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antigwenallies May. 4th, 2014 10:47 pm)
blucougar.livejournal.com posting in antigwenallies May. 4th, 2014 10:47 pm)Title: Adaption
Chapter Ten: Reality Check
Author: blucougar57
Summary: A new rift victim proves to be a revelation to the Torchwood team, and then some.
Rating: T
A/N: I probably should have waited until tomorrow night, at least, to post this, but I wanted to share the catharsis. However, I will probably be pulling back on the daily posts, because I'm rapidly catching up to where I'm up to with the fic, and I need to prompt myself to keep writing. So, most likely only weekly posts from here on.
(That, and my parents are both having surgery in a week's time, and my own time will be pretty stretched for the immediate future.)
Chapter Ten
The look on Jason’s face at the sight of Gwen that afternoon spoke volumes to both Jack and Ianto. He looked decidedly unimpressed and apparently had no issues with voicing his displeasure.
“Why did you do that to Jonah today? You really upset him, and that’s the last thing he needs. He knows he can’t see his mother again. You can’t just come in and upset him like that!”
The indignation on Gwen’s face at the verbal dressing-down was priceless, and her sputtering while trying to formulate a defence was immensely amusing to Jack and Ianto.
“Excuse me,” she retorted finally, “but I’ve known about Jonah for a lot longer than you.”
“And yet Jason has managed to take considerably less time to work out what Jonah really needs,” Ianto commented, earning himself a withering glare from his colleague.
“Jack,” Gwen said in a prickly tone of voice, “I need to speak to you outside. Now.”
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Jack ushered Gwen from the room.
“She works with you, doesn’t she?” Jason asked with reluctant acceptance. Ianto smiled thinly.
“Yes, she does. Gwen Cooper-Williams, her name is.”
“Cooper-Williams?” Jason retorted. “That’s a little pretentious, isn’t it?” Ianto raised an eyebrow, and Jason flushed a little in response. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m just angry that she bailed us up in the way that she did, and upset Jonah. We’ve been working out a routine for him, and it seems to be working…”
“But?” Ianto pressed lightly. Jason looked glum.
“He was so upset and distracted about what that woman… what Mrs Cooper-Williams said about his mom, that I couldn’t get him settled down enough to go to sleep. The scream caught up to him instead before he could go to sleep.”
Ianto sighed.
“I’m sorry she was disruptive like that. She has good intentions, but she does have a tendency to cause disruption. Ordinarily, I could safely say that she’s a good, reliable colleague but the truth is that she’s a little more blinkered than usual when it comes to Jonah.”
“Can you tell me why?” Jason asked. “I’ll understand if you can’t. I was just wondering what her problem is with Jonah.”
Ianto glanced at the closed door before speaking in a hushed tone.
“I normally wouldn’t say, but I think you should know, given that you’re spending significant amounts of time with Jonah. Gwen investigated Jonah’s original disappearance at the request of someone outside Torchwood – a policeman friend of hers.”
“His original disappearance… You mean, when the Rift took him?”
“That’s right. How much do you know about what happened to him?”
“Well, he told me that he was dumped on a dying planet, and that’s how he ended up so terribly scarred. He screams because he looked into the heart of a dark star, and what he saw drove him insane.”
Ianto nodded.
“He was rescued from the dying planet but we’re not sure at what point he was exposed to the dark star. The aliens that rescued him eventually delivered him back here, but he’d already aged so much that between that and the insanity caused by the dark star, reuniting him with his mother was an impossibility. Gwen was persistent, though. The more that Jack ordered her to drop the investigation, the more determined she was to continue it. She was convinced he was hiding something, and I suppose she was right in that respect. He was hiding something. He was hiding this facility, but his reasons weren’t what she thought.
“When Jack took control of Torchwood Three in the year Two Thousand, he discovered victims of the Rift that had been returned were locked up in the depths of the Cardiff base. Some were dying, and all were too damaged either physically or psychologically to ever be able to re-join society. Jack set this place up and funded it from his own pocket so that victims like Jonah… like yourself… would have a safe place to stay. Gwen didn’t understand that. When she found this place, she accused Jack of being a monster, as though he was personally keeping everyone here a prisoner.”
Jason snorted derisively.
“Anyone who bothers to look closely would know that’s not the case.”
Ianto smiled warmly at the teen before speaking again.
“Gwen inevitably found Jonah and when she found him, she more or less blackmailed Jack into letting her bring Jonah’s mum out here to see him.”
“Oh no,” Jason moaned softly. Ianto nodded.
“Exactly. It was a disaster and it resulted in Nikki Bevin eventually deciding that Jonah was dead to her because, in the end and despite an initial promise to keep visiting him, she just couldn’t cope with either the knowledge of what had happened to him or the scarred adult he’d become. To save Jonah from the heartache of knowing that his mother had effectively abandoned him, Jack retconned him and wiped the memory of both Gwen and Nikki Bevin from his memory.”
“Which is why Jonah didn’t recognise her earlier when she spoke to us,” Jason guessed.
“Right,” Ianto confirmed. “Gwen means well and she really is a very genuine person but she has ideals that don’t always mesh with the realities that we have to deal with. She wants to help Jonah and the other residents here, but her idea of helping is to reunite everyone with their families and give them back what she considers to be a normal life.”
“Like what I used to have,” Jason mused. “I can understand that. I can even appreciate it, but it doesn’t change the fact that it won’t happen. Not for me, and not for anyone else.”
“Out of everyone here,” Ianto pointed out, “you have the best chance to regain some semblance of a normal life. You appear to have escaped the psychological damage that all the other residents have suffered.”
“So far,” Jason murmured. “Who’s to know what might surface down the track?”
