The Watch 4/?
Title: The Watch IV
Characters: Jack/Ianto, The Doctor (10), Owen, Gwen, Tosh…
Rating: PG
Warning: Slight Gwen-bashing?; unintentional!
Summary: Hiding can sometimes be tricky; especially when you do not know what you are hiding from or what you may lose when it is revealed. Set post-End of Days (slight spoilers for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang).
AN// NO SPOILERS FOR COE
Previous Chapters
21 Years Ago
“Simon? Simon! Simon, please talk to me! Are you okay, love? What’s wrong! Oh god!” Katrina shook her husband, he was just lying there next to her staring at the space where the pocket watch had been just minutes ago. No. not just minutes ago, too many minutes. Katrina was scared he was having an heart attack or stroke except he was far to young for that!... and besides, he didn’t look in pain. Not pain exactly, more like shock. Like he was overwhelmed.
Finally after minutes and minutes that took forever to pass, her husband responded. “You really shouldn’t have done that.” His voice was cold, dead. Full of grief, wisdom, and age.
Katrina backed away. “Simon, what do you mean?” She asked.
He looked at her. For the first time since she had known him he looked old. His eyes spoke of years he could not possibly have experienced and it scared her. She took a deep breath, it was silly to be scared of Simon! After all she’d been married to him for years and she loved him, she knew he would never hurt her. He loved her… right.
Except love was absent from Simon’s eyes.
“I mean that if you hadn’t opened that then we could have continued on playing happy families until you grew old and died. Until Danny was married with his own kids. And oh, we would have been so happy Katrina.” He said.
Katrina sat back. “This isn’t funny, Simon. Stop it right now!” She commanded him in a shaking voice.
He smiled a sad little smile. “If I were really Simon I would stop it. I would laugh, take you in my arms and kiss away that look of fear in your eyes. Then we would go back to sleep and wake up in the morning to see our beautiful son playing with his new toys and everything would be perfect.”
“That’s not going to happen, is it.” Katrina said, a crash of realisation was breaking her heart apart. She couldn’t comprehend the whys and whats but she knew that the minute she had opened that watch it had been the end of all she had held dear.
“No. I have to leave. You must understand that while Simon would stay - stay for an eternity if he could. I can’t. I just can’t.” He said. There was a tone of frustration in his voice like he wanted to be able to tell her but he just couldn’t - literally couldn’t.
“You talk like you aren’t Simon.” Katrina noted.
“It’s more of a case of I am him, but he is not me. If you catch my drift… you don’t do you?” Katrina looked blankly at him. He sighed. “Simon loves you… but that won’t stop me from leaving. This was only meant to be temporary - I had fail-safes in place to stop this kind of thing from happening. Of course without me around to remember to maintain them they probably decayed. And then you came along, and Danny and the bond overwhelmed the command to open the pocket watch. But you see, that watch is like Pandora’s Box; once it’s open you can’t undo it.”
“But… but at the end there was hope left in the box.” Katrina remembered. It was strange how these things came to one during a period of shock. Her mind was almost beyond thinking; she was in so much pain, but she still remembered the classic story her grandfather used to tell her.
The stranger who was her husband shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t even give you that. I’ve already given you everything I can, and I shouldn’t even have done that.” He said, glancing meaningfully at the picture of their… no HER son.
Katrina’s heart froze. She slapped him around the face with enough force to snap his head back. “How can you even say that!” She asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have… of course you can keep him. Danny will be safe. And he is normal… what I am shouldn’t affect him too much as I was fully human when we created him but there may be some differences. He’s already cleverer than most kids his age and-”
“Get out.” Katrina told him. Fury emanating from her.
He blinked. “Oh… yes… of course. For the best.” He said as he jumped out of the bed they had once shared. “Should I go say…” he left the sentence hang in the air.
“No. Don’t you go near him.” Katrina said. This hurt him but it was her right as his mother to deny him this. He was prepared to give her this; after all he was taking so much more from her.
