A New Dawn 10
Title: A New Dawn
Part: 10/?
Rating: 18+
Warnings: Mentions of previous torture and rape
Genre: Angst, AU
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Owen, Tosh, Gwen
Summary: AU. The Torchwood team discover the truth about what happened on the Valiant and search for Jack. A dark fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
AN: At last I managed to find a few days to sit down and write the next chapter. So here it is.
Previous chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/23120.html
Chapter 10
When Ianto woke, Tosh was sitting in the chair next to his bed. She was stiff and aching after spending the night in the relatives room.
"Hi," she said gently.
"Tosh," replied Ianto, then his face crumpled. "I'm so sorry Tosh, I never meant for this to happen."
"I believe you, Ianto. At least, I believe that you didn't mean to kill yourself," she qualified." But how long have you been cutting yourself?"
"Not long. A few days. Since we saw Jack's deal with the Master," Ianto admitted.
"And when you remembered visiting Jack, it made things even worse," Tosh surmised.
"Oh yes. I didn't just remember the facts. I remembered what I felt. He forgave me, Tosh. He forgave me for the way I treated him all those months. He loved me, and I loved him. We could have had a future."
"You still could. He forgave you once, he might do it again."
"Would you forgive someone who abandoned you to a mob, who made it clear they hated you and had nothing but contempt for you? And, worse than that, I told him he never meant anything to me before all this. It wasn't true, but he believed it. You could tell." Ianto paused to look at Tosh, who was avoiding his gaze.
"No, you wouldn't," he deduced. "And neither would I. So any future that we might have had together is gone." He turned away from her, and added in an agonised whisper. "And that breaks my heart."
"Don't give up, Ianto," Tosh encouraged. "We'll find Jack, and get him pardoned. Then, in the future, who knows what may happen."
"The important thing is to sort things out for Jack," Ianto agreed fervently. "What I want doesn't matter. I know that I've lost any rights I ever had to his affection."
Privately, Tosh thought that Ianto was probably right. And, in fact, they had all lost any right to Jack's affection. But she did not say so.
Looking for a way to lighten Ianto's mood, Tosh asked the question that had been at the back of her mind all night. "Ianto, where's Ellie? We should contact her, and let her know where you are."
"Ellie moved out."
"So much for lightening the mood," thought Tosh wryly.
"Oh, Ianto, when? And why?"
"It was the night I got really drunk, after I saw Jack's deal. I was awful to Ellie, and threw her out. She's moved back into her own flat, to give me some space while we get this business sorted."
"So you haven't actually split up for good then?"
"Not officially, but I'm going to end it."
"But why? You and Ellie were great together, she's a wonderful girl."
"We were OK together, not great," Ianto corrected. "I never felt for her, even a fraction of what I felt for Jack." He knew he was sounding very harsh, but wanted to be absolutely honest. "And now my feelings for Jack have come back stronger than ever. Even though I know that relationship is over, it wouldn't be fair to Ellie, to be with her while loving someone else."
"Don't do anything until you've had time to recover, Ianto," Tosh advised. "Make sure it's what you really want, before you break it off with her."
Ianto wryly indicated the state he was in, and all the medical equipment. "It'll be a few days yet, I guess."
"I have to get to work now," Tosh explained as she gathered her things. "I'll come back and see you later today, OK." Hugging Ianto goodbye, she set off for the Hub.
b_b_b_b_b
When Owen woke, he had the hangover from hell. And he had no clue how he had got home. He was in bed, alone. Trying to sit up, he groaned, as his head threatened to explode. He also felt hellishly sick. He collapsed down on the bed again, in defeat. As he lay there, the events of the previous day flooded back to him.
"Oh God," Owen murmured to himself. "Why did he do that? He should have let me die."
At that moment Karen came into the room. "Back in the land of the living are we?" she asked sarcastically. "Are you going to explain to me what the hell you were playing at last night? You were practically unconscious when Gwen and Mark brought you home."
Owen looked at her with such bleakness in his eyes that all her anger evaporated. She sat on the bed next to him and put her arms around him. "What is it, Owen? You can tell me."
Owen hugged her back. "Last week I told you about some new evidence that was found, regarding someone I used to work with. Do you remember? The man I hated."
Karen nodded. "The case you've been working double shifts on, ever since?"
