When Love Walked In - Chapter 2
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CHAPTER TWO
It had been almost three days since Owen’s disappearance and Jack had never felt so short staffed. Not only were they working on how to get Owen back, but also the weevil population decided to make its presence known in several public locations. The three of them were all exhausted, their hope slipping little by little. The girls were doing what they could and Jack was trying his hardest to stay calm while waiting for a response from his message to Dulrilkl. Finding the Operator, as they now called it, turned out to be the easy part. Getting it to work after being shoved in a corner for a few years took about double the time. But Jack, forsaking any sort of rest, got it working and sent out their message. He figured it would take a few hours at the least to receive a response, but as they neared the six-hour mark, Jack began to worry that his repair job was not good enough.
“Anything yet?”
Jack looked up from the device clutched in his large hands. There in the doorway was his loyal Toshiko, dark circles around her eyes and a takeaway cup of coffee in her hand. “Please tell me that is for me,” Jack practically begged.
“It is. Susie ran out a little while ago to that café round the corner. Since you refuse to shut your eyes, I thought we’d at least help you keep them open.” Tosh crossed to his desk and placed the cup before him. “No answer yet?”
The Captain shook his head as he took a large gulp of coffee. “Oh, that is better already,” he grinned.
“Glad it helps.”
Beep, beep. Beep, beep.
“A message?” Tosh asked in a whisper.
Jack looked at the device, its small screen displaying text in the alien language. A blinding smile spread across the Captain’s handsome face. “Toshiko Sato, you more than help! You just might be my good luck charm!” Jack jumped out of his chair and headed out into the Hub.
Tosh followed eagerly. “It’s either me or the coffee,” she joked. At her station, the translation program was running, conveying the typed message from Jack’s device into English. It only took several seconds for the program to work out the short message.
“’Thank you for the notification. Please keep gateway safe. It is quite valuable to us. Has it been harmed? Signed, Gaetiezzé, Guardian of the gateway,’” Tosh read out loud.
“Guardian?” Susie questioned.
“Sounds fancy,” Jack commented. “This is good; they want it back. I’m going to write back to them right now and ask how to get Owen out of there. If it took almost six hours for the first message to be read and another to be returned, then we need to act fast!” Jack ran off to write his response to the Fogniaccztir.
Like clockwork, six hours later they had their newest communication.
“They don’t know?!” Jack hollered, his booming voice echoing around the Hub.
“It’s never happened before, not in their memory at least.” Tosh reread the message again. “They stress that we should not enter the gateway. They will research on their end and see what can be done. The Guardian said that he would be making his way here after the research is complete. That’s something, isn’t it?”
“It’s not enough! Owen has been inside that thing for three days. Three days!” Jack dragged his fingers through his hair and pulled the ends. All sense of hope and calm vanished and all that remained was the Captain’s determination. He wasn’t going to leave a man behind, not if he could help it. And thanks to his mysterious gift, he could afford to do what these aliens warned him not to do. “I’m going after him.”
Susie grabbed Jack’s shoulders and squeezed tightly. “You can’t! You don’t even know where Owen is. You might not end up in the same place.”
“I’ve thought of that. Tosh, pull up the CCTV of Owen. If we enhance it to see what he was looking at when he fell through, chances are, if I jump into that image, I’ll be in the same place.”
“Chances are? You are risking yourself and Owen on ‘chances are’? And making our job all the more difficult. We’ll have two idiots to retrieve instead of the one!”
Jack viciously tugged himself free from Susie’s grip. “So what? We wait? How long, Susie? How long are you willing to stand here and watch those pictures flip over and over? That seems to be all we’ve being doing lately and I can’t do it any longer.”
“I agree with Jack,” Tosh said, standing beside him.
“Of course you do. You’d do anything to get Owen back, wouldn’t you?’ Susie sneered.
“Why won’t you?” Tosh fired back, though she couldn’t hide the blush from her cheek.
“I’m not completely heartless, you know. I’m worried about him as well. But, this doesn’t make sense. Jack, if you go, we’ll only have the two of us running these programs, programs that you understand more than we do. We’re possibly dealing with intergalactic policies and Tosh and I have no training in that whatsoever. If you jump in there, directly violating their request, you’re putting all of us in danger.”
