Hello and welcome to the first chapter of Away From The Doctor. My name is I'msorrymylove and if you're here, you've probably already read the three books that came before this one in the Kayla Hark Series. If you've been able to do that then congrats, y'all are rock stars. I think I've grown a lot as a writer since those three books, and I hope you guys see that.
If you haven't read the first three books, then you probably should at least skim them. Otherwise you guys will have a lot of trouble understanding what is going on in this. I tried to explain a lot in the first bit of this chapter, but background is always a good thing to have.
This book is different from the others. It's listed as a Doctor Who, Torchwood crossover, but that's mainly because Kayla is a Time Lady, and thinks and indirectly mentions the Doctor a lot. The Doctor doesn't hang out with Torchwood or vice versa, so in that way it's not a traditional crossover. I did try that, but it just felt forced.
Currently, Kayla Hark is in her 2nd regeneration as a Time Lady. She's Chines, with long black hair that is usually pulled up in a loose bun or a pony tail and dark brown eyes. She wears a lot of long sleeve tops, dark skinny jeans, and a pair of black steel-toed boots she got while on the Valiant. I picture her to look like Li Xiaoran, who is a Chinese actress, dancer, and model.
Before I officially begin, I would like to put a trigger warning. If talking about miscarriages, unhealthy self-medication with drugs and alcohol, and/or depression with slight suicidal thoughts is trigger for you, then I would not recommend reading this book since it is full of that. I have another Doctor Who OC on my account, Dezi, which would hopefully work better. If you are uncomfortable with cursing and mentions of sex, then this is also not the book for you. It's rated M because Torchwood is pretty mature and the characters curse and act in mature situations.
I would also like to go over updating schedule. I am a full time student, and that comes first. My current plan is to post in groups of 9. So this chapter and 8 other chapters will be posted every Saturday. I'll break for a week once I've posted the next chapter, and then I'll start with the next group of nine. There will be three sets of nine chapters, and then one set with three.
With that out of the, I am so happy to finally start Away From The Doctor. I hope you guys enjoy!
"Are we going to stay here all night?"
The sentence was important, not for its contents. No, the juvenile question had no meaning besides drawing the speaker's companion's attention back to the present. While it had worked, that was also not the reason why the sentence was important.
The words, hoarse and soft as they were, were the first ones spoken by Kayla Harkness' second regeneration after she had left with her father, Captain Jack Harkness, though she only ever, save for rare, life-threatening occasions, called him anything other than Jack.
When they had conned together, after they had overcome the shock of their relationship, Kayla never called Jack her father, or dad, or especially daddy. She had told him it was too dangerous, a sentiment he agreed with, but she knew that was only one part of the reason why she had stayed away from any family-relationship with Jack. That reason had a name: Lucy.
Her first child she had lost – the mere thought of the second one made Kayla shiver and draw her arms against her, folding them across her chest in an act of protection. It was too soon to go over that hurt – had broken her in a way not even the Time Agency usually did to its victims. Children could be made to work, could be used for leverage against parents. Killing a child would not only take away a point of labor, but also make the child's parents a waste of space.
Kayla had never understood that last part, but had accepted it. She had been indifferent to children, seeing them sometimes as cute, but never as something that would break her if she ever had one. Not until she held her own child in her arms, watching her die in her arms, did Kayla understand.
Jack had been the way to save her from completely breaking, and he had promised to do it again.
Which was why Kayla stood with Jack on the roof of a building nearby the place he lovingly called the "Hub."
If anyone were to look at the roof, they would see the odd pair. Kayla was Chinese, with black hair pulled back into a loose bun, and clothes of muted color. Her dark red shirt with long sleeves was the only color on her, her pants, jeans, were a dark gray and her shoes, steel-toed boots, were black. Only a few paces away, Jack seemed to suck in all the life around him, reflecting it out in a spasm of larger than life blue clothes and a noticeable great coat.
Jack turned, as if only now hearing Kayla's voice. He glanced at her, his eyes taking her in as if she was stranger, which she was. Regeneration changed everything about the person, and Kayla was no exception to that fact even if she had been human previously.
As she calmly met Jack's wandering eyes, once a similar color to her own but now a stark contrast of his blue and her dark brown, Kayla was served with a reminder that she didn't know who she was. Not in this regeneration, at least.
"Can you see through a perception filter?"
Kayla frowned at the question, "You know I can't."
