Torchwood Three

General Trefor Williams held Nessa's hand and tapped the com controls with his other one. The situation had gotten out of hand. Even with continual contact, he could tell how his father was resolving the emotional exchange. His mother entered the conference room carrying baby Trefor.

"John, we need to resolve this quickly." He explained the situation. "You can't come back until the connections are severed."

"Can you remove your wrist-strap?"

Reluctantly, he did it. He couldn't remember the last time he took it off. He rubbed his wrist. "It faded. I can still feel the connection."

"Luc thinks it has to do with time and quantum entanglement. A passive device is affecting the area."

"Nessa, how do you break the connection?" Gwen asked.

"I help Trefor tell the difference between energies." Nessa hesitated. "I've never had to explain how it works before."

"Nessa has a Rift ability?"

"I'm a witch."

"Luc will love that." John exhaled. "Does she have Rift energy?"

"I don't know." The general realized he should have checked that.

"Check for CN, Rift Energy and chronons. Jack should still test positive for CN. If she can disrupt CN, and clear Jack, it should resolve the problem."

"That… that would be creepy." Nessa said.

"Why?" John sounded confused.

"The process requires physical contact. You're asking my lover to make-out with my father."

"We need a different approach. While that sounds preversely amusing, Anwen would probably blow up the hub."

"Why?" Gwen asked.

"Remember how bad I was the day you met me? Angry, jealous, out-of-control…" John trailed off. "She's going back and forth between telling me I'm going to buy her a horse and saying that if I try to leave her again, she's going to kill me."

"What am I missing?"

"I'm connected to my father. John is connected to a ten year-old girl with an impressive Rift ability."

"How does anyone wind up sharing emotions with their kid?"

"She was in her thirties when I met her."

Trefor covered his face with a splayed hand.

"Is he high?"

"No, darling, I'm not high. Your boyfriend should have mentioned you're not Torchwood."

"John, you're sounding like Anwen." Gwen said, "She's keeping him separated from Jack."

"Do the scans, disrupt Jack's CN. If that works, we have a place to start. As for eye candy, tell him to watch, he might learn something." The com was disconnected.

"What is his problem?"

Trefor runs his hand free hand through his hair and sets it on the back of his neck. "He's psycho."

"I will get the scan equipment." Gwen stood and set baby Trefor on her hip.

"Thanks, mom."

"Mom?" Nessa asked, after Gwen left.

"I was born in 2017. That ten year-old trapped with John is a younger version of my sister."

"The baby." She squeezed his hand. "That's why they call you 'the general.'"

"I'm sorry." He set his forehead on her hand.

"What are you worried about? No one would believe me if I tried telling them you're from the future."

"Torchwood takes over your life. Once you're in, there is no way out. Unless we erase your memory."

Nessa ran her fingers through his hair. "Ianto has owl feathers on his desk." A beat. "Its said the owl is a messenger of the Otherworld that she has unusual ways to teach lessons or solve problems."

"Better to stay away from Ianto. There are things you don't want to know."

Nessa sighed. "You have a problem with your father's boyfriend?"

"I piss him off. He threatens to shoot me."

She laughed. "What did you do?"

"It doesn't matter."

"He's a sweetheart." She paused. "Wait. He babysits your younger self and threatens to shoot you?"

"It gets stranger."

Gwen Cooper reviewed the scan results wishing, not for the first time, that Tosh and Owen were still alive. Nessa's results were negative. The general still had Rift energy and chronons despite continual physical contact. With no idea how the CN, or the connection worked, that didn't mean much.

"You have no Rift energy. Your sister has no Rift energy and is stable despite a fatal dose of CN. Your brother has Rift energy."

"He was touched by the Otherworld. He came back from the dead."

"Your aunt mentioned that. She said he was dead for three minutes. What did she mean that he didn't come back alone?"

"The strange stuff that happens around Malcolm started after he came back. I don't remember a lot of it. He was four. I was seven. But he talked about being in utter darkness and a voice talking to him."

