Torchwood: Fanfic: Agreeing to disagree

[m_findlow]

Title: Harsh reality
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Torchwood team
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,265 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Any, any, agreeing to disagree" at fic_promptly
Summary: The team have to face up to the fact that Jack is gone.

Owen didn't care what the rest of them thought. Not that this was a diversion from his usual beliefs, only that on this occasion, the rest of them had no idea whatsoever.

'Jack's gone. He's not coming back,' he said. Of course he wasn't coming back. He had that stupid hand in the jar - the one that was more precious than all of their bloody lives if you stopped to watch the way he fussed over it. Now that was mysteriously gone along with their esteemed leader.

He'd joked to Owen one day that it was a Doctor detector and that Owen mustn't have been a very good one, because the hand in the jar didn't even take any notice of him. He had an inkling that Jack was obsessed this Doctor fellow, and that somewhere along the lines they'd crossed paths. Owen didn't have to look far to find references to a certain Doctor in their Torchwood databases. He was everywhere, hated and despised by the system. Public enemy number one. Was it any bloody wonder Jack was so interested in him? Jack loved going against authority, and he'd hated Torchwood London with a passion. This was right up his alley.

He stared around the room at the other three. Idiots. They all thought he was coming back. If Owen had found a way to escape this place and go swanning off somewhere else, he'd have taken it too.

'He's coming back,' Gwen insisted. Owen was talking rubbish if the thought otherwise. Jack belonged here, with them. He'd never just abandon them. There had to be a reason why he'd just take off without saying anything. She'd seen the CCTV. They all had. He'd been in such a rush all of a sudden to meet up with that blue police box, running across the Plass. It hadn't hung around either. He was lucky to have caught up with it by all accounts. Okay, so it had been three days since that had happened, but maybe whatever they were doing took time. He'd never just leave her without saying so. If he was planning on leaving, he'd have asked her to go with him, wouldn't he?

'Tosh, has he shown up in any scans from the satellite network?' Owen asked.

Tosh cringed. She knew Owen already knew the answer to that question. She didn't really want to get dragged into this.

'No,' she replied, staring down at the table. She'd had the scans running day and night since Jack had left, though she hadn't told anyone that was the case. There was absolutely no trace of him or the signal from his wrist strap being detected anywhere on Earth. Jack had gone somewhere else with his Doctor.

Tosh imagined the two of them together. It wasn't hard. She remembered the strange man she'd run into when she'd had to go to London and cover for Owen with the space pig incident. He seemed just the sort of person Jack might know - bold and brash, and just a little scary in his excitement. Unlike Owen however, she was sure that whatever it was, it must be important. Perhaps The Doctor needed Jack's help. Perhaps he'd been waiting for a reply from Jack for days, only that Jack had been unable to respond. He'd been lying dead in their morgue, having saved them all. Maybe the two were connected: Abbadon and The Doctor's sudden return. She knew Owen would have been itching to understand just what had happened that made Jack able to come back from death. It scared her that she'd had no idea. All those years working together and she'd never known. How had he managed to keep a secret like that, what with all the danger they constantly faced? It made her worry. What else was Jack keeping secret from her? Maybe Owen was right. Maybe he really wasn't coming back.

'You don't know for sure,' Gwen protested. 'It could be broken, or cloaked, or something.' There had to be a dozen explanations as to why they couldn't locate him. They just needed to try something else, and start brainstorming ideas for figuring out where he'd gone and why.

'Gwen, sweetheart,' Owen said, knowing how much she hated him calling her that, 'I've been doing this a lot longer than you. Jack takes off when he likes, where he likes. He doesn't tell anyone, and he doesn't say where he's been or why. If he wants us to know, he tells us. This time is no different.'

She turned her steely gaze on him. 'You're wrong.' She looked around the room for everyone else to back her up. At least Tosh might say something in agreement. Tosh didn't really believe Owen. She just needed to opportunity to say so, especially since she knew Ianto would just sit there and keep the peace. Jack had left and Ianto hadn't said two words since. Not that he usually did, but it was even less than usual. She took a moment to study his face, suddenly not sure she trusted him. When the hell had he and Jack started seeing each other? What else did he know that she didn't?

'What if Owen's right?' Tosh said. She didn't want him to be right, but just how well did any of them really know Jack? 'I've searched our records for any connections between Jack and the Doctor. I can't find any.' She knew it wasn't really her speciality. The records were Ianto's domain, but she couldn't bring herself to ask him to help her. Something was off with the quiet young man since Jack had disappeared, and she was pretty sure what it was.

'No,' Gwen said, sounding even more adamant. Jack would have told her his plans. She was his second in command. He didn't do anything without her knowing.

Ianto gripped his mug tightly in his hands. He wanted so much for Gwen to be right. Jack wouldn't really leave them and not come back. They'd only just gotten him back now. He knew that they'd all betrayed Jack - opened up the rift and let Abbadon through, causing death and destruction - but he'd forgiven them, hadn't he? He'd watched Jack hug Owen and tell him it was okay. And there was that kiss. That kiss he hadn't expected, but which had been so wonderful that it was hard to think about it and not feel like he couldn't breathe. Jack had to come back. He just had to. Ianto always took pleasure in proving Owen wrong, but just this once he couldn't care less about that. He just wanted Owen to be wrong. He hadn't known Jack's secret, about how he couldn't die. It upset Ianto that he hadn't known, and that Jack didn't trust him enough to tell him, but he was sure that given a little bit more time together, he might have shared that secret. They were... what? Friend? Lovers? Something more?

'He'll come back,' Ianto said, sounding less certain by the minute. He needed Jack to come back.

'You're all mad,' Owen said. 'Barking.'

'Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree,' Gwen said. I'm not changing my mind, no matter what you say.'

'Fine. You losers keep praying he walks back through that door in the next ten minutes and some of us will get on with running Torchwood.'

He waited for the vitriolic argument but there wasn't one. The three of them kept their silence.

They all know he's not coming back, Owen thought. They just can't accept it.