Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jack rolled his neck, as he picked up his phone. It was that time of year again. When they defrost a soldier from the past. 

Andy picked up after an ungodly amount of rings, but that’s Andy for you.

“Hey, kid. Sorry, lost my phone.”

Jack chuckled. “It’s Tommy day.”

“It’s coming to an end, soon.”

Jack sat up straighter. “Yeah?”

“Well, soon is relative for us. Ten, twenty years. Let us know how it goes.”

He chuckled. “Don’t I always. And it’s always the same.”

“Talk to you tomorrow, kid.”

Tosh flinched away from the light, voices echoing around them. 

“You need to go. Sir, go.”

“Gentlemen, return to the other room.”

“What is that?” She knew that voice.

She glanced over her shoulder to see four people dressed for a different era. The closest two were a man and a woman Tosh recognized from the photos of the Torchwood team that dealt with Tommy’s situation. The other two, further back, were Nicky and Joe, dressed not terribly unlike how they’d been when she’d met them in 1941.

“Hello,” the Torchwood man said.

She looked back at Tommy. “Tell them.”

“Tell us what?”

She managed to convince Tommy to do what he needed to do. Then everything shifted back. She sent him on his way, her heart breaking as she watched him go. 

She stood alone for a few moments, only to have Joe and Nicky appear again. 

“Joe, Nicky, you have to help him,” she told them. “Please, help him.”

“What?” Joe asked.

“I don’t have time to explain. He has a key. Make sure he uses it.”

“Who are you?”

“Tell him Toshiko needs him to use the key, to keep these windows from ripping apart time.”

Both men stiffened. That must have meant something to them. 

“And, if you can,” she wiped her tears away, “keep him alive. Don’t let them kill him for cowardice. He’s the bravest man I know.”

They looked around, worry creasing their brows. Nicky looked at her. “We’ll do what we can. Get out.”

Tosh sat in Jack’s office after everything settled. He handed her a drink. 

“I saw Joe and Nicky.”

“And they had no idea who you were.”

She nodded. 

“They told me you’d see them again. That’s why you needed to meet them after we came back from 1941. You knew them, and didn’t ask questions.”

“I asked them to protect him. They got him to use the key, but they didn’t…”

Jack sat down beside her. “They tried. They were caught forging discharge papers for him. They were killed by a firing squad the day before Tommy. They had to disappear. They couldn’t get back to him before…”

She looked him over. “How do you know?”

He sat back and took a slow drink from his glass. “I just got off the phone with them. They told me everything.” He smiled. “They’re hard to impress, but you impressed them.”

Tosh scowled and stood up. “Impressed that I’d send a man to his death.”

“Impressed that you cared so much to try to help him, even though you knew what would happen.”

Jack tugged her back down. She sighed and finished off her drink. 

Chapter Text

Andy walked into the bar, looking over two of the three men in her life. “Have any of you heard from Jack?”

Nicky looked up at her, brow furrowed. “You have that feeling too?”

Andy raised a brow as she sat. 

“Like something’s wrong, and it involves Jack.”

Joe walked in, hanging up his phone. He looked worried. “I got Jack to answer.”

“And?” Booker asked. 

“He had no idea who I was. He asked if I was a new one. He knew you three, but not me. I asked him to meet us.”

Andy’s phone rang, and she looked at the screen. Jack. She answered it. “Kid? Everything alright?”

“When do I get to meet the new one?”

She stiffened. “Which new one?”

“He said he was called Joe.”

She looked the others over. “Sure. Except he’s not new, Jack. You’ve known him for years. He’s married to Nicky.” She glanced around to make sure no one was near them. “He and Nicky killed each other at Jerusalem.”

She heard him blow out a slow breath. “Gwen… she forgot her fiancé. Something isn’t right, here. I— Ianto? Andy, I’ll call you back.”

She stood and pulled out enough cash to cover their tab. “We need to get to Torchwood.”

It didn’t take much work to break into the Hub. No one was there, that they could tell, as they slipped through the darkness. 

Andy glimpsed movement in Jack’s office, and they made their way up. They waited outside, listening intently. 

Someone was talking about how they killed a woman, how it read as truth, so some kind of lie detector. But Jack was adamant that it was wrong. The other man, Ianto, talked about another woman he killed. 

There was something off about the way he talked about it. Some things he said… it was like he revelled in the murder, while another side of him was horrified. “Something in me wants to kill.” That didn't sound like the man Jack talked about.

Andy motioned for the others to wait as she stepped into the room. The man opposite Jack whipped around to look at her. “Who are you?”

