ROTQ (2/8)
Title: The Roots of the Quadratic (2/8)
Author: nancybrown
Fandoms: Torchwood, Doctor Who
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Alice, Jenny, John Hart, OCs
Rating: R
Beta/Britpick: queenfanfiction, wynkat1313, temporal_witch, and fide_et_spe had a hand in fixing this. All remaining mistakes are mine alone.
Spoilers: up through CoE, one spoiler for "End of Time," one spoiler for Bay of the Dead
Warnings: character death, angst, child endangerment, mentions of sexual coercion, violence, timey-wimey temporal physics, and of course, Captain Bad Touch rides again
Words: 46,000 (5,500 this part)
Chapter One
***
Chapter Two
***
"Sometimes I really wish people came with signs. 'Caution: Psychotic Stalker Who Will Obsess on You for the Rest of Time' would be helpful to know when meeting someone. 'Self-Absorbed Jerk Who Will Abandon You and Then Break Your Heart After You Spend a Century Tracking Him Down' really wouldn't hurt, either. [Not that I disagree with either description, but perhaps you want to tone it down in the next draft. --- Yeah, yeah. I'll be nicer in the rewrite.] Even a simple 'This Person Will Change Your Life Forever' would have come in handy, say when I was admiring someone's butt as she was hanging from a barrage balloon, or when I had help subduing a Weevil one night. Had I known then how important these people would become to me, I probably would have been more polite." - from "Me: An Autobiography"
***
"Thank you, Hilda," Jenny said, petting the ship's controls as they came to a stop at the dock.
"You're quite welcome," chirped the AI, apparently on a happy upswing in her mood again.
Alice really wanted to say something, but Jenny silenced her with a look, and she sighed. "Thanks, Hilda."
The Dock Master was of a species Alice had never encountered before: six arms, lemon-yellow scales, all muscle. He charged them more than Alice thought was fair, but Jenny handed over their falsified credit slip with a perky smile and a tip for his services.
"We're looking for the local authorities," said Jenny.
Alice said, "We've a bounty to collect."
The Dock Master gave them a look that, on his unfamiliar face, could have been respect or fear or desire. "Bounty hunters?" It was a cover story they adopted when necessary, and one Alice felt to be useful in this situation. She saw him take in their guns. "You must check your weapons with the Head Constable."
Jenny smiled wider. "Please. Take us there."
As they made their way through the station, Alice did her best not to look like a tourist, but it was difficult. Nearly ten years in space, and her entire life before that in the shadow of her parents' occupation, and still her breath caught at the sight of real aliens. Every visit was a new education in the variety of existence out here, seething and living together and fighting and loving. Tiny creatures no bigger than her thumb but stronger telepaths than any other in the galaxy bumped elbows (or what passed for elbows) with skeletal giants that only breathed argon in their compression suits. Colours and shapes and pelts and feathers, and the smells, oh the smells of creatures cooking and breathing and farting. At a crossroads such as this, even a backwater, Alice was overwhelmed. She walked, and tried not to stare, and envied Jenny's easy grace among this flow of life.
An alarm went off, loud klaxons and red flashing lights, breaking her thoughts. Alice gripped her gun, as Jenny readied her own.
Jenny said, "What's going on?"
"Unknown. Wait here." The Dock Master left them and hurried onwards. Alice and Jenny exchanged glances, then followed him.
The flow had changed, settling into two distinct streams of "trying to get closer to see what was wrong," and "trying to move away from it as quickly as possible." They bumped into the latter, were separated, rejoined, and then held hands against the tide as bodies surged.
Jenny shuddered, grabbing her head. Alice's heart went to her, but there wasn't time. "Where?"
The pretty mouth moved into a reflexive expression of distaste and horror. "Over there."
Alice took her hand again, dragging her through the rush towards the place where she'd pointed. Moments later, she collided with someone and fell down hard.
"Ow."
"Sorry," he said quickly, already moving away when he stopped dead. As her senses cleared, and she recognised his voice, the same recognition dawned on his face. "Alice?"
"Hello, Dad." He was dressed in bright orange clothes, and stuck out in the crowd more than usual.
Jenny made a whimper in the back of her throat, and Alice turned from him to help her friend stand. "It's okay," she said. "Remember how you did it last time."
"I'm trying," said Jenny, but she looked as though she wanted to vomit or flee, unable to raise whatever mental shields she erected around the horror that was Alice's father.
"Not that I'm not really glad to see you right now," Jack said, looking over his shoulder, "but I'm kind of trying to get away. Could we?"
Alice let out a sigh. "Did you just escape from gaol?"
"It wasn't my idea! Someone else opened the cells, and I figured … "
"Stop!" shouted someone who sounded like an authority figure, and Alice grabbed Jenny's arm.
"This way."
"No," said Jack, "this way." He led them in a different direction, still surrounded by running humans and aliens of every kind, and leaving them no choice but to follow. They ducked through three corridors and came out in a less-populated common area with stores and restaurants. Jack immediately entered the nearest of these.
Alice hissed, "This is not the time for a snack!"
He ignored her. "Hey!" A human man about her own age came out from the back of the shop with a comical look of surprise on his face as Jack said, "Time to run."
The other man dropped the towel he was holding. "What did you do?"
"Nothing! The guy in cellblock Theta shorted out the cells, and everyone's out."
"So go back! We can't arrange transport yet, and they'll catch you and put you in for twice the time."
"You're not as happy about this as I thought you'd be."
Alice said, "We need to go."
Jack said, "Then let's go." He took the hand of the human man.
"No passengers," said Alice irritably. "Certainly not your flavour of the month."
"He's not my flav … "
"ENOUGH!" said Jenny. She was weaving on her feet. She looked at the other man. "Are you coming with him?" He nodded. "Fine. Nice to see you again. Let's go."
Again?
"One minute," said the man, and he hurried back into the restaurant as time slipped away from them. He came back with a small rucksack. "Lead the way."
They ran, headed generally back towards the dock while avoiding the authorities who would be looking for Jack. They came close once, backed around a corner while three gaolers dressed in beige did a sweep of the area they needed to cross, but the gaolers moved on and they made it back to the dock without incident.
The Dock Master waited for them, all six arms folded across himself. "Stop."
Jenny put on her friendly smile again. "Please let us know if we owe you any more."
The Dock Master pointed to Jack. "He is a prisoner."
"Yes," said Jenny, her hand on her weapon again. "Our prisoner." Alice took Jack's arm and stole a longer look at his companion. When recognition sunk in, she squeezed Jack's bicep in a hard pinch.
"I'm going to kill you," she said in a low voice.
"Fine," said the Dock Master, as Jenny handed him an extra credit slip.
Jack's face filled with glee as they approached the ship. "Chula?"
As they hurried aboard, Jenny said, "I picked her up right after I started travelling. She's got a time circuit, so I can take her home when I'm finished." Finished what, she'd never said.