“We’re always in danger, Susie, or have you missed that over the last year? What we do is dangerous.”
“All the more reason to keep our heads in these situations.”
Jack sighed and shook his head. “Look, you two will stay and keep talking to them. Just get them here. Then figure a way to get us out and we can deal with any intergalactic repercussions. In the mean time, I’m going to find Owen and keep him safe. I trust you two to get us out of there.”
And with that, the decision had been made. Jack showed Susie how to work the Operator while Tosh found the image Owen was staring at before he fell into the portal. All of their tasks and preparation were carried out with a minimal amount of talking, the tension still filling the Hub.
As they worked, it became obvious just how tired they all were. Susie insisted if Jack was going to risk his life and jump into the unknown, then he had to be at his best. She shooed him down to his bunker below his office for a few hours rest. The image they were looking for wasn’t due to return to the painting for a while anyway. Toshiko followed suit on similar orders, shortly thereafter. She rested on the old couch, still close to her programs in case she was needed. Susie kept watch.
Life at Torchwood was beyond what the second-in-command imagined when Captain Jack Harkness had swooped down most unexpectedly and offered her a position. She loved it, truly. She loved the action, the technology, and the chance to unravel secrets of the universe. What she didn’t love was the constant feeling of isolation. She was used to it; her whole life was made up of painful partings, to the point where she chose disconnection. But Susie had hoped, perhaps naively, that working for this amazing man, so confident and bold, so full of mystery, would change that. Everyone at Torchwood 3 had secrets and they all had a big one to keep from the rest of the world. However, Susie quickly discovered that this shared knowledge of alien life, of the paranormal, was not going to bind anyone together. Every day, she felt it tearing them apart. Losing Owen only proved her belief. It had nothing to do with Owen personally, though she did admit that she relied on their evening trysts to escape her loneliness. Logically, Susie did not see the point in risking her Captain’s life to save the medic. It left them too vulnerable to the outside. It left her vulnerable as the leader in charge.
Torchwood definitely provides perspective on one’s life, but in Susie’s case, it made her face some of the pitfalls in her personal makeup.
She chose to swallow her feelings down for the time being, put on her stoic face and support Jack’s decision. His word was final, as always.
The choice whether to wake her Captain up or not was taken out of her hands when he appeared after four hours, fully dressed in his military coat and a grim look in his eyes.
“Wake up Toshiko. It’s time.”
The three remaining members of Torchwood 3 stood in front of the painting, the cold dankness of the cells seeped into their skin. Silently, they watched and waited for the picture to appear.
“As soon as we see it, I jump. These pictures don’t stay long, so I’m not going to waste time. You two know what you need to do. Just don’t start any planetary wars while I’m gone.” Jack turned to the women on either side of them, a grin on his face. “We can do that when I’m home.”
“You joke,” began Susie, “but it could happen.”
“Nah, doubtful. These aliens are peaceful and they’ve been cooperative. They want this painting badly enough, they’ll get us out of it. It would be better all around if they did that while still on Earth. I don’t fancy having to hitch-hike all the way back here again.”
“So, get the aliens here, keep them here, don’t start a war, get you out of the painting while still on the planet. Anything else you’d like us to do while you’re gone?”
“I’ll miss you too, Susie.”
“Jack?’ Tosh interrupted. “Get ready.”
Jack took several deep breaths and focused his eyes on the shifting pictures. It was full of colour, pinks and oranges giving way to the dark blues of twilight. But, it was the skyline he recognised; a city, with buildings of various sizes outlined in shadow. The CCTV could not pick up more detail than that, but it was enough. And without so much as a goodbye or good luck, Jack jumped.
The landing had been jarring, not the worst Jack ever experienced, but hard enough to knock the wind from his body. It took him several moments before he was ready to move. As he stood, he considered his new surroundings. Jack wasn’t sure what he expected, a two-dimensional, painted landscape or an obviously alien colony. He saw neither of those things. Everything looked real, by human standards. The sky was the same pallet as when he jumped, the gateway in front of him looked like brick and wrought iron. Jack reached out to feel the textures. They were, just as he would find on any street in his adopted city.