She walked up to him and grabbed him by the lapels, dragging him to his feet.

“Andy!” Jack protested.

She took the man’s wrists and dragged his hands to her throat and backed herself into the wall. “Something wants you to kill? Do it.”

She closed her hands over his, making his fingers bite into her throat. She felt his fingers flex slightly. 

“Do it! If you’re a monster who needs to be locked up, and you’ve killed three women already, what’s one more?”

His hands flexed slightly, but he flinched. 

“Jack’s never going to believe you’re a monster unless he sees it with his own eyes." Even then, he probably wouldn't. Jack always saw the good in people, and tended to be blind to the faults of those he loved. Jack was so certain Ianto wasn't what he said he was. She needed to prove to Ianto what Jack was saying. "So, prove it to him. It felt good, so do it again.”

His grasp tightened, cutting off her airway. Tears streamed down his face. He collapsed against her, his hands slipping from her neck. He sobbed into her shoulder, and she wrapped her arms around him. “Easy, kid, you’re alright.” Her voice was a bit raw, but it would be back to normal in a few minutes.

“You alright?” Jack asked her.

She nodded. “Go figure out what the hell is going on. Because you shouldn’t not remember Joe.”

“How can you be sure?”

She rolled her eyes. “He’s married to Nicky. You’ve fucked him. Multiple times. There hasn’t been a single time when you’ve only fucked one of them.”

Jack’s jaw tightened. “Gwen and me, we both lost memories. And Ianto… with whatever this is…” He shook his head. “Something isn’t right, here.” He walked out.

Ianto pushed away from Andy. “I tried to kill you.”

“But you didn’t. I knew you wouldn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I know you. Well, know of you.”

“How?”

“Jack talks about you.”

He frowned. “And the others you talked about that he…” Oh, the poor kid was so jealous, it was adorable.

“Joe and Nicky? He hasn’t fucked them since he came back. He’s fluid with his sexuality, but… he’s committed to you.”

Joe poked his head in. “Jack’s found something he wants Ianto to see.”

Andy watched from the shadows as people started arriving. She saw the guy, Adam, who they shouldn't let touch anyone once shit hit the fan.

Jack set things in motion, and… shit hit the fan. Toshiko drew her gun and pointed it at Jack. Joe grabbed her around the waist and tore the gun from her grasp. “Easy, Tosh. No need for anyone to get hurt.”

Nicky and Booker intercepted Owen and Gwen respectively when they jumped to defend Toshiko. 

“Who the hell are you?” Gwen shouted, thrashing against Booker’s grasp.

“Joe? Nicky?” Tosh breathed. “What’s going on?”

“Why don’t you sit this one out?” Joe murmured to her, as Andy stepped from the shadows behind Adam.

“You see, Adam,” she said, crossing her arm, as he turned toward her. “You made a mistake. When you pushed yourself into Jack’s memories, you messed with us. We’ve been a part of his team for a long time. He left us to start this one.” She was playing a hunch.

He looked her over. “I’m the last one you brought in before Jack parted ways. I went with him, remember?” She let him touch her shoulder, and…

Adam. What was Jack doing pointing a gun at one of her family? What did the kid do? 

She rolled her eyes and turned away. “Whatever he did, I’m sure he deserves it. But do you really want to clean the blood off the floor? The grating will be a bitch to clean.”

“What?” Adam squeaked. 

She turned around, a grin on her face. “You’ll walk it off. I mean it’s a bitch to get shot in the head, but we’ve all done it.”

Adam glared at her. “You want me to die?”

She shrugged. “Either that or let Jack lock you up until we can sort everything out.”

Andy watched as Jack wiped the memories of his team for the last two days. She glanced over at her family, who took a much lower dose for just a couple hours.

It was hard to watch each of Jack’s team remember the good times and then to watch as their hearts broke. But Jack was there to sweep up the broken pieces… like he probably had the first time. They fell asleep, laying down on the table. 

Jack walked out of the meeting room and stared at her. “Now, it’s my turn. But I need to talk to him.”

She followed after him, staying out of sight of Adam. Because as much as she thought he was a part of her family, the terror in his eyes when he thought she was going to let Jack shoot him told her he had no idea what they were.

“You’ll still keep the bad memories,” Adam said, “because they were always yours. But what about the good times, Jack?”

Andy chuckled and stepped into his line of sight. “What makes you think they aren’t intertwined?” She stepped between him and Jack, turning her back on the prisoner. She lifted her hand to Jack’s face. “Take the pill, Jack. Forget him. He’s nothing. He doesn’t know you.”

