Time Doesn't Always Run Straight
Reset
Part 2
Part 2 done! This does look like it will end up being a long story so please bare with me. Thank you again to everyone reading, favoriting, following and reviewing. So a couple of things that I would like to address that was pointed out by reviewers.
First: Gwen will stop harping on about Jestine shooting Beth. It will be mentioned again but in a different context.
Secondly: Jack is being hard on Jestine because he is worried. She is very quick to shoot and he is worried that she doesn't think through all the options and this could lead to her killing someone when it isn't needed to be done. Plus it reminds him of the Time Agency and we all know how he feels about that.
Thirdly: Jack doesn't want Jestine to be involved with The Doctor for a number of reasons so while he realizes she is, he doesn't want to admit it.
Fourth: We all know what happens at the end of Reset. This won't be changing but please trust me. There is a much bigger plan in place that will make it all worthwhile.
The tour ends at the workstations. Martha picks up and looks at an alien gadget on a table.
"You've got some well weird kit. What's this?" Martha asks as Owen comes up from the autopsy bay.
"Be careful. It's alien artifact." Jack warns.
"We don't know. Haven't been able to work it out." Jestine comments as she observes Martha playing with it.
"Despite you supposedly being the "expert" on everything alien." Gwen mutters.
"Never said that." Jestine sneers back. "Just that I know more than you. Not that that's difficult."
"Yeah, There's a lot of argument about this. But for my money, it's got to be a surgical instrument." Owen takes initiative and stops the argument before it can get too heated.
It hums as he powers it on and twists the side knob.
"Really?" Martha asks.
"He's just guessing." Jestine replies. "He wants the fun new gadget."
Owen ignores Jestine as he fiddles with it. "Hmm. Okay, right. Well, I call it a 'singularity scalpel.' See, what it does is concentrates energy on a tiny fixed point without damaging anything on the way. It's brilliant." Owen describes.
Despite everything she had seen with The Doctor, Martha still found new things exciting. "It's amazing." She grins.
"Yeah, do you remember the last time you did that, Owen…? Gwen warns.
Owen glares at Gwen. While last time was unfortunate, he had studied it a lot since then. "Yes, yes. Right, now, all we're going to do is, we're going to vaporize this paper without even scorching the cup." He explains as he puts a paper cup on the table and scrunches up some paper into a ball, putting it inside the paper cup.
Jack leads Martha to behind Owen for safety. "This is going to end in tears." He mutters. Gwen pushes her chair away from the table while Jestine moves in to beside Owen, eager for the demonstration.
"Okay." Owen mutters as he aims the singularity scalpel at the paper cup. He turns knobs to adjust it, the screen showing the cup. He turns the knobs as he focuses on the paper ball inside. He doesn't hear the approaching footsteps as he finishes adjusting it.
Ianto walks by just as Owen fires. The pulse misses the cup and hits machinery at the workstation in the far corner. Ianto yells as the beam narrowing avoided him.
He turns and glares at Owen.
"Uh, haven't quite got the calibration right yet." Owen mutters as Gwen starts laughing. Jack shots his lover a concerned look who smiles at him in reassurance. Ianto glares at them before stepping up to the platform and tugging his suit down.
"There's been another attack. Assault with a hypodermic. Only this time, the victim survived. Woman, aged 27. She's in the hospital. Medical records wiped, just like the others." Ianto explains.
Jack nods. "Ianto, Martha and I will go." Jack informs them.
The team quickly start moving.
Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood
Gwen scowls as she watches Jestine play with the artifact that Owen had dubbed the 'singularity scalpel.'
"You shouldn't be playing with it, it's dangerous, you could hurt someone." She reprimands Jestine.
Jestine rolls her eyes. "It's not that dangerous, I've dealt with things a million times more dangerous."
"Well I don't care, it's not a toy. I don't want to be blown up or anything because you were being stupid." Gwen glares at Jestine.
Jestine glares back. "I'm not being 'stupid.' I'm trying to work it out." Jestine tells Gwen in an exasperated tone.
Tosh sighs as she hears Gwen and Jestine's latest argument. Ever since she had gotten back, Jestine had been even more argumentative and having both her and Gwen on desk duty was proving difficult.
"Can you two keep it down?" Tosh hopes an interruption might stop it before it blew into a full on argument.
"I'm just trying to be productive, unlike others." Jestine looks pointedly at Gwen.
Gwen glares back. Sure she had been looking at wedding things instead of the case but that didn't give Jestine any right to be so rude.
"Can you come give me a hand instead?" Tosh decides moving them apart is the best course of action.
Jestine shrugs. "I can try but I doubt I could do much better than you. I'm much better at the hacking than the tracing."
"Of course you are." Gwen mutters.
"What does that mean?" Jestine gives Gwen an accusatory glare.