She winced when she saw the way Jack looked away, the reminder in her voice bringing him back to all that had happened over the past year. A year that never existed according to time, but existed for everyone on the bridge of the Valiant when time itself had reversed. Even time could make mistakes though, and Kayla had found that out the unspeakably hard way.
"Right," Jack muttered. He shook his head and flashed Kayla a smile, all memories suppressed behind a cocky flare, "They've changed the locks, but we can get in through the garage."
Kayla moved closer to Jack, ignoring the itching sensation on her skin and the knot growing her stomach as she did so, "Where is the garage?" She asked as she peered over the edge of the roof.
When Jack moved beside her, pretending to not notice the way she stepped away from him, he pointed to a seemingly vacant building, "That's the exit," he informed her, "Now if we go-"
He cut himself off as a black SUV came from the building, speeding off into the night.
It came as no surprise to Kayla that Jack turned on his heel and sprinted for the stairs. She followed him, though not at the pace he was keeping, but at a slow jog.
Kayla still wasn't sure how Jack had gotten hold of a car, much less a car that was able to, at least to her, match the Torchwood SUV. Jack had talked to her on the roof about all the stuff he had pilfered from different centuries, focusing on items he had used for his benefit. Perhaps in another time – body, her mind corrected – she would have laughed that Jack had made a substitute for Retcon in the 21st century or that he had used Chulu engineering to make the SUV faster than any car, but she didn't. It bothered her that Jack was messing around with timelines. Sure, the Time Agency taught rudimentary knowledge, but Kayla knew that it wasn't enough to predict outcomes from just "messing about."
She knew that her issue with Jack messing about was hypocritical to the extreme considering Jack was just copying the Doctor in his travels through time, but Jack hadn't been to the Time Lord Academy, nor had he spent centuries of his life dedicated to the complex knowledge of the rights and wrongs of time travel. Neither had she, really, which was why she was determined if – when – she rejoined the Doctor, she wouldn't mess with time.
She would be better than her all too human first regeneration.
She shivered lightly at where her thoughts had taken her. Regeneration was strange with how it had changed her morals. She had once longed to be human and Time Lord the way only the Doctor seemed to have mastered, but now, sitting in a car with her all too human father and chasing after a group of very, very human rashness, Kayla couldn't help but feel separated from the entire situation. It wasn't that she didn't care, it was just that she wasn't very concerned.
It made her feel alien, which she supposed she was.
She was brought back forcibly to the present by Jack jerking the SUV to a halt. When she looked over at him, she could see a frown firmly on his face, "They were chasing something," he pointed out with a nod towards a red convertible, one of its tires blown, parked in front of a house.
Now focused on the situation, Kayla looked towards one of the few houses with its lights on, "They're in there," she said firmly, hearing the faint yells from the group.
Looking like he wanted to ask how, Jack seemed to think that time was their friend and instead got out of the car and jogged to the house indicated, Kayla following at a slightly slower pace. The pair snuck in, listening as a female voice read out, "Massive levels of adrenalin, mixed with approximately three grammes of cocaine," there was almost a bemused note to her added, "This fish is wired," that came after her information.
"So," a taunting voice called out, a voice that made Jack pause and his body set. He motioned to a wall and the pair hid, just able to make out the back view of the majority of the team, "this is Team Torchwood," the voice continued, "The teacher's pets. But teacher's gone, hasn't he? Leaving the kiddy kids all alone. And look at you, trying so hard to be all grown up."
Kayla was surprised the group was letting the fish taunt them. From what Jack had told her, Torchwood did not wait around for hostile aliens to speak, but a sneaky look told her why the team was letting this unfold in front of them. The alien, a red blowfish, was holding a gun to terrified woman's head. And while the team were pointing their own guns at the blowfish, it was easy to see why none of them would want to risk shooting the wrong person.
"The doctor, with his hands full of blood," the blowfish said, his description matching up with Owen Harper, the Torchwood Team medic. Jack had mentioned something about the man shooting him and nearly ending the world, but in the same breath he had described Owen as a good soul and a good person.
"The carer, with her oh-so-beating-heart," the blowfish continued, describing, Kayla assumed, Gwen Cooper. She was a Welsh woman that Jack had stolen from her everyday life to, as the blowfish had said, make the Torchwood group care again. The way Jack had gone on about her, Kayla had almost started to picture her as the TARDIS, or at least Torchwood's version. Empathetic, took the team where they needed to go…it made Kayla more than a bit nervous to meet the woman.
If anyone could see through her cracks, it would be the person Jack had described.
