When Everything Changed - Chapter 5/20
Aug. 21st, 2010 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tonjavmooreTitle: When Everything Changed – A Torchwood/Dr. Who/Sarah Jane Adventures Crossover
Author:
tonjavmoore Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Eleven and Amy Pond, and a lot of people from the Whoniverse at large
Rating: PG
Word Count: Total: 31,520; Chapter 5: 1,747
Spoilers: This assumes that you are familiar the five days of Children of Earth. Otherwise, you’ll be a bit lost. This is a timey-wimey fixit that takes up action partway through Day 3.
Disclaimer: Torchwood, Dr. Who, and Sarah Jane Adventures all belong to the BBC and RTD. Sadly.
Betas: Thanks to midlist_writer and welsh_scotsman on Live Journal. Also, for my friend Alexandria Cameron who put up with my squeals and tantrums when it just wouldn’t get out through my fingers the way I wanted it to.
Dedication: This is for my good friend and the best roommate anyone could have ever the pleasure of having, Susan Garrett. She was taken from us by cancer and the world is not as bright as it was before she left.
Summary: When the Shadow Architects find a paradox that is destroying the Universe, can the Eleventh Doctor find a way to restore Jack’s timeline to what it should have been?
Story starts here:
Chapter 1
Chapter 5
Jack knew he should be used to the agonizing pain that accompanied each resurrection, but this was like nothing he’d ever felt. The pain was worse – far worse than he was used to. The Voice was trying to calm him, but it was fading. Obscure images were swirling around in his head, strange dream-like memories of places he had never seen and people he had never met. Anguished loneliness filled him. He didn’t want to breathe, didn’t want to return to the empty existence that he half-remembered…
His chest burned and he took a gasping breath. When he did, strong arms tightened around him. He clutched at the arms, knowing that they would soothe him. A quiet murmur slowed the frantic beating of his heart. “Easy, Jack. I’m here.” It gave him the courage to open his eyes.
Ianto’s blue eyes were solemn, but beautiful. So beautiful. Jack wanted to cry for the beauty of them. “Ianto,” he whispered.
There was an inarticulate cry and Jack looked toward it, still gripping Ianto’s arms. Gwen was reaching toward Clem, speaking quietly. “This is normal, this is what he does. See? Ianto knew it was going to be okay.”
The man stared at her and backed away. “No, no!”
An explosion made all of them jump. Jack deftly rolled so that Ianto was beneath him, while shouting, “Down! All of you!”
Part of the wall had fallen in and through the hole came men in black uniforms that quickly surrounded each of them. The men around him had their guns trained at Ianto’s head, visible from under Jack’s shoulder. Someone said, “I would advise everyone to keep perfectly still.”
Jack recognized that voice. It was the one he’d heard just before the concrete had come pouring down on him. Whoever this woman was, she was ruthless. “Do as she says!” he barked to them all.
The men in front of him parted, but did not change the aim of their weapons. Jack finally got a good look at her. All in black, with black hair and dangerous black eyes. “Well, Captain,” she said, “You really are difficult to keep track of.”
Jack didn’t answer. With that many guns pointed at Ianto, he wasn’t taking any chances. “Nothing to say?” she asked. “No, I guess you wouldn’t. All right, Captain, I want you to move – very slowly – off your companion there. I haven’t seen him before, so he must have been the one being clever with the forklift.”
Jack kissed the cheek his face was against and felt a lessening of tension in Ianto’s body. Very carefully, he eased himself off of Ianto, keeping his body movements slow and obvious. Ianto watched him while he was watching Ianto. Neither of them looked anywhere else. All Jack wanted to see was the life in those eyes. He didn’t know why it was so important, but it was.
“Well, well,” she said. “Aren’t you the pretty thing?”
Jack saw the blush staining Ianto’s cheeks. He smiled without taking his eyes away from Ianto’s. “I have really good taste.” Ianto smiled back at him. In spite of the severity of their situation, Jack felt like singing.
“All right, both of you up on your feet. You first, Captain. Slowly.”
When they were both upright, their hands were cuffed behind them. Gwen, Rhys, and Clem were similarly restrained. “My men have your boy toy in their sights, Captain. Let’s go, shall we?”