"It means you are a criminal and it's no surprise that you know how to hack things. Seems all you know is how to break the law." Gwen spits at Jestine.
"Gwen stop it." Tosh glares at the both of them. "How about you look up the police reports on the cases, maybe you can find something that they missed. Jestine you should catch up with your paperwork."
Gwen glares at Jestine but turns back to her desk to complete the tasks. Jestine saunters.
Tosh sighs as she finally gets some peace and quiet from them.
Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood
Owen and Martha work fast as they prepare the samples Martha had collected from the latest victim.
"What happened to Jack while he was gone?" Owen asks.
Martha looks at Owen in shock. She didn't think Jack had talked about The Year That Never Was so the team shouldn't know who she was.
"Jestine mentioned about you being a former companion of The Doctor, we know Jack ran off with The Doctor, not a hard leap to make." Owen answers her silent question.
"How do you know something happened?" Martha tries to fob him off.
"I'm not an idiot." Owen scoffs before his tone turns softer. "The way he looked at us, as if he had been expecting us to be dead."
"I'm sorry but if he hasn't told you I can't." Martha decides to have a word with Jack once everything is sorted. He had been through a lot and needed support.
"Can you tell me how long it was for him then?" Owen asks.
"What makes you think it was any longer for him than you?" Martha again tries to fob him off.
"Again, not an idiot." Owen replies. "He was too disjointed for it to have been a short trip."
"I'm sorry but I can't tell you if Jack hasn't. You should ask him." Martha suggests.
Owen snorts. "Because he is such an open book."
"Must be a Torchwood thing." Martha mutters.
"Why you think that?" Owen questions her.
"Jestine." Martha replies. "I know I haven't been here long but I keep getting the impression she is hiding something."
Owen shrugs. "Aren't we all?"
"Not like it. It seems like something big." Martha argues.
"What kind of big?" Owen asks.
"I'm not sure yet but I will get to the bottom of it." Martha promises. "Seriously, does it not bother you that you know like nothing about her?"
Owen shrugs. "She is highly skilled at both weapons and hand to hand combat. Knows a hell of a lot more about aliens than anyone of us, besides maybe Jack. And knows who knows how many alien languages. What more do we need to know?"
"There is something, I just know it." Martha shakes her head before turning back to her work.
Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood
"What you doing?" Jestine calls out from atop the autopsy bay.
"My job, why aren't you doing yours?" Owen replies.
"Paperwork is boring." Jestine grumbles.
"Surely you're done by now? It's been over a week." Owen scolds her.
"There's a lot there." Jestine sulks.
"Not that much, seriously how long does it take you to do each form?" Owen questions her.
"You try filling in paperwork in a strange language." Jestine mutters.
"English not your first language?" Martha asks in surprise.
Jestine shakes her head in response.
"What is then?" Martha's curiosity is out of control when it comes to the newest member of Torchwood.
"You wouldn't know it. Practically a dead language." Jestine responds. "So ammonium hydroxide, you worked out why they used it yet?" She quickly changes topic.
Owen frowns at the thought. He had been focusing on why they were killing the people, not why that method.
"To kill them." Martha suggests.
"Yeah, maybe." Jestine shrugs. "Just seems a little odd, don't you think?"
"What do you mean?" Martha turns her full attention to Jestine.
"Seems like there are easier ways to kill people." Jestine answers. "I've used many methods to kill but never ammonium hydroxide." Jestine explains. "Quicker and more reliable methods."
Martha looks at Jestine in terror.
"Yeah, yeah, you're a mass-murderer." Owen rolls his eyes. "Tell me what you think."
"Assassin is more accurate in this context." Jestine frowns. "But I guess mass-murderer isn't inaccurate."
"Did you just say assassin?" Martha asks, panicky.
"It was a long time ago." Jestine tries to comfort Martha.
"But you killed people, for money." Martha argues.
"How do you even become an assassin?" Owen asks.
"I went through a rough patch. Some stuff happened and I needed to work out where I was heading in life." Jestine snarls defensively.
"Most people go on a road trip." Owen quips.
Jestine glares. "Most people don't kill a whole species."
"This is a nightmare. I will wake up any minute." Martha mutters to herself.
"Ok, that's kinda messed up, even by Torchwood standards." Owen comments.
"They had it coming." Jestine tries to defend herself. "They killed and destroyed a lot more than I did."
"Still doesn't justify it." Martha frowns at Jestine. "Are you even sorry for it?"
"So the ammonium hydroxide, what do you think of it?" Owen decides that no good could come from the current conversation.
Jestine shrugs again. "It doesn't really make sense. A lot of effort to kill someone, especially in the eye. What if it wasn't used just to kill it?"
"What it has another purpose?" Owen quires.
"More reasonable than using it to kill." Jestine replies.
