Chapter One

This area of London had been evacuated. They were told there was a gas leak from a major pipe underground that was going to be dangerous to fix. It was a pretty accurate description, Cass thought.

She was the only agent of U.N.I.T still standing. Her comrades, idiots who were unable to work as a team apparently, had fallen some time ago and it had taken all of her supernatural skill just to move their unconscious selves out of the warehouse. Remarkably the freelance ex-Torchwood members where sticking with her and despite her clearly not being human they were able to trust her to work with them anyway – unlike U.N.I.T.

Boy was she nabbed by the wrong alien-fighting association.

Cass lifted her nose to the air, daring not to look behind the crate she and a man who introduced himself as Captain Jack Harkness – though he never specified what he was captain of when she asked, she suspected it was the innuendo squad though – where hiding behind.

"I smell blood. Not human, we defiantly hit it." she called out to the others who she hadn't spotted in their hiding places yet.

"Could be yours, you're not human." Someone called back.

Cass saw Jack glance at her. She shrugged "Even If it had hit me, I'd heal in minutes."

"How can you know that?" he frowned. "Faced giant blue tarantulas before have you? U.N.I.T gets all the fun!"

"No… they managed to procure some of its venom and had it administered to me to see if I could withstand its poison without my knowledge. Knocked me out for a few hours, but I was fine." Cass growled bitterly.

Jack had no time to answer, the spider's legs suddenly made an appearance over the hole and he fired some shots at the edge.

"You said someone was coming to fix this?" Cass asked.

"Yeah. The Doctor. He said not to kill it, he can send it home." Jack grimaced as he fired at a large leg again. They had thought in the beginning that staying away from a venomous spiders giant fangs would be quite easy – however someone of higher knowledge had neglected to explain this certain spider's venom came from the spiny hairs on its body, spines it could fling into the air as a weapon.

"I can do it! I can send you home, you big beauty!" A sudden brash Scottish voice filled the warehouse, and a tall grey haired man darted into the room lightning fast.

"Doctor, don't get too close!" Jack yelled, attempting to leave his hiding place, Cass pulled him back down.

"I'll go, at least I can put up a good fight when that poison gets into me. You just die and come back Jack." Cass winked at his stunned expression, probably surprised she knew about his coming back – but then how many immortal men did U.N.I.T deal with?

Cass sprang up from her spot on the floor, darting across the room just in time to tackle the Doctor and roll on top of him, protecting him from the hairy spines raining down on them. Cass's armoured vest managed to deflect most of the damage, but she took four spines before she rolled off the Doctor, in time to see there was two embedded in his arm. He looked startled at both the tackle from Cass and the sudden burning itching pain Cass knew was burning through his blood steam at that moment. She also became suddenly aware of a new scent in the air – beside the blood, the fear and the sweat there was… sadness… a deep sadness enough for her to be able to scent that… and it was coming, rather surprisingly, from the Spider.

"She's so sad…" Cass muttered, staring sympathetically at the watery arachnids eyes. She'd never liked spiders, but she could suddenly feel the bone cold sadness of the spider now that she was aware of it. "You said you could save her, send her home?" Cass gave the Doctor a side long glance.

He was staring at Cass, she had a spine in her exposed neck one in her waist and two in her legs. He was in agony with just two, and she was still thinking of the Spider with the pain she must be in with four lots of venom dosages in her blood stream.

"Yes. Press the button, throw it into the hole. Then you run." He gasped.

"Then we run." She corrected him, taking the strange little device that looked more like the everlasting gobstopper from the first Willy Wonka film than anything like Alien tech. Still, she pressed the button, threw it into the hole and grabbed the Doctor by his coat half ran with him half dragged him back over to where she and Jack had been hiding.

Something exploded in a shock of colours and began to suck air into it. Cass felt herself grab not just the Doctor but Jack as well, to anchor herself or them she had no idea. When it was done, she finally succumbed to the spider's poison.

Jack and had a new addition to his team – Koai– help the Doctor out of the warehouse where they could get him to a sick bay. He himself scooped the U.N.I.T member Cass into his arms intending to bring her with them.

"But she's U.N.I.T?" someone dared ask him.

"U.N.I.T experimented on her with that poison before sending her in there." Jack hissed, his moral clear that he didn't approve of the testing – even if it had enabled Cass to save the Doctor from worse damage. No one argued with Jack again.

OoO

Cass woke feeling groggy. Her body ached, some places – where she remembered being hit with the spiders venomous spines – where completely numb still, but she knew in just a few hours she'd pull through. Faster if she could find a place to shift into her other form.

"Mornin' sleeping beauty." A voice said from a chair beside her bed.

