Written
by Helen Raynor
Directed
by Andy Goddard
Music
by Murray Gold and Ben Foster
Other
Music by Moby – One Of These Mornings, The Beta Band – Squares
Hurrying down the wooden
staircase of an old building, Harriet Derbyshire armed with her paranormal
detection equipment looks up as Gerald Kneale peers over the railing at the top
of the stairs, as keen as she is to locate ghosts.
“Nothing
so far, you get anything on that?”
“Well hold on a tick.”
She replies checking the square wooden box hung around her neck, with a
clear gauge indicator and switches and knobs and a lever on the right hand side
that Harriet turns. “Yes, follow me
Gerald.” She replies hurrying down the stairs to locate their quarry. At the bottom of the stairs Gerald stops and
looks over at Harriet.
“Well?”
The paranormal detection equipment
crackles with static. “Pretty close.” Harriet declares and points off along the
corridor. “This way.” A door closes
loudly behind them and Gerald quickly pulls Harriet out of the way as a nurse
startles him. The nurse herself is
equally as startled and drops her towels in fright.
“Don’t
panic!” Gerald replies.
“I
thought you were a ghost.” The nurse
replies. “Scared the wits out of me.”
“Sorry, thought you’d be used to us creeping around by now.” He says helping her up with her towels.
“Sorry, thought you’d be used to us creeping around by now.” He says helping her up with her towels.
“Have
you seen any recently...ghosts?”
Harriet asks the nurse.
“I’ve
seen three today.” She admits. “It’s
getting worse.
“Well...” Gerald hands the
last towel to her. “You’re a very brave girl.” He
smiles.
“Thank you sir.”
Harriet clears her throat. “Where
did you see them?”
“The ward.”
Gerald and Harriet
follow the nurse into the ward in St Teilo’s Military Hospital. It’s 1918 and the hospital is busy with injured
soldiers from the Great War.
“Mind
half of this lot see things anyway.”
The nurse tells them as they walk towards a sleeping young soldier.
“Now
shot to pieces, poor chap.”
“As soon as they’re better they’ll be sent
back to the front.” The nurse tells them sadly looking back at
the young man in the bed.
“On
Marshall Haig’s order, every position must be held to the last man. Each one of us must fight on to the
end...whenever that is.” Harriet
says although Gerald clearly doesn’t share her views.
Light’s begin to flicker in the ward and
the paranormal equipment goes off the scale.
“Gerald!” Harriet says a
little alarmed. Gerald notes the
readings on Harriet’s device and they head off in search of the paranormal
activity just as the soldier in the bed wakes up.
Downstairs in a back room of the radiology
department, the static white noise is louder and the stronger yet still no sign
of an apparition.
“We’re
right on top of it.” Harriet
declares somewhat frustrated. The room begins to tremble and shake and Gerald
pulls Harriet close to him for protection.
Something is coming!
Suddenly a blinding white light pierces
the room forcing both officers to squint against the light until it begins to
dim revealing two people huddled against a far wall on the opposite side of the
room. Gerald identifies a soldier half
dressed in uniform and pyjamas and a young Asian woman beside him wearing a dark
leather jacket.
“Hello?” He calls to them.
“Tell him.”
Toshiko urges the man beside her.
“Tell
us what?” Gerald asks.
“Tommy.
Tell him what to do.” Toshiko begs.
“You’re the only one who can stop
this.” The young soldier seems
reluctant and a little fearful. “If you don’t it’s the end of everything!”
Toshiko pleads glancing towards the two people for a moment. “Please
Tommy.”
Tommy scrambles to his feet and demands
that Gerald and Harriet go back into the ward.
“Take
me, I’m in the ward in 1918, you have to take me so I can be here now. Just take me.” He yells to the two bewildered people.
Doing as they’re told, Harriet and Gerald
return to the bed of the once sleeping soldier now very much awake.
“Tommy,
I think you’d better come with us.”
Offers Gerald.
“Why?”
“I’m Gerald, this is Harriet, we’ll look
after you.”
“Who are you?”
Tommy asks nervously from his bed. Gerald and Harriet exchange smiles
before looking back at Tommy.
“We’re Torchwood!”
It’s Friday the 20th
and Toshiko is getting ready for work.
Today is a special day and deciding what to wear, Toshiko adds the
finishing touches and leaves for work.
Jack changes the date on
his old fashioned desk calendar as Gwen enquires after the photograph of the
uniformed soldier on Jack’s desk.
“Thomas
Reginald Brockless.” Jack tells her.
“Tommy.” Ianto adds.
“24
years old.”
“Sort of.” Ianto adds,
smiling.
“Well
he’s either 24 or he’s not.” Gwen says.
Jack rises from his seat. “Depends
how you work it out.”
“Alright, when was he born?”
“1894.”
Jack replies as he heads out of his office followed by Ianto. For a moment Gwen smiles, considering it a
joke, it soon becomes apparent that it isn’t.
She hastens after them.
“Owen are you ready?”
Jack calls as Owen hurries to his seat.
“Yeah,
nearly.” He turns as he sees Toshiko
arrive. “Is that a dress Tosh?”
“I do believe it is Owen.”
Toshiko smiles broadly.
“God, where is he?” Gwen asks following
Jack to the crypt.
“Been
here 90 years that’s longer than any of us and you.”
“Torchwood
used cryogenics in the Victorian times.”
Toshiko tells her as Jack pulls out the drawer. “They
froze Tommy in 1918.”
“So he’s 24 or 114 years old. I know which one I’d choose.”
Jack says staring down at the frozen soldier.
“We
have to wake him up every 12 months or so, well defrost him, for one day only
then back in the freezer.” Owen
tells her as he prepares to awaken Tommy.
“Why?”
“Check he still works!”