Alice went to the controls as Jack came up beside her. Uninvited, he slid his hands over the panel, and said in a low voice, "Hello, gorgeous."
Alice shoved him away. "Stop molesting the ship."
"I was just saying hello."
"I believe she said that," said his friend.
Hilda made a sound that Alice refused to believe was a giggle before they disengaged from the dock. The transceiver spat out complaints from the station: were they harbouring any fugitives?
"Negative," said Jenny sweetly. "Just a quick stop. Off now, thanks."
"Please cease your departure and return to the station. Your ship will be boarded and searched."
"Negative," Jenny repeated, with less kindness. "Our ship is none of your concern." As she spoke, Alice set their course, muttering to herself about the wait as they slowly steered clear of the many ships around them.
"Return to the station immediately, or we will fire."
Jenny said, "Violence is not an acceptable option. We are leaving, not attacking you."
On the viewscreen, Alice saw the largest three cannons rotate towards them, and then Jack pushed her out of the way, grabbed the controls, and threw the throttle. Hilda jerked then zipped off, smoothly dodging a transport and a freighter in her way, skimming to a hard starboard roll to evade the blasts from the cannon.
Alice pushed down her anger and ran to the time circuit, flipping it to random, and punching it as soon as they were clear of the last ship. Moments later, she felt the sharp tug at her navel that meant they were travelling in time as well as space.
Jenny said, "That's them taken care of, then." She turned to Jack. "Time and place?"
"Anywhere that isn't a cell."
"Time and place the last you saw us."
"Oh." He scratched his head. "Cardiff, 3009. You?"
Alice said, "Triskellion, 18,063." She wouldn't look at him, not right now. The initial rush of their escape had faded, leaving her with a cold pit in her stomach.
"Right. I won't see you there for a while."
"Yes."
Jenny said to the other man -- Alice remembered his name now -- "Let me give you a tour, shall I?"
He glanced at Jack and Alice, as though measuring the tension. "That'd be lovely, thank you."
As soon as they were out of the control room, Alice said in a low voice, "I cannot believe you."
He folded his arms. "Good instinct. I don't believe me half the time, either."
She pointed down the corridor. "You asked me for his name, and then you brought him back?"
His face changed. "Oh. Oh, no. Alice. I didn't." He reached out to her arms and she pulled back instinctively. His hands moved without her there, and then fell to his sides. "The Time Agency picks up people from mass disasters."
"I know what the Time Agency does. We've run into their handiwork before." Too many times, they'd arrived just as Time Agents had started a convenient war in order to gather bodies. More than once, they'd touched down on worlds where Agents had absconded with technology that the Agency could use. And of course, they'd met at the mass catastrophes, which Alice and Jenny did everything in their power to prevent, while the ghouls fought them at every turn to collect their tithe of human lives.
"They picked up the Thames House victims in one of their acquisitions. The Doctor dropped Ianto on my doorstep afterwards. The bowtie one?" Alice had met that Doctor. He was a bit weird. "I think he was trying to be nice to me."
"There were nicer things he could have done."
"But this is what happened." He was asking neither her forgiveness nor her approval, she saw. Jack's life: one impossible thing after the other. He shifted expressions again, moved from sorrow over the things they couldn't change into curiosity. Another thing about him: always moving forward. "So what brings you here? I'm grateful for the save, but you were just about dead last on my list of people I thought would show up to help."
One anger easily morphed into another. "You kidnapped two children. I promised their mother I'd bring them back to her."
He folded his arms, back in the defensive posture. "I've done a lot of terrible things. I don't think kidnapping kids ever showed up on the list, though."
She smiled without warmth and flew back to the controls. The picture taken back on the tropical planet came up. "That's you."
Jack's eyebrows raised. "That is me." He bent in. "And I looked good."
She resisted the urge to punch him. It would only make him feel better if she did. "It's clearly a younger version of you. Not so much grey in your hair." She noticed his eyes flick to the silver streaks in her own, and ignored him. "It happens about five hundred years from now. Ring any bells?"
"Nope. Sorry."
Alice slammed her palm onto the surface of the control panel. Hilda made a noise that meant she'd need to be coaxed into doing anything for the next day at least. Alice didn't care. "Think harder! Damn it, you really can't let any child go unscathed, can you?" That blow hit, though not as hard as she'd wished.
"I'm over five thousand years old. Forgive me if I don't remember every last crime I've committed."
"No. I don't think I will."
Just then, Jenny came back. Alice gave Jack another frown and moved away from him. "It was pointless," she told Jenny. "He doesn't remember."
Jenny's face fell. "That's it, then."
Jack looked at his companion's confused expression. "Old sins."
"It always is, with you." He went to Alice and held out his hand. "Ianto Jones. It's good to finally meet you." She frowned at him. She knew his name. She'd run into another version a while back, hadn't she? When she said nothing, did not take his hand, he added, "I just wanted to say, I am so sorry for your loss."
Jack wouldn't have coached him; Jack didn't think about things that way. "Thank you," she eventually managed around the stone in her throat.
***
One of the many things about Jack that both frustrated and amused Ianto was the man's ability to throw himself completely into a situation and be utterly relaxed and at ease. Jack could be set naked on a planet with a chlorine atmosphere, and within an hour, he'd have found something to eat and someone to chat up for a shag, and within another hour, he'd have annoyed a spouse or potentate enough to call for his beheading. Ianto had observed this in action back in their Torchwood days, and read about it repeatedly in the extensive annals of Jack's memoirs.
Even as Jack was making himself right at home at the controls of Alice and Jenny's ship, ignoring the glares from his daughter, Ianto took the chance to go through the rucksack. He'd foolishly left most of their clothing back on the station, but that couldn't be helped now.
Identification, check. Three copies, all Jack's under various names. Law enforcement types went directly for DNA idents, but most places settled for paper or the equivalent, which meant they could purchase fakes for Ianto when they reached a proper port.
Currency, check. Everything Ianto had earned over the last two months was here, although it wasn't much, and there was no way to tell if it would be valid where they ended up next.
Wrist strap, check and removed to return to Jack.
One change of clothes, Ianto's, check. Kept on hand for the sake of spills and messes in the restaurant, now his only other outfit. Still better than what Jack had, which were the prison clothes on his back.
And … Good. Data chip, containing every piece of information they'd had on the computer back home, including Jack's book, check.
Everything else was gone.
Ianto closed his eyes a moment, and then let it all go with a sigh. There was no point in complaining now. He glanced over at the others.
Alice was angry with Jack, for understandable reasons. That the anger splashed onto Ianto as well was going to be par for the course. She had given up on glaring at her father and pushed him away from the control panel.
"Let us get something straight. You are not to touch the controls of the ship again. This is our ship. She responds to us. She likes us."
"I like him," said the AI.
"Not now, sweetheart," said Jenny.
"Sorry for saving your lives," said Jack.
Alice said, "Our lives wouldn't have been in danger if we hadn't brought you along."
"Not my idea."
