Author's Note: This is set after Season One in place of Season Two so all characters are there. I plan to make this a long series and will continue the story to a Doctor Who crossover later on so please continue reading and all comments are welcome.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Part 1: New Girl
Midway through her fourth drink, Jack thought while watching the girl who has been sitting next to him for the past ten minutes. But of course Jack didn't feel as affected by alcohol, an infinite life he had; why should he save the good stuff.
"Another," he ordered from the barkeep.
"A few more and you'll set a record," the girl finally said. Jack liked seeing how other people made a first move. He was watching her watching him, and smiled as he put out his hand for a proper introduction. "Captain Jack Harkness."
The girl replied with an equally appetizing smile as she shook his hand and answered, "Emma Langdon."
"So, are you more interested in my liver or impaired judgment?" Jack can never resist a little human flirting.
"I would advise a doctor visit, but there are other forms of therapy," she remarked with a coy smile, that went well with her blonde hair and London accent.
"I actually just came back from my Doctor." It almost seemed like Jack couldn't get him off his mind.
"Seems a bit late for a doctor visit."
"Never a bad time to visit my Doctor."
"Might I interest you in another doctor visit, involving my bed?" Emma knew how to turn things around to get her way. But of course, unbeknownst to her she really didn't have to when it came to Captain Jack.
Soon Jack and Emma were intensely snogging against the wall of her bedroom. Jack enjoyed his talent of removing clothing with his eyes closed, whether they were his or someone else's clothes. And Emma didn't even mind dealing with his clothing accessories, he did look rather dashing in his vintage look.
"You always wear these suspenders?" she asked while taking them off.
"You always wear a thong?"
"Only when I try to catch old war time heroes."
"Old?" Jack chuckled, he was looking good for his age but grey hairs are bad at any age.
"Oh, sorry love."
"Don't be; I'm older than I look."
"I'd like to look at you without any pants on."
Emma pushed him on her bed and they continued what they knew was going to happen when they caught each other's eyes twenty minutes earlier, until Jack had to leave to take care of a blowfish.
XXX
Jack, Tosh, and Owen were rushing through the city in the SUV, as Ianto and Gwen were keeping their watch on the alert. This particular rift activity debris presented the team with quite some difficulty, but they were used to it; if only there would be less activity happening during nighttime, 'too much sleep' was a phrase seldom if ever heard.
"Keep going toward Flayton Street and there should be an old lot there," Tosh directed Jack.
"Ianto, are you getting these frequency readings?" Gwen asked with slight confusion.
"Yes, but they're fluctuating," Ianto confirmed Gwen's concern.
"That might be because of the rift, Ianto." Owen quickly condescended Ianto as expected by him.
Tosh was furiously typing on her laptop, "He's right, it's flashing. It's like one minute it's an alien and the next it's not. We can't track it if it's being read as non-alien. You have to hurry Jack."
At the ready to keep his cool and reputation Jack replied, "You know very few people tell me to hurry up."
"Jack, whatever it is, it's falling off our radar," Gwen reminded.
They pulled up to where the signal was indicating and all three quickly rushed out of the car to find it. But nothing was in their sight.
"Where is it?" Jack asked.
Tosh trying to use her hand-held device answered, "I can't find the signal."
"Tosh, the reading's gone," Gwen replied through the Bluetooth.
"It couldn't have disappeared," Owen remarked.
"Well any sign of it has, it's like it flat lined," Ianto told them.
None of the Torchwood members could find any immediate sign of the previously frantic signal. Jack ordered Tosh and Owen to look for any evidence while he went around to search. As he came around a corner, he could see the shapes of a jeep and two people whispering in hushed voices. Jack stayed hidden and quiet in order to hear any parts of their conversation.
One of the people asked, "Is it secure?"
The second person confirmed that it was and loaded it into the jeep which left so quickly Jack could only catch the name UNIT on the side of the jeep. Jack made his way back to the rest of his investigating team.
"Did you find anything?" Tosh asked as she saw him coming.
"Just some meddling friends." Jack answered.
"What?" asked Owen.
"Nothing, collect all the evidence and take it back to the Hub."
XXX
The well-lit office of busy UNIT workers was full of the low-level officers that made up that department. Emma Langdon walked in and was soon greeted by her co-worker Henry.
"Back from earning your pay?" Henry asked.
"Just another day at the office," Emma liked keeping her job simple, "Where's the Grendal we just brought in?"
"Investigative Ops has it, and Danny said he wants you to turn in the report by tomorrow."
"Thanks Henry." Emma started on her computer and worked as she had for the past two years.
XXX
A day at Torchwood central was quickly interrupted by yet another weevil alert which was starting to become part of a normal Torchwood day. The next part that always happened was trying to decide who would have to go after it. If only those weevils could stay underground.
"It's a weevil alert, whose turn is it?" Tosh asked hoping that by asking first no one would suggest her.
"Owen and I went last time," Gwen yelled from the other room.
"Busy, Jack can you go?" Ianto asked.
"You just want to see me in my coat," Jack said as he walked to the rack to get it.
Jack came to an empty business building and heard the weevil on the roof. He ran up there as with great haste to be surprised and see Emma there and be more surprised that she was holding a gun.
"What are you doing here? You need to leave," Jack said with urgency. The last thing he needed was a common casualty much less from a one-night stand he had a few days ago.
Emma was just as surprised to see her last fling there as well. "Jack? I'm busy, and I actually need you to leave."
