Torchwood Is My Heart

Chapter 1

12th June 2014

I look down at the tiny baby in my arms and smile. That’s all. No words form. Just an oversized smile.Jack’s still rather pale after the surgery, but Martha is happy that both baby and father will be in perfect health in a few days. Jack looks up at me and smiles, and I can see already that our daughter looks more like him than me.

Astrid Diana Harkness, my perfect baby daughter.

She has what looks like more of Jack’s face shape, but we’re both convinced that she’s going to have my button nose. Jones family trait, that is. It’s been passed on for generations. According to Jack, she will have his good looks.

Very few people have seen her so far. She is six days old, but was actually due tomorrow. The only people who have visited are the Torchwood team (if you can call that visiting, it’s only climbing down a ladder…) plus John and Rhys. I’m not truly sure why he came, as he doesn’t particularly like Jack or me. But then again, I think Gwen just dragged him along to be polite.

Scarlett is certainly intrigued by this strange, screaming creature that smells of milk. She hasn’t tried to bite Astrid or anything, but will sometimes put her paws up on the side of the crib and stare down into it. I think my pup is about two, so she’s out of the chewing-everything-in-sight phase, which is a major relief.

I don’t think Myfanwy or Blue really care much about her, they just float around in the ceiling as always, and often screech if Gwen falls asleep at her desk. They’re good like that. The Torchwood eyes in the sky, my guard pterodons. We even put cameras on them sometimes, if we want a night-time shot of Cardiff’s skyline.

Looking down at Astrid, I do worry sometimes. Will I be a good dad? Will she like Torchwood? Will something bad happen? Will she get bullied for having two dads?

As I look at Jack again, I see his face flicker. That tiny glimpse of sadness that I have to pretend to not see. The look that tells me what he’s really feeling; he will have to watch us die and just keep on living. And as I now know, him seeing me die last time broke him, enough so that he trekked across multiple universes just to find one where he could still be with me.