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magibrainOkay, so I posted that rundown of fics I wouldn't know how to start, and as it turns out, I still don't know how to start any of them. But I have bits of #4, which I'm still surprised any of you want to read. (Seriously, you people. You're weird. :P )
This is one of those bits. I'm posting it, but you need to know a few things about the world, first. And by "a few things", I mean "a small novel in exposition".
The Rift
Basically, in the Rift universe there's a rift in space and time in Chicago (and a couple other places, like Rome, but Chicago has it worst) which tends to bring people in from other universes. Any other universes. They've had Jedi and ghouls and dragons and all sorts of whatnot. The Rift also tends to... do things to the people who come through. You know, sometimes it gives them superpowers. Sometimes it gives them a neverending headache. Sometimes it switches their bodies. That sort of thing. The people who fall through the Rift are called Wanderers.
It really likes playing with people's timelines. It'll bring Alice through and then bring in her husband Bob, except from Alice's point of view Bob disappeared unexpectedly a week before she fell through the Rift and didn't show up in Chicago until a year after. Or it'll bring through Cody and his best friend Dylan at the same time, but Dylan is from a month before he met Cody and Cody is from a year after Dylan died. Things like this.
Rifts are one-way. Anything trying to go through the wrong way (e.g. hop through a Rift trying to get out of Chicago) gets shredded up and spat out in little pieces. It's great for shredding junk mail and sensitive documents; not so great for anything else. Splatter pattern is too wide to make a really good smoothie.
The Rift universe's Earth also has subspecies of humans known as angels, demons and supernatural humans. Angels and demons have a giant race war going on that's been going on forever, because their species have inherent obsessive/compulsive... things... going on called Callings. (e.g. archangels are psychologically addicted to killing demons; rakshasa demons are psychologically addicted to killing; it gets messy.)
Most people who aren't angels, demons, supernatural humans or wanderers have no idea any of this is going on. Chicago has Sunydale Syndrome writ large.
...except for the Chicago Liberation Front (CLF), a bunch of paranoid normals and imperialistic supernatural humans spurred on by the occasional extremist demon or angel, who know Chicago is going to crap, and instead of being angry at the Rift (which no one can control anyway), spend their time being angry at wanderers and trying to lynch them and bombing City Hall and things like this.
Damaged People / BTR
Hoooo boy.
Um, so once upon a time Jack Harkness (from Torchwood, though I've futzed with his character to make him less stupid and less of an utter jackass) had an actual working Time Agency Vortex Manipulator And Integrated Wrist Device and thus divided his time between lying in wait for the Doctor in Cardiff and going on ill-advised offworld jaunts through time and space looking for the man. Time Lord. Whatever. During one of these, he ran into an accidental time traveller by the name of Sam Tyler in 1974 Manchester, hijinks ensued, and they had adventures. (In traditional DP canon, Jack actually met a bunch of people from the DP universe's SGC equivalent, but that got scrubbed for this braintic.)
Eventually, he fell through the Rift into Chicago, met a bunch of people from another universe's Torchwood, and set up Torchwood Chicago, for the safeguarding of Wanderers and Wanderer interests in the Chicagoland area.
Jack Harkness is an immortal, deeply screwed-up ex-torturer who in many ways cannot function outside a torturer's mindset. He also has a habit of falling in love with his entire team and never telling any of them. But, you know, sleeping with as many as want to sleep with him, and being perhaps drastically protective of them in any situation when he's not gambling all of their lives to save the city and everyone in it.
Probably the entirety of the Thaneplot did not happen in the SG-1/Rift braintic.
...MOVING ON.
Sam & Daniel / BTR
So, one day SG-1 is investigating something and Daniel probably touched something he shouldn't have and, from Jack and Teal'c's perspective, tehy just disappear. Subsequent attempts to locate them turn up nothing, and after a good search period, Hammond unhappily sticks two new guys onto SG-1 and Jack grumps his way onward. It's just one of those wacky unexplained mysteries, and they don't like it, but there's nothing they can do.