Owen slams his fist on the bench as the thought rushes to him. "It's like injecting them with bleach."
"Why though?" Jestine asks.
"It destroys evidence in their bloodstream, something they don't want anyone to know." Owen exclaims.
"But what?" Jestine asks.
"Evidence." Martha muses as she looks at the test tubes, trying to think of what just what evidence could possibly need such drastic measures.
Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood
The team crowd around in Jack's office, Marie's picture and info on clean board doubling as a monitor.
Jack summarizes the information. "Locally, we've got a murder victim and a survivor. Both attacked with hypodermics, both with their medical records wiped."
"And more cases across the UK. We think the point of the attacks is to destroy evidence of their medical condition." Martha explains what they had discovered.
Jack thinks for a moment, deciding on who he wanted to do what.
"Gwen, Ianto, pursue the criminal investigation." Gwen and Ianto nod in acknowledgement.
"Martha, Owen will follow up with the medical side. Tosh, any luck in retrieving those medical records?"
Tosh shakes her head. "Not yet. I'm gonna have to dig down into the system memories, see if I can find any remnants of deleted or temporary files. Completely illegally, of course."
Jack nods, having faith in his tech expert.
"Jestine I want you to try and find a connection between the victims, search for any information on them that can link them."
"Hacking allowed?" Jestine shots Gwen a look.
"Do what you have to, that goes for all of you. We're not dealing with a freak with some needle fetish. This is a conspiracy." Jack is flooded with pride as he watches his team and Martha exit to their tasks. They had his full confidence and he knew it would be only a matter of time before they found the people behind it.
Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood
"Jack they just found another body in HeathPark. From initial reports, it's got all the hallmarks of the other attacks." Ianto passes on the information Tosh had given him.
"Right." Jack nods, thinking. As Gwen was looking at the criminal investigation she should rightly go with Ianto to investigate but she was on desk duty after the previous mission.
"Gwen, I'm going to allow you to go to HeathPark with Ianto. Your field ban still stands unless it is necessary such as in this case. The same goes for you." Jack informs Jestine. "But only when I deem necessary."
Jestine sighs but doesn't push it.
"What did Gwen do to get field suspension?" Martha asks Owen. They were pinning the latest test results on the board but still no closer to answers.
"She slapped Jestine." Owen replies. "And said she probably killed her parents' because she is such a monster."
"God, that's a bit harsh." Martha glances over at Jestine. "What did Jestine do?"
"Punched her." Owen replies.
"It's a madhouse here." Martha shakes her head in disbelief.
"It's not always that bad. Plus the rest of us are sane." Owen reassures Martha.
"That is questionable." Ianto comments as he moves past on his way out.
"Speak for yourself." Owen calls out.
"Complete madhouse." Martha mutters.
Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood-Torchwood
Martha wanders aimlessly as she waits for the latest results to come back.
She was walking along one of the deserted lower tunnels below the main hub. On either side were rooms that looked as if they hadn't been opened for decades.
Movement in one of them startles her. She looks in to find Jestine pointing a gun at her.
Jestine gives a sigh of relief and she collapses back on the couch she had been reclining on. "Sorry, no-one usually comes down this way. Couldn't be sure that it wasn't an invasion."
"You really think someone could invade Torchwood?" Martha calms herself.
"Why not?" Jestine replies. "Sit down if you want." Jestine inclines her head towards the empty end of the couch.
Martha nervously enters the room, taking it all in. The room contained an old couch, a small military style bed, a locker, a table and a chair. Jestine watches her take it in.
"Sorry but what is this?" Martha asks Jestine as she sits down.
"Apparently everyone needs a base." Jestine explains.
"You live here?" Martha asks in surprise.
Jestine shrugs. "As good a place as any."
"Does Jack know you live here?"
Jestine shakes her head. "He'll make me find an actual place to live."
"And that's worse than this." Martha gestures to the cold room.
"For me, yes. I spend most of my time with Torchwood, I don't need much and this is more discreet than anywhere else." Jestine explains.
"Why do you need discreet?"
"Timelines." Jestine replies.
"What does that mean?" Martha asks. She had already heard Jestine mention it before but still wasn't sure exactly what she meant.
"I'm guessing Jack told you a little of my background." Jestine eyes Martha.
Martha has to resists the urge to squirm. "He told me that you knew him in his past and future." She confesses.
"That's some it." Jestine nods.
"And the rest?"
"You faced the weeping angels didn't you?" Jestine ignores Martha's question.
"How did you know that?" Martha has a sneaky suspicion but wants Jestine to say it.
"You're smart, guess." Jestine challenges Martha.
"Jack probably told you." Martha won't play Jestine's game.
Jestine gives a derisive snort. "You can do better than that."
"So you do know him. Why haven't you told Jack?"