"Yeah. Well, we were completely wrong about him. Ever since we found the evidence, it's been clear that he was acting under duress. And we found out that he had been forced to cooperate with a psychopath, to save the lives of the team. He did some terrible things." Owen shook his head. in sorrow. "And last night I found out that the worst crimes he committed, and they were bad believe me, he did to save my life. The very things that made me hate him the most, he did to save my worthless hide. And he suffered for us, for me ..." he trailed off, on the verge of tears.
Karen could feel Owen shaking in her arms. She hugged him harder, pulling him close. After several minutes, he began to calm. "Is there anything you can do to help him now?" she asked.
"Yes, and we're damn well going to do it," Owen replied. "We're going to get him pardoned and back here, where he belongs."
b_b_b_b_b
When Tosh arrived in the Hub, Gwen, Mark and Joanne were already there. They were sitting in the boardroom drinking coffee (instant).
"We've been waiting for you," said Gwen, fetching a cup for Tosh. "How's Ianto?"
"He's doing OK," Tosh replied. "He's still really upset over Jack, but physically he'll be fine in a few days. I just hope that he won't hurt himself again."
"We'll have to keep a close eye on him when he gets out of hospital," Gwen pointed out.
"Definitely," agreed Joanne.
"And where's Owen?" asked Tosh.
"He was drunk as a skunk when we got him home last night," Mark explained."I doubt we'll be seeing him anytime soon."
"Then I guess it's up to me and Gwen to brief you two about Jack," Tosh declared, looking at Gwen for agreement.
Gwen nodded and indicated for Tosh to continue.
"Mark, I know that Owen explained some of what was going on with Jack to you, but there was one vital piece of information that he didn't tell you. I told Joanne about it last night, so I'd better bring you up to speed as well." Tosh then explained about the Master, and Jack's immortality, and what this had led to on the Valiant. She finished by explaining about the paradox being reversed, resulting in the nine months of the Master's reign being wiped from history. That information was new to Joanne as well as Mark.
When Tosh finished, Mark was looking at her in shocked disbelief. "So, your ex-boss was killed and resurrected over and over, during a period of nine months, which never actually happened? Are you sure that you haven't all been influenced, by some outside force, to believe this? Quite frankly, the whole thing sounds ludicrous."
Tosh sighed, and looked at Gwen for assistance.
"It did happen," Gwen insisted. "We all lived it. The nine months were reversed, except for the people actually on the Valiant when it ended. Me, Tosh, Ianto and Owen. Plus Jack of course, and quite a few military personnel."
Mark was not convinced. "Even if I believed that, no one can actually die and come back to life."
"Oh believe me, Jack can," Tosh assured him. "We've seen it with our own eyes."
Gwen nodded her agreement. "We knew about it before the Master took over the Earth, and we have endless DVD coverage of it from the Valiant," she added shuddering.
"Show us one," Mark said suddenly.
"What!" exclaimed Tosh and Gwen simultaneously. "We can't do that." Tosh exclaimed. "It's bad enough that we've watched it. Jack would hate us showing it to complete strangers."
But Gwen thought for a moment, and then pointed out, "Tosh, we're going to be using the DVDs in Jack's defence. There are going to be lawyers seeing it, probably the Queen, and god knows who else. So I don't see that it could hurt for Mark and Joanne to see one. Why don't we pick one of the less traumatic scenes, where Jack dies quickly?"
Seeing that Mark wasn't going to be convinced, without witnessing Jack resurrect, Tosh reluctantly nodded. She went to consult her notes and found one of the quickest, simplest, death scenes. She chose one of the very early ones, where the Master simply shot Jack in the head without preamble.
Joanne and Mark watched in incredulity, as the fatal wound healed and Jack came back to life with a gasp.
"And that happens no matter what he's killed by ?" Mark queried.
"Yes, so you can imagine what a psychopath like the Master did," answered Gwen.
Mark could.
b_b_b_b_b
With Mark and Joanne's agreement, Gwen and Tosh spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon, watching the remaining DVDs. Finally they were finished. They were now ready to compile the case for Jack's defence. That would be Gwen's job, when Owen showed up to do his Torchwood duties, as promised. Tosh would return to searching for Jack, when Ianto was released from hospital and could return to work.
b_b_b_b_b
Owen finally turned up for work after 4pm, looking sheepish, but determined.
Since seeing the DVD of Jack allowing himself to be raped to protect Ianto and Gwen, Owen had undergone a change in attitude. From that time he was no longer trying to be impartial, but he actually believed that they should help Jack, no matter what he had done later on. But now that he had seen Jack burn for him, his determination to help Jack knew no bounds.
