Intergalactic Reunion

[aviv_b_artwork]

A Schmoop Bingo Story
Author: Aviv_b
Fandom:  Torchwood
Schmoop:  Reunion
Title: Intergalactic Reunion
Words: 1565
Rating: PG/PG-13
Characters:  Jack/OCs Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
Summary: Jack attends a reunion.

A/N: An AU story. Set far, far in the future. Oh, and everybody at TW3 lived until old age and died of natural causes, including Tosh, Owen and Ianto. No Grey, no John Hart, no CoE, no Alice or other descendants of Jack’s on Earth.

He arrived just as the party was starting. He hadn’t been to one of these in…well…several centuries actually. And that would be both real time and past time.

That was the thing about time travel; you always had to remember whether you were in your chronological present or your past or future present. He thought there was some type of past-perfect participle present but couldn’t recall exactly what that was.

He looked around the room to see if he recognized anyone. Not a familiar face in the room. A few Plurib-Penna were standing in one corner preening with superiority. Yeah, superior, all right, he thought, it was cleaning up the feathers afterwards that were such a pain. Still the Time Agency couldn’t be faulted for not being a diversity employer. Several Geminveni entered the room, but no, not Smynor who he had worked with when they had traveled to the 35^th Century to stop an intergalactic terrorist plot from the future against New Earth.

Good old Smynor, they’d had some great times together. He sighed. Smynor was really good and old. He thought he remembered Smynor saying s/he was seven hundred years old – and that was young for a Geminveni. As for good, well it wasn’t for nothing that the Geminveni were referred to as the double your pleasure race. Yeah, two of everything, and both sexes in one alien. And very, very flexible bodies as he recalled.

Some Reunion. He was beginning to regret coming. After his stay on Earth for several hundred years, he thought it might be nice to catch up with some old friends. But the Time Agency’s Intergalactic Reunion of 5300 didn’t seem to be a big draw. He snorted to himself. The only reunion they ever had was always held on the same day in 5300 Earth-standard time so everyone could attend no matter where they were in the galaxy or at what point in the time stream. Oh, some of the attendees were different every reunion, but it was always held at the same fixed point in time.

And then he heard a voice. A loud, swaggering, sexy voice accompanying an equally loud, swaggering, sexy body. “Thank the goddess,” he thought. “Someone I know.”

Jack Harkness (as he had been known on Earth) watched as the man entered the room with a beautiful, almost translucent humanoid Glaxaetor on each arm. It had been several hundred years, give or take, since they had seen each other. Jack walked over toward him but the man seemed to be unaware of his presence. Finally, when he was only a few feet away, the man’s head snapped up and he stared at Jack. He began to smile.

“It’s Mr. Boelicious! Well isn’t this a nice surprise,” he said. He paused to whisper something to the beautiful Glaxaetors who smiled, kissed him on both cheeks and walked away. “Are you still on that little backwater class three planet over in the Milky Way?” he asked Jack he led them over to a quiet table and signaled to the waiter for drinks.

Jack found it surprisingly hard to speak. “No, I left there in the late 21^st century after the last of my original Torchwood team died. Didn’t seem much point in hanging around.  Earth was ready to face the challenges of the future and I’d only be in the way.”

“Torchwood. That’s right, such a quaint name for a group of alien fighters. So what have you been doing the last hundred years? And are you still going by that pathetically common name…what was it?

“It was Jack, Captain Jack Harkness. I’m still using it. Not like anyone here is going to remember me from 21^st century Earth.” He frowned at the bright red drink the waiter had put in front of him. “Just traveling around;” he continued, “haven’t really found anything or anyone that made me want to stick around,” he said as his eyes filled with tears.

“Shhh, I missed you too,” the other man said leaning over to give Jack a small chaste kiss.

“It’s been too long…uh…Gunther, are you still using Admiral Gunther Elman as your name?”

“Funny thing.  I’ve been using Captain John Hart as my identity for the last few decades. The Time Agency really should update their manual on naming conventions. Though it does mean we’re at relatively the same place in ‘real’ time. So, tell me, are you interested in rejoining the Agency and reforming our partnership perhaps?” John inquired. “I have some choice assignments coming up. Interested in checking out some new worlds with me? Just think, you, me, sex, the universe; everything you could want.”