Jenny asked, "Why were you incarcerated? The record didn't say."
Ianto said, "He cheated in a game."
"You're supposed to cheat!"
"Then he mouthed off to the constable who was investigating."
"I was explaining how the game works."
"And then he punched the constable."
"He hit me first."
"No-one argued that. You, however, were not permitted to hit back."
"Stupid law."
"Enough!" shouted Alice. "I stopped caring at 'incarcerated.'"
Jenny sighed. "I suppose we'll simply drop you off somewhere."
Alice said, "Back at the space station would be choice."
"They'd fire on us, dear." Alice's scowl was firmly in place as she stalked to the other side of the control room away from Jenny's gentle chiding.
Ianto cleared his throat. "Why did you pick us up in the first place?"
"Something I did that I don't remember," said Jack. Seeing Alice's face, and perhaps hoping to win a few points back with her for honesty, he added, "Apparently I kidnapped two kids a while back."
"How far back?"
Jenny said, "The incident happens five hundred years after we picked you up. But Jack was younger than he is now."
Ianto frowned, wrapping his head around that. "Jack, when's the last time you went non-linear?"
"A few times with the Doctor. But we didn't grab any kids."
"During your Time Agency days, then?"
He shrugged. "Could be. I don't remember much from back then."
Alice said, "We'll have to run into him earlier."
Jenny put a hand to the side of her head as though she had a sudden headache. "No. That would be bad." Jack nodded and Alice sighed.
Something tickled at the back of Ianto's mind. "The Time Agency doesn't normally do kidnappings. Not for just a few people. Were they part of a large group?"
"No," said Alice. "He stole them from their family."
Jenny said, "Their planet was about to be destroyed." She frowned. "Typically, the Agency would have taken the whole village, wouldn't they?"
"Typically," said Jack.
It had been decades, but Ianto remembered the feel of fine sand under his feet, the sound of the waves on the shore, unfamiliar stars over his head. "Not if the village didn't meet the requirements."
Alice said, "They didn't just disrupt people's lives randomly?"
Jack shrugged again. "We had rules to follow, when it involved acquiring people. Adults and teens for preference, not too closely related, no fewer than fifteen for a haul, up to about a thousand at a time. If deceased, bodies must be mostly intact and available for transport and revival within twelve hours. If alive, check for genetic abnormalities and disease, and treat prior to transport." For someone who hadn't done the job in millennia, he remembered awfully well.
"They were too closely related," Ianto said, folding his hands so he wouldn't play with them nervously. "Your genetic screener said they'd intermarried too closely, that there were problems lurking in the DNA. The Agency would never have accepted them." He met Jack's eyes. "The only ones you could save were the twins."
Jack blinked. "I don't … Wait, the two years?"
Ianto nodded. "Only mission you ever took me on. I talked you into saving the children."
"What two years?" asked Jenny.
"I lost two years of my memory while working with the Time Agency. I'd always thought it was them, that they'd taken the memories away for some reason. That's why I quit and went off on my own." He jerked his thumb at Ianto. "Turns out, funny story, it was him. The Agency picked him up, but he gave them the slip and ran into me. Young me. When the Doctor came to get him, I had to forget them both."
Alice turned her wrath on Ianto. "You stole those children?"
He put up his hands defensively. "The planet was going to be destroyed. We thought we were saving their lives."
"Why didn't you save their parents and the rest of them at the same time?"
"No room," said Jack. "I could only have taken two small passengers if Ianto was with me. We'd have had to carry them."
"Fine," said Jenny. "All fixed, then. You took the twins, we took the whole village to another planet."
Ianto said, "They're saved?" He barely remembered the people, now, having known them for such a short time. He still recalled the grief he'd felt back then, although he'd long since let it fade. Was this what it was like for Jack all the time?
"Yes. Where did you take the children?"
"To the same colony where the Time Agency left the Thames House survivors. I thought they'd be taken care of there."
Alice went to the controls. "Where's that?"
Ianto's mouth fell open, and he glanced at Jack, but Jack's memories had been wiped.
"I have no idea," said Ianto.
Jenny sighed. "Back to square one, then."
"No," Jack said. "The Time Agency kept records of the placement worlds. If we're sure it was the same planet, we can find it there." This was to Alice, an offering. He smiled. "Want to break into the Agency?"
"How?"
"Simple. First, we get a Time Agent."
***
When she'd been a little girl, before she'd understood why her daddy didn't live with her and Mummy, Alice would perch on the back of the sofa by the big front window and watch, often for hours, waiting for his car to pull up in front of their house. After he left, she'd wait in the same spot, squinting as his tail lights grew smaller, pretending that she could see them long after he'd driven away, wishing he'd come back soon.
If she'd known everything then, she'd like to think she'd have thrown rocks at the car, ripped holes in the tyres, shouted and cursed at him until he went away forever.
"Care to talk about it?" Jenny's eyes glittered in the dark of Hilda's down cycle. Why the ship insisted on regular sleep intervals, Alice would never know. It meant enforced downtimes, and long hours of pointless revolving in her own thoughts when what she needed was just to keep moving in search of the next adventure, like a shark trying to breathe.
"No."
"All right." Jenny pressed her lips onto Alice's head. "I'm turning in. We can make the jump in the morning and start fresh."
"Good night." Alice watched her go.
Sometimes on the bad nights, when her memories just wouldn't let her be, Alice crawled into Jenny's bunk. They'd wrap their arms around each other and the sound of Jenny's hearts would soothe her. On the worst nights, Alice prowled the ship waiting for exhaustion to claim her instead of sleep. Jenny left her alone then, but always joined her in the false morning with tea and company, offering the only respite she could: the promise of another good fight.
Tonight Alice paced restlessly, wanting nothing more than to be there already, to possess the information they needed, to have the children in arms to give them back to their family. To get Jack the hell off her ship again.
She paused, not intending to, in front of the door to the tiny cabin Hilda had offered their guests. She could hear the pair of them talking quietly, could not make out the words. Funny. Knowing her father, she'd have expected him to be naked and occupied the second he was alone with his current toy. She didn't linger, in case the conversation was merely a lull between events, but heard his deep chuckle at her heels as she walked away.
It wasn't fair. Whatever he claimed about how it'd happened, Jack had got back someone he'd lost. If the damned Time Agency could bring people back from the dead willy nilly, why did it have to be some bit on the side her father had shagged and forgotten?
Why hadn't they brought back her son?
***
Over the years, Jack had slept, or pretended to sleep, in any number of places. The mud in the trenches, stinking and dark, came back to him nights, along with echoes of the groans of the dying. The prison ship in Haldon, now that had been bad, and his year on the Valiant even worse. He'd slept standing up, slept chained upright or supine, slept under the earth the little he'd been able to sleep while dying. The bunk on this ship wasn't much more comfortable than the ledge in the space station's gaol, but as bunks went, it was familiar, comforting even. Ianto had cracked jokes about old times, giving Jack that sideways glance he often did when mentioning the past, but this, sharing a small canvas bed with someone else, Jack remembered well.
