A/N: off to Jack's night's

No spoilers

Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian

"Which last night?" asked Jack and Gwen laughed.

"Fair question" she said and tilted her head with discomfort "last, last night, about that alien-thing, how did you know everything about it?" She looked at him innocently but he knew to recognize her detective pose, that question would lead to the next one until they found themselves back to his past, to questions she wanted to ask because she thought answers would give her some perspective and security. Jack knew that answers would give her anything but that so he smiled a bit sharply.

"That is not the question; the question is how could you charge at it without any information? You could have ended up like those two and we would have to write your cover story because I wouldn't be able to get you out."

"I was just trying..." Gwen tried but was cut off.

"I know what you were trying and next time, don't. You're lucky that it managed to defend itself and shoved you in that mud by its tentacle." He crossed his arms across his chest and looked away.

"You keep saying it defended itself, what did you want us to do, feed it some more people?" She was upset.

"It did defend itself" Jack sighed and got back behind his desk "Our goal was to help it calm itself and recover in peace, we failed and I had to do... what I did." He took his report to go through it one more time.

"About that, what did you do?" She leaned against his desk. "And why do you keep referring to him as 'it'."

"Because it is an 'it', maybe the only true 'it' in the world." He didn't lift his gaze. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some filling to do."

"You're the boss" she exclaimed and went to the door.

"And Gwen" he said seriously "this is a chance to realise how ignorant we all are."

"Maybe it would be if you would talk to us and explain this creature, I see no reason to feel for a creature that lurks in the dark and lives off others, and eats people." There was conviction in her face, right and wrong, good and evil.

"It does not... you're dismissed for now." He went back to his report but letters flew past his eyes.

He lied to Ianto, to his face, it was an instinct reaction. Ianto was too quick in understanding.

You bumped into him and were consumed, he said and was right to the letter. This night was all his fault, no one else's. Damn him and his obsession with Gray. John knew just what string to pull. Jack said to himself he wouldn't fall for it and he was doing fine until he was left on his own. Ianto was in the shower, he heard the water running and it was a soothing sound, he could get up and go in. He was on the verge of doing just that when his gaze fell on the watch. There was just an hour and a half until their double time was up and they could resume their lives where the blast had interrupted it; the blast that sent them back to the time when the vortex was opened.

Now John was still walking through the town thinking he'd won, thinking he'd open up the map to mythical treasure and be saved forever. Like he knew what forever was. There was no temptation in thought he could go and interrupt that whole plot, everything did work out fine, and he had enough of time paradoxes for a dozen lifetimes.

But there was another temptation. Temptation to go and see John before the explosion, before he and Owen drove in, maybe he'd said something that would tell Jack he was lying or not, something that would say someone that was about to die. There were many places he could hide and not be seen, to not disrupt the timeline. It's not like he hadn't walked same time frame more than once before. Yes, he'd just take quick peek and be done with it, with John and with Gray who had been eluding him for centuries.

That's why he jumped in the car and drove like a maniac to get there in time and hid himself before the others came. He hid himself behind the elevator exit. There was no chance he'd be seen there, and he'd hear everything.

They drove in and he crouched behind the wall not looking, just listening. He heard voices. Ianto's countdown wasn't cheerful anymore, there was true panic, Gwen was all heroic like she was known to be, and John was just disappointing. Nothing was heard, just whining like Ianto said, nothing attractive, no last statements or confessions. Gwen wanted to say something but then he and Owen charged in and interrupted her. That part he knew. Of course there was nothing more for him. He sat on the floor and waited to be left alone, but then there was dark and they were still behind him. He was sent along with them, he had been too close to the explosion. They continued to talk and John exited with his last punch line. Jack was no closer to revealing what was truth or just another trap.

"We'll have to avoid ourselves" past Jack repeated and then they were gone, off to their homes and past Jack to pleasant night with Ianto by his side.

`This was stupid` thought Jack and went in a third direction to find a bar just to sit in it and watch life go on. He did just that but then it was morning and he thought that maybe he should watch, maybe John's body language would tell him something more. So he went back and came in before last Jack and ducked behind the car to be sure he wouldn't be blasted back one more time and that he would be able to see John's face and be unseen in the dark. His plan worked, except there was nothing to be seen, just John's poker face and he was blasted back again.

