Succession of Fellowship

Notes: Succession of Fellowship is companion fic to Succession of Forest, which is listed under doctor who. It tells the story of Damon, older brother to Mori, who is the principle character in Forest. While Mori followed the Doctor to the stars, Damon was timid enough to remain firmly buttoned to the ground. But Damon has to stand out, if Jack Harkness is going to choose him as a new member of Torchwood.

I originally wanted to publish this fic as one long document, but I realized that it was going to be too large if I made it just one chapter. So I've basically divided it into pieces.

"Mori! Mori where are you? Mother! I'm home! Hey mother!" Damon ran into the apartment with a huge grin on his face. "It was really scary out there, but I made it home in one piece. Mori I'm sorry about your hairspray, I blew it up to try and scare one of the bad guys off! That pod thingy really didn't like it."

The coffee brewing in the kitchen smelled delicious. Mori must have made a pot for him knowing how exhausted he'd be. Damon's suit, normally so neat, was covered in dirt, and oil, and blood. He was scraped up and descheveled and a shower was all he really wanted. The Dahleks and Cybermen had finally disappeared, in the conflict that would later be named "Canary Warf." Damon was shellshocked, his body running on autopilot as the adrenaline drained from his system.

The note by the coffee machine said. "Dear Damon. I'm so sorry I threw things at you this morning. I went out to try and get you out of wherever you are, but there's always the chance you're headed home already. And Mom is missing. She's out there somewhere too. So I made a pot of coffee for you. If you get home safely, rest easy, I'll see you soon. If the Dahleks and Cybermen are still roaming the streets when you get home safe, don't go out. I can't live knowing that my older brother is in danger, and the last thing he heard before he died was my anger. My love, Mori. "

"mother? MOTHER!" Damon felt his heart hammering in his chest. He ran for the bedroom, "oh no......" The safe was broken into, and Damon saw the box on the bed, its velvet lining was stil crumpled from whatever had lain inside. "Mori! MORI MORI!"

His sister's voice whispered in his ear as it always did. "Big brother...... i'll come back down to earth soon. I promise. Please take care of yourself!" He felt somebody running away and heard his sister's laughter retreating behind him and away out the door. "I'll see you again Damon. I promise. Please take care! Remember what I always told you big brother, live fearlessly, love recklessly. Open your heart and the universe will fill it with love."

The young man sat up straight in bed. He stood, walking over to the mirror in his crackerbox one bedroom apartment in Cardiff. "Every time the dream is the same." He froze. "Oh that's right! Today! I'd better hurry! That presentation I was working on is due!"

"He's here again Jack." Toshiko sighed, "Either recruit him or just wipe his memory and get rid of him."

"I'm waiting. I want to see what he does."

"All he does is STARE at the door. At least Ianto offered you coffee. He doesn't do anything but watch."

"He's shy." Jack sipped at his morning cup and peered over Toshiko's shoulder. "I'll take watch Toshiko, you have other things to do. Does this thing have audio?"

Toshiko pushed a button on the computer. "Now it does."

"I can't.........." He heard Damon saying. Jack listened carefully. "Damn......... I used to be stronger than this. Mori wouldn't have hesitated a moment."

The student was wearing a white muscle t-shirt and slacks, tatami sandals, as always. The scarf was a new addition, he seemed to have a ton of them, but the blue and gold really worked for him. And his hair was sprayed a different color every day, in this case a pale tourqouise blue.

"I guess I'd better get going then. I have to visit old woman Haruka before school." Damon turned his face to the sky, unknowingly looking right into one of Toshiko's cameras. Jack grinned. "Besides, Jack won't let a student join Torchwood. I have to stand out. I'll get good enough to join, and maybe I'll find her. I don't want to be the knight on the white horse, I want to be the little guy who takes down the giant." He turned to leave. "Brave little tailor that's me." Damon whirled the lanyard he always carried his keys on on his finger. "I hope Oba-sama Haruka got that new shipment in." He said as he mounted his yellow Vespa scooter. "I'm a young man with stars in his eyes and grief in his heart. Wonder how many more stupid metaphors I can come up with on the way."

Damon had no idea that Jack was following his progress. He was in a good mood, and at once sad. It was the sense that something was waiting to happen. Something soon. The dream came twice a year, once on Mori's birthday and once on the anniversary of Canary Warf. A battle that spanned the globe and ended as mysteriously as it had begun. Thousands, closer to millions dead. In the end his mother was confirmed dead, and his sister missing presumed dead. But the dream, and the note that Mori left behind, Damon wasn't so sure. The same lanyard he kept his keys on held a tiny blue vial with a phoenix carefully worked into it with copper wire. It was the kind used for keeping herbs and oils in, and Damon had filled it with lavender oil. But inside was the tiny folded form of the note Mori left behind that day she disappeared, the day she was presumed dead in the world wide chaos that was Canary Warf. "As long as i have her note. As long as I have her promise." He squeezed the tiny bottle. "I'll see her again."

