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[personal profile] m_findlow

Title: Forgotten
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Ianto
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG
Notes: Written for Challenge 102 - Sand at [livejournal.com profile] anythingdrabble
Summary: Something about this rift artifact has Jack feeling like he's missing something.

The box that had been a mystery on Jack's desk continued to puzzle him, but it was a welcome distraction from the more disconcerting prospect that he and his team had just willingly retconned themselves, erasing two whole days of their memories. He couldn't even begin to speculate on the reason why. It could have been almost anything. Whatever it was, it was clearly enough that knowing, or continuing to know, would somehow damage their timeline. Maybe there was something about the future they just weren't supposed to know yet. His team were okay and that was what mattered most.

He picked up the plastic bag that the box had been in, still curious as to who this Adam person was that had scrawled their name all over it. It had supposedly been in the archives for who only knew how long. It didn't have a tag or anything else identifying it as being logged into their system. Ianto had brought it upstairs for them to check out so he could catalogue it properly, but it had been forgotten and abandoned on Jack's desk.

The tiny little wooden fragment tumbled to the floor with a sound that might have gone unnoticed except for the eery quiet of the hub. It looked like a broken fragment. He twirled the box over in his hand, looking for the spot it might have come off and finding a hole where it slotted in perfectly. And then? Nothing. How disappointing. He set it back down on the desk and turned away, before a hiss and a thunk caught his attention. What had been one single unit was now split in two with an opening at the top.

He peered into the opening, but the cavity was all but empty. He tipped it upside down and felt sand pour out of it through his fingers. Sand. It was just sand, but why did it bug him so much?

He rubbed the grains between his fingers. They were warm, like they'd been sitting out in the sun all day, rather than trapped inside a wooden artifact for years, or maybe decades. There was something else, like something tugging at his subconscious. The grains were small yet coarse, not white but rather a muddy ochre. It was just like the sands he remembered from his days living on the Boeshane Peninsula. He shook his head. He was over thinking it. Sand was just sand. A billion planets it could have come from.

'Jack?' Jack turned his gaze at the voice, like a spell had been broken.

'I know it's stupid, but... You didn't read this, did you?' Ianto asked, holding up his diary. 'Or you could just lie and say you didn't to make me feel better.'

'Huh?'

'You know what? Forget I asked.' Ianto left without waiting for a reply.

Jack frowned at the pile of sand in the floor. It felt like he'd forgotten something he shouldn't have, but he just couldn't figure it out.

Date: 2019-08-24 07:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mscatmoon.livejournal.com
It always makes me nervous when one of them starts thinking about something relating to Adam. He was a scary character! Poor Jack will just have to let it be.

Date: 2019-11-26 09:56 pm (UTC)
bk_forever: (The Oncoming Coat)
From: [personal profile] bk_forever
Nice coda to the episode, although I hope Jack won't dwell on the sad too much. He might start to remember things that should be left forgotten.

July 2025

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