From Sam and Daniel's perspective, they wind up in Chicago, but not their Chicago, because there are angels and demons and Grant Park is giant, wooded, and slowly consuming the city. Also, things like biblical plagues and giant Pokémon in Lake Michigan keep happening. They'd like to go home, but the Rifts only go one way, so they're stuck there.
Jack Harkness notices that they seem like cool special-forces people, and lures them into Torchwood, where they protect the city and get used to Torchwood's general dysfunction and warped sense of humor for three years, Chicago time. Sam studies the Rift, but the Rift is a bastard and refuses to be solved or reverse-engineered. They get used to the fact that they're never going home.
Meanwhile, back in the SGC, three months past and when SG-1 'gates to what they think is another planet, they wind up 'gating to another universe and end up in a basement in Chicago. Torchwood picks up wacky energy signatures and sends people to investigate, where they run into Jack O'Neill, Teal'c, and friends. Much confusion is had by all. (Jack Harkness has a program on his wrist device that lets him scan people for universal resonances – basically to confirm/deny that they're from the same universe – which clears up some of the confusion, but by no means all of it.) They discover that this random Stargate in a basement in Chicago seems to be the only stable portal out of this universe. Unfortunately, it only goes back to Earth/the SGC in that one, particular other universe, so it's not a great solution for their growing colony of involuntary expats.
Well, Sam and Daniel are in an awkward position, and everyone including Harkness heads back to the SGC for diplomacy/discovery/figuring out what the hell just happened and what they're supposed to do about it. And then this happens.
Well. That was... some exposition.
TO SET THE SCENE: Jack Harkness is visiting the SGC and they've just wrapped up the debrief with Hammond. Sam's probably retreated to someone's lab to process things/get started on figuring out what's going on here. Daniel is sticking around, Harkness has been invited to stay the night, and O'Neill really just wants to go home, take more painkillers than normal people ever have to need, and put his head under a pillow for a good, long time. I think Daniel just offered to show Harkness to the VIP rooms. Harkness has other ideas.
"No," Harkness said. "Actually, Colonel O'Neill was dragging me home with him tonight."
Jack stopped, turned around, and eyed Harkness coldly. "I am?"
Harkness met his gaze with one of those unsettlingly-direct looks Daniel sometimes got. "Yeah," he said. "Takeout and drinks. My treat. So we can discuss a few things."
Ah. Jack eyed him a moment longer, then glanced to Daniel as though something hadn't just happened there. "Right. We were going to do that."
Daniel looked between the two of them, concern gathering between his eyes. Probably thinks we're going to kill each other and burn down the place, Jack thought. It'd help if I was sure that wasn't what we're doing.
"You... want me to come with you?" Daniel offered. Smart man. He knew there was something significant here, and Jack was pretty sure he'd picked up on the wariness that existed between them. He was probably looking to play peacekeeper.
Tough shit. Jack didn't really want the peace kept, especially not under Daniel's rules. Especially not when Daniel was half of the problem. And Harkness either sensed that or had a similar thought, because he turned one of his sharkish smiles on Daniel and said "I think we can manage."
>
Harkness swished the scotch, but paid no other attention to it. His gaze was fixed on Jack, his head tilted to one side, eyes bright and considering. All in all, he looked like some of the hunting dogs Jack had seen offworld, watching for weak spots and uncannily clever.
"So," Harkness began, with a tone that got straight to the point. "Sam and Daniel."
"What about them?" Jack asked, keeping his own voice and face stonily neutral. The corner of Harkness' mouth ticked up.
"Let me float a guess. From your perspective, here's how it looks: these people are your team. You lead them into and out of tight spots and hell on a daily basis, and you've put in the work that makes them more precious than gold. Then they disappear from right under your noses, and nothing you can do can get them back.
"The, and it's only been a few months for you, they come back with three years of history for some bastard you don't know. He throws out orders and they listen to him, and he doesn't smile right, and he's got a reputation for getting teams shot out from under him. And Sam is calling this guy 'sir' and Daniel is calling him 'Jack', and while you want to trust your team's judgment, swallowing this is like swallowing a badger. There's nothing about it that sits right." He tilted the scotch. "Am I close?"
