I didn't know if I should post this or not. I was rewatching Torchwood and got this idea of an AU for the series. What if, instead of Gwen Cooper, it had been a 14 year old girl called Jemima Lucas (AKA Jemie) who'd been swept up in everything. I couldn't find a story like this, so I wrote one... Please read and review at the end. I might post more, I don't know... But enjoy, and thanks for reading!
The rain fell, as per usual, on the streets of Cardiff. The headlights of a police car lit the scene in front of it, revealing the officers stood just inside of the section cordoned off by police tape. Light from a white van seemed to illuminate the figures of forensic investigator s huddled around the pale corpse of a young man. None of them looked up, but if they had, they'd have seen me. One of the main advantages to being short for an average fourteen year old was the fact that it was easier to stay hidden, especially at time such as now when I was leaning over the side of a multi storey car park to try and find out what was going on.
"Move back if you could, thank you," One of the officers said, herding everyone out of the way as the Forensics people packed up and drove their van away. I strained to hear what else they were saying, but it was hard to make out their voices from this far away and with the sound of the rain blocking everything out.
"Clear the site, special access," I heard another man say to the other officer. "Torchwood." I didn't know who Torchwood were exactly, but my question was more or less answered when a black SUV came around the corner, complete with blinding white headlights. They parked a little way away from the body; four of them, two men and two women, climbed out. The shorter of the men and the taller of the women were dressed in jeans and a black leather jacket, almost as if they'd planned their outfits to match. The shorter woman was wearing almost the same, except her coat was different. The other man, the one walking with more of a swagger, stood out by far. His long, dark blue trench coat swished below his knees, and he looked like he belonged in a time era sixty or so years ago.
The officers were talking to each other again, but I paid no attention to them. Now, it was about the four strangers. The man in the trench coat looked around and above him, as if he were looking for people who were eavesdropping. I ducked down out of his line of vision, knowing my guardian and brother wouldn't appreciate having to pick me up from the police station for compromising a crime scene. Peregrine didn't mind me staying out late as long as I stayed out of trouble, so that's what I'd try to do.
Standing up again cautiously, I peered down at the ground. Lights were set up around the body, the shorter woman was holding what seemed to be a phone, the leather jacket man held what looked like a video camera, leather jacket woman was crouched behind the corpse's head with a metal glove on one hand, and trench coat man was standing upright, proclaiming something about the taste of contraceptives in the rain. Leather jacket woman suddenly made strange "ooh" noises and placed the gloved hand under the dead man's head. The others seemed to crowd around her, so this had to be a development of some kind. Then, as if at once, the rain seemed to lessen, the lights seemed to brighten and the four of them exchanged looks. I leant a little further over the side, clinging to the stone edge. The dead man's eyes flew open and he gasped for breath, thankfully muffling my own gasp of shock. He seemed to be mumbling incoherently about things while the shorter woman tried to reassure him. I managed to pick out her saying something about two minutes, and the victim started babbling again.
"Trust me, you're dead," The shorter woman told him. Yes, because that was going to calm him down. There was more mumbling about how the victim was sure he wasn't dead, and then the woman who passed on said information to him asked him if he knew who killed him. The dead, or once dead, guy said that he didn't know, and then trench coat man started talking. Trench coat seemed to have better people skills; I could just hear him when he found out that the guy's name was John Tucker, and Trench coat introduced himself as 'Captain Jack Harkness'. He kept him talking until, just seconds later, the body became a corpse once more. The shorter woman and leather jacket man stood up, bickering with each other about a wasted two minutes, and Captain Jack Harkness reminded them of a previous occasion where the last corpse had screamed for an ambulance. That meant they'd turned up to talk to more than one dead person; how many people had they temporarily brought back to life? Who even were they?
"Maybe there's no right way of doing it," Captain Jack Harkness man said a little louder, before tipping his head back and staring directly up at me. "What do you think?" He yelled. I shot backwards, away from the edge. I stared straight in front of me for a moment, before turning and running as fast as I could.
I got back to the flat owned by my brother just less than twenty minutes later. I could hear the television blaring, but that didn't mean that Peregrine was still awake.
"You still up?" I asked from the hallway.
"In here," He called, shifting in his seat a little so I could sit down. "They said on the news that there was a murder down in the city centre. Anything to do with you?"
"Me?" I smiled. "Sure, Perry, I'm secretly a serial killer; I was hoping you wouldn't find out. Why are you still up?"
"I was waiting up for you, so that if you came in past midnight I could yell at you like the responsible Guardian I'm supposed to be," Perry replied with a shrug. "I'm an adult, we're meant to do these things."
"You're not an adult, you're only just twenty-two," I pointed out.
"Whatever," He smirked. "There's some pizza in the kitchen if you want it."
"No, thanks," I shook my head. "I'm just gonna go to bed."
"Night, Jemie," He replied, turning back to the television.
"Night," I said over my shoulder. "Enjoy your soap opera."
"So, my dad says that this is the third victim," Tanwen Ellster, my first and one of only two friends at Brandam Secondary, informed me. "The first two were women, this old woman called Sarah something and this middle aged woman called Rani Go-something, and last night it was a man, this nineteen year old called…"
"John Tucker," I finished for her.
"Yeah," Tanwen frowned. "How did you know that?"
"Jem just knows everything," My other friend, Gordon Davies, shrugged. The two friends thing was undeniably quite sad, but having only come to Wales to move in with my brother six months ago, and only been in this school for four, it wasn't quite as bad.
"Hey, Tanwen?" I asked as a new idea sprang to mind. "Your dad wouldn't happen to be able to find anything about… about a Captain Jack Harkness, would he?"
"He could probably find out, why?" She stared curiously at me.
