Title: Memory and Time (6/?)

Author: Emma

Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, 10th Doctor, Torchwood Three, others

Rating: Starts PG, but hey, it’s got Jack and Ianto in it!

Disclaimer: Oh, please. If I owned them, would I let some of those idiots write the scripts? And if I were making any money off them, would I be where they could find me?

Spoilers: None. This takes place in my Homecoming AU, twelve years after Invincible Summer

Summary: Something is trying to mess with Jack’s time line…

Author’s Note: The Guardians are Dr. Who canon. This AU ignores The Twilight Streets.

            Gwen looked at the UNIT briefing papers in front of her and saw gobbledygook… again. She had been doing this little dance for several hours now, pretending she was doing constructive work while her mind was everywhere but on the job.  Her daughter, her baby, was running around time and space with an alien, who, as far as Gwen could see, wreaked as much havoc on his allies as on his enemies. Her… Duw, what exactly was Jack to her?... was fading out of existence and taking most of her reality with him.  Two of her closest friends were somewhere in the past chasing a serial killer. And her stubborn, impossibly wonderful husband was sitting in her office, drinking tea and sifting through the latest weevil sighting reports.

            Of course she had called Rhys the moment TARDIS faded from the Hub. He had rushed over, arriving laden with baked goods, to be greeted with undisguised relief  and enthusiasm by his “kids”.

            It had started right after Rhys sold his share of the lorry business, with visions of late mornings in bed and uninterrupted footie matches. Instead, Jack had drafted him to help with a new recruit, a brilliant young mathematician whose introduction to Torchwood had involved exploding green larvae and attempted possession. That young woman had brought along a friend, and that one, another. Soon, Rhys was spending most of his free time mentoring young agents. Jack had made it almost official, creating for him the post of “minder of youngsters.”  It had worked very well indeed. Being one of Tad Rhys’s kids had become a sort of badge of honour among the younger set.

            *Gwen*

            She nearly fell out of her chair.  She could count on one hand the number of times Ianto had communicated with her mind-to-mind, and she would have fingers left over. It was still the most startling experience she’d ever had.

            * I need you to bring Jack and John down to secure Archives. Don’t tell anyone else yet*

            *Rhys is here*

            There was a brief silence at the other end. *All right, bring him too*

            *Give me a few minutes*

            She felt his wordless assent, then his presence left her mind. She shivered. Ianto’s mind radiated the same warm strength she had noticed in the man when they had first met, but there was an endless depth to it that left her feeling a little lost and empty. It had taken her a while to figure it out, but she had  finally come to realize that while she was attracted to the mysterious, dangerous men, she loved and needed the reassuring human solidity that was Rhys.

            “Cariad.” She stroked his arm. “I need you to come with me.”

            They went down to the main floor. Jack and John were in the sitting area. Jack seemed to be dozing. Gwen was relieved to see he had not deteriorated further; in fact, he seemed to have a little more colour. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking.

            “McGee!” She watched her weapons expert and computer-geek-in-training bounce up. Jonas reminded her of a puppy; all he lacked was a wagging tail. But he was extremely competent and devoted to Rhys.

            “Have you heard from Yan?”

            “Yes, ma’am. False alarm. Turns out the stuff was bioluminescent algae some kid was growing in a tank for his school science project.” He rolled his eyes. “Once he stopped cursing, Yan said to tell you he would stop by Billie’s and pick up some supper for everyone.”

            “Good. You’re in charge until he gets back. We’re going down to secure Archives for a bit.”

            “Yes, ma’am.”

            She smiled at him gently and saw him flinch. “And Jonas? No CCTV.”

            “I would never do that, ma’am.”

            She petted his cheek. “Yes, you would, Jonas. I once knew somebody just like you and she would have.”

            “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am!”

            Gwen joined Rhys and John in the sitting area. She shook Jack awake gently.

            “Jack? Come on, sweetheart. Ianto wants us down in secure Archives.”

            “He’s back?”

            “Don’t know. He just” she pointed at her temple, “told me to get us five down there.”

            They trooped into the Archives section and followed the maze-like path between rooms. Secure Archives was a smallish room that didn’t look like much on the surface, just a few locked cabinets and a walk-in safe at the far end, but like most things designed by Jack Harkness and improved upon by Ianto Jones, it concealed a number of nasty surprises, both Earth and alien. But as Gwen crossed the deceptively open archway leading into the room, she could have been charged by a pack of rabid weevils and not have noticed.