A part of Jack appreciated the baldness with which Harkness had put it. At least it made the playing field clear: they were both being vetted, here, and they were both perceptive enough to pick up on the tensions. And neither one trusted the other as far as they could throw them, yet, let alone considered them an ally, let alone considered them someone with the right to take a position of power over their people. Jack just kept his poker face on, and said "Sounds about right."
"Right," Harkness said. "Now I want you to come over to my side of the fence for a moment." He gestured again. "I've got a city to hold together, and we're on top of a rip in the fabric of the universe, not to mention the fact that the people who come through that Rift – including these two – are persona non grata, and we've got a whole community of them to caretake. I know the people I pull into this are going into the most dangerous job in the city, and I've got to keep them safe – whatever the cost to myself. You have no idea how it gets, watching everyone you know die, every damn generation."
Harkness was letting the mask slip, and little, and Jack noticed that – and wondered how genuine it was, and how calculated. The Captain was a distressingly good actor when he had a mind to be.
"I look after my people. I have their backs on threats they don't even notice coming toward them. And then the Rift hiccups, and suddenly two of my own have an entire history clamoring for them, along with someone tight-lipped, keeps to himself, looks at a situation and knows what has to be sacrificed if it all goes sour and there aren't any choices left. And Sam is calling this guy 'sir' and Daniel is calling him 'Jack'. And I want to trust my people, except I know what a giant chink in the armor someone you trust with your life can be."
>
"It's the little, ugly truth neither of us wants to admit to," Harkness said. "Sooner or later, there might come a time when we've got to lay down one of our people's lives in service of a larger goal, and the only way that can happen is if we're the one making the call. It's our judgment, and it's on our heads. These people are on our team, and they let us make that choice over their life, and in return for that, we make sure no one else comes close to choosing that for them." He showed his hand. "That's not the sort of setup that expands well into our current situation."
"No kidding," Jack said. "So, what do you plan on doing?" He took a drink from his beer.
"Well, that's the question, isn't it?" Harkness leaned back, raising his eyebrows. "Neither of us trusts the other around our people. Our people trust us both. So either one of us can kill the other – I wouldn't advise that, by the way – we need to lay down some trust and understanding, and fast."
Jack snorted. Trust and understanding. Yasureyoubetcha. "Or a proper chain of command," he said.
Harkness gave him a dry, amused look. "Right. Tell me which of us would ever submit to the other."
He had a point.
Jack set the beer aside and leaned forward, lacing his fingers together. "So what do you suggest?" he asked. "We go through Basic together?"
"Yeah, and when it comes time to fall backwards off something, you realized trust isn't necessary in my position," Harkness said. "Here's what I suggest: we sell it to Hammond as an extended project to familiarize ourselves with the politics and procedures of our two entities – Torchwood and the SGC. For some amount of time, maybe a month, maybe a few staggered weeks, I'm assigned to SG1. I'll work under your command. Then we switch, and you come work for Torchwood under mine. We'll see if and how we take care of our people. Then maybe we'll be able to work together in a place where there is no clear chain."
Sounded reasonable. He thought. Jack turned it over in his head, picking at the risks, and he'd almost agreed, but there was one last thing he had to ask. Even if how Harkness answered it was going to tell him more than the actual answer. "And what would compel me to bring you out into the field when I have no idea how you'll comport yourself?"
The I-see-what-you're-doing-there half-smile came back. "Because the alternative," Harkness said, "is that we both have power over these people, and neither one of us ever knows what threat that represents."
...okay. That was a considerably better answer than Jack had been expecting. He'd expected bluster, bravado, or confidence, but Harkness was too well aware of the game they were playing. Knowing he could follow orders and handle himself in a firefight would be good, but secondary; Harkness was looking at a picture much larger than how well his missions would go.
And that made it convincing in a number of ways. One, that he had a head for the larger picture. Two... if Jack didn't get a threat assessment of Harkness – and fast – he was never going to be able to sleep at night.