"No real reason," I replied, "Just personal things, you know?"
"I'm home," I called as I walked through the front door, dropping my bag and hanging up my jacket.
"Hey, Jem," Perry greeted, "How was school?"
"You know, it was school," I shrugged, walking into the kitchen and grabbing a piece of cold pizza from the box on the side.
"Sounds enthralling," Perry raised an eyebrow sarcastically. I ignored him and focused on my slice of pizza. The shrill ringing of the phone cut off whatever he'd been about to say. He looked from the handset, to me, and back to the handset.
"Are you gonna get that or what?" I asked around a mouthful of congealing cheese. Perry pushed himself off the spot on the counter he'd been leaning on and answered the phone, walking into the other room with it so that I could no longer hear his conversation. I scowled at the back of his head as he walked out of the room ad picked up another slice.
He came back into the kitchen just a minute and a half later, grabbing his jacket from where he'd dropped it on the side.
"Who was it?" I said after a moment, following him as he ran around the flat as if he were in a daze.
"Lola, she's at the hospital, emergency department," He replied as he pulled on his jacket. Lola had been Perry's girlfriend for almost the entire time since he'd moved out and got his own place, which was coming up to three years now.
"What happened? Is she gonna be okay?" I slipped on my own jacket, found my mobile on the coffee table and shoved it hastily into my pocket.
"She fell, hurt her head," Perry told me. "She says she'll be fine, but I'm going down there anyway."
"I'll come too," I insisted.
"You can stay here, I'll only be a few hours," Perry said as he opened the front door and grabbed his keys.
"No, I want to come," I shook my head and followed him out of the flat and down to his car.
"How's the invalid?" Perry asked as we found Lola in one of the rooms.
"I'm fine, honestly," She smiled. "Hey, Jem."
"Hi," I answered nonchalantly, looking around the room.
"The Doctor said he wants to keep me in for a few hours, just as a precaution," Lola informed my brother. "You can go home if you want, I can call you later."
"Don't worry about it, I'll stay," Perry assured her. "Jem?"
"Sorry, what was that?" I asked, turning my attention back away from a poster on the wall that seemed to be written in every language excluding English.
"I'm gonna be here for a few hours yet," He repeated. "I'll give you some money for a taxi, okay?"
"Yeah, sure," I shrugged, accepting the crumpled notes that he passed to me.
My first idea had been to go outside and hail the first taxi that I saw, but if I left straight away, I'd have nothing to do for most of the afternoon. I wandered aimlessly around in the reception for a while, finally turning towards the doorway. A glimpse of something caught my eye, and I turned just in time to see the swish of a trench coat and a familiar man race up the stairs. It was him from last night; Captain Jack Harkness. After just a second's hesitation, I raced after him. When I reached the top, Captain Harkness was gone, and the doorway was blocked by a plastic sheet, held in place at the edges by police tape. There was nowhere else for him to have gone, so how had he vanished? I heard a thump from a flight or two below, and backed up a few steps so I could see its creator. A man, probably the caretaker and in his early forties, was heading in the opposite direction.
"Excuse me?" I asked. He turned, saw me and walked a few paces in my direction. "Sorry, it's all sealed off up there, who did that?"
"I think it was the police, love," The man shrugged.
"But what's it for?" I frowned. "What's happened?"
"Well, I dunno," He admitted. "Nine o'clock this morning it was all sealed off, they never said; chemicals or something." I watched him walk away, and as soon as I could no longer see him, I went back up the few steps I'd descended and pried the plastic sheet open. An empty corridor, seemingly harmless, was all I saw.
"Hello?" I called as I climbed through. Only the echo of my own voice answered me back. Then, the thudding of footsteps and overly loud breathing made themselves heard. A figure in what looked like a boiler suit came around the corner. "Sorry, I'm just looking for someone," I apologised. The figure stopped when it was directly in front of me, but made no move to close the distance between us, so I moved towards it. "Yeah, right, clever," I said to myself. "Anyway," I addressed the figure again. "I don't know if you saw a man come through here? A tall man? In one of those big sort of military coats?" I slowed down as I got closer to the figure; its face… it didn't look… well, human. "Okay, if you could answer please, this is kind of important to me, and my brother wants me to go home, so if you could just get it over with and talk to me…" The figure still made no move to answer. Cautiously, I took a few more steps towards it. "Are you alright?" Still there was no answer, just an intense sort of staring, almost as if it was scrutinising me. "That's good," I commented. "That mask thing." At least, I really hoped it was a mask. I took one more step forward. "Okay, could you just say something, please? It's all very well standing there saying nothing, but I have other things I could be doing right now. I'm looking for a man in a big, dark coat." The thing seemed to hiss at me and wrinkle its nose. "I said, I have other things to do." The figure opened its mouth and seemed to growl, but before I could say anything else, the caretaker came in through the plastic behind me.
"There you are," He pointed at me. "Although you really shouldn't be wandering around in out of bounds areas, sweetheart. But I asked for you anyway, I saw Doctor Maheeb 'cause I thought it was him who said about the police, but he said no. Then I asked about the chemicals, and he said, 'don't be stupid, what chemicals?' so I don't know, could be anything. Who've you got with you there, then? So much for sealing it off." The caretaker saw the figure's face. "Oh, there's a face. Nice one, Hey, I Tell you mate, you should try plastic surgery, not on the NHS, mind." The caretaker got to where I was stood and slowed down, turning to look at me. "You alright?"
"Umm, yeah," I nodded, glancing from him to the now quietly growling figure.
