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Time Knots- Chapter Four

‘Jack!’ The exclamation was joyful, and suddenly he was surrounded by people. The voices and bodies were a swirl of sensations, dizzying him and weakening his knees for a moment. Firm self control pulled him back and his vision snapped abruptly into place. He had never been so glad to see the echoing gloom of the hub.

‘You should sit down,’ suggested Dexter concernedly, watching from outside the ring that had closed around its centre.

Jack looked up and met his eyes before travelling to connect with each member of his team. Ianto’s gaze bored deeply into him, capturing him. ‘Jack?’ came the wary question. The tone of voice told him he must have let some of the eternal tiredness show through.

‘I’m fine,’ he said, tearing his gaze away to blink at the wrist computer in his hands. It wasn’t just time sickness that had him feeling like this. The utter hopelessness of his future self was insidious.

Gwen gently removed the device from his grasp and led him over to the couch by the wall. Jack allowed himself to be shepherded to sit. Gwen sat one side and Ianto the other, with Tosh perched on one arm and Owen standing before him, arms folded and feet shoulder-width apart. Dexter remained a distance away, eyeing him anxiously. Jack supposed he probably didn’t like what he saw- what he was going to become.

‘Could you do anything?’ asked Gwen gently.

Jack blinked at her, the question reaching through his fog somewhat. He shook his head. ‘It’s not something easily fixed,’ he told them.

‘But you have an idea,’ stated Dexter bluntly, eyeing him closely.

Jack couldn’t help the small smile that curled the corners of his mouth. It seemed the ease with which he could read his younger self worked in both directions. He reached briefly back into his memory for his mother tongue- there were things to say to Dexter that weren’t for his team’s ears. ‘He’s alone,’ Jack said softly, his eyes locked with Dexter’s.

Dexter suppressed the flash of surprise at the choice of language and managed to simply nod. Even as he spoke, Jack knew part of the reason he was telling this to the boy was to get it off his own chest. ‘He couldn’t bear losing people any more. Their lifetimes flash past his eyes like candles.’

Jack’s team were all staring at him intently as he talked yet none of them questioned his sudden switch into incomprehensibility. ‘That’s what you’re going to be. What I’m going to be. How can you fix that? We’re going to live for so long…’ The hollowness in Dexter’s eyes reflected what Jack felt in his chest. He let out a deep sigh.

‘You’re right, it will be a long time. I have an idea though. We need to find him someone that’s not going to live and die in a season.’

Dexter frowned in thought. ‘Some of the races from the D’hklaktin live for thousands of years. They’re pretty weird though.’

‘I’m not talking about interspecies matchmaking,’ Jack told him in amusedly.

‘Why not?’ asked Dexter with a distinctly suggestive look on his face. ‘Sounds like fun to me.’

‘I don’t know what they’re saying, but that was definitely innuendo,’ declared Owen flatly.

The small chuckle that burst from his chest at that felt good. ‘How perceptive,’ grinned Dexter.

‘I have something I want you to take to him.’ Jack allowed his voice to regain seriousness. He stood, Owen moving out his way so he could start towards his office.

‘What is it?’ asked Dexter curiously, falling in behind him.

‘A seed,’ replied Jack. He paused in front of the piece of coral on its stand. It had grown even in the past few years. From time to time, he would catch wisps of life curling around it.

Dexter followed Jack’s stare and reached out a tentative hand to touch the innocuous article. ‘It feels… out of time,’ breathed Dexter. Jack knew what he meant. It was hard to put words to, but the infant TARDIS had a strange aura about it.

‘It’s the start of a living time ship. In 500 years it will be grown and sentient.’ He was pointed in his use of language. Even though his team had not followed him into his office, they could easily look it up on the surveillance footage later. The less they knew about the time twists he was creating, the better.

‘You’re going to give it to him, so he will have something,’ Dexter murmured in understanding.

‘No. You are. I’m not ready to look after this thing whilst it grows. It’s like the world’s longest pregnancy.’

‘Followed by a pretty unusual child,’ chortled Dexter. He carefully removed the TARDIS seed from its stand, cradling it in the crook of one elbow.

‘Gwen’s got your wrist computer,’ Jack told him, with a jerk of his head towards where his team waited for them to re-emerge.

Dexter didn’t leave right away. He cocked his head on one side, regarding Jack with an inscrutable gaze. ‘I have to say, despite my cheerful countenance, I was a little worried to find I was going to catch an immunity to death. Still, it seems to have turned out OK. Good luck with it.’

‘Thanks,’ replied Jack dryly. ‘Now get out of here before Ianto demands a threesome. I can see him thinking it.’

