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aviv_b_artworkTITLE: Chapter 73 - Silver Anniversary
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 73- PG
CHARACTERS:: Ianto, Aaron, Jack, Jonathan, the Brigadier
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 1945
SUMMARY: It's been 25 years since the Battle at Canary Wharf. Ianto and Aaron reflect on the changes they've seen.
Title is from: Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event. Oscar Wilde
Previous Chapter here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/42270.html
Ianto's Journey begins here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/1972.html
All Chapter are linked.
Twenty-five years. Ianto couldn’t believe it had been twenty-five years since the Battle at Canary Wharf. Since then they had defeated the 456 with a massive biofeedback loop, dealt with the Slitheen trying twice more to take over the British government, not to mention a host of new species coming through the rift. Earth was still off-limits to more advanced alien species under the Shadow Proclamation, but every now and then some group would get the idea that a little peek at primitive Earth wouldn’t do any harm. And usually they were right, but when that peek turned into a crash landing or brought a disease that life on Earth had no resistance to, or changed the timeline, Torchwood and UNIT were there to straighten things out.
Ianto was only twenty-three at the time of the attack, a very young employee for Torchwood and the youngest by far of any of the survivors. There were only two other survivors both in their seventies and now retired from working for UNIT. Ianto wondered if any of the other initial survivors, the ones who chose retcon or were admitted to long-term psychiatric facilities were still alive. Surprisingly, Jack wouldn’t tell him.
‘Oh come on Jack, what would be the harm in letting me know?’
“Ianto, I made a promise to the late Queen that I would never discuss it and I won’t. You’re not the only one who can keep a secret.”
There was some talk of another formal memorial service to commemorate the anniversary, but given that there were now only three ‘public’ survivors left and a dwindling number of family members who kept vigil each anniversary at the monument to the casualties, the British government decided that it was best not to call attention to the matter.
It was an unusually warm evening when Ianto, Aaron, Stephen and the Brigadier attended the candlelight vigil at Canary Wharf in July of 2031. Jack did not attend as there was concern that his presence would reignite speculation on whether or not aliens had been involved. By now, many people accepted the fact that there was life on other planets. There had been too many reports worldwide of strange creatures and spaceships over the years for the possibility to be ignored. World governments were split on what to do, the US refused outright to inform its citizens as it would go against the beliefs of the powerful right wing religious lobby, while the UK took a more neutral approach with Parliament pronouncing the possibility of life on other planets.
The small gathering at Canary Wharf seemed sadder with only a handful of people attending. The other two survivors and their families were there along with a handful of relatives of the casualties. Most were quite elderly, and some like the Brigadier were in wheelchairs. A UNIT chaplain read a few prayers, the names of the dead and missing were read and the three remaining survivors were acknowledged.
“So sad,” the Brigadier remarked afterwards. “All those people died because of a few people’s hubris and lack of caution. Such a waste.”
Ianto’s thoughts were of a more personal nature. ‘I cannot imagine what its going to feel like when I’m the last man standing. Literally.’
Aaron squeezed his hand tightly. ‘It beats the alternative,’ Aaron pushed out.
‘Yeah, you’re right,’ he thought.
‘At every anniversary I imagine what my co-workers would be doing now if they had lived,' Ianto told the others. 'The ones who were about my age anyway. Would they have married, had children, gone on to distinguished careers at Torchwood or UNIT or the government?’
“And Charlie,” Aaron added.
‘Especially Charlie.’
***
Just a few months later, a phone call came for Ianto and Aaron in the middle of the night. The Brigadier had died. Since being confined to a wheel chair, the Brigadier’s health had deteriorated rapidly; his mind had remained as clear as ever but it seemed that his body was unable to sustain his existence. The period following the Canary Wharf anniversary was especially difficult. The Brigadier had kidney stones and then when they were dealt with, his blood sugar shot out of control. After that he had a series of bladder infections, followed by severe fatigue. Stephen was beside himself. Aaron was staying over with them several nights a week to help out and give Stephen a break. But just when they’d get one problem under control, something else would crop up. Finally, the Brigadier came down with a drug resistant strain of bacterial pneumonia. He was in the hospital for several weeks before he succumbed to the infection.
Almost the entire family including Ronit and the Brigadier’s second wife were able to come in for a final good-bye. Bryan couldn’t be located in time and if the Brigadier was upset about his absence he kept the traditional stiff upper lip about it. Ianto was surprised that while Ronit was very supportive of Stephen, Candice (Stephen’s mother) was not supportive of Aaron or even Stephen very much.
‘Ok, what was going on with Stephen’s mother? I can understand her ignoring us, but Stephen was really grieving and she wasn’t at all helpful.’
“From what I remember and what Stephen’s told me over the years, Candice is a very unemotional cold person. Bryan was always her baby, but I wonder if she has any contact with him.
‘You know what’s really a shame? The Brigadier has a bunch of grandchildren in Australia that he never got to meet. But he never seemed to show much interest in them.’