"Bloody hell, that is brilliant," The caretaker commended. "That's like, Uhh, Hell raiser! That's first class, that is! Look at that, it's just like real teeth, honest!" The caretaker pointed a finger at the figure's teeth. I took a step backwards. The figure grabbed the caretaker and sunk its teeth into his neck, the blood spurting out in every which way. I stared, horrified, frozen to the spot. Suddenly, everything seemed to happen at once. The people from last night appeared, spraying the murderous figure with something. Captain Jack Harkness appeared from somewhere and was running in my direction instantly.
"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" He yelled. I seemed to unfreeze in that minute and ran in the direction he was pushing me, out of the plastic sheet and down the stairs without hesitation. I ran until I got out to the hospital car park, bending over with my hands on my knees in an attempt to catch my breath. I turned at the sound of an engine, and saw the black SUV from last night. I just managed to jump out of the way of it before it sped off again, horn blaring. This was possibly my only chance; if I lost them now, who knew when I'd ever see them again? I looked around rapidly, seeing what might be my only hope, and possibly a miracle sent from God. An old woman stepped out of a black car, handing the driver whatever money she found in her bag. I grinned in spite of myself, grabbed the notes from my pocket and sprinted to the taxi.
"Follow that car," I instructed as I slid into the cab. The driver looked from the car, to me, to the money clutched in my hand and nodded once.
"That your phone?" The driver asked, shooting me a sideways glance. I felt in my other pocket and pulled out my currently ringing mobile.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Jem, it's Tanwen," She replied. "I asked my dad to look up that man for you, the captain Jack Harkness guy."
"Yeah? What did you find?" I asked.
"No such guy, apparently," She answered.
"Did he search outside of Cardiff?" I frowned.
"No, Jem, after twenty years of being a police officer, that never occurred to him," She retorted. "Of course he did. He said there was something like fifteen Jacks and Johns who had that surname, but that none of them were Captains."
"He could've made it up, I guess," I shrugged to myself.
"The only Captain Jack Harkness he could find was some American guy," Tanwen continued.
"Yeah, that's him!" I realised. "He's American. Well, he sounds it anyway."
"You forgot to mention this earlier?" Tanwen sounded irritated.
"Yeah, sorry," I apologised without really caring. "So who is he?"
"He's some RAF volunteer or something, but he disappeared off the record, he was presumed dead. But get this," Tanwen lowered her voice slightly. "He was presumed dead in 1941, he didn't report for duty and no-one heard from him after that. Weird, huh?"
"Yeah, weird," I repeated. "I've got to go, thanks, Tanwen." I hung up on her and signalled for the driver to stop as the SUV slowed down, the four from the hospital got out, and someone drove it away again. I pushed open the door and watched them as they walked away.
"OI, you lot!" I yelled after them. "Torchwood!" They didn't so much as flinch.
"Hey, kid, you gonna pay me or what?" The Driver demanded. I turned back to him, passing him the crinkled notes.
"Yeah, sorry, thanks," I replied airily, before turning back to where the four had been and closing the car door. They'd disappeared. I frowned as I walked around the water tower; once, twice, three times. There was nothing; they'd vanished. I walked around it a few more times before sitting down at the foot of it, my knees under my chin. I looked up when I felt something fall onto the top of my head; rain. Great, justwhat I needed.
It must have been three hours later that the sandy haired boy who, for some reason I couldn't quite decide, was my friend sat down next to me.
"There a reason why you're sat outside all alone in the rain?" Gordon grinned, leaning back against the tower, not seeming to care at all that now he'd be getting wet.
"I was looking for…" I trailed off, not knowing if I should tell him or not.
"For that captain guy that you asked Tan to look up?" He guessed.
"They were right here!" I insisted, standing up and circling the tower to prove my point. "They were right here and then they weren't and there's nowhere for them to hide and…"
"I don't think Perry's gonna be happy if you get pneumonia from sitting out here," Gordon mused, standing up.
"There was a man, I'm telling you, Gords. And there was a porter or a caretaker or something at the hospital, and he was killed, or injured at least, I mean… this thing, it… it attacked him, and…"
"Jem, if something like that happened, I'd like to think there'd be more of a mass hysteria vibe than there is right now," Gordon reasoned.
"I saw it," I said.
"Jem, are you sure you're not just…" Gordon shook his head and started again. "You've had a hard couple of months, what with your parents dying, and having to move to here, of all places, and… just let me take you home, okay?" I stared at him, then dropped my head to face the floor and nodded once. He put this hand on my shoulder and kept pace with me.
"I saw it though, honest," I told him. He looked at me in a way that only he could and didn't say anything.
When I got back to the flat, the lights were off and it was empty. I hadn't expected anything else, honestly. A lone piece of paper sat atop the counter in the kitchen, with my name written across the top in capitals.
JEM,
Staying with Lola for tonight, be back early morning before you go to school. There's food in the fridge, Call me if you need me,
Perry.
I stared at my brother's note, and in that second I decided I wasn't going to wait around here doing nothing. I had a point to prove. I had Torchwood to find.
I stood in front of the water tower once more, staring at it as if it would reveal the people known simply as "Torchwood". Obviously, it didn't. A pizza scooter passed by in the background and I followed it with my eyes until it was out of sight. I smiled as a new idea made itself apparent in my mind, and walked after it.
"Excuse me," I said as I walked into the pizza shop, attracting the attention of the boy behind the counter who was probably only a few years old than myself. "My name's Jemima Lucas, I'm doing some research for a school project into consummation of fast food in the area. Could you tell me if you've ever delivered to a Captain Jack Harkness?"
"Oh, I don't know," The boy replied with a half shrug.
"Could you have a look, please?" I asked, trying to stay patient while being gawped at by a gormless idiot. I waited for a moment as he typed it in.
"No, he's not a regular, anyway," Gormless boy replied.
