A/N: Betas are wonderful people! Read and review!
Monday Morning
Monday morning dawns with the typical Cardiff overcast skies, but it doesn't stifle Jack's mood at all. He had a wonderful time with his daughter Saturday, and then another wonderful time at his grandson's party Sunday; very little can quell his mood. His mates, and through them the team, are very happy for him. While his mates know the details of the weekend, only the bare bits have been shared with the team; that is Jack's prerogative, as it is about his family.
By lunchtime, the skies have cleared, and Jeannie is eyeballing the invisible lift, considering just how good the sun would feel on her fur. Especially since the perception filter would hide her from view. Finishing up the few tasks that remained for her to complete for the day, she hops onto the lift, and initiates the sequence for it to rise; shifting while it is still in motion, she waits until it stops at the top to sprawl out in such a way that the most of her is getting sun at the same time. Gwen looks up in shock, about to call out to Jack about the daft thing she is doing when she sees him smiling up at the lift as it ascends. Chuckling quietly, he returns to his office, and his never-ending paperwork. Gwen closes her mouth, and turns to the CCTV to see what's going on; her jaw drops again when she sees a large cat sprawled across the paving slab, eyes closed and whiskers twitching.
Tosh, passing by as Gwen brings up the CCTV on her monitor, snickers as she sees what Jeannie is doing. "Close your mouth Gwen; the 'fly catching' look isn't that attractive on you." Gwen's mouth snaps shut as she turns to glare at Tosh, who is laughing as she continues on to her station. Owen, hearing the comment and laughter, surfaces from his autopsy to see has them reacting that way; seeing the footage that Gwen still has up on her screen, he has a good laugh himself, and then returns to the alien on his slab.
A couple of hours later, Jeannie is still soaking up heat; she has flipped over to her other side, and is napping comfortably when the rift alarm blares. Jack gently nudges her mind to let her know it's a small spike, and she can continue sunning herself, but that she might wanna sit up a bit so that they can fit on the slab with her. Having a good stretch, she sits back on her haunches and looks out over the Hub as the lift descends. When Jack, Ianto, and Gwen step onto the slab, she nuzzles Jack's hand while bumping the top of her head against Ianto's thigh, demanding petting. Gwen watches with wide eyes while the two men give Jeannie a good scratch all around her ears and under her muzzle. With a final rub of her head, the three step off of the slab to go see what came through the rift, and Jeannie sprawls back out again with a sigh of contentment.
A sudden storm blows in an hour later, jerking her from her warm dreams rather abruptly, and she growls while shaking the rain out of her fur irritably as the lift descends. Once the wetness is mostly gone, she shifts and then steps off of the slab; seeing nothing of any import to her going on, she blinks into their apartment and starts dinner. Her boys will be tired when they get home, as they are chasing a few weevils around. Being led a merry chase too, all through the back alleys of Cardiff city center. Dinner is ready by the time they return empty-handed, grumbling about frisky weevils and sewer entrances, and she laughs at them, telling them to get cleaned up before dinner.
A leisurely evening is spent by the mates in their apartment; they consume the meal provided by Jeannie, and watch a DVD before piling into their bed for the night, rift-willing. Morning comes all too soon, and the trio shares an energetic shower before dressing and getting the Hub ready for the day ahead.
Tosh, as usual, is the first to arrive, happily sipping the hot mug of coffee that is waiting for her at her station while checking her various programmes. Gwen and Suzie enter within minutes of each other, chatting about their evening and making grabby motions for their coffees. Owen tumbles in right at 8, looking like he has been dragged through a hedge backwards. He stumbles to his autopsy bay, gratefully hugging his mug of coffee to his chest and trying to wake up. Ianto just shakes his head fondly at the medic's actions, and prepares a second pot of coffee for the refills that will be needed shortly. Torchwood plods along, surviving and thriving.
As the days turned into months, Team Torchwood saved the world several times, and Jeannie grew in her abilities. Discovering that she liked the feel of the warm sun soaking into her fur, she developed the habit of sunning herself on the invisible lift when the sun was shining. She was close to the Hub if she was needed, and still had the alone-time that she craved. A win-win situation all around, as far as she was concerned.
During one of her 'lazy days' on the lift, she felt a strong breeze ruffling her fur from the wrong direction and opened her eyes to look around, raising her snout for a good sniff. She hears a grinding huffing noise, and sends the sound along to Jack and Ianto, to see if either of her mates recognizes it; Jack immediately replies, "It's the Doctor!" Jeannie shifts to sit on her haunches, with her tail draped over her front paws while she waits for the TARDIS to finish materializing. She knows that Jack has been waiting for him for a long time, and wants him to have the opportunity to get his answers, therefore she creeps around the side of the blue box and waits for the Doctor to emerge.
