Centurion: 2008
2008 - Gwen Cooper
Gwen found Jack on the roof, staring up at the sky. She followed his gaze, but other than some low hanging, gray clouds and the moon, it was empty. She wrapped her arms around herself, clutching her jacket in an attempt to block out the wind.
"Hey," she called.
Jack glanced back at her with a slight smile. "Hey."
"Can I ask you a stupid question?"
He shrugged and looked back at the horizon. "You might get a stupid answer, but sure. Shoot."
Gwen stopped just behind him.
"What exactly is it that we do here?"
Jack scoffed and grinned without looking at her. "You've been here over a year, you don't know what we do?"
"No, Jack, I don't. We just sit around with all this fancy equipment, day after day, watching… nothing. Waiting for nothing."
Jack didn't answer.
"But we're always here, and we get paid this enormous amount of money, and I don't even know why."
He stayed silent, gazing up at the dark sky. Gwen shivered and rubbed her arms again.
"Do you believe in stars?"
Gwen frowned. "They say the star cult is just a fad, based on fairy tales and people getting wasted and hallucinating. That it's all a bunch of rubbish, something that'll fade back into obscurity once the hype wears down."
"'They' are idiots," Jack laughed.
Gwen swallowed a half-formed retort that didn't quite make sense.
He continued, "Can something really be called a fad when it's been in existence since before written history? There are records of stars all over the world, in the pyramids of Egypt, ancient Rome, folk tales from here to Timbuktu. Why is there a word for the exact same imaginary object in every language on the planet? If there are no stars, why do we put them on our Christmas trees? Do 'they' have an answer for that? And anyway," he paused, finally turning towards her, "I didn't ask what 'they' think, Gwen Cooper, I asked you if you believe in stars."
Gwen swallowed. "I don't know."
He smiled at her. "Good answer."
"So? What have stars got to do with Torchwood?"
Jack sighed. "What do you think we do?"
Gwen shrugged. "We... We watch the Rift."
"And the Rift is?"
"A hole in time and space."
"And we watch it because?"
"Because sometimes things come through it."
"Where from?"
"From..."
"From the future, sometimes," Jack answered for her, "occasionally the past. But we spend an awful lot of time running after rift spikes only to find nothing there, don't we?"
Gwen nodded. "That's what I mean, there's just so much we do that doesn't make sense... I mean there was Lisa, and when you and Tosh went back in time, but other than that..."
"There were the cannibals too."
Gwen shivered again, not entirely from the cold. "Right."
"Anyway, those rift spikes, the ones that don't seem to lead anywhere, they do go somewhere."
"Where?" Gwen prompted after Jack fell back into a pensive silence.
He raised his arm and gestured at the sky. "Out there."
Gwen frowned. "The sky?"
"Beyond the sky. Space."
"Like... the moon?" Gwen ventured. "The sun?"
"Farther than that. Much farther. Where the stars and planets should be."
"What do you mean 'should?'"
Jack sighed, letting his arm fall to his side. "A long time ago," he said, "I met a man. A very strange man, out of his time in more ways than one. He didn't understand it either, but he said that there were cracks in the universe, and sometimes things fell through them, taking them out of time itself. Erasing them from existence."
Gwen swallowed and hugged herself. "And... that's what happened to the stars?"
Jack shrugged. "That's what he implied anyway. Explains a lot, though, doesn't it?"
"You mean the stars?" Gwen said, staring up at the gray sky.
"Among other things, but yes, the stars. A worldwide memory of something that ceased to exist before any human could ever have seen it."
"But wait," Gwen said, "If the stars were erased from time, how can we remember them? If they never existed."
"Some people have some immunity. There are a lot of 'stargazers' in Cardiff, probably because of the proximity to the Rift. Torchwood employees have it even stronger, since we're more aware of the problem." Jack sighed deeply and stepped backwards, away from the edge of the roof. "Sometimes I think I can remember a whole other life, with stars and other worlds and beauty beyond explanation."
Gwen stepped forwards to meet him. "Because of your..."
Jack shrugged again and slung an arm over her shoulder when she shivered. "Maybe. Who knows? I can't remember how it happened, or even where I came from. It's those little inconsistencies - like the fact that I shouldn't exist - that keep us aware of these holes, the things that should be there but aren't."
Gwen closed her eyes and leaned into Jack's embrace, a lump in her throat. So many things that could have been, that should be...