"Is there a J Harkness, or just a Harkness?" I tried. He searched that instead an shook his head.
"No," He answered simply.
"Okay, never mind, thanks," I turned to leave, then turned back to face mister gormless.
"I don't suppose you've got a Torchwood?" I said warily.
"Oh, aye," The boy nodded. "We do them all the time, good customers."
With the address given to me by gormless himself, and prop boxes of pizza, I approached what looked like a tourist office. I opened the door, and just a few seconds after I'd entered, a young man came through the door behind the counter and smiled expectantly at me. He looked only a little older than Perry, maybe twenty five or twenty six at most.
"Hi," I smiled, "Sorry I'm late, someone ordered pizza?"
"Aren't you a little young for a pizza delivery girl?" he asked, his welsh accent thick and clear. I merely shrugged. "Who's it for, then?"
"I think it's… a Mr Harkness?" I replied. The door behind me slammed closed, making me jump. The man behind the counter pressed a button, making another door slide open. I stared at it, as gormless as the pizza boy.
"Don't keep him waiting," The man nodded his head towards the door and mouthed 'go on' when I hesitated. I stepped through the door so I was stood in a long, dark corridor; this door slammed shut as well. Another door opened, seemingly on its own, but I walked towards it anyway. It was too late to turn back now. This door closed as soon as I stepped through it, and then it seemed as if I was moving downwards. A cog seemed to roll away, revealing a large, round arch behind me, and I could tell this was where I'd been trying to get to. I didn't know what I'd been expecting, but this outlived my expectations.
A large, almost cavernous room was before me, different levels and walkways and stations. I could see the shorter woman sat at a desk staring at a computer, seemingly uninterested by my entrance. The cog door rolled back across with a whir as I stepped through it; was every door here automatic? Two metal bars closed behind me almost like a fence, sealing off the path to the door. I really hadn't thought this through earlier. I saw a hand in a jar of bubbling liquid as I swept my gaze across the room to another person. It looked like the taller woman, but her face was hidden by a mask as she welded something. The creak of a door above me signalled Captain Jack Harkness' entrance, except this time he was sans the trench coat, instead just in a button up shirt and trousers with braces. I turned my attention away from him for a second, seeing the taller woman remove her mask and confirmed that it was the same person. Captain Jack treaded lightly down the metal steps and walked past me, heading towards a desk. Curiously, I made my way up the steps after him. I stared at the screen of the shorter woman's computer, trying to make sense of what appeared to be waves and humming noises. I was halfway between her desk and the other man's when one of them started laughing. I stopped walking, and the two of them seemed to laugh together. The man slid back on his desk chair with a smirk on his face.
"I can't do this, I'm sorry," He called, grinning widely. "I'm rubbish, I give up." He raised a hand in defeat. As confused as this man made me, I liked him instantly.
"He set me off," The shorter woman insisted, turning to point accusingly at the grinning man.
"Well, that lasted nought point two seconds," The taller woman complained from her station.
"Hmm, she's actually carrying pizza," The grinning man mused, trying to convey a serious expression as he gestured in my direction, but giving way to another grin.
"Come on, she was gonna say 'here's your pizza' and I was gonna say 'how much?'" Captain Jack smirked as he stood up from his chair and walked in my direction, "And she says, oh, whatever, 'twenty quid', and I say 'oh, I don't have any money'." He leant against a pillar with another chuckle. The grinning man stuck the end of his pen in his mouth and looked from Captain Jack and back to me. If I hadn't been so confused, I might have laughed at his expression. "I was working on a punch line," Harkness continued, "I'd have got there… but it would've been good," He insisted.
"There's your pizza, I think I'd better go," I told him, watching him warily.
"I think we've gone past that stage," Jack replied.
"You must've been freezing out there," The taller woman commented suddenly. "How long were you walking around, three hours?"
"You could see me?" I gaped. She nodded and smiled before walking away.
"And before we go any further," Jack broke in, "Who the hell orders pizza under the name of 'Torchwood'?"
"Uh, that'd be me," Grinning man frowned, waggling a finger around. "Sorry, I'm a twat." Jack scoffed, and grinning man merely shoved his pen back in his mouth and stared back at me.
"That man at the hospital," I said hesitantly, "That porter caretaker guy… what happened to him? That was real, wasn't it? He was attacked?"
"He's dead," Jack nodded once.
"But there'd be more of a commotion if that happened," I pointed out.
"We took the body," The shorter woman explained, "Retrospectively changed the work rota, planted a false witness who saw him leaving the hospital, giving him an alibi for the next forty-eight hours, so when his body's pulled out of the docks next Tuesday night… he's only been missing for three days."
"He was murdered," I pointed out.
"Yeah," She nodded in agreement.
"And you covered it up," I summarised.
"It's my job," She answered simply.
"And that other man," I continued, turning back to Jack, "John Tucker? Last night in the alleyway, I saw you."
"And what did you see?" Jack asked, walking towards me.
"You revived him," I replied.
"No," Jack denied, "What did you see?"
"You resuscitated him," I tried again.
"No," Jack repeated. "What did you see."
"You brought him back to life," I retaliated, looking him straight in the eye.
"Yeah," Jack nodded. I stared at him for a moment before regaining the ability to speak.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"Torchwood," Jack stated simply.
"What's Torchwood?" I tried, shaking my head slightly.
"This is Torchwood," Jack replied, "All around you."
"And what happens to me?" I asked nervously, "I'm just a kid, I'm Jemie Lucas, I'm fourteen years old… you can't…" I trailed off. Jack stared at me for a moment before smiling slightly.
"Right then… Miss Lucas…" He took a few steps so he was now stood directly in front of me. "Do you want to come see?"
