A New Dawn 12
Title: A New Dawn
Part: 12/?
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:
Previous chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/24096.html
Chapter 12
In a seedy pub, in a rundown part of London, two men met to work out a plan for damage limitation. Colonel Oduya carried two pints of bitter to a booth at the back of the noisy pub. Major Stamford sat in the booth looking grim. Both were in civvies.
"So," demanded the Major, while keeping his voice at a level that would not be heard by any of the other pub goers. "What has got you so agitated, that you dragged me out here in such a cloak and dagger way?"
Oduya handed the Major his pint, and sat down. "Did you know that Torchwood got hold of the DVDs from the Valiant, and went to the Queen to ask for a pardon for Jack Harkness?"
"Hell, no! Who gave them access to those?" exclaimed Stamford.
"If I ever find out, they'll wish they'd never been born," Oduya replied grimly. "I was called in by Her Majesty a few days ago, and required to hand over all the documents relating to the Harkness trial. She was very angry that he had been put on trial without her knowledge. And you can guess how she reacted when she discovered that he had not even been present at the trial, to speak for himself. We are now under a new set of rules for reporting our activities to the Palace. And the only thing that saved UNIT from severe repercussions, was that no one is saying that Harkness did not commit the crimes that he was convicted of."
Stamford was horrified. "Does she know the rest?"
"Fortunately not," Oduya replied morosely. "But she has issued a pardon for him, and, if anyone from Torchwood finds him, it's bound to come out."
"Well, UNIT have failed to find him for well over a year now. Torchwood won't do any better I'm sure," Stamford pointed out.
Oduya snorted. "It just takes one mistake by Harkness, and someone will find him. It had better be us, unless you and I want to find ourselves under indictment for abuse of prisoners." He leaned across the table towards Stamford. "Harkness was a friend of the Queen, not only her employee. And we tortured him for information on an institution of which she is head. If she finds out what we did, UNIT will be finished in the UK."
"What are we going to do about it, then?" asked Major Stamford.
"We need to get to him, if not first, at least before he gets a chance to tell Torchwood anything." Oduya suggested. "We need to watch Torchwood, and snatch Harkness from them if they find him."
"And how are we going to get men willing to do that?" asked Stamford. "Harkness's pardon will be known throughout UNIT within days. All our personnel will know that this would be an illegal operation."
"Since when has that ever stopped them?" scoffed Oduya. "They were willing to torture him, after all."
"Even so, if we let this get out there is a good chance someone would report it," Stamford mused. "Probably the same person who passed those DVDs to Torchwood."
"Indeed," agreed Oduya, "But I have the solution. I know just the group of men to assign to this."
Stamford looked intrigued.
"After we got all the information from Harkness, and you went back to your regular assignment," Oduya explained, "Harkness would do anything for a fix. And I do mean anything. A group of about a dozen men took advantage of what he was offering, on a regular basis."
"Ah," murmured Stamford, in understanding. "And I'm sure that none of these lads would want that to come to light."
"Definitely not,"agreed Oduya. "When we explain the situation, I'm sure they will all volunteer for our special assignment."
"But if you do manage to apprehend him, what then?" asked Stamford. "You can't kill him."
"No, but a pair of concrete boots, and a one way trip a hundred miles out to sea, should take care of him for a very long time," smiled Oduya.
b_b_b_b_b_b
Two months later
An aura of despair had settled in the Torchwood Hub. In the two months since Jack had been pardoned, there had been no hint of his whereabouts. Euphoria, that Jack had been pardoned, had gradually given way to depression. Ianto was taking their failure particularly hard, and was endlessly coming up with wild schemes that had no chance of success.
On this occasion, he bounded into Owen's office. "I've got it," he cried. "This will actually work, I'm sure."
Owen, who had heard too many of Ianto's ideas to get excited about yet another one, looked up wearily. "OK, Ianto, what's your idea this time?"
"Remember we considered putting out an advert for Jack in the papers," Ianto said, "but we knew that Jack wouldn't trust it. Well, I don't know why we never thought of it before, but there is one person that Jack would believe."
"Who?"
"The Queen," Ianto stated excitedly.
Owen nearly spilled his coffee in surprise. "The Queen!"
"Yes! If she did a national TV broadcast, announcing that Jack has been pardoned and should come out of hiding, he might just believe it."
Owen was flabbergasted, but did seriously think about Ianto's suggestion. He smiled. "You know, that just might work. But do you think that she would do it?"
"We could at least ask," Ianto responded.
As he spoke, they were interrupted by Tosh running into Owen's office. "I found something," she exclaimed. "In Manchester Royal Infirmary, there is an internal report of an unidentified patient who died, and they lost the body. There's no photo or description, but that could be Jack. The incident happened weeks ago, but their computer is not connected to the internet, so it's taken this long for my worm program to find it, and transmit back."
By mutual, unspoken, consent Owen and Ianto put their thoughts about asking the Queen for help on hold.
"Right," stated Owen. "Ianto, you and Tosh go to Manchester, and interview the people at the hospital. They must have some information about the patient. And they might recognise a photo of Jack. Follow up any leads you get. But keep me informed, OK?"
"Pack some things, Ianto," suggested Tosh, "we could be up there for a few days."
b_b_b_b_b_b
As Ianto and Tosh headed out of the Hub, and set off for the train station, they were watched from a window in a block of flats overlooking the Plas. Two UNIT soldiers manned the surveillance at any one time, two others were stationed at ground level adjacent to the Plas.. None wore uniform. This was not an authorised mission. Initially, Oduya had assigned six men at a time to the surveillance, with orders to follow the Torchwood members. But this had proved to be impossible, without risk of detection. Oduya had reluctantly downgraded the surveillance to the Hub alone. If Harkness was spotted, his men had orders to swoop in and take him, with Torchwood casualties an acceptable consequence.