“What makes you think I don’t?” Adam snarled.

Andy turned to glare at him. “Because if you knew him and cared about him, you wouldn’t be reminding him of heartbreak. You would be reminding him of all the good. Now, fuck off.” She turned back to look Jack in the eyes. “Think about us. About me and Booker and Nicky. We have never tried to make you be anything you didn’t want to be. We never forced you to do anything. You may not be one of us, but you’re our family. And you’ll always have us.”

He pressed his forehead to hers. “You’ve always looked out for me.” He lifted the pill to his lips and took it.

“No!” Adam cried.

Jack walked out, and Andy turned to stare at the alien. “You messed with the wrong family.”

“Who are you?”

“Andromache the Scythian.”

“Do you remember your birth family?”

Andy smiled. 

“Tell me about them.”

“I had a mother and three sisters. They were beautiful.” She told him about them, her memories of their faces, of weaving together, hunting together, travelling, everything.

Then, there was another person there, in her memory. A boy. 

“Now I’m there,” Adam said with a grin. “You forget me, you forget them. You take that pill and you’ll lose your family.”

Andy huffed, and gave a sad smile. She looked at him. “I lost them nearly seven thousand years ago. I’ve forgotten millions of faces, millions of people. What’s four more?” And she swallowed the pill.

Andy woke and groaned. She was sitting on the floor of the cells in the Torchwood Hub. Joe and Nicky raced in the door. 

“We need to leave, now,” Nicky said. “Jack’s team are starting to wake.”

They pulled her to her feet, and they quickly left before anyone could see them. Booker was the last, wiping the surveillance system.

“Why two days?” Andy asked. 

He showed her his hand, where someone had written those instructions. Jack had forgotten Joe for a bit, but whatever it was that had done it, they’d stopped it. She remembered Ianto thinking he’d been a murderer, and she’d proven him wrong by trying to get him to kill her. 

As they walked down the street, her phone rang. Jack. “Hey, kid.”

“We can’t remember the last two days, and I have ten missed calls from you guys.”

“I don’t remember what it was,” she told him. “Something fucked with your memories, you forgot Joe, Gwen forgot her fiancé, and Ianto was convinced he was a murderer. We came in to help you. And now, we’ve all wiped our memories.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, Jack. But you remember Joe?”

“Why would I forget Joe?”

Andy sighed. “Just take it as a good thing that everything’s back to normal and don’t think on it.”

Jack chuckled. “Thank you for… whatever you did. How did you know you helped?”

“Well, I remember part of it, but obviously not what triggered it. We also woke up in the Hub. Booker wiped the records of the last two days. Get back to work. Call us next week, like normal.”

She hung up. She loved her family dearly. Joe, Nicky, Booker, Jack, the Doctor… Quynh who was still out there somewhere. After she’d lost the ability to remember her mother and sisters… It was good to have this family.

Chapter Text

Martha sat down across from Jack. They did the usual small-talk, “how’s the family” and all that. 

Jack was the one to get up the courage to jump into the topic they were skirting around. “So, End of the World Survivor’s Club!”

She grinned at him. “I’m so glad to see you.”

“See, you did come all this way just to see me. It’s the jawline, once seen, always yearned for.”

She laughed, shaking her head, and he joined in. 

“Do you miss him?”

“No.” She sighed. “Maybe sometimes. But then I come to my senses.”

“Have you talked to any of the others?”

She sat back and gave a small smile. “I talk to Booker a lot. Occasionally the others. But… Booker mostly. When I first left, and I called him, I thought… Well, I thought they’d think I was mad for leaving him. Or they’d try to convince me to reconsider. I mean, they love him. They don’t want him to be alone. But…”

“They would never try to make you do anything you don’t want to.”

She nodded. “Yeah, when I told Booker I left, I thought he’d ask about the Doctor, but he didn’t. I guess I called him sort of hoping he’d say something to tell me I was wrong for leaving the Doctor. He asked if it was the right thing for me. They never ask me if I regret not going with him, but they always ask how I’m doing.”

“Have you seen any of them?”

“Just the once a few weeks after everything. Booker more often, but it’s usually video chat. We’re both busy. I’ve got plenty to occupy me.”

Jack stared at the dead body of the man they had needed alive. Martha was missing, and they’d just lost their way in.

While his team came up with another plan, he was about to do something he was going to regret. He pulled out his phone.

“Hey, Jack,” Joe said. “You’re on speaker.”

Jack winced. This wasn’t going to go well.