"The technician, with her cold devices," the blowfish added, his words now describing the only other woman on the team, Toshiko Sato, lovingly called 'Tosh' by the people around her. Jack hadn't gone into her background much, just briefly skimming over how he had sprung her from UNIT and how she was the only one he could argue was innocent still, and even that was a stretch.
"Which leaves me with the office boy, promoted beyond his measure," the blowfish finished, his words making Kayla shivered at remember fear. Ianto Jones had been the one to greet the Doctor and herself when they had been captured by Torchwood because of Kayla'a own actions. Jack had promised he was different, that he was an emotional, sweet, and an altogether kind person, but Kayla hadn't believed him. It was the first time she had ever looked at Jack and thought with such certainty that he wasn't telling the full truth, and that thought only made her wary of Ianto.
Anyone connected to Torchwood One was wrong.
"All of you, lost without your master," the blowfish taunted, now speaking the group once more. Next to her, in the dark of the hallway just out of sight of the group and the alien, Kayla pretended that she didn't feel Jack stiffen at the word the blowfish had ended his sentence on, the same way he pretended he didn't hear her breathing hitch momentarily, "All of you, pretending to be so brave. All of you, so scared."
A wet smacking noise reached their ears, and a woman made a high-pitched whimpering noise, "So, what about it, minion? Can you do it? How good are you? How sharp is your aim? What if you kill her? What if I kill her first? Can you shoot before I do? Can you? Dare you? Would you? Won't you?"
When Kayla would look back on that night, she still didn't know when she grabbed Jack's gun, but suddenly it was in her hand and she was moving around Ianto and shooting the blowfish directly in the head, sending it flying to the ground. Dead.
None of the team moved for a few moments after the gun had rang out. But then they all turned, staring directly at Kayla and Jack. Kayla stared back, taking in the faces of Torchwood Three, described to her through hushed whispers from Jack on the Valiant and then later in the waning afternoon on a rooftop. These were the people Jack felt kinship too, proclaimed as family, as the best of the best of 21st Century Earth.
Yet all Kayla saw was a group of humans who were all gaping at the pair in front of them with a mixture of shock, joy, and frustration.
"Hey, kids. Did you miss me?"
The drive, park, and walk to the Hub was made in silence. Only when they entered the sewer-like space, its ceiling stretching up into a dome, did anyone start to speak, "Are you sure no more of him came through?" Gwen asked, her words clearly directed to Tosh as she stood next to the now sitting down woman, watching as she started to type on the computer. Like good workers, they had all gone to their workspaces, Owen with the blowfish as well, to start to work on assignments that hadn't been given but were going to come.
"Cross-referencing with the rift activity monitor. Doesn't look like it," Tosh answered after a brief pause for her to scan the screen in front of her.
Giving her a smile, Gwen turned to a waiting Ianto, "The car's been impounded. I'll get it back to the owner in the morning," he reported, earning himself a smile as well.
Kayla watched from the side as Gwen moved over to Owen, "How are you doing?"
"Bio-profile's onscreen now. Nothing in his genetic make-up liable to contaminate the city," Owen reported.
Gwen nodded, "Okay. Tosh, can you add that to the species database?" When Tosh replied that she was on it, the welsh woman nodded again, "Ianto?"
It was unnerving to the Time Lady the way Ianto appeared next to Gwen as if he had always been there, when Kayla was positive he had been across the Hub only seconds before, "Hello," he greeted his co-worker, and boss, it seemed, with a polite smile.
"Sorry. Can you deal with the body when it's cold?"
"My pleasure. And I'll be making sushi."
Gwen's nose scrunched up at the joking remark, "No, the morgue'll do fine, thank you."
"Got pretty organized without me," Jack commented from Kayla's left, making the Time Lady shift as four pairs of eyes, so suddenly darkening, turned to the two against the wall. In her old body, she would have called attention to herself sooner, jumped in to answer that of course the blowfish wasn't toxic because that's not how its planet worked, but now she was more than happy to stay on the sideline where it was safe.
"Yeah, well we had to," Gwen replied back coldly, lifting an eyebrow in a clear challenge.
Jack took it, the way Kayla knew he would, "I mean, did you decorate in here?" He asked, more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Gwen pushed Jack back into the wall, glaring at him furiously, "You left us, Jack!" She snapped.
Kayla's time with the Master had changed her, and the regeneration had built on those changes. She knew, in her old body, she would have jumped to Jack's defense and push Gwen back just as hard, but this regeneration…this one pressed back against the wall. The only sign that she was angry with the situation was the way her breathing sharpened and her arms crossed defiantly over her chest.