Haruka was waiting for Damon outside of her shop, sweeping the steps and entryway with the oddest broom. Well, it always struck people as odd. It was one of those old fashioned witches brooms, but the end had the same charms and rings as a buddist monk's staff. Haruka had told him once that it warns "Little things" to beware of pounding feet. That way the monks who wielded it wouldn't step on insects. After all, all life was sacred.

"Good morning Damon. I knew you were coming."

"Of course you did Haruka-baasama. Did the order come in?" Haruka didn't look too old. In fact she looked young. Too young to Jack's eyes, but then the headache came on in a wave of throbbing pain the instant he looked at that shop.

Jack shook his head, rubbing his temples. "A perception filter? On a craftshop? I'll need to look in there later." He sighed, making a note on a pad of paper. His eyes strained to get the shop address, and he settled for the stores on either side and the street name. "Strong one too. I need more coffee."

Damon took the package Haruka gave him. "Thanks old bat...." He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I have places to be."

"Wait, Damon. The Captain your seeking, his ship will meet yours early tonight."

"I didn't even tell you about Jack."

"you don't have to. I've seen it in your step." The shop keeper pushed her whispy bangs back from her face. "You have hope again. But I knew it would come back to your life sooner or later. Just don't miss your boat Damon. Get up a little pluck. You'll be fine if you speak and act from your heart."

Damon turned to go, but then the shopkeeper's eyes blanked. He listened carefully, typically that expression heralded a prophecy from the Fate. "The phoenix is approaching, there are two of them. A male elder and a female disciple. When the sun has turned half again, the phoenix will burn in the skies over Cardiff. He will alight in the hall that carries the Torch, and his graduated disciple will give him shelter. Their spirits will twine as one and when he is done, he will seek other phoenixes, and witness the death of dragons. The younger phoenix which you seek, she will return in his wake and seek out others of a spirit kindred to hers. The younger phoenix which you seek will offer her wing to you. Fly upon her zephyr and a dead world will follow you up to the stars."

Jack sprayed coffee when he heard this. "DOCTOR!" He hurried to record the prophecy. "Now I see, she's an oracle. That's why she put up the perception filter, to keep the curious out. Wow Damon, you have some pretty powerfull friends. I'll pay her a visit later. So, Doctor's coming, and he will alight in the Hall That Carries the Torch. He'll have a new companion too. Somebody he knows? Well Damon Leigh Johnson, you've just jumped a rung on my priority list."

"Jack." Owen called. "We have something interesting." He motioned the Captain over. "This just came from a friend of mine at the research hospital. He's been getting a rash of unexplained deaths in Farmers over the countryside. He's identified the symptoms too. Starts the same as hayfever. But the victim begins to experience weakening of the immune system and a deficiency in iron. It culminates in hemmorage of the lungs and the victim drowns in their own blood. Autopsy revealed a high level of a biotoxin we've only found on flotsom that comes through the rift, and when he looked at the lungs under the microscope he noticed that it looked like their white blood cells had all migrated into the lungs and begun attacking the tissue. He sent me the data, said since I deal in the weird /and/ do covert opps could I please take a look at his cases?"

Jack frowned as he read the beginning of Owen's report. "This doesn't look sentient, but we need to make sure this isn't some kind of alien outbreak. Get the others, looks like we have a case."

"Damon! Hey Damon. That class sucked! Wanna grab a drink?" Damon's classmate Marcus asked. "No offense, your presentation was awesome. But that professor chewing you out was so uncool. You have such a poetic voice, you should use it more often."

"No, thank you I have somewhere to visit."

"The shopkeeper again? She's cute!"

Damon's beeper went off. "Damon what is it?"

"Sorry Marcus, it looks like there's an emergency."

"Where?"

"Remember the farm couple that helped me regrow my samples after the Dahleks smashed up the greenhouse? They took emergency transplants of my seedlings for finals that year. I just got a 911 from the wife." Damon started jabbing at his phone. "Morella?"

Damon heard the words 'Michael' and 'Sick' and 'Dead.' "Morella, Morella calm down. I'm coming, did you call an ambulance?"

"The police came! They came out in face masks and guns! And there's some kind of top secret opps surrounding the house! I'm scared! Damon help please Damon its horrible. What? No! That's my phone. Give it back! Give it back! Where are you taking my husband!???"

"I'm sorry Mrs. Callum. No calls for now." The woman's voice was one he recognized, what's her name, Gwen? "We just need to examine his body."

"Morella I'm coming!" Damon bolted for his Vespa. "Can you hear me??? Just hang on!"

"Please! That's my phone, please give it back!" The woman pleaded in terror.

"Who's there?" Damon heard Gwen call into the phone.