Amy watched the screen as the people were herded out of the warehouse. “Who are they?” she asked.
The Doctor froze the image and pointed. “That one’s the Captain. The one wearing the coat.”
“Wow. He’s… I mean… wow.”
“He has that effect on people. The woman is Gwen Cooper. She’s Torchwood, along with the Captain. The man in the suit is also Torchwood. Ianto Jones. The one I mentioned in the phone call.”
She felt her face fall. “Why is it that the good-looking ones are always playing for the other team?”
“What?”
“Nothing.” She pointed. “Who are the other two men?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen them.” The Doctor started the screen moving again. The handcuffed group was put into a truck and it drove away. The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s Jack safe, at least for now.”
“Seems to me you’ve put him in more trouble.”
To her surprise, the Doctor laughed. “Jack is always in some sort of trouble. That’s how he thrives. If there wasn’t trouble, he wouldn’t know what to do with himself.”
“And that was the scary woman?”
The Doctor gave Amy a serious look. “She is cold and somewhat cruel, but she’s not a fool. She won’t hurt any of them because they are the only way she has to control Jack. That’s what her job is. To control Jack.”
“So that’s why you led the soldiers here.”
“To keep Jack and the others safe.”
Amy shook her head. “I’ll never learn to follow your logic. Ok, so what’s next? We bring down the government? We bomb Parliament? We go to the alien ship? What?”
“Cardiff, remember? You need to get a very suspicious woman to listen to your advice.” He grinned at her. “You can do that, right?”
Gwen Cooper Williams looked at the tan jumpsuit with distaste. They’d been instructed to change into them and Jack had insisted that they cooperate. The guards were even taking their shoes, giving them thin ill-fitting slippers instead, like the disposable ones you got in hospital that did nothing to cut the chill from the concrete floor. Rhys was standing in front of her, bless him, so the guards wouldn’t get a peep show. Not that she really cared. Most of her attention was on Jack, waiting for a signal that they should do something. Anything.
However, Jack didn’t look well. Ianto was helping him get redressed, slowly and carefully. She’d known something was very wrong in the truck that transported them here. Jack didn’t speak, just rested his head on Ianto’s shoulder. What was wrong with him?
She knew that Ianto would take care of him; Ianto always took care of Jack. What had surprised her was the way Jack took care of Ianto the same way. She hadn’t thought Jack was capable of so deep of an emotion. He was always so cavalier, flirting with anything that had a pulse. She had even thought he fancied her at one time. She admitted that had been exciting, but even then Jack hadn’t seemed to really pay the same kind of attention to her as he did to Ianto.
It was all right now though. She had lovable gentle Rhys, whom she loved from the top of his head to the tippy-tip of his toes. She cared deeply about both her teammates, but as friends, not potential lovers. Just now she was concerned about Jack as their leader. He seemed resigned, like there was no fight in him.
One of the soldiers was gathering their clothes when Ianto’s voice challenged him. “Leave Jack his coat.”
Johnson stepped toward him. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
Ianto met her glare for glare. “Jack is cold. His skin is clammy. Unless you have enough blankets to make another one out of and are willing to give me a pair of scissors, a needle, and some thread, he needs that coat to keep warm.”
“This is a trick.”
“For God’s sake!” Ianto sounded angrier than Gwen had ever heard. “It’s just a bloody coat! To keep him warm! You blew him into tiny pieces, watched while he reassembled in agonizing pain and then encased him in concrete while he screamed. He’s ill from that! Just because he can’t stay dead doesn’t mean he can’t be sick. I bought that coat yesterday and it’s harmless. What do you think we are? You destroyed the Hub. Any gadgetry we had disappeared then. It’s only a coat.”
Gwen saw Johnson’s face change. Maybe this woman wasn’t completely heartless, or maybe Ianto’s defiance had impressed her. Regardless of what it was, she said, “We’ll examine it thoroughly and if it is harmless, I’ll bring it to you.”
Ianto didn’t look happy, but must have realized that was all he was going to get. Jack smiled and seemed to relax. Gwen still watched for some sign that they were to do something, but Jack didn’t look at her. She took Clem’s hand as the guards approached. With guns prodding at them, they moved into a corridor lined with doors. Johnson told them to stop in front of one.