Jack didn't have time to deal with this, "I'm not kidding, unless you want to be killed by a weevil you should leave."
Stunned, Emma asked, "How do you know what a weevil is?"
"How do you?"
Then the weevil jumped out and tackled Emma, knocking her gun out of her hand. Jack hoping to keep this as bloodless as possible jumped in to help her and detain the weevil. But Jack and Emma still tried to deal with each other being up there while trying to fight the weevil allowing it to escape and run back into the building.
"Thanks, now I lost it," Emma complained as she searched for her dropped gun and put it back in its place.
"Oh please, you were in my way."
"Just get out of here and let me deal with this." Which was what she was already doing as she was setting up some sort of harness on the edge of the roof.
"Are you saying I can't be here, because it was about to claw off your arm if I hadn't come in."
"Don't flatter yourself, I'm saying you shouldn't be here, unless you know how to deal with these things."
"What? And you do?" Jack said as he pulled out his can of anti-weevil spray to show he certainly knew what he was doing.
Emma was surprised to see he had that, but she continued to strap the harness around her. "It's getting away." She stepped on the ledge ready to deploy.
"So am I." Jack started walking back.
"Me first." And then Emma jumped off of the ledge in professional style.
Ready to finish off this back and forth tango of theirs he gave a running start and jumped off of the building to reach there first. Emma saw, in amazement, him quickly falling to his death and rushed down the building, retracted her equipment, and looked for his body. All of a sudden Jack and the weevil popped out fighting, to which she pulled out a syringe and lunged at the weevil it inject it causing it to fall down within seconds.
"What the hell was that? You don't have a scratch on you!"
"Yeah they don't suit me well." But more concerned on dealing with the weevil than her he quickly asked, "What did you inject him with?"
She showed him the syringe and answered, "It's epinephrine."
"This can kill him."
"With the amount I gave it will. What? Were you planning on doing something else with it?"
"Capture him not kill."
"Well that's not part of my job."
"And what exactly is your job?"
At that time they heard a car approaching to which Emma replied with a hint of worry in her voice, "Hide!"
"What?"
"Just do it." And she pushed him aside. "The Lounge Bar, 8:00."
The car pulled up and a man came out asking, "Is the creature detained?"
"Affirmative." The two loaded in the weevil and equipment before Jack could have a proper reaction. He went back to the Hub without a weevil but with a purpose. He went on his computer and searched the name Emma Langdon. He saw the basic information identifying her as a 25 year-old female from Cardiff, Wales. And then he saw the important link that said Affiliations: UNIT to which he clicked on. After some hacking he found her file showing that she joined in 2005 and had training in alien combat. Jack continued reading her profile but on the section that disclosed her current occupation it denied him access as it was classified. He tried again to open it, wondering why it would be classified but it stayed locked. It seemed that unraveling this mystery was going to happen over a drink.
XXX
Emma sat in the Lounge Bar at a small table in the corner. It was 7:50 and she was hoping he would arrive after her rude leaving.
"I ordered us martinis," Jack said as he came up. His sly cool tone immediately set the mood, Emma seemed to fall into the same spell of his charm just like the first night they met.
"I like them shaken, not stirred."
"Shaken, I'll remember that." Jack couldn't help it; he had to do at least one.
"From my memory, it seems you already knew that." She probably shouldn't have brought up that one night but both were equally surprised at the chances that they would see each other again much less in the way they ran into each other again.
"Well, I am psychic."
"Then I guess the only one who needs to do any explaining is you."
"Why don't we both go; I'll answer one of your questions and you answer one of mine."
The waitress came and put their drinks on the table. Emma waited until she left to say, "Fine, me first. What are you?"
"Tackling everything in one question. I'm part of Torchwood. We deal with everything alien related, especially those with the rift in the city. We're under no one's control; we assess the alien situation and handle it, to our advantage, to prepare us. Who do you work for?"
Emma only wanted to see if Jack was an actual threat or some random person interested in aliens. She had no intention on revealing herself. "Something… private."
"That's all you're going to tell me?"
"Yep."
"Then I'll change the question. I know you have a background with UNIT – "
"You looked me up?"
"It's my turn. What did you do with UNIT?"
She could still make a cover for her but obviously not everything could stay hidden. "That was my old job. We worked under a small branch of UNIT. What's your real name?"
"I told you the first time, Captain Jack Harkness."
"Really?"
"That's another question. If you worked with UNIT why don't you know about Torchwood."
Emma certainly didn't like not knowing things, hiding information was more her forte. But she could reveal a little bit. "The branch I worked under didn't deal with just alien and rift activity, we covered everything, even any oddities relating to Earth and humans. We didn't react to alien activity; we reacted to normal activity and waited for alien activity. Therefore we needed manpower a lot of manpower, and workers were only allowed to know the minimum amount of information needed to get the job done. We knew everything we needed to for our assignment, but nothing else. I've heard the name Torchwood around here but I never had an assignment related to you."
"Seems highly inefficient. But I wouldn't expect better from UNIT."
"That's how my current job works as well," she said sounding slightly insulted, "I did get to the weevil before you did. How fast did you get to the building when you found out about the weevil?"
"As soon as I got news of the weevil."
"Exactly, you left when your people recognized a weevil; I left when we heard of a burglary and trespassing. Say what you may but I'm effective." She loved proving her point.