"Do his eyes go black? Does he talk in tongues?"

Nessa stared at her a moment. "Demon possession?"

"No. A past case in which a man was brought back from the dead."

"My brother returned with empathy. He's caring and compassionate to the point of being labeled gay." Nessa shook her head. "As the women in my family have gifts from the Otherworld, it was thought Malcolm came back with one." She thought. "My aunt, Colina, said he didn't come back alone? She didn't explain?"

"She said there were questions we shouldn't ask."

The door opened and Jack stepped into the conference room. His hair was wet and he'd changed his clothes. He looked calmer.

Gwen explained the discussion with John and what they knew about Malcolm. "Another Resurrection device?"

"No. There is a theory that suggests a connection between quantum entanglement and human consciousness. Luc would probably know what its called." Jack sounded tired. "Its a crazy theory that has been disproven."

"Do you know where Malcolm died?" The general asked.

"The car park of the Red Dragon Centre. He went into anaphylatic shock after a movie."

"Borthwick destabilized the entire structure. The foundation, the tunnel. He could have breached the walls here, if we hadn't gotten to him in time," the general said.

"If it was us," Gwen said, "The biomechs would have triggered it when they breached last year."

"We will find it." Jack looked at Nessa. "What do you need to do to clear the CN?"

"Go wait in the hall." Nessa told Trefor.

Gwen stood. "We're going to join him." She picked up baby Trefor from the corner and headed out.

Jack Harkness wondered as Nessa approached him, looking a bit uneasy. By everyone's reaction, including Ianto who refused to come upstairs, he suspected it involved sexual contact. He'd seen Nessa calm Trefor simply by touching him. Which could have been residual.

"When I separated Trefor both times, he was overwhelmed by guilt. It was very specific." She stopped next to his chair. "And very strong. I asked him if he liked women because his reaction to my sitting on his lap was very strange." She held out her hand. "The kind of a guilt a person has when they're torn between two things," she held up two fingers, "That don't work."

He reached for her hand.

Nessa closed her eyes. "When you love someone enough to make a promise to be something you can't be, it causes a lot of guilt. The kind that could double a person over who wasn't used to the pain." She ran a thumb over the back of his hand lightly. "I can't help you, if you fight me. Taboos, obligation."

"What do you have to do?"

"Physical contact. The connecton was so strong, I overrode the guilt with Trefor's own arousal."

"The CN is different."

Nessa meet his eyes. "Its a type of energy. Dark and ugly. It made my sister kill." She stepped closer. "What does it do to you?"

"I hallucinate and flirt with the hallucinations."

"It gives you an outlet for a part of yourself you're fighting." She shook her head slightly. "I can only guess that you're projecting guilt onto Trefor. He blames you for his sexuality." A beat. "He mentioned his mother, not realizing I would meet her. It must be very strange to work with two people you love."

When Nessa nudged the arm of the office chair, he pushed it back. Whatever she was doing, it was very calming.

"I am going to climb on your lap. You need to place your hands on my back above my waist."

The guilt was immediate.

"Does Ianto know you're here?" She sat back, resting on his knees.

"Yeah."

"He knows about the physical contact. Both because Trefor didn't want me shaking his hand and because he saw me do this to Trefor before the door closed."

That didn't make it any easier. When Ianto came back, he committed himself. He rarely flirted anymore. Cory drunk kissing him had triggered Ianto's PTSD symptoms. His carelessness got Ianto killed. He had to make it right.

"The guilt has to go. I am no threat to Ianto. He knows I have to touch you." Nessa reached out and touched his face with her finger tips. "Just a beautiful woman sitting on your lap. No reason for guilt." She pressed her forehead to his. "Let it go. The guilt, the pain, the shame."

He felt it lift. "Thank you."

Nessa sat back. "A piece of advice. Work this out. If Ianto loves you, truly loves you, he's not going to ask you to do this to yourself." She slid of the chair.