"I know. I'm sorry," Jack replied. His voice, normal in tone and volume, made Kayla relax. She stopped pressing against the wall, though she still held close to it.
She told herself it was because she didn't want to get involved, that this was Jack's fight and not hers, but that, she knew, was a lie. Kayla didn't get involved because she felt no need to. She liked Jack, perhaps even loved him, but she wasn't going to put herself out there for a fight that didn't involve her in the first place; that would be stupid!
"We knew nothing Jack," Gwen was saying, still shouting at her boss, when Kayla focused back in on the conversation.
"Where were you?" Tosh asked, moving from her seat to eye her boss.
"I found my Doctor," Jack answered. When Kayla glanced over at him, she saw a small smile growing as he remembered those few days when it had just been the Doctor, Martha, Jack, and Kayla. It had been fun for a few hours, even with how angry Kayla was at the Doctor, but then the Master had struck back and the group had been chased and eventually captured.
"Did he fix you?" Kayla nearly snorted at the question from Owen. The Doctor had done the exact opposite when it came to Jack. Sure, he had made him a better person, but because of him he had mental scars from a year that never happened.
Everyone on board the Valiant did, even the Doctor.
"What's to fix?" Jack asked, more than a hint of his cocky swagger, though it sounded fake to Kayla's ear, "You don't mess with this level of perfection."
"Are you going back to him?"
Jack fixed Ianto, the person who had asked the question, with a strong look, "I came back for you," he paused and then looked at the rest of Torchwood, "All of you," he added.
Their questions for their boss mostly done, the group looked over at Kayla with blatant curiosity, "And her?" Gwen asked, her arms crossing in a similar posture to the Time Lady's.
"We're old friends," Kayla informed the group, her posture straightening as she prepared the story she and Jack had come up with, "We ran into each other and I decided to join him for a bit. I won't get in the way of your work. I'm just here to watch."
The group seemed satisfied with her answer, though she could tell by the way both Gwen and Tosh were eyeing her that they would want to question her later, though the Time Lady had a feeling it would be about Jack's past rather than herself. Perhaps they would have started on the questions then, Gwen seemed like the person to want people she was angry at to squirm a bit, but an alarm beeped on one of Tosh's many devices.
"Rift activity," she stated. Grabbing a hand-held version of the beeping device, she started for the door with the team joining her. Jack hurried after her as well, leaving Kayla to look around the Hub one last time before she joined them.
If they had stayed a bit longer, they would have heard a beeping noise coming from the pocket of the blowfish's pants, as if the Rift activity was connected to something larger.
Tosh's device led the group to a crime scene. A man was lying on the ground, as if he had jumped from the top of the parking garage.
Kayla had been to plenty of crime scenes while with the Time Agency, but this was her first in 21st Century Earth. Still, the scenes seemed to run together with their similarity. The local authorities cut the area off with some sort of clear marker, photos were taken, fingerprints were obtained, and if any witnesses were close to the crime, their reports were taken as well. This crime scene, though it lacked the witness aspect, was no different.
What was different was the metallic taste in the air, one that grew more and more pronounced as Kayla walked on the roof of the parking garage, only somewhat paying attention to the team, largely with Jack's help, deciding the dead person had been grabbed and pushed by whatever had come through the Rift.
She was more than happy to go back down with the group, standing with them by the SUV as Tosh packed away her equipment and Jack started to give orders. While Gwen protested lightly, Kayla stopped paying attention to the conversations around her. Not because she didn't care, though she really didn't care, but because something in her back pocket had just warmed as it buzzed.
When Kayla and Jack had decided to keep the Time Agent and Time Lady aspects of her from Torchwood, she had decided her Vortex Manipulator should go in her back pocket. Not only would it be hard to notice, but she could also easily excuse it as a phone, which it was able to function as.
The fact that it was buzzing was not good. There were only a few people who were able to contact her, and only one of them was someone she wanted to be around, and she knew it wasn't that person because he was standing next to her and arguing with Gwen over who got to drive.
Her jaw setting, she decided to ignore the buzzing for now. If she was lucky, it was someone who wouldn't call –
"Whoa, that never beeps," Ianto's voice, even when a prisoner at Torchwood One, was never more unwelcomed than that moment when he pointed out to the entire team the faint beeping was Jack's Vortex Manipulator.
Kayla watched as Jack glanced about, only to frown at the way the entire team was eyeing him. He looked over at Kayla, only to get an unhelpful shrug from her. Grudgingly, Jack filled the cover off his manipulator, "That's what I was thinking," he grumbled as he accepted the call.
