Title: Any Port in a Storm
Author: scgirl_317
Summary: Companion piece to Eternal Flame, but can be read as a stand-alone. Methos and Phoenix are being pursued by Martin Keppler's band of Hunters when Methos thinks of a place they can hide out for a while. But hiding in Torchwood may be just as dangerous.
Spoilers: Anything up to and including "Something Borrowed" in Torchwood's second season.
Their footsteps pounded in time with their hearts as they ran down the street. It was late at night, so there were only a few other people on the street, both a good and a bad thing. Good because it meant fewer chances for civilian casualties, but bad because it meant they didn't have a crowd to disappear into.
The building they were running past showered them in bits of brick and dust as a silenced round stuck the hardened clay, causing them to duck. A frantic look back proved that their pursuers were getting closer, and they pressed on, trying to increase their lead.
They didn't know how long they had been running. It could have been hours that they had been zigzagging through the streets of London. All they knew, at this point, was that they had to do something to get the Hunters off their tail.
The Tower Bridge loomed ahead, and a look confirmed what they were each thinking. They made a final dash to the bridge, well aware of the footsteps behind them getting closer. They ran along the foot path on the side of the bridge, headed for the middle of the river. Once they had reached the midway point, they grabbed each others' hands and vaulted over the railing and plunged down into the dark water below.
The Hunters stood at the railing, looking downstream for any sight of the Immortals they had been chasing, but the dark night and the murky water revealed nothing. Their prey had gotten away, for now. A fall from that height would have killed each, certainly, and depending on where the current took them, they would drown several more times before reaching the shore. They would have to wait for daylight before searching the river banks. They would not give up so easily.
Phoenix came around slowly, her coughing turning to retching as the water reluctantly vacated her lungs. Once she could take a semi-steady breath, she looked around. It was still dark—she hoped it was the same night—and that limited her vision, but she could make out that she was under a river dock, draped unceremoniously over one of the crossbeams. Methos was perched on the beam next to her, at least, she assumed it was him; she could make out a lanky figure, and she didn't know who else would be below the docks in the middle of the night.
"Welcome back," he said softly, confirming her assumption.
"How long were we out?" she asked, her voice still raw from expelling the water from her lungs.
"No more than a couple of hours, I'd say," he replied. "The current apparently carried us to the shore, and we got lodged in between some of the pylons for the dock. I managed to wiggle free and untangle you. Figured here was as good a place as any to stop for breath."
Phoenix sighed as she pulled herself up to sit next to him on the beam. Once she was sure she wouldn't fall back into the water, she leaned on his shoulder, welcoming the support as he wrapped his arm around her.
"What are we gonna do?" she asked quietly.
"I think I know a place where we can hide out for a bit," Methos began. "I worked with a man back in the seventies, in Cardiff. Jack Harkness. We should be pretty safe in his place. We can lay low there until the Hunters lose our scent."
Phoenix wished she was as confident about that as Methos seemed to be, but he hadn't survived for five thousand years by being careless. If he said there was a place they could hide out in Cardiff, then she trusted him. However, the name rang a bell to her, but she just couldn't remember why.
"So, if you worked with this guy that long ago, I'm guessing he's one of us?" she asked, trying to get her mind off of the present danger.
"Kinda," he hedged.
"'Kinda?' What does that mean? Either he's Immortal, or he isn't."
"He's immortal, but not like us. I never could get a straight answer from him, but apparently something happened to him a long time ago, and now he can't die. Rather, he doesn't stay dead; he'll revive just like we do. And he does age, just at an extremely slow rate. I was there when he found his first grey hair," Methos chuckled at the memory.
Phoenix shook her head at the strange man Methos described, "Okay, Cardiff it is, then."