“That’s why we won’t just be throwing you back into society to fend for yourself,” Ianto assured him. “We will be observing you for a long time to come, and when that surveillance is determined to no longer be necessary, we’ll continue to check in on you at regular intervals.”
Jason smiled faintly.
“This might seem strange, but that actually sounds reassuring to me. I’m not used to being left alone to fend for myself, Ianto. I don’t think that means I couldn’t do it if I had to, but I don’t particularly want to have to find out through necessity whether I have it in me to do it. If I’m going to survive on my own, I want it to be because I’ve chosen to live that way. Not because some freak event put me in that position. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” Ianto assured him with a smile. “That makes perfect sense.”
* * * * *
“All right,” Jack said wearily once he and Gwen had left the room and the door was safely closed. “What is it now, Gwen?”
“Jack,” she said in a terse voice that sounded as though she barely had control of her temper. “I know you have a relationship with Ianto, and that’s lovely, but I am getting fed up with you refusing to call him on his attitude.”
Jack blinked, taken aback by her words.
“Excuse me? What attitude are you talking about?”
“Oh, come on! Don’t pretend that you don’t know what I’m talking about, Jack. You heard him in there. He completely undermined my authority in front of the boy!”
“You mean the comment about Jason cluing in quicker to Jonah’s needs than you? Gwen, that wasn’t undermining your authority. That was just stating fact.”
She bristled visibly.
“Damn it, Jack, am I or am I not second in command?”
Jack’s mouth snapped shut, and he stared at her with a look on his face not far removed to the proverbial deer caught in headlights. Gwen’s eyes narrowed noticeably at the sight of that expression.
“Well?” she demanded.
With a slight shake of his head, Jack spoke in as soothing a voice as he could manage, though he suspected it wasn’t going to have much of an effect.
“There’s no overall second in command, Gwen. There hasn’t been since Suzie killed herself.”
“But you hired me to replace Suzie.”
“To fill the space left by her. Not necessarily to take over and fill the role she specifically played.”
“Well, I kept things going when you were gone!” she protested. Jack sighed.
“And I appreciate that. I really do, but you didn’t do it alone. I’ve read the reports, and I watched the CCTV footage. You worked together, all four of you. It wasn’t just one person calling the shots and running the show. You all did it together. Have you forgotten that already? Look, Gwen, what is this really about?”
She stared up at him, hurt, and he found himself wanting desperately to look away.
“I used to be able to rely on you to defend me, Jack. What happened to that? Since you came back after being away with the Doctor, you’ve gotten gradually more and more distant from me. There was a time when the likes of Ianto would never have been able to get away with insulting me like he did just before…”
“Gwen, that was not an insult…”
She held up her hand to silence him before going on.
“You know, when I got married, I half expected you to come storming down the aisle and stop the wedding.”
“I did,” Jack reminded her dryly. “If you remember…?”
“Yes, but that was just about the bloody Nostrovite. I mean because you wanted to… because you didn’t want me to marry Rhys.”
Jack drew in a long, steadying breath.
“Gwen, I love you… but not like I love Ianto. I think you know that. Now, as far as his attitude goes, he has never undermined you any more than he’s ever undermined me. And don’t even think about bringing up Lisa. If you want to discuss undermining anyone’s authority, maybe you’d like to revisit the little scene where you thought it was appropriate to discuss my bed habits with a prisoner we were about to interrogate.”
Jack felt slightly mollified when Gwen went beet red at the memory, but that sense of mollification was lost a moment later when she had the audacity to justify herself.
“Beth was frightened. I was just trying to help her relax a little.”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” Jack growled. “You complain about Ianto undermining your authority, but you make up excuses for doing the exact same thing yourself. As far as I’m concerned, Ianto hasn’t done anything wrong. Like I said, he was simply stating fact.”
“I refuse to accept that a boy who has been here less than two weeks could possibly know what’s best for Jonah, or anyone else here,” Gwen argued.
“Well, now’s your chance to talk to him and find out,” Jack said.
* * * * *
They re-entered the room to find Jason and Ianto sitting there in companionable silence. Able to imagine what they’d been talking about, Jack barely suppressed a wry smile – something that was made all the more difficult by the barest hint of a smirk on Ianto’s face.
“Jason,” Jack said, by way of a formal introduction, “this is Gwen Cooper-Williams. She’s one of my team, and she was there when we found you in the warehouse.”
Jason tilted his head very slightly to the side as he observed Gwen.
“Pleased to meet you.”
It couldn’t have been said with less enthusiasm if he’d tried and though he honestly hadn’t intended on being rude, nor could he put aside the negative impact she’d had on Jonah. That alone had him wanting to dislike her right away.
Gwen looked a little perturbed, but managed a smile nonetheless.
“Hello, Jason. I’m sorry, we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot, so to speak. I was actually hoping we could talk, just the two of us, yeah?”
Jason looked from Jack to Ianto, and back to Jack again. Finally, he nodded his consent and got to his feet.
“We can go to the garden. There won’t be anyone there at this time of day.”
* * * * *
“You seem to have a pretty good idea of the daily routine after such a short time,” Gwen commented, trying to keep her tone light and non-confrontational. She was acutely aware that she’d already made the beginnings of a bad impression on the youth, and didn’t care to make it any worse, if she could help it.
Jason shrugged a little.
“It didn’t take much to get used to it. Most of the folks that live here need their routines. They don’t cope well when those routines are disrupted.”
Gwen shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other.
“Right. About earlier, I’m sorry about that. I was just a little thrown that Jonah didn’t remember me, or what I did for him.”
Jason, who had paused to look at a lily that was on the cusp of flowering, looked back at Gwen with a frown.