Ianto replies keeping a visual record.
“One
day we’re gonna need him.” Announces
Jack from the entrance to the medical room.
Owen prepares the syringe of adrenalin to
restart Tommy’s heart. He glances around
to see if everyone’s ready and fires the first course into Tommy’s neck. Owen
feels for a pulse but there isn’t one.
“Come on Tommy.”
He mutters. Jack looks on
concerned. Owen brings over the
defibrillator when the vital signs are still at zero.
“Charging
200 CLEAR.” He shouts before
shocking Tommy with little to no effect. “Charging 360 CLEAR!” He yells shocking Tommy again, this time with
a reaction. Tommy awakens gasping and
disorientated. He catches Owen with a
left hook as many hands rush to calm the young man.
Through the cacophony of voices Tommy
identifies the voice of Toshiko and hones in on her. She drops her authoritative voice opting for
softer tones.
“It’s
me, Toshiko.”
“Toshiko.” Tommy replies.
“Remember.”
“It’s harder every year.”
Notes Owen as he rubs his mouth.
“Good
left hook though.” Ianto says.
“Do
you know where you are?”
Tommy takes a moment to view his
surroundings, sitting up on the bed. “Torchwood.”
“That’s right.”
“Is it that time again?”
Toshiko nods. “Blimey.”
“How are you feeling?”
He coughs. “I could murder a cup of tea.”
Owen smiles and claps him on the shoulder,
then all eyes rest on Ianto.
In the Boardroom the
entire team and Tommy sit down to a Full English Breakfast. Ianto pours out the tea.
“Don’t
expect best China.” He says.
“I’m starving.” Tommy says.
“Visitors only.”
Ianto adds.
“Tuck
in, there’s enough to feed an Army.”
Tommy insists. “Nice dress.” He says to Toshiko noticing it properly now.
“Thank you.”
She smiles.
“You’ve got slacks underneath, is it that
cold outside?”
“Fashion this year.”
Says Ianto.
“1968
they were mini skirts. Thought all my Christmasses
had come at once. Shame they haven’t
made a comeback.” Tommy remarks to
Owen who grins.
“I
still don’t get it, why is he here?”
Gwen asks Jack over breakfast.
“Like
I said, one day we’re going to need him.”
“And pull to me!”
Owen instructs Tommy in the Medical room after breakfast as he grips
Tommy’s arms for one of the many tests he would run that day. “That’s
good, seems fine. I just need to
er...take a few...” Owen reads through
his notes.
“Blood samples.”
Tommy remembers.
“We
wake you up once a year just to stick needles in to you, it’s not fair.”
“Once a year to you, it’s every day for me.”
“So while we wait...”
Toshiko says.
“Tommy
Reginald Brockless, born 1894, February 7th, in Blacken,
Manchester. Private officer in 10th
West Yorkshire Regiment.”
“Very good.”
Toshiko smiles happily.
“Only
son of Constance May Bassett, who died 1900 and Thomas Campbell Brockless, who
died June 1931 age 57, heart attack.”
He says sadly. “That’s right isn’t it?”
Toshiko nods. “Yes,
sorry.”
“It’s alright, I’ve never had much time to
get used to it.”
“St Teilo Hospital in 1918.” Jack says staring at a brown and white
negative magnified on a back lit screen on his desk. “A fracture in the Rift means
that the two slices of time are erupting into each other.” He tells Gwen.
“A
slice of 1918 and...”
“A slice of the future, but we don’t know
exactly what slice. It could be
tomorrow, it could be in 100 years time.”
“What will happen?”
Gwen asks.
“Chunks
of 1918 will start to appear at the hospital, a few at first then more and
more. When the time shift is complete
it’ll start a chain reaction, unless we stop it. Time shifts will start all
over the country, then all over the world.”
“But how does Tommy fit in?” Gwen
asks looking at an old ID of Tommy’s, as Jack keys in details to the locked
archives and pulls out a rusted red metal container.
“He
helps us stop it somehow.” Jack
hands the container to Gwen. “Torchwood 1918 left us sealed orders.”
Walking towards the ceiling light to read
the inscription, Gwen reads it out loud.
“Eyes only documents FAO
Torchwood Commander overseeing Case 1918 TB.” She pauses a moment. “Tommy
Brockless.” Jack nods.
“Hmm.”
Gwen struggles unsuccessfully to open the
tin. “Ok, it’s stuck.”
“No it’s locked.”
“Where’s the key?”
“It’s a temporal lock, tied in with the Rift
frequencies at the hospital.” Jack replies.
Sighing Gwen puts the tin back on the
desk.
“When the Rift reaches completion, the box
will open and we’ll find out exactly what Tommy does.”
Jack tells Gwen as she changes the photo over on the back lit screen.
“But why would they keep us in the dark,
Jack?”
“Guess we’ll find that out too.”
Tommy enters Jack’s office in his new clothes,
some casual wear put together by Toshiko.
“Ta da!” she says.
“Seriously, what do you think?”
Tommy asks.
Gwen chooses her words carefully. “You
look like a film star.”
“Who, Charlie Chaplin?”
Gwen laughs.
Gwen and Jack watch from the doorway to
the office as Toshiko and Tommy get ready to leave the Hub together.
“Jack, have you got any more of those pretty
boys in the freezer?”
“Hands of missy, Tosh got there first.”
“Thanks for holding the fort while I’m
out.” Toshiko tells Owen as she gets ready to leave.
“That’s ok.”
He replies. “Be careful.”
“Where are you off to?”
Gwen calls over.
“A
drink, film maybe a pizza.” Toshiko
replies.
“Have a lovely time.”
“Bye!” Jack calls.
“He’s
a frozen soldier from 1918.” Gwen
says watching them go.