“Just one more thing-” Katrina said as he made his way to the door. “Who are you?”
He turned back to her, his eyes full of grief, wisdom and age. “I’m the Doctor.” He said, and left.
The next morning Danny would notice that his father was gone, that his mother’s eyes were red rimmed, and that the archaic blue Police Telephone Box that had been in the garden his whole life was missing.
Two weeks later Katrina and Danny Lloyd disappeared. At about the same time an unmarried mother by the name of Hope Jones would start living in a flat in Cardiff with her five year old son Ianto Jones. When he was older he would ask her about her name; and she would tell him that she was named after the Pandora myth because she needed some hope in her life.
THE PRESENT
“… can’t just turn up like this and expect everything to just snap back into place!” Gwen raged after they had heard Jack’s cryptic and frankly pathetic explanation for leaving. The Captain looked less than impressed by her tirade but he seemed willing to wait her out. “You left us! How are we supposed to know you won’t do it again?” She demanded.
Jack all but rolled his eyes. “Look; you’re just going to have to trust me okay?” He said, practically begging. Owen and Tosh exchanged glances and Ianto stood passively to one side barely paying attention, his eyes were fixed on the wondering Doctor as he examined Torchwood Three in all its horrific glory.
“No way, Jack!” Gwen went on. “You can’t up and leave us like that and then throw words like ‘trust’ around at us!”
“Hey!” Jack yelled, seeing that Gwen was just winding herself up more and more as the minutes past instead of getting over her abandonment issues. “I forgave you all for various sins - including killing me - so I think its time for you, Miss Cooper, to get off your high horse and cut me some slack. I already explained that I didn’t have time to tell anyone I was leaving. I heard the TARDIS and had seconds to find the Doctor before he left. I needed to know if he could fix me.” Jack said.
“And did he?” Owen asked quietly. Jack had expected anger from the young doctor, but instead he just seemed relieved that Jack was back but cautious. Toshiko even more so, she stood furthest away with her arms folded defensively over her stomach as she silently watched.
Jack smiled self-depreciatingly. “Why fix perfection?” He joked, but the joke fell flat as the Doctor snorted in the back ground and Gwen turned on him.
“What are you even doing here!” She asked angrily. “First you steal Jack away, now you bring him back five months late and hang around like an annoying party crasher? Why haven’t you disappeared in your little blue box off to wreck someone else’s life?”
“Me?” The brown haired man looked innocently at the Torchwood team. “I didn’t do anything. Just popped by for a refuel and along comes Jack jumping at the TARDIS sending us flying off to the end of the universe. Sounds very over dramatic doesn’t it? A bit like Jack really… well a lot like Jack. I mean, is it really necessary to come on to that many people in such a sort amount of time, or do you just do it for effect?” The Doctor rambled on. “Have we met before?” He asked suddenly, staring at Gwen rather intently. She seemed flummoxed.
“Ah.. no…”
“What about relatives? Gwen… no… Gwyneth. Anyone in the family called Gwyneth? How long have your family lived in Cardiff?” The Doctor asked.
“I… over a hundred years I believe. And I have a great-aunt named Gwyneth - it’s a family name.” She answered, confused and slightly worried about the Doctor but at least her anger seemed to have dissipated.
“Brilliant.” He said, smiling. “And you!” He turned to face a slightly startled Toshiko. “You I definitely recognise. Last regeneration; aliens in London? Space pig remember?” He asked.
Toshiko smiled slightly, looking pleased. “You remembered.”
“Of course! But I’ve never met the Doctor before.” He said, grinning slightly at the unintended joked. Owen stretched his hand out introducing himself as ‘Doctor Owen Harper’ and the Doctor shook the hand, staring at it like it was a two headed dog. He grinned again. “What was your original point?” He turned on Gwen who still looked puzzled. “Oh yes, why am I hear. Well that girls and boys is a story I think you would all like to hear!” He said with some seriousness.
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