He shrugged. "I'll talk to Hammond about it," he said, and leaned back again.
This is one of those bits. I'm posting it, but you need to know a few things about the world, first. And by "a few things", I mean "a small novel in exposition".
The Rift
Basically, in the Rift universe there's a rift in space and time in Chicago (and a couple other places, like Rome, but Chicago has it worst) which tends to bring people in from other universes. Any other universes. They've had Jedi and ghouls and dragons and all sorts of whatnot. The Rift also tends to... do things to the people who come through. You know, sometimes it gives them superpowers. Sometimes it gives them a neverending headache. Sometimes it switches their bodies. That sort of thing. The people who fall through the Rift are called Wanderers.
It really likes playing with people's timelines. It'll bring Alice through and then bring in her husband Bob, except from Alice's point of view Bob disappeared unexpectedly a week before she fell through the Rift and didn't show up in Chicago until a year after. Or it'll bring through Cody and his best friend Dylan at the same time, but Dylan is from a month before he met Cody and Cody is from a year after Dylan died. Things like this.
Rifts are one-way. Anything trying to go through the wrong way (e.g. hop through a Rift trying to get out of Chicago) gets shredded up and spat out in little pieces. It's great for shredding junk mail and sensitive documents; not so great for anything else. Splatter pattern is too wide to make a really good smoothie.
The Rift universe's Earth also has subspecies of humans known as angels, demons and supernatural humans. Angels and demons have a giant race war going on that's been going on forever, because their species have inherent obsessive/compulsive... things... going on called Callings. (e.g. archangels are psychologically addicted to killing demons; rakshasa demons are psychologically addicted to killing; it gets messy.)
Most people who aren't angels, demons, supernatural humans or wanderers have no idea any of this is going on. Chicago has Sunydale Syndrome writ large.
...except for the Chicago Liberation Front (CLF), a bunch of paranoid normals and imperialistic supernatural humans spurred on by the occasional extremist demon or angel, who know Chicago is going to crap, and instead of being angry at the Rift (which no one can control anyway), spend their time being angry at wanderers and trying to lynch them and bombing City Hall and things like this.
Damaged People / BTR
Hoooo boy.
Um, so once upon a time Jack Harkness (from Torchwood, though I've futzed with his character to make him less stupid and less of an utter jackass) had an actual working Time Agency Vortex Manipulator And Integrated Wrist Device and thus divided his time between lying in wait for the Doctor in Cardiff and going on ill-advised offworld jaunts through time and space looking for the man. Time Lord. Whatever. During one of these, he ran into an accidental time traveller by the name of Sam Tyler in 1974 Manchester, hijinks ensued, and they had adventures. (In traditional DP canon, Jack actually met a bunch of people from the DP universe's SGC equivalent, but that got scrubbed for this braintic.)
Eventually, he fell through the Rift into Chicago, met a bunch of people from another universe's Torchwood, and set up Torchwood Chicago, for the safeguarding of Wanderers and Wanderer interests in the Chicagoland area.
Jack Harkness is an immortal, deeply screwed-up ex-torturer who in many ways cannot function outside a torturer's mindset. He also has a habit of falling in love with his entire team and never telling any of them. But, you know, sleeping with as many as want to sleep with him, and being perhaps drastically protective of them in any situation when he's not gambling all of their lives to save the city and everyone in it.
Probably the entirety of the Thaneplot did not happen in the SG-1/Rift braintic.
...MOVING ON.
Sam & Daniel / BTR
So, one day SG-1 is investigating something and Daniel probably touched something he shouldn't have and, from Jack and Teal'c's perspective, tehy just disappear. Subsequent attempts to locate them turn up nothing, and after a good search period, Hammond unhappily sticks two new guys onto SG-1 and Jack grumps his way onward. It's just one of those wacky unexplained mysteries, and they don't like it, but there's nothing they can do.