Jack watches them leave then shrugs. “Nobody’s
perfect.”
Tommy runs on ahead of
Toshiko along the walkway towards the Norwegian Church. He wants to see as much as he can in his one
day of freedom. “I’ve only got one day, I want to see everything.” He tells Tosh as they make their way to the
white sculpture of Scott of the Antarctic.
“Captain
Scott sailed from here when he went off to the Antarctic.” Toshiko tells him.
“1910,
I was 16 at the time, the papers were full of it.” Tommy says slapping a hand on the mosaic
statue. “It took him two years to get there and he snuffed it.” He turns towards the harbour and wonders what
Toshiko has been doing since the last time he’d seen her.
“Oh,
this and that...work mostly.”
Tommy laughs as they walk towards the
harbour railings.
“What?”
“I knew you were going to say that. It’s what you always say. So, how’s the piano playing going, it’s what
you said last year remember? ‘Been learning
the piano.’” He mimics.
“I never got around to it.”
“I bet you never learnt Spanish neither?”
“I bought a book.”
Toshiko replies.
“Oh
aye, you made of money?”
“I haven’t got time.”
“You talk about your life like you’ve got no
control over it.” Tommy says.
“Well Torchwood is pretty much 24/7.”
Tommy frowns. “Er, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
“But you weren’t conscripted, I mean it’s
your choice right?”
“Yeah
I suppose it is.”
In the Hub, a photo of
two people sitting pretty for a photograph in the same building they were
currently in, stares back at Gwen and Ianto.
“He’s
a bit of alright.” States Gwen, eyeing up Gerald.
“He was the boss.”
Ianto informs her.
“Nothing changes.”
“She’s alright too.” Ianto admits.
“Harriet Derbyshire.”
“I wonder what happened to her.”
“She died a year after that was taken, 26
years old.” He replies.
“So
young.”
“They all were.”
Ianto says holding up a photo of another group of Torchwood officers. “Nothing
changes.”
Gwen gets up and decides to check out St.
Teilo hospital for herself, before she leaves she insists Ianto bloody well cheers
up.
Playing pool in a local
pub, Toshiko praises Tommy on his shot.
“You’re
still winning.” He points out.
“It’s
all just maths really.” She replies
poising to take the next shot. “Angles...velocity.” She sinks the ball into a pocket.
“Ahh,
we give you women the vote, equal rights and look what happens eh! So, er, got a boyfriend yet?” Tommy asks as Toshiko lines up her next
shot.
“You
sound like my mother.” She replies potting
the white and handing Tommy the cue.
“Ahh
so you haven’t then.”
“You
had a girlfriend.” Tosh says making
small talk. “In 1918?”
“Yeah, Ellie, courted for 2 years.”
“What happened?”
“I, er, stopped seeing her last time I was
on leave. The War changed me. I couldn’t just carry on as before.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Right pair we make.”
He jokes.
In the derelict hospital
Gwen makes her way through the unlit corridors towards an empty ward at the
end. A plaque hangs above the doorway
depicting nurses standing over the bed of a patient. Gwen hears the flapping of bird’s wings and
cooing in the rafters. She glances about
the room where windows beam in light from outside. Lamps hang from walls and begin to flicker on
and off. Gwen glances back around the
room standing stock still as she faces forward and sees an crippled soldier
with one leg, using two crutches, staring back at her. For a few moments neither moves.
“Hello?” Gwen calls. “I
said hello.” The soldier begins to move towards her, the crutches echoing
against the dirty polished floor. Gwen
steps back as he nears her, aware that despite her attempts to attract his
attention, he’s not stopping in his advancement. “If
you could just...” she screams as she backs up as far as she can and hits
the paper dispenser on the wall behind her and quickly covers her face.
The room is empty. Gwen quickly glances back down the corridor
but there is no sign of the man, so is it a ghost?
Gwen runs along the
corridors into another abandoned room after hearing a noise. Heart in her throat she carefully walks
towards the exit, distracted momentarily by birds flapping above her.
“Hello?” She calls as the lights begin to flicker
again. Every light in the room
flickers. There’s no answer and suddenly
the lights click off. Gwen glances
towards the clear plastic sheet as a door slams shut behind her and she’s
startled by three workmen in green safety hats.
“You alright love, you look as if you’ve
seen a ghost.”
Gwen laughs nervously,
clearly shaken.
“They’re knocking down the hospital?”
Jack says as he stands in the empty derelict ward with Gwen some time
later.
“Yep, that’s what they said. Could that trigger the time shift?”
“Could have; psychic trauma and Rift energy
could have charged it up like a battery.” Jack glances
around the room, getting a feel for the once busy ward. “1918
this room was full of wounded soldiers.”
He squats on the ground, placing his hand to the dirty polished floor,
closing his eyes as if feeling a sense of that time. “They
had four years of it.” He shakes his
head.
“Passchendaele, the Somme...a million British soldiers killed during the
Great War. It was like walking into
hell.” He stands up dusting the dirt
from his hand. “Believe me, I was there.”
He tells Gwen before patching into Owen’s Bluetooth back at the
Hub. “Owen, got anything?”
“All quiet out here, just that little spike
from earlier.” He reports back while checking the
computers. “Look this is more Tosh’s thing than mine, shall I give her a call?”
“Not yet, just keep watching.”
Jack insists. He and Gwen exit
the ward.
Tommy orders the next
round at the bar and is distracted by the News 24 programme telling of an Iraq
bomb that has killed 20 people, and Insurgents who have broken the ceasefire in
Basra. Toshiko sees the news also and
walks over to him at the bar.
“Iraq.” She says.
“Seems
like there’s always a war somewhere.”
“It’s
not exactly a war.”