It really shouldn't have come as such a horrible surprise when a familiar, attitude-filled voice started talking as Jack played the message, but Kayla couldn't stop herself from moving back from the hologram. Of all the people that could have decided to appear, why, oh why, did it have to be him?
"I can't believe I got the answer machine. What can you be doing that's more important than me?" John Hart, the father of Kayla's first child, asked Jack with a raised eyebrow, "Anyway, you've probably traced the energy shift, found the body. All me. Sorry about the mess. Bill me for the clean up," he waved his hand at Jack, already dismissing a bill he hadn't received, "Now. Drinks. Retrolock the transmission coordinates, that's where I am. And hurry up. Work to do," giving Jack his impression of a severe look, he almost instantly humored up once more as he adopted a poor-female voice, "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope," bending down and looking to the left, the message ended.
Jack looked over at Kayla first, clearly assessing her. She gave him a tight smile in return, which was enough for him to nod and turn to the rest of the team, "Stay here," he ordered, "Don't follow us."
"Us?" Tosh protested even as Kayla started to make her way to the passenger seat of the SUV.
"Who was that?" Gwen asked.
Jack shook his head, "Stay here," he repeated. He jogged the rest of his way to the SUV and got into the driver seat and drove off, leaving a befuddled and frustrated team behind him.
After a few minutes, Kayla took out her own Vortex Manipulator and rotated it in her hands, careful to not touch any of the buttons on it, "He called me. Just before he called you," she informed Jack.
She watched as Jack's jaw clenched at this new information, "Are you going to listen to it?"
"No. He'll know that I have."
As they pulled to a stop thanks to a stop light, though why it was working at two in the morning was beyond Kayla, the Time Lady handed the manipulator over to Jack. Eyeing her carefully, he placed the manipulator just above his own, which eclipsed hers thanks to the size difference.
"I'll hang back," Kayla stated as Jack started to drive once more, "Once you've implied that I've died, I'll draw attention to myself."
Pulling into the parking for the location, Bar Reunion, Jack eyed Kayla again, "You up to this?" He asked with a careful tone, "With everything you've been through, I don't want you to overexert-"
"Finish that sentence and I'll slap you," Kayla threatened with a slight smile, "I'm fine, Jack," she added more seriously.
Nodding, Jack gave Kayla a cocky smile that was just a bit too tight for her to fully believe, "Let's do this."
Trailing behind him, the two walked into the bar. John stood out, not only because of the bright red jacket he wore, but because the bar was completely empty. He had a line of different, colorful shots in front of him, and as they entered he downed one before he turned on his heel and walked towards Jack. Only from knowing him for so long was Kayla able to see the slight pause in his step as he took in the lack of another person. When he stopped fully in front of Jack, Kayla could tell by the way his shoulders had tightened that he had come to an unhappy conclusion.
Still, John was, well, John. He didn't do unhappy. So it came as no surprise to her when John lunged forwards and started to aggressively make out with Jack. And Jack? He was certainly not complaining and giving quite a bit back to his old partner.
Logically, Kayla knew that seeing her father kiss someone should disgust her, but she had been around Jack far longer as a partner and a friend rather than his daughter. It wasn't unusual for either of them to play wingman for the other.
What was disgusting about the kiss was its neatness level, or rather, its lack of one. John was not a neat kisser, especially when he was making a point, which he was doing with the kiss to Jack. He had seen her as she walked in and had taken her as a threat to his and Jack's relationship. The kiss was John's way of telling Kayla to back off.
Jack was the one that ended the kiss first. The two eyed each other, panting heavily. Kayla watched, remaining firmly away from the two as John swung and punched Jack. With a laugh, Jack punched back. Soon, the two were outright brawling, with both getting thrown through glass, onto the bar top, and against the wall. The fight only ended when John and Jack both pulled their guns and pointed it at each other's head.
"You're putting on weight," John taunted as the two started to circle each other.
"You're losing your hair," Jack shot back.
"What are you wearing?"
"Captain Jack Harkness, note the stripes.
"Captain John Hart, note the sarcasm."
"Hey, I worked my way through the ranks," Jack protested.
John smirked, "I bet the ranks were grateful," he seemed disappointed when Jack didn't take the innuendo's bait, "I need a drink."
"I thought you'd never ask," Jack breathed, dropping his gun.
The fight now over, the two men went over to the bar, with Kayla following behind. She sat down next to Jack, peering around him to watch John pour two shot glasses, slide them over to Jack, and down the rest of the bottle of vodka.
