Not Just Frozen Soldiers. part 1
Title: Not just frozen soldiers.
Chapter: 1
Pairing: Jack/Ianto.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Ep 2x03.
Synopsis: When a pretty ghost appears to Jack at St. Tailo’s hospital, it becomes clear that Tommy isn’t the only one out of his time.
Genre: AU
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood... believe me... if I did Jack and Ianto would walk around in nothing but tight pants (and a tie for Ianto) The BBC own it. so as much as I love it I don't own it :(
CARDIFF, 1933
Torchwood tried desperately to bring Tommy Brockless back with a shock to his chest. It was harder than the year before, harder than any other year in recent memory, and as he lay on the table blue and not breathing Jack Harkness started to worry. This had never happened before; Tommy always woke up the first time. But today the young Soldier lay there motionless and dead.
“This isn't right.” Jack moved away from the table and towards the monitoring machines in the corner of the room. “His heart should be working by now.”
“He's dead.” A young woman walked over to Tommy and examined his body closely, pressing a stethoscope to his chest. She put her cheek against his and felt her fingers around his neck. “No pulse, no heartbeat or breath.”
“Not what I want to hear Catherine!” Jack stood back and crossed his arms, watching her at work.
“Hush!”
Catherine Hughes couldn't have been much older than twenty five, but what she lacked in age she more than made up for in experience. She was cool, calm and collected; nothing seemed to phase her, not even a seemingly dead soldier from 1918 lying on a slab.
“Must you always talk?” She pressed her thumbs to Tommy's eyelids and pulled them back to look at his eyes. “His pupils are fixed and dilated. He's unresponsive and cold.”
“Well of course he's cold, he' been cryogenically frozen for twelve months.”
“Less of your attitude Captain and a little more faith.” She rushed past Jack and opened a cupboard with a key attached to her apron. “Trust me.”
“I trust you completely, but we need to get him working.”
She took a small bottle from a shelf and concentrated as she filled a syringe with the liquid. “He's not some kind of engine, he is still a human being.”
“Yes, and one I really need to be working.”
“Give me a moment. “ She walked over to the body and found the part of the chest she was looking for, then slowly injected the drug into his heart. “A little Adrenaline should work,” she smiled, “I can do wonders with a syringe you know.”
She stepped back and waited for a moment, watching Tommy as his body responded to the drug. He opened his eyes, gasping for breath and when Jack stepped in to hold him down Tommy's left fist met his jaw with a blow so severe that it sent him spinning; Jack hit the floor with a thud and a clatter as he took half the equipment with him.
The disorientated soldier had woken with a firmer left hook and a stronger urge to escape; his lips were blue and his fingers stiff for a moment as he came around. He sat up on the autopsy table hyperventilating as he tried to remember where he was; his eyes darted around the cold familiar room, his breathing uneven and panicked.
“Is he all right?” Catherine said, helping Jack off the floor. “Is he always like this?”
“He's just a little confused, stand back.” Jack waited for a moment when Tommy wasn't looking and moved back to the table. He pinned his hands by his side and battled the soldiers sudden strength. “Tommy!”
“Get off me!”
“Tommy!” Jack's stern voice shocked Tommy into submission and the soldier started to calm down. He held him there, waiting until his breathing was steady. “Do you know where you are?”
Tommy nodded slowly as he looked around. “Same place I always am. Torchwood.”
Jack took a breath and leaned on the table to regain his own breath, then looked up at the recently thawed soldier. “God, you put up one hell of a fight!”
He smiled. “Did I get you again Jack?”
“Merely a flesh wound, don’t get too excited.” He smiled and leaned over the table. “You’re strong today.”
“I must have had a good sleep.”
“A little too good. For a while there we didn't think we would get you back.”
Tommy sat up a little more and swung his legs around. “You know me Jack, I like to keep you guessing. So, where is everyone?”
“We’re a few men down,” he explained sadly, “this last year was a hard. We lost so much.”
“Every time I see you you it's bad news.”
“That's Torchwood for you.”
“I notice you said man.” Catherine muttered the words under her breath as she moved towards the table and started to remove the wires; she kept her touches deliberately light, and when Tommy's eyes met her she smiled. “You must be Tommy.”
