So what am I doing? To be honest I'm not entirely sure. What you have here is a copy of Once in a Lifetime a story I deemed unfinishable for awhile so I deleted it. I know, gasp, bad me. But thanks to a reviewer, Readergirl99, you all get to have it back... I'm not sure how to feel about this, but I suppose you can think of it as a sort of pity present for me not updating my other story Even in the End nearly as much as I should.
Don't own anything.


The Captain and the Orphan


A buzzing of a bee woke the young black-haired street urchin from where she slept on the stairs. Her stomach was a pit of hunger, her gaunt figure hunched inward as if she was trying to hide within herself from the world around her. Slipping off the steps before the milkman came, the grungy and starving child left the relative safety of her fevered dreams, instead dwelling in the beginnings of a normal day in Cardiff. Little did she know this day would be anything but normal.

Shopkeepers were already flipping their closed signs over, ushering the early morning crowd into their dingy stores, but the child hardly took notice of this. No, she was paying attention to the bakery across the way. The smell of the freshly cooked rolls and loaves reached her nostrils, and she could feel her stomach clench. Moving towards the bakery in almost a trance-like stagger the girl approaches the shop window, and putting her cold red nose up real close to the glass so it fogs, she gazed in, her big violet eyes taking in the shop's delicious smelling bread.

The baker glanced out his shop window looking outside for his next customer, but instead he sees a raven-haired child peering through at his freshly made rolls, and he could already feel annoyance bubbling up inside him like mentos in soda. She was back again. Hadn't he told her enough? Stalking to the door, he pushed it open grabbing the wisp of a girl by the scruff of her tattered coat.

"I thought I told you to stay away from my shop, you little street rat!" He spat in her face, yelling all the while and causing passerby to stop and watch. What was this? The girl trembled in his grasp, her eyes growing even larger from fear, her skinny legs kicking aimless in the air, as if she was trying to run from his grip.

"I-I- Couldn't help it." She pleaded, gulping as she finished, trying to rid herself of her suddenly parched throat. She was only hungry, that's all she ever was nowadays.

"Couldn't help it?" The baker seethed at her, his eyes gleamed and his face turned maroon with anger. "I've told you this every day for the past month! Now scram before I call the constable." He released her from his clutches and she tumbled to the ground, scraping her knees and hands on the tar, making them burn. Scrambling to her feet, she turns to look at the baker's retreating back. He doesn't expect her to follow, and she doesn't, instead she sprints down the street, her legs going as fast as her knocking knees would let her.

Tears burning at the side of her eyes, she darts past passerby after passerby, not really caring who she runs into, when all of a sudden she slams into someone, and down she and the stranger falls. Tears still blurring her vision, she springs away from the fallen man, backing up all the way to the wall of the building behind her.


The captain hadn't been paying attention when the little girl came hurtling at him from out of nowhere. Wow he thought for a kid so small she sure can hit hard. Frowning at the now shaking and sobbing child crouched beside the building in front of them, he put a warm hand on her quaking shoulders, causing her to look up at him with tear-streaked cheeks. He barely kept in a gasp at her vibrant violet eyes that were still glistening with tears as she gazed up at him steadily despite her fear. Why was she so afraid? Kneeling down next to her he makes eye contact with her, letting go of her shoulders gently and instead taking her hands from her face and into his own. However, before he spoke she let out a kind of trembling breath and spoke.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She seemed to curl up into herself, even though Jack still held her hands, and his frown deepened. Did she think he was going to hurt her?

"It's fine, it was an accident right? No harm done!" He answered her his American accent and just the tone of his voice catching her interest, and she cautiously brought her head up back to look at him. "Now, why don't you tell me what's the matter." He says to her looking at her with a soft gaze that seemed to melt all of her fear in one go. Swallowing nervously, she begins to tell him.

"I just- I just wanted food, but he yelled at me... I didn't even go in his shop, I was just looking!" She cried, her sobs turning into hiccups as Jack lightly rubbed her back between her jutting out shoulder blades, able to feel every bone and muscle through her thin shirt and coat.

"When was the last time you ate?" He asked, and she stared at him as if he had grown a head before shrugging. "You don't remember?" Again she shook her head, words escaping her as she stared at the blue coat clad man in curiosity. He frowned at her again and then reached out a hand to her, which she looked at with doubt filling her eyes.

"Let's get you some food shall we?" He said with a smile, it was then that she decided to trust him.


The mysterious man in the blue coat got her three whole rolls for breakfast, which she wolfed down, before walking her around Cardiff. Eventually they came to a stop just outside Roald Dahl Pass and the man spun around nothing short of a maniacal grin plastered on his face.

"Oh good we're here!" He exclaimed excitedly, and she glanced at him carefully, her small hand still clasped in his much larger one. "I'm not crazy! I swear! You'll see." With that he lightly tapped the stone beneath their feet. "Do you trust me?" She nodded hesitantly, before speaking up for the first time in a while.

"But I don't even know who you are!" The man breaks into another grin, larger this time. Letting go of her hand he steps back and goes into a flourishing bow.

"My name is Captain Jack Harkness, leader of Torchwood Three, and you are?" He questions her, eyebrows raised and hand outstretched.

"I ah don't have one."

"You don't have a name? How?" He inquires pulling his hand back to his side when she didn't reach for it.

"I don't remember having one, ever."

"Hmm, we'll have to change that." He says thoughtfully, and she tilts her head to the side in question.

"You're coming with me of course!"

"Coming with you where?" She asks cautiously, still a little doubtful.

"To the Hub! Trust me?" He asks and this time when he holds out his hand, she takes it in hers, pressing close to his side as all of a sudden they descend downward into what she figured was the Hub.

"Do you have a home?" He breathes quietly into her air as she looks on in wonder, as they reach the bottom. She shakes her head.

"Then welcome to your new one." She looks at him shocked, but then a smile breaks onto her face like the sun over the ocean. She could be very happy here.


Alight so there you go, the beginning of the story. The second and third chaps should be up in a little bit.