“What you did for him?”
Gwen stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Well… what I mean to say is that I was just a bit upset when I realised that Jack had retconned him, when he had no right to do it… Damn it, this isn’t what I wanted. I just want to talk to you, to see how you’re doing, how you’re coping with everything. You’ve had a pretty big upheaval, after all. I guess I just want to know that you’re all right.”
Jason stared at her hard for several almost painfully long seconds before his expression softened noticeably.
“Ianto was right,” he said. “He told me you were a very genuine person. You remind me of my friend Zack, actually. He’s got a heart of gold but he acts like he’s on hyper drive a lot of the time. He has a tendency to get over-enthusiastic about things, and sometimes he ends up overreacting and doing things the hard way.”
Gwen laughed softly, feeling quietly embarrassed to hear that Ianto had spoken positively of her to Jason when she had accused him of trying to undermine her.
“Yeah, that does sound familiar.”
Relaxing noticeably, Jason turned his attention back to the garden, which was made up of nearly twenty individual plots.
“Have you seen this? It’s a great idea. Everyone here has their own plot and they can plant anything they like… Well, except maybe a pumpkin, or a tree,” Jason added with a chuckle.
“I thought it could have been a bit bigger,” Gwen remarked as casually as she could. Jason nodded thoughtfully.
“Maybe that would have been good in other circumstances, but this is just what they all need. Something like this is just right. Anything more would probably just stress most of them out. Sometimes, bigger isn’t really better.” Jason stepped around to one particular plot that was almost overflowing with a cherry tomato plant, and motioned to it. “This is Gryff’s plot. He planted cherry tomatoes, and he comes here every day to pick the ripe ones. Then he shares them with everyone who’ll accept one. Before this, apparently Gryff pretty much stayed shut away in his room and only came out for meals, and he never interacted with anyone else. Not even the staff. Over there is Peter’s bit of land. He’s growing potatoes. He likes to come by every day and run his hands through the top of the soil to test the moisture levels. When Peter first came here, Helen told me that he was hypersensitive to possible germs. Everything had to be washed thoroughly three times before he’d go anywhere near it.”
“That’s quite impressive,” Gwen murmured, doing her best to see the positives that Jason was trying to point out to her. Jason nodded.
“When you put it into context, it is pretty impressive. These are people who struggle to cope with the basics of taking care of themselves. That they can all find a bit of escapism from their own traumas out here is kind of a miracle. It’s the small things that count most of the time. Take Jonah, for example. Yes, he’d like to see his mom again, but he knows the reality isn’t that simple. So it’s important to focus on what is achievable for him, and that’s minimising the time that he’s lost in that scream. Did you know that the scream doesn’t happen when he’s able to sleep? And that when he wakes up, he has approximately another four hours before the scream will happen again?”
“No,” Gwen confessed, “I didn’t know that.”
Jason nodded enthusiastically.
“It means that every other day, on average, we can keep Jonah from screaming. But it’s important that someone is there with him when he comes out of every scream cycle, and stays with him for the next few hours until he can go to sleep. And it’s really important that he stays calm and doesn’t get stressed and upset.”
It was a thinly-veiled criticism that Gwen decided to accept without protest. She knew she’d upset Jonah, and quietly resolved not to do so again, even if it meant staying away from the damaged man-child.
“What about you, Jason?” Gwen asked. “How are you coping? It must be hard to take in everything that’s happened.”
“It hasn’t been easy,” Jason agreed. “I’ve kind of accepted that I won’t see my parents or my friends again, and that hurts a lot. But it’s helped to be here because I know I’m not alone. There are people looking out for me, and that helps. I just hope that one day I’ll have the chance to pay back the kindness that Captain Harkness and Mr Jones have shown me.”
Gwen smiled sympathetically.
“Oh, sweetheart. You don’t need to feel like that. Especially where Jack is concerned. Trust me, his ego is big enough now as it is.”
“Why do you do that?” Jason asked, and that frown was back on his face.
“Why do I do what?” she wondered, puzzled over what she’d said or done this time to earn his disapproval.
“We were having a good talk, and then you go and insult your boss, a man who’s shown me nothing but kindness and consideration from the moment you all found me. Why do you have to make cruel comments like that?”
Despite herself, Gwen was flustered. A part of her acknowledged the painful truth of Jason’s words, but the bigger part insisted he was simply misunderstanding her.
“That isn’t what I meant,” she offered loosely, but Jason wasn’t having it.
“I think that’s exactly what you meant. I just don’t get it. You seem nice, and yet you keep showing me how nasty you can be.”
“Well, that’s going to have to be a matter of opinion,” she said shortly. “I think perhaps it’s time we headed back. I’m sure there’ll be other things I need to do before we leave this evening.”
“Yeah,” Jason agreed soberly. “I think you’re probably right.”
* * * * *
“I think that if he’s ever deemed fit enough to leave Flat Holm, then he should be sent back to America,” Gwen announced when she rejoined her colleagues. Four pairs of eyes stared at her in shock at the blunt assessment.
“Care to explain why you believe that would be best?” Jack asked in a carefully even tone of voice. Gwen spoke fast and refused to make eye contact – a sure sign that she knew she was saying or doing something that the others would not agree with.
“I just think that it would be better for Jason if he were to go back to an environment where he’s more at home, so to speak.”
“Gwen, he was dumped by the Rift into a parallel world,” Ianto said bluntly. “He’s not going to feel more at home anywhere, and you can’t say we should be sending him back to America, because the America in this world is not the one that he’s familiar with.”
“Oh, you know what I mean,” she huffed.
“What was said between the two of you?” Tosh wondered. Jack nodded, watching Gwen piercingly.
