns for a moment. "Thank you I guess."
"Please just let me know what's wrong. I mightn't be one of you alien catches but I still know a thing or two about solving problems." Rhys pleads.
Jestine finally relents. "Just Jack."
"You two have an argument?" Rhys works to clarify the situation.
"Sort of." Jestine sighs again. "It's a little complicated."
"You work for a secret organisation that catches aliens. What's more complicated than that?" Rhys asks perplexed.
"You know the saying about your past hurting your present?" Jestine asks.
Rhys nods. He knew of similar sayings, everyone did.
"This is a case of the past and future hurting the present, and the future and past." Jestine answers.
Rhys looks at Jestine in confusion.
"Time is complicated, especially when it comes to my relationship with Jack. I know him from all different points throughout his timeline." Jestine explains. "Sometimes it means I know what is going on and sometimes he does."
"And this is one of the times when he knows more than you?" Rhys hazards a guess.
Jestine shakes her head. "I know things he doesn't, Things that are long gone and things still to come."
"And Jack wants to know about his future?" Rhys guesses.
"No. He knows better than that." Jestine replies. "But the conversation brought up some unpleasant memories." Jestine admits.
"It's rubbish. People your age shouldn't be worrying about all this stuff. You should be out getting drunk with friends and making bad decisions." Rhys rants.
Jestine chuckles at the image. "You think I'm not doing that now?"
Rhys chuckles before turning serious. "I'm here if you want to talk about anything."
Jestine gives him a small smile. "I do appreciate the offer. Thank you."
"Want to head back inside?" Rhys gestures to the door.
Jestine declines. "No, I think I might just have a quiet one."
"I'm serious, let me know if there is anything you need." Rhys reinforces his message.
"I will." Jestine promises before pressing some buttons on her vortex manipulator. "I'll see you some other time." Jestine smiles before disappearing in a white light.
Rhys shakes his head at the strange conversation before heading back into the bar.
Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think. Reset up next week.