As leader of Torchwood it was his responsibility to see this process through, and getting blind drunk was not going to do that. Vowing not to let his behaviour degenerate to that of the previous day, again, no matter what the provocation, he got down to work.
b_b_b_b_b
Two days later Ianto was released from hospital. It had required Owen to use his medical, and Torchwood, influence, to get him released, as the hospital doctors wanted to send Ianto to a psych unit for treatment. Only by Owen agreeing to take personal responsibility for Ianto, had he been allowed to leave.
After going home to change into a clean set of clothes, Ianto headed off to see Ellie. He had thought seriously about their relationship while he had been stuck in hospital, and had remained convinced that it was better for Ellie to break things off cleanly. He hoped that he could do so without hurting her too badly, as he did love her. Just not enough.
b_b_b_b_b
With Ianto's return, the team was back up to a full complement. Gwen and Tosh were then able to devote their time fully to Jack's case.
Tosh headed down to London, to check if Tish Jones remembered her time on the Valiant. She knew it was a forlorn hope, Tish's name was on a list of people evacuated from the Valiant before time reset. There was an annotation near her name that simply stated, 'forced', but Tosh had not been able to track down anyone who knew what exactly that meant. All the witnesses had themselves been evacuated, and therefore did not remember the event.
Tosh had found out that Tish now worked as a P.A. at a law firm, so she staked out the office. When Tish emerged and headed off for lunch, Tosh followed her. In the cafe, she stumbled against Tish, spilling her coffee. Apologising profusely, Tosh bought Tish a replacement coffee, and the two girls sat down together to have their lunch. Tosh chatted away about her fiancee and upcoming wedding, and Tish listened politely, looking with interest at the handsome man in the photograph that Tosh showed her. There was not a flicker of recognition as she looked at Jack's photo, or at Tosh. Her memories had indeed been erased.
b_b_b_b_b
Gwen took the notes that the team had compiled while watching the DVDs, and organised the case for Jack. She copied the important scenes from the DVDs, documenting the exact circumstances they related to.
She also continued to research into crimes committed under duress. To her amazement, she found that the fact that Jack had committed his most heinous crimes to save the team, rather than to save himself, actually weakened his case. They could argue legitimately that the law, as commonly applied, did not apply to a man who could be tortured and killed endlessly. But, as the law stood, Jack should have let them die, and they had no grounds to argue that he should not have
Reflecting that it was a good thing that the Queen had absolute authority over the granting of a pardon, so that she would not have to hand the case over to a cadre of legal experts, Gwen hoped that, as a compassionate individual, the Queen would understand the impossible position that Jack had been put in. No one could be expected not to buckle under the extreme level of duress that Jack had been subjected to.
b_b_b_b_b
After she returned from London, Tosh enhanced her search program. She programmed the 'worm' to check any computer it accessed, looking for particular references that could apply to Jack. She also programmed it to hijack memory sticks, and other portable media, so that computers which were not connected to the internet could be checked. It would be a long, slow process, but it was all she had.
b_b_b_b_b
The team had put aside their demons in order to help Jack. In particular, under the watchful eye of his teammates, Ianto had made no further attempts to harm himself. Owen had thrown himself into work, both Torchwood work, and assisting the efforts on Jack's behalf.
After two weeks working double shifts, Gwen had compiled their evidence, and made the case for Jack's moral innocence. The others had checked it for omissions, and had made any improvements that they could. They were ready. Now they needed to get the evidence to the Queen. As Torchwood was officially answerable to the Queen, they had not anticipated having any difficulty in getting to see her.
Maybe Jack had had a direct way to contact the Monarch, when he was leader of Torchwood, but that information had been lost when he left. Owen had been to the Palace twice since he had become leader of Torchwood, but both times had been at the invitation of the Queen. Their various attempts to arrange a meeting had been met with polite offers of an appointment in six months time, outright refusals, and suggestions that they go through proper channels. They needed help.
Exasperated when her latest attempt to talk to the Queen was rebuffed, Gwen was sounding off to the rest of the team. "She's supposed to be in overall charge of Torchwood, how can she refuse to talk to us!"
"Calm down, Gwen," said Ianto, "The Queen won't know anything about your call. It's the Palace civil servants who are blocking us. What we need is someone who knows how to bypass them."
"Who do we know who's high enough up to help?" asked Owen.