“Jason was very subdued when he came back. What was said?”
“I think that’s between the two of us,” Gwen insisted. “I’m just offering my professional advice on what the best thing to do with him would be, Jack.”
Laughter broke the silence, and four quizzical looks turned to Owen.
“Sorry,” Owen said with a chuckle. “I just couldn’t help but wonder – professional advice in what capacity, Gwen? You’re not a bloody shrink. And when it comes to deciding what’s best for the welfare of any of the residents here… Well, you’ve already proven you’re less than adequate at making choices that don’t result in utter chaos for everyone involved. No, I think any final decisions about Jason’s future and welfare need to be left to the Captain and the Teaboy. They’re the ones who have been making the decisions up until now. I don’t see how letting you walk in and start dictating is going to be of benefit to anyone at all.”
Gwen looked as though she didn’t know whether to slap Owen or entreat Jack to defend her. Jack, however, had already made his choice.
“I hope you aren’t going to complain again about having your authority undermined,” Jack said flatly. “Because maybe that was put a little more bluntly than absolutely necessary but again, it’s just the facts. Your judgement when it comes to this place in particular is badly lacking.”
Gwen glared at Jack, realising that she wasn’t likely to have any success in convincing him to support her.
“Just because you don’t agree with me doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
He nodded.
“Fair point, but it also goes both ways.”
“Jack…”
“Enough.” He spoke in an unusually quiet voice that nevertheless held every bit of authority that he possessed, and effectively silenced her. “Ianto and I already have ideas on what will happen with Jason, assuming he’s cleared to leave Flat Holm, and I think he will be. Sending him away is not going to happen, unless it’s something he wants. We’re responsible for him. He’s a teenager who’s been cut off from family and friends. Gwen, don’t you think that if you’re so determined to be the personification of Torchwood’s heart, you shouldn’t be selective in who you show compassion and understanding to?”
She flushed red with anger and swung her hand at his hand, intending to slap him. Her hand never reached its intended target, though. Jack caught her hand in mid-swing, his expression suggesting he’d expected precisely that reaction.
“Enough,” Jack said again softly. It was all he said and somehow, seemed to be sufficient. Gwen deflated in front of them, all the heat and anger leaving her in a rush. Jack nodded, satisfied. “All right, then. We still have work to do, people. Let’s get it done, and then we can go home.”
Ianto, Tosh and Owen headed off in different directions, leaving Jack and Gwen alone. The Welshwoman stared at Jack with an anger and frustration that no longer held any heat.
“Why, Jack? Why did you spend so long building me up, only to tear me down now?”
“You think that’s what I’m doing?” Jack asked, sounding none too surprised at her accusation. “Because I’m not, Gwen. At least, that’s not my intention and I’m sorry if you think it is. When you first joined us, I was more than a little blinkered. What little I’d seen of you reminded me of someone I thought was lost to me; a very special someone who helped save me when I was not worth saving. I let the memories blind me to your faults, and that’s why I never did anything after your first day with Torchwood, or after the incident with the ghost machine…”
“Jack, they were mistakes…”
“Mistakes that the others would have been reprimanded for, at the very least. I let it slide with you, and that was my mistake. I also shouldn’t have let you get away with publicly challenging every decision I made that you personally decided you didn’t like. Jasmine Pierce, for example…”
“I still think you should have found another way.”
“Really, Gwen? And what would you have done?”
She faltered, unsure what to say. Jack’s eyes narrowed to near-pinpoints.
“No hesitation, Gwen. There’s no time to think it over. You have to make a decision right now. What would you have done? Tell me!”
“I… I don’t know, all right? Satisfied?”
“No,” Jack answered, suddenly calm again. “But now you might at least understand that it’s not so easy when you have to make a terrible choice on the spot with no support and no time. You may not like the decision I made that day but the truth is that the only thing that could have stopped Jasmine from going, was Jasmine herself. She wanted to go, Gwen. And yes, it was terrible that a mother lost her daughter. I’m still thankful that Owen was able to revive the husband. It at least meant she didn’t have to deal with it on her own. But if we’d kept Jasmine from joining the Mara, they would have wreaked havoc on the world. You remember what happened to Estelle? Imagine that on a global scale. There was no choice. I had to let Jasmine go.”
“There’s always a choice, Jack.”
“And it’s on my shoulders to make the decisions that could result in someone dying… or not. The choice I had that day, that you don’t want to acknowledge, was that I had to either let Jasmine go or risk the whole world. I wanted to save Jasmine, but the bottom line is that she wanted to go. I couldn’t change that, as much as I wanted to.”
Tears filled Gwen’s eyes, but didn’t spill over.
“It’s just… Jack, she was only a child!”
“She had a soul as old as time itself. She belonged with them, Gwen.”
Gwen fell silent, thinking back to the moment when, whilst taking down the case photos, she’d discovered Jasmine’s likeness on the face of one of the fairies in the Cottingley photos. She had looked happy. She’d looked like she was where she belonged.
“I don’t like it,” she conceded finally, “but I understand. I know you didn’t have a choice.”
Jack smiled then – his first genuine smile that day.
“Thank you. Now, how about we get to work so we don’t end up having to stay here overnight.”
* * * * *
to be continued....
Chapter Ten: Reality Check
Author: blucougar57
Summary: A new rift victim proves to be a revelation to the Torchwood team, and then some.
Rating: T
A/N: I probably should have waited until tomorrow night, at least, to post this, but I wanted to share the catharsis. However, I will probably be pulling back on the daily posts, because I'm rapidly catching up to where I'm up to with the fic, and I need to prompt myself to keep writing. So, most likely only weekly posts from here on.
