Oh my God! I am so sorry people! It's taken me MONTHS to update this hasn't it? I am soooo sorry... I had the mother of writer's block in relation to Torchwood and Doctor Who. It wasn't nice. But! I've overcome it for you all – at the expense of exam revision :p – and I hope you appreciate the sacrifice on my part :)
I'll try and get the next part up as soon as I managed to hurdle over the writer's block again to spit it out.
Kasey xx
PART FIVE
Well this truly does amaze me, here I am coming closer and closer to him and he doesn't even flinch; though he has backed himself up against the wall. I do so want to see into his mind, his heart, his soul but I don't think that he's all that willing to let me do that; which is truly a shame because I'm sure what I can glimpse from the distance between us is all the more fascinating when up-close. And I don't mean any normal, physical distance that has been measured by all the mortal children; no, I mean something far greater than that, something I have rarely seen in all my long, long years and something that I doubted I'd ever come across after the Doctor ever again.
Such a distance is rare, and something that I am undecided about whether or not to respect and cherish or shatter into an indefinite number of fragmented and segmented shades of boundaries. If I closed the gap myself it may resolve a number of problems but it will also, without a doubt on my part, create a few dozen more. I should wait, it would be the most prudent thing, the most logical thing to do but I don't want to wait! I want, no, I need, to see him, every last bit of him that he buries and results in a strange hollow within him where the shadows and nightmares reside and grow.
I reach out a hand; though since my 'hand' is actually made of photonic energy that has been arranged in a manner so as to imitate matter I can do him no harm but that's semantics really, and just as I'm about to gently ghost over his face I sense a sudden change in the main control room. The Doctor has discovered something and is asking for my assistance; and he is my Doctor so I dare not deny his call.
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"Okay. A long time ago, and I mean a very long time, I had a granddaughter who used to travel with me." The Doctor began, not looking at Jack as he regaled his past to the ex-Time Agent. "Her name was Susan... we got stuck in London in 1963 for a few months because I had to repair the TARDIS; my first incarnation wasn't very tech-savvy." The Doctor grinned slightly and Jack laughed softly. "She was just a child; barely even eighteen, so it couldn't have been then..."
The Doctor looked around the TARDIS as his voice trailed off and for a moment Jack saw how old the Doctor really was; oh sure, he looked young but you could never disguise the age in a creature's eyes – the eyes literally tell people about the weight of all the things the owner of those eyes have been through; and the Doctor's eyes told a lot of stories. "I left her in the 22nd Century hoping she'd marry a freedom fighter... David Campbell I think his name was." The Doctor looked at the ceiling of the TARDIS and Jack waited silently for the Doctor to continue with his story. "I thought she married him and was happy. I thought... I guess I was wrong; been known to happen on occasion of course. Anyway. I don't know for sure but, if the TARDIS is correct – and she normally is the old girl. Then Susan went back in time after David died and ended up in Wales in 1964. She met a young man called Ifan Jones when she was twenty and after a year, they were married and had a baby girl. She was named Aeronwen and Susan... Susan died when Aeronwen was four trying to protect her daughter from an escaped animal."
Jack reached out and placed a hand on the Doctor's shaking shoulder as the Doctor refused to look away from the ceiling. He continued speaking, ignoring the way his voice cracked slightly everytime he mentioned Susan's name; or Aeronwen's. "Aeronwen grew up without a mother, but she turned out alright; the TARDIS tells me that she met a nice boy when she was eighteen – a little young in my opinion, but I have no right to judge do I? – His name was Llewellyn; Welsh, again. They had a child not long after they met; born on 28th August 1983."
Jack frowned in confusion for a moment before his features changed to a look of surprise and shock. "August 28th 1983?" He repeated just in case he hadn't heard correctly. The Doctor looked at him now, his face drawn, pale and so very haunted that Jack wanted to flinch and draw back away from the Time Lord. Jack stared in silence as the Doctor nodded at him in affirmative before his eyes sought out the ceiling again as though it held the answer to all his problems.
