TORCHWOOD: Break the Loop of Habit
Title: Break the Loop of Habit
Characters/Pairing: Gwen and Martha, mention of Jack
Word Count: 499
Rating: PG
Summary: Making retcon is nowhere near as simple as you would think.
Notes: Written for writerinadrawer round 3.04. Spoilers for Children of Earth.
Disclaimer: Torchwood and all characters belong to the BBC. I am not affiliated with the BBC, and am not making any money from this.
Finding the recipe for retcon on Torchwood's servers hadn't been difficult. Learning how to prepare it was another matter - the notes were a patchwork combination of Jack's original recipe and the notations of some Torchwood medic before Owen, and neither of them had bothered to mention that the compound was temperamental about temperature, timing, and apparently whether or not you breathed while preparing it.
Martha turned, holding up a beaker of clouded, milky liquid. "Does this look right to you?"
Gwen pressed her lips together and tilted her head to the side. "Dunno. I've only ever seen it as a pill... The color looks a bit odd, doesn't it?"
Martha swirled the beaker, then grimaced. "Yes, it does. Also, it smells." She set the beaker on a counter and sighed, "So that's attempt five gone wrong."
Gwen folded her arms over her chest. They'd been in this borrowed UNIT lab for hours now, and while Gwen didn't have to be here, it didn't seem fair to dump this in Martha's lap and then just leave her to the whole monotonous process. That didn't mean she wanted to spend the rest of her day here. She tried for a smile. "Are you saying you don't enjoy this? Just a little? The scientific method, all that?"
"I'm saying... I feel like I'm trying to build a calculator with a bit of wiring, safety scissors and paste."
Gwen stifled a laugh in her hand and did her best to look sympathetic. "You're probably doing a bit better than that."
"I appreciate your confidence," Martha said with a faint smile, her tone that perfect balance between sarcasm and sincerity. She picked up the printout of the retcon recipe, and the smile slipped away. "If we could just get hold of Jack and ask him..."
Gwen's gaze found its way to the uninteresting tile floor. "Yeah, well, that's not going to happen."
"Even if we do get it right... how are we supposed to test it? There aren't many people volunteering to have their memories wiped. Or be poisoned, if I've got it wrong..."
"After the last half a year? I'm sure we could find someone who wouldn't mind forgetting." Soldiers, politicians, ordinary people who stood by and watched... She wouldn't mind forgetting, if not for Torchwood, responsibilities and duties and all.
"Why are we doing this?" Gwen looked up sharply, and found Martha watching her with a frown. "The thing is... this isn't the way you- we do things. This is Jack's Torchwood, with the retcon and all the secrets and... It just seems a bit pointless now. As long as Jack's not coming back, we may as well try it our way."
Gwen glanced from Martha to the row of beakers containing retcon attempts one through five, and finally smiled, reaching for her coat. "Get rid of that, then, and let's get out of here. I'll buy you lunch; consider it an apology for not having this conversation three hours earlier."
Characters/Pairing: Gwen and Martha, mention of Jack
Word Count: 499
Rating: PG
Summary: Making retcon is nowhere near as simple as you would think.
Notes: Written for writerinadrawer round 3.04. Spoilers for Children of Earth.
Disclaimer: Torchwood and all characters belong to the BBC. I am not affiliated with the BBC, and am not making any money from this.
Finding the recipe for retcon on Torchwood's servers hadn't been difficult. Learning how to prepare it was another matter - the notes were a patchwork combination of Jack's original recipe and the notations of some Torchwood medic before Owen, and neither of them had bothered to mention that the compound was temperamental about temperature, timing, and apparently whether or not you breathed while preparing it.
Martha turned, holding up a beaker of clouded, milky liquid. "Does this look right to you?"
Gwen pressed her lips together and tilted her head to the side. "Dunno. I've only ever seen it as a pill... The color looks a bit odd, doesn't it?"
Martha swirled the beaker, then grimaced. "Yes, it does. Also, it smells." She set the beaker on a counter and sighed, "So that's attempt five gone wrong."
Gwen folded her arms over her chest. They'd been in this borrowed UNIT lab for hours now, and while Gwen didn't have to be here, it didn't seem fair to dump this in Martha's lap and then just leave her to the whole monotonous process. That didn't mean she wanted to spend the rest of her day here. She tried for a smile. "Are you saying you don't enjoy this? Just a little? The scientific method, all that?"
"I'm saying... I feel like I'm trying to build a calculator with a bit of wiring, safety scissors and paste."
Gwen stifled a laugh in her hand and did her best to look sympathetic. "You're probably doing a bit better than that."
"I appreciate your confidence," Martha said with a faint smile, her tone that perfect balance between sarcasm and sincerity. She picked up the printout of the retcon recipe, and the smile slipped away. "If we could just get hold of Jack and ask him..."
Gwen's gaze found its way to the uninteresting tile floor. "Yeah, well, that's not going to happen."
"Even if we do get it right... how are we supposed to test it? There aren't many people volunteering to have their memories wiped. Or be poisoned, if I've got it wrong..."
"After the last half a year? I'm sure we could find someone who wouldn't mind forgetting." Soldiers, politicians, ordinary people who stood by and watched... She wouldn't mind forgetting, if not for Torchwood, responsibilities and duties and all.
"Why are we doing this?" Gwen looked up sharply, and found Martha watching her with a frown. "The thing is... this isn't the way you- we do things. This is Jack's Torchwood, with the retcon and all the secrets and... It just seems a bit pointless now. As long as Jack's not coming back, we may as well try it our way."
Gwen glanced from Martha to the row of beakers containing retcon attempts one through five, and finally smiled, reaching for her coat. "Get rid of that, then, and let's get out of here. I'll buy you lunch; consider it an apology for not having this conversation three hours earlier."