Damon resisted the urge to curse at Gwen through the phone. He knew some really good ones. No. He couldn't let them know he was coming. He snapped the phone shut and stepped on the gas. "I'll probably run out of gas. Fooly, don't let me down!" (1) He told the poor Vespa as he hit the speed. "I should make it there okay, but my poor baby will need some serious loving. Don't worry my dear, be my wings and I will love you until the end of days!" Damon gritted his teeth. "I can't miss my ship.......... Captain Harkness!" He roared. "But what am I going to do? I'm just a punk with a vespa, how am I going to talk down /torchwood?/"

Owen was overseeing the medics carrying the body out when the Vespa roared over the horizon. Before it had fully skidded to a stop Damon was already in motion. Jack looked up as Damon leapt from the moped and smirked when Damon grabbed him by the collar. "BASTARD!" Jack found himself pressed up against the back of the hummer.

"Damon, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Jack asked pleasantly, an annoyed smile on his face.

"What did you do to the farmer?????" Damon demanded. "Gwen took Morella's phone, the farm wife was hysterical! Her husband is dead and you're just going to carry him away without giving his widow a body to bury? How dispicable!"

Ianto hauled Damon back by the collar, and the student responded with a mantis style kung fu flip. He followed it up with a crane kick that left Ianto sprawling. Damon only used formal Kung Fu when he was pissed, otherwise he'd have gone for a savate snap, one of his favored martial arts moves. As it was there was the crack of broken bone. "STAY out of this sideburns!" He roared. "YOU!" He pointed to the medics. "Leave him or you're walking away with a broken wrist and a footprint on your face!"

"DAMON!" The hysterical farm wife ran out of the cottage. "Thank goodness you're here! You can't let them take Michael please! Don't let them take my husband!"

"THATS ENOUGH!" Jack bellowed. "All of you cool it! You two, take the body to the ambulence and wait there." He glared at Damon. "I've had about enough of you messing up our operations. This is your final warning." He spat.

"Nope Jack Harkness, sorry, not this time. This time it matters. Morella and Michael helped me save my seedlings when the Dahleks smashed my greenhouse. Without her I'd have dropped out of college. They saved me and cared for me when I needed it and this time I'm returning the favor. Turn around and walk away or I'll make you leave."

"I can't do that." Jack turned, advancing on Damon. "There have been a rash of deaths among local farmers, all of them dropping sick and dying a few days later. It might be an outbreak of a previously unknown alien disease. A recent victim could help us find the culprit."

Damon growled, Jack could see his rage, but he backed down, lowering his fists and snarling at Jack. "Damon?" Morella questioned when she saw the student back off.

"Jack. If you PROMISE that you'll give Morella a body to bury when the case is over, I'll help you find your contaigion."

"What makes you think I want your help?" Jack arched an eyebrow.

"Jack, the victims were all farmers. That points to a plant related contagion, I know what sort of toxins and irritants you want to look for. You don't know plants like I do. And I know plants. I became a botanist because I wanted to help make the lives of farmers easier. The world is starving, you keep claiming you want mankind to be ready for the twenty first century, but it can't even lift its head to see the sky if its people are starving to death. I can help you, but you have a terrible habit of absconding with evidence, bodies included, for the sake of secrecy without thinking about the grief you leave behind. Now, I'm going to tell you how this will go." Damon grinned, Ianto was getting off the ground. He leaned on his left wrist only to slip back down and grimace. "Oh yeah, its broken. Should have warned you. Here's how this will go. I'm going to help you stop this, but in return you have to guerantee that the widow will get to bury her husband, if you decide no deal. I will personally break every piece of equipment you've brought with you today."

"Really, one person? You don't have any weapons, you ride around on a vespa, you have a hairtrigger temper, and you brought no tools or aids of any kind other than your cellphone. Aside from your martial arts skills and..... parrot like sense of fashion, how do you intend to stop all five of us /and/ break our equipment?"

"I've never needed weapons." Damon declared defiantly. "Everything I've needed has always been in here." He pointed to his heart. "As for Fooly, she followed me from the US. Wouldn't trade her for the shiniest sports car in the world. As long as I have my heart and my wheels, I won't need any weapons or extra tools to fly."

Jack smiled, a mysterious little smirk as he heard Damon's boast. "Alright Damon, you have a deal. Can't have you /breaking/ our equipment. But........"

"What?"

"You broke Ianto's wrist, you have to do his share of the work."

Damon burst out laughing as he helped Ianto back up. "I only use Kung Fu when I'm stressed, you're just lucky I didn't go for Savate. Typically I go for mixed."

"I'll keep that in mind." Ianto edged away and Owen hurried to bind up his wrist. "A regular Jackie Chan you."

Damon had only gotten as far as the front office before. He'd been helping Jack on cleanup duty after the Dahleks stole earth. But that had been outside. Since then Damon had followed Jack around more or less, barging in on some of their cases. He'd been marginally useful, but they wouldn't let him in.

So he'd gone down to the pier entry every day, but only watched comings and goings. "Alright, Owen get a cast on Ianto's wrist. Toshiko comb the local news, I want anything related to the farmers land and their deaths. Damon with me. I'll go over the data with you."

