Ghosts

Fragments

"John?" I repeat.

Jack looks at me. "How do you know who he is?"

"Your lives are my tv, remember. He played some significant parts."

"Fair enough." Jack shrugs and looks back to Tosh. "Where is he now?"

"Well he walked into a bar a moment ago... and now people are coming out of it."

"Okay, good. We get him alone."

About a minute later the SUV is parked and we walk into the bar.

"Jack."

"John."

"You came alone."

"Sure."

John looks at him weird. "So your team is around here somewhere. Alright. How are they? Eyecandy holding up okay?"

"Actually," Jack grins, which makes look like a lunatic, which he might be, "Ianto's dead."

"Oh. Um, sorry?" John seems taken aback and unsure of how to respond to Jack's attitude. Which is to be expected. He just grinned and said his boyfriend was dead. "Are you okay?"

"Well," Jack sits down. "My entire team is dead. Like my current team. The team you met is mostly dead. Only Gwen's alive and she was fired and retconned because she made a move on me. And she's married! For God's sakes that woman."

John looks even more confused. "If your current team is dead, how are they current, exactly?"

"They're ghosts," is the matter-of-fact reply.

"Okay, that's it, your crazy." John throws his hands up in defeat.

"I beg to differ." I say, materializing next to Jack. John just stares. "Hi, I'm Hazel. I'm dead. I'm a ghost. I'm from an alternate universe. The rest of the team is Ianto, Tosh, and Owen. We're doing well, thank you, and that's not sarcastic. And they are here too by the way." I dematerialize, John still staring. Then I start laughing. Owen is laughing softly behind me as well.

"Let's go back to the hub." Jack suggests, though it's not really a suggestion.

John fires questions at us, well, mostly Jack and me because we're the only ones he can see, the whole trip back to the hub. Most are just voicing his disbelief that we exist as ghosts. He does get a good grasp of what's been going on though.

When we get back to the hub, it's down to business. Into the conference room, even though it's going to be informal because, come on, it's John.

"So what brings you to Cardiff?" Jack is quick to get to the point.

"No reason, just dropped by for a visit. Check up on you. Make sure you haven't actually gone crazy."

"I'm not going to go crazy. I've been here 200 years and still have most of my sanity. And even with the weird stuff that goes down here, this team is only making me saner." I notice Jack looks at Ianto as he speaks. "But there's no way you're here just for a visit."

"Aw, come on. There's no diamond, real or fake, no bomb strapped to my wrist, I'm not gonna try to kill your team."

"I'd like to see him try," Owen chuckles. I give a short laugh.

John looks at me. "What?" I remember (not that I had forgotten) that he can't see or hear Owen. I relay what he said and John smiles. "Is that a challenge?"

"Oh come on, do have any idea where he even is?" I counter.

"In this room."

"Amazing, how 'bout we narrow that down a bit. This is decent size room." I speak to him as I would a child.

"I like this one Jack, you'd better keep her."

"Oi, now you're avoiding my question! And Owen is standing behind you with a knife. If this were a competition you'd have lost."

"No he's not," John scoffs. Then he turns around to see that someone is holding a knife a foot away from him. Even if it is a butterknife. "Shit!" He jolts backward.

"Actually, you're right, he's not. That's Ianto with the knife. Owen's sitting over there." I gesture. "And Tosh is there, but you can see her computers. Now we've gotten off topic. I believe we were talking about why you're here."

*~*

I have a very vague idea of where this story is going. Also I still need to watch Children of Earth but I'm scared to. Series 4 as well, but... I don't know. I'll get to it. Eventually.

Also I was really lost as to what to call this chapter. Fragments because this chapter is only a fragment of the story and pretty insignificant. It's getting hard to name them. I'm going to have to crossover to get more titles.