"See what," I enquired.
"You saw the murder," He started with a half smirk, "Come and see the murderer." Captain Harkness walked down a set of stairs. I stared after him, not overly eager to go anywhere with him just yet.
"Go with him," The taller woman encouraged. I place the boxes of pizza I'd been awkwardly holding down on a table already littered with other discarded boxes and followed after Jack.
"What is Torchwood?" I called to him, "Who are you, what is this place?" I was cut off by a loud, high pitched shriek from overhead. I tilted my head upwards just in time to see it fly over me.
"Was that a-…" I started.
"Pterodactyl," The shorter woman finished for me. I opened my mouth ask 'how' and maybe even 'why', but captain Harkness cut me off with a yell of, "Are you coming?"
I followed him down yet more steps, wondering briefly how far down into the ground their base went. Jack pushed open a heavy door and lead me into a dark, dingy room with what looked like glass panels separating off sections, like cells. Jack stopped in front of one and switched on a light. I jumped as I recognised the growling creature inside; the creature from the hospital.
"It's alright, it's safe," He assured me, "It's sedated. It's called a Weevil… Or at least we call them Weevils. We don't know their realname 'cause they're not too good at communicating." I'd gotten that impression from the way the Weevil was baring its teeth at us. "But we've got a couple of hundred of them in the city, living in the sewers, feeding off the… well, it's the sewers, you can guess. But every once in a while one of them goes rogue, comes to the surface, attacks. Actually, it's been happening more and more and we have no idea why. But it's alien." I was staring at a real life alien… an actual alien… "Look into its eyes," Jack prompted gently. I already was, and I wanted to stop but I couldn't force myself to tear my eyes away from it. Jack walked around me and picked up something, putting it down behind me and pushing down on my shoulder until I was sat on a stool. "There you go," He commented. I wasn't overly sure I was hearing him properly anymore; the Weevil had just about all of my attention. "Take your time. It was born on a different world, and it's real."
I followed Jack back up the stone steps to where the others were. Jack pointed at the grinning man who was pushing himself round on his chair in
half circles.
"Owen Harper, Jemie Lucas," He introduced.
"Doctor Owen Harper, thank you," Owen corrected with a nod. I nodded back at him cautiously.
"Toshiko Sato, computer genius," He said, gesturing to the shorter woman. "Suzie Costello, she's second in command," He pointed to the taller woman who was over at her station. She smiled at me, but I couldn't quite bring myself to smile back. The man from behind the counter earlier walked over, his hands clasped behind his back. "And this is Ianto Jones," Ianto smiled broadly at me, but with him, I managed a small smile in return. "Ianto cleans up after us and gets us everywhere on time." He must've been the person who drove the SUV away earlier.
"I try my best," Ianto nodded modestly.
"And he looks good in a suit," Jack added, shooting me a look and walking away.
"Careful, that's harassment, sir," Ianto warned, but he looked too flattered to be serious.
"Why are you telling me their names?" I asked, starting to walk after him but stopping after just a few steps. "I'm not supposed to know, am I? This is classified, isn't it?"
"Way beyond classified," Jack replied with a smirk, turning away but turning back instantly when I replied,
"Then you shouldn't be telling me. What're you gonna do to me?" If they killed me tonight, Perry would have no idea what had happened to me. What if he thought I'd ran away as a result of him not coming home tonight? What if he thought it was all his fault?
"What do you imagine?" Jack grinned, and this time he did turn to walk away.
"Well, I've seen too much," I realised, "Your names and everything, the Weevil and… you can dump a man in the water and lie about his death." Were they going to kill me?
"Okay, Tosh," Jack walked back towards me, this time complete with trench coat. "Finish that calibration tomorrow morning. Owen, first thing, get a hold of Chandler and Bell, 'cause I think they're lying. Ianto, if he needs back-up, then you'd better be on stand-by. Suzie, I know it's a pain in the ass, but I need the costing on the glove research. And as for you," he turned to me. "You're coming with me, this way." He didn't even turn around to see if I was following. I went after him like a lamb to the slaughter.
"I'm getting tired of following you," I insisted. He stopped in front of me and grinned.
"No, you're not, and you never will." He stepped onto a concrete slab that was raised higher than the rest of the ground, and looked expectantly at me. "Stand on here, come on, next to me," He held out his hand and lead me onto the slab, getting me to stand just to the side of him and keeping a hand on my arm. The others called out their goodbyes, but I tried to ignore them. "Now, you came in through the front door," Jack started, pressing a button on his wrist and looking upwards. "Let's take the scenic route." All at once, machinery seemed to start whirring above our heads and a hole opened up in the ceiling. The slab jittered and began to rise; I clutched onto Jack's arm as a means of support. Suzie stopped where she was walking and waved up at us. Jack waved back calmly, but I was too scared to let go of him in case I fell to my death, let alone wave back a t a stranger who could have some part in faking my death. Maybe this was how they were going to get rid of me, by pushing me off the stone so that I fell and broke my neck? I clutched tighter and peered anxiously down at the ground. The slab rose until we came out of the ground to just outside the water tower where I'd seen them disappear earlier.
"But…" I stuttered in disbelief, "But they can see the lift! Why aren't they, I mean…?" I realised I was still holding onto his arm and released him, embarrassed. "We're right out in the open, they can see everything."
"Do they look like they can see us?" Jack asked.
"No, but look at us!" I exclaimed. "We couldn't be any more public!"
