Title: When The Debt Is Called In (1/?)
imzadimylove
Characters: Rose/Jack, Ten, Ten II, Torchwood
Rating: Adult
Word Count: 2,230
Spoilers: COE
Disclaimers: I do not own these lovely characters, I’m just playing in BBC’s playground
Betas: Much love for the fantastic cytherea999 and brilliant meremoon, for their sharp eyes and wonderful advice!
Summary: All actions have consequences, no matter how large or small. When Rose resurrected Jack, she created a new form of life. What responsibility does the creator owe to its creation? As the events of COE unfold, Rose and Jack are both about to find out.
Notes: This is my very first fanfic. I love Jack/Rose, with or without the Doctor, and after RTD broke Jack, I couldn’t stand it anymore. So this is my “fix Jack” piece. Please be ruthless and brutally honest with any and all critiques, and I hope you enjoy!
CHAPTER ONE
A second of reflection
can take you to the moon.
The slightest hesitation
can bring you down in flames.
A single spark of passion
can change a man forever.
A moment in a lifetime
is all it takes to break him.
“Call The Ships To Port” by Covenant
It began as Ianto lay dying in his arms. He felt something deep within break open, as a wound upon the flesh, except this went much deeper, the kind that never fully heals. Emotions pooled into hard, tight knots that threatened to disturb the silence of the dead, but he felt curiously numb all the same. It was as though he had split in two, and his conscious self hovered over the physical, watching dispassionately as the body held his dying lover in its frozen grip.
He waited for the empty blackness to claim him, knowing that when he woke again, he would experience pain the likes of which he, for all his long life and physical deaths thus far endured, had never felt before. He welcomed the familiar bone-chilling coldness of death as it swept towards him, bizarrely accompanied by the haunting howl of a lone wolf…
The Alternate Universe
It was a typical Monday at Torchwood. Barely 9 a.m., and Rose had already dealt with three separate crises - one that really wasn’t, and two that hadn’t reached critical yet. She walked into her office and shut the door, finally feeling like she could take a deep breath without someone else panicking. She leaned against the door as she concentrated on calming her heart rate and relaxing her tense muscles.
Pushing off the door and approaching her desk, she could see the office phone’s message indicator blinking urgently, but she ripped off a sticky note and stubbornly placed it over the light. Surely, nothing would explode for the next 10 minutes while she took time to re-group. She kicked off her dress shoes and let her body recline into the chair, closing her eyes. She still felt unsettled, anxious, as though something was about to crash into her.
Closing her eyes, Rose focused on breathing and emptying her mind. Gradually, her heartbeat slowed, and her anxiety eased, but something was still not right. Coming to a decision, she opened her eyes and reached for the phone, hitting the preset button automatically with the ease of long practice.
“Cathy? I need to speak to John, now.” Rose knew she was being rude, but the urge to find him rose up inside her so suddenly she was again having a hard time drawing a full breath. Her pulse increased and she felt sure that, had anyone else been in her office, he or she would have been able to hear the rapid heavy thudding of her heart.
After only a few seconds that seemed to take forever, John’s voice sounded in her ear. “Rose, wh-”
“John!” Rose fought to keep her voice steady, even as she noticed how badly her hands were shaking. “I need to see you, right now.”
“Erm all right. Not a problem. I’ll just -”
“Doctor, please, just come now, please?” Rose knew she sounded desperate, but a sick feeling of time running out began to creep over her awareness with every harsh beat of her heart. Her only answer was the dial tone.
No sooner had she fumbled the receiver back into its place than there was a firm double rap on her door, and John burst into her office. Slamming the door, he rushed over to her and pulled her into his arms, and just for a moment, Rose felt as though everything was back to normal. She buried her face in his shoulder, her arms automatically wrapping around his waist, her hands grasping fistfuls of his shirt, clutching him to her frantically.
The Doctor just held her, murmuring soft words of love and comfort that barely registered on her awareness, but it allowed her to focus on him and drag herself back from the edge of a full-blown panic attack. She shifted, and placed her left ear over his chest, straining to hear his heartbeat over the thunder of her own. His heart was beating faster than normal, but considering the circumstances it was only to be expected.
Hearing the steady beat of his heart soothed her and she became aware of his body, warm and sturdy as her arms locked into a death grip around him. Her hands were beginning to cramp as she held herself against him as closely as physically possible. Consciously forcing her hands to relax, Rose gradually calmed enough so that she no longer felt out of control.
John felt her body relax and leaned back from her a bit so he could look down at her face. Rose felt him move, opened her eyes and looked up into his worried face. She managed to smile briefly, basking in the love she saw there. He ducked his head and whispered into her ear. “Rose, let’s take a personal day, just for us. I want to take you home and show you just how much I love you.”
She shivered as she felt his breath against the sensitive flesh of her ear and the press of his obvious arousal against her hip, suddenly reminded of that day on the beach - the same whispered voice in her ear, the same aching sense of time running out, the decision made for them both before the choice was ever presented. Time was again pressing against her heart, her skin prickling with foreboding. Not trusting her voice, she nodded her head, pouring all of her love and need for the man before her into her gaze. She slid one cold hand down to join with his and wished that they were home already. Nothing seemed to matter, no one else existed for her except this man, who had taken her hand and led her away from that horrid, ugly shore, and shown her repeatedly that he was worth the loss of the Other.
As John turned to lead her out of her out of the office, Rose felt a cold jolt of fear rush through her body as she gasped in shock. How could she not even have considered possible connections to the Time Lord? As John stopped and turned back to her, Rose frantically searched her awareness, probing her emotions, seeking any sign that pointed to the origin of her distress.