From Sam and Daniel's perspective, they wind up in Chicago, but not their Chicago, because there are angels and demons and Grant Park is giant, wooded, and slowly consuming the city. Also, things like biblical plagues and giant Pokémon in Lake Michigan keep happening. They'd like to go home, but the Rifts only go one way, so they're stuck there.
Jack Harkness notices that they seem like cool special-forces people, and lures them into Torchwood, where they protect the city and get used to Torchwood's general dysfunction and warped sense of humor for three years, Chicago time. Sam studies the Rift, but the Rift is a bastard and refuses to be solved or reverse-engineered. They get used to the fact that they're never going home.
Meanwhile, back in the SGC, three months past and when SG-1 'gates to what they think is another planet, they wind up 'gating to another universe and end up in a basement in Chicago. Torchwood picks up wacky energy signatures and sends people to investigate, where they run into Jack O'Neill, Teal'c, and friends. Much confusion is had by all. (Jack Harkness has a program on his wrist device that lets him scan people for universal resonances – basically to confirm/deny that they're from the same universe – which clears up some of the confusion, but by no means all of it.) They discover that this random Stargate in a basement in Chicago seems to be the only stable portal out of this universe. Unfortunately, it only goes back to Earth/the SGC in that one, particular other universe, so it's not a great solution for their growing colony of involuntary expats.
Well, Sam and Daniel are in an awkward position, and everyone including Harkness heads back to the SGC for diplomacy/discovery/figuring out what the hell just happened and what they're supposed to do about it. And then this happens.
Well. That was... some exposition.
TO SET THE SCENE: Jack Harkness is visiting the SGC and they've just wrapped up the debrief with Hammond. Sam's probably retreated to someone's lab to process things/get started on figuring out what's going on here. Daniel is sticking around, Harkness has been invited to stay the night, and O'Neill really just wants to go home, take more painkillers than normal people ever have to need, and put his head under a pillow for a good, long time. I think Daniel just offered to show Harkness to the VIP rooms. Harkness has other ideas.
"No," Harkness said. "Actually, Colonel O'Neill was dragging me home with him tonight."
Jack stopped, turned around, and eyed Harkness coldly. "I am?"
Harkness met his gaze with one of those unsettlingly-direct looks Daniel sometimes got. "Yeah," he said. "Takeout and drinks. My treat. So we can discuss a few things."
Ah. Jack eyed him a moment longer, then glanced to Daniel as though something hadn't just happened there. "Right. We were going to do that."
Daniel looked between the two of them, concern gathering between his eyes. Probably thinks we're going to kill each other and burn down the place, Jack thought. It'd help if I was sure that wasn't what we're doing.
"You... want me to come with you?" Daniel offered. Smart man. He knew there was something significant here, and Jack was pretty sure he'd picked up on the wariness that existed between them. He was probably looking to play peacekeeper.
Tough shit. Jack didn't really want the peace kept, especially not under Daniel's rules. Especially not when Daniel was half of the problem. And Harkness either sensed that or had a similar thought, because he turned one of his sharkish smiles on Daniel and said "I think we can manage."
>
Harkness swished the scotch, but paid no other attention to it. His gaze was fixed on Jack, his head tilted to one side, eyes bright and considering. All in all, he looked like some of the hunting dogs Jack had seen offworld, watching for weak spots and uncannily clever.
"So," Harkness began, with a tone that got straight to the point. "Sam and Daniel."
"What about them?" Jack asked, keeping his own voice and face stonily neutral. The corner of Harkness' mouth ticked up.
"Let me float a guess. From your perspective, here's how it looks: these people are your team. You lead them into and out of tight spots and hell on a daily basis, and you've put in the work that makes them more precious than gold. Then they disappear from right under your noses, and nothing you can do can get them back.
"The, and it's only been a few months for you, they come back with three years of history for some bastard you don't know. He throws out orders and they listen to him, and he doesn't smile right, and he's got a reputation for getting teams shot out from under him. And Sam is calling this guy 'sir' and Daniel is calling him 'Jack', and while you want to trust your team's judgment, swallowing this is like swallowing a badger. There's nothing about it that sits right." He tilted the scotch. "Am I close?"
