Yesterday Is But Today's Memory - 13/19+Interlude
Title: Yesterday Is But Today's Memory
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Rating: R
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Takes place post 2x05 'Adam', but mentions briefly minor info from later s2 eps. AU
Summary: It wasn’t the lost days that were really giving Ianto Jones nightmares. It was the fact that ever since, he’d suddenly been having flashes from another period of his life he’d thought was lost forever - his first ten years.
Warning: Some chapters of this fic will contain material some may find offensive. To go into more detail would be spoilery for the plot, but DO NOT READ if you are easily offended.
Thanks to: My wonderful betas morbid_sparks, cazmalfoy and angelzbabe1989, who talked me into writing this, then held my hand while I worked through the plot and filled all its holes.
Previous chapters at master list
Chapter Thirteen
Jack slumped back down and nodded soberly. “Gray… Gray was four years younger than me, and I adored him. We fought, of course, like all brothers do, but we were really close. And then, when I was eleven, and he was seven, he was taken.”
He closed his eyes and his face crumpled for a second as the memory came over him again. “They’d come before, but they’d never been quite so vicious before. Dad told me to get myself and Gray to safety, and I didn’t. I was safe, but the creatures got Gray. Took him. I… I never thought I’d see him again, but…”
“But you think that I’m… I’m him, don’t you?” Ianto finished.
Both Jack and John nodded.
“Why? What is it in that report that makes you think that? What is it about that photo that makes you think that?” Ianto cried, upset and confused.
“I… It’s…” Jack paused and stood up. “Wait here.” He disappeared into his office, where Ianto could just make out that he retrieved something from a desk drawer and rummaged through it.
He walked back towards them a minute later, something in his hand. He sank back into the sofa and handed it to Ianto.
It was a photograph. Slightly creased in the middle where it had clearly been folded over for years, but the subject was still perfectly clear. A small tousle-headed boy grinned up at the camera, framed by seemingly endless sand dunes and brilliant sunlight.
Ianto focussed on the young boy and swallowed hard.
“That’s Gray, as he was the last time I saw him before he was taken,” Jack said beside him.
Ianto looked harder and had to take a deep breath. The smiling face looking back at him bore a remarkable similarity to his own, although significantly more so to his ten year old self than to him now.
He opened his mouth several times to say something, but no words would come out.
“It… you… might not be, though,” Jack said shakily. “I mean… there must be hundreds of little boys who look like that… thousands even. Maybe even millions!” A very tentatively hopeful smile started to grace his lips. “It could just be a coincidence!”
Ianto shook his head, unable to let himself believe in Jack’s hopelessly naïve and optimistic scenario. “Yes, but how many of those small boys that look just like your brother were taken and held by those creatures?”
“They might not even be the same creatures,” Jack insisted, clinging onto the idea by his fingernails.
“You said yourself that my description sounded vaguely familiar, Jack. There’s no point in denying it,” Ianto countered miserably.
“But that doesn’t mean…”
John chose that moment to rejoin the conversation. “Face it, Jack, it’s all just a little bit much to be a coincidence. Even the timing matches up - you told me you were born in 5053, which means Gray must have been born in 5057; the same year the Time Agency estimated Ianto was born in.”
Jack shook his head frantically. “We still don’t know for sure. Yes, the facts might all point in one direction, but there’s still no proof.”
Ianto looked at Jack and John in turn. “Well, there must be some way we can find out for sure. I mean… surely we can just do DNA testing or something like that…”
Jack’s eyes brightened. “Our DNA doesn’t match,” he said with certainty. “It isn’t even similar. Torchwood takes blood samples during the physical when you join, and DNA profiling is one of the things they run it through. Ianto’s DNA isn’t anything like mine. We can’t be related.” He grinned round at Ianto.
“Umm…” John interrupted Jack’s celebration. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Jack frowned. “I don’t think so.”
John just looked at him. “KamiTab?”
Jack deflated instantly. “Oh.”
Ianto was confused. Again. “KamiTab?”
Jack sighed and John took up the explanation. “It’s sort of a chameleon drug, administered whenever a victim is being relocated significantly out of what is suspected to be their home time period. Used quite a bit by spies going undercover too.”
“Chameleon drug in that it…?” Ianto wasn’t sure he liked the sound of this much.
“Changes your physiology so you will fit in completely, yes,” John replied. “Well, not really, if I’m to be completely honest. It doesn’t actually change you. It just changes what shows up in test results.”
“And it changed my DNA?” Ianto asked, wondering why that would be necessary.
“It changed what your DNA will show up as if it is tested, yes,” John nodded.
“But why? Do they think my real DNA being known in this time would cause some sort of break in the timeline or…?” Ianto trailed off, unable to think of another possible reason.
“Nothing that thought out. It’s a side-effect of the processes that do need to be done. They haven’t managed to figure out a way yet of masking the changes that need to be masked without also masking DNA.”
“So there’s no way of us finding out for sure?” Ianto wasn’t sure if this prospect pleased or dismayed him.
“I didn’t say that,” John smirked. “There is a reversal drug… and I know just where I can get my hands on it.”
