Daughter of Torchwood

1941

Just a quick note for this chapter, they meet the real Captain Jack Harkness in this chapter so Torchwood's Jack Harkness I will refer to as Jack, the real Jack Harkness I will refer to as The Captain. Hope that makes sense.

The Torchwood SUV comes down the road towards a dance hall, horn honking as it crosses an intersecting road without stopping. The SUV pulls up outside the dance hall with a Vote Saxon flyer on the door amongst other flyers. Jack, Starla and Tosh exit the vehicle, Tosh dressed up to go out, finishing a phone call speaking in Japanese. Jack and Starla approach the entrance of the dance hall.

"You look good," Starla compliments her outfit, "Going somewhere nice?"

"Thank you, it's my grandfather's eighty-eight birthday today," Tosh explains her conversation as she walks towards them.

"Oh, I thought you'd gone to all this trouble for me," Jack chuckles checking the readings on his wrist strap.

Tosh laughs a little, "Eighty-eight is a joyous year for the Japanese. I'm off to London to watch grown men throw rice."

"You can get that in the Balti after stop-tap. Okay, down to business, what have we got?"

They enter the dance hall, the furniture is covered in sheets, empty for years. They look around the lobby and up the stairwell, "The Ritz Dance Hall, it's been derelict since 1989, but recently someone's complained about hearing music drifting out."

Jack jogs up the main stairs, a wide staircase with a landing halfway up.

"Music from the 1940s," Tosh continues to explain.

Pausing on the stairs he looks upwards, "Shh," Music can be heard drifting down the stairs, "Listen. You two coming up?"

He jogs the rest of the way up the staircase smiling to himself, Tosh and Starla following a little more reluctant. They open a tall door and enter a large open hall. The décor hasn't been changed but the furniture has been covered with dust sheets.

"Wow, look at the chandelier. No neon lights back then. Just dashing young soldiers..." Jack happily offers his hand to Starla and spins her around to his chest, dancing, "...and pretty young ladies."

He swaps taking Tosh's hand, "And as they danced the girls would look into their partner's eyes, smile softly and say..." Jack spins Tosh and she loses her balance slightly.

"Jack, mind my laptop."

"I was thinking more along the lines of how long before you head off to war?" He laughs. They continue through the dance hall and walk down a back staircase on the opposite side of the room. A large piece of graffiti art has been painted on the landing wall.

They pause on the stairs, Jack putting a hand on Tosh's elbow as she uses a piece of equipment, "Come on. There's nothing here but memories and dust."

Starla takes two steps and the sound of music and people enjoying themselves drifts down from above. She looks back at Jack and Tosh and they return upstairs.

They re-enter the dance hall to find it full of people. Military men in World War Two uniforms and young women dancing to a band playing on the stage, "They look so real," Starla stares at them.

Jack checks his wrist strap as they look about, "They're not ghosts, it's a simple temporal shift, and it's beautiful!"

"We should get out," Tosh reasons. Jack nods grabbing Starla's arm and they head outside via the front stairs past a small bar.

An older gentleman wearing a cravat holds the door open for them as they leave, "Do call again."

"I would love to," Jack leaves the premises closing the door behind them.