"Hello," Jack raised a hand in greeting to a man walking past us; he didn't even look up. "Hey, you there! Hello!" He didn't even respond. "It's called a perception filter," He told me. "He can sort of see us but we don't quite register, just like something in the corner of your eye. It only works on this exact spot. Step off…" Jack stepped off and waved a t a passing woman. "Hi, nice night." She looked at him as if he were a creep and hurried away from him. "Oh, and lo we are perceived." I looked from him, to the stone slab and back to him.
"How does it work?" I asked, a smile creeping onto my face despite myself.
"No idea," Jack admitted, "We know how to use it, not how it works. But if I were to guess, I would say there was once a dimensionally transcendental chameleon circuit placed right on this spot, which welded its perception properties to a special temporal rift."
"Alright then," I nodded, not bothering to even attempt to decipher what he was on about.
"But that sounds kinda ridiculous," Jack chuckled. "Invisible lift has got more of a ring to it, don't you think?"
"But hold on," I interrupted him. "If no-one can see it when the lift's coming up , there's a bloody big hole in the floor, don't people fall in?" Jack scoffed.
"That is so Welsh," He complained.
"What is?" I demanded.
"I show you something fantastic, you find fault," He huffed and walked away.
"I'm not even Welsh!" I called after him.
"No, you're not," He pivoted suddenly. "So how long have you been in Cardiff?"
"Six months," I replied with a shrug.
"Why did you move to here?" He inquired, "Your parents drag you here or something?"
"My parents died," I told him quietly, "Car accident."
"I'm sorry," He apologised. Of everyone who'd said that to me so far, he sounded the most sincere.
"So, after the funeral, I moved in with my older brother down here."
"So how are you liking Wales?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. I simply shrugged at him.
I sipped on a glass of coca cola, keeping my eyes on Jack at all times.
"How did you get them to let me in here?" I frowned as I place my glass down on the counter top.
"I know the owner, he owes me," Jack replied simply. I stared down at the wooden surface for a minute before looking up at him again slowly. He was staring at me as if he were waiting for me to say something.
"The thing is, I just don't understand…" I started, but he cut me off.
"No, I'll tell you what I don't understand. You're gonna rattle on with that 'how can this be true' kind of shtick. What's it gonna take for you people? If you want evidence of aliens, how about that great big spaceship hovering over London on Christmas Day? What about the battle of Canary Wharf, a Cyberman in every home?"
"My brother says it's like a sort of terrorism," I responded. "Like they put drugs in the water supplies, psychotropic drugs, causing mass hallucinations and stuff."
"Yeah, well your brother's stupid," He replied, raising his eyebrows.
"Oh, you've met him?" I shot back. Jack laughed and took another sip of his drink. I took a moment to compose my thoughts and continued. "So… you catch aliens?"
"Yep," Jack nodded.
"You catch aliens for a living."
"Yes, we do," Jack confirmed.
"You're an alien catcher." There were only so many more ways I could phrase this.
"Yes I am," Jack humoured me.
"Caught any good aliens?"
"Tons of 'em."
"That's a hell of a job," I grinned.
"Sure is," Jack chuckled.
"This is so weird," I mused aloud, "And who are you then?" Jack crossed his arms across his chest.
"Captain Jack Harkness," He said smoothly.
"I did some research," I shook my head. "There's only one Captain Jack Harkness on record, and he disappeared in 1941."
"Well, that couldn't be me," He looked me straight in the eyes. "Could it?" I didn't reply. "We don't just catch aliens," He continued. "We scavenge the stuff they leave behind, find ways of using it, arming the human race for the future," He leant forwards so that we were only centimetres apart. "The 21st century's when it all changes, and we gotta be ready."
"But who's in charge of you?" I probed. "Is it the government or what?"
"We're separate from the Government, outside of the police, beyond the United Nations," Jack insisted. "'Cause if one power got hold of this stuff, they could use it for their own purposes."
"But so could you," I pointed out.
"All alien technology stays on the base," He replied. "No-one's allowed to take anything outside."
"So go on then, I've told you what brought me here, how did you end up in Cardiff?" I enquired. Jack grinned.
"This is Torchwood 3," He told me. "Torchwood 1 was London, destroyed in the battle. Torchwood 2 is an office in Glasgow, very strange man. Torchwood 3 Cardiff, Torchwood 4… it's kind of gone missing but we'll find it one day."
"So you just fancied Cardiff?" I guessed.
"There's a rift in space and time running right through the city," Jack informed me. "The Weevils didn't come in a spaceship; they kind of just… slipped through. All sorts of things get washed up here, creatures, spaceships, time junk, debris…flotsam and jetsam."
"Sounds like Cardiff," I nodded with a grin.
"Hey, don't knock it, I'm a citizen," Jack laughed. I smiled, but then my expression turned to serious as I tried my best to interrogate him.
"But where are you from?" Jack looked for a moment as if he were contemplating giving me a valid answer, but then he half shrugged and said simply,
"All sorts of places."
"The things is…" I began, wary at first. Then, I realised I was talking to a guy who was supposed to have died over sixty years ago about aliens, so I decided that wary might as well go out of the window. "I could help. I got my friend's dad to look in to finding you, I can get information out of him, and I get around places, people don't suspect me because I'm just a kid, and I find out things easy, I can find out who that serial killer is, like a modern day Nancy Drew." Jack smiled.
"Right, I can see the mistake. You think because we turned up at the scene of the crime, we're trying to catch the killer?" He guessed.
"Yeah," I said.
"Sorry, nothing to do with us, but I appreciate the enthusiasm, kid."
"Then what were you doing there?" I frowned.
"Testing the glove," Jack answered. "We need murder victims, simple as that, and the glove only works on the recently deceased, and the more violent the trauma, the stronger the resurrection,. All we need is fresh meat."
"No," I denied, "You were asking that man, John Tucker, I saw you, you were asking about his killer."
