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The Sleeper Awakens

Summary:

Third in the Birthright series:  Sophia Tregarth has awakened from her decades-long coma sooner than anticipated, leading to the revelation of secrets with devastating consequences to her long-time friend Captain Jack Harkness as well as her youngest daughter.

Chapter 1: Prologue: Somebody's Baby

Notes:

This is the third story in the Birthright series.  The first two stories are The Rising, which saw the reunion of Jack Harkness with his old friend, the former director of Torchwood Three, Carlyon Tregarth and the rescue of Esther Drummond from the Families, and Torn Asunder, in which a new Rift opens a short distance from the Tregarth homestead in Oklahoma and the two former directors of Torchwood Three (Jack and Carlyon) create a new Torchwood branch.  As mentioned previously, in this story, Carlyon’s wife Sophia awakens and secrets with devastating repercussions are revealed.

Chapter Text

Disclaimer:  Captain Jack Harkness, Agent Rex Matheson, Esther Drummond and Torchwood as a whole does not belong to me, but to BBC and Starz Studios.  The Tregarth family does belong to me. . .I don't mind if you borrow particular members. . .just ask first and return them to me alive and as close to unscathed as possible.

The Sleeper Awakens

Prologue

Somebody's Baby

 

Three and a half months after the end of Miracle Day

One week after the formation of Torchwood America

Home of the Tregarth family, Oklahoma

She never liked coming to this room, even before she found out just who was resting in the cryo-unit.  Okay, it wasn't actually a cryo-unit. . .not the point.  To the best of her knowledge, there was no real term for this, unless it was ‘stasis unit.'  Nice try at distraction, she thought sourly, but it failed. . .epically.  And even now, she didn't really want to be here, but this was the only place where she could find some semblance of peace, where she didn't have worried or pitying looks plaguing her. . .where her desire to deck Jack wouldn't hurt anyone but herself.  Natalie Tregarth leaned forward, allowing her forehead to rest against the cool metal of the cryo-unit.  She didn't know what was happening to her, but she wanted it to stop.   Ever since she returned from her undercover assignment, her emotions were running out of control, and she hated it. 

Normally, Jack's teasing didn't bother her.  He was a good man from a time far from her own, and he didn't always understand things of this time.  More to the point, he didn't understand why people took certain things seriously and he wasn't always familiar with ‘tact.'  Thus, his teasing. And that was all it was, there was no malice in his jibes, but this time. . .this time, it was too much.  Dammit, she didn't even like watching a man and a woman kissing, and he hassled her about leaving when he kissed Ianto Jones?  She was lost in her own frustration, with herself and with Jack, which was why she didn't notice the fluctuating vital signs.  And by the time she did notice those signs, they were accompanied by banging. . .that came from inside the cryo-unit.  Stasis unit.  Whatever you wanted to call it.

Natalie stumbled out of her seat, only barely catching herself on the cryo-unit.  She peeked down through the window, to see an obviously-terrified woman very much awake, and felt torn. . .did she get help or did she do this herself?  Her decision was made for her when the woman inside the unit screamed, "Help me!"  Natalie couldn't ignore that.  Never mind that she could barely hear the scream. . .the words were there, on the woman's lips.  She fumbled with the latches on the side of the cryo-unit, and using all of her strength, all of her frustration with Jack, shoved the top up, freeing the woman inside.  She bolted upright, taking a deep breath of air, and the sound was too much like Jack when he came back to life.

But Natalie ignored those similarities, choosing instead to focus on the woman, wrapping a slim, strong arm around the woman's shoulders as she helped her out of the stasis unit.  Not for the first time, she was glad it wasn't high off the ground. . .twould have been quite awkward.  She felt the woman's own arms wrap around her waist as she pressed her face into Natalie's chest, shuddering with what was likely a combination of terror and cold.  The brunette murmured soothing nonsense, wondering how the hell to calm down a terrified woman who just spent the last forty-five years in stasis, give or take, and stroked her hand over the newly-awakened woman's auburn hair.  God, she didn't look any older than thirty-five or thirty-six, Natalie's own age!  Which was about right, but still. . .it was hard to accept that this woman was in her eighties.

