Fic: An Unbearable Lightness; 1/1 [G] TW/HL/DW crossover
Title: An Unbearable Lightness
Author: Aeron Lanart
Fandom(s): Highlander/Torchwood
Characters: Jack Harkness, Siannon O’Niall. Mention of other Highlander and Whoniverse characters.
Rating: Gen
Warnings: Children of Earth compliant
Disclaimer: BBC own Torchwood and the Whoniverse,
Panzer/Davis own their concept of immortality and the other Highlander stuff except for Siannon.
Title from the song of the same name by Obsessive Compulsive (interestingly, I'm on the photo at the top of the page just left of centre).
A/N: 1) Takes place in the Mystery Verse at the same time as the end section of Shattered in Aspect. Torchwood has a new team after the destruction that happened in Children of Earth, including Lois Habiba, Agent Johnson and 'the Operative' (who I called Simon Foster). The story of the formation of that team can be be read in Reign of Scars.
2) This is the first thing I've written since before my dad died, 18 months ago. It feels good to be writing again at last.
~ An Unbearable Lightness ~
Jack had no idea where - or when - on earth TARDIS had decided to take them, in fact he wasn’t even entirely sure they would even be ON earth as given Methos’ immortality and his affinity for survival, they could be at some point in time centuries ahead of when he’d left. All he knew for certain is that the TARDIS agreed that finding Methos was the right thing to do and had managed to imply that she felt that Jack should have gone searching for Methos ages ago while seeming to understand why he hadn’t. As for The Doctor, Jack wasn’t sure what he felt. Despite travelling with him for a few years he still found he could not read this Doctor like the previous regeneration.
Consequently, it was with some trepidation that Jack opened the TARDIS door as he had no inkling of what was going to greet him. He hadn’t expected to open the door onto Roald Dahl Plas in Cardiff Bay, and a horde of conflicting emotions threatened to overwhelm him as he blinked in the rain-washed light of a Cardiff afternoon at a what had been a once familiar sight. He leaned against the door frame, shaking with sudden weakness, unable to take the final step back into a place that had demanded and destroyed so much from his heart and soul. He felt a reassuring thrum under his cheek as if the TARDIS was reminding him that he wasn’t alone now, and that the whole point of the exercise was trying to claim back a piece of his heart with the hope that he would never be alone again. He patted her skin, acknowledging that truth; she was a wise old lady sometimes, as well as having a capricious streak a mile wide which meant that she and the Doctor were well matched. With a last faint tingle in his fingertips he felt her withdraw back into herself. He took the hint; it was now or never and with a deep breath he crossed the threshold into the achingly familiar - and yet not - surroundings of the Plas.
*
After the stormy squalls of the morning, the afternoon ad cleared under a freshening breeze to the kind of damp and glistening clarity that Siannon felt was unique to Cardiff. On impulse she decided to head down to The Bay after finishing her errands, seeing as she was close by. While she still tended to avoid The Plas itself if she could, she enjoyed the walk along the waterside, letting the babble of humanity wash over her like the crest of a wave breaking on the shore. It wasn’t busy so she let her mind wander where it would as her feet trod the familiar path, paying little conscious attention to the people around her as she ambled along. She was jarred out of her pleasant reverie when a sense of wrongness clattered along her nerves. Something, Someone was out of place. On alert, she glanced around and realised she was near the ‘Tourist Information’ entrance to the old Torchwood Hub and her heart lurched within her, even though she knew that wasn’t what had set her nerves alight. Then she spied the lonely figure standing on the quayside and the nebulous feeling of wrongness coalesced into recognition.
Jack.
The wrongness stemmed from recognising him and the absence of something she had come to regard as a part of him.
The RAF greatcoat.
He looked somehow diminished without it, no longer his larger-than-life self, but even lost in thought as he appeared to be, he was a sight for sore eyes and balm for a raw and tender heart. She approached him carefully.
“Jack?”
He turned toward her voice, wary and almost startled, though as he recognised her a smile lit up his face; it was like the sun coming out.
“Siannon!”
She closed the remaining distance between them with alacrity, to be enfolded in a much missed and welcome hug. Then he spun her round as she laughed in delight.