“Looks
like one.” He replies. “The
first year they woke me up in 1919 they told me it was all over, we won. The War to end all wars, they said, then
three weeks later you had the 2nd World War...after all that.” Tommy looks away sickened by it. He pays for the drinks and carries them to
their table.
“Do
you ever wonder if we’re worth saving...the human race?” He asks her after a bit.
“Yes.” Toshiko replies. “I
think we’re worth saving, warts and all.” He smiles.
“What?” Toshiko asks.
Scratching the side of his
neck as if about to possibly embarrass himself he looks at Toshiko.
“I’d
do anything for you.” He says
bashfully. Toshiko blushes. “All
you have to say is, Tommy, you are my brave and handsome hero and I need you.” They laugh.
“Is
that all?” She teases.
“Whatever
it is, I’ll do it. I mean it.” Tommy suddenly feels a pain in his head.
“What
is it?”
“I don’t know, I just felt something.”
The wall to the hospital
ward is being dismantled with a lump hammer.
Jack and Gwen walk along
the corridor in the hospital when Jack is distracted by a noise. He slows to a halt and listens out for it as
Gwen calls his name. When she calls it
again he holds up his hand to quieten her voice, shushing her for good
measure. He looks at her, flicking his
head, indicating for her to continue up the corridor while he travels back the
way they came. He walks along a darkened
corridor and switches on his powerful torch, the beam bouncing along the walls. Suddenly he hears distinct voices and shines
the torch back up the way picking out a nurse wheeling a patient, who is singing
a wartime ditty while in his wheelchair.
They’re both from 1918.
“I
love their dimples that curls...tick tock wind up the clock and I start my day
over again...”
As the nurse and patient round a corner,
Owen comms Jack on the Bluetooth. “Jack, do you see anything as I’ve got
little mountain ranges this end.”
“Yeah, we’ve got a few ghosts here.” Jack replies.
He comms Gwen. “Gwen, you ok?” Hearing nothing he comms again. “Gwen?”
“I’m
fine.” She says airily, as she steps
into a darkened room and locates the light switch. A fluorescent light flickers on and off. There’s nothing to see and she steps back
into the corridor and immediately sees a soldier sitting forwards on a wooden
chair, staring at the floor. She gets an
even bigger fright when a nurse seemingly walks practically through her towards
the soldier, completely unaware that Gwen is standing there.
“They’re
ready for you.” The nurse tells the
soldier, who gets to his feet and leaves through the double doors to his left. The nurse then takes her leave and exits
along the corridor to the right. But the
nurse has seen something and as she steps back for another look, Gwen realises
from the corner of her eye that someone is watching her. She turns and both women stare at each
other. As the nurse steps towards Gwen
she calls out.
“Hello?
Hello?” Her ghostly voice echoes the corridor. “I see
you!” She says to Gwen as she stands
within spitting distance of her. Gwen
gasps and backs away into the room with the flickering fluorescent light.
“Why
won’t you leave us alone? You shouldn’t
be here.” The nurse says with as
much fear in her voice as Gwen feels in her whole body.
“I
don’t mean you any harm.” Gwen pleads holding her arms out as if it would
stop any attack from the 1918 nurse advancing towards her.
“YOU
SHOULDN’T BE HERE! YOU SHOULDN’T BE
HERE!” The nurse screams till only
the echo of her voice remains for a few seconds till Gwen stands in the fully
lit room, alone.
“I’m
going to get you.” Tommy declares as
he chases after Toshiko up the promenade in Penarth. She drops her bag as Tommy scoops her off her
feet to her protestations.
When Toshiko eventually
is put back on her feet, Tommy kisses her on the lips quickly. She’s taken aback.
“What?” He asks.
“Nothing...thanks.”
“Thanks?”
“Just caught me out. Doesn’t matter.”
Toshiko retrieves her shoulder bag and takes a seat on the promenade
bench.
“What?”
“I know it’s silly.”
She says. “But I’m a bit older than you.”
“I was born in 1894.”
“You know what I mean.”
“So I’m old enough to die for my country but
I’m too young to give you a kiss? You
daft lass what goes on in that head of yours?”
Toshiko considers for a moment before quickly kissing Tommy back.
“Thanks.” He replies.
“You’re welcome.”
Toshiko smiles.
Tommy edges closer. “Look I may be young but I’ve
seen a fair bit in my time.”
“So, what do you want to do now?”
Toshiko asks changing the subject.
“Well,
we could go back to mine, but there’s only room for one and it’s bloody
freezing.”
Toshiko laughs before looking back at
Tommy. “Do you want to come back to my place?”
“I might be rushing you. You’ve only known me four years.”
“Four days.”
As the pair looked into
each other’s eyes they kissed with more feeling before Toshiko pulled away.
“Ok
let’s go.”
“I’ll race you. Come on!”
As Toshiko gets up to
follow after Tommy, her mobile rings.
It’s Jack.
“We’re
on our way.” Toshiko replies and
Tommy’s smile fades.
“Demolishing the hospital is what triggers
the time shift.” Says Jack back at the Hub as he lays out
documents onto the oval wooden table in the board room.
“So
don’t demolish it.” Owen says.
“Too
late it’s already started.”
“So what happens next?”
Gwen asks.
“Two
different times shouldn’t exist simultaneously, you want to be in 1918 or now,
not both.”
“So when 1918 becomes fully manifested...”
“It’s really going to screw us up.”
Says Owen.
“Ok.”
Jack says picking up a piece of
plain A4 paper and holding it up for everyone at the table to see. “Linear
time.” He scrumples up the
paper. “Screwed up time.” He chucks
the paper at Owen. “Imagine your life as a straight line from birth to death, now try
drawing that line on the paper without straightening it out!”
“It’s impossible.”
Gwen says. Jack nods.