After a few seconds of John still drinking, Jack finally asked, "So, how was rehab?"
"Rehabs. Plural," John corrected with a smirk.
"Drinks, drugs, sex, and-" Jack listed off.
"Murder," John answered.
Kayla snorted softly while Jack outright laughed. It wasn't unusual for Time Agents to be forced to rehab by the Time Agency to the point where not going to rehab implied you were a poor agent. Murder rehab, however, was treated differently. Not only did it mean you were probably a psychopath, though that wasn't that big of a deal in the Time Agency, it also meant you had gotten so sloppy on a few of the jobs that the agency had to send you to rehab to appear like they disapproved of the murdering. After all, to the rest of the universe, the Time Agency was supposed to be a responsible group that made sure time stayed corrected.
"You went to murder rehab?" Jack questioned, still chuckling at the reveal.
John laughed a bit as well, "I know. Ridiculous," he said with a shake of his head, "The odd kill, who does it hurt?"
Rolling his eyes at the statement, Jack eyed John, "You clean now?"
John snorted, "Yeah, kicked everything," he deadpanned, "Living like a priest."
To back up this statement, he took another long drink of his vodka bottle.
"So," Jack started, his tone taking a more serious air to it, "how's the Time Agency?"
"You didn't hear?" At the clear confusion on Jack's face, John shook his head and frowned, "It's shut down."
"You're kidding me."
"No. There's only seven of us left now. Six, if the other person I called doesn't come."
Frowning, Jack glanced down at his wrist. The move was blatant and did what he wanted it to do: Draw John's gaze down to Kayla's Vortex Manipulator.
"Oh," Kayla had heard John say that word with that tone only a few times, and all those times it was when he was so unnerved by something he was near speechless, "Just six then," he said slowly.
Kayla was almost touched when John grabbed a whiskey and poured it into three shot glasses. He passed two of them down, keeping one for himself so they all had one in front of them. With a serious expression on his face, he raised his glass, "To the fallen."
"To the fallen," Jack and Kayla repeated. The three of them downed the glass.
"Who's that with you, then?" John asked Kayla after the toast.
"I'm Kay," Kayla introduced, shortening her name without even thinking about it.
John nodded. He eyed her carefully, assessing her. In response, Kayla crossed her arms but didn't move from John's gaze, waiting for him to finish. He nodded slowly, and looked back at Jack, already deciding that 'Kay' wasn't worth his energy, "It's good to see you. It was never the same with you."
"You need to go," Jack replied, "I don't want you on my territory."
John moved back from Jack, "What? Time was you couldn't get enough of me on your territory," shaking his head at Jack, he got up from his seat and shot at the glass doors at either end of the bar, "All right, everyone out," he yelled.
Like well trained dogs, the Torchwood team, two on either end, slunk out with their guns drawn and pointed at John. At their appearance Jack shot to his feet and move closer to John, leaving Kayla watching at the bar.
"Everything all right, you two?" Gwen called, either having the mind to not out Kayla's identity or just not wanting to waste time calling out two names.
"It's okay, okay, okay," Jack repeated, eyeing all the team members and John as he spoke.
"You've got a team. How sweet," John taunted, smirking at all of Torchwood, "Oh, pretty little friends. No blonde, though. You need a blonde," giving a particularly flirty look to Tosh, who blushed under it, John looked back at Jack, "Oh, oh do you have a team name?" He asked, "I love team names. Go on."
"Torchwood," it was Kayla that answered, getting up from her seat to stand next to Jack, her arms crossing, "That's Torchwood in the 21st Century."
She had the pleasure in watching John swallow noticeably hard at the answer. Torchwood had continued to endure into the 51st Century, becoming something that even the Time Agency stayed away from. Torchwood was fiercer, harder, and had far more resources than the Time Agency could dream to have, and that was them not at their full strength. The 21st Century for Torchwood was widely considered their golden age, and John, who likely knew that, would not want to be around them.
"Oh," John said, echoing the same tone as when he had found out about Kayla's 'death,' "Not Excalibur? Blizzard? Bikini Cops? No? Torchwood. Oh, dear."
Jack had a slight smirk on his face as he pointed to each of the team, "Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, meet-"
"Captain John Hart," John cut in, introducing himself with a cocky half-smile.
"We go back," Jack explained with a shrug.
"Excuse me," John snapped with a roll of his eyes, "We more than go back. We were partners," he informed the Torchwood team, the emphasis on his last word leaving not much to be imagined.