He listened now to the easy rhythm of Ianto's breathing. He was not quite asleep, but almost. They'd talked for over two hours, and Jack still wasn't happy with the plan, even though a quick check with Hilda indicated she could manufacture the items they needed. Hilda was happy to manufacture a number of items, actually. Handy, that. They weren't going to talk all night, since they hadn't seen each other properly in months. No medical upgrade on this model of cargo ship, but they couldn't have everything.
Jack pressed a kiss to Ianto's head. Ianto made a noise in his throat and rolled over, and five breaths later, he was sleeping. Jack remembered that, too, but then, they'd had plenty of practise over the years. He lay back, wide awake, and stared at the conduits crisscrossing the ceiling of the small cabin.
Alice still hated him. The last time he'd run into her, she had been angry, but she'd also done him a kindness. The thing about time travel, other than the fact that he should be the one doing so rather than someone he still had trouble remembering was no longer sixteen years old, was never knowing what part of the other's path you'd found. With the Doctor, it often meant starting fresh with a new (or old) face accompanied by the latest adoring groupie. With Alice, it typically meant dancing around the question of how much time had passed for her since Steven's death, which was something Jack obviously didn't want to be the first to mention. He'd had thousands of years to get past the pain and he'd buried too many other people he'd loved to cling to a single loss, while for Alice, the wound was freshly bleeding.
Family reunions were tough for normal people. Jack had suffered bone-shattering injuries that were less excruciating than conversations with his daughter. He held no illusions that, should the plan work, she would welcome him back with forgiveness. If his entire reward for success this time around was a slight decrease in the pain in her eyes every time she looked at him, that would be enough.
Jack tried not to worry what the price would be for failure. Beside him, Ianto slept.
***
"There's a few places to check," he'd said. "Planets and times known for their, um, broad-minded approach to entertainment. Time Agents are attracted to legally-suspect worlds and establishments like a ploka to a nimbom." Ianto and Alice had stared at him blankly, while Jenny had nodded in understanding.
Apparently the nimboms they'd visited thus far were the ploka-repelling type. Or something. Twelve pubs on five planets, and not a nibble. Ianto didn't hold out much hope for this one, as they stepped in the dark, noisy, loathsome room. Aliens he couldn't recognise, with claws and fins, shook in feigned rage at kalaya games, while humans and more oddly-shaped creatures danced and drank and consumed what could be food and could be drugs, no-one knew but Jack. Choking smoke boiled from pots and the ends of unknowable cigarettes. The music of this era was given to screeching with accompanying three-dimensional images thumping with the awkward beat, and the whole thing pounded behind Ianto's eyeballs painfully.
Jack led the way, always a fish at home swimming in any stream. Jenny brought up the rear, and Ianto felt a swift pity for anyone who saw her and assumed she was the easiest target. Suddenly, Jack stopped short, and Alice bumped into him.
"What?"
His face broke into a grin. "Of course." He turned and headed in a different direction towards the heart of the crowd. Ianto heard the voice and felt a dull recognition right before Jack darted in, grabbed with both hands, and pulled out a dishevelled and nonplussed John Hart. "I should have known you were here."
Hart sneered a half grin. "Wondering when I'd run into you again. I see middle age has finally smacked you in the face with a brick. About time, if you ask me."
"No-one did," said Ianto.
Hart's eyes widened and narrowed. "Aren't you dead?"
From behind him, Ianto heard two similar and distinct sounds. He turned, and saw Alice and Jenny both training their weapons squarely on John.
"You bastard," said Alice.
"Ah," said Ianto. "I see you've met."
They were attracting attention from the other patrons. Aliens, humans, and quite a few in-between either backed away or drew weapons of their own.
"This is a personal matter!" Jack said loudly. He grabbed Hart's arm roughly, and led the little party to a smaller room at the side as the crowd reluctantly made way. Ianto noticed two distinctly bouncer-looking aliens heading their way and he shut the door before the bouncers reached them. Alice and Jenny hadn't lowered their weapons or changed their stances.
Jack placed himself between John and the guns, hands raised. "All right. What's going on?"
"We've met him before," Jenny said.
"That's obvious," said Ianto.
Hart looked at them, the leer growing. "Oh, I don't know about that. I'd certainly remember meeting two gorgeous women like yourselves."
Jack frowned. "They don't look familiar?"
"Not a bit. But if you say we've met, then by all means, let's get better acquainted."
Jack's hand thumped into the middle of Hart's chest, holding him in place. "I don't think they want to get acquainted. Also, the one on the left is my daughter, so if you don't want me to castrate you again, you can back down now."
Hart flinched, and Ianto just stopped his sympathy flinch.
"Again?"
"Time loop," they said together.
Jenny said, "Can we kill him?" Ianto was taken aback. Jenny had been the sweet one thus far. Dangerous, but sweet.
"No," said Jack. "Think. If he doesn't remember you, then he hasn't met you yet. Which means whatever he did hasn't happened yet. You could seriously jeopardise the time stream by killing him."
Alice said, "I'm willing to take that chance."
Jack looked to Ianto for help, but Ianto would gladly hold Hart still for Alice to shoot him, and told Jack so without saying a word.
Jenny pursed her lips. "We can't cause a paradox. We can't kill him," she said sadly.
Alice asked, "Can we maim him?"
Jenny looked thoughtful, and Hart started back. Jack held up his hand in the middle again. "No-one is maiming anyone."
Ianto said, "You did just threaten … "
"I know what I threatened. For now, no shooting, maiming, or otherwise damaging John."
"Oh, I'm 'John' now, am I?"
Jack shrugged. "Works for me. I'm currently back to Jack, by the way."
"I'll just call you Gorgeous, and make it simple."
"Good," said Alice. "His new name is Gorgeous, yours is Dungbeetle."
"I like that," said Ianto.
"Shut up, Eye Candy."
Jenny made the face again like she did when her shields were down around Jack, like she was facing down the world's biggest headache. Ianto couldn't blame her. "I understand the plan, but are you certain he should help us?"
"'Help us?'" said Hart, delightedly. "You're here to ask me for help?"
Jack wrapped a hand in Hart's shirt in a fashion that could lead to kissing or punching. He said to Jenny, "We need a Time Agent to get us in. He's got active codes and a better memory of the place than I do. Plus, we pay him enough and he probably won't double-cross us."
"Oh, I can think of plenty of ways for you to pay me, Gorgeous."
Jack's face went close to his, and Ianto felt a sharp clench in his stomach. As soon as Jack had told him what his idea was, he'd been worried what else it might entail. But as Jack's lips stopped an inch away from Hart's, Jack held up a credit slip and slowly brought it between them.
"How about this?"
Hart took the credit slip and his eyes grew huge with greed. Then he narrowed them and looked at Jack craftily. "It's a decent down payment. Double after we're done."