"They died in a car crash a year after the child was born and the child was adopted by another family that wanted children. Their surname was Jones; same as the child's own but they were no relation – pure coincidence." The Doctor almost whispered but his voice carried around the main control room of the TARDIS with the ease of decades of whispering just loud enough for his voice to carry across a large room. "I should have known the moment I looked at him..."
"What?" Jack asked as he watched the Time Lord run a hand through his semi-sentient hair in tired frustration. "There's no way you could've known-"
"Nonsense Jack! I should be able to recognise my own family for crying out loud!" The Doctor exclaimed in sudden anger as his gaze snapped onto the ex-Time Agent. "I didn't think that she could have survived the fire..." As quickly as the anger in the Doctor's movements came it departed and he collapsed against the control console of the TARDIS looking heart-broken.
"What fire Doctor? What do you mean?" Jack risked asking as he frowned and took a step towards the Doctor. He reached out a hand again to try and offer some form of reassurance but the Doctor's words stopped him.
"The Daleks attacked in the 22nd Century. David Campbell was part of the freedom fighters battling against them. Susan fell in love with him and I left her there after the Daleks were defeated. I thought she'd be safe... but something went wrong... there was a fire and I-" The Doctor swallowed as a tear rolled down his cheek. "I thought she died along with David and others who were trapped in the flames." The Doctor looked at Jack with such desperation that Jack felt like he was being physically hit by a truck. "I searched for her Jack! I couldn't find her... I thought that if the TARDIS couldn't find her then she had to be... she- she had to be... d-dead..."
The Doctor slid bonelessly to the floor of the control room and Jack hurried over to him. Crouching down so that he was level with the Doctor's face Jack reached out and tilted the Doctor's face towards his own. "Doctor." Jack said quietly, intensely. "Do you believe that your Granddaughter Susan was Ianto's Grandmother? Deep down Doctor, in those hearts of yours do you believe that?" Jack stared intently into the Doctor's brown eyes, searching for something that he could use as evidence to support the Doctor's suggestions.
The Doctor stared at Jack for a long moment before turning his focus inwards onto his own thoughts and feelings. He searched through every memory he had of his dear, sweet, young, Susan and through the more recent memories he had of Ianto Jones... he searched through the myriad of information the TARDIS was flooding his mind with; all the past events in Ianto's life, in his mother's life, in Susan's before she... before she died. He took it all in and with every fibre of his being he realised that there was no way on Gallifrey that there could be any other explanation for it all. Taking a deep breath the Doctor's focus returned to the external world and he stared back at Jack, his own gaze intense, focused and determined.
"I believe Ianto is my great-great-grandson Jack, I believe it so much Jack that I'd bet all the memories of Gallifrey in the universe on it." The Doctor intoned with fierce belief and Jack stared at the Doctor, taking in this sudden, dramatic and determined change in the Time Lord.
"I believe you Doctor." Jack said slowly and he rose to his feet, holding out a hand to help the Doctor up – which he took. "Now we've just got to see how Ianto'll take it." Jack added and the Doctor froze as though he hadn't thought of that until now. Jack stared at the Doctor for a moment before realising that the Doctor was looking at someone standing behind him and he turned around slowly, already knowing who it would be.
There, standing and staring at them in silent disbelief was Ianto Jones. The Doctor's great-great-grandson.
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'Where did she go? Actually strike that question; why did she go?' Ianto thought as he stood with his back still pressed against the wall of his room. "Uh..." He said out loud as he looked around himself in confusion. He waited, barely moving and barely breathing, as he strained every sense he had – and even his mind – in a bid to find out what had just happened and why. Just when he was starting to relax and consider the notion that it had all been his imagination, the door to his room opened slowly and the corridor lights flashed in the form of green arrows pointing towards the control room; at least, he thought it was the control room since he didn't know if this wasn't some trick of the TARDIS' to get him lost forever inside the bowels of the ship. Just as he was considering ignoring the corridor lights the entire floor of his room tipped and he went flying through the door, banging into the wall surprisingly lightly – especially since he should have broken his nose when he impacted with the wall; he pressed his fingers against the wall and realised that the TARDIS had softened it so it was like colliding with a giant cushion. 'How nice of you.' He mused silently as he straightened himself out and began following the flashing arrows.