“It’s good to see you Jack. Are you here to stay, or?...” She let the question hang between them without attaching specifics to it. His smile dimmed a little, but didn’t leave his face completely, giving her an answer without saying a word. He stepped back a little, but didn’t let go of her.
“Or, I’m afraid, which is why I'm very glad it’s you who sneaked up on me and not Gwen.” She gave him a soft smile and patted his hand where it rested on her arm.
“Methos?” she asked gently.
“Yeah,” Jack agreed.
“Good. I can tell it’s been a while for you since you left, but you need each other just as much as ever. Buy me a drink and I’ll tell you where to find him.”
*
They ensconced themselves in a dimly lit corner of the nearest cosy looking pub, a place where Methos would have felt at home. As Jack relaxed, Siannon chattered for a while about Torchwood’s new home in the old St James’ church, Gwen’s baby and how things were settling down with Lois and Richie to help out. She made a point of not mentioning the other two members of the new team, she didn’t think it was in Jack’s best interests to know in the short term, plus she didn’t really know how he would react to finding that his former enemy Agent Johnson was now a mostly-trusted member of Torchwood. She could tell that while he drank in her words and appeared to be interested and happy to be in the know, it wasn’t what his heart wanted to hear. She paused for breath, and smiled.
“As for Methos, he’s in Seacouver. I took him there after you left and he’s stayed ever since. Joe is making use of him as cheap labour, I think, but I doubt either of them really care. He’s healing, but he still misses you something fierce, Jack. I just wish I knew for certain how he’ll react to seeing you again, he might be my oldest friend but he’s still a mystery to me more often than not and he likes it that way.”
“Sounds like the best thing I can do is go and find out for myself.”
“My thought exactly. Here...” She scribbled out the address of Joe’s Bar in Seacouver on a piece of paper that she fished out of one of her pockets and pushed it over the table towards Jack. “I have only one condition,” she said.
“Which is?”
“That you don’t frighten Joe Dawson to death. He’s a very dear friend to both me and Methos and neither of us would take kindly to him being upset.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Jack smiled and glanced at the clock above the bar. “I’ll be able to get there before opening time I should think.” Siannon stared at him quizzically for a moment until she realised what he was implying.
“TARDIS?” She asked.
Jack nodded
“That means you’re both going away then. I can’t say I won’t miss you, even thought Methos has been on the other side of the world at least I knew he was on the same planet, and contactable.”
“Oh we’ll be contactable, believe me, I’ll make sure of it.” He leaned across the table and squeezed her hand. She glanced down, then back at his face; he was being genuinely sincere, she knew him well enough to be able to tell truth from untruth however well disguised it might be.
“Oh?” She queried.
“Methos is due a phone upgrade, I’m sure. I’ll get the Doctor to oblige; it’ll be the same number, just an intergalactic service instead of an international one.”
“There’s a thing, and bloody useful. It helps.” She sighed, then gave him a half smile. “Of course if you do decide to come back at least you know I’ll still be here.”
“Oh we’ll be back sometime, I’m sure. I just don’t know when. That’s up to Methos, the Doctor and a certain TARDIS.”
He drained his glass and though he was smiling Siannon thought he seemed a little nervous.
“Don’t worry so much Jack. He will be pleased to see you.” She paused and the devil inside her couldn’t resist adding, with a cheeky grin, “Eventually...”
“I’ll soon find out.” He stood, shrugging into his jacket. “No time like the present is there? I’m sure you’ll hear how it all works out.”
“So am I, one way or the other.” She joined him as he made his way to the pub door and hugged him, hard, once they were outside. “Look after the Old Man for me, Jack, he’s very precious to me. In fact, make sure you look after each other as I’ll worry less that way.”
“We will,” Jack promised.
“And if you scandalise your Doctor a little in the process, so much the better!”
“Oh we’ll try, I’m sure, but I don’t think this Doctor is that easy to scandalise, worst luck. We’ll let you know”
“And have fun in the trying?”
“Oh yeah.” Siannon laughed at the almost dreamy expression on Jack’s face, it was good to see and proved the Jack she had got to know was still inside this more pensive and cautious version. She tightened her arms around him for a last hug, then stepped back.
