Title: Anything
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Mickey/Jake, Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Marta/Tom
Warnings: heterosexuality, homosexuality, reference to sex (This IS Torchwood), swearing, mention of past (non-canon) character death, spoilers.
Spoilers: Set post Journey's End, so all of TWS2 and DWS4.
Words: 1,443
Summary: Martha and Mickey take up jobs at Torchwood. The team save the world, Gwen seems to finally find a balance between Torchwood and normal life, Jack and Ianto make some progress… maybe, and Martha starts making wedding plans. Meanwhile Mickey goes looking for an old friend… or at least his image.
AN: I want to hate myself for this, but it's the only way I will accept Mickey telling the Doctor that there is nothing left for him in Pete's World. And I make it better!! It also needs to be said that this is my first Whoverse!fic.
Normally Mickey was grateful for how easily he had slipped back into this world. No matter what he had told the doctor, he had never expected it to go so well. By all records in this world, Mickey Smith was a dead man. Personally, Mickey would rather that version of him stay that way. He didn't want to go back to a life shuffling between a garage, a sports bar, and waiting for a girlfriend whose gaze was always focused a little over his left ear.
He had stopped being that person the day he had saved the world with a Zeppelin computer and fast fingers. He had become a person that Rose had looked square in the eyes that day, before she had left him behind for what they had both though would be the last time.
It had been easy then too. Too easy to slip into the space Rickey had left warm for him, to become a fighter, a hero. He had gotten his Gran back, and the first thing he and Jake had done after watching Rose and the Doctor leave was to fix the rug on the stairs. This time he had made damn sure when she had died it was peaceful and something he was a bit more prepared to accept.
As much, if not more than his Gran, he had gotten Jake. For a long time he knew that Jake had struggled to look at him and not see Rickey. Even before he had managed it, though, Jake was the best mate Mickey had ever had. If Mickey was honest with himself, he had wanted it to be more than that. It might have been possible once, after Jake had started seeing HIM, and before the arrival of Rose, but something had seemed to change then and it was much too late to go back. The thing that had really thrown him into Rose's world-hoping project wasn't the darkness, but the loss of his last real anchor – Jake. Unlike his Gran, Jake's death wasn't something he was prepared for, and he wasn't quite ready to accept it.
He had told the Doctor the truth there. There was nothing left for him now in that other world, certainly not Rose. He didn't feel like he could face that world without the two people he had stayed there for, so when he had the chance to get away, he leapt at it. He leapt, even though the world he was leaping too was the world where he was just Mickey the Idiot, instead of Mickey the Hero.
He told the Doctor it was a new life, a chance to do "anything." But he knew it might not be so easy for a dead man to do "anything." He knew he would have managed, with his skill in computers, but it was much easier to slip into a familiar job at Torchwood. Even though Jack enjoyed poking fun at him, he enjoying giving it right back, even if the others did tend to roll their eyes at them a lot. Mickey found it hilarious that Jack was still terrible at 21st century slang, though not quite as bad now that he had lived a little in the time period.
His expertise and experience fit him right in, and though he only planned to work at Torchwood until he decided what "anything" was, his colleagues were tolerable, he enjoyed his job, and the schedule distracted him from his own thoughts. Normally he was grateful for how easily he had slipped back into this world. This morning, however, he just wanted to roll over and pretend he didn't have to be at the Hub in half an hour.
He stared dispassionately at his fussy alarm clock from beneath covers pulled over his ears. He couldn't quite summon the energy to move his arm the half-meter distance required to shut it off, even though the noise was grating on his already pounding head.
It had all finally caught up to him the night before. His pathetic old life, Rose, his Gran, Jake, Jackie, and the fact that every one of his co-workers seemed to be in a happy, or at least satisfying, relationship – except him, of course. He had simply reacted as any bloke who had been through half the shit he had would. Of course, in hindsight, he may have had more beers than he had intended, if the stomping of a million cyber feet in his head was anything to go by. He should never have done that search.
Groaning, he finally forced himself to sit up, dislodging the blankets, and slapped in the general direction of the OFF button while rubbing his eyes with his free hand. Even that hurt, but it was a pain he was familiar with and could function through. It would just take tea and handful of tablets that could get the pain between his eyes go down to a manageable level. With another great show of effort Mickey hefted himself out of bed and began the trek to Aspirin and a kettle. Jack could live with him being a little bit late.
-.-.-.-
The klaxons died down as the cog slide back into place behind him, closing off the way to the Tourist Information entrance. Mickey unclenched his teeth as the sound came back down to a level that didn't set off fireworks behind his eyes, then he made his way as quickly as he dared towards his desk. He had passed Ianto on the way in, could see Jack talking on the phone in his office (returned a quick wave with a nod – then instantly regretted it), and could hear Martha moving through the autopsy bay. No Gwen. At least he wasn't the latest.
He sat down, killed the screensaver and felt a pang in his stomach when he saw what had started it all. That damn search. He hadn't realized he had left it up in his race out the door to get pissed.
The night before, watching the girls go out and knowing Jack was waiting for him to leave so Ianto would feel more comfortable doing inappropriate things against Jack's desk, he decided to draw out the wait just to annoy him. Unfortunately, the Rift had been so slow lately (still readjusting from being used as a transmitter) so there wasn't any work he needed to be doing and he hadn't been there long enough to acquire any special projects. He wasn't quite comfortable with finishing the projects of the late Toshiko Sato, not while her presence still seemed to linger over the hub the way the ghosts of people who were well loved always tend to do.
In his quest to waste time, he was stuck with a need to know where the people he had always associated with Pete's World alone had ended up in this world. What they had done with their lives in a freer world. He looked up some old co-workers of his (theirs) at Torchwood, finding most had died at Canary Wharf or had worked at Unit instead. He looked up random friends, both his and Rickey's, and the old maid at Pete and Jackie's who always chased him (and Jake) out of the house if they hadn't taken off their shoes. He looked up Angela Price, finding her fairly successful, and married with two boys. The husband and children in the picture he found the same three men he (they) had seen when they stopped by before France to tell them the truth. He finally convinced his fingers to look up Jake Simmonds, and looking at the horrible license picture he found was what finally brought everything down.
He couldn't get out of the Hub fast enough after that.
Now that his emotions were taking a back seat to his headache he could focus on the information he had pulled up. The picture was on a firearms license. He was listed as a regular member of his local gun club, and the club leader seemed to have nothing but praise. He also found a few official files and loads of random videos under Jake's name on YouTube. The pain in his stomach seemed there to stay, but Mickey couldn't stop a smile. It sounded like his Jake.
Mickey had to do a double take on the content of most of the videos, but then he couldn't really say he was surprised. It was all about Aliens. Aliens, and the secret organizations that existed to deal with them. At the top of the list was a name Jack wasn't going to be happy about.
"Someone looks hung over." "An' feelin' it."
Jack Mickey talk, Mickey: "I think 'm cursed?" "Excuse me?" "You heard me." Jack took a look at Gwen and Martha discussing weddings and sighed.