Once again it’s time for the weekly Sunday Brunch with ZA Maxfield! This week, we have three awesome friends joining us! Please welcome Vicktor Alexander, JP Barnaby, and Ava Doran!

This week’s question is: “If you had magical fan fic powers and could change the arc of a show, who would you write about?”

***BIG NEWS*** From now on, instead of the ebooks we’ve been awarding as prizes, I’ll be giving out a $5.00 Amazon gift card so readers can use it for the ebook (or other Amazon purchase) of their choice. All you have to do is comment below for your chance to win!

First up, we have Vicktor Alexander!

Oh that’s easy it would be Torchwood. –sobs- IANTO!!!!! –wipes tears- Oh, sorry about that. I’m still a little upset about that whole situation. So I’d fix it. I’d bring back one of my favorite characters (after Captain Jack Harkness played by the sexy John Barrowman) and set things right. So I’d write about Ianto. And I already have a lot of the story written as well, here’s some of it:

The air was still. Too still. Too quiet. It set Gwen Cooper-William’s teeth on edge and she knew that somewhere the Rift was causing trouble. Which meant that it was only a matter of time before Capt. Jack Harkness would be calling her and Rex Matheson, asking them to come into Torchwood to work.

Again.

Sighing deeply she walked from her bedroom to the kitchen, stopping by the nursery to check on her daughter, and noticing the beautiful toddler was sleeping soundly, she continued on to make herself a cup of tea. As always happened she thought of Ianto as she heated the water. She would do anything to have Ianto back. She missed him. Just as she missed Owen and Toshiko. But Ianto’s passing had such a deep effect not only on her but on Jack that she didn’t think the invincible man would ever recover. She sighed again as she pushed away the morose thoughts of the friends she’d lost to Torchwood and returned her attention back to preparing her tea and getting ready to go into work.

“Oi, what are you doing up so bloody early in the morning Gwen?” Rhys, her husband, asked as he stumbled sleepily into the kitchen with her.

Gwen looked over her shoulder at her husband and grinned at him. He looked like a little boy rubbing at his eyes and she opened her mouth to respond to him only to be cut off when her cell phone began to ring. She lifted her eyebrows at him and he groaned, pushing her out of the way lightly to make her a travel mug of tea as she went to answer the phone.

“Jack?” she answered the phone knowing who it was without having to check the display.

“Gwen, hope I didn’t wake you,” Jack’s voice came through the phone line clearly and Gwen smiled.

“I could feel it in the air, Jack. Something’s come through the Rift or is about to,” she deduced and she heard Jack’s grunt loudly through the phone.

“That’s why I love you Gwen. You’re always on top of things,” Jack said with a small chuckle.

Gwen accepted the travel mug from Rhys with a smile, placed a small kiss on his puckered lips and turned to leave their home, already dressed to go into work.

“Well someone has to be Jack. You spend so much bloody time shagging anything that walks that it’s up to me and Rex to keep things moving along like they need to,” Gwen stated matter-of-factly as she climbed into her car, shutting the door behind her.

“Yeah, well, if I don’t shag them Gwen, who will?” Jack asked cheekily and Gwen huffed in disgust.

The line grew quiet then and Gwen knew that Jack’s thoughts had turned to Ianto, just as hers had. Their banter had continued, just as they had, but there were always moments when Ianto Jones’s absence was felt acutely and in that moment, Gwen knew without a shadow of a doubt that Jack was missing his dead lover intensely.

Determined to get Jack’s thoughts off of anything depressing, Gwen returned the man’s attention to the Rift. “So Jack, any ideas on what it could possibly be?” she asked as she turned the corner towards the new location of Torchwood, The Hub 4, was what they were calling it. It didn’t look like the original Hub, instead it was a mere replica of Torchwood’s former glory, but it was theirs and they were proud of it. She noticed Rex’s vehicle and smiled at the black man’s scowling face as he walked towards the front door of the building.

“No idea Gwen, but whatever it is, it’s big,” Jack responded. “The Rift predictor is going crazy right now.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll deal with it. We always do,” Gwen promised. “Heads up, by the way, Rex is headed in.”

Her warning came too late, however, for as she stepped out of her car, closing and locking the door and making her way towards the building she could hear Rex’s annoyed voice.

“What the hell do you want Torchwood?” Rex asked, using the nickname he’d given to Jack the year before when they’d first met the American during what was being known as “Miracle Day.”

“We’ve got some large scale Rift activity coming our way, Rex,” Jack said calmly.