The Doctor bounces out, and Jeannie catches him chattering away mid-sentence to his latest companion. "…best chips I've found, here in Cardiff! That's Wales, in the 21st century." The Doctor stops abruptly upon catching sight of a large feline staring at him with luminous green eyes. "Well hello!" He waves his sonic screwdriver in the vicinity of the feline's head, his eyebrows rising at the readout he sees. "But you're extinct!" Jeannie huffs, and works her way in between the Doctor and the TARDIS door, ensuring that he can't just run away when Jack arrives. The Doctor spins around, his forehead wrinkling into a frown as he notices her movement, and then he spins again when he senses Jack approaching from behind him. "Captain! D'you know what she is?" Jack laughs, "Of course I do Doc; she's my mate. But that's about all we know; we'd be thrilled with any information you have on the Phela for our records." Jeannie shifts into human form while this discussion is ongoing, and the Doctor spins around again to see a petite young woman leaning against the TARDIS. "But…" he says. "That's not how Phela look when in humanoid form!" Jeannie sighs. "I used to be human," she says quietly. "But someone took me from my home and family, and then changed my DNA." Jack strides up to her side and wraps his arm around her waist in comfort. Lately she has been dreaming of her other family, and missing them; talking to the Doctor seems to have brought that sadness to the forefront of her mind again. Jeannie turns in Jack's arms and presses her face into his neck while he chats with the Doctor. The Doctor, flighty man that he is, has already bounced through four different subjects in as many minutes, leaving Jack with an amused grin on his face. Grabbing Jack's elbow, the Doctor drags both him and Jeannie into the TARDIS for a look at his library; Ianto arrives just as the three disappear into the blue box, and follows with alacrity. Catching up to his mates, Ianto places his hand gently upon the nape of Jeannie's neck, massaging the tense muscles.
The Doctor, noticing the new arrival, raises an enquiring eyebrow at Jack. "This is our mate, Ianto Jones." The Doctor quickly looks him over, and then turns back to Jack. "He's just like you, a fixed point. So is she, for that matter! How?" Jeannie sighs and turns to face the Doctor, wrapping her arms around her mates' waists. "We are soul-bonded life-mates. Due to the Phela mating ability, the three of us are bound until we all die for good." "Oh yes! I remember that now; keeps the mate or mates left behind from having to go on without a piece of their soul." Spinning around again (Jeannie really wonders how he isn't dizzy by now) the Doctor brings up the Phela file on one of the monitors on the control console. A flash drive materializes, and the Doctor strokes the console in thanks to the TARDIS, and then transfers the file to the flash drive for the triad.
Grasping the memory stick gently, Jeannie looks at the Doctor. "You're a Time Lord; you can see all of the timelines of everyone you meet. How do you control it? So you're not overwhelmed?" The Doctor stops bouncing at her question, losing the manic grin and donning a serious expression. "It's just something I was taught to do as a child, when the abilities started to manifest." The Doctor looks closely at her, "I can try to teach you, you can do something similar, I think." He watches Jack and Ianto tighten their grasp on their mate, and bows his head. Looking back up at all three of them, he continues. "You'd have to come with me for a bit, I don't really feel comfortable staying in one place for too long, you see." The Doctor glances at Jack and Ianto, "They could come too, time-machine and all that, could have you all back by dinner-time!" The Doctor laughs loudly, grinning like a mad fool.
Jeannie closes her eyes as she mentally converses with her mates. Opening them again, her gaze pierces the Doctor. "I'll travel with you for a bit, but they need to stay here, Cardiff needs them. Torchwood needs them. And your driving skills leave a bit to be desired, from what Jack showed me. But first, you and Jack need to talk." The Doctor shoots an enquiring look at him, raising an eyebrow. Jack holds on tighter to his mates when he asks the burning question that he's had for 140 years: "Why did you leave me behind on that satellite? Did you know I was resurrected? How did I become this way? You said the three of us are all fixed points in time and space; what does that mean?"
The Doctor, realizing that he owes his former Companion all of these answers and more, meets Jack's eyes squarely when answering. "I was regenerating, and the sickness from that exacerbated how I feel when I'm around you now. You feel…wrong…to my Time Lord senses." Seeing Jack's flinch at the word 'wrong', the Doctor hastens to add, "Not wrong wrong, just…headache-inducing. Rose resurrected you; she looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and it made her god-like with the power over life and death. She wiped out the Daleks, and brought you back to life. But she was so very new to the power that she couldn't control how much life she gave you, and she gave it all to you. As for just leaving you there when I knew that you weren't dead, I thought that your puddle-jumper would get you to wherever you needed to go. And the last question, the fixed point thing: that's what she made you, and through you, that is what these two have become." The Doctor's eyes suddenly go wide as he realizes something. "It wasn't a mistake on Rose's part after all; I see that now that I've met you three. It was meant to be, you three have a great future ahead of you, as the saviours of the human race as a species, and as the beings who initiate the resurrection of the Phela as a race." The Doctor continues, "You're not so wrong after all Jack; you're completely right."