m_findlow

Title: Trusting to history
Fandom: Torchwood

Characters: Ianto, Norton Folgate

Author: m_findlow

Rating: PG.

Length: 1,000 words

Content notes: A Torchwood AU

Author notes: Written for Challenge 150 - Paradox at

fandomweekly

Summary: Ianto receives a guest from the past offering to help him fix the future.

'There's got to be an explanation,' Ianto muttered as he scrolled through the rift data for the past week for the fifth time. The answer was in there somewhere. He only wished someone was here to help him.

Jack and Gwen had simply not turned up to work and it wasn't until he couldn't get hold of either of them that he began to worry. He'd found Gwen, having a domestic with her husband, in a Porthcawl caravan park where she claimed they'd lived for years. Jack on the other hand had simply disappeared. Not even a trace of the parking fine he'd received last week after stopping on double yellow lines. It was like he didn't exist.

An email pinged his inbox with nothing more than a cryptic location from the hub's archives. Faced with his current problem, he ignored it for an hour before curiosity got the better of him. 'Well, you wanted a lead,' he said, following the instructions.

'You took your time,' came a nasally, posh sounding voice, as Ianto rounded the distant corner of the archives. 'I thought you twenty-first century humans were attached to your emails.'

Ianto tensed immediately at the intrusion. 'Who are you and how did you get in here?'

'Temporary matter transporter,' the man replied. 'Emphasis on the temporary part. As for the who? Norton Folgate. Torchwood. 1953 to be precise.'

Ianto's eyes narrowed at the intruder. 'You're not Torchwood,' he replied.

'Well, don't be daft, of course I am. I just said so.'

Ianto shook his head. 'Nope. If you were Torchwood, I'd know.'

'Oh? And how would you know?'

'Because I know everything there is to know about Torchwood. I know things even Jack doesn't know.' He blushed slightly. 'It's kind of my job.'

Norton leaned casually against the racking. 'Well, if you know so much then tell me what you know about the grandfather paradox.'

'The grandfather paradox stipulates that if you were to go back in time and kill your grandfather, your own father, and therefore you, would cease to exist.'

'Very good. Gold star. So, what if I told you that something back in 1953 had altered time.'

Would that explain Ianto's current predicament? It sounded plausible. 'Still wouldn't make a difference. If something happened in 1953 and you became part of Torchwood, it would be evident from our files today. I'd have read all about you.'

Norton curved an eyebrow at him. 'Are you sure about that?'

'Absolutely.'

'And have you factored in the temporal proximity conundrum?'

'The what?'

'You're sitting on a rift in time and space, and at the centre of it, you have the rift machine, capable of bending time and space itself. Not in operation I grant you, but still humming along in the background. If you get close enough to it, it affects the ability for you to fully assimilate into changes created by the paradox.'

'What does that mean?'

'It means that not all of your memories might be altered to accept the new reality. If you were close enough when it happened, which you were, by the way. I checked. What you read and remember from the files no longer dovetails. Take a look for yourself if you don't believe me.'

Ianto pulled out his PDA and ran a search for all Torchwood operatives between 1950 and 1960. Sure enough, there was Norton. 'I don't understand.'

'Of course you don't, darling. Your memories of everything you've ever seen or experienced no longer fully equate to reality.'

'But I pride myself on my memory.'

'Trust me, you've got a lot more going for you in other departments than your cognitive ability. And it does present us with a slight advantage in our current predicament.'

'How so?'

'Well, because you remember things that don't exist anymore. How things were before the paradox. Well, some of them at least. The things that are different will help us find what we're looking for. The device created the paradox so the things that have altered the most as a result are likely to be very close to where the device ended up.'

'And what do we do when we find it? How do we fix things back to the way they were?'

'I take it back to 1953. Like two ends of a magnet repel one another, I can use the future version of the device to nullify the effects of the original before it was stolen.'

'Stolen?'

'Ah, yes. That was a bit of a snafu on our part.'

'So, I'm here to fix up your mess.'

Norton bristled. 'I never said it was my mess.'

'Hang on, if you're from Torchwood in 1953 then you must know Jack Harkness.'

'Well spotted, old bean. Of course I know Jack.'

'So how come he's never mentioned you? You strike me as the type he might, ah…'

'Go rolling in the daisies with? Please. I have better taste. Everyone has their standards.'

'But you do know Jack.'

'If you're asking me did I work with him, well, only just. He wasn't around much during the fifties. A bit of a rogue element, I think you'd call him. He was however quite useful on assignments where dispensability was required.'

Ianto scowled. 'You mean you used him as cannon fodder.'

'Why, don't you?'

Ianto's fists balled. 'Torchwood has moved on from those barbaric days.'

'Oh, I'm sure,' Norton said, in a tone that suggested he didn't believe it for a second. 'Anyway, have you made up your mind?'

'Made up my mind about what?'

'Whether you believe I'm here to prevent global devastation on a scale your tiny mind can barely comprehend.'

'This conversation is ridiculous. You are ridiculous. Everything that's happened in the last few days is intensely ridiculous.'

'My word, aren't we a bit tetchy today? You do want Jack back, don't you?'

'Of course.'

'Well, then I suppose you're just going to have to trust me.'

Ianto heaved a sigh. 'My lucky day.'