3Torchwood: Outside the government, beyond the police, and well past any hopes of my ownership. Same thing goes for Doctor Who; don't own that, either...
Technically, this IS a bit of a TW/DW crossover, as it is the events of Doctor Who Season 1's (2005 version) 'Boomtown' episode from the POV of the Torchwood staff. Summary of the episode:The Doctor parks the TARDIS (big blue police box on the outside, much bigger on the inside, travels through time and space, extremely cool) atop the Rift in 2005 so that the machine can soak up Rift energy to refuel, about twenty-four hours or so. He is accompanied by Rose and one Jack Harkness (this is before Jack encounters the accident that makes him immortal and the Doctor leaves him behind). Events happen as they do and the TARDIS is forced to open the Rift. It's only for a minute or two, but, well, it's right on the Torchwood roof. There had to be SOME reason why they weren't going nuts with the Rift ripped open right above their own headquarters. Going with both shows' internal canon, Suzie is on staff and Gwen is not (though she showed the persistence of the Welsh in trying to make her voice heard. Took a gag order to keep her on the police force where she belonged...), and Ianto is the only one with any notion that Jack is more than he seems, and not much of that. Made things more than a bit challenging, needless to say. Read, enjoy, review! Thanks all. ~ Roya
It was a normal morning in the hub. Tosh had come in early and was now nose-down in the computer network. Suzie had just sat down and was regarding the pile of paperwork at her desk with a look of disgust on her face. The door rolled back and Owen walked in, yawning so wide his jaw was cracking. Ianto met him with a cup of coffee and a bland look on his face. The doctor took it with a grumble that might have been 'thank you' and proceeded to the dissection theater.
Ianto prepared a cup just the way Jack liked it, tucked today's newspaper under his arm, and ascended to the main office.
"Here you go," he said, placing the mug at his boss' elbow.
"Mmph," Jack grunted, eyes never straying from the folder in front of him.
Ianto set the paper headline-up on a clear space just beyond the coffee. "New Mayor, new Cardiff" it read. Ianto shrugged. He'd never been one to pay much attention to politics. He only hoped that the new nuclear power station wouldn't infringe much on Torchwood and its activities. "I'm off into town, then," he said. "We need some more coffee beans, and Owen was asking about getting some more desiccator plates."
"Great," Jack said, distracted. "See if you can pick up another few reams of printer paper, too, will you? We're almost out."
Ianto nodded and mentally added it to his list of things to do, closing the office door behind him and descending to the main hub floor. He headed toward the back exit, the sidewalk stone lift to the perception filter in the plaza.
He didn't hear the crash and sudden yelp behind him in the office as Jack picked up his coffee and newspaper and promptly dropped both.
He did hear the clattering as his boss dashed across the catwalk, hurtling towards the main control console. Ianto was just stepping onto the platform when Jack's hand came slamming down on the emergency stop button, bringing the lift to a shuddering halt and throwing Ianto off his feet.
"Jack? What's wrong?"
Jack didn't answer, spinning on his heel to face the bank of monitors for the external cameras. Ianto had just time enough to notice an old-fashioned police box parked right above the lift before Jack flipped the cover off of the big red panic button and slapped it down, hard.
Torchwood was plunged into darkness. Voices protested with varying degrees of vehemence as the emergency generator powered up and sent electricity spinning towards vital pieces of equipment. The dim half-lighting gave the team just enough light to see by as they converged, angry, confused, and alarmed, on Jack.
"What is it?"
"Has there been an attack?"
"I was in the middle of an operation! Buggered right through, now. You'd better have a good reason, Jack."
Ianto was in just the right position to see Jack's profile. He looked taut, stiff and unbelievably weary as he leaned over the console. But the look was gone almost as fast as Ianto registered it and Jack was smiling.
"Test of emergency procedures," he announced. "Can't be too careful."
Suzie was annoyed. "Jack, you've locked us in. The doors won't budge for twenty-four hours after that button's pushed."
"Yep!" he said. "Which will give us just enough time to review the emergency drills and check that all the equipment is functioning as it ought to. Well, what are you all staring at? Hop to it!"
The team scattered, Owen grumbling about missing his date that night, Tosh and Suzie muttering sotto voce to one another. Ianto stared after Jack as he ascended to his office sanctuary and shut the door with a grim finality.
