Meeting Again - Secrets Revealed

Author's Note:

Hey! Thanks everyone for leaving all the lovely reviews, and for having faith in my story/ writing abilities. I'm terribly sorry for having left it so long, but I can't make any promises about updating weekly, as I've seen other authors writing in their authors notes. I will, however, make a promise to try not to leave it so long again.

I reread the story, to remind myself what has happened, and where I left it, and realized that there was at least one typo (know instead of now in Chapter One, The First Death of Luke Smith). Does anyone know how to edit a chapter without people thinking I've written and posted another one?

Final important note. (Feel free to ignore the rest if you just want to read, and are as annoyed by unsolicited Authors Notes as I am.) There is discussion of suicide, and suicidal thoughts in this chapter.

"Luke!" Maria yelled out, rushing to his side. As soon as she grabbed one of his hands, Luke blinked his eyes open once more, and the heart monitor started racing.

"No," he whimpered, "you can't be here."

Maria stepped back, a hurt look on her face. "We are here Luke. We'll always be here. Where you are. Supporting you."

Tears fell down Luke's face. "But I'm not human. I'm wrong. Didn't you read my note? I'm dangerous."

"Nonsense." Sarah-Jane came up to the bed. "You're a boy. My boy. Nothing you say or do will make me get rid of you." Luke burst into tears, hugging his mum round the middle and shielding his face in her shirt. "However," Sarah-Jane continued, making Luke hold his breath, "you are sooo grounded. There will be no movement from you without my knowledge, understand? No adventures, no self-sacrificing, no running away."

While Clyde looked willing to put up a fuss on the 'no adventures' part, Luke simply agreed, "Course, mum."

Owen and Jack had remained in the doorway, awkwardly allowing the happy reunion to take place without outside interference. However heartwarming it was, though, they knew they had to interrupt eventually. "I hate to break this up," Owen stated, more willing to be the bad guy than Jack, "but I thought I'd tell you that there is no medical, physical reason for you to pose a danger to anyone but yourself, at least, no reason that I could tell." While he was usually happy to take Jack's word as gospel for any number of odd alien occurrences, the medical health of his patients was not one of them. Not when he'd caught him calling what was obviously a liver 'that odd looking squishy thing'. He wouldn't allow the man's secrets, or questionable medical knowledge, interfere with his patient care. "You don't quite function like a regular human, and I'm afraid that I don't know what that means for you in the long run."

"No." Luke stated mournfully. "I am dangerous, especially to others. And there's nothing that I've found that can hurt me enough to stop me from being so."

Jack nearly stopped breathing. There it was, confirmation from the source, or at least, close to it. He really wasn't alone.

The rest of the adults nearly had heart attacks, though the meaning of Luke's words went above the heads of his friends. Not that they'd remain ignorant for long though, not with the reactions that would come.

"You've attempted suicide?" Owen asked, feeling sick. Not Luke. Not the first person he'd felt responsible for since Katie.

Luke decided to confess properly. If they knew the truth, they'd understand how dangerous he was. They'd know to avoid him, or lock him up. Anything to keep them safe. "I have, committed suicide, that is. I just keep coming back. Don't you see? I'm dangerous. If anyone got me they could use me to do something horrible."

Jack understood where the kid was coming from. Hell, before Torchwood found him (and why Torchwood was looking for him) he was getting himself killed in bar fights nearly every night, trying to see when it would stick, when he would run out of time. Luck. Life. Whatever. He also understood the kid's fear of getting caught. When Angelo had betrayed him in America, he got a taste of humanities 'curiosity' in his condition. That group of men in New York…they were just regular humans. Not psychopaths, not scientists, just your run of the mill humans. Why the Doctor had such faith in humanity, Jack didn't know. Those men certainly didn't hold enough empathy to not torture him in their pursuit of something they thought they wanted. Immortality.

"No one will lay hands on you!" Sarah-Jane cried, "Over my dead body will anyone ever harm you!"

"Don't you understand, Mum? That's what I'm afraid of." Luke murmured shakily. "I can't die. You can. Bad people will use you to get to me while you're alive. But I'm not aging. I'm not aging and I can't die. Eventually…you won't be here anymore anyway, and your sacrifice will be for nothing. I'll still be alone. Don't put yourself in harms way and make me lose you sooner."

Jack was feeling quite uncomfortable. The way the kid was speaking highlighted how young he really was. 'Bad people' indeed. He'd at least been an adult when his world changed. He'd already lost his parents. His brother. He'd grown accustomed to loss. This boy…would never know how to commit for a lifetime. He'd go on, forever, not able to make the promises of 'forever' to a lover. Not able to commit fully, as he'd go on when the others died.