Since they could not keep watch on every entrance to the Hub from their flat, hidden cameras had been installed in the underground garage, where Torchwood parked their SUV, and overlooking the tourist office. These fed live images to the monitors in the flat.
After weeks of no sightings, the men were becoming bored and jaded. They barely reacted when Ianto and Tosh emerged from the Hub, making a desultory note in the log, then lapsing back into inactivity.
b_b_b_b_b_b
In Manchester, Ianto and Tosh had tracked down the doctors and nurse who had been present when the missing patient died. They had been allowed to ask them questions, after showing their Torchwood IDs. All three agreed that the man who died was the one in the photo that Tosh showed them. Tosh and Ianto were over the moon to hear that. At last they were close to finding Jack.
"Did he say anything?" asked Ianto hopefully. "Anything that would give us a clue who he was or where he lived?"
The nurse remembered. "He came in with a stab wound to the stomach. He was barely conscious, but he did say that it was a client that did it. And the way he was dressed," the nurse hesitated, "he was older than most, but he was a prostitute, I'm sure of it."
Tosh and Ianto were both stunned, but hid their shock and thanked the woman. In turmoil, they headed for their hire car.
"Why would he do that?" Ianto asked Tosh, in horrified disbelief.
"I think that's pretty obvious," Tosh retorted, all her fears for Jack, when she found out he was destitute, coming back to her. "He escaped from UNIT, and had no money, no friends to ask for help, and couldn't get a regular job in case UNIT found him. He probably didn't have a choice."
"But, after what the Master did, how could he …, " Ianto trailed off, his face grey.
"It's not the same," Tosh told him. "I looked into the after-effects of rape once, for a friend. It varies, depending on the person, but for some victims it's all about control. Rape takes away your control, but that doesn't mean that consensual sex is no longer acceptable. And Jack was always very laid back about sex."
"But, to sell himself for money," Ianto reiterated, still in a state of shock.
"Jack's the type of person who wouldn't consider that an unacceptable thing to do," Tosh pointed out. "He doesn't have the hang ups that we do. Or at least he didn't, before the Valiant."
"I guess you're right," agreed Ianto reluctantly.
"So," Tosh continued positively, "where's the gay red light district?"
b_b_b_b_b_b
Ianto and Tosh checked into a hotel, and changed into more appropriate clothing for visiting pubs and clubbing. They had an early dinner, and then headed off to Chorlton Street, in the Gay Village. They each had a photo of Jack, that they showed to the staff of each pub, restaurant and club that they went in. Eventually they struck gold, and a barman pointed them in the direction of the Paddy's Goose pub on Bloom Street. He warned them not to show the photo there, as that would scare away most of those who 'worked' there.
They spent the rest of that evening in the pub, waiting for Jack to turn up. Tosh felt very out of place; she was practically the only woman in there. Ianto was propositioned several times. He declined each offer politely, and watched as a steady stream of young men visited the bathroom, closely followed by their more mature friends.
Jack did not appear that night, so at pub closing time they headed back to their hotel. They would try again the next day.
b_b_b_b_b_b
The following afternoon they did the rounds of more bars and restaurants, and again were told that Jack frequented Paddy's Goose. So, in the absence of any other leads, they went back there. They were getting some peculiar looks from the regulars, who couldn't understand why they were there again, and were getting suspicious. But they just ignored the looks and waited.
They were rewarded for their patience, when Jack walked in the door. He looked even thinner than when Tosh had last seen him. And he was dressed to pull, in black leather trousers, tight white T-shirt and leather jacket. He took one look at them, turned, and practically ran out of the door.
Tosh and Ianto rushed after him. "Wait Jack," Tosh shouted. "It's OK, it's only us."
Ianto's heart nearly broke to see the fear and distrust in Jack's eyes.
Hesitating, and obviously ready to bolt at any moment, Jack allowed them to approach. He was scanning the nearby area, looking for UNIT snipers.
"Have you brought UNIT?" he asked, his fear showing plainly.
"No Jack, it's OK, you know I would never do that," Tosh assured him. "It's just me and Ianto."
"Why are you here? You knew I didn't want anyone to find me," he said to Tosh accusingly.
Tosh approached Jack slowly, signaling Ianto to stay back. She touched his arm gently.
"Jack, things have changed. There was new evidence. The Queen has officially pardoned you, and UNIT are no longer after you. You can come home."
"I am home, Tosh."
"No Jack," Ianto put in. "Your home is with us, in Cardiff."
"I don't think so," Jack replied, his hostility coming across in the clipped way he said it. "And anyway, why should I believe you? What evidence? The only witnesses I had, had their memories erased when time reset, or are dead."
"When they refurbished the Valiant, they found hundreds of DVDs, which showed what really happened to you, and why you did what you did," explained Tosh.
It took a moment to sink in, but, when Jack realised that they had seen DVDs of what happened in the secret room, he was filled with horror and shame. He felt sick. They had seen it all, seen when he grovelled at the Master's feet begging for mercy, when he cried in pain and agony. And the worst humiliation of all, when he had let the Master violently rape him.
Murmuring, "no," Jack backed away trembling, and then ran.
Next chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/24616.html