Time Travel It's Just One Of Those Things

by Caz251

Summary: Things story of who he was, who he is, and how he ended up living with the Addams family. General spoilers for Torchwood, The Addams Family and spoilers for Doctor Who Series 3 Eps 11, 12 & 13. I do not own The Addams Family or Torchwood.

Title: Time Travel...It's Just One Of Those Things

Author: Caz251

Fandom: Addams Family/Torchwood

Characters: Thing, mentions of the Doctor, the Addams family, the Torchwood team.

Rating: PG

Summary: Things story of who he was, who he is, and how he ended up living with the Addams family.

Spoilers: General spoilers for Torchwood, and The Addams Family and spoilers for Doctor Who Series 3 Eps 11, 12 & 13.

Word Count: 1, 326

Disclaimer: I do not own The Addams Family or Torchwood, or anything associated with them.

AN: This story is a bit of a mystery in it's placement due to the time travel element, so although it starts after the year that never was which is definitely after the fic Davies and Jones - still to be posted, it will be placed on the masterlist before it, sorry if this causes any confusion.

He had a name, finally he had a name. He'd never had a name before, not one of his own anyway. In the beginning he was part of a whole, that whole had a name, but he was just a part. Even when he had been separated from the whole he was still thought of as a part of the whole. Even when the whole thought of him it was in terms of a part of him, a part of the whole, but not anymore, now he had a name.

After being separated from the whole he had been captured, and then found by a friend of the whole. The friend had returned him to the whole, only for him to fall into the hands of the enemy and used against the whole. After the year that he and the whole were held against their will the whole decided to bring him here. He was now in America, the whole had dropped him off outside the gate of a large mansion, telling him that he'd be looked after there. He hadn't been many places in his short life; London, Cardiff and the sky, but he had a feeling that this would be the best place on Earth.

The family that lived in the mansion accepted him into their home without a fuss, providing him with somewhere to live and accepting him as part of their family. They had even went as far as to give him a name, one that he cherished as it belonged to him alone and not to the whole; he was now called Thing.

The Addams family had made it very clear to him that he was a part of their family, but he was also aware that he could leave at any time. He didn't wish to leave though, the whole had made a good choice leaving him with the Addams family. He loved the atmosphere in the mansion and he loved the family, they were very entertaining. The conversations that the family held were fantastic, just because he didn't have a mouth or ears like the whole didn't mean that he couldn't hear and understand people. The Addams' had taught him sign language when he had first arrived, and he had taken to it like a duck to water, learning it amazingly quickly. The family were impressed, but Thing not so much, he knew that it was most likely a result of his Gallifreyan heritage.

Time passed, but with the family he remained. He acted like a member of staff at times, collecting things and helping various members of the family with tasks, but he never felt like staff. He knew that Lurch, the families' butler, felt the same as he did. The Addams family were extremely welcoming, and Thing felt at home among them. He was never excluded from anything on the grounds of not being family. In fact, he and Lurch were actively encouraged to join in the families' antics.

Over the years that he had spent with the Addams family Thing had seen and done many different things, the family were in no way stagnant. He had learnt from all of them different things and he'd taken the time to learn about each member of the family to better anticipate their needs so that he could repay them for everything that they had done for him. It was a dream come true for him in a way to spend his time with different members of the family when they went travelling, he just felt that he should be out there seeing the world, but at the same time he didn't want to do it without his family. His most out of the world trip was one to Cardiff with Fester. Fester had taken the time to visit Grizelda and her family and it was then that Thing re-met someone he had known at almost the start of his life. The whole's friend who had found him and given him back, his lover was an Addams, one of Grizelda's children, Ianto Tharmus.

It seemed inconceivable to him that the twenty-five year old man in perfect suits was the thirteen year old boy that he had met, but there were things about him that he couldn't dispute. There were too many similarities for it to be a coincidence, and as an Addams he didn't believe in coincidences. As the hand of the Doctor he discounted coincidence as well, but that had been a different life for him, he was now Thing Addams and he couldn't be happier. Seeing this member of his family though at this age and what he would have to go through as he grew up, he wondered how it would really affect him. He knew that blood, chaos and destruction wouldn't have too much of an affect, he was an Addams after all, but he knew that he lost his lover to that destruction. When an Addams loved they loved completely, and knowing now that he was an Addams he didn't worry about his relationship with the Doctor's friend the Captain. Unlike the humans around the Captain and the Addams child, he could tell that the Captain had been ensnared by Ianto Tharmus Addams Jones, and if Ianto loved him even a little, that could last them an eternity.

Thing had returned to America with Fester, his mind still on little Tharmus and the future, he only had twelve years to go before he would catch up with his own time stream. He wondered if he would have to live through that year that never was again or if the paradox having been destroyed after it began before it got underway properly would save him from repeating that terrible year from another angle. It wasn't to be, they relived it, but it was different for him this time. He knew with an absolute certainty that it would end, that things would reset that everything would return to what it had been before, only with a dead President and Prime Minister. This time though he wasn't locked up, he was free, not that he could do much this time either, the timeline had to be preserved, but he could help his family and ensure their survival.

The majority of the family survived, mainly because they were survivors, no matter what anyone said of the family. Darwin had spoken of the survival of the fittest, and the Addams family were certainly that. When time reset once more Thing wondered if any of the family would remember the past year, he was sure that if anyone who wasn't at the eye of the storm remembered it would be an Addams. Although he hadn't been at the eye of the storm this time, he still was up their on the Valiant, and the temporal energy allowed him to keep both sets of his memories of the year.

Time had caught up with him now, he was back in his own time, or what he would class as his own time, but now he was safe. He had been with the family for so long that no-one would connect him with the Doctor anymore, regardless of the fact that the man can time travel. The family were travelling once again, they were looking for a husband for Wednesday to fulfil the terms of the bouquet toss so that there was no non-existent wedding hanging over the attendees who wished to marry. He would see the Captain and Tharmus again, he wondered how their relationship had faired since the Captain returned, he was also hoping to go with Tharmus back into Torchwood at least once to see how the grumpy doctor and the lovely technician were getting on with their lives. The carer didn't really cross his thoughts to much, he had never thought much of her all those years ago, he saw no need to really concern himself with her.