“Well, what the fuck is it?” Rex asked.

“We don’t know what it is yet, Rex,” Gwen stated as she stepped into the room. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than the Rift alarms began blaring. She rushed over to her station, hoping to pinpoint where the Rift activity was located, distantly aware of Jack and Rex doing the same when she gasped.

“Gwen? What is it?” Jack asked.

“The activity is happening here, Jack. Right outside the door,” she said softly. Her eyes connected with Jack’s and they stared at each other for a brief moment before they raced after Rex who had already taken off outside. Gwen stood between the two men as the Rift opened up directly in front of them and a blue police booth came through. Gwen heard Jack’s sharp inhale and turned to look at him.

“Jack? What is it?” she questioned the man.

“It can’t be. Why is he here?” Jack whispered.

“Who? It can’t be who?” Rex asked and Gwen nodded her head in agreement.

“The doctor. My doctor,” Jack breathed.

Gwen opened her mouth to ask another question only to let out a loud scream when the door opened and she saw who walked out.

“Hi Gwen. Hi—Jack,” the man said with a small smile.

“Ianto?” Gwen and Jack breathed at the same time and felt the Earth spin even as darkness enveloped her.

****

“Well that certainly wasn’t the response I was hoping for,” Ianto said as he looked at Gwen unconscious in the attractive black man’s arms. He was trembling and prattling on to avoid looking at Jack, he knew that, but he’d been looking forward to this day for too long. Now that it was here he had no idea what to do.

“How are you here?” Jack’s voice was soft as he stepped close to Ianto. Ianto’s head tipped back and he swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat. Fuck, Jack was still just as beautiful as he’d been hundreds of years ago. Although, technically, he guessed it was only two years or so ago.

“The Doctor.” Ianto nodded at the man standing behind him. He could tell that Jack wanted to ask about The Doctor’s new face, but instead he returned his gaze to Ianto’s face. “He showed up right after you left my grave. He gave me something that brought me back but told me I had to wait to come back to you.”

“Why?” Jack asked stepping closer.

“Because something is coming Jack and you’re going to need me to help you defeat it.”

“I need you for more than that,” Jack said hoarsely before taking Ianto’s lips in a scorching kiss.

~ * ~ * ~

Buy Links for Dakota

MLR Press | Amazon | All Romance eBooks | Bookstrand

Next up, we have JP Barnaby!

Thanks for hosting me again, ZAM!

Since I like to bend the rules, the story I’d most like to change isn’t a TV show. If there was one thing I could use my magic fanfic powers on, it would be the Harry Potter books/movies. Severus Snape is one of the best written characters I’ve encountered, and he gets royally shafted throughout the entire series.

If there was ever a character that deserved some kind of happy ending, it’s Snape. Okay, so he may be a bit of a dick at times, but who isn’t? Wouldn’t we all be a little dickish if everything seemed to go wrong for us?

So, if I had magic  fanfic powers, I’d give Snape a better ending. Should we start taking bets on who to pair him up with? Sirius? Remus? Lucius?

Buy Links for Andy, Go-Go Boy

Wilde City Press | Amazon | All Romance eBooks

~ * ~ * ~

And last, but not least, we have Ava Doran!

Thanks, again, ZAM, for letting me natter on about one of my favorite things: fanfic powers. I signed up for this question because I got my start writing fanfiction. (Harry Potter, if you’re curious!)

Of course, the story arc I had intended to write about has since fixed itself now that Once Upon a Time has returned. (Spoiler Alert if you’re not caught up on the second half: thank god Rumple is back alive…) Actually — if you’re not completely caught up on OUAT, I’d probably skip my little section on ZAM’s blog this Sunday.

I’ll wait while you scroll on by.

Ready? Okay! If I were to have fanfic powers and to change a current arc, it would be to erase Neal/Baelfire’s death. It didn’t make any sense as far as the show goes. Furthermore, it turned into an overdone cliche: someone dies at the point of reconciliation between two parties. It actually felt a bit like getting Neal out of the way makes way for Emma and Hook to get together (not getting into a ship war, but ugh.). OUAT is one of the few shows that has such a huge cast and does a good job giving all the characters a decent amount of screen-time — though I’d love to see some of the smaller characters get a bit more time. It’s a great show (and if you’re not watching you’re missing out!), but I, Ava, hereby wave my fan fic wand to bring Neal back to this mortal coil.

~ * ~ * ~

Thank you for all of the authors who joined us this week!