“Goodbye Jack.”
“Bye, Siannon. We’ll see you again, I’m sure.”
“I’ll hold you to that!”
With a messy salute, Jack spun on his heel and strode off in the direction of the Plas without a backward glance. Siannon took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment and wished as hard as she had done in quite some time for everything to work out. Then just to make sure, she crossed her fingers for luck and headed back inside the pub. She needed another drink to help gather her scattered thoughts before she faced the rest of the Torchwood team.
Staring into her Guinness, Siannon decided that she wouldn’t tell Gwen of the meeting until after she’d heard that they’d left. That she would hear was a dead cert, Joe would tell her even if no-one else did. It might seem unfair on the surface, as Gwen missed Jack even more than she did, but he needed to be given space and not be mithered to return to Torchwood which Gwen would do even if she didn’t intend to. If Jack was to return to Torchwood it must be in his own time and on his own terms and Siannon didn’t know if he ever would. However, she could ensure that he had the time to make that decision, and that there was a Torchwood there for him when he made it. That, she could and would do to the best of her ability. Torchwood had claimed her soul, just as it had for Ianto, Tosh and Owen before her. Unlike them she would be able to choose when to walk away; it was a sobering thought and unfortunately not a new one.
When she finally left the pub, darkness had fallen and the rain had started to fall again. It suited her mood. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat and started to walk back along the quayside, the slop and splash of the water a welcome accompaniment to the rain that was misting her face. She was brooding, and she knew it, but she let her feet lead her in the right direction. This too would pass.
A disgusted sounding shriek from the air broke into her fugue. She raised her head and glanced at the sky. There was a dim shadow winging its way back in the direction of St James. Myfanwy. Siannon chuckled; she was being called home in a way she could not refuse.
Home, where the closest thing she had to a pet was a flying dinosaur that was at least 70 million years older than she was. How very Torchwood. She turned her face up to the rain, and smiled.
~E~
Crossposted from https://a-lanart.dreamwidth.org/248144.html. Comment here, comment there; it's all fine.
Author: Aeron Lanart
Fandom(s): Highlander/Torchwood
Characters: Jack Harkness, Siannon O’Niall. Mention of other Highlander and Whoniverse characters.
Rating: Gen
Warnings: Children of Earth compliant
Disclaimer: BBC own Torchwood and the Whoniverse,
Panzer/Davis own their concept of immortality and the other Highlander stuff except for Siannon.
Title from the song of the same name by Obsessive Compulsive (interestingly, I'm on the photo at the top of the page just left of centre).
A/N: 1) Takes place in the Mystery Verse at the same time as the end section of Shattered in Aspect. Torchwood has a new team after the destruction that happened in Children of Earth, including Lois Habiba, Agent Johnson and 'the Operative' (who I called Simon Foster). The story of the formation of that team can be be read in Reign of Scars.
2) This is the first thing I've written since before my dad died, 18 months ago. It feels good to be writing again at last.
~ An Unbearable Lightness ~
Jack had no idea where - or when - on earth TARDIS had decided to take them, in fact he wasn’t even entirely sure they would even be ON earth as given Methos’ immortality and his affinity for survival, they could be at some point in time centuries ahead of when he’d left. All he knew for certain is that the TARDIS agreed that finding Methos was the right thing to do and had managed to imply that she felt that Jack should have gone searching for Methos ages ago while seeming to understand why he hadn’t. As for The Doctor, Jack wasn’t sure what he felt. Despite travelling with him for a few years he still found he could not read this Doctor like the previous regeneration.
