Lost Lovers

Author’s Note: I have several things to say before I get this story going…

TORCHWOOD NOTE! I don’t know if it ever really says when Jack landed on Earth. (Does Doctor Who or Torchwood ever actually give us a real date?) So I’m just going to have all events happen by the Buffy Calendar. If I am wrong and there is a real date for Jack’s arrival, then again I will blame this on AU. This also goes for any time in which Jack is supposed to be somewhere but instead is messing around in my story.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: I am a Yank. Due to this I have trouble with British people speaking. Forgive me for the lack of British-ness in this fic.

SLASH BELOW
DON‘T LIKE = DON‘T READ!
And remember…. Jack/anyone is totally cannon!

Toshiko and Ianto had taken it upon themselves to attempt to sort out the mess that was Jack’s office. Despite Ianto still being the Torchwood member who was technically in charge of general cleaning, and despite the fact that each Torchwood member was supposed to clean their own area, the two had decided to at least try and make sense of their Captain’s desk, which had the tendency to look like a bomb had gone off somewhere nearby.

Jack wasn’t a neat person. At his most organized he would form piles. If left on his own Jack wouldn’t clean up that often, since he posses the uncanny ability to be able to find what he needed, no matter how bad his desk was…

Ianto was working his way through Jack’s piles, the ones which had taken over the couch that sat in Jack’s office. Toshiko was focusing on Jack’s laptop, deleting files that the Captain no longer needed and upgrading his software. Frequently the petite Asian woman would have to pause and go diving through the drawers of Jack’s desk in order to find the scraps of paper which had Jack’s passwords written on them.

While rooting around in one of the many drawers of Jack’s desk, Toshiko’s hand bumped against something hard that was sandwiched between two reports on weevil sightings. Toshiko pulled the object out, revealing a small picture frame. Under the glass of the old frame was a yellow piece of parchment with a faded drawing in pencil.

The drawing depicted a young man, no more then twenty-five years old. The man was staring out at the viewer, his shoulder length hair framing his face and drawing attention to the small smile which graced his face. The man’s clothing was disheveled, as if he was in the middle of a long bout of section with some unseen lover. The thing which caught Toshiko’s eye was the artist’s signature, which was scrawled in the lower right hand corner. It read “Jack Harkness” in the Captain’s familiar handwriting.

“Ianto!” Toshik gasped, holding the picture out for the Welsh man to see. “Look at this!”

“Who do you think it is?” Ianto asked, sitting on the edge of the desk as he inspected the drawing that Toshiko had handed to him.

“Old friend of Jack’s?” Toshiko guessed, absentmindedly blowing a dust bunny off Jack’s keyboard.

“Is it just me or does he look familiar?” Ianto asked, his hand tilting to one side like a confused puppy.

“You’re right,” Toshiko remarked, taking the drawing back from Ianto. “He does look familiar…” Toshiko trailed off, before she stood up and moved out of Jack’s office, Ianto close behind her. In a few moments Toshiko was sitting at her desk, opening a program on her computer.

“So… what are you doing?” Ianto asked, stealing Gwen’s chair he sat down to watch Toshiko work her technological magic.

“Photo recognition software,” Toshiko explained as she lay the drawing down on her scanner. “We helped UNIT create it a year or so ago. The program analyzes a picture and then compares it to those pictures already in the system, which can be anything from stuff you’d find on Google to government ID cards and mug shots.”

“How long does it take?” Ianto asked, wondering if he should go fix another round of coffee.

“Depends…” Toshiko sighed, but she was cut off from finishing her answer by the program beeping as it found a result and displayed it on screen.

On Toshiko’s computer screen, next to a the scanned drawing was an article from The Los Angeles Times. The man in the picture, who was the spitting image of the man in the drawing, wore an expensive suit and was in the middle of what appeared to be a news conference. “Liam Angelus, CEO of Wolfram and Hart’s Los Angeles Branch,” Ianto reach the picture’s caption.

In another few seconds Toshiko was bringing up any information she could find on Liam Angelus… and at that very moment the alarm rang, signaling that the door to the Hub was opening. Jack Harkness walked into the Hub, a smile on his face as he looked down at the two members of his team. “What have you two been up to?” Jack asked, walking over to Toshiko’s desk, but not looking down at the computer’s screen.

“We were trying to clean your office,” Ianto replied, before he held up the drawing. “Then we found this and wondered who it was.”

Jack smile shifted as he took the drawing from Ianto. He held the faded sketch gently in his hands as a deep sadness crept over his face. “He was my lover… a long time ago.”

“Well now he’s the CEO of a major law firm,” Toshiko remarked. Jack stared down at her in confusion as Toshiko gestured to the screen, where the picture of ‘Liam Angelus’ was still displayed.

Jack stared in stunned silence at the image, his hands shaking slightly. After a few seconds he somehow managed to speak. “How did you find this?” he whispered, gesturing to the computer screen.

“I ran the drawing through the photo recognition software we helped UNIT develop,” Toshiko explained. “His name is Liam Angelus, current CEO of Wolfram and Hart’s LA branch… apparently he frequently uses the name ‘Angel’.”

“His name was Liam O’Connor,” Jack whispered, holding the drawing close to him as if it was the most previous thing in the world. “I drew this in Galway in 1752.”

“This Liam…” Ianto struggled to find the right words. “He wasn’t---”

Jack cut the Welsh man off. “Liam was a normal human. He died in 1753…” Jack sighed softly. “It’s got to be a coincidence.”