She jumped when she felt a buzzing from her coat pocket. She awkwardly disengaged from Jack's arms to scramble for her phone.
"Figures," Jack laughed, even as Gwen answered and waved at him to shut up. "Why does your phone always manage to go off right when we're having a nice little moment?"
She rolled her eyes at him before turning away to listen. After a minute or two of "Yes? Yes. No, not really. Where exactly?" she turned back to Jack, covering the mouthpiece with her hand.
"It's Andy," she reported. "Say's he's got a 'spooky-doo' if we're interested. Reports of missing people been coming in for a few weeks, only it keeps turning out a false alarm..."
She sounded doubtful, trying to condense Andy's vague and somewhat contradictory story, but Jack's amused look turned dark.
"Tell him we'll be there shortly."
Gwen looked confused, but obeyed. "We'll be there shortly."
They were on the road soon after she hung up, having grabbed Owen and accepted their nightly servings of coffee, helpfully transferred to travel mugs, from Ianto on the way out the door. Ianto and Tosh were on standby back at the Hub, waiting for either the call that would tell them to back them up or to go home.
It wasn't a long drive by any measure, but it was uncomfortably silent. Jack was glowering at the road as he drove, and hadn't spoken since he'd barked orders at his team before they left. Gwen was staring out the window, up at the dark, cloudy sky, wondering about stars and lost worlds and a nagging itch at the back of her mind that something wasn't quite right. She'd latched on to the feeling since Jack had mentioned it on the rooftop with the strange, meaningful look he sometimes gave her, but so far there had been no epiphanies about the world, just that itch.
Owen hadn't even bothered talking since they left the Hub, seeing their moods and resigning himself to another night of awkward silences and unresolved sexual tension. He spent the ride leaning his head against the window and willing them to just fuck already and get it out of their system. It'd worked when he did it with Gwen.
The address Andy had given them didn't look like the spookiest of places. It was just an empty block of flats that had somehow been left unattended to by both its owner and the city. A patrol car was parked outside.
Gwen mustered up a smile for Andy, forcing herself out of her reverie and running ahead of the others to greet him with a hug.
"Hello there," he said, reciprocating the smile with a much less forced version. "Thanks for coming out."
"Oh, it's no problem," Gwen said hurriedly, before the men were in earshot and prime sarcastic comment position. "Quiet night, you know." Like most nights.
"Good evening, PC Davidson," Jack interrupted loudly.
"Captain," Andy answered with a nod, smile fading away to be replaced with a sort of defensive apprehension.
"So, what've you called us out for?"
"Well, it's sort of strange, really," Andy began. "I mean, it started out normal enough. Got a call saying that someone'd gone missing out here, came over to investigate."
"People go missing all the time," Owen muttered, huddling in on himself and wishing he'd worn a better jacket.
"Yeah," Andy allowed, "Only we've had calls coming in about this place for quite some time now. There's no sign of a struggle or anything, just cars parked in the garage or on the street with no owners, and all the flats are empty, like all the people just decided to leave."
"Hm," Jack said distantly. He stared up at the looming building for a long moment before looking Andy sharply in the eye. "Who called you?"
Andy looked somewhat taken aback. "What do you mean?"
"Who called you? Who made the report?"
"Well I don't know, do I?" Andy said. "I didn't take the actual call, it got passed to me from the call center."
"Was there anybody here waiting to meet you?"
"I - no, there wasn't." Andy frowned. "Look, what's this got to do with -"
"If I was with somebody and they suddenly disappeared, scaring me enough to call the cops, I think I'd wait for them to show up, wouldn't you?"
"I -"
"Did you come here alone?"
"What?" Andy said, startled by the change in topic. "I - yeah, it's just me."
Jack stepped past him, coat swooshing out behind him, to lean over and look past the open door of the patrol car. "Isn't it police protocol to have all patrol officers in pairs? Where's your partner?"
"I haven't got a partner," Andy said. "I never had a partner, not since Gwen quit."
Gwen fidgeted in embarrassment, a quiet apology halfway out of her mouth, but Jack wasn't done.
"All the other patrol officers have partners, don't they?"
"Look, we're a bit understaffed, alright?"
"Even if you have an odd number of people, don't you ever switch shifts around so nobody's overwhelmed? It's just common sense." He pulled his head of the car and tossed something to Andy. "I never took you for the type to wear lipstick, PC Andy."