Jestine shrugs. "Didn't come up."
"That's rubbish. Why haven't you really told him you know The Doctor?" Martha challenges Jestine.
Jestine sighs. "It's complicated."
Martha raises a skeptical eyebrow.
"I already know him in his past, that he doesn't remember. And I know him in the future. How suspicions do you think it's going to look if I then know such a significant person in his life?" Jestine points out. "He barely believes I arrived here accidently, how is he going to act if he knew I know The Doctor?"
"Accidentally?" Martha queries.
"I set it to random." Jestine indicates to her Vortex Manipulator. "Was going to try and start again."
"And you just stumbled across the Torchwood team?" Martha asks skeptically.
"He interfered with it." Jestine sulks. "Sent me here instead."
"The Doctor?" Martha guesses.
Jestine shakes her head. "No, Jack."
Martha is again shocked by Jestine. "I don't understand."
"He had already lived through all this and knew I had to come to Torchwood." Jestine explains. "He was maintaining the integrity of the timelines. I just wished he had warned me, just this once." Jestine finishes bitterly.
Martha can feel a headache coming on trying to work out the timelines.
"It's a little like when you met Sally Sparrow." Jestine explains seeing the confused look on Martha's face. "You hadn't experienced it when you first met her but she had already."
"Time-Whiney." Martha nods, half understanding.
Jestine scowls slightly. "Yeah, that's one way to describe it. Not a good way but a way."
"You seem to know a lot about my travels with The Doctor." Martha comments.
"He talked about you a lot." Jestine tells her. "He was sorry for how he treated you. Rose was the first face he saw when he regenerated. He loses so many but it always hurts more when it's the first one." Jestine explains.
"And he couldn't tell that to me." Martha scoffs.
"From what I've heard that regeneration wasn't much good with explaining his emotions." Jestine tries to comfort Martha.
"So you travelled with a later version of him. Makes sense." Martha reasons.
"One regeneration later." Jestine supplies.
"So he is better?" Martha only knew the one version of The Doctor but had spoken to The Brigadier extensively about his own experiences with multiple Doctors, sometimes at the same time!
Jestine shrugs. "I didn't really know your one."
"So you met him just before he regenerated." Martha guesses.
"In a way." Jestine answers cryptically.
"What does that mean?"
"Again, complicated." Jestine answers. She eyes Martha critically. "I traveled with The Doctor from a very young age, I don't remember all of it."
"Ok, that explains how you know The Doctor but not why you joined the Time Agency. The Doctor never spoke highly of them." Martha points out.
"I'll tell you if you promise that you don't tell anyone." Jestine bargains with Martha.
"Why not?" Martha asks confused.
"There are things Jack can't know about before he experiences them. Our timelines are complicated so I don't know what he can and can't know. It's safer if just doesn't know anything."
Martha frowns. "Seems you trust me with a lot considering you only just met me."
"The Doctor trusts you, therefore I trust you." Jestine replies. "You can't let Jack know. The less he knows about my past the safer it is."
"Ok, I won't tell Jack anything." Martha promises.
"I traveled with The Doctor for years but eventually I left. I settled down in one place. I had a family for a while." A ghost of a smile creeps across Jestine's face before shattering. "Then they came. I lost everything that day. I couldn't do anything to save them but I swore to avenge them."
"So why join the Time Agency? Couldn't The Doctor help you?"
Jestine snorts. "I asked. He wouldn't, said that to condemn a species would make me as bad as them. The Time Agency was the only way I could get the information I needed."
"And you met Jack there." Martha points out.
"I didn't even know he had been part of the Time Agency. I would have stayed right away if I knew."
"Ok, so you traveled with The Doctor, left, something bad happened, you joined the Time Agency and then Jack sent you to Torchwood." Martha tries to summaries Jestine's story.
"Well lots more happened but that is the basics of it." Jestine replies.
"Still I don't understand why I can't tell Jack. He knows you were part of the Time Agency."
"We ran into Jack numerous times. The Doctor and I." Jestine explains. "I don't want to risk him knowing anything about those times."
"Wait, Jack, not Torchwood." Martha picks up on the wording.
Jestine sighs. "I don't know the details but he leaves at some point. And our timelines intersect in ways he can't know, not yet."
"Wow, that is something else." Martha exclaims. "You should write a soap opera."
Jestine frowns. "I don't understand, what's a soap opera?"
"Never mind. Just that is a complicated story. I'm having trouble getting my head around it."
"Try living it." Jestine chuckles.
"But isn't it dangerous, you being here if you know Jack's future?"
"Apparently I'm meant to be here." Jestine shrugs. "I minimize the risk where possible."
"That is just crazy." Martha mutters to herself.
Hope you enjoyed that. Thank you for reading, please let me know what you thought. Thank you so much for all the support.