He looked at the external camera monitors, but nothing but black screens stared back at him, dead until regular power resumed. What had been on those cameras that Jack hadn't wanted anyone to see? Ianto was strangely convinced that his odd behavior this morning was somehow related to that big box that was, at just this moment, resting on the pavement above them.
The four Torchwood underlings settled in for the long haul. Tosh seemed secretly glad to be locked in; she plowed into her work with a will that had Owen making gagging faces behind her back. The medical man chatted Suzie up for awhile before heading back to his own workstation, where he spent the time bouncing a tennis ball off the wall and catching it again while lounging lazily in his desk chair. Having nothing else to do and nowhere to really call his own down in the main hub base (the tourist office being thoroughly cut off from him), Ianto cleaned up the coffee things, straightened up the conference room, pushed a broom around the hub floor (pterodactyl droppings were absolute rubbish to clean up), and tried to figure out a way to hot wire the mainframe to give him access to the cameras.
What is Jack hiding? he wondered. They'd never done emergency drills before, not in Cardiff, anyway, and Ianto was positive that a true emergency wouldn't have the leader hiding away and life proceeding as usual for the rest of them. Something smelled fishy, and Ianto was starting to feel like a hungry cat looking for dinner.
His cleaning gradually led him to right outside Jack's door. Taking a deep breath, he turned the knob and let himself in.
Jack was staring at his computer. Camera feed showed the box and Jack was watching it with hunger and heartbreak in his eyes. Old eyes, Ianto thought, not for the first time.
"Something from your past?" he asked quietly, resting his hand on his boss' shoulder. There was far more to Jack than he ever shared with anyone, but from what little he said, Ianto knew that he was far older - with far more history - than he looked.
Jack nodded. "Yeah. Something it's best we don't get involved in."
"Something it's best that we don't see?" asked Ianto shrewdly.
Jack turned and gave him a searching look, and Ianto shrugged. "You don't do cagey very well, Captain. You locked us down here deliberately. Why is that?"
Harkness heaved a heavy sigh. "I can tell you, but then I'd have to Retcon you."
"So what else is new?" Ianto shot back. "Spill; you look like you need to talk."
"Feisty today, aren't you?" Jack grinned wickedly and Ianto blushed.
"I just...what is that?" He pointed at the monitor, where Jack Harkness was pulling open the door of the police box and disappearing inside, a mysterious white plastic board under one arm. His eyes darted to his Jack Harkness, sitting right beside him, and back to the monitor. He jumped back, gun drawn. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Who are you and who is that?"
Jack raised his hands. "Ianto, it's okay. I can explain."
"Sure you can. Where's Jack?" he demanded. "Is that why you've locked us in here? So you could switch with him?"
Jack raised one eyebrow, blue eyes sweeping slowly over Ianto. "You know, I never realized how sexy you look with a firearm."
Ianto snorted and holstered his weapon. "Okay, so you're Jack. Who's that?" he asked, cocking his thumb at the screen.
"That's Jack," replied Jack. "My younger self. You're aware I used to be a time traveler?" he asked, and Ianto nodded, cautiously. "We made a pit stop here a lifetime ago." Jack's voice was casual, as if he were discussing the weather or something equally mundane.
Ianto snagged a stool and sat down, settling in for the long haul. "And you didn't want anybody seeing you and asking questions?"
"Or interfering. I think I've rigged things so that none of what happens tonight is going to register on our sensors." Jack's hand twitched down towards the main hub computers, which were still dark and blank.
"You knew this was coming then. Strike that; of course you knew it was coming," said Ianto. The younger version of Jack stepped out of the box, looking rumpled. "Good grief, how do you get grease on you in a police box?"
"It's easier than you'd think," said Jack, grinning. His smile faded, though, as he watched another group of figures approach; a pretty blonde girl, an intimidated young black man, and an intense, soldierly-looking fellow. They were arrayed around a middle-aged, overweight woman, who looked scared to be in their company. They filed one after another into the box, which wasn't more than five feet on a side if it was an inch.
Ianto opened his mouth a couple of times, thought better of it, and shrugged. "Alien tech?" he asked, finally, and Jack laughed.