            Her attention was riveted by the man standing next to Ianto. For a few seconds Gwen wondered if life with Torchwood had finally sent her round the bend, but Jack’s sharp intake of breath and Rhys’s muttered what the fuck!? reassured her. She figured if they also saw Owen Harper, looking exactly like he did on the day he died, smirking exactly like he used to when he wanted to irritate the piss out of her, she didn’t need to turn herself in to Martha for psychiatric evaluation. So she ambled into the room as if she had just shared her chocolate croissants with him at breakfast.

            “Hello, Owen.”

            “Aaww, Gwen, not even a hug?” He cocked his thumb at Ianto. “This one gave me a hug.”

            “You bastard.”

            She flew into his opened arms. In her own muddled way she had loved him once, and she knew he had come to care for her. He wrapped her in a bear hug that nearly squeezed all the air out of her, then stroked her cheek in a gentle caress.

            “Still beautiful, babe.”

            She slammed him back against one of the cabinets. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t clock you one right now, Owen Harper.”

            “Still temperamental,” he sighed theatrically, then pushed past her. “Rhys, mate, you’re a hero to have put up with her all these years.”

            They exchanged a hand-shake-and-shoulder-slap sort of greeting. Rhys, Gwen noticed, seemed a lot less rattled than she had been, or maybe he had just reached overload. With a last pat and a grin, Owen moved to stand in front of Jack.

            “Hello, boss.”

            Wordlessly, Jack enveloped him in a hug, holding Owen to his chest as if he were a child. Gwen got a little misty-eyed at the sight, especially when Owen’s arms tightened around Jack’s waist and she heard a slight snuffle. Of all their mad, complicated relationships with Jack, Owen’s had been the maddest and most complicated, but underneath it all lay an almost father-son bond.

            When the two finally separated, Jack seemed to make an effort to return to his normal self. “Owen? Should I let Gwen clock you or are you going to tell us what happened to you?”

            Owen gave him a cheeky grin. “Home sweet home.” He turned abruptly serious. “I was in the plant, and I knew I was going to die. Funny enough, I was okay with it, well, not exactly okay ‘cause I knew radiation poisoning is fucking painful, but I was going out making a difference and it felt good. Instead I got a blinding flash of white light and next thing I know I’m standing in this big room with a bloke in white robes who tells me I get to be your guardian angel.”

            “Owen,” Jack growled.

            “No, really! When the Bad Wolf resurrected you, she really buggered up the balance between chaos and order in the Universe, Jack. You walked around generating order like some sort of positive engine. It made you very unpopular in certain quarters. Chaos decided to take you out of the equation. They sent one of their biggest and baddest against you.”

            “Abaddon.”

            “Yeah. Except you gave him terminal indigestion and in the process things got even more buggered up. Elemental energy doesn’t just dissipate, so when Abaddon blew up, his energy went straight into you. And there you were, the greatest elemental energy generator of all time, sparking in every direction like a cheap firecracker. The Universe protected itself in the only way it could. It divided itself around you and that created two equally possible futures for you.”

            “Wonderful. As if I didn’t have enough trouble with one. But that doesn’t tell me anything about you.”

            “Chaos and order cannot act directly in the physical Universe, so they take human form and recruit mortals to do the actual dirty work. Hey, don’t give me that look. I work for the good guy, Jack. The White Guardian represents the forces of order that work to keep the Universe balanced and evolving properly. The other guys want to tilt the whole thing in the other direction.”

            “So all we have to do is defeat chaos?” John asked sarcastically. “One of the two organizing forces of the Universe?”

            “His agents. Yeah.” Owen nodded. “And chaos really hates you, Jack.”

            “Why?” Jack sounded aggrieved. “I’m just the innocent bystander caught in the gunfight. What did I ever do to it?”

            “Not you, directly. Your friend in the blue box went up against the Black Guardian and kicked his arse. Chaos has a long memory.”

            “Great.”

            “So,” Ianto said, “we need to find a way to eliminate the chaotic time line.”

            “No.” Owen took a deep breath. “This is the difficult part and I don’t understand it myself very well, but… parts of Jack’s future have already happened.”

            “I knew”  Rhys said to nobody in particular, “that I should have just stayed in the lorry business. How can the future have happened already?”

            “I said it was complicated! Anyway. All chaos has to do now is to make sure either one of Jack’s time lines is eliminated, with bonus points for destroying the one Jack has already lived. We have to make sure both time lines play out. That will keep the Universe in perfect balance.”

            “So let’s see if I got this right,” John said. “Jack here has two futures, and we have to make sure both come true.”

            “Yeah.”

            “How the hell do we do that?!”

            “Damned if I know.”.