"And harsh, what did you do with the weevil?"
"What does it matter to you?"
"Because getting it was my job." And Jack did not want to be seen as ineffective in anything he does.
"My boss asked for the weevil and I got it. I don't ask for anything else."
"Oh, so you're someone's bitch."
"No, I have a job; I get it done." Jack was starting to show more spunk than she did. But of course he had tons to spare. "People hire me because I'm good."
"Well, I'm better."
"Maybe at falling off of buildings. How exactly did you do that?"
"That's a secret for next time." Jack had many secrets he was going to keep hidden, and he hated it when his power was found out.
"You're assuming there will be a next time. Are you afraid to talk cos you think I'll tell someone?" Honestly, that stunt was what Emma really wanted to know about, because if he had any more tricks up his sleeve he might become her next assignment.
Jack got up from his ready to end this conversation soon. "If I was afraid of you telling then I wouldn't have told you anything."
"Then why did you?"
"Did you enjoy your drink?" Jack could always rely on Retcon.
Emma reached under the table and took out a full martini glass. "This one or the one I drank." She wasn't going to let a simple drink get her.
Jack gave a half-smile. He was impressed, almost. Retcon may not have worked but he wasn't done. He pulled out a card from his coat pocket and said, "Here's my card, call me if you need help on another one of your jobs."
She took it and looked at the number in the middle of the card but saw no name. When she lifted her head she saw the back of Jack exiting the bar.
XXX
The Torchwood team was busy working at their own spaces, and Jack was mulling over how great Ianto's ass looked in those pants he was wearing when he heard his name.
"Jack." It was Owen's voice.
He walked to where Owen was who was looking over some reports. "Yeah?"
"Look at the results of this tox screen."
Jack took the paper Owen held out and asked, "What is it?"
"It's from the remains we collected the other night. It contains amoxitin."
"Amoxitin? What are the bP levels?"
"Above 50%. What does that mean?"
"It means it's a Grendal."
Tosh scooted in her chair over to Owen's side. "Did you just say Grendal? What is that?"
Jack answered, "They're a humanoid species, they sort of have a gelatinous structure and their blood contains electrical charges."
"Wait, so that's their readings fluctuated," Tosh replied as she figured it out.
"Yeah. They're harmless though. They don't have any interest in human beings."
"But we still don't know where it is," Owen pointed out. It was one more thing they would have to figure out.
XXX
Emma sat in front of her computer at her UNIT office doing her normal reports. After turning her head around to see what everyone else was doing she decided to use the UNIT database to look up her newly discovered information. If there was anything about aliens, UNIT would know. She first tried 'Captain Jack Harkness' but all of his information was under Torchwood. When she searched 'Torchwood' she only got as far to know that it was classified under Sector G. At that time, Henry walked in looking quite beat up with cuts and bruises.
"Oh, that looks painful, did you have a hard time collecting?"
"Don't gloat just because you're the best bounty hunter," he remarked while wincing.
"I'm not gloating, I really care."
"Ugh, it was this big ugly thing. It better be worth something for what I went through."
"I'm sure it's the most important alien we'll ever encounter and then maybe you'll be promoted to a better job," she joked.
"Oh how we dream."
"So what are they doing with it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Your alien you collected, or any alien. What are they doing with it?"
"I don't know, doesn't Investigative Ops deal with them once our job is done?"
"Yeah, but you don't know what they actually do?"
"No." Henry's voice didn't seem to carry much interest with what Emma was talking about, and that seemed to irk her for some reason.
"Well, haven't you ever wondered what they do?"
"They don't pay us for wondering."
"Yeah." He was right, and she knew it. She wasn't getting paid for wondering, her paycheck was coming for one reason. But she wiped it out of her mind, there were other things occupying it for the time being. "Hey Henry, what do you know about Torchwood?"
"Hmm, sounds familiar, but I don't know. Why?"
"No reason, it's just that I looked it up and the database said it's classified under Sector G."
"Sector G?"
"Yeah, what do you know about things in Sector G?"
"I know it means that we're not supposed to know anything that's in it."
Emma was certainly going to find out more, whether she was supposed to or not. She never usually did anything against her work but she also didn't usually let things go easily and there was something about Jack that kept her wondering about him. Maybe it was his chin or possibly just his mysterious air he had whenever she saw him. Either way, she knew she would get what she wanted.
Another co-worker came up to say, "Emma, Danny wants to see you in his office."
"Oh o.k. thanks." She left to go to see her superior hoping the matter would be nothing important or rather nothing bad. She knocked and entered his office saluting until he gestured to stand down.
"Have you finished your identification files?" Danny asked as she took her seat.
"Yes, Sir."
"Good, you have another assignment. But this one will be different than your usual ones."
"Oh? How so, Sir?"
"We're sending you undercover."
"Undercover, Sir?"
Danny handed her a file containing all the information on her assignment. Unfortunately it actually contained little information which was why she was given this new task. "We call him Suspect Prime, came under our radar, a few weeks ago. You have to investigate him, assess if he's worth bringing in or if he's nothing worth our time. If he's valuable, detain and collect like always."
She opened the file to take a cursory glance and wondered why things were going so differently this time. "If I may ask, Sir; why can't I collect him now so we can investigate him here, Sir?"
Leaning back in his chair he answered, "Parliament thinks we've had too many casualties from our failed collections and believes we should put more… effort in data research. You have one month to watch him so you won't have to come in daily but you will have to send in bi-weekly reports."