"Rose?" John turned back towards her at the sound of her sudden cry, his hands gripping her elbows as his arms supported her. "Rose, what's wrong?"
"I - how could I just forget? I didn't even think - " Rose's eyes began to shine with unshed tears, her body shaking with emotion. "What if it's the Doctor? What if something happened to him? What if he needs me?"
His heart ached at the fear and guilt etched onto her face, wishing he knew what to do or say to make it disappear. Seeking to reassure her, he closed his eyes and tried to sense what she was feeling. Pushing aside frustration with the limitations of his half-human brain, he lowered his mental shields, bracing himself for the onslaught of noise and chaos from the undisciplined minds that surrounded him. The clamor of many mind voices rushed in, and he did not resist, allowing himself to adjust to the once familiar sensation of substance filling the empty spaces. Impatiently, he constructed a defensive shield to filter out the background noise, and was amazed to discover a thin white thread connecting Rose’s mind to his. He felt some resistance to his first gentle brush against her awareness, her hand jerking in his as she gasped in surprise, but then her walls fell, and he was in.
At first, all he could see was darkness, but he could feel her emotions pressing into his skin. Fear. Despair. As Rose became aware that he was inside her mind, the darkness began to give way to stormy gray, and he could see ahead a doorway blasted with white light. He moved toward it, knowing she was waiting there. As he neared it, the stormy gray suddenly changed to deepest pink, and he felt her love for him envelop his awareness; yet there was desperation underneath. Sending his own feelings of love and comfort, he pushed forward to the doorway, and into a room of bright white.
*Rose?*
He felt an answering pulse and turned toward it. He saw Rose slumped against a brutally white, stark wall, her knees drawn up to her chest supporting her head, as she sobbed with deep, painful gasps. He rushed to her, words pouring out in an effort to combat her despair. *Rose, it isn’t Him - I mean, I know I would feel if he - well, I think I would know - if he was about to regenerate - or was in pain. I don’t feel that, so maybe-*
Rose lifted her head abruptly from her knees and her eyes blazed madly into his. *It’s not the Time Lord. This is something else.* She shuddered violently, hiding her face again in her arms. Then abruptly, before he could react, her head reared back again, and John felt fear as he saw her eyes begin to spark with gold fire. Across the white walled room, on the far wall, the words Bad Wolf suddenly appeared in bright red letters slashing across the space and quickly began to cover the walls with the name, over and over, like a graffiti artist gone mad.
Rose’s voice turned his attention back to her, and he was glad to see her brown eyes instead of gold. *John, there isn’t much time. I -* Another sob shook her. *John, I love you, so much! You just don’t know…But there’s no time! It’s not Him - it’s Jack. Bad Wolf is taking me to Jack. She says it’s my duty, we have to prevent the worst from happening - but I don’t want to leave you! Try to find a way to get back to the other universe John. Promise me you’ll try! Promise me!*
*Yes Rose, I’ll do whatever it takes. You are everything to me.* John felt a deep swell of emotion rising within him, and he felt his mind beginning to slip from hers. The last thing he saw was Rose’s small frame against a wall bleeding with red letters. Bad Wolf.
John opened his eyes. Rose stood before him, her eyes closed and tears running down her flushed face, and he thought she had never looked so beautiful. He swept her into his arms, holding her tight against him, raising one hand to her face to wipe away the tears. “Rose, love, open your eyes. I need you to look at me.”
Rose took a deep breath, and then opened her eyes and looked up at him. John felt his heart clench as he looked into brown eyes rapidly changing to gold. He fought to keep strong for her, but inside his rage was building with all the force of the Oncoming Storm. He wanted to yell, to scream this isn’t happening - this is our forever - she belongs with me, but he knew it to be futile. He was losing her and utterly helpless to prevent it.
Rose sensed Bad Wolf coming, knew she only had a few precious minutes before she lost him yet again. There was so much she wanted to tell him: how he saved her with his patience; broke through her carefully constructed armor with his kindness, and that in the end, his love gave her the courage to love him in return. She wanted to tell him how precious his life is to her, a gift that she almost lost before she knew what she had. An aching bitterness rushed through her as Time runs out for them once more. Her words of love seem glued to the roof of her mouth, but she can’t let him think she wanted this. “Don’t give up on me, John! Find a way to cross the void - find me! I’m so sorry. I love you, John. I -“
Suddenly, her eyes flared with inner fire, and then golden light enveloped her entire body. John felt a gentle push as Rose was pulled from his embrace, and the hair on his arms and neck tingled with the power of Bad Wolf magnetizing the air around them. Her body became transparent, and then shrank into a small golden ball of light quickly engulfed by the open jaws of Bad Wolf.
A deafening crack shook the air. A long, dark gash that looked like an engorged string suspended in mid-air appeared, as Bad Wolf ripped through time-space reality to open a path to the Void. A howling windstorm engulfed the office, sending papers, office supplies, and loose items spiraling in a mad destructive dance around the room. Without hesitation, Bad Wolf leapt into the Void, closing the breach behind her. Just like that, Rose was gone.
John fell to the floor, deep sobs wracking his body, just as Pete and a security team burst into the room. As Pete knelt beside the grief-stricken man, laying a firm hand on the man’s shoulder, the only coherent words he could understand sent fear flooding through him. “S-Sh-She’s…g-gone. Bad Wolf - s-she’s gone.”