“How’s Martha? She mentioned she was going to work a case with you.”

He gave a nervous laugh, as he closed the door to his office. “About that…”

“What happened?” Nicky asked. 

“Is Martha alright?” Booker said right after.

Jack steeled himself. “Last we heard from her, she was alright, but we lost contact.”

“She said she was coming in for a medical consult on a post mortem!” Booker shouted. “What the fuck did you have her do?”

He cringed. He’d expected that kind of reaction from the man who spent a year with Martha saving the world. “She volunteered.”

“And you didn’t do anything to dissuade her,” Booker snarled. 

“We’ve got a plan to get her out. She’ll be fine.”

“If anything happens to my daughter, Harkness, I will find a way to murder you so you stay dead.”

And the line cut.

Fuck. 

Jack knew Booker cared about Martha, but he had no idea the man had basically adopted the woman. They needed to get to Martha, now.

He walked out of his office. “I need a plan, guys.”

Jack hurried through the halls and rounded a corner. He lifted his gun when he saw someone, only to draw up short when he saw Booker. “What are you doing here?”

“The fuck you think?” Booker snarled.

“How did you figure out where?”

“Martha told us before she went in. We thought it was, you know, not undercover.”

Owen looked Booker over. “That was classified.”

Booker sneered at him and pushed on down the hall.

Jack followed after him. “Where are the others?”

“Nicky’s in a nest, Joe’s his spot, and Andy’s in the car.”

Jack raised a brow. “Andy’s in the car?”

Booker rounded on him, shoving him into the wall. “She the one who chose me. Andy wasn’t about to get in my way. We will have words when this is over, Jack.”

Owen cleared his throat. “If you two are done.”

Jack kicked the door down, and he and Booker pointed their guns at the doctor, who backed away from Martha. Booker took one look at the woman and raced to her side, opposite Owen. 

He cradled her face in his hands, pushing sweat-dampened hair from her forehead. “Martha, can you hear me?”

She gasped for breath, her eyes fluttering. “Book—“

Jack listened to the doctor talk, watching as Owen worked and Booker tried to keep Martha fighting. Until the man had the dumb idea to say that in the experiments, the benefits were worth sacrifices.

Jack chuckled as he saw Booker stiffen. “You just messed up, big time.”

Booker stormed across the room and slammed the doctor against the wall, fingers wrapped around his throat. 

“Torchwood doesn’t kill people without trial,” the doctor gasped through Booker’s hold on him.

Jack leaned around the Frenchman. “He’s not Torchwood. And you just called the woman he sees as a daughter collateral damage. Choking the life out of you won’t even be a blip on his conscience.”

“Jack!” Owen shouted.

Martha was convulsing. Jack ran over to help Owen, and Booker was beside him, leaving the doctor gasping for breath as he slumped to the floor. Owen used that damn alien device and targeted the alien. Jack dragged Booker back as Owen fired the device.

Martha shot up, then collapsed back down, the monitors showing no signs of life. Booker rushed toward her again, lifting her to cradle her against him. “Martha, come back. Please, breathe.”

She coughed, inhaling sharply. She clung to him, trembling.

“I’ve got you, sweetheart.” He swept her into his arms, carrying her out of the room.

They got to the Torchwood truck, and Owen gave Martha a rundown of what she needed to do over the next few days.

Then the Pharm doctor reappeared, gun in hand, pointed directly at Martha. Owen stepped in between them, only to be shot before anyone could do anything.

“You’re next,” he said, glaring at Martha.

“No, you are,” Booker said. 

Then a bullet tore through the man’s temple. Jack turned toward the sound of the gunshot, seeing two figures on a building in the distance.

Martha tried to save Owen, but there was nothing she could do. 

Chapter Text

Andy sat in a bar, drinking… something. She tipped the liquid into her mouth. Vodka. She was drinking vodka.  It was late, and they were about to close, but she wasn’t ready to find a place to crash for the evening. 

She heard music. Not the music playing in the bar. There was something else. “Turn off the music.”

“Are you mad?”

“Just do it!”

The bartender flipped the music off, but there was nothing else. Andy stood and threw money on the bar, hurrying outside. 

Her phone rang, and she answered. 

“Did you hear it?” Booker asked from the other end of the line. 

“Maybe. I was in a bar, couldn’t tell what it was.”

She got a signal of another incoming call. She switched over. 

“It was carnival music,” Nicky said. “You heard it, right?”

“It can’t be them, can it?” Joe asked. 