"Definitely." But his eyes followed the older man hungrily, until he was out of view inside the box.
"Friend of yours?" Ianto murmured, and Jack's lips tightened.
"The Doctor," he answered, and Ianto could hear a wealth of meaning inside that one word: love and longing and decades-worth of heartache. "I haven't seen him since... well. A long time ago. This is the start of our last adventure together." He swallowed hard, and Ianto looked away from the suspicious brightness in his eyes.
"Why not go to him now?" Ianto asked, quietly, but Jack was already shaking his head.
"No. I can't because I didn't. Things have to happen the same way they happened before, otherwise time destabilizes and I'd hate to think what might happen if time destabilized over the Rift. Besides... that's me out there. If I were to come in contact with myself..." Ianto made a questioning sound and Jack shrugged. "Massive paradox. It would shake the foundations of reality itself."
"So you're not tempted at all?"
Jack snorted. "Why do you think I put the place in lockdown? I can't get out no matter how tempted I am." His gaze returned to the monitor, his taut neck muscles the only outward sign of the war going on within.
Ianto touched his shoulder lightly. "It's alright, Jack," he told him. "You don't have to watch. Why torture yourself?"
Jack's hands tightened into fists. "Because I have to. I have to be a witness to this. When things start blowing up up there, I want to have forewarning so I can stop everyone going crazy. More crazy," he said with a laugh. It sounded hollow, and Jack cleared his throat uncomfortably.
"So it's going to get bad, then?"
"Yeah. Only for a minute or two, and the Doctor handled it fine last time - uh, will handle it fine, when it happens, gotta keep the tenses straight - but it's going to set off all the alarms down here."
"Or would, if you hadn't put us into emergency power down."
"True," Jack grinned. "I had a lot of notice to prepare."
"How long a notice was that, did you say?" Ianto asked casually, scratching his thumbnail along a dried coffee stain on the desk.
Jack raised one eyebrow. "Did you seriously want me to Retcon you?" he threatened, only half-jokingly.
Ianto sighed. "Tell me the truth, Jack. If you could go up there, right now, no consequences... would you?"
Levity evaporated, and Jack turned his eyes back to the monitor. He didn't answer for a long time. Ianto was just about to stand up when his boss answered, quietly, "In a heartbeat." He was facing away from Ianto, so that he couldn't see his face when he added, "If I ever disappear with no warning and no goodbye, then I'm following the Doctor. He was my whole world. You can't give up your whole world, Ianto."
Ianto's thoughts drifted to that certain room in the bowels of Torchwood that contained his whole world. He nodded, slowly. "No," he agreed, "you really can't."
The butler closed the door quietly behind him and went to see what could be scrounged from the communal fridge in the way of edibles. Man did not live by coffee alone, after all, and he was a pretty dab hand at smorgasbord crafting if he did say so himself. The others appreciated his efforts, but Jack stayed locked in his office at the top of the catwalk.
"Hey, hadn't someone better bring some of this upstairs?" said Tosh, eying the remains of the tray slightly guiltily.
"Oh. Yeah," Owen muttered as he damped a finger and used it to clean the crumbs off his plate.
"Jack wanted to be left alone for awhile," Ianto interposed. "He'll come down when he gets hungry. Meantime, I was thinking that some of the cells might be comfy for spending the night in...?"
Suzie shot that down almost before he'd stopped speaking, which led to a heated discussion of the best options for sleeping arrangements. Jack was forgotten in the general hubbub.
Late that night, Ianto was awakened by a sudden whoosh, crackling energy which he couldn't see but knew it was the Rift being forced open. True to Jack's word, none of the alarms were sounding. He lay in the dark, uneasily contemplating the ceiling until the weird tingling feeling up his spine disappeared.
If I ever disappear with no warning and no goodbye, then I'm following the Doctor. He was my whole world. You can't give up your whole world, Ianto.
He didn't know if it was prediction or wishing on Jack's part. But all Ianto knew was that he really, really hoped that it would never happen. Stick around, Jack, he thought towards the man upstairs, who he knew was, at this moment, obsessively watching his private monitors. You can't give up your whole world, but that doesn't mean it can't change on you.
Torchwood had a habit of making people's worlds bigger than they ever thought they could be. I hope we're part of yours, Jack. I really do.