"He'd just been murdered," Jack pointed out. "What else are you gonna ask?"
"You could get an ID, you could help?" I suggested. Jack shrugged nonchalantly.
"We're busy.
"And your work is more important," I retorted sarcastically.
"Now you got it," Jack nodded.
"Well, that's tough," I told him. "'Cause if you let me go, I have to do something about it. I'll go to my friend's dad and I'll tell him everything, because that glove can help him."
"If you remember," Jack nodded.
"What do you mean?" I furrowed my brow at him. He shrugged and smiled somewhat sympathetically.
"How's your drink?" I gaped at him as I look from him to the empty glass.
"Have you poisoned me?" I almost whispered.
"Don't be so dramatic," He said, "It's an amnesia pill, my own recipe with a touch of denial and a dash of Retcon." I stared in disbelief at him. "Wake up tomorrow morning and you'll have forgotten everything about Torchwood, worse still you'll have forgotten me, which is kinda tragic." I slid off the barstool and ran out of the pub, slowing to a walk once I felt the cold night air and stepped out onto the streets.
"Don't think you can fight it by staying awake," Jack called after me. I turned around to glare at him. "I mixed in a little bit of sedative too." He smiled, almost as if he was proud of himself.
"Then I'll tell someone," I insisted. I wasn't going to let him win.
"You wanna do that?" He asked. "Do you really want us to come and find them, too?"
"You bastard," I hissed.
"Language," He reprimanded. "Nice knowing you, Jemie Lucas." He winked at me before turning around and sauntering away. I glared at his back before turning in the direction of the flat and sprinting home.
The second I was home, I switched on the battered old computer that Perry and I shared and opened up a document, typing away furiously. My typing only got faster as I felt drowsier and drowsier, the screen blurring and my spelling deteriorating. I'd just finished writing out the names of the five members of Torchwood when the whole screen turned black. I stared in disbelief and reached for a pen, but my eyelids felt as heavy as lead and my head was resting on the computer desk before I knew it.
"Jem, wake up," Someone shook my shoulder and put a mug of tea to the side of my head.
"Perry?" I frowned, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "Why'm I here?"
"You fell asleep there, I guess," He shrugged. I glanced at the clock on the desk and groaned.
"I've gotta get ready for school," I sighed.
"What did you do, stay up doing homework or something?" Perry asked as I stood up.
"Must've done," I yawned, grabbed the mug of tea and walked in the direction of my room.
"You never said if you found out anything or not," Tanwen told me.
"Found anything?" I repeated.
"On that guy, Captain Jack Harkness or something?" She frowned.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I admitted.
"Fine, don't worry about me, I'll just continue to ask my dad to search through police databases to answer questions that you can't even remember the next day," She scowled. "But look, I've got something to show you." Tanwen delved into her schoolbag and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. "My dad brought this home last night and I made a copy of it when he wasn't looking. This is what they think that murder weapon looks like; you know the one that's been used to kill those two women and that man?"
"It looks familiar," I mused, staring at the three bladed knife.
"What, are you trying to tell me that your brother is the killer and that you've seen it in your kitchen?" Tanwen gasped sarcastically. I smirked and shoved her arm.
"Yeah, that's definitely it," I shook my head.
"They made it on those computers according to the wound ratio or something technical like that," Tanwen shrugged. It looks pretty weird though."
"Yeah," I agreed. "Yeah it does."
"What's this now?" Gordon asked as he came up behind us.
"The weapon," Tanwen grinned as she raised her eyebrows. A flash of something seemed to fly into my mind, a glint of metal, a knife, something… I pressed a hand to my forehead and stared at the ground.
"Jem? Jem, are you okay? Jem," Gordon's voice finally broke through my subconscious and I looked up at him expectantly.
"Sorry, did you say something?" I apologised. Gordon looked at me and then shook his head.
"Don't worry about it. So, anyway…"
"So I stay with her all night, and suddenly her mum turns up first thing in the morning and gives me the evils like she'd been sent from Hell itself!" Perry moaned. "You'd think she'd be grateful that I stayed to look after her concussed daughter, but no! She comes up to me and curls her lip and looks down that stupidly large nose and says 'Peregrine, I didn't expect to see you here'. I say 'Good morning, Mrs Thorley, how are you today?' and she says 'don't you have somewhere else to be, young man?' and I…" The knife; three blades; glinting metal. Knife; blade; metal. Knife… Knife… Knife…
I draw it on an envelope I find next to the computer, that three bladed knife from Tanwen's picture, over and over again. Another flash inside my head shows just how powerful my imagination must be; I see how the knife, the actual murder weapon, must look. I finish another drawing of it and suddenly something inside me makes me screw it up and toss the paper into the bin. I stare at the desk and see a leaflet I'd picked up from a train station or somewhere else, one of those 'What's on in Cardiff' leaflets. A word had been scrawled, in my hand writing, above the millennium centre. It said 'remember'. I frowned at it and mouthed the words, before standing up and grabbing my jacket.
"Perry," I called, "I'm going out."
I got to the millennium centre and walked around outside it aimlessly, my hands shoved in my jacket pockets. There was a reason I was here… I just didn't know it yet. The entire area was empty except for myself and… was that a woman? A dark shape walked out from behind the water tower. She looked vaguely familiar, like I'd walked past her in the street or maybe seen her in a shop, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I stopped walking around and stared at her. She seemed to see me and walk in my direction. Another flash of the knife appeared before my eyes as I forced my feet forwards a little more. Another flash, a welding mask, the knife. A woman taking off a mask and revealing her face; the same face who now stopped just a few paces in front of me.