Andy leaned against the wall beside her. “It can’t be the Night Travellers. They’re gone. They’d be eighty years old, at least.”

Andy paced the floor of her trashy hotel room. She’d left Jack a dozen messages, and he still hadn’t called her back. 

Her phone finally rang. “Jack?”

“What’s with all the calls?”

“The Night Travellers, we heard the music. How are—“

“We took care of them. They’re gone.”

Andy sat on the end of the bed. How many more monsters were going to crawl out from under the bed?

Chapter Text

Jack stood in front of Gray. Then his and John’s attention caught on something else, behind him. 

Jack turned to see what it was. And the what turned out to be a who. A woman on horseback, who looked rather comfortable as such. She had a weapon strapped to her back. 

She pulled up short, walking her mount in a circle. He saw her weapon, a circular ax, a labrys. It was Andy, or Andromache as she would probably still be called. 

Part of him wanted to call out to her, to beg for her help, but she didn’t know him. He was just some stranger who somehow knew her name. 

And if she came to his aid, unlikely as it would be, she’d have to fight John and Gray. If she managed to get close enough to us her labrys, she’d kill them both easily, but Jack wasn’t sure he wanted either of them dead. And then, in order to do that, she’d have to get to them, and they might have guns. Sure, she’d get back up again, but he didn’t want her to share his fate. 

The best thing for her was to go away. Her gaze met his, as she circled her horse again, then lifted to the other two. She, then, angled her ride away from them, and took off over the ridge. 

It was better this way. 

Jack sat in a bar. It had been so damn long. He wanted company, but at the same time wanted to be left alone. He’d lost two people on his team. He’d lost his brother. He’d lost his hope of having what was left of his family whole again. 

The chair beside him pulled out, and a woman sat down. “Don’t worry, kid. It’s just me.” Andy.

“The others didn’t want to come?” He finished off his drink.

“I wouldn’t let them.” She ordered him another, and herself one as well. “When we saw you earlier… I don’t know. You seemed different.”

He stared at his empty glass for a long moment. “I saw you. 27 AD. A field that would eventually become Cardiff.”

She swore, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I’d almost forgotten about that. What were you doing there?”

“They buried me. I was buried alive, dying and coming back until about… 1900. Torchwood found me, which caused some problems. I had them put me on ice until today.”

She was quiet for a long time. “So, it’s been… two thousand years since we last spoke. Jesus, kid.”

He forced out a chuckle. “And yet, you can still call me ‘kid.’ What a world we live in.” He took his new drink and downed half of it. “I had a bit of time to think.”

Andy snorted. “A bit.”

“I… I don’t know how to feel about Ianto.”

“The tea-boy you’ve been fucking?”

Jack scowled at her. “He’s not a tea-boy.”

She smiled at him, turning to face him properly. “Have you told him you love him?”

“I…” Jack felt himself blush. He couldn’t believe he was blushing over something so trivial. And so monumental. 

“And don’t pull the relationships-are-different-where-I’m-from card. You’re talking to a woman who has been around well over six thousand years, who has loved plenty and lost just as much. Tell him.”

“I don’t do couples.”

“Then tell him that. Tell him you love him, and that you want him, but you want more. I mean, look at Joe and Nicky. They’ve had you in their bed plenty of times. And plenty of other people. I pretty sure they fucked Shakespeare. And Chaucer, and Michelagelo, and god knows who else. They also won’t admit one way or another about a lizard woman in the late 1800s.”

Jack raised a brow at her. “A Silurian?”

Andy nodded. “I’m pretty sure there was at least a conversation had about she and her maid joining them in their bed. Not sure if anything ever became of it. I certainly took them up on the invitation when it was made.”

“You’ve slept with Joe and Nicky?”

“No! Well… yes, but that was different. It was after Quynh, and I was… dangerous. I don’t think they know I remember. And we’ve never brought it up, so it’s staying dead. No, I slept with Vastra and Jenny, though. Just the once. I felt too much like a third wheel. I prefer the one partner sort of nights.”

Jack finished off his drink. “Thank you.”

“For trying to get you to tell your… not-tea-boy you love him?”

“For not trying to get me to talk about what it was like dying repeatedly for two thousand years.”

Andy’s smile fell. “I don’t want to think about it any more than you do.”

Right. Because of Quynh. If she asked the question, found out how horrifying it was, she would hate herself even more for not having found Quynh yet. 

“So,” he needed to change her mood, their mood. “Shall we call the boys in and tell them I’m now older than all of them?”

Andy grinned and pulled out her phone. “I can’t wait to see their faces.”