Consequently, it was with some trepidation that Jack opened the TARDIS door as he had no inkling of what was going to greet him. He hadn’t expected to open the door onto Roald Dahl Plas in Cardiff Bay, and a horde of conflicting emotions threatened to overwhelm him as he blinked in the rain-washed light of a Cardiff afternoon at a what had been a once familiar sight. He leaned against the door frame, shaking with sudden weakness, unable to take the final step back into a place that had demanded and destroyed so much from his heart and soul. He felt a reassuring thrum under his cheek as if the TARDIS was reminding him that he wasn’t alone now, and that the whole point of the exercise was trying to claim back a piece of his heart with the hope that he would never be alone again. He patted her skin, acknowledging that truth; she was a wise old lady sometimes, as well as having a capricious streak a mile wide which meant that she and the Doctor were well matched. With a last faint tingle in his fingertips he felt her withdraw back into herself. He took the hint; it was now or never and with a deep breath he crossed the threshold into the achingly familiar - and yet not - surroundings of the Plas.
*
After the stormy squalls of the morning, the afternoon ad cleared under a freshening breeze to the kind of damp and glistening clarity that Siannon felt was unique to Cardiff. On impulse she decided to head down to The Bay after finishing her errands, seeing as she was close by. While she still tended to avoid The Plas itself if she could, she enjoyed the walk along the waterside, letting the babble of humanity wash over her like the crest of a wave breaking on the shore. It wasn’t busy so she let her mind wander where it would as her feet trod the familiar path, paying little conscious attention to the people around her as she ambled along. She was jarred out of her pleasant reverie when a sense of wrongness clattered along her nerves. Something, Someone was out of place. On alert, she glanced around and realised she was near the ‘Tourist Information’ entrance to the old Torchwood Hub and her heart lurched within her, even though she knew that wasn’t what had set her nerves alight. Then she spied the lonely figure standing on the quayside and the nebulous feeling of wrongness coalesced into recognition.
Jack.
The wrongness stemmed from recognising him and the absence of something she had come to regard as a part of him.
The RAF greatcoat.
He looked somehow diminished without it, no longer his larger-than-life self, but even lost in thought as he appeared to be, he was a sight for sore eyes and balm for a raw and tender heart. She approached him carefully.
“Jack?”
He turned toward her voice, wary and almost startled, though as he recognised her a smile lit up his face; it was like the sun coming out.
“Siannon!”
She closed the remaining distance between them with alacrity, to be enfolded in a much missed and welcome hug. Then he spun her round as she laughed in delight.
“It’s good to see you Jack. Are you here to stay, or?...” She let the question hang between them without attaching specifics to it. His smile dimmed a little, but didn’t leave his face completely, giving her an answer without saying a word. He stepped back a little, but didn’t let go of her.
“Or, I’m afraid, which is why I'm very glad it’s you who sneaked up on me and not Gwen.” She gave him a soft smile and patted his hand where it rested on her arm.
“Methos?” she asked gently.
“Yeah,” Jack agreed.
“Good. I can tell it’s been a while for you since you left, but you need each other just as much as ever. Buy me a drink and I’ll tell you where to find him.”
*
They ensconced themselves in a dimly lit corner of the nearest cosy looking pub, a place where Methos would have felt at home. As Jack relaxed, Siannon chattered for a while about Torchwood’s new home in the old St James’ church, Gwen’s baby and how things were settling down with Lois and Richie to help out. She made a point of not mentioning the other two members of the new team, she didn’t think it was in Jack’s best interests to know in the short term, plus she didn’t really know how he would react to finding that his former enemy Agent Johnson was now a mostly-trusted member of Torchwood. She could tell that while he drank in her words and appeared to be interested and happy to be in the know, it wasn’t what his heart wanted to hear. She paused for breath, and smiled.
“As for Methos, he’s in Seacouver. I took him there after you left and he’s stayed ever since. Joe is making use of him as cheap labour, I think, but I doubt either of them really care. He’s healing, but he still misses you something fierce, Jack. I just wish I knew for certain how he’ll react to seeing you again, he might be my oldest friend but he’s still a mystery to me more often than not and he likes it that way.”
“Sounds like the best thing I can do is go and find out for myself.”
“My thought exactly. Here...” She scribbled out the address of Joe’s Bar in Seacouver on a piece of paper that she fished out of one of her pockets and pushed it over the table towards Jack. “I have only one condition,” she said.
“Which is?”
“That you don’t frighten Joe Dawson to death. He’s a very dear friend to both me and Methos and neither of us would take kindly to him being upset.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Jack smiled and glanced at the clock above the bar. “I’ll be able to get there before opening time I should think.” Siannon stared at him quizzically for a moment until she realised what he was implying.
