Chapter Text
Jack groaned as he came back to life suddenly. He grabbed onto the arms holding him.
“It’s alright Jack, I’ve got you.”
“Ianto?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
“Gwen brought back the man talking with the children and he shot you.”
Now that Ianto mentioned him he noticed that he could hear the man ranting in the background. Jack turned to look at the man restrained on the other side of the TARDIS bridge? Drive room? He really should have asked the Doctor what it was called when he was traveling with him. He’d ask Rowana later.
Jack was sometimes very scattered after coming to life. He slowly focused on the sounds around him. Ianto’s breath by his left ear and the slight hum coming from the vessel they were in. It was the sounds of Rowana injected the mysterious man with something that apparently made him sleep that made him probably come to. His eyes focused on Gwen as she got her husband to help her manhandle the man towards the medical room he himself had vacated not long ago.
It was only after he was out of sight and nothing else could be heard that Jack reluctantly left the warmth of Ianto’s embrace.
“Rowana, can you access files from Earth here?”
She simply nodded as a couple of touches made a slightly old fashioned computer appear on the TARDIS console.
Jack began asking the questions that he was afraid would confirm his suspicions based on what the crazy man had rambled on about. He flinched back as they were indeed correct. He felt like the looks of his teammates and their families as if they were daggers as he explained what he knew. Gwen clutched Rhy’s hand as she processed the horror of things her boss had once done.
It was partly because of this that Jack was surprised as Ianto pulled him into a hug. Jack didn’t know that Ianto and Tosh had found many files about him while he’d been gone with the Doctor. Although neither of them knew about this specific event they had some idea of what Torchwood did to Jack when he didn’t do what they wanted. He had only gained some freedoms during the Second World War, but that disloyalty to the British empire was heavily punished. It wasn’t until the new millennium when he became the head of Three that he was able to turn down assignments.
“I do not condone what happened but I realize you most likely were not given the choice to say no,” Rowana spoke softly, but with confidence. She had after all once been the ruler of her people and had had to make hard choices, ones she regretted but still would have done. “Any words about this can probably wait until the current crisis is resolved.”
Gwen shrugged, feeling very unusure. She had her own regrets about things she’d done for Torchwood. Right now protecting the children of Earth had to take priority.
Rhys was new to all of this but he would do as he always did since meeting Gwen, backing her up and being her support. Which was even more important now that she was pregnant. He knew stress wasn’t good for pregnant women and this was already stressful.
Ianto rested his chin on Jack’s shoulder. Torchwood stood together. Always.
“The question is how is he still connected to them?” Romana spoke turning back to her settings. “He wasn’t taken by them so how is he connected and can we backtrack it?”
“Mum?” Ianto asked as he let go of Jack and came to examine what she was looking at. Jack following him.
Ianto started as he felt Jack take his hand in his own. Jack rarely displayed affection, in public or in private. Passion sure, he displayed passion like crazy, but affection, no not really. Ianto clasped his hand back as Romana began to explain her finding to them. A plan was slowly forming, but certain things couldn’t be certain until the TARDIS finished it’s study. So Rhys, for example, found himself assigned to guard duty so as to keep his eye on Gwen while she did the occasional scan that Romana needed on the unconscious man who had taken Jack’s previous place in the TARDIS medical bed.
Whenever she didn’t need to scan, Gwen would use her hands to gently cradling her stomach where the child she barely even knew existed was growing inside her. She hadn’t truly had a chance to embrace her future role of mother, but knew she’d do whatever was necessary to protect her child and the children of Earth. She listened carefully as each discovery was made.
“I need to call my sister and warn her not to let the kids out of sight,” Ianto mentioned as they finished the plan’s outline.
Gwen blinked, she didn’t know Ianto had a sister.
Romana didn’t know what to think. Not that dissimilarity to Gwen she was mentally aware of being a mother but hadn’t had a chance to do much with that emotionally. The truth was Ianto was very much like her, knew what she was, and accepted what he knew of that came with it. Anything emotional was compartmentalized until the current crisis was over. Rhiannon, his sister, was a whole different thing. She didn’t know anything beyond the fact her mother was crazy and didn’t want her to have anything to do with the kids. Romana had never met her grandchildren, only seen photos when Rhiannon would make her monthly visit.
“I should probably call my daughter as well,” Jack added.
Stares…