“This is--”
“Catherine Hughes.” She interrupted. “And I can speak for myself.”
“She's my newest recruit,” Jack said, “and biggest critic.”
“Well, you need someone to remind you about the real world.” Catherine looked down at the floor at the trays and equipment that Jack had grabbed on his way down to the floor. “And clear up your mess.”
Catherine Ann Hughes was a beautiful girl, with long dark hair that she swept onto her head and pinned tightly; her figure was slim and her frame tall and elegant. Her eyes were bright and her manor kind, with a smile that could melt the coldest of hearts. When she spoke her accent was thick and unmistakably Welsh with just enough of a gentle edge to make the world fall in love with her charm. She was tough and it showed; raised a stones throw from the docks, dragged up by her father and brother on a diet of fish and fistfights. She was no ordinary girl.
Jack leaned into Tommy's ear, trying to avoid Catherine's wrath. “I needed some help and I needed it fast. Catherine was the only person that I could find who was up to the challenge.”
A look of sad realisation drowned Tommy's features and he frowned. “So, everyone else is--”
“Dead.” Jack nodded. “As I say, last year was a hard year. All four of them gone now, there’s just me and Catherine.”
“She seems nice.”
Jack laughed. “Don't let her delicate looks deceive, she's got a better left hook than you.”
Tommy's stomach rumbled. “I need breakfast.”
The sound of a distant siren prompted Jack to sprint across the hub towards his office and to a machine. He looked at the long piece of paper that came out from it; the readings had gone from steady peaks to erratic lines that were almost wider than the paper itself. He picked up his holster from the desk and clipped it onto his belt then grabbed his coat and slipped it on hastily, his collar half in and half out.
“Catherine!” Jack called out loudly. “Look after our handsome visitor for a while, I have to go out.”
“Where are you going?”
“The hospital is showing strange rift activity,” he explained, “It happens sometimes. It’s probably nothing, but I should probably investigate. I’ll be back soon.”
She followed him to the door and stopped him from leaving, putting herself between Jack and his only exit. “What am I meant to do?” she asked in a whisper, “I don't know him.”
“Just keep him occupied.”
“How?”
“Talk?”
“About what exactly? He's been frozen since I was five.”
“Well I don't know. Why don't you make him a cup of tea or something?”
“Okay,” Catherine nodded, “Tea is easy.”
“Oh, and get him his clothes, they're hanging up in my office.”
“Then what?”
“Make him something to eat. You're a smart woman, you'll be fine.“ Jack looked at Catherine's worried features and bent his knees a little to look into her eyes. He cupped her cheek and stroked his thumb across her soft skin, then kissed it. “ Don't worry. I’ll be back before you know it.”
“Jack-”
“You can handle this.” Jack let his hand fall away from her cheek and ran out of the hub, then called back behind him. “I’ll be an hour at the most!”
“I can handle this,” she repeated Jack's words to herself and let out a long breath until she was calm. “All I have to do is make a frozen soldier a cup of tea.”
“Where did he go?”
She turned around and stared at the stranger. “The hospital,” he said, “rift activity.”
“He's always doing that.” Tommy walked towards her, his legs still stiff from the cryogenics. “You couldn't run me a bath could you, I feel like I've got rods through my knees.”
“Not a problem.” She gave him a tight uncomfortable smile. “I would imagine that you don't often get a bath.”
“Only about one a year,” he said, “but it feels like one a day.”
“I don't know how you do it.” She moved towards him and continued on towards Jack's office. “Being frozen like that.”
He followed her. “I didn't really get a choice. I Just woke up one day and here I was on this strange cold table with all these faces looking down at me.”
“That's awful.” She handed Tommy some clothes that had been hanging up in one of the ladder rungs in Jack's office. “What about your family?”
“I don't have any. My mam died when i was young and my dad passed away a few years ago. I have an uncle somewhere, but he think's i'm dead.”
Catherine smiled sadly. “That doesn't seem like much of an existence to me.”
“It's the only one I've got right now. Jack, Torchwood and Blood tests.” Tommy frowned. "I'm used to it now."
“I'm sorry.”
“Don't be,” Tommy said with a smile, “It could be worse. I could be back on the front line.”
Catherine's gaze dropped to the floor and she took a deep breath. “I'll run you that bath now.”