"When in Rome..." He muttered to himself as he walked along the corridors warily alert for anything out of the ordinary – excluding the rather odd occurrence of the swimming pool being in the library which Ianto just wasn't going to get into because that was just... oddly normal for the TARDIS. Heck, he wouldn't be surprised if he found the garden in the lounge and the bathroom in the sauna.
"Come into my parlour said the spider to the fly." He muttered to himself as a door at the end of the corridor he was walking down opened in preparation for him. "I promise to lure you in and then tie you and eat your innards with a smile on my twisted face." He added darkly as he stepped through the door into... the main control room of the TARDIS where he saw Jack and the Doctor speaking.
Just as he was about to reveal his presence he heard the Doctor speak. "Okay. A long time ago, and I mean a very long time, I had a granddaughter who used to travel with me."
Standing just inside the control room of the TARDIS, Ianto listened to the Doctor's story with dumb disbelief; it couldn't be possible, it just wasn't possible. There was no way, no bloody way that it could be possible. He wasn't... they weren't... his mam wasn't... his grandmother wasn't... Oh God!
Ianto was still standing there, in absolute disbelief when he heard the Doctor respond to Jack's question with an emphatically strong. "I believe Ianto is my great-great-grandson Jack, I believe it so much Jack that I'd bet all the memories of Gallifrey in the universe on it."
It was so strong... so emotional... and it spoke of such loss, such desperation that it made Ianto feel sick to know that he was the focal point, the reason behind it. And it got even worse when he heard Jack's response.
"I believe you Doctor." Ianto heard Jack's voice echo around the TARDIS' control room but he couldn't process it. It was too much for him to hear, too much for him to bear. "Now we've just got to see how Ianto'll take it."
Ianto already knew how he'd take it. Not well.
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Amazing. I would say it was impossible if I hadn't scoured every single particle of the universe looking for any vestige of information that could help explain this mystery. Absolutely amazing. I suppose I should have realised it sooner than Jack did; but perhaps I'm getting old, or maybe I was a little side-tracked by a unwilling mind. Maybe it was a range of factors that distracted me enough for this... this impossibility to slip through my awareness until now.
I had doubted Susan had survived the fire also; but only because I could find no trace of her after, or during, the inferno. But I had discovered a reason for that; a surprising and incredibly reckless reason – it was oddly reminiscent of my dear Doctor's behaviour, I found myself quite enjoying the unpredictability with which Susan acted. She came across a Time Agent – not one Jack knows of course – who's Vortex Manipulator she 'liberated' and she used it to travel to the last known moment in time that she'd seen her grandfather. Only she got the city wrong and the Manipulator shorted out before she could jump again.
Susan isn't an idiot, she has the same intelligence as my dear Doctor, however she doesn't enjoy using technology – least of all 51st Century human technology; why that is I don't know and I suspect the Doctor doesn't know either, but it doesn't really matter anymore does it?
She was stuck in the 20th Century, in Cardiff amusingly enough where she was found by a young local – though he wasn't actually a local of Cardiff but rather of Wales itself – and she was taken in by his family who treated her like an adopted daughter. She adapted to the 20th Century and soon enough she married the young local and had a child. And the Doctor's explained the rest. Kind of.
But it basically all culminates in the fact that this... boy... this wonderful, magnificent, impossible boy, is the Doctor's descendent. His great-great-grandson. Ianto Jones. How amusing is it that 'Ianto' is the diminutive of 'Ifan' which is Welsh for 'John' and 'Jones' is the most common surname in Wales, just like 'Smith' is the most common surname in England. Some would call it coincidence, others; destiny. I simply call it, fantastically brilliant.
To be Continued...
In the next instalment;
Ianto gets a real explanation from the Doctor and an apology too
Jack reconciles with the hurt Time Lord baby
And the TARDIS finally gets into Ianto's head!
Stay tuned for all of that kiddies! :D
Kasey