"Understood, thank you, Sir." She stood up and saluted, and then left to her next task on hand.
XXX
In the deep nighttime, the street was nearly empty save for the parked cars. Emma was sneakily following behind Suspect Prime, who was lurking in the dark shadows. She kept her distance but Suspect Prime was being equally on guard that she couldn't get a good enough look at him. At that same time Jack was in his office looking at his computer where there was a flashing dot indicating the GPS tracker he had in the card he gave Emma was moving. He rose from his seat and left to find her.
Emma was still carefully following Suspect Prime. She had yet to determine if he was a dangerous threat. She needed to find its hiding place and if she was lucky, he would lead her right to it. But soon Jack drove up in his car and the simple sound of it spooked Suspect Prime. He started to run causing Emma to go after him and at that sight Jack got out of his car to go after the both of them. If Emma couldn't follow Suspect Prime she had to get a tracker on him and not lose this case, but Captain Jack just kept popping up.
She caught up to Suspect Prime to which she received a hard punch in the stomach and a fall to the ground. Suspect Prime ran off and Jack ran up to her giving her a hand which was not what she wanted at this time.
"You again?"
"We have to stop running into each other like this."
Emma did not feel like dealing with him and his dashing charm at that moment. "How did you even know I was here?"
"It's part of the job."
"Any more and your job will be the cause of my unemployment." Emma spotted some odd object on the ground that fell off of Suspect Prime. It was shaped like a small octahedron but with many little intricate parts. She sneakily took it and placed it in her pocket when Jack looked the other way. "If you could move, please; I have to finish my job." She had already started walking and he wasn't letting a foot of space between them.
"And what's your job this time?"
"What are you PETA for aliens? I won't kill it if that's what you're interested in."
"Come on, we can take my car; it's faster."
She glanced in the direction of her car that had the name UNIT on the side of it. She couldn't have Jack seeing it but she couldn't just let Suspect Prime get away. She sighed, "Fine, hurry." and turned around to walk to his car.
Jack opened his door and started the car slightly surprised she agreed so quickly. He didn't even have to pull out his best smile. "No opposition? You're usually a lot of lip. Actually, that one time you were a lot of lip," He said while smiling.
"Just go." Of all times she wanted Jack to pop up, he kept coming when she had something to hide.
They drove only a few blocks and when he was in sight, both jumped out of the car to run after him. Jack tackled him and they rolled on the ground until Suspect Prime threw Jack to the side and attacked Emma. He had one hand holding on her neck, as she wriggled to free its grasp. Just as Jack was getting up from his hit, Suspect Prime raised one arm, revealing a huge claw ready to strike. But right as he was about to pound Emma, Jack lunged at Suspect Prime knocking him off of her. As they rolled Jack was stabbed with the sharp claw right in his abdomen allowing Suspect Prime to get up. Emma, acting quickly, grabbed Suspect Prime's ankle but he pried it free just after Emma stuck the tracker on him. She rushed to Jack in time to see him dead and bleeding out.
"Oh, my gosh," she said feeling shocked.
Jack gasped back to life to see Emma over him with a horrified face.
"OH MY GOSH!" she yelled, "What the hell? W-what just happened?"
Jack started to recover and now had to calm her down. It was much easier to hide his secret from people when they didn't see him die and recover with their own eyes. He saw her bloody shirt and decided to deal with that first. "Get up, let's get to the car. You're hurt."
"And you were dead!" She couldn't believe he was actually talking about anything else.
"Yes, but you're also badly hurt." He helped her up and got her to the car. When he lifted her shirt he could see the open gash on her right side. "We need to apply pressure." He looked around the car but the first-aid kit was gone. Owen was supposed to refill the supplies and put it back; Jack would have to remind Owen the next time he saw him.
"Here, let me." Emma took off her jacket and used it as a bandage.
The wound was serious and the chance of infection was high. Both knew it needed to be taken care of properly.
"I need to fix you up. I have more supplies at the Hub."
"The Hub?"
"It's… our office." This mission to find out more about her was revealing more and more about him.
"Shouldn't you be more cautious on who you let in then?" This night was becoming weirder than she had expected, and in her line of work she had high expectations.
"You need help." She was right but so was he. Jack looked at her and thought it over; he decided to take the risk.
Emma looked back at him and knew to go with it. "Take me there."
He helped her get settled in the car and drove off. Like everyone else who first saw the great Torchwood central, she was expecting more than the Roald Dahl Plass; and she got just that once the doors rolled open. This 'office' was definitely the most unconventional she had ever seen. Once she was on the examining table, Jack found where Owen kept everything. She took off her shirt and let him bandage her wound; leaving an awkward space for odd small talk.
"So this is your office?" she asked in a cool tone. She really was impressed by it, and she wasn't going to let him know and get all conceited on her. But she was more impressed that he brought her here; Emma would never bring anyone to UNIT and her office space looked like she sold paper. In fact no one would know she worked with aliens unless they saw the hidden rooms full of alien equipment. So why would Jack bring her here to see all of this? She didn't know what Sector G meant and yet she was right in the middle of it.
"Yes, it's where we work." As he put up the gauze and disinfectant, he caught Emma constantly looking around to see everything. He grabbed a spare shirt to give to her and took her bloody clothes.
"It's… nifty," she said quite calm and collected while carefully putting on the shirt.