(That, and my parents are both having surgery in a week's time, and my own time will be pretty stretched for the immediate future.)
The look on Jason’s face at the sight of Gwen that afternoon spoke volumes to both Jack and Ianto. He looked decidedly unimpressed and apparently had no issues with voicing his displeasure.
“Why did you do that to Jonah today? You really upset him, and that’s the last thing he needs. He knows he can’t see his mother again. You can’t just come in and upset him like that!”
The indignation on Gwen’s face at the verbal dressing-down was priceless, and her sputtering while trying to formulate a defence was immensely amusing to Jack and Ianto.
“Excuse me,” she retorted finally, “but I’ve known about Jonah for a lot longer than you.”
“And yet Jason has managed to take considerably less time to work out what Jonah really needs,” Ianto commented, earning himself a withering glare from his colleague.
“Jack,” Gwen said in a prickly tone of voice, “I need to speak to you outside. Now.”
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Jack ushered Gwen from the room.
“She works with you, doesn’t she?” Jason asked with reluctant acceptance. Ianto smiled thinly.
“Yes, she does. Gwen Cooper-Williams, her name is.”
“Cooper-Williams?” Jason retorted. “That’s a little pretentious, isn’t it?” Ianto raised an eyebrow, and Jason flushed a little in response. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m just angry that she bailed us up in the way that she did, and upset Jonah. We’ve been working out a routine for him, and it seems to be working…”
“But?” Ianto pressed lightly. Jason looked glum.
“He was so upset and distracted about what that woman… what Mrs Cooper-Williams said about his mom, that I couldn’t get him settled down enough to go to sleep. The scream caught up to him instead before he could go to sleep.”
Ianto sighed.
“I’m sorry she was disruptive like that. She has good intentions, but she does have a tendency to cause disruption. Ordinarily, I could safely say that she’s a good, reliable colleague but the truth is that she’s a little more blinkered than usual when it comes to Jonah.”
“Can you tell me why?” Jason asked. “I’ll understand if you can’t. I was just wondering what her problem is with Jonah.”
Ianto glanced at the closed door before speaking in a hushed tone.
“I normally wouldn’t say, but I think you should know, given that you’re spending significant amounts of time with Jonah. Gwen investigated Jonah’s original disappearance at the request of someone outside Torchwood – a policeman friend of hers.”
“His original disappearance… You mean, when the Rift took him?”
“That’s right. How much do you know about what happened to him?”
“Well, he told me that he was dumped on a dying planet, and that’s how he ended up so terribly scarred. He screams because he looked into the heart of a dark star, and what he saw drove him insane.”
Ianto nodded.
“He was rescued from the dying planet but we’re not sure at what point he was exposed to the dark star. The aliens that rescued him eventually delivered him back here, but he’d already aged so much that between that and the insanity caused by the dark star, reuniting him with his mother was an impossibility. Gwen was persistent, though. The more that Jack ordered her to drop the investigation, the more determined she was to continue it. She was convinced he was hiding something, and I suppose she was right in that respect. He was hiding something. He was hiding this facility, but his reasons weren’t what she thought.
“When Jack took control of Torchwood Three in the year Two Thousand, he discovered victims of the Rift that had been returned were locked up in the depths of the Cardiff base. Some were dying, and all were too damaged either physically or psychologically to ever be able to re-join society. Jack set this place up and funded it from his own pocket so that victims like Jonah… like yourself… would have a safe place to stay. Gwen didn’t understand that. When she found this place, she accused Jack of being a monster, as though he was personally keeping everyone here a prisoner.”
Jason snorted derisively.
“Anyone who bothers to look closely would know that’s not the case.”
Ianto smiled warmly at the teen before speaking again.
“Gwen inevitably found Jonah and when she found him, she more or less blackmailed Jack into letting her bring Jonah’s mum out here to see him.”
“Oh no,” Jason moaned softly. Ianto nodded.
“Exactly. It was a disaster and it resulted in Nikki Bevin eventually deciding that Jonah was dead to her because, in the end and despite an initial promise to keep visiting him, she just couldn’t cope with either the knowledge of what had happened to him or the scarred adult he’d become. To save Jonah from the heartache of knowing that his mother had effectively abandoned him, Jack retconned him and wiped the memory of both Gwen and Nikki Bevin from his memory.”
“Which is why Jonah didn’t recognise her earlier when she spoke to us,” Jason guessed.
“Right,” Ianto confirmed. “Gwen means well and she really is a very genuine person but she has ideals that don’t always mesh with the realities that we have to deal with. She wants to help Jonah and the other residents here, but her idea of helping is to reunite everyone with their families and give them back what she considers to be a normal life.”
“Like what I used to have,” Jason mused. “I can understand that. I can even appreciate it, but it doesn’t change the fact that it won’t happen. Not for me, and not for anyone else.”
“Out of everyone here,” Ianto pointed out, “you have the best chance to regain some semblance of a normal life. You appear to have escaped the psychological damage that all the other residents have suffered.”
“So far,” Jason murmured. “Who’s to know what might surface down the track?”
“That’s why we won’t just be throwing you back into society to fend for yourself,” Ianto assured him. “We will be observing you for a long time to come, and when that surveillance is determined to no longer be necessary, we’ll continue to check in on you at regular intervals.”
Jason smiled faintly.
“This might seem strange, but that actually sounds reassuring to me. I’m not used to being left alone to fend for myself, Ianto. I don’t think that means I couldn’t do it if I had to, but I don’t particularly want to have to find out through necessity whether I have it in me to do it. If I’m going to survive on my own, I want it to be because I’ve chosen to live that way. Not because some freak event put me in that position. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” Ianto assured him with a smile. “That makes perfect sense.”