Jack lead Damon into the confrence room. "Here we go." He pulled out several thick folders. Probably about a two foot high stack of files. "And then there's area maps." Several charts. It was a test, Jack wanted to see how quickly and well Damon went through large amounts of data.

That and he wanted payback for Damon breaking Ianto's wrist.

"Good, open the map of the area. Can I mark it?"

"Be my guest."

Damon paused just a moment above the surface of the map before he began to mark it with sharpie. He used different colors. "You're so fortunate that I spend my time riding around in the country on the weekends." He grinned. "Light blue are damp lowlying areas, dark blue are groundwater." He uncapped a highlighter. "When was the first death?" He asked, snapping his fingers for Jack to give him the file. "Lets see........" Damon opened the folder. "hmmm...... alright. It looks like they started about six weeks ago. That corrosponds with the blooming of lots of local plants." He began drawing tracks with the highlighter. "These are areas of high wind and the date."

"Weather?" Jack asked.

"Hang on......" Damon was still writing notations and equations. "If its something carried by plants, its either the water or the air. Now that we know the local water table and weather patterns. What?"

"I didn't think a /student/ was so involved." Jack grinned. "Now what?" He was eyeing Damon carefully, and the botanist suddenly realized that he was being scrutinized by Jack for more than just the case. His heart skipped a couple of beats. He fought with Jack a lot since they met, but he desperately wanted to be a part of Torchwood. He felt like it was someplace he belonged, he'd always felt awkward and out of place. To gentle and timid, to naive and idealistic, and far too intelligent to really fit in. Damon's IQ was in the 99th percentile, meaning that he was a genius compared to his classmates. But this just made him more shy and withdrawn.

Jack was very very tempted to recruit Damon. The student was fiercely loyal and protective, and his persistant search for answers after the Dahleks stole earth impressed Jack. It was the same sort of spark that Owen had shown when his wife died. The overwhelming need to understand why that was one of the first things he looked for in a prospective recruit.

And the prophecy he'd caught on tape, the one about Phoenixes and Dragons. Jack wasn't sure how, but he had begun to suspect that Damon was somehow tied to the Doctor. The connection was probably indirect. Perhaps a relative met the Timelord on his journey somehow? And 'Alight in the Hall that Carries the Torch' almost certainly meant Torchwood.

Damon sighed, telling the Captain. "You're involved with your work, you want to change the world. I'm a scientist, my mission is to make life easier for the people I help. Several of the local orchards had higher yields the past two years because of some of the work I did on their trees." Damon said with a grin. "Lets see......" He marked the locations of the farms on the list. "Hmm........ okay we have how the contaigion spread. Come here, look." He motioned the captain over. "I read in a class last year that a few decades ago in the soviet union they accidentally released weaponized anthrax into the surrounding area. It flew on the wind, and several farmers began getting sick. Now in third world countries anthrax occurs naturally in contaminated wool. The way the UN later proved that it was weapons grade and not a naturally occuring outbreak was by tracking the geographic distribution of the initial outbreak. This is the same principle. Whatever you have is being spread in high wind, you can tell because the cases overlap the wind currents more than the water table. Now lets see..... i'm dating each case." He frowned. "This is odd, because this doesn't match....."

"what doesn't?"

"Well the dates are all mixed up, which doesn't fit the contaigion being blown in high winds." Damon sighed. "Laptop, the nearest one, give, chop chop."

Jack snickered, "Giving me orders?"

"Will you do it for a scooby snack?" Damon asked sarcastically.

"how about a kiss?" Jack knew it was crazy, the odds were astronomically against another timelord being out there, but what if Damon were one, or a halfbreed, or hybrid. If he got close enough to kiss him he'd be able to tell if there were two hearts beating in his chest or not.

Jack mentally hit himself over the head, several times. No way. That was completely impossible. Timelord and Human was not a compatible hybrid. Donna had proved that.

"A kiss! you lech!" Damon giggled coquettishly. "Wait, you're serious?" Damon frowned. "Maybe, when we've figured out what's going on......." He smirked. "Although dinner might be a good idea too. This is going to be hungry work." Damon sighed.

"I can get you coffee, Ianto makes a great cup. Of course he's got a broken wrist." Jack offered, handing over the laptop. "What are you looking for."

"I'm sorry, he's the one who grabbed me." Damon frowned. "its not on here. Get the coffee. Where's Toshiko?"

"The main room, why?"

Damon snapped up the map and strode back to the main control room. "Toshiiiikoooo!" He called.

"No need to shout. I'm over here."

"Real quick, I need weather reports for the days of the attacks. Please? Everything, temperature, air pressure, and if there were any hayfever or pollution warnings or similar."

"WHY." The technician asked, arching an eyebrow. Damon snapped open the map he'd marked up. "What did you........ interesting!"

"I'm trying to figure out how it spreads. It /looks/ like it might be airborne, but the dates of the attacks don't match up. See? This one was three weeks after this one, but its six miles too far upwind."