At last, the tremors began to ease and Natalie whispered, "Can I let go of you long enough to get you a towel and a blanket, and then we can find you clothes?"  There was a shaky laugh, and the woman nodded and carefully removed her arms from Natalie's waist.  However, before she turned her attention to finding at least a robe and some towels, Natalie made sure she was leaning against the unit where she spent so many years and stable.  With the woman (her grandmother) safe for the moment, Natalie turned her attention to finding the bathrobe which her mother put in here when Grandfather mentioned that she would be waking soon.  Ahh, there it was!  She eased the robe around the trembling woman and murmured, "Here, why don't you sit down and I'll dry your hair."  Sophia Tregarth nodded and Natalie helped her into the chair which she just vacated, murmuring, "You woke up a little sooner than we realized.  Hope I didn't contribute to that with my meltdown." 

"Wh. . .what happened?" Sophia mumbled, adding, "Oooh, ‘m so cold!"  Natalie smiled sympathetically, and then beamed when she found the towel she needed.   Yeah, she imagined she was cold. . .she spent more than forty-five years on ice, based on what she heard from her mother, grandfather, and aunt.  Natalie shifted behind the woman, pulling the long hair away from the nape of her neck.  When Sophia spoke next, her voice was more stable as she asked, "And while I'm thinking about it, what year is it?  Carlyon and Mr. Colasanto weren't sure how long it would take for the virus to run its course.  I told Carlyon that antidote would make things worse, rather than better, but he wouldn't listen."  Natalie didn't speak at first, too focused on drying the other woman's hair.  This woman was her grandmother, but she looked too close to Natalie's age to think of her as ‘grandmother.'  It was hard enough to think of her as her grandfather's wife, much less as her grandmother.

"In answer to your second question, the year is 2011, and it's the last full week of October.  We've been debating what to do about Halloween this year," Natalie replied, and winced at the sharp inhalation of breath from the auburn-haired woman. She wasn't expecting that, evidently.  Poor woman.  She continued after a moment, "And in answer to your first question, I had an argument. . .sort of. . .with an old friend of yours, Captain Jack Harkness.  He was teasing me about something which normally wouldn't upset me, and I kind of let him have it both barrels.  I came in here to get some peace."

Sophia laughed a little, saying, "It takes some time to get used to Jack, I know.  Oh, you're good at this. . .do you have children?"  It was Natalie's turn to laugh, telling Sophia about her Ailsa.  It was a nice, normal, quiet conversation between two women, between two mothers, ignoring the fact that they looked the same age and were in fact grandmother and granddaughter.  So, of course, it couldn't last.  As Natalie draped the damp towel over the stasis unit and began looking around for a pair of slippers, Sophia completely knocked her world for a loop by observing, "I have three daughters. . .Priscilla and Octavia are my oldest daughters, and I have my precious little Natalie.  Except she isn't a little girl any more, much less a baby, not if it's 2011.   If it's the last week of October, then I've come back in time for her birthday."

The words didn't register with Natalie at first. . .the slippers were proving to be more elusive than she would have thought.  Honestly, everyone knew that you put bathrobes and slippers together!  And then. . .wait, what?  She knew that her grandmother was pregnant with her third child when she fell so ill, and that the baby was a little girl, but. . .but Natalie was her name?  Natalie, who was born at the end of October?  That was a coincidence, right?  She looked at Sophia Tregarth, who asked with obvious concern, "Are you all right, sweetheart, you look like you've seen a ghost.  I. . .Jack?  Oh, it is you!"  Natalie looked toward the doorway, to find a very anxious-looking Jack Harkness standing there.  In the part of her mind that was still capable of coherent thought, Natalie decided that wasn't a good expression for him.  Jack should be smiling, not looking anxious.  But he did.

"Sophia. . .it's good to see you.  I was looking for Natalie to work out our argument, and Esther said she came in here," Jack replied.  Natalie was looking from him to Sophia and back again, so she saw Sophia mouth, ‘Natalie?' when Jack mentioned her name.  He closed his eyes, swallowed, and when he opened his eyes again, there was a determined light in his eyes.  However, his voice was infinitely gentle as he said, "I shouldn't be the one doing this, but it seems that this responsibility is falling to me anyhow.  Sophia, I'd like you to meet Miss Natalie Sophia Tregarth. . .your youngest daughter.  Natalie, this is your birth mother. . .Sophia Imogen Wellington Tregarth."  Natalie stared at him, seeing his mouth move but unable to hear him for the roaring in her ears.  And then she was neither seeing nor hearing anything. . .not Sophia's cry of alarm nor Jack's lunge forward. . .because it was at that moment that she collapsed to the ground in a dead faint.   

TBC