"Well," Tosh answered reluctantly, "there's Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart. He's retired now, but he helped Jack get me out of UNIT. And he's a good man, old UNIT, rather than the new breed of bullies they have nowadays."
"He's still UNIT," argued Owen. "He's hardly likely to help us get a convicted torturer pardoned. And the last thing we want is for UNIT to find out what we are planning. The guy who gave us the DVDs said that they were suppressing the evidence. They might well try and sabotage us in some way. We can't afford to draw their attention."
"What about Harriet Jones?" interjected Ianto. "I know, from the files, that she had dealings with Torchwood, and Jack, when she was Prime Minister. She would have had access to the Queen back then, and maybe she would still be able to get to see her."
"That's a great idea," agreed Gwen with excitement. "Ianto, track her down and get in touch with her. We need to arrange to meet her, and show her the evidence. She probably doesn't remember the Master and Toclafane, so we'll have to explain all that to her too. Hopefully she'll believe us."
b_b_b_b_b
Two days later, the team drove to Yorkshire to see Harriet Jones. Yet again, they had left Joanne and Mark manning the Hub, as none of them were willing to stay behind.
The SUV pulled up outside a modest house in a small village in Swaledale. "She's certainly left the trappings of power behind," commented Ianto.
"Wouldn't you, if you were ousted the way she was?" said Tosh.
Harriet welcomed them into her home, and listened gravely to their story. She flinched a few times as they described the more more graphic details of what had happened to the Earth, and the human population, during the nine months that never was.
"Congratulations Doctor," she muttered sarcastically under her breath, "ousting me was a master stroke. No pun intended."
Then they explained what had happened to Jack.
Harriet went pale as she listened to their description of what Jack had undergone, and why.
And, when they explained what had happened to him afterwards, she could not contain her anger.
"How could you have allowed UNIT to lock Jack up?" she exploded. "Do you know nothing! You must know what UNIT is like, and that Jack would never get a fair trial. They probably couldn't believe their luck at getting their hands on him."
Tosh cringed at this, her guilt coming bubbling to the surface once again. Of all of them, she was the only one who had known what UNIT prisons were like. "I, I tried to get him assigned to us," she stuttered. "But no one would go along with it."
Owen stepped in at this point. "We know that we screwed up, in so many ways," he admitted. "What we are trying to do now, is make things right. We are doing everything we can to get Jack exonerated, and find him, so he can live his life without fear of UNIT or anyone else. Will you help us?"
Harriet forced herself to calm down. The Torchwood team were obviously oblivious to the tensions that had always been present between Jack and UNIT. They had not realised the implications of handing him over to them. "Jack is a remarkable man, in many ways," she stated with a blush. "I'll do all I can to help him."
Tosh had seen the blush. "Were you and Jack …?" she trailed off.
"Yes," said Harriet unashamedly. "We were both unattached and lonely. And he is gorgeous. Who could resist."
"Indeed," murmured Ianto.
"Leave your tapes with me," suggested Harriet, "so I can review the evidence, and get to grips with the case for putting before the Queen. If it's as compelling as you said, I think we can move on it straight away. I still know the channels to get directly in touch with her, and I'm sure she'll agree to meet me."
"It isn't easy to watch," Ianto warned her, "particularly as you and Jack were good friends."
Harriet nodded her understanding.
As the team got back into the SUV, Owen whistled. "So, Jack and the Prime Minister, eh? The old dog. I wonder how many other PMs he's had."
"You mean, apart from Saxon," Ianto said angrily, remembering the vicious rapes that the Master had perpetrated on Jack.
Owen blanched, "Sorry, I wasn't thinking. I didn't mean him, you know that!"
"It's OK Owen, we know what you meant. You were just remembering the old Jack from before the Valiant," interjected Tosh, cutting off any possibility of an argument.. "Hopefully he'll be back with us soon."
b_b_b_b_b
Hours later Harriet finished watching the tapes. Tears were streaming down her face. She spoke aloud. "Oh Jack, you should have taken the deal. How could you cope with that?"
Anger suffused her features then. Those Torchwood idiots, they didn't deserve Jack. How could they have allowed this to happen. But at least they were trying to make amends now. Seething, she went to bed, determined to contact the Palace first thing in the morning, and arrange a meeting with the Queen. The sooner they got Jack exonerated the better.
AN: And next chapter we have the Queen, and Jack.
Next chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/24096.html