“All right,” Jack said wearily once he and Gwen had left the room and the door was safely closed. “What is it now, Gwen?”
“Jack,” she said in a terse voice that sounded as though she barely had control of her temper. “I know you have a relationship with Ianto, and that’s lovely, but I am getting fed up with you refusing to call him on his attitude.”
Jack blinked, taken aback by her words.
“Excuse me? What attitude are you talking about?”
“Oh, come on! Don’t pretend that you don’t know what I’m talking about, Jack. You heard him in there. He completely undermined my authority in front of the boy!”
“You mean the comment about Jason cluing in quicker to Jonah’s needs than you? Gwen, that wasn’t undermining your authority. That was just stating fact.”
She bristled visibly.
“Damn it, Jack, am I or am I not second in command?”
Jack’s mouth snapped shut, and he stared at her with a look on his face not far removed to the proverbial deer caught in headlights. Gwen’s eyes narrowed noticeably at the sight of that expression.
“Well?” she demanded.
With a slight shake of his head, Jack spoke in as soothing a voice as he could manage, though he suspected it wasn’t going to have much of an effect.
“There’s no overall second in command, Gwen. There hasn’t been since Suzie killed herself.”
“But you hired me to replace Suzie.”
“To fill the space left by her. Not necessarily to take over and fill the role she specifically played.”
“Well, I kept things going when you were gone!” she protested. Jack sighed.
“And I appreciate that. I really do, but you didn’t do it alone. I’ve read the reports, and I watched the CCTV footage. You worked together, all four of you. It wasn’t just one person calling the shots and running the show. You all did it together. Have you forgotten that already? Look, Gwen, what is this really about?”
She stared up at him, hurt, and he found himself wanting desperately to look away.
“I used to be able to rely on you to defend me, Jack. What happened to that? Since you came back after being away with the Doctor, you’ve gotten gradually more and more distant from me. There was a time when the likes of Ianto would never have been able to get away with insulting me like he did just before…”
“Gwen, that was not an insult…”
She held up her hand to silence him before going on.
“You know, when I got married, I half expected you to come storming down the aisle and stop the wedding.”
“I did,” Jack reminded her dryly. “If you remember…?”
“Yes, but that was just about the bloody Nostrovite. I mean because you wanted to… because you didn’t want me to marry Rhys.”
Jack drew in a long, steadying breath.
“Gwen, I love you… but not like I love Ianto. I think you know that. Now, as far as his attitude goes, he has never undermined you any more than he’s ever undermined me. And don’t even think about bringing up Lisa. If you want to discuss undermining anyone’s authority, maybe you’d like to revisit the little scene where you thought it was appropriate to discuss my bed habits with a prisoner we were about to interrogate.”
Jack felt slightly mollified when Gwen went beet red at the memory, but that sense of mollification was lost a moment later when she had the audacity to justify herself.
“Beth was frightened. I was just trying to help her relax a little.”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” Jack growled. “You complain about Ianto undermining your authority, but you make up excuses for doing the exact same thing yourself. As far as I’m concerned, Ianto hasn’t done anything wrong. Like I said, he was simply stating fact.”
“I refuse to accept that a boy who has been here less than two weeks could possibly know what’s best for Jonah, or anyone else here,” Gwen argued.
“Well, now’s your chance to talk to him and find out,” Jack said.
They re-entered the room to find Jason and Ianto sitting there in companionable silence. Able to imagine what they’d been talking about, Jack barely suppressed a wry smile – something that was made all the more difficult by the barest hint of a smirk on Ianto’s face.
“Jason,” Jack said, by way of a formal introduction, “this is Gwen Cooper-Williams. She’s one of my team, and she was there when we found you in the warehouse.”
Jason tilted his head very slightly to the side as he observed Gwen.
“Pleased to meet you.”
It couldn’t have been said with less enthusiasm if he’d tried and though he honestly hadn’t intended on being rude, nor could he put aside the negative impact she’d had on Jonah. That alone had him wanting to dislike her right away.
Gwen looked a little perturbed, but managed a smile nonetheless.
“Hello, Jason. I’m sorry, we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot, so to speak. I was actually hoping we could talk, just the two of us, yeah?”
Jason looked from Jack to Ianto, and back to Jack again. Finally, he nodded his consent and got to his feet.
“We can go to the garden. There won’t be anyone there at this time of day.”
“You seem to have a pretty good idea of the daily routine after such a short time,” Gwen commented, trying to keep her tone light and non-confrontational. She was acutely aware that she’d already made the beginnings of a bad impression on the youth, and didn’t care to make it any worse, if she could help it.
Jason shrugged a little.
“It didn’t take much to get used to it. Most of the folks that live here need their routines. They don’t cope well when those routines are disrupted.”
Gwen shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other.
“Right. About earlier, I’m sorry about that. I was just a little thrown that Jonah didn’t remember me, or what I did for him.”
Jason, who had paused to look at a lily that was on the cusp of flowering, looked back at Gwen with a frown.
“What you did for him?”
Gwen stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Well… what I mean to say is that I was just a bit upset when I realised that Jack had retconned him, when he had no right to do it… Damn it, this isn’t what I wanted. I just want to talk to you, to see how you’re doing, how you’re coping with everything. You’ve had a pretty big upheaval, after all. I guess I just want to know that you’re all right.”
Jason stared at her hard for several almost painfully long seconds before his expression softened noticeably.
“Ianto was right,” he said. “He told me you were a very genuine person. You remind me of my friend Zack, actually. He’s got a heart of gold but he acts like he’s on hyper drive a lot of the time. He has a tendency to get over-enthusiastic about things, and sometimes he ends up overreacting and doing things the hard way.”