"Alright, hang on." Toshiko called up weather reports. "Here, i'm printing them."

"Thanks." Damon took the printouts and bolted.

Damon also hauled in a wheeled whiteboard. He began to tack up the faces of each farmer and write environmental data, as well as what they grew. Jack watched as Damon paced and worked for three hours, rapidly becoming impressed with the student's intelligence and discipline. Then Owen called him to autopsy.

"Well, I've gotten a sample from his lungs. He suffocated on his own blood, nasty way to die." Owen shook his head. "I'm going to need to look at it under a microscope. But there's a lot to look for."

"Then this should help!" Damon slid into the room behind Jack. "POLLEN. Check for pollen in his lungs. Every farmer first reported symptoms on days when there was a pollen warning put out by the local weather report. They do them in the springtime to warn people about hayfever and asthma. Nobody really takes them seriously but that's why it was airborne but didn't entirely follow the pattern of prevailing winds. Check the sample for pollen, if you can do fungal spores as well."

"Sure."

"Jack, I found another clue too. Come look."

Jack blinked in surprise, Damon had tacked maps up on one side of the room, data on the cases on the other side. "Wow." Damon had also gone through about four cups of Ianto's strongest coffee. "Uh, i think you've had enough."

"Sorry, work best on a caffine buzz. Look."

"Huh? What should I be looking at? You have data and charts up everywhere." Jack really couldn't find more than a foot of spare space on either wall.

Damon sighed, then grabbed a marker and walked over to the white board. "Look at the KINDS of farm they ran." Damon began to circle the type. Orchard, Orchard, Orchard, Orchard, Orchard........ the same kind across the board with only two exceptions. "The last two, i've seen their farms from the road on the weekends. They don't run an orchard, /but/ they have fruit trees on a small area of the property near the house or barn."

"So we're looking for an alien tree?" Jack asked. "how could we have missed that? I mean, its kind of obvious. I'd think we'd have noticed a new plant or crop being sold at local markets."

"No not necessarily. Remember the incident with the Starlight variety of genetically altered corn?" Damon told him. "Besides, there are a lot of things that grow on fruit trees besides fruit. Fungi, symbiotic plants and bacteria, mold, moss, there are some weeds that grow better in a fruit orchard, and there are some plants like alfalfa and clover that are grown in the orchards to feed livestock and fix nitrogen into the soil. All we know is the kind of farm. I need to know what's grown. That will narrow it down more."

"What makes you think that its something earthly, we're looking for an alien plant."

"Not necessarily, also, some plants prefer to grow next to or in proximity to others. The Native Americans did it with corn and beans, using the corn as beanpoles for the plants to climb on. So if it is an alien plant, and I don't deny that it probably is, it could be that it likes a particular kind of tree or plant." Damon frowned. "I think its more likely that there's either some kind of hybrid plant or something growing in proximity that causes an interaction between something earthly and something alien. But again, I want to see what trees the farms all had in common. I think if I talk to the orchard owners."

"And say what?" That was Ianto, arm splinted as he came with another round of coffee. "That you're from Torchwood and you're looking for signs of an alien plant? They'll laugh you out of town."

"Nope." Damon grinned, miming a phone. (3) "Hello, Mrs Newman? Yes my name is Damon I'm calling from the local University. Yes I'm doing a survey of Orchards in the area, I'm compiling a list of crops being grown this year, is mister Newman home? Oh dear, oh I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bother you then, but are you willing to tell me what kinds of trees you have on premisis?" Damon grinned, letting his hand fall to his side. "easy."

"Okay." Jack rolled his eyes. "Interesting, you always struck me as Mister Honesty."

"There's a difference between Honesty and being discrete. I can be manipulative if I have to be."

"Oh my god. What did you DO?" Gwen demanded as the other members of Torchwood crowded into the confrence room.

"Woah." Owen blinked. "You've been........ busy."

"Yeah, what do you think?"

"Detailed." Toshiko grinned. "You scrambled this in three hours."

"Yep." Damon said smugly. "I told you, i'm good with plants. I've managed to narrow down the type of farm. All the affected farms were Orchards. The problem is, that it could be ANYTHING in the orchard that's causing it. It doesn't even have to be a fruit tree, doesn't have to be anything alien either."

"How does that work?"

"Alright, bear with me. Animals and technology come through your so called rift, so do aliens, what about plants? There are some plants, fungi, bacteria, mold, and insects that only like one particular species or set of species of tree. There could be one insect that likes oranges and another that likes....... i dunno, blueberries........ or it might be a symbiotic plant or fungi that grows on the tree and releases a toxin in reaction to a particular plant or chemical in the plant."

"Actually, Damon was right to look for pollen. I didn't find any trace of it in his system, but I took a closer look at a sample of the blood in his lungs, about ninty percent of the white cells in that blood were Basophils and Mast Cells. They're the white cells that react to allergies, he had a high level of IgE, its the antibody that causes allergic reaction. He died of severe anaphylactic shock. I have another test running, trying to culture whatever it was that caused the reaction. I took a sample of Gwen's blood and put a sample of blood from the farmer's lungs in it."

