Just Imagine...

Lucid Memories

Sam was sitting on the roof of the SUV, waiting for Jack to return from capturing the Weevil in the sewers. She wanted to talk to him about Gwen.
Not only was Sam worried about her sudden memory loss, but she was starting to feel like she was experiencing something similar. Not quite memory loss, more like memory revival. She was remembering things about her life before Torchwood as if they'd happened yesterday.
It was strange. Something was definitely going on with the team's memories and that needed to be addressed so they could figure out why.
Sam sighed, leaning back against the shiny, wet, black surface of the SUV, the top rack digging into the back of her head, and stared up into the inky sky.
Not a star could be seen here, even on clear nights. It was just endless, terrifying darkness. Sometimes it made Sam wonder if stars were just an illusion, and this was what the night sky really looked like.
Was the wilderness in general just an illusion? Should she just give in to the city and let it become her jungle?
Sam closed her eyes, and the sky became radiant shades of indigo, violet, magenta, apricot, and gold. Now there were stars, just faint pinpricks of silver in the sunset.
Sam was fifteen, her hair was long on the right side but she'd shaved it off on the left side. It was supposed to be cool, she'd told her doting and anxious mother, it wasn't like it would never grow back.
"Been up here long?"
Sam rolled over on her belly as Jay approached and grinned.
"What's it to you?" She teased, "I like watching the sunset."
Jay giggled affectionately, readjusting his little bun. Sam loved it when he tied his hair back like that.
Sam sat up as Jay gingerly sat next to her and dangled his feet over the edge of the awning.
"It is pretty." He murmured, gazing out across the waves at the sun, a ball of golden flame, sinking below the horizon.
"Yeah..." Sam replied, not realizing until it was too late that she was staring at him rather than the sunset. Jay smirked and raised an eyebrow at her.
"See something you like?" He asked.
"Pfft, no," Sam scoffed, averting her eyes, "you just look... nice. With the sunlight on you I mean."
"Thanks," Jay said, "you do too."
Sam felt herself blush as she smiled shyly at him.
"SAM RYDER!"
Both of them jumped at a shout from Sam's mother in the garden below them.
"I CAN SEE YOU UP THERE! GET DOWN! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO DANGLE YOUR FEET OFF THE AWNING? YOU'RE GONNA FALL AND BREAK YOUR NECK ONE OF THESE DAYS! ¡ABAJO NIÑOS ESTÚPIDOS!"
"UGHHH." Sam groaned as her mother kept yelling in Spanish.
Jay was laughing, and when Sam looked at him to tell him they should get down she thought her heart had stopped.
The last rays of honey colored sunlight illuminated Jay's face, and he seemed to glow like a fallen angel. His laughter was musical, his smile ethereal, and when he opened his eyes to look at her, it was like two tiny oceans were gazing at her.
"C'mon, Sam," he murmured, "let's get back down before your mom throws a flower pot at you."
He took Sam's hand as they carefully stood up and walked back across the roof to the stairs leading to the ground.
The heat of the day was fading, but miraculously, Sam still felt warm.
Sam opened her eyes slowly, that damned black sky still above her head as the warmth faded.
It had happened again - the memory thing. It was like she was dreaming, but she was wide awake. She remembered when that moment on the roof had happened but that memory had never been this vivid. It was like she was reliving it again.
"What're you doing up there, Sam?"
Sam jumped at the sudden voice from the ground and sat bolt upright with a yelp of surprise.
"Adam!" She exclaimed, laughing slightly, "don't sneak up on me like that, Jesus!"
"Sorry." Adam chuckled as she slid from the roof of the SUV to the concrete.
Jack was right behind him, looking a little disoriented and distracted. Sam was about to ask him if he was okay, when she realized Adam hadn't been with him when he'd left the hub.
"Adam, I thought you went home for the evening?" She asked.
"We met up with each other." Jack murmured. He still looked... off.
"Hey, Jacksie, are you okay?" Sam asked, tentatively reaching out to him.
"He's fine," Adam assured her, placing his hand in hers, "no need to worry."
Sam shook herself, her concern subsiding.
"You're right," she said softly, "by the Spirits, I'm turning into my mother!"
"We don't want that, do we?" Adam laughed.
"Definitely not. I love my mom but she never stopped with the nagging and the worrying."
Jack stared at Sam as she and Adam chuckled to each other.
Of course she wasn't really worried about him. That painful past of his didn't matter, and it wasn't something Sam should worry about.
Still, it stung Jack to think that his own renther didn't really care.
"Mom, what exactly are you here for?" Jack asked, with a bit more of an edge to his voice than he'd intended. Sam didn't seem to notice.
"Y'know what?" She said, "I... don't remember."