"Deal."
***
Chapter Three
Author: nancybrown
Fandoms: Torchwood, Doctor Who
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Alice, Jenny, John Hart, OCs
Rating: R
Beta/Britpick: queenfanfiction, wynkat1313, temporal_witch, and fide_et_spe had a hand in fixing this. All remaining mistakes are mine alone.
Spoilers: up through CoE, one spoiler for "End of Time," one spoiler for Bay of the Dead
Warnings: character death, angst, child endangerment, mentions of sexual coercion, violence, timey-wimey temporal physics, and of course, Captain Bad Touch rides again
Words: 46,000 (5,500 this part)
Chapter One
***
Chapter Two
***
"Sometimes I really wish people came with signs. 'Caution: Psychotic Stalker Who Will Obsess on You for the Rest of Time' would be helpful to know when meeting someone. 'Self-Absorbed Jerk Who Will Abandon You and Then Break Your Heart After You Spend a Century Tracking Him Down' really wouldn't hurt, either. [Not that I disagree with either description, but perhaps you want to tone it down in the next draft. --- Yeah, yeah. I'll be nicer in the rewrite.] Even a simple 'This Person Will Change Your Life Forever' would have come in handy, say when I was admiring someone's butt as she was hanging from a barrage balloon, or when I had help subduing a Weevil one night. Had I known then how important these people would become to me, I probably would have been more polite." - from "Me: An Autobiography"
***
"Thank you, Hilda," Jenny said, petting the ship's controls as they came to a stop at the dock.
"You're quite welcome," chirped the AI, apparently on a happy upswing in her mood again.
Alice really wanted to say something, but Jenny silenced her with a look, and she sighed. "Thanks, Hilda."
The Dock Master was of a species Alice had never encountered before: six arms, lemon-yellow scales, all muscle. He charged them more than Alice thought was fair, but Jenny handed over their falsified credit slip with a perky smile and a tip for his services.
"We're looking for the local authorities," said Jenny.
Alice said, "We've a bounty to collect."
The Dock Master gave them a look that, on his unfamiliar face, could have been respect or fear or desire. "Bounty hunters?" It was a cover story they adopted when necessary, and one Alice felt to be useful in this situation. She saw him take in their guns. "You must check your weapons with the Head Constable."
Jenny smiled wider. "Please. Take us there."
As they made their way through the station, Alice did her best not to look like a tourist, but it was difficult. Nearly ten years in space, and her entire life before that in the shadow of her parents' occupation, and still her breath caught at the sight of real aliens. Every visit was a new education in the variety of existence out here, seething and living together and fighting and loving. Tiny creatures no bigger than her thumb but stronger telepaths than any other in the galaxy bumped elbows (or what passed for elbows) with skeletal giants that only breathed argon in their compression suits. Colours and shapes and pelts and feathers, and the smells, oh the smells of creatures cooking and breathing and farting. At a crossroads such as this, even a backwater, Alice was overwhelmed. She walked, and tried not to stare, and envied Jenny's easy grace among this flow of life.
An alarm went off, loud klaxons and red flashing lights, breaking her thoughts. Alice gripped her gun, as Jenny readied her own.
Jenny said, "What's going on?"
"Unknown. Wait here." The Dock Master left them and hurried onwards. Alice and Jenny exchanged glances, then followed him.
The flow had changed, settling into two distinct streams of "trying to get closer to see what was wrong," and "trying to move away from it as quickly as possible." They bumped into the latter, were separated, rejoined, and then held hands against the tide as bodies surged.
Jenny shuddered, grabbing her head. Alice's heart went to her, but there wasn't time. "Where?"
The pretty mouth moved into a reflexive expression of distaste and horror. "Over there."
Alice took her hand again, dragging her through the rush towards the place where she'd pointed. Moments later, she collided with someone and fell down hard.
"Ow."
"Sorry," he said quickly, already moving away when he stopped dead. As her senses cleared, and she recognised his voice, the same recognition dawned on his face. "Alice?"
"Hello, Dad." He was dressed in bright orange clothes, and stuck out in the crowd more than usual.
Jenny made a whimper in the back of her throat, and Alice turned from him to help her friend stand. "It's okay," she said. "Remember how you did it last time."
"I'm trying," said Jenny, but she looked as though she wanted to vomit or flee, unable to raise whatever mental shields she erected around the horror that was Alice's father.
"Not that I'm not really glad to see you right now," Jack said, looking over his shoulder, "but I'm kind of trying to get away. Could we?"
Alice let out a sigh. "Did you just escape from gaol?"
"It wasn't my idea! Someone else opened the cells, and I figured … "
"Stop!" shouted someone who sounded like an authority figure, and Alice grabbed Jenny's arm.
"This way."
"No," said Jack, "this way." He led them in a different direction, still surrounded by running humans and aliens of every kind, and leaving them no choice but to follow. They ducked through three corridors and came out in a less-populated common area with stores and restaurants. Jack immediately entered the nearest of these.
Alice hissed, "This is not the time for a snack!"
He ignored her. "Hey!" A human man about her own age came out from the back of the shop with a comical look of surprise on his face as Jack said, "Time to run."
The other man dropped the towel he was holding. "What did you do?"
"Nothing! The guy in cellblock Theta shorted out the cells, and everyone's out."
"So go back! We can't arrange transport yet, and they'll catch you and put you in for twice the time."
"You're not as happy about this as I thought you'd be."
Alice said, "We need to go."
Jack said, "Then let's go." He took the hand of the human man.
"No passengers," said Alice irritably. "Certainly not your flavour of the month."
"He's not my flav … "
"ENOUGH!" said Jenny. She was weaving on her feet. She looked at the other man. "Are you coming with him?" He nodded. "Fine. Nice to see you again. Let's go."
Again?
"One minute," said the man, and he hurried back into the restaurant as time slipped away from them. He came back with a small rucksack. "Lead the way."
They ran, headed generally back towards the dock while avoiding the authorities who would be looking for Jack. They came close once, backed around a corner while three gaolers dressed in beige did a sweep of the area they needed to cross, but the gaolers moved on and they made it back to the dock without incident.
The Dock Master waited for them, all six arms folded across himself. "Stop."
Jenny put on her friendly smile again. "Please let us know if we owe you any more."
The Dock Master pointed to Jack. "He is a prisoner."
"Yes," said Jenny, her hand on her weapon again. "Our prisoner." Alice took Jack's arm and stole a longer look at his companion. When recognition sunk in, she squeezed Jack's bicep in a hard pinch.
"I'm going to kill you," she said in a low voice.
"Fine," said the Dock Master, as Jenny handed him an extra credit slip.
Jack's face filled with glee as they approached the ship. "Chula?"
As they hurried aboard, Jenny said, "I picked her up right after I started travelling. She's got a time circuit, so I can take her home when I'm finished." Finished what, she'd never said.
Alice went to the controls as Jack came up beside her. Uninvited, he slid his hands over the panel, and said in a low voice, "Hello, gorgeous."