Andy stared at the small gold colored tube, baffled, frowning in deep concentration like he was very hard to remember something. Gwen shivered, and was unable to stop another glance up at the empty sky.
"How understaffed?" Jack asked.
"What?" Andy said, his head snapping up to look back at him. "Oh, it's pretty bad, actually. We've all been working overtime for at least two weeks."
"When did you start getting calls about this place?"
"About... two weeks ago." Andy stared back at the lipstick, lost in thought.
Jack sighed deeply and stared up at the sky. "Do you believe in stars, Andy?"
"What? I don't - well, I mean, I'm not the type to rule out any possibilities," Andy said, fiddling with the lipstick and obviously trying not to come right out and say 'yes.'
"Good," Jack said. "Do us a favor, block off the whole building. Put up some tape, make some calls, I don't want anyone going in here."
Andy frowned. "You think it's something in the flats?"
"We're going to find out," Jack said. "Owen, take the top floor and work your way down. Gwen, start on the second and head up. I'll start in the basements and meet you in the middle. Yell if you find something."
They parted ways at the stairs. Gwen took a deep breath to calm herself, listening in the otherwise silent hallway as Owen's footsteps faded upwards. Her torch turned out to be unneeded - the corridor was brightly lit - but she kept the gun she'd drawn once they were out of Andy's sight in her hand. The silence in the building was nerve-racking, and her conversation with Jack was still wearing on her mind. With the added strangeness of the questions he'd asked Andy and the grim determination she'd seen in his face, she was tense, twitchy, deeply afraid and saddened by something she couldn't define.
Most of the flats were unlocked, and Gwen made her search quickly. It yielded nothing out of the ordinary, no sign of any struggles or anything. The only discrepancy she saw was that most of the flats had left their lights on, but the more she looked in the building, the more she was overcome with the feeling of wrong wrong wrong.
The door of the fifth flat in the hall was ajar and a soft gold-white light emanated from within. Swallowing back her irrational fear that some horrible monster would jump out at her, Gwen pushed open the door with the muzzle of her gun.
Inside, the TV was on, though the sound was off. Its mild bluish light flickered across the room, and Gwen sighed in relief. She stepped inside and crossed over to it, pressing the power button and leaning against the wall to collect herself.
Really, it was ridiculous, jumping about like this. She needed to get herself together, get over the emotions racing in her head. There was nobody here but her and Jack and Owen, and Andy outside. The reports were probably a running prank among local kids, a waste of time for all of them.
She ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes. The flat was still lit with a muted golden shine, flickering gently and casting her shadow to the far wall. The lights were all turned off.
Gwen's breath hitched, but she steeled herself and readied her pistol. She looked around: the light was coming from the open bedroom door, to the left of where she had just been leaning against the wall.
She stepped cautiously into the room, gun first. In the otherwise dark room, a bright light shone from one of the walls, leaking out of a large, jagged crack right above the bed. As she watched, it looked like little golden strings were waving in an intangible wind, reaching out from the crack towards -
Gwen stumbled backwards out of the room, her heart racing. She reached up to tap her earpiece without breaking her stare at the crack. Cracks in the universe, she remembered.
"Jack," she said as soon as she heard the connecting beep, "I think I've found it. Second floor, fifth flat." She swallowed. "Hurry."
"What is it?" Jack said, and she could hear him panting as he hurried up the stairs.
"It's... it's a crack in the wall. I dunno, it feels wrong, Jack. It's more than just a crack, it's..."
"Don't go near it, Gwen," Jack ordered. "Just wait for me, I'm almost there. Whatever you do, don't touch it."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Gwen whispered. The golden threads drifted in invisible currents and the light from the crack was warm and inviting. She could feel it pulling at her, somewhere between her mind and her body, luring her in with a welcome invitation. It terrified her.
The sound of footsteps echoed through the hallway behind her. Gwen took another step backwards, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the horrible crack until Jack's hand closed around her own. He pressed gently against them, easing her into lowering the gun she had still been pointing uselessly in front of her.
"It's one of those things you mentioned before," Gwen said. "One of those... cracks. In the universe."
"Yeah," said Jack.
"Have you seen this kind of thing before?"
"Too many times," he said quietly. "I've probably even lost people to it before."
"Probably?"
"It's hard to hold on to the memory of the things that get pulled through," he murmured. "They're completely gone from time; the only things they leave behind are vague feelings and inconsistencies, like Andy's lipstick."