Gwen laughed softly, feeling quietly embarrassed to hear that Ianto had spoken positively of her to Jason when she had accused him of trying to undermine her.
“Yeah, that does sound familiar.”
Relaxing noticeably, Jason turned his attention back to the garden, which was made up of nearly twenty individual plots.
“Have you seen this? It’s a great idea. Everyone here has their own plot and they can plant anything they like… Well, except maybe a pumpkin, or a tree,” Jason added with a chuckle.
“I thought it could have been a bit bigger,” Gwen remarked as casually as she could. Jason nodded thoughtfully.
“Maybe that would have been good in other circumstances, but this is just what they all need. Something like this is just right. Anything more would probably just stress most of them out. Sometimes, bigger isn’t really better.” Jason stepped around to one particular plot that was almost overflowing with a cherry tomato plant, and motioned to it. “This is Gryff’s plot. He planted cherry tomatoes, and he comes here every day to pick the ripe ones. Then he shares them with everyone who’ll accept one. Before this, apparently Gryff pretty much stayed shut away in his room and only came out for meals, and he never interacted with anyone else. Not even the staff. Over there is Peter’s bit of land. He’s growing potatoes. He likes to come by every day and run his hands through the top of the soil to test the moisture levels. When Peter first came here, Helen told me that he was hypersensitive to possible germs. Everything had to be washed thoroughly three times before he’d go anywhere near it.”
“That’s quite impressive,” Gwen murmured, doing her best to see the positives that Jason was trying to point out to her. Jason nodded.
“When you put it into context, it is pretty impressive. These are people who struggle to cope with the basics of taking care of themselves. That they can all find a bit of escapism from their own traumas out here is kind of a miracle. It’s the small things that count most of the time. Take Jonah, for example. Yes, he’d like to see his mom again, but he knows the reality isn’t that simple. So it’s important to focus on what is achievable for him, and that’s minimising the time that he’s lost in that scream. Did you know that the scream doesn’t happen when he’s able to sleep? And that when he wakes up, he has approximately another four hours before the scream will happen again?”
“No,” Gwen confessed, “I didn’t know that.”
Jason nodded enthusiastically.
“It means that every other day, on average, we can keep Jonah from screaming. But it’s important that someone is there with him when he comes out of every scream cycle, and stays with him for the next few hours until he can go to sleep. And it’s really important that he stays calm and doesn’t get stressed and upset.”
It was a thinly-veiled criticism that Gwen decided to accept without protest. She knew she’d upset Jonah, and quietly resolved not to do so again, even if it meant staying away from the damaged man-child.
“What about you, Jason?” Gwen asked. “How are you coping? It must be hard to take in everything that’s happened.”
“It hasn’t been easy,” Jason agreed. “I’ve kind of accepted that I won’t see my parents or my friends again, and that hurts a lot. But it’s helped to be here because I know I’m not alone. There are people looking out for me, and that helps. I just hope that one day I’ll have the chance to pay back the kindness that Captain Harkness and Mr Jones have shown me.”
Gwen smiled sympathetically.
“Oh, sweetheart. You don’t need to feel like that. Especially where Jack is concerned. Trust me, his ego is big enough now as it is.”
“Why do you do that?” Jason asked, and that frown was back on his face.
“Why do I do what?” she wondered, puzzled over what she’d said or done this time to earn his disapproval.
“We were having a good talk, and then you go and insult your boss, a man who’s shown me nothing but kindness and consideration from the moment you all found me. Why do you have to make cruel comments like that?”
Despite herself, Gwen was flustered. A part of her acknowledged the painful truth of Jason’s words, but the bigger part insisted he was simply misunderstanding her.
“That isn’t what I meant,” she offered loosely, but Jason wasn’t having it.
“I think that’s exactly what you meant. I just don’t get it. You seem nice, and yet you keep showing me how nasty you can be.”
“Well, that’s going to have to be a matter of opinion,” she said shortly. “I think perhaps it’s time we headed back. I’m sure there’ll be other things I need to do before we leave this evening.”
“Yeah,” Jason agreed soberly. “I think you’re probably right.”
“I think that if he’s ever deemed fit enough to leave Flat Holm, then he should be sent back to America,” Gwen announced when she rejoined her colleagues. Four pairs of eyes stared at her in shock at the blunt assessment.
“Care to explain why you believe that would be best?” Jack asked in a carefully even tone of voice. Gwen spoke fast and refused to make eye contact – a sure sign that she knew she was saying or doing something that the others would not agree with.
“I just think that it would be better for Jason if he were to go back to an environment where he’s more at home, so to speak.”
“Gwen, he was dumped by the Rift into a parallel world,” Ianto said bluntly. “He’s not going to feel more at home anywhere, and you can’t say we should be sending him back to America, because the America in this world is not the one that he’s familiar with.”
“Oh, you know what I mean,” she huffed.
“What was said between the two of you?” Tosh wondered. Jack nodded, watching Gwen piercingly.
“Jason was very subdued when he came back. What was said?”
“I think that’s between the two of us,” Gwen insisted. “I’m just offering my professional advice on what the best thing to do with him would be, Jack.”
Laughter broke the silence, and four quizzical looks turned to Owen.
“Sorry,” Owen said with a chuckle. “I just couldn’t help but wonder – professional advice in what capacity, Gwen? You’re not a bloody shrink. And when it comes to deciding what’s best for the welfare of any of the residents here… Well, you’ve already proven you’re less than adequate at making choices that don’t result in utter chaos for everyone involved. No, I think any final decisions about Jason’s future and welfare need to be left to the Captain and the Teaboy. They’re the ones who have been making the decisions up until now. I don’t see how letting you walk in and start dictating is going to be of benefit to anyone at all.”