Alice shoved him away. "Stop molesting the ship."
"I was just saying hello."
"I believe she said that," said his friend.
Hilda made a sound that Alice refused to believe was a giggle before they disengaged from the dock. The transceiver spat out complaints from the station: were they harbouring any fugitives?
"Negative," said Jenny sweetly. "Just a quick stop. Off now, thanks."
"Please cease your departure and return to the station. Your ship will be boarded and searched."
"Negative," Jenny repeated, with less kindness. "Our ship is none of your concern." As she spoke, Alice set their course, muttering to herself about the wait as they slowly steered clear of the many ships around them.
"Return to the station immediately, or we will fire."
Jenny said, "Violence is not an acceptable option. We are leaving, not attacking you."
On the viewscreen, Alice saw the largest three cannons rotate towards them, and then Jack pushed her out of the way, grabbed the controls, and threw the throttle. Hilda jerked then zipped off, smoothly dodging a transport and a freighter in her way, skimming to a hard starboard roll to evade the blasts from the cannon.
Alice pushed down her anger and ran to the time circuit, flipping it to random, and punching it as soon as they were clear of the last ship. Moments later, she felt the sharp tug at her navel that meant they were travelling in time as well as space.
Jenny said, "That's them taken care of, then." She turned to Jack. "Time and place?"
"Anywhere that isn't a cell."
"Time and place the last you saw us."
"Oh." He scratched his head. "Cardiff, 3009. You?"
Alice said, "Triskellion, 18,063." She wouldn't look at him, not right now. The initial rush of their escape had faded, leaving her with a cold pit in her stomach.
"Right. I won't see you there for a while."
"Yes."
Jenny said to the other man -- Alice remembered his name now -- "Let me give you a tour, shall I?"
He glanced at Jack and Alice, as though measuring the tension. "That'd be lovely, thank you."
As soon as they were out of the control room, Alice said in a low voice, "I cannot believe you."
He folded his arms. "Good instinct. I don't believe me half the time, either."
She pointed down the corridor. "You asked me for his name, and then you brought him back?"
His face changed. "Oh. Oh, no. Alice. I didn't." He reached out to her arms and she pulled back instinctively. His hands moved without her there, and then fell to his sides. "The Time Agency picks up people from mass disasters."
"I know what the Time Agency does. We've run into their handiwork before." Too many times, they'd arrived just as Time Agents had started a convenient war in order to gather bodies. More than once, they'd touched down on worlds where Agents had absconded with technology that the Agency could use. And of course, they'd met at the mass catastrophes, which Alice and Jenny did everything in their power to prevent, while the ghouls fought them at every turn to collect their tithe of human lives.
"They picked up the Thames House victims in one of their acquisitions. The Doctor dropped Ianto on my doorstep afterwards. The bowtie one?" Alice had met that Doctor. He was a bit weird. "I think he was trying to be nice to me."
"There were nicer things he could have done."
"But this is what happened." He was asking neither her forgiveness nor her approval, she saw. Jack's life: one impossible thing after the other. He shifted expressions again, moved from sorrow over the things they couldn't change into curiosity. Another thing about him: always moving forward. "So what brings you here? I'm grateful for the save, but you were just about dead last on my list of people I thought would show up to help."
One anger easily morphed into another. "You kidnapped two children. I promised their mother I'd bring them back to her."
He folded his arms, back in the defensive posture. "I've done a lot of terrible things. I don't think kidnapping kids ever showed up on the list, though."
She smiled without warmth and flew back to the controls. The picture taken back on the tropical planet came up. "That's you."
Jack's eyebrows raised. "That is me." He bent in. "And I looked good."
She resisted the urge to punch him. It would only make him feel better if she did. "It's clearly a younger version of you. Not so much grey in your hair." She noticed his eyes flick to the silver streaks in her own, and ignored him. "It happens about five hundred years from now. Ring any bells?"
"Nope. Sorry."
Alice slammed her palm onto the surface of the control panel. Hilda made a noise that meant she'd need to be coaxed into doing anything for the next day at least. Alice didn't care. "Think harder! Damn it, you really can't let any child go unscathed, can you?" That blow hit, though not as hard as she'd wished.
"I'm over five thousand years old. Forgive me if I don't remember every last crime I've committed."
"No. I don't think I will."
Just then, Jenny came back. Alice gave Jack another frown and moved away from him. "It was pointless," she told Jenny. "He doesn't remember."
Jenny's face fell. "That's it, then."
Jack looked at his companion's confused expression. "Old sins."
"It always is, with you." He went to Alice and held out his hand. "Ianto Jones. It's good to finally meet you." She frowned at him. She knew his name. She'd run into another version a while back, hadn't she? When she said nothing, did not take his hand, he added, "I just wanted to say, I am so sorry for your loss."
Jack wouldn't have coached him; Jack didn't think about things that way. "Thank you," she eventually managed around the stone in her throat.
***
One of the many things about Jack that both frustrated and amused Ianto was the man's ability to throw himself completely into a situation and be utterly relaxed and at ease. Jack could be set naked on a planet with a chlorine atmosphere, and within an hour, he'd have found something to eat and someone to chat up for a shag, and within another hour, he'd have annoyed a spouse or potentate enough to call for his beheading. Ianto had observed this in action back in their Torchwood days, and read about it repeatedly in the extensive annals of Jack's memoirs.
Even as Jack was making himself right at home at the controls of Alice and Jenny's ship, ignoring the glares from his daughter, Ianto took the chance to go through the rucksack. He'd foolishly left most of their clothing back on the station, but that couldn't be helped now.
Identification, check. Three copies, all Jack's under various names. Law enforcement types went directly for DNA idents, but most places settled for paper or the equivalent, which meant they could purchase fakes for Ianto when they reached a proper port.
Currency, check. Everything Ianto had earned over the last two months was here, although it wasn't much, and there was no way to tell if it would be valid where they ended up next.
Wrist strap, check and removed to return to Jack.
One change of clothes, Ianto's, check. Kept on hand for the sake of spills and messes in the restaurant, now his only other outfit. Still better than what Jack had, which were the prison clothes on his back.
And … Good. Data chip, containing every piece of information they'd had on the computer back home, including Jack's book, check.
Everything else was gone.
Ianto closed his eyes a moment, and then let it all go with a sigh. There was no point in complaining now. He glanced over at the others.
Alice was angry with Jack, for understandable reasons. That the anger splashed onto Ianto as well was going to be par for the course. She had given up on glaring at her father and pushed him away from the control panel.
"Let us get something straight. You are not to touch the controls of the ship again. This is our ship. She responds to us. She likes us."
"I like him," said the AI.
"Not now, sweetheart," said Jenny.
"Sorry for saving your lives," said Jack.
Alice said, "Our lives wouldn't have been in danger if we hadn't brought you along."
"Not my idea."
Jenny asked, "Why were you incarcerated? The record didn't say."