Jack walked through the gate and gasped at the scene before him. It was gorgeous! Wherever he was, it was a beautiful example of European architecture. Before him was a city square with rows of old world buildings lined the narrow, cobblestone covered the streets. In the waning light, Jack could tell that some of the facades of the buildings were brightly colored, while others wore their age with pride in their brick, stucco or wooden materials. Windows were open to the slightly balmy air and curtains danced with a light breeze. They were not the only ones dancing, however. All around, Jack saw people, all humanoid in appearance. They were moving around the square, laughing, kissing, and seemingly enjoying a glorious, carefree warm evening. Some were sat at café tables, pouring wine into companions’ glasses. Others stood in front of shops, admiring the contents inside. And, yes, a few were dancing to the music evocative chords of an accordion being played on a nearby bench.
Jack felt his heart swell. Everywhere he looked, he saw a moment waiting to be captured. A woman caught her heel between two cobbles and her male companion lifted her out of the shoe before she tumbled to the ground. A small dog pawed its owner’s trouser leg, its eyes gazing longingly at an assortment of delicious smelling food. Two young men, dressed stylishly in jackets and jeans, sat shoulder-to-shoulder, singing along to the accordion player’s tune, their fingers gently entwined. Jack listened; it was Gershwin’s, “Nice Work If You Can Get It.” Where had he landed?
If Jack had to guess, based on first impressions, he would have suspected he was in Paris, circa 1950. However, there were several modern conveniences that knocked that date out, as well as some signage that was most definitely not written in French. Jack strolled amongst the citizens of this enchanting place, trying to pick up clues or any indications as to where and when he was. After several minutes, and returning several genuine smiles, he was still lost. Jack weighed his options. If he blatantly asked where he was, there was a real chance these people would think him a nutter and call authorities. However, if he said he was looking for a friend, his confusion would only work to his benefit. So, he needed to find Owen and gather information on this city in the process. Jack looked once more at his surroundings and tried to think of what Owen would do upon first arriving in this place, assuming he landed in the same part of town as Jack. The Captain smiled and turned towards the nearest bar.
CHAPTER TWO
It had been almost three days since Owen’s disappearance and Jack had never felt so short staffed. Not only were they working on how to get Owen back, but also the weevil population decided to make its presence known in several public locations. The three of them were all exhausted, their hope slipping little by little. The girls were doing what they could and Jack was trying his hardest to stay calm while waiting for a response from his message to Dulrilkl. Finding the Operator, as they now called it, turned out to be the easy part. Getting it to work after being shoved in a corner for a few years took about double the time. But Jack, forsaking any sort of rest, got it working and sent out their message. He figured it would take a few hours at the least to receive a response, but as they neared the six-hour mark, Jack began to worry that his repair job was not good enough.
“Anything yet?”
Jack looked up from the device clutched in his large hands. There in the doorway was his loyal Toshiko, dark circles around her eyes and a takeaway cup of coffee in her hand. “Please tell me that is for me,” Jack practically begged.
“It is. Susie ran out a little while ago to that café round the corner. Since you refuse to shut your eyes, I thought we’d at least help you keep them open.” Tosh crossed to his desk and placed the cup before him. “No answer yet?”
The Captain shook his head as he took a large gulp of coffee. “Oh, that is better already,” he grinned.
“Glad it helps.”
Beep, beep. Beep, beep.
“A message?” Tosh asked in a whisper.
Jack looked at the device, its small screen displaying text in the alien language. A blinding smile spread across the Captain’s handsome face. “Toshiko Sato, you more than help! You just might be my good luck charm!” Jack jumped out of his chair and headed out into the Hub.
Tosh followed eagerly. “It’s either me or the coffee,” she joked. At her station, the translation program was running, conveying the typed message from Jack’s device into English. It only took several seconds for the program to work out the short message.
“’Thank you for the notification. Please keep gateway safe. It is quite valuable to us. Has it been harmed? Signed, Gaetiezzé, Guardian of the gateway,’” Tosh read out loud.
“Guardian?” Susie questioned.