Chapter Fourteen
Comments and concrit welcomed - comments are love!! &hearts
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Rating: R
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Takes place post 2x05 'Adam', but mentions briefly minor info from later s2 eps. AU
Summary: It wasn’t the lost days that were really giving Ianto Jones nightmares. It was the fact that ever since, he’d suddenly been having flashes from another period of his life he’d thought was lost forever - his first ten years.
Warning: Some chapters of this fic will contain material some may find offensive. To go into more detail would be spoilery for the plot, but DO NOT READ if you are easily offended.
Thanks to: My wonderful betas morbid_sparks, cazmalfoy and angelzbabe1989, who talked me into writing this, then held my hand while I worked through the plot and filled all its holes.
Previous chapters at master list
Chapter Thirteen
Jack slumped back down and nodded soberly. “Gray… Gray was four years younger than me, and I adored him. We fought, of course, like all brothers do, but we were really close. And then, when I was eleven, and he was seven, he was taken.”
He closed his eyes and his face crumpled for a second as the memory came over him again. “They’d come before, but they’d never been quite so vicious before. Dad told me to get myself and Gray to safety, and I didn’t. I was safe, but the creatures got Gray. Took him. I… I never thought I’d see him again, but…”
“But you think that I’m… I’m him, don’t you?” Ianto finished.
Both Jack and John nodded.
“Why? What is it in that report that makes you think that? What is it about that photo that makes you think that?” Ianto cried, upset and confused.
“I… It’s…” Jack paused and stood up. “Wait here.” He disappeared into his office, where Ianto could just make out that he retrieved something from a desk drawer and rummaged through it.
He walked back towards them a minute later, something in his hand. He sank back into the sofa and handed it to Ianto.
It was a photograph. Slightly creased in the middle where it had clearly been folded over for years, but the subject was still perfectly clear. A small tousle-headed boy grinned up at the camera, framed by seemingly endless sand dunes and brilliant sunlight.
Ianto focussed on the young boy and swallowed hard.
“That’s Gray, as he was the last time I saw him before he was taken,” Jack said beside him.
Ianto looked harder and had to take a deep breath. The smiling face looking back at him bore a remarkable similarity to his own, although significantly more so to his ten year old self than to him now.
He opened his mouth several times to say something, but no words would come out.
“It… you… might not be, though,” Jack said shakily. “I mean… there must be hundreds of little boys who look like that… thousands even. Maybe even millions!” A very tentatively hopeful smile started to grace his lips. “It could just be a coincidence!”
Ianto shook his head, unable to let himself believe in Jack’s hopelessly naïve and optimistic scenario. “Yes, but how many of those small boys that look just like your brother were taken and held by those creatures?”
“They might not even be the same creatures,” Jack insisted, clinging onto the idea by his fingernails.
“You said yourself that my description sounded vaguely familiar, Jack. There’s no point in denying it,” Ianto countered miserably.
“But that doesn’t mean…”
John chose that moment to rejoin the conversation. “Face it, Jack, it’s all just a little bit much to be a coincidence. Even the timing matches up - you told me you were born in 5053, which means Gray must have been born in 5057; the same year the Time Agency estimated Ianto was born in.”
Jack shook his head frantically. “We still don’t know for sure. Yes, the facts might all point in one direction, but there’s still no proof.”
Ianto looked at Jack and John in turn. “Well, there must be some way we can find out for sure. I mean… surely we can just do DNA testing or something like that…”
Jack’s eyes brightened. “Our DNA doesn’t match,” he said with certainty. “It isn’t even similar. Torchwood takes blood samples during the physical when you join, and DNA profiling is one of the things they run it through. Ianto’s DNA isn’t anything like mine. We can’t be related.” He grinned round at Ianto.
“Umm…” John interrupted Jack’s celebration. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Jack frowned. “I don’t think so.”
John just looked at him. “KamiTab?”
Jack deflated instantly. “Oh.”
Ianto was confused. Again. “KamiTab?”
Jack sighed and John took up the explanation. “It’s sort of a chameleon drug, administered whenever a victim is being relocated significantly out of what is suspected to be their home time period. Used quite a bit by spies going undercover too.”
“Chameleon drug in that it…?” Ianto wasn’t sure he liked the sound of this much.
“Changes your physiology so you will fit in completely, yes,” John replied. “Well, not really, if I’m to be completely honest. It doesn’t actually change you. It just changes what shows up in test results.”
“And it changed my DNA?” Ianto asked, wondering why that would be necessary.
“It changed what your DNA will show up as if it is tested, yes,” John nodded.
“But why? Do they think my real DNA being known in this time would cause some sort of break in the timeline or…?” Ianto trailed off, unable to think of another possible reason.
“Nothing that thought out. It’s a side-effect of the processes that do need to be done. They haven’t managed to figure out a way yet of masking the changes that need to be masked without also masking DNA.”
“So there’s no way of us finding out for sure?” Ianto wasn’t sure if this prospect pleased or dismayed him.
“I didn’t say that,” John smirked. “There is a reversal drug… and I know just where I can get my hands on it.”
Chapter Fourteen
Comments and concrit welcomed - comments are love!! &hearts