“Jack,” Toshiko interrupted her boss. “I know it’s probably true but this guy’s papers are… well odd to say the least.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, leaning down to look at Toshiko’s computer.

“Okay, these are the identification papers that I‘ve been able to find,” Toshiko explained, gesturing to the images that were now displayed on the screen. “He’s supposed to have been born and raised in California… but everything is too perfect.”

“You mean it looks like his documenters are faked,” Jack realized. Slowly he turned to face Ianto. “I need to get to California.”

“I’ll get right on it sir.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

That was how Captain Jack Harkness found himself standing outside of Wolfram and Hart’s Los Angeles Branch, trying to work up the courage to go in and meet the strange man who was the spitting image of his Liam.


Thinking about Liam O’Connor still hurt… Jack had been traveling through Ireland, just biding his time in a pub in Galway when he ran into a young man. It was only a few days after Christmas of 1751, Liam was twenty-four years old.

While Jack had stayed mobile, he’d found himself returning to Galway, and always he would seek out the young Irish man… Jack had fallen hard for the soft spoken young man, calling him ‘Angel’ in order to see Liam blush. Despite knowing that he would not age, and that he would have to watch Liam’s grow old and, eventually, die, Jack had started to court the young man in 1752.

By 1753 Jack had persuaded Liam to run away and start a new life with him. Jack had left to call in some favors so that he could support the two of them. He’d even sent a letter to Liam, telling his lover where they would meet… a small church not to far from Galway.

But Liam had never appeared. Jack returned to Galway to find out why… only to discover that the area around Liam’s family home were abandoned, their inhabitants dead and buried. In the next town over, Jack had found Liam’s little sister, Kathy. The two had planed on taking the little angelic girl with them when Liam left his parent’s home.

Elizabeth was the only survivor of the massacre. Everyone else in the area around Liam’s home had, according to the locals, been killed by “monsters”. The morning after the massacre, while it was still dark, Kathy had appeared in a local church. When question about the events of that night, Kathy had said that an angel had saved her.

Jack went to Kathy, trying to figure out what had happened to his lover. The little girl had been surprised to see Jack… apparently her father had told Liam that Jack was dead. She then told Jack that Liam had died two day before the massacre, and been buried in the local cemetery. Kathy believed that Liam had sent an angel to save her and deliver her to the church.

Jack had made his way to Liam’s grave and spent what felt like days crying, leaning against the headstone. After getting the worst of his grief out, Jack had returned to take Kathy from the Church. A few favors and some money changing hands gave Liam’s sister the best life that was possible at that time… although Jack left Ireland, he’d continued to support and help Kathy’s descendents until her bloodline had died out with the natural passage of time.

Now his Team had found a man who looked exactly like his long lost Liam. A man who called himself “Angel”, the name Jack had give to his lover, the word Kathy had used to describe the man who had saved her from death all those years ago in Galway.

With a soft sigh, Jack walked into the building and put on his most charming smile as the receptionist turned to face him. “Hello, I’m here representing Torchwood… I believe I have a meeting with your CEO?”

In a few short seconds, Jack was waiting in a lavish office, musing on what he’d seen on his brief trip through Wolfram and Hart… Torchwood knew the sort of business that the law firm was involved in. Officially Torchwood took no side with regard to the demonic creatures of Earth, due to their focuses on alien threats. However both UNIT and Torchwood had helped the Watcher’s Council and the Slayer from time to time. Jack had personally known several Slayers and had even fought alongside one or two when he happened to be in the same location as the powerful young women.

Finding himself alone in the CEO’s office, Jack slowly approached the desk and looked down at the papers which lay there. From the research that Jack and the other members of Torchwood had performed, it was apparent that something strange was going on in the LA Branch of the feared firm. “Angel” had taken control of the firm only two months ago, and his arrival as CEO had been accompanied by almost every top level position in Wolfram and Hart being give to someone who, prior to Angel’s arrival, were virtual unknowns… or were considered “minor players”.

For Jack the most interesting staff change was the new Head of Research. A young man named Wesley Wyndam-Pryce had been given the job. Wesley was a Brisith Man who had been living in California for several years… first in a small town called Sunnydale and later in Los Angels.

A British man who had just happened to live in one of the two towns in the United States that was located near a Hellmouth… the guy might as well have worn a sign saying “Watcher”. Not that his last name didn’t do just that, even Jack knew that the Wyndam-Pryce Family was heavily involved in the Council. Either Wesley was a Watcher or had been associated with the Council in the past.

As Jack thought about Wesley, his eyes caught sight of a picture frame on the desk… it was the drawing of Jack that Liam had drawn on their last night together. Jack’s fingers trembled, his entire body shuddered as he reached for the picture frame. Jack hadn’t even considered the possibility that Angel was the same person as his Liam. Pulling his hand back from the picture, Jack stepped away from the desk and returned to his seat, turning himself so that he was facing away from the door.

Several minutes passed in silence before Jack heard the door open. Not trusting himself, Jack remained sitting and watched the man out of the corner of his eyes. The man knew he was there, but had apparently chosen not to focuses his immediate attention on the Torchwood visitor.

Dia duit Liam.“ Jack whispered, watching in amazement as the man’s head suddenly shot up and he stared at Jack. “It’s been a long time.”

“Jack?” Angel whispered.

TBC

Author’s Note: I went online and found some Gaelic words to throw in. “Dia duit” means goodday/hello. It is pronounced “jeea ditch”