Gwen looked as though she didn’t know whether to slap Owen or entreat Jack to defend her. Jack, however, had already made his choice.
“I hope you aren’t going to complain again about having your authority undermined,” Jack said flatly. “Because maybe that was put a little more bluntly than absolutely necessary but again, it’s just the facts. Your judgement when it comes to this place in particular is badly lacking.”
Gwen glared at Jack, realising that she wasn’t likely to have any success in convincing him to support her.
“Just because you don’t agree with me doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
He nodded.
“Fair point, but it also goes both ways.”
“Jack…”
“Enough.” He spoke in an unusually quiet voice that nevertheless held every bit of authority that he possessed, and effectively silenced her. “Ianto and I already have ideas on what will happen with Jason, assuming he’s cleared to leave Flat Holm, and I think he will be. Sending him away is not going to happen, unless it’s something he wants. We’re responsible for him. He’s a teenager who’s been cut off from family and friends. Gwen, don’t you think that if you’re so determined to be the personification of Torchwood’s heart, you shouldn’t be selective in who you show compassion and understanding to?”
She flushed red with anger and swung her hand at his hand, intending to slap him. Her hand never reached its intended target, though. Jack caught her hand in mid-swing, his expression suggesting he’d expected precisely that reaction.
“Enough,” Jack said again softly. It was all he said and somehow, seemed to be sufficient. Gwen deflated in front of them, all the heat and anger leaving her in a rush. Jack nodded, satisfied. “All right, then. We still have work to do, people. Let’s get it done, and then we can go home.”
Ianto, Tosh and Owen headed off in different directions, leaving Jack and Gwen alone. The Welshwoman stared at Jack with an anger and frustration that no longer held any heat.
“Why, Jack? Why did you spend so long building me up, only to tear me down now?”
“You think that’s what I’m doing?” Jack asked, sounding none too surprised at her accusation. “Because I’m not, Gwen. At least, that’s not my intention and I’m sorry if you think it is. When you first joined us, I was more than a little blinkered. What little I’d seen of you reminded me of someone I thought was lost to me; a very special someone who helped save me when I was not worth saving. I let the memories blind me to your faults, and that’s why I never did anything after your first day with Torchwood, or after the incident with the ghost machine…”
“Jack, they were mistakes…”
“Mistakes that the others would have been reprimanded for, at the very least. I let it slide with you, and that was my mistake. I also shouldn’t have let you get away with publicly challenging every decision I made that you personally decided you didn’t like. Jasmine Pierce, for example…”
“I still think you should have found another way.”
“Really, Gwen? And what would you have done?”
She faltered, unsure what to say. Jack’s eyes narrowed to near-pinpoints.
“No hesitation, Gwen. There’s no time to think it over. You have to make a decision right now. What would you have done? Tell me!”
“I… I don’t know, all right? Satisfied?”
“No,” Jack answered, suddenly calm again. “But now you might at least understand that it’s not so easy when you have to make a terrible choice on the spot with no support and no time. You may not like the decision I made that day but the truth is that the only thing that could have stopped Jasmine from going, was Jasmine herself. She wanted to go, Gwen. And yes, it was terrible that a mother lost her daughter. I’m still thankful that Owen was able to revive the husband. It at least meant she didn’t have to deal with it on her own. But if we’d kept Jasmine from joining the Mara, they would have wreaked havoc on the world. You remember what happened to Estelle? Imagine that on a global scale. There was no choice. I had to let Jasmine go.”
“There’s always a choice, Jack.”
“And it’s on my shoulders to make the decisions that could result in someone dying… or not. The choice I had that day, that you don’t want to acknowledge, was that I had to either let Jasmine go or risk the whole world. I wanted to save Jasmine, but the bottom line is that she wanted to go. I couldn’t change that, as much as I wanted to.”
Tears filled Gwen’s eyes, but didn’t spill over.
“It’s just… Jack, she was only a child!”
“She had a soul as old as time itself. She belonged with them, Gwen.”
Gwen fell silent, thinking back to the moment when, whilst taking down the case photos, she’d discovered Jasmine’s likeness on the face of one of the fairies in the Cottingley photos. She had looked happy. She’d looked like she was where she belonged.
“I don’t like it,” she conceded finally, “but I understand. I know you didn’t have a choice.”
Jack smiled then – his first genuine smile that day.
“Thank you. Now, how about we get to work so we don’t end up having to stay here overnight.”
to be continued....
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These were a great couple of chapters. How does Gwen even know what's enough? Jack's doing the very best he can, in very difficult circumstances, and it's worked fairly well. Gwen has no clue but she insists on barreling in and screwing things up. Yes, she doesn't mean to but really, all she needs to do is think about it. And she certainly didn't have the right to slap Jack, or attempt to slap him a second time.
Yeah, sure...Gwen wants to send Jason to America, because he sees her for who she really is. Although I'm not sure she's even aware of her motives really.
Going to miss the daily updates, but this is so good it's worth the wait.
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Love the relationship of Jack & Ianto & how the team seems to work so well together, with the exception of Gwen's holier then thou attitude & actions (well, that's how she was in canon, so nothing new there). Where in the real world would she get off so easily after assaulting & injuring her boss? And, she was about to commit a second assault! Oh please, tell me something bad is going to happen to her.
Happy to know Jack did not tell her she was Second In Command. Although, I still think he wimped out - "there is no overall SIC" - really, Jack? Plus, you addressed that fantasy of Gwen leading the team in his absence.
Thank you for a wonderful story. Eagerly awaiting the next update.
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