A part of Jack appreciated the baldness with which Harkness had put it. At least it made the playing field clear: they were both being vetted, here, and they were both perceptive enough to pick up on the tensions. And neither one trusted the other as far as they could throw them, yet, let alone considered them an ally, let alone considered them someone with the right to take a position of power over their people. Jack just kept his poker face on, and said "Sounds about right."
"Right," Harkness said. "Now I want you to come over to my side of the fence for a moment." He gestured again. "I've got a city to hold together, and we're on top of a rip in the fabric of the universe, not to mention the fact that the people who come through that Rift – including these two – are persona non grata, and we've got a whole community of them to caretake. I know the people I pull into this are going into the most dangerous job in the city, and I've got to keep them safe – whatever the cost to myself. You have no idea how it gets, watching everyone you know die, every damn generation."
Harkness was letting the mask slip, and little, and Jack noticed that – and wondered how genuine it was, and how calculated. The Captain was a distressingly good actor when he had a mind to be.
"I look after my people. I have their backs on threats they don't even notice coming toward them. And then the Rift hiccups, and suddenly two of my own have an entire history clamoring for them, along with someone tight-lipped, keeps to himself, looks at a situation and knows what has to be sacrificed if it all goes sour and there aren't any choices left. And Sam is calling this guy 'sir' and Daniel is calling him 'Jack'. And I want to trust my people, except I know what a giant chink in the armor someone you trust with your life can be."
>
"It's the little, ugly truth neither of us wants to admit to," Harkness said. "Sooner or later, there might come a time when we've got to lay down one of our people's lives in service of a larger goal, and the only way that can happen is if we're the one making the call. It's our judgment, and it's on our heads. These people are on our team, and they let us make that choice over their life, and in return for that, we make sure no one else comes close to choosing that for them." He showed his hand. "That's not the sort of setup that expands well into our current situation."
"No kidding," Jack said. "So, what do you plan on doing?" He took a drink from his beer.
"Well, that's the question, isn't it?" Harkness leaned back, raising his eyebrows. "Neither of us trusts the other around our people. Our people trust us both. So either one of us can kill the other – I wouldn't advise that, by the way – we need to lay down some trust and understanding, and fast."
Jack snorted. Trust and understanding. Yasureyoubetcha. "Or a proper chain of command," he said.
Harkness gave him a dry, amused look. "Right. Tell me which of us would ever submit to the other."
He had a point.
Jack set the beer aside and leaned forward, lacing his fingers together. "So what do you suggest?" he asked. "We go through Basic together?"
"Yeah, and when it comes time to fall backwards off something, you realized trust isn't necessary in my position," Harkness said. "Here's what I suggest: we sell it to Hammond as an extended project to familiarize ourselves with the politics and procedures of our two entities – Torchwood and the SGC. For some amount of time, maybe a month, maybe a few staggered weeks, I'm assigned to SG1. I'll work under your command. Then we switch, and you come work for Torchwood under mine. We'll see if and how we take care of our people. Then maybe we'll be able to work together in a place where there is no clear chain."
Sounded reasonable. He thought. Jack turned it over in his head, picking at the risks, and he'd almost agreed, but there was one last thing he had to ask. Even if how Harkness answered it was going to tell him more than the actual answer. "And what would compel me to bring you out into the field when I have no idea how you'll comport yourself?"
The I-see-what-you're-doing-there half-smile came back. "Because the alternative," Harkness said, "is that we both have power over these people, and neither one of us ever knows what threat that represents."
...okay. That was a considerably better answer than Jack had been expecting. He'd expected bluster, bravado, or confidence, but Harkness was too well aware of the game they were playing. Knowing he could follow orders and handle himself in a firefight would be good, but secondary; Harkness was looking at a picture much larger than how well his missions would go.
And that made it convincing in a number of ways. One, that he had a head for the larger picture. Two... if Jack didn't get a threat assessment of Harkness – and fast – he was never going to be able to sleep at night.
He shrugged. "I'll talk to Hammond about it," he said, and leaned back again.