“TARDIS?” She asked.
Jack nodded
“That means you’re both going away then. I can’t say I won’t miss you, even thought Methos has been on the other side of the world at least I knew he was on the same planet, and contactable.”
“Oh we’ll be contactable, believe me, I’ll make sure of it.” He leaned across the table and squeezed her hand. She glanced down, then back at his face; he was being genuinely sincere, she knew him well enough to be able to tell truth from untruth however well disguised it might be.
“Oh?” She queried.
“Methos is due a phone upgrade, I’m sure. I’ll get the Doctor to oblige; it’ll be the same number, just an intergalactic service instead of an international one.”
“There’s a thing, and bloody useful. It helps.” She sighed, then gave him a half smile. “Of course if you do decide to come back at least you know I’ll still be here.”
“Oh we’ll be back sometime, I’m sure. I just don’t know when. That’s up to Methos, the Doctor and a certain TARDIS.”
He drained his glass and though he was smiling Siannon thought he seemed a little nervous.
“Don’t worry so much Jack. He will be pleased to see you.” She paused and the devil inside her couldn’t resist adding, with a cheeky grin, “Eventually...”
“I’ll soon find out.” He stood, shrugging into his jacket. “No time like the present is there? I’m sure you’ll hear how it all works out.”
“So am I, one way or the other.” She joined him as he made his way to the pub door and hugged him, hard, once they were outside. “Look after the Old Man for me, Jack, he’s very precious to me. In fact, make sure you look after each other as I’ll worry less that way.”
“We will,” Jack promised.
“And if you scandalise your Doctor a little in the process, so much the better!”
“Oh we’ll try, I’m sure, but I don’t think this Doctor is that easy to scandalise, worst luck. We’ll let you know”
“And have fun in the trying?”
“Oh yeah.” Siannon laughed at the almost dreamy expression on Jack’s face, it was good to see and proved the Jack she had got to know was still inside this more pensive and cautious version. She tightened her arms around him for a last hug, then stepped back.
“Goodbye Jack.”
“Bye, Siannon. We’ll see you again, I’m sure.”
“I’ll hold you to that!”
With a messy salute, Jack spun on his heel and strode off in the direction of the Plas without a backward glance. Siannon took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment and wished as hard as she had done in quite some time for everything to work out. Then just to make sure, she crossed her fingers for luck and headed back inside the pub. She needed another drink to help gather her scattered thoughts before she faced the rest of the Torchwood team.
Staring into her Guinness, Siannon decided that she wouldn’t tell Gwen of the meeting until after she’d heard that they’d left. That she would hear was a dead cert, Joe would tell her even if no-one else did. It might seem unfair on the surface, as Gwen missed Jack even more than she did, but he needed to be given space and not be mithered to return to Torchwood which Gwen would do even if she didn’t intend to. If Jack was to return to Torchwood it must be in his own time and on his own terms and Siannon didn’t know if he ever would. However, she could ensure that he had the time to make that decision, and that there was a Torchwood there for him when he made it. That, she could and would do to the best of her ability. Torchwood had claimed her soul, just as it had for Ianto, Tosh and Owen before her. Unlike them she would be able to choose when to walk away; it was a sobering thought and unfortunately not a new one.
When she finally left the pub, darkness had fallen and the rain had started to fall again. It suited her mood. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat and started to walk back along the quayside, the slop and splash of the water a welcome accompaniment to the rain that was misting her face. She was brooding, and she knew it, but she let her feet lead her in the right direction. This too would pass.
A disgusted sounding shriek from the air broke into her fugue. She raised her head and glanced at the sky. There was a dim shadow winging its way back in the direction of St James. Myfanwy. Siannon chuckled; she was being called home in a way she could not refuse.
Home, where the closest thing she had to a pet was a flying dinosaur that was at least 70 million years older than she was. How very Torchwood. She turned her face up to the rain, and smiled.
~E~
Crossposted from https://a-lanart.dreamwidth.org/248144.html. Comment here, comment there; it's all fine.