He squeezed her hand, rubbing her fingers gently.
"It's probably what got rid of all the people here," Jack continued.
"What people?" Gwen asked, finally turning her head away from the spectacle to look up at Jack's face.
"It's a block of flats in the middle of a big city," Jack pointed out. "The flats are all fully furnished in every room. There should be people in it. Even if it were abandoned, why leave everything behind? Why haven't the homeless moved in? There aren't even any cobwebs, because it's taken all the spiders, too."
"I didn't -" Gwen started, then looked over her shoulder at the living room. Having it pointed out to her, the void where the residents should have been stood out as plain as day. "I didn't even notice," she continued, disgusted. "The walls are covered with empty frames with blank photographs, and I didn't think anything was out of the ordinary. It didn't even occur to me."
"That's what it does," Jack said in a resigned sort of voice. "If you aren't focusing hard on what's missing, you would never think anything was wrong. But the whole world, the whole universe, is missing things that should exist."
"Is there anything we can do?" Gwen asked, turning her attention back to the wall.
"Not really," Jack said. "Try and stop people from wandering into it. Close off the area."
"There has to be something!" Gwen said, shutting her eyes. "Can't we close it up somehow? There must be something we can do."
"No," Jack said sternly. "Getting too close to that thing would just end in being erased. I'm not risking any of you." He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him.
"But -"
"And I'm only immortal; I don't think it counts for being erased from history."
Gwen stared back at the crack. That pulling feeling was still there, tugging at the back of her head. "What's on the other side?"
"Who knows. Maybe nothing. Maybe the things it’s already devoured. Is it really worth finding out?"
He squeezed her shoulder one last time before heading back out the door. "Owen," he said into his earpiece, "Meet us outside. We're done here."
"Did you find something?" Owen asked.
"Yup. Another crack. We're gonna close off the area."
"Fuck," Owen said. "Another one? It feels like it wasn't that long since we found that one eating lorries out in Splott."
"Splott?" Gwen asked, frowning.
"You were off flower shopping or some shit, Gwen," Owen said, "Jack took Ianto and me."
"Oh," she murmured.
They met up with Andy outside. Jack went back into boss-mode and started ordering Andy to get a police cordon around the building while fending off any questions. "Nothing for you to worry about. Torchwood business. Classified."
Gwen stood off to the side, not really listening. Her mind was full of flowers. She had gone flower shopping a while ago. It had been fun. She'd especially liked the blue ones...
Owen slinked up behind Gwen and grabbed her arm gently.
"You alright?"
"What?" Gwen said, snapping out of it. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
"You're crying," Owen said quietly. "Did something happen in there?"
"No," Gwen said firmly, wiping her eyes in surprise. "I'm just... I must be tired is all. I don't..."
She stopped, taking a deep breath to calm herself. Owen was still holding onto her arm, but his hand had slipped down to her wrist, and she could tell he was trying to take her pulse without being obvious about it. Checking for symptoms of something worse.
"I'm fine," Gwen repeated, and pulled her arm away. Seeing Jack dismiss Andy and turn back to join them, she did her best to look normal. "Are we heading back to the Hub, then?"
Jack shook his head. "Nah, I think we're done for the night. I'll call back and tell Tosh and Ianto to head home. Owen, take the SUV and drive Gwen home."
"You sure?" Gwen asked. "What about you?"
Jack smiled loftily at her. "Eh, it's not that far from here to Ianto's place. Figured I'd walk over and meet him there."
"Oh," Gwen said, somehow disappointed. "Alright."
Jack held on to her hand again as she turned to follow Owen back to the SUV. "You going to be okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," Gwen said, but she was fighting back tears again. She turned a choked sob into a meager laugh. "I just hate going back to that flat. It's way too big for just me."
Jack smiled sadly at her as she pulled away. Her hand slipped out of his, her empty ring finger sliding past his calloused fingertips.
Gwen jogged after Owen to huddle in the passenger seat, holding back the tears from the heartache she couldn't remember.
Jack sighed and stared up at the blank sky, and willed the stars to come back.
Chapters:
Prologue: 102 - An Auton
1941 - The Lone Centurion
1977 - A Security Guard
1981 - Security
2007 - Luke Smith
2008 - Gwen Cooper
2009 - Donna Noble
1996 - Rory Williams
Epilogues