“Sounds fancy,” Jack commented. “This is good; they want it back. I’m going to write back to them right now and ask how to get Owen out of there. If it took almost six hours for the first message to be read and another to be returned, then we need to act fast!” Jack ran off to write his response to the Fogniaccztir.
Like clockwork, six hours later they had their newest communication.
“They don’t know?!” Jack hollered, his booming voice echoing around the Hub.
“It’s never happened before, not in their memory at least.” Tosh reread the message again. “They stress that we should not enter the gateway. They will research on their end and see what can be done. The Guardian said that he would be making his way here after the research is complete. That’s something, isn’t it?”
“It’s not enough! Owen has been inside that thing for three days. Three days!” Jack dragged his fingers through his hair and pulled the ends. All sense of hope and calm vanished and all that remained was the Captain’s determination. He wasn’t going to leave a man behind, not if he could help it. And thanks to his mysterious gift, he could afford to do what these aliens warned him not to do. “I’m going after him.”
Susie grabbed Jack’s shoulders and squeezed tightly. “You can’t! You don’t even know where Owen is. You might not end up in the same place.”
“I’ve thought of that. Tosh, pull up the CCTV of Owen. If we enhance it to see what he was looking at when he fell through, chances are, if I jump into that image, I’ll be in the same place.”
“Chances are? You are risking yourself and Owen on ‘chances are’? And making our job all the more difficult. We’ll have two idiots to retrieve instead of the one!”
Jack viciously tugged himself free from Susie’s grip. “So what? We wait? How long, Susie? How long are you willing to stand here and watch those pictures flip over and over? That seems to be all we’ve being doing lately and I can’t do it any longer.”
“I agree with Jack,” Tosh said, standing beside him.
“Of course you do. You’d do anything to get Owen back, wouldn’t you?’ Susie sneered.
“Why won’t you?” Tosh fired back, though she couldn’t hide the blush from her cheek.
“I’m not completely heartless, you know. I’m worried about him as well. But, this doesn’t make sense. Jack, if you go, we’ll only have the two of us running these programs, programs that you understand more than we do. We’re possibly dealing with intergalactic policies and Tosh and I have no training in that whatsoever. If you jump in there, directly violating their request, you’re putting all of us in danger.”
“We’re always in danger, Susie, or have you missed that over the last year? What we do is dangerous.”
“All the more reason to keep our heads in these situations.”
Jack sighed and shook his head. “Look, you two will stay and keep talking to them. Just get them here. Then figure a way to get us out and we can deal with any intergalactic repercussions. In the mean time, I’m going to find Owen and keep him safe. I trust you two to get us out of there.”
And with that, the decision had been made. Jack showed Susie how to work the Operator while Tosh found the image Owen was staring at before he fell into the portal. All of their tasks and preparation were carried out with a minimal amount of talking, the tension still filling the Hub.
As they worked, it became obvious just how tired they all were. Susie insisted if Jack was going to risk his life and jump into the unknown, then he had to be at his best. She shooed him down to his bunker below his office for a few hours rest. The image they were looking for wasn’t due to return to the painting for a while anyway. Toshiko followed suit on similar orders, shortly thereafter. She rested on the old couch, still close to her programs in case she was needed. Susie kept watch.
Life at Torchwood was beyond what the second-in-command imagined when Captain Jack Harkness had swooped down most unexpectedly and offered her a position. She loved it, truly. She loved the action, the technology, and the chance to unravel secrets of the universe. What she didn’t love was the constant feeling of isolation. She was used to it; her whole life was made up of painful partings, to the point where she chose disconnection. But Susie had hoped, perhaps naively, that working for this amazing man, so confident and bold, so full of mystery, would change that. Everyone at Torchwood 3 had secrets and they all had a big one to keep from the rest of the world. However, Susie quickly discovered that this shared knowledge of alien life, of the paranormal, was not going to bind anyone together. Every day, she felt it tearing them apart. Losing Owen only proved her belief. It had nothing to do with Owen personally, though she did admit that she relied on their evening trysts to escape her loneliness. Logically, Susie did not see the point in risking her Captain’s life to save the medic. It left them too vulnerable to the outside. It left her vulnerable as the leader in charge.
Torchwood definitely provides perspective on one’s life, but in Susie’s case, it made her face some of the pitfalls in her personal makeup.