“I want to make clear what’s going to happen if you try to escape – any of you. These cells have been specially prepared. They are air tight. We have cameras watching you and they will be continuously monitored.” She opened the door. It looked like just a cell to Gwen. After giving them time to look, Johnson pulled the door shut and locked it. She continued, “There are vents for sufficient air flow. At the first suspicious move, however, my people are going to react like this. Go, Richards.”
The man addressed pressed a button on the device he was holding. A cloud of green-yellow gas poured from a vent in the ceiling of the cell. “That’s a lethal concentration of chlorine gas. It won’t hurt us, but it will kill anyone in the cell in seconds. It isn’t a very pleasant way to die.”
Gwen recognized the color. She wasn’t surprised when Jack said quickly, “No one is going to try anything. Gwen, Rhys, Clem, cooperate fully. Do you understand?”
She didn’t like it, but she agreed. She did say, “Clem isn’t stable. He may do something, but he isn’t trying to make trouble.”
“We’ll sedate him,” Johnson said, still in her cold dry voice. She led them to the next set of doors. “All right, Cooper and Williams in here. Just a little insurance for Cooper’s good behavior. Your Captain and his lover will be right next door. We’ll put this one in opposite you.”
Before Gwen could protest, Jack reached over and squeezed her hand. Ianto was right; his skin was icy. “Don’t do anything stupid, Gwen. I can’t lose you. Do what they tell you, okay?”
Gwen sighed. It went against her nature to remain passive, but she couldn’t see a way out without risking Rhys’ life. She managed a smile. “I’ll do it for you, Jack. Don’t worry about us.”
Chapter 6
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-22 08:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-27 07:53 am (UTC)Thank you.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-22 09:36 am (UTC)I hope the Doctor knows what he's doing. *crosses fingers*
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-27 07:55 am (UTC)Jack is needing some help and Ianto is needing to help him. It works that way for me.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-22 02:18 pm (UTC)And this woman Amy needs to talk to...is it Rhiannon?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-27 08:03 am (UTC)In Chapter 6, you find out who Amy is going to talk to.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-22 02:37 pm (UTC)I love Gwen's observations here ... and the way Ianto is protective of Jack.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-27 08:08 am (UTC)Protective!Ianto is one of my favorites.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-22 02:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-27 08:17 am (UTC)Glad you're enjoying the story.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-23 12:26 am (UTC)I loved Ianto being protective of Jack and demanding he get to keep his coat.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-27 08:21 am (UTC)Jack needs his coat.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-23 01:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-27 08:28 am (UTC)I was so... disgusted at what they did to Janto in that thing. That's one of the reasons I wrote this. I'm going to fix it.
I'm so glad you're enjoying the story.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-28 10:09 am (UTC)At first, I really hated what they did, but I've now more or less grudgingly accepted it. I think they had two main reasons for doing what they did. First, its purpose was to show that Jack was frightened by the fact that his relationship with Ianto was becoming something deeper and more meaningful. He's lived so long and lost so many people he cared about that he shies away from relationships with the sort of depth the one he has/had with Ianto. That's fine, but they could have shown it in a less jarring way. I mean, "You're gonna die like a dog." ? Really? Come on B/! To say nothing of his repeated insistences that he hates the word 'couple B|'. Their other reason was, to put it bluntly, so that it would be easier to kill Ianto off. Two things still bother me a lot about it, though. One is the fact that they basically erased a season-and-a-half worth of development in the relationship. The other is the fact that the people doing publicity for it at conventions basically lied about how the relationship would be portrayed. From the promos we kept seeing, it looked like there'd be a lot of meaningful Janto interaction, but there was almost none at all. When asked about what that would be like, they should have figured out a clever way to say they couldn't talk about it, one that would graciously squelch the probably numerous fan questions they were getting.
I'm glad :]. My own version of "Day 4" and "Day 5" is gathering dust on my computer at the moment, (I'm really caught up in writing another fic :}), but I did some fixing of my own of that whole thing, too :).
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-23 09:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-27 08:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-27 01:51 pm (UTC)