Torchwood( A Torchwood/Captain Jack Harkness Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Nineteen: The Only Choices We Have

We headed back to Torchwood and sat with Gwen.

"Where did you meet Estelle?" She asked.

"The Astoria Ballroom, a few weeks before Christmas. She was seventeen years old and she was beautiful. I loved her at first sight...but nothing lasted back then. Promises were always being broken. Estelle...to have to die like that." He took a sip of yet more alcohol.

"Those petals in Goodson's mouth. Where had you seen them before? Was that during the war?"

"I just knew that Estelle had left them for us, to invite us to her seminar." I said.

"It wasn't during the war. It was long before then, on a troop train. Fifteen men with me in charge. Everyone happy. Too happy. Too noisy. Then we hit a tunnel. We thought some birds had flown in through an open window. Then came the silence...and when we came out of the tunnel, all fifteen men were dead. They'd been suffocated. My squad. Men I was responsible for."

"You never told me that." I said quietly.

"But why were the men killed?"

"About a week earlier some of them had got drunk. Drove a truck through a village, ran over a child, killed her. That child was a chosen one."

"But wait, there's still one thing I don't understand. Why didn't they kill me?" I asked.

"They weren't after you...they only wanted Estelle." Jack told me.

"Well...I'm gonna head out. Are you guys sure you're ok?" We both nodded, and she grabbed her purse and left.

"Are you?" Jack added. I closed my eyes, sighing.

"I'm tired of being asked that. I shouldn't have to be asked that every darn day."

"I thought we were doing fine, and now you're snapping at me?!" He asked, exasperated. I shot him a look.

"I wasn't. Not trying to anyways.  So what, no matter what I say now sounds angry to you?"

"Well you haven't exactly offered anything else have you?"  My eyes went to the ceiling, shaking my head.

"You know what, forget this.  Clearly we can't speak cordially to each other."

"So what do you plan to do then?" He asked, knocking back his entire glass.

"If we can't speak cordially to each other, then we may as well not speak at all." I told him, getting up and walking to my room.

"Diane..." I didn't stop walking or turn around. I just went to my room and slammed the door. I slammed my hand into the wall, tugging at my hair frustrated. After a few minutes there was a pounding on the door. I whipped it open.

"What?!" Jack stood there, taken aback.

"Gwen needs us. Fairies were at her flat."

"Oh gosh." I grabbed my coat, pushing past him and getting into the van.

"I'm sorry..." He said as we started driving. I just peered out the window. "I really screwed things up, didn't I?" 

"Yeah, you could say that."

~~~

We walked in to see Gwen tidying up her trashed flat.

"In the whole of my working life, I have never had to bring the bad times home with me. I have never had to feel threatened in my own home. But not anymore, 'cause this means these creatures can invade my life whenever they feel like it, and I am scared, guys. What chance did Estelle have, what chance do any of us have?" We didn't say anything, and gave her a chance to cool down. "You said these creatures protect their own."