"Which is just creepy by the way." Gwen added.

"I set one of our microscopes to record what happens in real time."

"Any allergies Gwen?" Damon asked.

"Very funny."

"No I mean it." Damon replied. "If you have any allergies Owen will need a control subject."

"I got hayfever when I was a little girl but it stopped when I grew up."

"Which means Owen's going to need a second sample to see what........."

There was a beep on a scanner Owen had on him. "WHAT? Already?" He ran for the laboratory. "Holy hell." The blood sample was seething. A tiny knot of white was building and growing in the center of the pietri dish.

Gwen hid behind Jack, and covered her mouth with her sleeve. "you're not making me go in there."

"Interesting." Damon hmmmed. "Those are dead cells if i'm not mistaken."

Owen consulted the computer recording. "Jack this isn't good."

"What is it?"

"The IgE is an antibody, and the antibodies in the sample started attacking the cells in the area and killing them." Owen replied. "on the other hand, I think we can rule out bacteria. I can't see any in the sample. What it looks like is that whatever our contaigion is, the immune system reacts to cause a serious allergic reaction, and the antibodies created to combat it turn on the wrong cells, attacking healthy cells instead of the allergen they were meant to kill. Its a combination allergy and auto immune deficiency at once."

"I don't have a history of allergies, try my blood." Toshiko offered.

"I want to try all of you." Owen replied. "i'm already dead obviously, but I want to see if there's any difference in reaction. If there's the slightest chance of someone having an immunity it should help me figure out what's going on."

"Wait....... he's dead?" Damon asked, blinking in surprise as he looked from Owen to Jack. "He's walking around and talking!" Damon got a deer in headlights expression.

Owen snickered and raised his shirt to show the bullet hole. "Sorry, forgot to mention. Jack couldn't let me go, used a really dangerous alien technology to bring me back to life."

"Sweet. Well...... not sweet, but wild..... you know what I mean." Damon sputtered.

"Actually, not so wild. No food, no sex, no need to sleep. Its boring."

Damon peered into the pietri dish sample. "Dayum." He shook his head. "How long will it take?"

"Dunno, its dinner time. I'll take a sample from everyone else periodically through the evening. Just be sure to stop by here sometime later tonight."

"i'll hit the phones." Ianto volunteered.

"nope. There are four farms on that list that i worked with besides the Callums. I know what to look for. Besides, its dinner time. Most of these folks finish dinner at seven and go to bed at nine or ten."

"Speaking of which, do we have to order out /again/?" Gwen whined.

Toshiko sighed. "Well, its not like we have a kitchen. Well Jack has a kitchen but none of us have ever used it."

Damon smirked. "Lead the way. The only thing I can't do is make coffee. Seriously. I break coffee makers. Coffee makers are evil."

Ianto started laughing. So did Owen.

"you cook?"

"And knit, and weave, and sew. There's this lovely craft store, the owner is a little odd, but very useful."

"I saw that on the surveillance cameras, what's with her?" Jack asked.

"you have surveillance cameras?"

"All over the city, Toshiko monitors them mainly, she uses them to look for trouble. But I decided to be a little bit of a snoop this morning."

Damon snorted. "She's a Fate, like in greek myth?" Damon grinned. "She and her sisters own the shop. They can tell the future, and they're awesome at finding things and people if I need it. Haruka is a bit tetchy though. She put up this thing she calls a perception filter to keep those who mean the shop harm out. It doesn't work on customers, but it gives a headache to those who are trying to either spy on or break into the store."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I know." He rubbed his temples. "My head throbs just thinking about it."

"Serves you right for evesdropping." Damon sighed. "Let me see what you have in that kitchen. I'll cook." He grinned. "I'm good at it too."

The kitchen was bust, there was a little of this, and a little of that. But it was what some housewives call a 'bachelor's pantry.' "The cupbard is barer than mine." Owen smirked. When Damon arched an eyebrow. "Dead men don't eat. Remember?"

"Ah. Alright all of you shoo. I'll be back with food."

Jack hung around though. "What are you doing sticking around?" Damon arched an eyebrow as Jack perched on a nearby counter and continued to scrutinize him.

"You promised me dinner and a kiss earlier remember?" Jack asked, arching an eyebrow.

"oh that's right." Damon smirked, advancing on Jack until he was pinned against the counter. "The lecher wants some action? I was gonna save the kiss until after the case was solved." He grinned, "Well harkness? I'm typically not interested in taking charge. Not that..... type.......... go ahead, be a gentleman and make the first move." He purred, leaning against the Torchwood captain.