Kayla was not surprised that Ianto was the one to ask, "In what way?"
It also did not surprise her when John, taking in Ianto, straightened up and set his jaw, "In every way. And then some," he answered with a smirk, seeing the way Ianto flinched at the words.
"It was two weeks," Jack protested slightly. When Kayla glanced back at him, it was clear to her that he meant every word for Ianto, even with his body angled towards John.
"Except that two weeks was trapped in a time loop, so we were together for five years," John elaborated with an almost fond shake of his head, "It was like having a wife."
At that statement, Jack turned to John with an exasperated face, "You were the wife."
"You were the wife," John shot back.
"No, you were the wife."
"Oh, but I was a good wife," John pointed out, almost manically grinning.
"I bet you were," at the statement from Tosh, the Torchwood team along with John, Kayla, and Jack turned to stare at the woman, making her blush and look down.
"What?" Owen asked, staring at his co-worker like she had lost her mind.
Tosh blushed more at the question, "Don't pretend you haven't noticed," she hissed back, "He's cute."
"They're just shy," John reassured with a very flirtatious look.
"Why are you here?" Kayla asked, drawing John's attention to her and off of the blushing Tosh.
John pouted at the question, but still turned to face her all the same, "I was wondering when we'd get to that," he muttered. Moving his wrist up, he pulled back the sleeve of his red jacket to started to use his Vortex Manipulator.
"That's the same as yours," Tosh blurted out. When Kayla glanced over at her, she raised her eyebrow at the accusatory look she was aiming at Jack.
"A little smaller," Jack pointed out.
John rolled his eyes, "But lasts much longer," he shot back, "Get two Time Agents in the same room together, it's always about the size of the wrist strap."
"Yes, sorry, what's a Time Agent?" Owen snapped, giving equally hostile looks to Jack and John and Kayla. At her inclusion, the Time Lady crossed her arms at the medic and stepped to the side, making sure she was not included.
"What," John started slowly with a grin that just screamed that he was loving every moment, "he's never told you about his past?"
"No," Gwen said darkly, "he hasn't."
Giving a smirk to Jack, John went back to his manipulator and tapped a few buttons, "Anyway," he started, pulling up a hologram of a cannister, "I'm working with this woman. Beautiful, clever, sexy, yadda yadda yadda, and we both get shot. And as she's dying, she begs me. She tells me about these radiation cluster bombs she'd been working on."
"I don't like the sound of that," Owen grumbled.
John nodded, "Three canisters, contents beyond toxic, swallowed up in a rift storm," he continued to explain.
"And ended up here," Tosh finished for him with a half-frown.
"Bingo," John agreed with a wink, making Tosh blush once again, "That's the downside of your city being built on a rift in space and time. Now, left to their own devices, the radiation will break down the canisters and then infect your people and planet. They need to be neutralized."
"What are you getting out of this?" Kayla asked, her arms still crossed as she gave John an accusatory look, "We're not stupid. We know how this works."
John frowned at her, "It's a dying woman's wish," he pointed out with more than a hint of a protest his voice, "Even I hate the idea of it going unfulfilled," trying, and failing in Kayla's opinion, to give the group a sincere look, he started to explain about the information once more, "Now, there's only one problem. I don't know where they are. Hoping local knowledge might help."
"When we get back to the Hub, I can run a citywide scan on radiation surges and cross reference that with the Rift activity during that time span," Tosh suggested slowly.
"What are you, the brain and the beauty?" John wondered, making Tosh blush again, "You see, together this an easy job."
"We do this," Jack started slowly, "you get out of here when its finished. Right away."
John just smirked, "Does this mean I get to see your house?"
The ride and entrance to the Hub was a silent affair for the team. As Jack decided to take John through the tourist entrance, Kayla waited with the team, her arms crossed as she eye the area in the ceiling that she didn't want to look at. She recognized that feeling from just a year and a few days ago when the Doctor slipped a key around his neck.
She winced at the memories that brought up and, without even thinking about it, placed a hand on her stomach. Swallowing hard, she moved her hand away and crossed her arms, her hands clenching at her forearms.
Thankfully, no one had seen her slip. Tosh was typing away furiously on her computer, Owen was in the conference room inhaling coffee, Gwen was speaking to Ianto in a hushed tone, and Ianto was nodding along to whatever Gwen was saying.
Which left Kayla alone, staring at the spot in the ceiling and waiting…waiting…waiting.
It was almost a relief when the spot started to lower and John and Jack started to come into view.