Ianto said, "He cheated in a game."
"You're supposed to cheat!"
"Then he mouthed off to the constable who was investigating."
"I was explaining how the game works."
"And then he punched the constable."
"He hit me first."
"No-one argued that. You, however, were not permitted to hit back."
"Stupid law."
"Enough!" shouted Alice. "I stopped caring at 'incarcerated.'"
Jenny sighed. "I suppose we'll simply drop you off somewhere."
Alice said, "Back at the space station would be choice."
"They'd fire on us, dear." Alice's scowl was firmly in place as she stalked to the other side of the control room away from Jenny's gentle chiding.
Ianto cleared his throat. "Why did you pick us up in the first place?"
"Something I did that I don't remember," said Jack. Seeing Alice's face, and perhaps hoping to win a few points back with her for honesty, he added, "Apparently I kidnapped two kids a while back."
"How far back?"
Jenny said, "The incident happens five hundred years after we picked you up. But Jack was younger than he is now."
Ianto frowned, wrapping his head around that. "Jack, when's the last time you went non-linear?"
"A few times with the Doctor. But we didn't grab any kids."
"During your Time Agency days, then?"
He shrugged. "Could be. I don't remember much from back then."
Alice said, "We'll have to run into him earlier."
Jenny put a hand to the side of her head as though she had a sudden headache. "No. That would be bad." Jack nodded and Alice sighed.
Something tickled at the back of Ianto's mind. "The Time Agency doesn't normally do kidnappings. Not for just a few people. Were they part of a large group?"
"No," said Alice. "He stole them from their family."
Jenny said, "Their planet was about to be destroyed." She frowned. "Typically, the Agency would have taken the whole village, wouldn't they?"
"Typically," said Jack.
It had been decades, but Ianto remembered the feel of fine sand under his feet, the sound of the waves on the shore, unfamiliar stars over his head. "Not if the village didn't meet the requirements."
Alice said, "They didn't just disrupt people's lives randomly?"
Jack shrugged again. "We had rules to follow, when it involved acquiring people. Adults and teens for preference, not too closely related, no fewer than fifteen for a haul, up to about a thousand at a time. If deceased, bodies must be mostly intact and available for transport and revival within twelve hours. If alive, check for genetic abnormalities and disease, and treat prior to transport." For someone who hadn't done the job in millennia, he remembered awfully well.
"They were too closely related," Ianto said, folding his hands so he wouldn't play with them nervously. "Your genetic screener said they'd intermarried too closely, that there were problems lurking in the DNA. The Agency would never have accepted them." He met Jack's eyes. "The only ones you could save were the twins."
Jack blinked. "I don't … Wait, the two years?"
Ianto nodded. "Only mission you ever took me on. I talked you into saving the children."
"What two years?" asked Jenny.
"I lost two years of my memory while working with the Time Agency. I'd always thought it was them, that they'd taken the memories away for some reason. That's why I quit and went off on my own." He jerked his thumb at Ianto. "Turns out, funny story, it was him. The Agency picked him up, but he gave them the slip and ran into me. Young me. When the Doctor came to get him, I had to forget them both."
Alice turned her wrath on Ianto. "You stole those children?"
He put up his hands defensively. "The planet was going to be destroyed. We thought we were saving their lives."
"Why didn't you save their parents and the rest of them at the same time?"
"No room," said Jack. "I could only have taken two small passengers if Ianto was with me. We'd have had to carry them."
"Fine," said Jenny. "All fixed, then. You took the twins, we took the whole village to another planet."
Ianto said, "They're saved?" He barely remembered the people, now, having known them for such a short time. He still recalled the grief he'd felt back then, although he'd long since let it fade. Was this what it was like for Jack all the time?
"Yes. Where did you take the children?"
"To the same colony where the Time Agency left the Thames House survivors. I thought they'd be taken care of there."
Alice went to the controls. "Where's that?"
Ianto's mouth fell open, and he glanced at Jack, but Jack's memories had been wiped.
"I have no idea," said Ianto.
Jenny sighed. "Back to square one, then."
"No," Jack said. "The Time Agency kept records of the placement worlds. If we're sure it was the same planet, we can find it there." This was to Alice, an offering. He smiled. "Want to break into the Agency?"
"How?"
"Simple. First, we get a Time Agent."
***
When she'd been a little girl, before she'd understood why her daddy didn't live with her and Mummy, Alice would perch on the back of the sofa by the big front window and watch, often for hours, waiting for his car to pull up in front of their house. After he left, she'd wait in the same spot, squinting as his tail lights grew smaller, pretending that she could see them long after he'd driven away, wishing he'd come back soon.
If she'd known everything then, she'd like to think she'd have thrown rocks at the car, ripped holes in the tyres, shouted and cursed at him until he went away forever.
"Care to talk about it?" Jenny's eyes glittered in the dark of Hilda's down cycle. Why the ship insisted on regular sleep intervals, Alice would never know. It meant enforced downtimes, and long hours of pointless revolving in her own thoughts when what she needed was just to keep moving in search of the next adventure, like a shark trying to breathe.
"No."
"All right." Jenny pressed her lips onto Alice's head. "I'm turning in. We can make the jump in the morning and start fresh."
"Good night." Alice watched her go.
Sometimes on the bad nights, when her memories just wouldn't let her be, Alice crawled into Jenny's bunk. They'd wrap their arms around each other and the sound of Jenny's hearts would soothe her. On the worst nights, Alice prowled the ship waiting for exhaustion to claim her instead of sleep. Jenny left her alone then, but always joined her in the false morning with tea and company, offering the only respite she could: the promise of another good fight.
Tonight Alice paced restlessly, wanting nothing more than to be there already, to possess the information they needed, to have the children in arms to give them back to their family. To get Jack the hell off her ship again.
She paused, not intending to, in front of the door to the tiny cabin Hilda had offered their guests. She could hear the pair of them talking quietly, could not make out the words. Funny. Knowing her father, she'd have expected him to be naked and occupied the second he was alone with his current toy. She didn't linger, in case the conversation was merely a lull between events, but heard his deep chuckle at her heels as she walked away.
It wasn't fair. Whatever he claimed about how it'd happened, Jack had got back someone he'd lost. If the damned Time Agency could bring people back from the dead willy nilly, why did it have to be some bit on the side her father had shagged and forgotten?
Why hadn't they brought back her son?
***
Over the years, Jack had slept, or pretended to sleep, in any number of places. The mud in the trenches, stinking and dark, came back to him nights, along with echoes of the groans of the dying. The prison ship in Haldon, now that had been bad, and his year on the Valiant even worse. He'd slept standing up, slept chained upright or supine, slept under the earth the little he'd been able to sleep while dying. The bunk on this ship wasn't much more comfortable than the ledge in the space station's gaol, but as bunks went, it was familiar, comforting even. Ianto had cracked jokes about old times, giving Jack that sideways glance he often did when mentioning the past, but this, sharing a small canvas bed with someone else, Jack remembered well.