Jack needed no invitation, deftly turning them around and fastening his lips to Damon's. The botanist's response was fervent, needy, trembling in response to his touch. Jack nibbled the other man's lip delicately, begging entrance. Damon allowed it, shyly, and their tongues twined tentatively, like dance partners meeting for the first time. Damon's hands slid down his hips, Jack's arms firmly encircled his body. The Captain could tell, for the barest moment. Only one heart, so the kid was human. Damon blushed when the kiss parted, reluctantly pulling away. "I should....... go cook something."

Damon started moving around the kitchen, trying to force the blush down from his cheeks. Damon was not a playboy. He was attracted to men, and he had gone on a few dates with other students when he was in high school. Damon had even considered applying to go to Harvey Milk (2), since he lived in New York. But the lure of the local science school was too much, and he had been more interested in his studies than in screwing around. "hmm, you don't have much to work with. You like Asian? I can work miracles with......... you have Ramen! perfect, lengthy but perfect."

"That stuff is crap." Jack stated. "I've tried REAL Ramen. That stuff just makes me thirsty."

"Not the way I make it, oooooooh, and you have Miso broth. That makes my job so much easier." Damon dug through the fridge next, pulling out eggs and a small portion of pork, vegetables next. "Coming up, six.... i beg your pardon five portions of Tokyo style ramen. Poor Owen, can't eat, drink, can't even get drunk. Bet he can't taste either even if he tried, death shuts everything down."

Jack laughed, "So.......... you follow us around, I watch you, I have your records. Family killed in Canary Warf."

"My sister is alive. I refuse to believe she's dead."

"Do you know somebody called the Doctor?"

"Who?" Damon asked, blinking in surprise. "no. Lets see..... onions will work. No cabbage, can't stand it. But the right seasonings for pork and boiled eggs. Here we go. Who's this doctor guy?"

"A friend, taught me everything I know."

"I see." Damon dropped the eggs and pork into a pot to boil.

"What makes you think your sister is still alive?" Jack asked.

"A little of this a little of that. She left a note, promising she'd come back. And this morning, at the shop. I don't recognize all of it. But the family crest has a phoenix and a dragon on it. Mom never told me about her relatives beyond the two of us. I dunno, maybe some long lost relative out there. But "The Hall that Carries the Torch" definately means Torchwood. And I keep, dreaming, that she's still around. That she's leaving a message for me that she's alright and coming home. If I stick around and bother you guys enough maybe I'll find her again."

Jack highly doubted it, but there was no doubt that he was somehow connected to the Doctor, but didn't realize it. The noodles were bubbling away, and he grinned. "I think I'll go speak with Owen."

Jack hurried to the infirmary. "Owen, I think you wanted a sample of blood from all of us? Got a few minutes to get mine?"

"Certainly. I thought you were glued to Damon."

"He's busy in the kitchen. But when he gives his sample I need you to run a DNA scan." Jack sat down and rolled up his sleeve for Owen. "Do your worst vampire."

"A vampire am I? What does that make you then? If I'm Angel are you Buffy?"

"I make a good Buffy? Really? Never really like the cheerleader thing. Cheerleaders are bimbos, and so clingy. But you're a Spike Owen. Hate to break it to you." Jack winced as the needle pinched going in. "Definately a Spike, with that needle."

"Well this spike........ is done with his needle for now." Owen smoothly removed the needle and pressed gauze to the prick. "Alright. I actually think using your blood might help me understand this better. You can't die, so what will the antibodies do to your blood? I've been thinking about it, and you might be immune. I still want to know though, why do you want his DNA tested?"

"A theory."

"You think he's an alien?" Owen rolled his eyes. "Jack.... i hate to break it to you. But he's about as human as they come."

"He was getting psychic dreams from a relative that is either dead or missing. Humans aren't psychic and they don't get visions from beyond. And his shopkeeper friend, the Fate named Haruka. She gave him a prophecy this morning, which relates directly to the Doctor and Torchwood. I don't think he knows it, or realizes it, but I think he's somehow connected to Doctor."

"Someday, you need to introduce me to him." Owen rolled his eyes. "Gotta be some mentor if he inspires that kind of blind faith. He could be anything Jack. Why does he get to you?"

"Doctor always said that he doesn't need a weapon if he has his mind, his intelligence. Damon said something almost identical but he meant the heart, the soul. Plus the.... energy, that he worked with earlier. He reminded me of Him."

"no offense but you /are/ a little biased."

Jack arched a brow. "He's unique. Let me know if I'm immune. I'm curious." Jack turned on a heal, heading from the room. He didn't believe that Damon's appearance was an accident. And while he was going to brush Damon off before, he was rapidly considering asking the botany student to join Torchwood. Just one problem.

Jack was extremely loathe to ask a student of any kind to join Torchwood. True, Torchwood was originally an institute, meant to study aliens. What better place for a student to work? But he also knew just how consuming the job was. If Damon joined Torchwood, odds were he would have difficulty finishing his degree. And that would defeat the purpose of having him as a botanist and scientist on the team.