`Ok, that was enough` was his thought as he waited to his first self to go and then the next one. This time he looked at his watch to be sure when everyone entered and exited. He couldn't do this again; he was approaching a new record of parallel Jacks in one spot in time. He never before stood so close to himself. It was irresponsible, but he was careful, and he wouldn't trigger a paradox, not for his life. That's why he didn't look left or right, to avoid his future being seen. Knowing himself he could go back one more time. He went on the street parallel as the Jack before this went into the bar. He sat there not looking left or right and in the morning he went to the building next to the one with the blast. That's how he'd be left behind and be freed from examining John further. But once again he was blasted back.

He decided to stay on that roof and just stare at the city. Falling from the building top seemed like distant memory. It would be best for everyone if he took a stroll away from this place and stay distant in the morning. He ended up in the park alone in the middle of the night. There were a few couples on the benches, a night stroller with a dog on a leash, and drunken guy sleeping on another bench. Jack felt his alertness fade away bit by bit and he started to feel drowsy, thinking of doing just as the drunken guy did, to seep it off waiting for the morning, but then something started to feel off. He never got sleepy, not lately; he slept only after a long and exhausting string of deaths, or if he wanted it.

That put him back on alert and in a cautious state. That's when he noticed the next drain of energy when it came along; he was leaking life energy through his leg, then arm, then neck. It was almost like something was touching him. He closed his eyes and waited for the next touch, when he felt it on his hip he was ready and surged back grabbing blindly at a tentacle of an unknown creature. It struggled but he pulled it near out from the dark and as it appeared it started to feel familiar, like something almost forgotten. But there was no time to think because other tentacles were on him sucking his energy trying to knock him unconscious. Of course that didn't work on him so he was able to get his grip on the creature, reaching for his gun. But then the creature became aware of his intent and his immunity to its energy sucking tactics so it did the only thing it could do, it threw itself on Jack and covered him into its shell. Jack died instantly when he encountered those fascinating enzymes.

When he was awake he was inside of the creature, his ability to revive was struggling with its surroundings, it stung and hurt like hell and Jack couldn't breathe or shout so he blindly started to struggle, digging his way out with his hands. Everything was slippery but he finally managed to scratch at something and soon he found his way out of the creature. As he fell down on the grass the creature started to fall on him so he grabbed it for its tentacle and swung it in the air. He got up to see where it landed to go after it but then the creature fell on the couple on the bench covering them. Jack ran over to save them but it was already too late, they were dead, and the creature was wild.

He tried to get a hold of it once again but it was quicker and it flung him away. He flew a yard away and landed on the fence breaking his spine. That happened, he didn't lie to Ianto, but it was the second death that night, then he was suffocated by the tentacles, then it bumped into him while it threw itself blindly left and right and finally it just knocked him unconscious by its chemicals. When he woke up it was laid spread out on the grass and Jack hesitated in touching it, it looked like it was in pain. He was tired of fighting with an unknown creature so he scanned it with his wrist strap to discover what it was composed of and what species of aliens was it, but to his surprise it was terrestrial, it wasn't alien at all. He frowned as that forgotten knowledge pierced through. He just encountered one of the old species of the Earth, the one that would soon be exterminated when its nature would be exposed. When they were exposed their defences were useless, they depend on invisibility, when that is taken from them they are just sitting ducks. They were so easy to kill, and Jack could do just that in that moment, it was already visible, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

The species was called Gollum after its extinction; the name was used to justify their demise. The intention was to exaggerate the threat that the creatures imposed, but the fact was that humans never slept very well after they were gone. True, they had fed of emotions and energy but in return they would put bodies into a sleepy state triggering rest, without those creatures sleeping pills took over the human race.

`If they only looked more human` Jack thought `they would be named sleep fairies and be left alone, this way they seemed like something from out of nightmares.`

Later studies of conserved creatures exposed that they weren't able to eat people, that they didn't eat at all and accidental consumption would be poisonous to the creature, it could cleanse itself only of so much biological trash. They had no orifices that would allow them to receive or give, to eat, drink or have sex; there was only touch that was unnoticeable, and falling into its shell that was irreparable. But that falling in could happen only in violent situations when it was attacked, like Jack attacked it.

Jack looked at the twitching creature and was amazed that he was able to see one of them alive. It was like seeing the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were amazing, until it had struggle for survival. He looked around deciding it was in an obscure and cloaked place, it would be able to recover if it could, or die in peace if it couldn't. That's why he left it there and headed away from it, but then he heard a woman laughing.

"This will be perfect" she said and he turned around to see her head disappearing in the bush. That was the last thing she said.

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