czarina_kitty

Title: The Captain and the Witch
Author: czarina_kitty
Fandom: Torchwood/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing/character: Jack Harkness, Willow Rosenberg
Rating: PG
Summary: After the 456 Jack seeks out the only person he knows to have ever brought someone back from death.
Warnings: Spoilers for TW: COE and BtVS season 6
Disclaimer: I do not own, or make any money from the use of, these characters.

It took five months to track her down. Like most of them, she didn’t keep a permanent address anymore, not since Sunnydale was reduced to a smoking crater. He knew she had spent time in England and in Scotland, but it was in Rio that he finally caught up with her.

Sitting next to her in an outdoor café, he wasted no time on introductions. “Buffy told me once that you brought her back from the dead.”

“If that’s a pick up line you need serious help,” the redhead replied. “That isn’t something that Buffy just goes around telling everyone. At least not before a few drinks, you know the ones, with those fancy little umbrellas in them. Or maybe some really expensive shoes. Did you buy her shoes? ”

“I’ll buy you both whatever you want if you’ll help me. But, no, I knew she was different. She smelled different. Tried to tell me that it was just because of who she was, her ‘gift’, but I knew different. Same way she knew I was different. The same way I can feel your power.”

“When was this?”

“A few years back. In Italy.”

“Oh, so you’re the Immortal? With the big fancy house and the weird servants and the not dying?”

“That’s me, but I prefer Jack. Captain Jack Harkness,” he said, holding out a hand to shake.

“Torchwood’s Jack Harkness?” she asked. “I guess that makes sense. Sort of, in a completely non-sense making way. It explains a few things, which just leads to more questions.”

“How do you know about Torchwood?” he asked, eyes narrowing.

“Hey, you think you’re the only ones who can do that computer voodoo that you do. We have ways of finding out stuff about…stuff.”

“So you looked me up? Did you like what you saw?” Jack asked with a leer. Willow merely looked up at him, unamused and uninterested, until he continued. “We’re fighting a war here and it pays to know who’s on which side.”

“We weren’t sure about you, but after the thing with the children…well, you stopped that before we had a chance. Which was kinda embarrassing really, I mean we’re kinda known for preventing apocalypses. Been doin’ it for years.”

“Do you think you could have stopped it?”

“Like I said, it’s sorta our thing. Yeah, we could have. Some of our girls were young enough to be affected, so we had convenient test subjects. Some of them were able to break the control with help, so we knew we were on the right track. We were ready to start broadcasting a counter signal when it all just…stopped.”

“How were you going to boost the signal?” Jack asked quietly.

“Our girls all expect to save the world and die young,” she said. “We had willing volunteers.”

“How much longer would you have needed? If I hadn’t stopped it, how much longer?”

“A matter of minutes.” Willow watched as Jack’s face drained of color and he leaned forward to rest his face in his hands.

“Minutes,” he murmured.

“You’re definitely her type, you know. Hundreds of years older than her, broody, and sort of ambiguous on the whole good versus evil scale. And that coat. Actually, I’d guess you’re most people’s type,” Willow blushes. “Handsome enough to make a girl reconsider her choices.”

“What do mean ambiguous? I’m not morally ambiguous I’m…okay, I’ll give you that one.”

“Why are you here, Jack?” she asks with a small laugh.

“There’s someone I want back,” he paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. “Two people, really, that I need back. They died fighting the 456 and I need them both.”

“I can’t help you bring them back. I’m sorry.”

“You brought Buffy back.”

“Yes. That was a mistake I won’t make again.”

“What mistake?” Jack nearly shouted. “She’s alive. How can that be a mistake? I’ll pay whatever you want, but I need them.”

“Did Buffy ever tell you where she was before we brought her back? We all assumed that she was in some Hell dimension, that we were saving her from that. But she wasn’t.”

“There’s nothing when you die. Blackness.”
“Morose much?”

“I’ve died, so many times, and there’s nothing. Just darkness.”

“You’re wrong. There is something else, you just haven’t seen it because you never stay dead long enough. When we resurrected Buffy, we pulled her out of Heaven. She was happy, at peace, and we pulled her back to the nightmare that was her life. Hell, we never even thought to take her out of her coffin, she had to….I won’t do it again. Your friends, wherever they are, know that they’re happy. And they’ll be waiting for you.”

“I can’t die. I’ll never join them,” Jack said dejectedly.

“You’re wrong about that, too. It will be a long, long time, but you will die.”

“You can’t know that. I have it on good authority that this…condition is forever.”

“Good authority?” Willow laughed. “No such thing. And if you’re talking about your friend in the big blue box, he doesn’t know everything.”

“And you do?”

“No. But I understand how everything is connected and I can see when something doesn’t belong, feel when something is wrong. And you aren’t wrong, which means you will die one day.”

“What about my…Ianto and Stephen?” Jack asked, voice cracking.

“I told you, I won’t bring them back,” Willow stated. “But I could take a look at that Vortex Manipulator for you. I’m sure you know all about time paradoxes and the like, but a few carefully considered changes in the timeline wouldn’t cause too much damage. Shouldn’t be too hard to get that working again. I just need to apply time manipulation and conservation of matter in multi-verse physics with what we know from Project Indigo and…”

“Okay, I have to ask how do you know about Project Indigo?”

“Martha Jones is one of our girls. You didn’t know?” Jack sat stunned until she continued. “We always assumed that had something to do with the Doctor choosing her to walk the earth during the year that wasn’t, but if you didn’t know… Anyway, hand that puppy over and I’ll see what I can do.”

“I don’t have it,” Jack said softly. “It was buried in the rubble when… No one’s found it yet.”

“Oh. Well, that’s not a problem.”

“What?”

“Witch, remember?” Willow said. “I’ll just do a quick calling spell and…”

“Could you make sure it’s found by a particular person?”

“Sure. But it will be faster if I just bring it here.”

“I know, but I need to say goodbye to someone. If you could make sure she finds it, I’ll retrieve it, tell her that I’m…leaving.”

“I’ll make sure Gwen finds it then.”

“Do I even want to ask how you know about Gwen?”

“Probably not. She isn’t one of ours, if that’s what you’re asking. Her baby on the other hand, we’ll be seeing him someday.”

“Miss Rosenberg, if you ever find yourself needing a job, look me up in Cardiff.”

“Captain, if this works I won’t remember ever having met you.”