On the other hand if he let this chance go by Jack's ignoring him might result in Damon getting hurt by outside influences. Chances only came once and if he missed the opportunity it would soon be gone. Even if Damon wasn't alien or a hybrid, (they cropped up occasionally in his work), he had some kind of power even if he didn't realize it. Jack wasn't sure what it was about him that he could put his finger on. Everything in his mind when he thought of the possibility of Damon being an alien or hybrid screamed "Timelord" and "Doctor" to him. Maybe another timelord who had hidden himself the way the Master had?

But if that was so how could Damon have a blood family on earth? He had found the right evidence to prove that Damon had indeed been born on Earth and had had a family. Unlike the Master's charade as Saxon that could have been seen through in the absence of the Archangel Network, there were no red flags to suggest that Damon was fabricating any part of his childhood. Trying to hide it maybe, refusing to talk about it maybe, but that was a normal thing for a human who had endured as much kind of loss as Damon had. Maybe an ancestor of his was a Timelord? And that blood mixed genes correctly for him to appear as he had?

Whatever the reason, it had now become apparant that A. The botanist was not going to leave him alone. B. Chasing away or alienating Damon was not a good idea. C. Damon was physically human but very likely the descendant of an alien or group of aliens, and that D. Damon was put in Jack's life and in Torchwood's path for a reason.

Jack slipped out of the HUB through a hidden passage, he knew who he was going to consult. The teahouse was dark and filled with incense as always, and the little girl with a gift for tarot cards was waiting for him, sipping some kind of tea and boredly consulting her tarot deck. "You came again."

"You knew I would. I need you to look at somebody for me." Jack offered the girl a photo of Damon. "Can you read his background for me?"

"I can. I will cast for you three times. One for him as he means to you, as his future will unfold, and his purpose in the larger sense. I feel that someone has already cast a prediction on him, and you should consult with the priestess who has done so as her gift is greater than mine." The girl began to work the cards, Jack watching patiently.

"The first cast is set." and the girl smirked hugely when she turned over the first card.

Jack grimaced. The Lovers, well that was interesting. That hadn't even come up when he'd asked her about Ianto when he'd first appeared. Why Damon? "Interesting, should I be shopping for silk sheets?" He teased.

"It is not that kind of partnership, though it is one possibility it is of far lesser importance than this." She held up the Chariot, and with it Strength. "He is a deep and powerful ally." she set these down. "And for you." She held up the wheel of fortune. "He was placed in your path because he needs you to show him the way, and he has a greater destiny waiting for him."

Jack nodded, indicating that she cast the second round of cards, pursing his lips thoughtfully.

"Interesting, a man of higher knowledge will appear." She held out two cards, the Magician and the High Priestess. "He comes with an apprentice of direct relations to your new ally. However," The hanged man was her next card. "He will make a great sacrifice for his destiny, and will not surrender to his Fate quietly. I do not sense death for him, but instead rebirth into something new. You must help him find serenity when the time comes near. The Lovers appear again in his forecast, alongside the Heirophant. The best way to nurture and guide him is with open ears and heart, comfort in anguish and celebration in joy."

"I think I know who our magician is. Do you have any idea for the identity of his apprentice?" Jack asked, frowning.

"The knight of swords, a sibling or relative of equal standing. A female peer or comrade. I cannot be certain. Were it a parent, teacher or commander, the king or queen would have been drawn."

She began to cast the third time, and her eyebrows raised as she viewed the result. "The Magician appears again, but I sense his point of origin, not his presence. There is this..." She turned over the next card. "The emperor, the boy's fate is not an emperor in the political or authoritative sense. Rather he is the vehicle for the reemergence of something greater, the Knight of swords appears again. His fate is shared with the apprentice, their destinies entwined. This next sequence shows him of paramount importance." The hanged man, the wheel of fortune, judgement, the world. "I see anguish for him, he will meet his fate reluctantly. His destiny is not a happy one, nor will he have any opportunity to change it. But he will serve a far greater good if he rises to his fate. He is connected to the world from which the Magician came, a fallen empire who's destiny lies in his hands. Do you wish me to recast?"

"No, but I'll come back soon. Thank you." Jack told her. He turned and walked off into what was now dark streets. He could hear thunder rumbling far distant. Halfway back to the hub the skies opened, weeping. Jack looked up at the skies and called out. "What do you want me to do Doctor? What is he to you?"

Jack saw Damon's smiling face in his head, "I'll protect you. I promise. But what is going to happen to you?"

1. In Fooly Cooly, Haruko Haruhara rides a yellow Vespa. Its revealed at the end of FLCL that Haruko is an alien and detective from an alien police force, making a yellow Vespa the appropriate earthly "Tardis" for Damon.

2. Harvey Milk is a school for GLBT highschool students. Its located in New York City and is meant for those who are having serious difficulty fitting in in their own schools due to their homo or bisexual preferences or gender issues.

3. Newman's Own is a favorite brand and local to my region of the US. Likewise the surname name of the dead farmer (Callum) is named after David McCallum, who plays the Medical Examiner Ducky on NCIS.