“That’s
why we’ve got to stop it.” Jack
quickly leaves the boardroom followed by the rest of the team including
Tommy. “Ianto, is that box doing anything yet?” He calls to Ianto Jones as the man steps from
his office clutching the tin in his hand.
“Still
locked.”
“Ok we need to know how fast this time shift
is happening, get an idea when it’s going to complete. Tosh, Owen, go to the hospital, we need
readings. Cover the place with rift
monitors, whatever, go through the files, see if there’s anything we’ve
missed.” Jack relays to the team. Tommy and Toshiko exchange glances before she
leaves for the hospital.
As Toshiko begins
setting up the rift monitors in the empty ward, Owen comes over to assist.
“Need a hand?”
“Just a couple more.”
Toshiko says.
They begin to attach a few of the small
monitors to the wall of the ward. “Listen Tosh,” Owen says after a
while. “I’ve been meaning to say, er...just...be careful.” Toshiko looks over whilst attaching the
devices.
“What
do you mean?”
“You’re very close to Tommy.”
Owen says walking over.
“I’ve
only known him for four days.”
Toshiko returns to the case containing more rift monitors.
“Yeah, you’ve fallen for him haven’t you?”
“I can be myself with him, I don’t have to
pretend.”
“No, I understand. I didn’t think you had some weird fetish for
some deep frosted men.” Toshiko smiles. “I
just...erm, I don’t want you to get hurt, that’s all...if you have to say
goodbye.”
As Toshiko realises that Owen is being
sincere in his concern for her, Gwen interrupts through the comms and Owen
takes his leave.
“I need you to go down into the east wing of
the hospital, head to the second floor to what used to be Radiology
section. In that area contains clues to
the time shift.” Gwen tells him.
Gwen reads from the files at her desk as
she relays the information to Owen. “In Torchwood 1918 field report at the
hospital, they descript in detail something they encountered.” Gwen tells him. “It
reads, ‘through a hole in the external wall we hear the roar of great engines
and outside is a woman in strange armour ripping a Union Jack,’ perhaps future
heroine of the Empire...yeah, and what does it mean?”
Owen squats on the floor of the Radiology
room, then gets to his feet and follows the path towards the next room.
“The
time shift started but maybe it doesn’t complete until years in the future.” Gwen surmises.
Owen peers around
cupboards till glancing towards a hole in the wall, something piques his
curiosity. He grabs a chair and places
it against the wall and peers through a hole in the wooden boarding. Across from the hospital Owen spies a
billboard.
“It’s
some kind of advert.” He says,
spying a raging illustration of a woman dressed in armour charging through a
Union Jack. “It’s car insurance, it’s not the ad, it must be traffic.” He says hearing the peeping of car horns in
the road. “It’s not years in the future.”
He sighs. “It’s now.”
As Toshiko sits beside
the case on the floor, the monitors on the wall begin to react. She gets up from the ground, carrying her PDA
for a closer look when the lights begin to flicker, setting off the alarms on
the rift monitors. She runs from the
room.
In the Hub, at his desk,
with a pencil between his teeth, Captain Jack Harkness quickly flicks through a
diary on his desk. He’s about to write
with the pencil he removes from his mouth when the temporal lock on the tin
releases the lid. He sets the pencil
down and retrieves the contents of the tin.
It’s a white envelope sealed with a Torchwood stamp, on the front to
whomever it concerns.
‘Dear Torchwood,
I do not know when or indeed who will be
reading this the most important of documents, but the very future of the
Universe is in your hands. It is
imperative that you read this file carefully and follow the advice and
instructions contained within these pages to the letter. I can only hope that the rift sensitivity of
our temporal gauge was calibrated to the right specifications or I fear that
these instructions will have come too late.
As per the general files on the
acquisition of Private Thomas Reginald Brockless, two Torchwood officers were
investigating complaints of ‘ghosts’ at St Teilo’s Military Hospital in
Butetown when our existences collided and allowed us to communicate with what we
can only assume was the future. We did
not know but we witnessed a sudden tear, reasoning for the sheet, a swell of
temperature from an unfamiliar environment, and encountered Private Reginald
Brockless talking to us from another time along with a female who we can only
assume is of Japanese origin. He was dressed
in much the same manner as when we removed him from the hospital bed, but there
was a different air about him, an urgency as he insisted that we ‘took’ him
now...’
Jack read quickly through the first page
and onto the second.
‘......
studied the activities of that morning , and the level of incidents in the St
Teilo’s Hospital, we fear that there is a danger that two time periods are
about to collide splitting the fabric of time and thus resulting in the end of
the universe. If you are reading this
letter then the day has come and Torchwood cannot and will not allow this to
happen. There is only one hope for our
future. The last man. Private Brockless. You must ensure that Private Brockless is
returned to 1918 where he must seal the breach using the rift manipulation key
......
You
must also find his Japanese companion.
She holds the key to the nature of Private Brockless’ return.’
Ianto enters, a smile of relief that the
tin has unlocked. “Instructions?” he hopes as
Jack continues to read. Jack looks up,
brows raised.
“Yeah,
for Tommy.”
Ianto breathes a sigh of relief. Jack puts down the second page of the letter
and stares in shock at the third page before looking back at Ianto.
“And Toshiko.”
Ianto frowns stepping into the room.
In the Boardroom,
Toshiko and the team hear more of the letter from Jack.
“Twelve
hours there will be a brief moment when both times will exist, before the time
shift completes, before Tommy will be here now and in 1918. He needs to be in the hospital when he will
need to step from one time into another.”
“So he will be right inside the time shift?”
Gwen asks.
“And
cause the fracture to close.”
“But when the fractures closed?”
Tommy asks.
“1918
will be back where it belongs.” Owen
replies.
“So will I.”