He listened now to the easy rhythm of Ianto's breathing. He was not quite asleep, but almost. They'd talked for over two hours, and Jack still wasn't happy with the plan, even though a quick check with Hilda indicated she could manufacture the items they needed. Hilda was happy to manufacture a number of items, actually. Handy, that. They weren't going to talk all night, since they hadn't seen each other properly in months. No medical upgrade on this model of cargo ship, but they couldn't have everything.
Jack pressed a kiss to Ianto's head. Ianto made a noise in his throat and rolled over, and five breaths later, he was sleeping. Jack remembered that, too, but then, they'd had plenty of practise over the years. He lay back, wide awake, and stared at the conduits crisscrossing the ceiling of the small cabin.
Alice still hated him. The last time he'd run into her, she had been angry, but she'd also done him a kindness. The thing about time travel, other than the fact that he should be the one doing so rather than someone he still had trouble remembering was no longer sixteen years old, was never knowing what part of the other's path you'd found. With the Doctor, it often meant starting fresh with a new (or old) face accompanied by the latest adoring groupie. With Alice, it typically meant dancing around the question of how much time had passed for her since Steven's death, which was something Jack obviously didn't want to be the first to mention. He'd had thousands of years to get past the pain and he'd buried too many other people he'd loved to cling to a single loss, while for Alice, the wound was freshly bleeding.
Family reunions were tough for normal people. Jack had suffered bone-shattering injuries that were less excruciating than conversations with his daughter. He held no illusions that, should the plan work, she would welcome him back with forgiveness. If his entire reward for success this time around was a slight decrease in the pain in her eyes every time she looked at him, that would be enough.
Jack tried not to worry what the price would be for failure. Beside him, Ianto slept.
***
"There's a few places to check," he'd said. "Planets and times known for their, um, broad-minded approach to entertainment. Time Agents are attracted to legally-suspect worlds and establishments like a ploka to a nimbom." Ianto and Alice had stared at him blankly, while Jenny had nodded in understanding.
Apparently the nimboms they'd visited thus far were the ploka-repelling type. Or something. Twelve pubs on five planets, and not a nibble. Ianto didn't hold out much hope for this one, as they stepped in the dark, noisy, loathsome room. Aliens he couldn't recognise, with claws and fins, shook in feigned rage at kalaya games, while humans and more oddly-shaped creatures danced and drank and consumed what could be food and could be drugs, no-one knew but Jack. Choking smoke boiled from pots and the ends of unknowable cigarettes. The music of this era was given to screeching with accompanying three-dimensional images thumping with the awkward beat, and the whole thing pounded behind Ianto's eyeballs painfully.
Jack led the way, always a fish at home swimming in any stream. Jenny brought up the rear, and Ianto felt a swift pity for anyone who saw her and assumed she was the easiest target. Suddenly, Jack stopped short, and Alice bumped into him.
"What?"
His face broke into a grin. "Of course." He turned and headed in a different direction towards the heart of the crowd. Ianto heard the voice and felt a dull recognition right before Jack darted in, grabbed with both hands, and pulled out a dishevelled and nonplussed John Hart. "I should have known you were here."
Hart sneered a half grin. "Wondering when I'd run into you again. I see middle age has finally smacked you in the face with a brick. About time, if you ask me."
"No-one did," said Ianto.
Hart's eyes widened and narrowed. "Aren't you dead?"
From behind him, Ianto heard two similar and distinct sounds. He turned, and saw Alice and Jenny both training their weapons squarely on John.
"You bastard," said Alice.
"Ah," said Ianto. "I see you've met."
They were attracting attention from the other patrons. Aliens, humans, and quite a few in-between either backed away or drew weapons of their own.
"This is a personal matter!" Jack said loudly. He grabbed Hart's arm roughly, and led the little party to a smaller room at the side as the crowd reluctantly made way. Ianto noticed two distinctly bouncer-looking aliens heading their way and he shut the door before the bouncers reached them. Alice and Jenny hadn't lowered their weapons or changed their stances.
Jack placed himself between John and the guns, hands raised. "All right. What's going on?"
"We've met him before," Jenny said.
"That's obvious," said Ianto.
Hart looked at them, the leer growing. "Oh, I don't know about that. I'd certainly remember meeting two gorgeous women like yourselves."
Jack frowned. "They don't look familiar?"
"Not a bit. But if you say we've met, then by all means, let's get better acquainted."
Jack's hand thumped into the middle of Hart's chest, holding him in place. "I don't think they want to get acquainted. Also, the one on the left is my daughter, so if you don't want me to castrate you again, you can back down now."
Hart flinched, and Ianto just stopped his sympathy flinch.
"Again?"
"Time loop," they said together.
Jenny said, "Can we kill him?" Ianto was taken aback. Jenny had been the sweet one thus far. Dangerous, but sweet.
"No," said Jack. "Think. If he doesn't remember you, then he hasn't met you yet. Which means whatever he did hasn't happened yet. You could seriously jeopardise the time stream by killing him."
Alice said, "I'm willing to take that chance."
Jack looked to Ianto for help, but Ianto would gladly hold Hart still for Alice to shoot him, and told Jack so without saying a word.
Jenny pursed her lips. "We can't cause a paradox. We can't kill him," she said sadly.
Alice asked, "Can we maim him?"
Jenny looked thoughtful, and Hart started back. Jack held up his hand in the middle again. "No-one is maiming anyone."
Ianto said, "You did just threaten … "
"I know what I threatened. For now, no shooting, maiming, or otherwise damaging John."
"Oh, I'm 'John' now, am I?"
Jack shrugged. "Works for me. I'm currently back to Jack, by the way."
"I'll just call you Gorgeous, and make it simple."
"Good," said Alice. "His new name is Gorgeous, yours is Dungbeetle."
"I like that," said Ianto.
"Shut up, Eye Candy."
Jenny made the face again like she did when her shields were down around Jack, like she was facing down the world's biggest headache. Ianto couldn't blame her. "I understand the plan, but are you certain he should help us?"
"'Help us?'" said Hart, delightedly. "You're here to ask me for help?"
Jack wrapped a hand in Hart's shirt in a fashion that could lead to kissing or punching. He said to Jenny, "We need a Time Agent to get us in. He's got active codes and a better memory of the place than I do. Plus, we pay him enough and he probably won't double-cross us."
"Oh, I can think of plenty of ways for you to pay me, Gorgeous."
Jack's face went close to his, and Ianto felt a sharp clench in his stomach. As soon as Jack had told him what his idea was, he'd been worried what else it might entail. But as Jack's lips stopped an inch away from Hart's, Jack held up a credit slip and slowly brought it between them.
"How about this?"
Hart took the credit slip and his eyes grew huge with greed. Then he narrowed them and looked at Jack craftily. "It's a decent down payment. Double after we're done."
"Deal."
***
Chapter Three