"Hello again," She greeted. When had we met before? I smiled a little anyway, hoping she was just confusing me for someone else. "You were right," She continued. "You told Jack we should work with the police, I was the only one who bothered to look at what they'd got, so I was the only one who saw the report." She slid her handbag off her shoulder and down to her forearm, and began to rifle through it. Her hand closed around something, and she pulled out… she pulled out the knife. I gasped involuntarily and took a step backwards. "They got a good likeness," She commented.
"You've got it, you've got the knife, I'll tell the police, I will, my friend's dad's a police man," I rambled. "I… how do I know you?"
"I thought you might have seen it," The woman old me, "And that can trip the amnesia, just one specific image if you're clever. He said you were good." Part of me wondered who 'he' was, but I pushed this aside for now. "Anyway, it's not much good now, I can't really…" She looked like she was about to cry as she stared at the weapon. "You're gonna put up a fight, so I've got… erm…" She went back into her bag, "Hold on, sorry." She pulled out… she pulled out a freaking gun. A mad woman with the murder weapon from the investigation I'd been so interested in had a gun and was holding it up at me. She put her bag on the floor and cocked the gun. "There, that's better."
"Put it down, please," I said as calmly as I possibly could.
"You had to come back," The woman whined.
"Put the gun down, you don't want to do this," I insisted.
"You're the only one who can make the link," The woman continued desperately. "Well, the only one in public. Torchwood's gonna find out by morning but I'll be gone. I don't know where, far away… what am I gonna do? I loved this job, I really loved it. And now I've got to run. Oh Christ, how can you do any other job after this one?"
"Please, put down the gun, please," I asked, trying not to make it sound like I was begging.
"'Because it gets inside you. You do this job for long enough and you end up thinking… How come we get all the Weevils and bollocks and shit? Is that what alien life is? Filth? But maybe there's better stuff out there. Brilliant stuff. Beautiful stuff. Just, they don't come here. This planet's so dirty, that's all we get. The shit."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I admitted.
"I wish I could forget," She added.
"Why did you kill those people?" I questioned. I had a mantra on a loop in my head; keep calm, keep calm, keep calm.
"For the glove," She replied as if it were nothing, as if that explained everything. She looked as if she were about to step closer, and I shivered out of fear.
"Just stay where you are, okay?"
"I needed the bodies" She tried to explain. "That's how it works; violent death. It was so easy. To bring them by, I just position myself behind the head so they never see me twice."
"You killed three people," I pointed out, trying to stop my voice from shaking.
"It was the only way. The more I use the glove, the more I control it," She insisted.
"I don't understand! What glove, what are you talking about?" My voice seemed to crack towards the end of the sentence; I wasn't going to lie to myself about how scared I was, but I didn't want her to know.
"If I can get enough practice, then think what the glove could do. If I could get it to work all the time on anything, beyond the two minutes, if it could work permanently, it could resurrect. Resurrection on demand for the whole world. Isn't that good?" Was this deluded woman saying she was killing people so she could try to bring them back to life again? "Isn't it, though? Well, that's what I've been working for. All day and all night. The rest of them go swanning about while I'm working. You got to get inside this stuff. You surrender yourself to it. I did with the knife and the glove. And that's why the perception filter isn't gonna work on me." She suddenly moved the gun away from me and shot in the direction of the water tower; a man fell to the ground, an open bullet wound straight through his forehead. I took a step backwards and let out a breath of air that was somewhere between a gasp and a 'what in hell'.
"Where did he… who… what have you done?" I whispered. She shook her head and cocked the gun again, pointing it at my head. "Please, don't," I whimpered.
"I can't let you go," She replied softly.
"Please," I asked again, feeling a petrified tear slide down my face.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I've got to, I… I've… I've got to," She muttered almost to herself.
"No, no please," I was trying my hardest to refrain from sobbing but it wasn't working. I thought of my brother, how I couldn't die and leave him without a member of family to his name. He was only twenty-two; he couldn't be left alone this early in his life.
"Put the gun down," A man's voice ordered. It couldn't be possible, it wasn't possible… the man that had been shot now stood behind the woman, a gun pointed at her head. I watched as the wound in his own head seemed to heal over until there was no trace of it. "Suzie, it's over. Now come with me." The woman h's called Suzie barely hesitated before putting the barrel of the gun under her chin and pulling the trigger.
"I remember," I whispered as I stared at the man's face. "I remember." I dropped to my knees and whispered to myself. "I remember."
The sun was just rising over Cardiff, and I watched it stood next to Captain Jack Harkness, a man who shouldn't exist, on the roof of the millennium centre. Perry was going to be going out of his mind with me when I got back home, but I'd worry about that later.
"You didn't tell them about you coming back to life," I said to him quietly, "Owen and Tosh, I mean."
"Neither did you," He pointed out.
"It wasn't my business to tell," I shrugged. "But how did that happen? Why didn't you die?"
"A while ago, a friend of mine brought me back and now… I can't," He shook his head.
"What, ever?" I frowned.
"Well, maybe one day, when I find the right sort of Doctor, I'm hoping he can fix me," Jack replied. "But until then, I'm more or less immortal."
"Are you gonna Retcon me again?" I asked, my voice only just above a whisper.
"I was thinking about what you said," Jack answered after a moment's thought, "About being unsuspected, and finding out things… and I was thinking that, not full time, obviously, because you have to go to school and your brother will figure something out…"
"What are you saying, Jack?" I shook my head and looked up at him.
"I'm saying… would you like to work for Torchwood?"
"You mean be one of you?"
"Yes."
"Help catch aliens?"
"From time to time."
I looked up at his neutral expression, and then out at the sky as it slowly turned a light pink colour, the sun peeking out over the bay, basking Cardiff in its glow.
"I'll do it."