"Nifty?" That was one adjective he was not expecting to hear. He rather enjoyed the amazed reactions.
"It's interesting I'll admit. That rift manipulator is quite the beauty." she said, verifying that she really was impressed by it. There was technology she had never seen. And she really wanted to see it all; she especially wanted to know more about Jack. "Are you going to talk about what happened?"
"I think you saw what happened."
She looked in his eyes to make sure he wouldn't lie, but Jack had no intention to. "You died."
"Yes."
"And you came back." They kept looking and he didn't say anything on the contrary. "So that's it? You can die and come back?"
"Yep."
She leaned forward and asked, "How exactly did you that?"
Jack leaned into her ear and whispered, "It's private." He really enjoyed pasting on his cocky smile and seeing her defeated face. But it was only a small victory. "What about you?"
"What about me?" She hadn't planned on talking about herself again.
"Who do you work for?"
Jack wasn't going to let it go, but she discovered his secret, he should be able to know hers. She paused and eventually said, "I'm a hunter, my boss is a private collector of creatures and alien technology. And he hired us to do it for him." Emma knew the best lies were the simple ones.
"You were with UNIT and you left to be a head-hunter for a random person who likes aliens?"
"It pays well." Her face was frozen like stone, her best straight face.
"A whole rift in time and space that lets in things out of this world, and all you care about is the money?"
"You have the power of immortality and all you ever think about is sex," she replied as rebuttal. She had him there and he knew it.
He walked up close to her and had his face right up to hers. "Don't say it's not on your mind as well," he said with his sexy smirk.
"Aren't relations in the office space frowned upon?"
"You don't work here."
"That's true."
They stayed there like that waiting for the other one to fold. Unfortunately, both were intent on winning.
XXX
The next day, everybody came into work at Torchwood. Ianto came in early as always to clean and make coffee the way they all liked it. Tosh came a little earlier that usual, to finish up some paperwork. While doing her normal routine she checked the CCTV footage and saw Jack and a girl in the Hub late at night, alone. Ianto was walking over with a cup of coffee and she closed it on her computer as quick as possible.
"Here you go, Tosh."
"Thanks Ianto." Tosh watched as he walked away to see when she could look at it again. She wouldn't keep it a secret, but she was the first to see it so she had to tell Jack first before anyone else. She walked to his office and knocked to go in.
"Jack, I just looked at the CCTV footage of last night and I saw you…. with a woman. Who did you bring here?"
"Her name is Emma Langdon."
"But why did you bring her here?"
"She was hurt." Before she could start up again on their policies he explained, "Don't worry, she's not just anyone, she knows what we do." He pulled up her file on his computer and gestured Tosh to come to see.
"It says she trained and worked at UNIT. So what does she do now?"
"She hunts things alien-related."
Tosh wasn't really seeing where he was going with this. "So what… do you want to recruit her or something?"
"Maybe."
"Jack, we're not exactly hiring."
"I think she would be useful." And Jack saw something in her he couldn't quite place; something that made him want to find out.
Tosh didn't like what Jack considered 'useful.' "Jack, did you shag her?" she asked with a great amount of incredulity.
"Hey, what makes you think that was part of my decision?" He tried his best to sound insulted, but he couldn't very well day 'no.'
"Have you made an official decision?"
XXX
It was the end of the day, and the bulk of the work was done. Jack and Ianto were staying late. They had the whole place to themselves and Ianto was waiting to see if Jack was in the mood. But Jack was in his office for a long time now.
"Ianto."
"Yes, Sir," he answered as he came in.
"Have you finished the files on the sub-ethereal resonator?" Jack leaned back in his chair with his arms behind his head. Ianto knew that meant Jack something in particular on his mind.
"Yes, but I need Tosh's report of her recalibration of its frequency performance."
"You can wait until tomorrow to do it."
Jack was right, he could wait; but there was always work to be done and Ianto liked it when it was all quiet and he would work alone without any disturbances. "That's quite alright Sir, there's quite a lot of paperwork left."
"Look, it's late. We can go and get something to eat." Jack said it with confidence in his voice. But truthfully, they spent most of their time together at Torchwood, and being seen together outside felt new to the both of them.
This caught Ianto by surprise. "Go out… to eat?"
Jack loved that doe-eyed look on Ianto's face. "Yeah, I know a place that stays open real late." He got up, and walked toward Ianto.
"Just us two…out together…? O.k." he said reluctantly, but happily; hiding it as best he could. Jack can get cocky very easily.
"Yeah, let's go," he said while grabbing his coat.
They took the lift up to the ground to where it was dark and just about no one around. They walked away together, not one of them paying more careful attention of Emma who was hiding away behind a pillar. She waited until they were far away from sight to come out and then made her way into the Hub using the exact same way Jack had when he brought her there. She was sure that it was empty, but Emma moved carefully and quickly about the Hub making sure to look in every corner and leave nothing of her presence there. When she found her way to Jack's office she immediately went after the computer and accessed the employee files. Captain Jack was proving to be more of a mystery than she had expected and she needed to know more. She found his folder and browsed through the first page of information.
"… Capt. Jack Harkness… Cardiff… Official employee… 1899." She was astounded by what she saw and even more surprised when she realized just how many files there were on Jack; and she was able to utter, "I guess you are older than you look."
But Emma couldn't risk reading everything there; she pulled out her USB and downloaded all of the files. Once finished she left putting much effort into leaving not a single trace.