Tommy says sadly. Jack nods. “For
good.” Tommy adds.
“Yeah.” Jack says.
Tommy and Toshiko exchange glances of sadness.
“You’re
the only one who can do this.” Jack
tells him. “We brought you from 1918 to now and when you go back to 1918 your life
will be like a thread, stitching time back together again.”
“A stitch in time.”
Tommy says sadly.
“How?” Toshiko asks.
Jack picks up the brass
circular device from the table to show the team. “This
is a rift manipulator. It’s basically a
key. Once you’re inside the time shift
you can close the door behind you.”
“That’s it.” Tommy says.
“I’m gone.”
Jack lowers the device as the team
including Tommy take in the prospect ahead.
Ianto strolls up the corridor carrying a small storage box towards the
Boardroom.
“Tommy, stay with Ianto, Tosh with me.”
Jack says leaving the room with Toshiko.
In Jack’s office Toshiko
sits opposite Jack at his desk.
“What
happens to him?” She asks.
“Three
weeks after we send Tommy back he dies.”
Jack explains.
“How?”
“He’s shot by a firing squad.”
“I don’t understand.”
“In 1918 Tommy was suffering from shell
shock, that’s why he was in the hospital.
When Torchwood took him and froze him, they froze his most recent
memories, when he returns to 1918 he’ll revert back to who he was. He’ll be shell shocked and so he will be
executed by the British Army for cowardice.”
“They can’t shoot him for that.”
Toshiko says, horrified.
“Lots
of soldier who were shell shocked recovered enough to be sent back to the
front. Once they were there they broke
down again.” Jack says bitterly,
remembering.
“So
they kill him?”
“More than 300 of them.”
“Then we can’t send him back.”
“We have to.”
“I can’t do that.” Toshiko gets up, hand over her mouth, it’s all
too much, she can’t send Tommy back to be killed.
“Yes
you can, he trusts you.”
“To send him to his death?”
“To help him save the future.”
Jack impresses upon her. He holds
out the hand drawing of the Japanese woman seen with Tommy in 1918. “It
has to be you.”
Ianto opens the box in
the boardroom.
“We
kept these in the archives. You were
wearing them in the hospital when Torchwood took you.” Ianto says.
Tommy lifts out the green military jacket holding it against him.
“Good
job the moths haven’t got into them.”
He says setting down the jacket to lift out the pyjama bottoms. He scoffs.
“So I’ll be saving the world in
some pyjamas, how daft is that?”
“Torchwood
1918 saw you with Tommy in the hospital telling him what to do.” Jack explains as Toshiko appears stunned by
the hand drawn portrait. “I know you.” Jack says.
“You’re strong enough to do
this.”
“Does Tommy know what happens to him?”
“No.”
“If he asks what do I say?”
“Where’s Toshiko?” Tommy asks setting the box of clothes down
near the workstations. Gwen points
towards Jack’s office.
“Still
in with Jack.”
“So tomorrow morning.”
Tommy sighs. “What time is it now?” Gwen
consults her watch but Ianto beats her to it.
“Ten to nine.”
“So what do we do till then?”
Gwen and Ianto look to Owen for ideas but he merely smiles
apologetically. Tommy laughs. “You
don’t know do you?”
“What would you like to do?” Gwen asks softly.
“Night
before we went over the top, we used to play cards, write letters, have a drink
if anyone had some.”
“We could do that couldn’t we?”
Owen says as Ianto makes to leave.
“But
you’re not coming with me.” Ianto
stops in his tracks. “I’m going on my own.”
Toshiko steps from
Jack’s office carrying the Rift key, she can barely look at Tommy.
“Erm,
we were just wondering what Tommy should do tonight.” Gwen says for Toshiko and Jack’s ears. As Jack is about to throw in a suggestion,
Toshiko beats him to it.
“He can come home with me.”
All eyes fall on Tosh. “He’s not our prisoner, he doesn’t have to
stay here, does he?” She adds
defiantly. Jack looks back and agrees.
“If
that’s what you both want.” Tommy
and Toshiko exchange glances. “Tomorrow morning six thirty.” Jack adds.
Toshiko invites Tommy
inside her flat, a comfortable little place with a pleasant colour scheme.
“Very
neat.”
“Yes well only me here.”
“And me, just for tonight.”
Tommy adds staring at Toshiko. “Then I’ll be gone.”
“Never
thought it would really happen.”
Toshiko admits standing in front of Tommy, clutching her shoulder strap
of her bag as it hung against her legs.
“I
won’t be able to write to you. Going to
be so far away.”
“I’d worry you’d see me getting old.”
“I’d worry you’d see me getting old.”
Tommy steps towards her cupping her face
in his hands and kisses her deeply and passionately as the clock clicks to
midnight.
In the Hub Jack reads
through the documents again to be sure he’s not missed anything. He hears Ianto climbing the stairs behind
him.
“This
time tomorrow he’ll be in 1918.”
“In his own time.”
Ianto adds, hands in his pockets.
“Would you go back to yours?”
Jack looks up and smirks. “Why,
would you miss me?”
“Yes.”
“I left home a long time ago, I don’t know
where I really belong.” Jack says gathering up the papers into the
folder on his desk. “Maybe that doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Don’t
you get lonely?” Ianto asks leaning
against Jack’s desk looking down at his Captain.
“Going home wouldn’t fix that.”
Jack replies closing the file and crossing his fingers he looks up at
Ianto. “Being here I’ve seen things I
never dreamt I’d see, loved people I never would have known if I just stayed
where I was, and I wouldn’t change that for the world.”
Ianto without hesitation leans in towards
Jack and they kiss passionately.
Lying in bed beside
Tommy, Toshiko turns over to look at the time.
It’s 2am. Tommy is awake.