‘Mm, me too,’ purred Dexter. He sauntered out of the office with a saucy wink that nearly made Jack groan out loud. He really was unstoppable.

oo00OO00oo

Jack’s head shot up at the sound of a time rotor echoing through the hub. Bits of paper whipped up in the wild eddies of air displaced and several sets of footsteps pounded down the stairs from the board room.

‘Jack, what’s going on?’ called Gwen, eyes fixed on the thing materialising even as she swung down the last few steps.

Jack held up a hand for calm, face glowing as he watched the object before them solidify fully. It was sleek and silver and it sung to his heart like something familiar. His team traded wary glances, looking back and forth between Jack and the mysterious new appearance.

A portal of sorts dissolved in the rounded outer shell to reveal a black robed figure with a perfectly serene expression.

‘Oh great, another one,’ Owen grumbled sarcastically.

The version of Jack that had stepped out of the new TARDIS had stunningly dark blue eyes. His face was weathered and distinguished streaks of silver marked his temples. He had Jack’s features down to a tee, and yet was nothing like Jack. His bearing, his demeanour, his ancient eyes; all spoke volumes and none of them were Jack’s.

‘So it worked then,’ Jack greeted him with a grin.

‘What can I say? I’ve always had good ideas.’ He spoke with a gentle smile, his voice warm and soothing. ‘Thank you. You did the right thing.’

‘But you didn’t come all the way here just to tell me that,’ pointed out Jack. The man before him in the Jedi-style robes might be thousands of years old, but it was still him, and he could still read that body language perfectly.

A slow blink of affirmation. The older Jack turned back to his TARDIS and laid one hand flat against her silver wall. Jack could feel the energy that passed between them and marvelled at it. He looked forwards to the day when he would form that bond- when he would be ready.

There were gasps from behind him as a body on a stretcher floated out the TARDIS’s portal. Jack stared in shock at the peaceful features of his younger self. His heart constricted in panic for a moment before he realised Dexter’s chest still rose and fell evenly.

‘You sent him to give the seed to me for a reason, even if you did not know it yourself.’

‘Yeah,’ admitted Jack slowly, tearing his eyes from the form on the stretcher. ‘I didn’t want to have to retcon him. So much time spent anguishing over what happened in those missing memories- I just couldn’t.’

‘It’s okay, you don’t have to. I will take him to the Time Agency after here. Their bureaucracy is corrupt but they will perform the memory wipe required. Protocol demands it.’

‘Protocol?’ questioned Tosh from behind Jack’s right shoulder.

‘Paradox is to be avoided at all cost,’ explained Jack. ‘If an older version of myself drops him off at their front door, they’ll make very sure there’s no evidence of it to mess with the time flow.’

The man in the black robes nodded once. ‘I am here for you though, Captain. My TARDIS has a more sensitive and accurate route.’

Stomach sinking slowly, Jack swallowed. ‘Where do you need me?’

‘Hang on a second!’ exclaimed Gwen. ‘What are you talking about?’ She sounded very alarmed.

Jack turned around to face them, acceptance in his eyes. ‘You didn’t think Dexter was the only one that couldn’t be allowed to remember this did you?’

‘But… you can’t just…’

‘He can. He has too.’ The man lowered his chin to look more directly at the Torchwood team. Jack admired the way his older self could maintain that calm voice in the face of his four team members with expressions from anxious to belligerent.

Although they looked like they would dearly like to come up with a good reason to avoid the memory wipe for their boss, no one else brought up any more protests. Jack stepped inside the ship that would become his two paces behind the floating stretched carrying the sleeping Dexter.

‘Make it quick,’ was all he said, settling the waiting headset over his head.

He couldn’t see his future self’s smile, but Jack could hear it in his voice. ‘Really, do not worry. TARDISes are masters of telepathy, and this one is attuned just to you. Your team will be able to tell you what happened. They do not know enough of the details to compromise time. You managed to engineer that perfectly.’

‘Thanks,’ replied Jack with a shaky laugh. He closed his eyes and waited for the dark pull of memories disappearing. Instead there was a soft golden light, weaving into his mind.

‘Not half bad,’ he murmured to himself. Then he fell asleep.

oo00OO00oo

Jack blinked awake, feeling more rested than he had in a hundred years, given that he didn’t sleep. ‘Was I knocked out?’ he muttered woozily, blinking up at the four faces surrounding him. He was lying on the slab in the infirmary, still in his clothes thankfully.

‘Have we got a story to tell you,’ Owen informed him wryly.

‘Oh good,’ grinned Jack. Lingering traces of golden light were trailing through his veins and they felt delightful. Somehow he had a feeling that whatever it was, he could deal with it.

The End