XXX
Another early day at Torchwood, Jack and Ianto sharing glances from what happened the night before, and the strong smell of coffee because when Ianto was in a good mood he loved to make extra; although it was a bit of a tell to everyone else in Torchwood.
Jack checked his computer and received an infiltration alert of the security system. He looked into the CCTV footage and saw Emma breaking and entering. Another topic to talk over with Tosh that he didn't want to deal with just yet.
"Ianto," Jack called
"Yes, Sir," he answered when he came to the door.
"Has Tosh come in, since last night?"
Ianto rolled his eyes up for a split second and replied, "No, she hasn't reported for work yet. Do you need something done; I could do it, Sir."
"No thanks, that's o.k." Jack realized what he said and put in, "Well, for now, I might need you to time something for me later," and added his classic famous sexy smile.
Ianto put on his spelled smile and replied, "I'll be waiting for your orders."
Jack took this opportunity and deleted the CCTV footage of Emma. He figured it would be easier to say he accidentally made a technical mistake, than have Tosh find out…again.
XXX
Busy at work, Ellie was working in the lab until her friend Emma came in needing something like she always did.
"Ellie, my good mate, I need a favor."
"Don't you always." She stopped believing Emma would come down just to day 'hi' once she was transferred to Research and Emma realized just how good her friend was at technology.
"Oi, that's not true."
"You only call me your 'good mate' when you need something," she argued.
"I say it, because it's true. But I do need something." Emma took out the object she collected off of Suspect Prime. "I need to know what this is."
"What for, this time?"
"It's part of my task. I have to track something called Suspect Prime, and this fell off."
"And you don't feel like filling out the proper forms," she admitted with futility.
"See, you are my good mate, you know what I want before I have to say it."
Ellie placed it in the Tech Scanner and remarked, "It certainly looks odd." She typed away at the computer controls and made a sort of frown on her face.
"What do you think it is?"
Ellie kept typing when she replied, "I'm not sure…Are you sure it came off of this Suspect Prime thingy?"
"Yes, I'm sure. It fell off when we fought him."
"We?"
A small alarm went off in Emma's head. "Yeah, Suspect Prime and I fought."
"But you said, 'we fought him.'"
"I meant me and the target." At least verbal mishaps were easy to cover up.
"Well, whatever it is, I can't read it."
"I mean, I can't read it, not any part of it. It won't let me." She showed Emma the screen that read 'Not Detectable' and picked up the object playing with it in her hands. "It could be something not of this world or some rock-and-roll paraphernalia that the machine's not meant to detect…Ow take it. It's hot." She handed it to Emma who took it in her hand.
"Ohh, it is." Then Emma fell into a quick trance and saw a sudden flash of white light for a fraction of a second. And just as fast as she fell into the trance she fell right out.
"Emma…Emma, over here." her friend called in slight concern.
"What? Yeah, sorry. Uh, thanks for all your help." She stuffed it back in her pocket and added in, "Can we keep this between us now?"
"You know, you're going to have to turn that in eventually, it's called following the rules. It's part of our job, they made us sign an loads of contracts, remember that?" Even in her pleading, reminding she could guess what Emma would say next.
"Oh, why follow the rules when I have you?" she added with a smile saying she knew Ellie wouldn't put up a fight.
"If it's part of your assignment, why don't you just turn it in?"
"There's just a problem or two with…how I acquired it." Emma already handled the side with Jack but she had yet to figure out how to cover it from her job.
"How many more times am I going to have to save your ass?"
Emma was getting ready to leave but felt like reminding her friend why she was so effective. "Don't worry, you can stop when you feel like telling your husband about that one really drunk night."
In a very defensive voice Ellie protested, "Hey, anyone could have made the same mistake; our names are very similar and tequila goes straight to my head."
"I'm not the one you have to explain it to."
"You're swine."
"Love you too," she yelled back as she walked away.
XXX
Emma was handling the object in her hands looking at the little nooks and crannies of it, wondering what it meant or was. She walked in the hallway to her flat, and unlocked the door to see the Captain Jack Harkness sitting in her room chair and drinking a glass of scotch.
She quieted the sound of being startled in her voice before saying, "Jack, what are you doing here."
He took a sip and said, "It's seems we're both good at breaking and entering."
She wasn't very surprised at this; she knew she was careful but somehow she knew Jack would find out. "Fine, you caught me. What are you going to do about it?"
"Offer you a job." He didn't see it on her face but he could feel she wasn't expecting that.
"I'd like to see what you'd do if I stole your car."
"I'm serious." He was.
Giving it actual thought she asked, "What makes you think I would want to join Torchwood?"
Standing up now he said, "Because if you stole what I think you stole, then you read my personal file."
He was right. She had read it all but knew she didn't get everything. She wanted to know more, more about what happened, more on why it happened. Captain Jack kept getting more and more interesting and she found herself being drawn into his charm. She hadn't thought about it but joining Torchwood would be the best method. "Yes, but I do have a day job."
"Fine, but part-time workers don't get as many benefits." He put on a blatant smirk and eyed the bedroom.
"Come off it already, you're not going to get me in bed that easily." She really didn't want it to be that easy; he was just so damn dashing.
"Oh yeah, if I remember correctly it takes four drinks."
Insulted but not denying she yelled, "Oi!"
He walked up close with his hands in his pockets. "Are you sure you don't feel like it? We could call it orientation. I could make it part of you job description."