“Yeah and Stephen and I didn’t exactly add to the family tree, did we? I don’t know the details, but once Bryan moved away he j.just decided that he didn’t want anything to do with the family. I’m not aware of any major falling out, but he decided that we were all so bourgeois and middle-class, which is odd because he wasn’t much of a rebel growing up.”
‘Maybe he felt he couldn’t compete with you and Stephen in the rebellion department.’
Aaron snorted. “That must be it; he was probably j.j.jealous that he wasn’t a long-haired gay marine or a bi-sexual alcoholic computer programmer.”
‘Aaron, that’s terrible!’ Ianto scolded.
“No I’m serious, actually. I think he couldn’t understand how Father could love us as much as him when he was the nice straight son and Stephen and I were so…uh...embarrassing.”
‘So you think he had so many children to make up for you and Stephen?’
“In part. I don’t know how he got involved with them, but once he joined that Quiverfull movement in Australia and bought into the whole ‘making warriors for god’ and being ready for the apocalypse nonsense he didn’t want anything to do with his ‘deviant’ family. So while I think that Father would have liked some grandchildren, I don’t think he wanted anything to do with a bunch of religious fanatics.”
‘Well Bryan certainly has a quiver full and more; Talk about being fruitful and multiplying…’
“That’s certainly true but I think he may have, however, missed the part about actually supporting those children. Three ex-wives and a slew of children; I somehow doubt that he’s paying alimony or child-support on the lot of them. He’s never seemed to have a steady j.j.job, still lives in a caravan, not exactly a great success story.”
‘Details, details.’
The Brigadier didn’t want any sort of formal funeral, so after cremation his remains were laid to rest with the other Hamilton’s in the family plot. Only Stephen, Aaron and Ianto were there to watch the actual internment.
Ianto wasn’t surprised when Aaron wanted to linger for a few minutes on his own. Much to everyone’s astonishment, when Geoffrey died, the Brigadier insisted that he be buried as part of the family. Ianto and Aaron already had agreed that when they died that Aaron would be placed next to Geoffrey with Ianto on his other side.
“You guys actually talked about how you want to be buried?” Stephen asked in disbelief as they waited for Aaron.
‘I think Aaron was concerned that I wouldn’t want to be where Geoffrey was laid to rest. But that’s daft really; when I’m dead, I won’t really care where my remains are, will I?’
“You have a point. But you’re not going to be cremated?”
‘Ronit asked us not to and we agreed.’ Seeing the confusion on Stephen’s face, Ianto continued, ‘It’s a Jewish thing, I could see the whole idea of cremation really upset her. And I know she probably won’t be alive when we die, but we promised.’
“I suppose you already have music and everything picked out,” Stephen teased. Seeing the embarrassed look Ianto gave him Stephen laughed adding, “Honestly, you two are the most anal retentive couple I have ever met.”
‘The Hamilton-Jones family leaves nothing to chance.’
***
Dr. Martin’s team continued to refine the rift return projections and by early 2034 the targeted 95% accuracy rate was achieved. Tosh’s team continued to struggle with the linear progression analysis and was only able to raise the accuracy of determining from where and when an unknown species came from through the rift to a little over 80%. New major rift openings developed in India and Botswana which meant setting up UNIT/Torchwood field offices in those locations. Oddly enough, the original rift in Cardiff seemed to be much quieter.
‘I wonder if there are only a finite number of rift incursions that can occur during any given period of time. So more activity at one rift site is balanced out by less at another,’ Ianto said at the monthly Director’s meeting.
“That’s a really interesting idea,” Jack responded. Who here has time to look into that?” The ten Torchwood London Directors rolled their eyes in unison. “Ianto, do you think Aaron would like to take that on as a consulting project?”
Ianto agreed to ask Aaron who was quite enthusiastic about the project. “It’s really j.just data analysis, but it is an interesting concept and would actually make some sense. What I can’t understand is why the Earth has suddenly become the focus of breaks in the space/time continuum.”
‘I don’t know, but it’s very worrisome. More troubling than aliens coming to earth through space. That at least we can track and plan for. The rift is still throwing things at us randomly and even if we can determine where and when they originated from we can only do that after the fact. Predictive abilities are still limited to general levels of activity.’
“Which makes the first manned mission to Mars even more critical. We’ve got to have a base off Earth if something catastrophic happens.”
‘Try telling that to the Americans.’
“The European Union’s going to have to push forward on its own or in conjunction with the Chinese. If they wait for the Americans to work through all their political divisions over aliens, they’ll never get the program started.”
‘Well they’d better. I have a strange feeling Jack isn’t going to be with us that much longer. It’s almost like he’s driving us toward a deadline. He knows something big is coming and I have a feeling that he’s not going to be here to help us through it.’
Aaron was extremely worried about that statement. Who would look after Ianto if something happened to him? On the pretense of needing to get some technical assistance from Jack he made an appointment with him for the following week. They had a number of things to discuss, none of which involved alien invasions or rift activity.
He just hoped that Jack had really become the man he appeared to be.
Chapter 74 here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/43828.html