Sarah-Jane echoed his thoughts out loud, "Luke. Don't you understand? Parents are supposed to die before their children. I won't leave you willingly, not on purpose, but I'll gladly go before you if it will let you live your life in peace."

"All righty then," came the awkward interruption from Owen Harper, somewhat shocked, but wishing to move forward. Now was not the time to council the boy, that would come later. They still had things to discuss in the present. Certainly, no one had ever charged him with an excess of tact, so he saw little wrong with changing the subject. Jack, meanwhile, congratulated himself on eschewing the very notion of Owen ever becoming their psychiatric support. Not half an hour after their discussion on therapists, and Owen was already proving how unsuitable he'd be. "While there is little I can do to help you figure out how you work, other than a battery of tests that can't prove anything, I can help out in other ways. Torchwood does have contacts among several intelligent life forms here on earth that live longer than humans. It might help you, if you could talk to others who live with the same problems you're currently facing, if not as…extreme a case as yours. I can get you their contact information, and I recommend, as a doctor, that you talk to somebody. Your thought patterns are not healthy. If not our alien contacts, just talking to your Mum would be a good start. There isn't a therapist in the know, or I would most certainly recommend you speak to one." Jack blushed, not that anyone noticed. He should know not to have such low faith in his team.

"I understand, Doctor…Owen" Luke murmured. He knew they wouldn't understand. His mum was a good person, of course she wouldn't abandon him. Even if he was…wrong. But he'd almost killed her, almost killed the world, and more than once. First the sun thing, then the moon. What would people use him to do next?

"I don't think you do," Owen stated baldly, "but you'll get there. Eventually."

Jack knew what he was about to say next might put him on Owen and Tosh's shit list, not to mention pissing off the boy's mother, but he thought that it was important enough to ask. He might even be able to mitigate some of the boy's fears, if they knew why he thought he was dangerous.

"What can you do that's so bad? Living forever might mean you have a bigger carbon footprint, but you can hardly use that as a reason you might kill us all." He winced. Perhaps he shouldn't have tried to insert levity into that question.

"I powered the Slitheen's plans of ending the world twice already. First, I gave them the formula to turn off the sun, plunging the planet into another ice age, forever. Worse, though, I was used to pull the moon out of orbit solely with the power of my mind. I'm too powerful to exist. I'm not powerful in a way that allows me to protect myself, or prevent myself from being used, but I'm powerful enough that evil people can use me as a weapon." This, Luke was sure would finally make them understand.

"Luke, we already knew about the sun formula" Sarah Jane refuted firmly. "And what's this nonsense about being unable to protect yourself from being used? I'll sign you up for self defence classes in a heartbeat, once we get home. I was the one who sent you into an unsafe situation, that let you get used. Mr Smith fooled me, sure, but I let you go. That's on me. Not on you. Never on you."

Luke's tears started escaping from his eyes. They didn't blame him. They still loved him. Still wanted him. Weren't scared of him. Sarah Jane immediately swept him up in her arms, and he felt safe, loved, and warm for the first time since he'd run away.

Jack cleared his throat. "Well, I think its about time for that one to head home. We'll keep in touch about anyone he could talk to, and we're available if you need any discrete tests. We'll help keep Luke safe. Could even help with that self defence, or maybe even help a bit refining and controlling his powers. You just need to ask."

"We'll keep it in mind," Sarah Jane answered, "but now its time for my son to come home."

Epilogue:

In the months and years after their meeting, Sarah Jane, the children and the Torchwood team grew closer, providing backup where needed, and collaborating on some of the more apocalyptic scenarios.

Jack grew very attached to Luke, and loved him as a son, a companion who would never leave him. It settled him somewhat, and in teaching Luke how to cope as an immortal, un-aging being helped him come clean to the rest of his team, and form healthier bonds with them. Ianto grew more secure with their relationship once he understood Jack's inevitable loss, and adapted to the more transitory promises he could be given, rather than the permanent promises a mortal grows up to expect.

They knew Luke had truly accepted his lot in life, when, faced with the 456, he took Jack's grandson's place, not in an attempt at suicide, but as an acceptance of his abilities, and trust in his back up plan. His mind, built from a thousand minds, did not burn out from sending the message, but, upon regaining consciousness, he remarked that he knew he'd be safe either way. Either his brain power would save him, or his regeneration would bring him back. He held no fear of discovery, either, as he trusted fully in his family's ability to protect him; both his mortal mother, who would age and die, teaching him how to live life to the fullest, and his immortal father, who taught him how to remain behind.

This is the end of Finding Family. I may, or may not write one shots in the same created universe, expanding on the collaboration between Torchwood and Sarah Jane and children, but I wanted to wrap this up for all of you who have stayed with it despite my years and years of silence. So. This is an ending, a mark of Complete, where I can wrap up the story, and get the readers out of suspense.