"Then you're going to have to pay me a whole lot more."
XXX
Jack felt a little guilty not announcing this to the rest of the team but he and Emma were already walking to the entrance.
"Can we take that fun little lift this time?"
"I love the fun route."
Both stepped onto the stone and it descended with a small shake that caused Emma to grab his arm, which only gave Jack another reason to smile on the inside. They landed and Jack told her to stay behind the column first and let him do the proper introductions.
"Everyone I have someone for you to meet."
"Let me guess another alien that's good in bed or a new dog," Owen called out from the morgue.
Gwen walked up next to Tosh on her computer. "Jack, what's going on?"
"I've brought in someone new, that I want you all to meet. Everyone this is Emma Langdon." She came out and gave a little wave by her side.
"By 'someone new', you mean you made a decision?" Tosh asked knowing only he and Tosh knew.
"Yes," he confirmed and led Emma around the room, "This is Tosh, our brilliant whiz; handles all of our technical needs."
"Hi there." Tosh waved.
"Hello," she replied back.
Pointing toward the morgue Jack introduced, "Dr. Owen Harper. Our medical advisor."
"Medical professor and currently busy," he corrected in the annoyed tone that always seemed to be somewhere in his voice whether he wanted it to or not.
"Don't mind him. You get used to it. Gwen Cooper," she said while holding out a hand to shake.
"Hi, Emma Langdon."
Jack looked around wondering where Ianto was. "Where is that Ianto?"
"He's out checking some lead on that Grendal we missed last week," Gwen answered.
"A what?" Emma asked.
"A Grendal." She repeated. At that Emma remembered the file labeled Grendal.
"We'll wait until he gets back. I'll introduce you two. Gwen, show her around and get her started." He smacked her butt and walked away to his office.
"You'll have to get used to that too," Tosh remarked.
"Already am," she said thinking the full thought in her head.
Gwen and Emma were laughing about how Jack gets that little wrinkle when he does his smug face when Ianto came in and went straight to Jack's office. Gwen saw Ianto walk by and reminded her Jack wanted to introduce them, but when Emma walked in she caught the two of them snogging and held a shocked look on her face. One she didn't try to hide.
"Jack, what's going on?"
Before fully registering her reaction he said, "Emma there you are, this is Ianto."
"Were you two just…?"
Jack and Ianto both realized the room suddenly had an awkward air. "Ianto could you – "
"I'll go do some filing Sir."
"Jack…are you gay?"
"I don't think that's the right term."
Speaking in a much more fiery tone, she said, "Then what the hell was that?"
"Honestly 51st century pheromones." That only gave a look of more disbelief to Emma. "Well it worked on you."
Tired of being confused, she asked, "What? Jack I thought that you…that, that…"
"That…we were…?" He was reading her face and seeing more than he thought was there.
"No, I didn't think we…well I thought that we had…I at least thought you were straight. I mean, what are you?"
"I love everything," He said this with great sincerity.
"Thing?"
"We both know there are more species out there."
Emma couldn't believe this. The mystery was intriguing but this was starting to be more than she could handle. "You've…been with them?"
"Well…" There didn't seem to be a right response that Emma would like.
"Are you and Ianto…together?"
"Yes."
"Wait, so you were with him while you shagged me? You cheated on him with me?"
"Like I said, I love everything." Jack wasn't using it as an excuse, he was being truthful. He knew the truth didn't need to always come out so bluntly, but at that time the truth was the only thing he could say.
"Why didn't I know about…all of this or any of this?"
"I didn't think I was obligated to. Were we – "
And quickly she realized how much she didn't like the truth and needed to get out of there. "You're right, you weren't obligated." She started to turn away.
"Emma – "
"What?" she said with a tone that came out harsher than she had intended but it came out anyway.
"Do you still want to be a part of Torchwood?"
She paused, thinking about what she got herself into. "Yes, I just don't think I can handle you right now." And she left making sure not to turn around and look him in the eye even though she knew he was looking.
XXX
Ianto made a special cup of coffee and got a nice cup and saucer. Then he walked to the room where Emma sat alone and knocked twice.
"Can I come in?"
There wasn't one particular person she wanted to talk to but she figured she might as well speak to the one person she has yet to meet. "Hi, it's you."
"I made you some coffee." He placed it on the table and took a seat.
"Thank you." That was all she could really say, or wanted to say.
"Jack told me what happened."
"Maybe he could tell me, too. Cos I have never been more confused."
"Yeah, he has a way of complicating things, being here complicates things." Everyone there always dealt with the complications, but for some reason dealing with something that the rest of the world dealt with as well seemed a whole lot more complicated with them.
"Yeah, I picked up on that." She took a sip of the coffee and was actually more grateful for caffeine than she had ever been.
"I came to talk to you and tell you that Jack's a good man." Ianto wasn't sure what was going through her head after all this, but he felt he needed to come and clear up some things, even if they weren't so clear.
"Do you love him?"
"Why?"
"Cos, I don't understand it. I mean, how are you with him? Is it an open relationship? I just…"
"No we're just… He has a past." Ianto didn't like thinking about Jack's past or future for that matter. "And he just likes snogging everything he sees." He laughed little hoping it would hide what was coming out.
She chuckled at that but only for a second. "Well, where I come from it's called cheating…and being gay."
"Maybe you should see things the say we do." He meant it, and Emma saw it in his eyes.