She chose to swallow her feelings down for the time being, put on her stoic face and support Jack’s decision. His word was final, as always.
The choice whether to wake her Captain up or not was taken out of her hands when he appeared after four hours, fully dressed in his military coat and a grim look in his eyes.
“Wake up Toshiko. It’s time.”
The three remaining members of Torchwood 3 stood in front of the painting, the cold dankness of the cells seeped into their skin. Silently, they watched and waited for the picture to appear.
“As soon as we see it, I jump. These pictures don’t stay long, so I’m not going to waste time. You two know what you need to do. Just don’t start any planetary wars while I’m gone.” Jack turned to the women on either side of them, a grin on his face. “We can do that when I’m home.”
“You joke,” began Susie, “but it could happen.”
“Nah, doubtful. These aliens are peaceful and they’ve been cooperative. They want this painting badly enough, they’ll get us out of it. It would be better all around if they did that while still on Earth. I don’t fancy having to hitch-hike all the way back here again.”
“So, get the aliens here, keep them here, don’t start a war, get you out of the painting while still on the planet. Anything else you’d like us to do while you’re gone?”
“I’ll miss you too, Susie.”
“Jack?’ Tosh interrupted. “Get ready.”
Jack took several deep breaths and focused his eyes on the shifting pictures. It was full of colour, pinks and oranges giving way to the dark blues of twilight. But, it was the skyline he recognised; a city, with buildings of various sizes outlined in shadow. The CCTV could not pick up more detail than that, but it was enough. And without so much as a goodbye or good luck, Jack jumped.
The landing had been jarring, not the worst Jack ever experienced, but hard enough to knock the wind from his body. It took him several moments before he was ready to move. As he stood, he considered his new surroundings. Jack wasn’t sure what he expected, a two-dimensional, painted landscape or an obviously alien colony. He saw neither of those things. Everything looked real, by human standards. The sky was the same pallet as when he jumped, the gateway in front of him looked like brick and wrought iron. Jack reached out to feel the textures. They were, just as he would find on any street in his adopted city.
Jack walked through the gate and gasped at the scene before him. It was gorgeous! Wherever he was, it was a beautiful example of European architecture. Before him was a city square with rows of old world buildings lined the narrow, cobblestone covered the streets. In the waning light, Jack could tell that some of the facades of the buildings were brightly colored, while others wore their age with pride in their brick, stucco or wooden materials. Windows were open to the slightly balmy air and curtains danced with a light breeze. They were not the only ones dancing, however. All around, Jack saw people, all humanoid in appearance. They were moving around the square, laughing, kissing, and seemingly enjoying a glorious, carefree warm evening. Some were sat at café tables, pouring wine into companions’ glasses. Others stood in front of shops, admiring the contents inside. And, yes, a few were dancing to the music evocative chords of an accordion being played on a nearby bench.
Jack felt his heart swell. Everywhere he looked, he saw a moment waiting to be captured. A woman caught her heel between two cobbles and her male companion lifted her out of the shoe before she tumbled to the ground. A small dog pawed its owner’s trouser leg, its eyes gazing longingly at an assortment of delicious smelling food. Two young men, dressed stylishly in jackets and jeans, sat shoulder-to-shoulder, singing along to the accordion player’s tune, their fingers gently entwined. Jack listened; it was Gershwin’s, “Nice Work If You Can Get It.” Where had he landed?
If Jack had to guess, based on first impressions, he would have suspected he was in Paris, circa 1950. However, there were several modern conveniences that knocked that date out, as well as some signage that was most definitely not written in French. Jack strolled amongst the citizens of this enchanting place, trying to pick up clues or any indications as to where and when he was. After several minutes, and returning several genuine smiles, he was still lost. Jack weighed his options. If he blatantly asked where he was, there was a real chance these people would think him a nutter and call authorities. However, if he said he was looking for a friend, his confusion would only work to his benefit. So, he needed to find Owen and gather information on this city in the process. Jack looked once more at his surroundings and tried to think of what Owen would do upon first arriving in this place, assuming he landed in the same part of town as Jack. The Captain smiled and turned towards the nearest bar.