“What
did he tell you?” He asks but
Toshiko avoids eye contact and falls silent.
“What happens to me?”
“They send you back to France.”
She says eventually.
“Then
what?” Toshiko doesn’t answer.
“Do they find my body?”
Toshiko looks at him, stroking her hand gently against his cheek and
nods sadly. “That’s something.” He leans towards her and kisses her gently
before holding her close.
Its morning across
Cardiff and the son is already awake.
Toshiko, dressed in her white dressing gown feels wretched, aware of
what she is about to lose, and looks over at Tommy who begins to awaken from
slumber.
“It’s
time.” She says as he sits up
blinking sleep from his eyes.
The team hurry into the
hospital ward, Gwen and Owen carrying kit, Ianto carrying the box of clothes
Tommy came in, Tommy wears his old uniform tunic and pyjama trousers and
slippers. Toshiko hands over the Rift
key as Jack keys in data into his VM.
“You know we can’t be here when it happens.”
Jack tells Tommy who nods just as the Rift monitor alarms ring out
across the room. Tommy takes a few steps
away from the group bringing a hand to his forehead. Toshiko steps towards him.
“Come
on.” She guides Tommy from the
room. As they walk along the corridor
with the Torchwood group following behind them, Tommy calls for them to hush,
he can hear voices above him.
Jack places a hand upon his shoulder. “We’re
safe for now.”
Up ahead a nurse crosses in front of them from
a side corridor with a candle lamp and walks away from them, oblivious to them
watching her. Tommy follows after her.
“Are you alright?”
Toshiko asks but Tommy quickens his pace and runs along the corridor to
the ward that once held his bed and the injured soldiers and now sits
derelict.
“Where is she?”
He asks. “1918.” He steps further into the room as
the lights begin to flicker around the room.
He hears Gerald Kneale’s voice as the officer encourages him from his
bed. “Torchwood took me.”
“Tommy.” Toshiko calls to
him.
He looks at her but pushes past her and
out of the room, followed by Toshiko, Jack and Ianto. “Stay
here.” He instructs Gwen and Owen.
Tommy runs to the Radiology room where
large round lights hang overhead like saucers, a large radiator sits on the
wall and large glazed windows throw in light to the room.
“I can’t do it.”
He cries as Toshiko enters. “I can’t go back.” He tells Jack who places a hand against his
chest to steer him back in the room.
“You’ve
got to.” Jack insists.
“No.” He cries,
frantically. “I know what’ll happen. They’ll
send me back to the front. They’ll have
me back to the trenches. Help me...” He begs Toshiko.
“You’ve got to.”
She says emotionally.
“WHY
ME?” Tommy cries, holding up the
Rift Key. He lets it fall from his hand
and both Jack and Toshiko can feel hope slipping from their grasp. “You’re
just like the Generals, sitting behind enemy lines.” He snarls at Jack. “Sending
us over the top. Any one of you can go
back but you send me!”
“We belong here.”
Jack growls back.
“I’m
sorry.”
“I’ve been pushed from pillar to post all my
life by the Army...by Torchwood...” Tommy squares up to Jack but Jack calms the
situation before it escalates.
“All
this time I’ve had means nothing.”
Tommy says looking at Toshiko who hates this as much as he. Tearfully, Tommy walks towards the window and
leans against the wall, slowly sliding to a seated position.
Jack strides over, concerned that they
will miss the one opportunity of fixing the time shift. He takes hold of Tommy’s arm amidst Tommy’s
struggling and attempts to pull him to his feet. “Get
up, Tommy, get up.”
“NO.”
Tommy replies
wriggling free of Jack’s grip.
“Leave us alone.”
Toshiko interjects. Jack stares
at her. “Please.” Jack gets to his
feet and walks towards the door, but not before placing a gentle hand upon her
shoulder.
“You’ve
got 2 minutes.”
Collecting up the dropped Rift key,
Toshiko sits beside Tommy. At first he
refuses to acknowledge her and shakes off her hand against his arm. She sits closer to Tommy and looks directly
at him.
“Listen,
you’re a hero, do you know that, because you stop the time shift and save
everyone. You save us all.”
“I can’t do it.”
Tommy replies tearfully.
“We
need you.” Toshiko implores.
“I
don’t want to be a hero. I want to stay
here, with you.”
Suddenly the static
crackling noises grow louder distracting them both. The time shift is nearing completion. Tommy and Toshiko protect each other from the
blinding light that shines brightly in the room. When it clears Toshiko and Tommy see Gerald
and Harriet from across the room.
“Hello?” Calls Gerald in a
ghostly echo.
“Tell them.”
“Tell us what?”
Gerald enquires.
“Tommy, tell them what to do. You’re the only one who can stop this. If you don’t it’s the end of everything.”
Toshiko says. As all three people
look on, Tommy is still frightened. “Tommy.” She urges holding the key in her hands. Tommy scrambles to his feet, taking the key
with him and runs towards Gerald and Harriet, calling to them from their world.
“Take
me, I’m in there, in the ward in 1918.
You have to take me so I can be here now. JUST TAKE ME!” He yells.
The lights become blindingly bright in the
room and Toshiko and Tommy are alone once more.
“I’ll
be going soon.” He tells her. Toshiko nods and takes his hand in hers.
“Remember the Rift key.”
She reminds him. “Use it.” Glancing from the time shift into 1918, she
kisses Tommy goodbye before straightening his tunic. “You’ve
got to get back into bed like you’ve never been away. Use the key.
Tommy remember....it’s nearly time.” Tommy walks towards his own
time looking back one last time to see Toshiko.
Back in 1918 Tommy
reverts back to the shell shocked patient he had been before Torchwood had
taken him. He grips tight hold of the
Rift key as he stands pathetically in the linen room. A nurse collecting linen collars him and
ushers him back to his bed.