She looked down at her shoes holding her cup of coffee. "It's difficult doing anything around him. He's so…"
Ianto stared off a bit as well. "Amazing," he finished.
"I can't argue with that." She really couldn't but she wished she could because him being amazing just made everything harder.
"He loves me and I know that. He loves all of us." Emma looked in his eyes and felt somewhat happy that Ianto sincerely felt that, she could see how confusing it was for him and she was the closest to understanding how confusing it felt. And when he said that she felt all…nostalgic.
"He really is great. He'd die for us."
"That doesn't count. I'd die for you if I knew I was coming back." She felt a smile over her face and saw one on Ianto as well.
"But he's really amazing. Sometimes too amazing for one person. He's too much for this world."
"You really think that?"
"Yes." He really did. "How did he make you feel when you were with him?"
He was right. "You're right. He's good at everything he does. Everything."
"Did you two ever…?" Ianto almost didn't want to ask this question.
"No we weren't involved like that." Ianto gave her a glare and she folded. "O.k. just once, but we met in a bar and we were both drunk."
Giving it some thought he said, "Are you sure he was drunk too?"
She figured out how sober he was that night and how much he really liked to drink. "Bloody bastard."
"So if you weren't in bed most of the time what did you do?" Ianto was starting to become curious.
"Oh, you know chasing weevils, fighting aliens, lots of running. The normal dates."
"Ah, of course." That small joke felt good to make, both of them were feeling a bit better.
"But I don't know…it's like we were both…lost or something. And we just helped each other. He showed me the Hub, invited me to join, it just fit."
"He showed you the around and you guys just…talked?" This didn't sound like the normal Jack that everyone knew him as; this was sounding like the kind of Jack that Ianto thought only he knew. Ianto had become somewhat accustomed to how much Jack liked sex, but he always took comfort in knowing there were certain things that Jack only liked with Ianto.
"Yeah," she answered innocently.
"And…you only shagged once?"
"Yeah," she tried saying as nonchalantly as she had before until Ianto started starting at her incredulously. "O.k. well, it's not like I didn't want to, we just too busy doing other things. It's not like Jack made it easy to stay out of bed."
"Another thing he's great at doing." And Ianto wanted sex to be the only thing Jack shared with someone else. Ianto didn't like Jack sharing anything with others but he could always tell himself that was the kind of person Jack was. But now, he was feeling something, something close to jealousy but arising from confusion. It seemed Jack liked doing some things with people other than Ianto.
Emma looked in Ianto's eyes and stopped feeling upset about starting to fall for Jack, but rather guilty. She thought she was hurt when she and Jack had only known each other for a short time. And now she realized this Ianto must have felt even worse. "Yeah, but he's not perfect you know."
"He may not be perfect but he's out of this world."
"You make it seem like he's so incredible."
"He is incredible." And Ianto meant it, a lot.
"Yeah, but you make it sound like he's so great that you're …privileged to love him and that you're lucky he loves you amongst his others." She was starting to see just how much Ianto loved him, which only confused her because she couldn't see how much Jack loved him back.
"Sometimes he's more than enough for one person." Ianto almost wished that wasn't true, but wasn't that part of why he loved Jack so much?
"You know you're worth having someone love you with all they have, amazing powers or not."
Ianto looked at her and suddenly felt he needed to leave. She was starting to make too much sense, sense that he never really thought about. He got up and left the room and found himself walking toward Jack's office. Jack looked up from the papers he was reading and smiled a 'Hey' telling him to come in.
"So I met Emma, she's seems excited to be working here." Sarcasm is always an easy escape.
"Give her time, you'll warm up to her." Jack had a feeling it would take a lot of time.
"I don't think that's the problem." In fact, he wasn't really sure what was the problem.
"Is there a problem?" Hearing Ianto's tone made him think that maybe there were more problems than he had thought.
"No, no," he replied a bit too quickly hoping it would compensate for the lack of confidence he suddenly heard in his voice. "We just talked."
"You talked? and…"
"She told me about you two."
"What did she say?" Jack didn't think he had something to had, but it sounded like Ianto thought he did.
"She just told me about what you did…together." As soon as he said 'together' he wanted to take it back. "She said you showed the Hub, fought some aliens, and that she can't hold her liquor very well."
"What? Are you jealous?"
"No, of course not, she said you only shagged once." Ianto wanted to enjoy that fact, that they had one casual night that didn't mean anything. That would have been much better that if they were involved. One night was better than multiple. But for some reason he didn't. For some reason, having one meaningless night was worse because then it meant that maybe everything else between them meant something. Ianto took a seat at the edge of Jack's desk and asked, "What did you do the other times?"
"What we do best."
"So you really just talked, fought aliens, and offered her a job?"
Jack realized how crazy that sounded. Everyone who was a part of Torchwood was chosen with great care and here he was inviting someone who had another job. "She's good. She'll make a nice ally and she's perfect for Torchwood." She was also something else Jack couldn't figure out. And that just made him want to know even more.
Maybe she was good for Torchwood, but Ianto was worried she might be better than him. "I hope so."
Jack was getting tired, he didn't want to work anymore and Ianto was looking sexy. "Let's stop talking, Ianto. And get that shirt off." Jack started unbuttoning his shirt.
Ianto wasn't sure if he wanted to sleep with him or be alone, but he thought he might feel better with Jack's touch and to that replied, "Much obliged, Sir."