Cass looked up startled. This was not U.N.I.T. Jack Harkness was sitting in soft armchair beside what she now noticed was a collapsible camper bed. There was another bed set up on the other side of the chair holding the Doctor, who was still calmly sleeping.

"We brought you here instead of U.N.I.T taking you. Can't say I approve of them administering venom to a solider just to see if she can survive it."

"The rest of U.N.I.T is not so bad. Just my team leader."

"Then why don't you tell someone what he's doing?"

"Because he'll throw me to the wolves. Literally." Cass laughed at her own joke, knowing no one else got it but still finding it funny.

The Doctor suddenly sat up in his bead, sucking in a deep breath, ice blue eyes looking around wildly. Jack tried his best to get the Doctor to lie back down but he wasn't having any of it. "No, no I-I want out… need… need to go again!" he was muttering.

"What's wrong with him?" Cass asked.

"Just come back from a difficult regeneration – his entire body, personality – has changed… he's still struggling with it." Jack explained as he held the Doctor down with some difficulty. After some minutes, Jack convinced the Doctor to stay put. "I'm going to get you both a good meal, then once out medic has cleared you, then you can go. Alright?"

Both patients nodded.

"Alright. I'm going to get you guys some food. Cass, I want you to make sure he stays put."

"Hey, how come I'm not a flight risk?" Cass asked, teasing as Jack left, winking at her as he did.

"Typical." The Doctor snorted beside her.

"What is?"

"The flirting. That show boy always could get all the pretty ladies to fall down at his feet… all the pretty boys too… pretty anything actually."

"Aw, you think I'm pretty?" Cass teased.

The tops of his ears blushed pink. "That's not wh-"

"I know" she laughed "Doesn't matter. Jack's too young for me anyway."

"I think you mean too old."

"Doubtful, I'd put his age at about… late twenties early thirties?" Cass shrugged. "Not sure exactly, could be older considering he's from a different century and keeps dying all the time."

"That's handy, how'd you know that?"

"I have a good nose." Cass winked at him. "Example, I can tell that wherever you where before here wasn't earth, but it was near a beach."

"Correct. Impressive. Not human?"

"Nope."

"Is that why you could withstand four of those spines before passing out?"

"Yep."

"Should have killed you."

"Yep."

"What are you?"

"Not telling. It's not safe." She suddenly looked around the room, wary and a little afraid.

The Doctor, somewhat understanding her need for secrecy though not entire sure why she thought an enemy might be so close by, chose to ask her a different question. "How old are you?"

She looked affronted, though her bright green eyes said it was only teasing. "Doctor, you should know better than to ask a woman her age!" she giggled, but relented. "Alright, I'm still young for many of my kind… putting it kindly, I was born on the same day as Charles Dickens."

"Char- that'd make you around 202 years old?" he looked shocked.

"Around there I guess, I stopped counting. Still young though for my kind."

"How old does your kind usually live till?" he sounded more than shocked, Cass couldn't quite read his face however… maybe hopeful? Though she hadn't a clue why.

"Well, the oldest I've met was ancient… I wasn't able to put a number on him, but rumour is that he sailed and settled in America with the first colonies." Cass shrugged. "It's hard to age each other after the first hundred years even by scent. Our bodies just keep repairing the old damaged cells making them young again."

"That's better than my way, repetitively dying." Jack said coming back into the room. He was holding plates. "Sunday roast for the patients because Koai likes cooking far too much. Seriously we got a dozen or so lemon cakes if you want them."

The three of them ate, though Cass stayed mostly silent, Jack and the Doctor apparently had some catching up to do. Unfortunately the conversation ended with Jack more worried about the Doctor than before, apparently there where some holes in his memory.

"Enough Jack" the Doctor ended up barking, the Scottish accent making his voice sound a bit more threatening that he probably meant it to be. "For me it's been more than 600 years since I last saw you, of course my memory might be a bit off." He was getting out of the bed now, no amount of Jack stopping him was going to get him down again.

Cass followed suit. Her skin itched, she wanted to get out of there and shift.

"I just want to get back to the TARDIS. I'll be fine once I'm with her."

"I'd still rather you were travelling with someone, you don't seem yourself Doctor…" Jack looked worried.

"Maybe your right Jack. You, do you want to come with me?" the Doctor suddenly approached Cass pointing a finger at her.

"It's rude to point, and you don't even know my name but you're asking me to travel with you?" she frowned, pushing his finger away gently.

"Of course I know your name. It's Cass."

"It's Cassidy actually, but Cass is fine."

"See, knew your name. Come on Cassidy the non-human, constantly afraid of someone discovering what you are… come away with me, away from that fright – travel time and space with me."

"Smooth talking, but you could just say please."

He looked a little annoyed. "Cass will you please come a travel with me?"

Cass smiled brightly. "Sure."