“Yeah, maybe. But right now I just want to have a few drinks with an old friend.”

“Ouch! I’d rather you called me your future lover, or even your former lover, but I’ll settle for ‘old friend’ if I have to. Particularly if that might become friends with benefits.” John would have normally received a big smile from his former partner or a racy comeback but Jack just looked up sadly from the drink he was holding.

John had been observing Jack carefully and saw that something was different. He looked a bit older, but that was to be expected. It was probably close to two hundred years in real time since they had seen each other. But it was more than that. An aura of sadness surrounded Jack.

“What happened to you on that planet? I remember a carefree young man, the famous model, ‘The Face of Boe.’ Now you look more like ‘The Face of Woe.’”

“I see sarcasm still isn’t your strong point. It’s just that I lost someone very special to me on Earth.”

“Did you break Rule Number Four of the Time Agent’s Book of Commandments?” John asked in a shocked tone of voice.

Jack looked at him with a smile. “Yeah, I did. Violated it in the most spectacular fashion imaginable. ‘Never lose your heart anywhere out of your own real time.’ Sounds a lot easier than it is.”

John couldn’t help but be curious. “So what was she like?”

“He, actually. His name was Ianto Jones and he was the most amazing man I’d ever met. I never meant to fall in love; it started out as just some shagging, you know, a friendly exchange of fluids. But then, somehow, he got under my skin, burrowed his way in and the hole just won’t heal. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss hearing the sound of his beautiful voice, the smell of his incomparable coffee and the taste of his kisses.”

Jack continued telling John about his lover of over fifty years. John ordered several rounds of drinks for them both and drank them down in rapid succession. Jack left the rest of his drinks untouched. John drank those as well. When he finally finished recalling his last days with Ianto, John smiled.

“Well, first off, you with the same person for fifty years is astounding. I should be jealous. After all, I only got five years with you. And since that was stuck in a two-week time loop, we really never had a chance, did we?” John sighed.

Becoming more serious, John looked straight in to Jack’s eyes. “Secondly, it’s my duty to ask if you broke any of the first three Time Agency Commandments. Because there are some crimes that can be overlooked and some that I have to report to the Agency.”

Jack laughed. “No, no worries there. I didn’t procreate, I didn’t sleep with any of my ancestors and I didn’t reveal that I was or had been with the Time Agency.”

“Good,” John said letting out a breath, “I was worried for a minute that this evening might have an embarrassingly unpleasant termination. I mean it would pretty unusual to have someone arrested for violation of the space/time continuum at a Time Agency Reunion.”

“Now that we’ve taken care of the formalities, it seems to me you’ve come to the right place. You need meaningless sex and lots of it. I’m here…”

Jack snorted.

“What? I’m here and if I’m not mistaken, there’s a friend of yours over on the other side of the room who I think would be interested in joining us.”

Jack craned his head to see who John was referring to. The room had filled up quite a bit since he had sat down with John and at first glance he didn’t see anyone he recognized.

“Over there, on the right. Yeah, it’s your old partner Smynor. Looks pretty good for nine hundred years old. And funny thing, I was speaking to her/m earlier and s/he wondered if you might show up. Said something about the fun the three of us could have if you did. Come on Jack, can you think of anything better than some energetic sex with your two former partners? Shame Ianto Jones couldn’t be here, he sounds like a delicious bit of eye-candy. Do you think he’d want you to sit around moping for the rest of eternity?”

Jack realized that John was right. A hundred years of mourning was enough. And it wasn’t like he was going to forget Ianto; that would never happen. But Ianto had told him, practically ordered him, not to grieve forever. He thought back to those last days with Ianto. Old and frail, Jack had loved him as much as he had when Ianto was young and strong. And wasn’t that just like Ianto…always taking care of him even in his last moments. Ianto was right. It was time to live again.

A slow small smile grew on Jack’s face. “Well what are we waiting for?”

“Good question,” John said getting up from the table. “You coming?”

“I certainIy hope to be soon.”

“Good Answer.”