"It's roomy, I'll give you that," John said in a very unimpressed voice, "Your taste in interior design hasn't got any better, though. What is this, sewer chic?"
As the slab they were standing on hit the ground, Jack stepped off and joined Kayla and a shortly arrived Gwen, who was holding a device curtesy of Tosh, and Ianto, who was holding a silver tray. When John made a move to follow him, Jack held out his hand, "Weapons."
While he rolled his eyes, John still easily handed over his two obvious guns and his sword. The ease of which he did this made Kayla very suspicious, a feeling that was shared by Jack, who snapped, "And the rest."
"Oh, you know me. I'm a two weapon man," John tried.
Pressing a button on the device, Gwen started to read the reading aloud, "One pistol strapped to each leg, laser knife beneath left elbow, seventeen small explosive charges in the lining of his coat," this exercise went on for quite some time, until finally, finally, Gwen turned off the machine and said, "There's nothing left."
John glanced at the overflowing tray Ianto was struggling to hold level and gave Jack an easy smile, "It slipped my mind."
Kayla stayed against the back of the conference room of the Hub where the team and John had gathered. Her arms were crossed as she watched Tosh explain the Rift monitor to John with obvious pride in her voice. John had bluntly flirted back, and while Tosh had blushed under the attention, she had kept talking about her invention.
"So that's how we're able to tell where the Rift activity is," Tosh finished, "Seven hours ago, we logged a minor surge in Rift energy across three locations."
Kayla was not surprised when John clapped his hands together, "Seven of us, three locations. That's simple. Two people for two of the cannisters and one with three."
"Excuse me," Jack snapped, "I give the orders."
John crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, "Well, give some, big boy."
"John's right," Gwen cut in before Jack could say anything, "Sorry. Do you prefer John or Captain?"
John gave Gwen a very large smirk, "With eyes like yours, you can call me Vera, I won't complain."
Gwen nodded and started to doll out orders, "Tosh and Owen, take the north. Ianto and Jack, go west. Me and Vera'll take the docks."
Kayla frowned, "What about me?" She asked.
Gwen pursed her lips, "Why don't you go with Jack and Ianto?" She suggested, though her tone implied that it was anything but a suggestion.
Glancing at John, Kayla crossed her arms but nodded all the same. When John looked over at her in turn, his eyebrow raised, she refused to take the bait he was throwing at her and instead just looked over at Jack as he protested about the grouping, only to back down when Gwen challenged him.
"Now, given the canisters are radioactive, don't open them, eh?" John advised, laughing at his own suggestion.
As the team headed out on Gwen's order, Jack pointed at Gwen to hold her back, which she didn't protest, leaving Kayla and the rest of the team to walk out of the Hub and stand awkwardly around until Jack and Gwen exited. Kayla had the very large suspicion that if she had not been there, the team would have been talking, but her inclusion made them whisper to each other occasionally, likely because they were suspicious of her. Kayla didn't blame them for this. If anything, she was glad they seemed to have somewhat good senses when it came to strangers.
Nevertheless, it was somewhat of a relief as she stepped in line with Jack. Even Ianto's inclusion was preferable to the silence from earlier, and was more than preferable to being around John.
And there's the first chapter I only didn't even realize how many changes this plot went through until I was editing it to post it. Originally Kayla went with John, and even before that John knew who Kayla was. Both didn't meld with 2nd regeneration Kayla, so they were replaced with her going with Jack and Ianto and John not knowing who she is.
When I was rewatching the series before I posted, I realized I had blocked out how...interesting the 1st season was. I think I actually preferred that in terms of creativity over series 2, but then again series 2 did have a plot line and didn't have aliens that use sex to kill so that's a huge plus for it.
I don't really have a lot of thoughts on this chapter. A lot of it is trying to set up Kayla's new personality while introducing the personalities of Torchwood Three. Plot wise, nothing really happens until the next chapter, so look forwards to that!
And now...review time (from Love With The Doctor):
NicoleR85: Thanks! I'm sorry for the wait, but I hope this chapter was worth it.
PlacentiaBayBookWorm: Thank you!
Katraj0908: Killing off the baby was something I had planned as soon as I had planned her being pregnant on the Valiant. To me, I feel like Kayla never came to terms with her first kid's death, so this will allow her to do that while coming to terms with another loss, so unfortunately no, the baby is not coming back.
Sarahburch: Thanks!
As I said above, I will be updating this every Saturday for 9 weeks before I take a week-long break, so I will see you guys next Saturday!