In present time the team
saunter along the corridor until they see Toshiko running towards them
screaming at them to leave. As they exit
the hospital, Toshiko stops and glances back before Jack pulls her to safety.
In the hospital ward
Tommy watches as the Torchwood officers lead his other self from the warm bed
and away from the ward. Ushered into his
bed, removing his tunic first and slipping off his shoes, Tommy sits in the
bed, terrified.
Back in the hub and
alarms ring out around the building.
“What’s happening?”
Gwen says. Toshiko slips on her
glasses and views the screens.
“I don’t know.”
“The time shift hasn’t stopped.”
Jack says as the lights go out in the Hub, throwing panic to those
inside. “Toshiko, show me the city now.”
Jack calls bounding over towards her monitor.
“It’s
spreading out from the hospital.”
She says staring at the white dots spreading out from the source.
“What
the hell are they?” Gwen asks.
“Chunks of the past erupting into the
present.”
“They’re everywhere.” Owen
says looking away from his own computer screen.
“What
about the Rift key?”
“Tommy isn’t using it.”
Toshiko realises.
“Why
not?”
“I don’t know, because he’s just gone back
one hundred years and because he’s still SHELL SHOCKED.”
Toshiko snapped, glaring at Jack.
Jack realises that Torchwood really hadn’t
thought this plan through sending back a vulnerable shell shocked victim of the
Great War. “One of us will have to go back.”
As he makes plans to return to the hospital Owen calls him back.
“Jack
wait, you’ll get stuck in 1918, I’ve got an idea.”
“The time shift is forcing the Rift
open.” Owen says preparing his idea in the
Medical room. “If we’re quick we can use it to our advantage.” He pulls open the fridge storing different
blood phials and lifts them out. “A tiny amount should do it.” Gwen is currently holding one phial in a
syringe gun. “We know Tommy’s exact location this time, we send an image of you
through to him.”
“I could go into Tommy’s mind.”
Says Jack hurrying down the stairs, his sleeves rolled up.
“That’s
a psychic projection, yes, if we’re lucky.”
“And Tommy will be able to see you?”
“I can make him use the Rift key.”
Says Jack jumping up on the bed and slapping his arm to find a vein.
“Let me do it.”
Toshiko calls from the top of the stairs. “He
trusts me.”
After a little thought Jack agrees.
Wearing a similar skull
contraption to that of the mind probe that this time also runs down her back,
and has wires with sucker patches that attach to her forehead and temple,
Toshiko is ready to reach Tommy using psychic projection. Jack supports Toshiko as she relaxes
back.
“How long have I got?”
She asks.
“Minutes.” Owen replies.
“We’ve got one shot Tosh, that’s all.”
Says Jack.
Toshiko nods.
“Alright.”
As Owen
prepares the injection, Toshiko nods again.
He injects her and quickly dispenses with the syringe. He takes a hold of her wrist and feels for
her pulse. Owen focuses his attention on
Toshiko as she closes her eyes and searches for Tommy.
There’s much chaos in St
Teilo hospital ward. The time shift is
splintering out across Cardiff and frightened staff and patients scream and
scurry for shelter, while Tommy remains in bed gripping the Rift Key. Traumatised as his mind slips back to his
recent memory he has no knowledge of Torchwood ever existing. When Toshiko appears at the end of his bed he
doesn’t recognise her. She calls to him
as she sits facing him. Back at the Hub,
they too hear her call Tommy’s name.
“What
just happened?” Gwen says as Toshiko
mutters again.
“It’s me...Toshiko.”
She smiles at Tommy.
“Who?” He asks.
“I’m
here to help you.” She replies
feeling hurt at first that he doesn’t recognise her.
Tommy nods attempts to speak then looks at
the key in his hands. He offers it up to
Toshiko, asking her if it belongs to her.
“No. Do you know what it is?” Tommy is momentarily distracted by another
patient. Toshiko calls him back.
“Tommy, it’s a key. You have to
use it.” Tommy looks petrified.
In the Hub Jack checks
his watch, they’re running out of time.
“I’m scared.”
Tommy admits.
“It’s
alright.” Toshiko assures him.
“That’s
why I’m here, aren’t I, I’m a coward.”
“No, you are not.”
“What am I fighting for?”
“For the future...for me, because you’re my
brave and handsome hero, Tommy, use the key.” Toshiko pleads.
Tommy picks up the key and with the
wingnut lever at the side, turns it, releasing Rift energy, that ultimately
seals the time shift.
“Thank you.”
Toshiko smiles.
“Goodbye.” Tommy replies.
A blinding brightness
separates the pair forever and Toshiko gasps back to the present day tearful
but relieved that Tommy used the key.
“He
did it.”
Later, Toshiko neatly
folds away Tommy’s civilian clothing into the Archive box. She places the lid on the box as Owen enters
from the Medical room. He lingers a
while before walking away, aware that he above anyone knows how crushed Toshiko
is feeling and no words would make that ache go away.
Securing the strap on the box, Toshiko
lifts down her coat and slips it on.
Jack calls to her from the door of his office. “Hey.” He calls, smiling softly. “Thank
you.” Toshiko nods lightly before
walking out into the damp air and resting her hands against the railing as she
stares across the Bay.
Owen strolls quickly towards her, his coat
collar pulled up against the rain.
“He
trusted me...right to the end.” She
says as Owen stands beside her against the railings.
“Because
you were strong.” Tosh stares at
Owen so he explains. “All of this is still here, because of
you.”
She shakes her head. “Because
of Tommy...let’s hope we’re worth it.”
She says emotionally and pushes away from the railings and back along
the walkway, remembering Private Tommy Brockless.
The End.
Next month
'Meat'
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