Hey guys. Third and final update for this week is the beginning of the new one. For those that haven't been reading Speak Now (sorry, no update for that one this week, still humming and hawing over whether it's good enough to post or not...), this is the Spin Off (hence the very imaginative title ;)) Okay first off, this will have some spoilers to Speak Now. I've tried to limit them as much as possible...but considering this one's set prior to Speak Now, it's probably going to happen at some point...and at times I'm hoping to get to do the same scenes twice but from different angles.
Second, the rating. I always hate rating cos never know if it's right. The reason for the high one on this one is due to language, ie occasional swearing (not very often cos I'm not a fan of it in general and even less so in writing) as well as possible sexual hinting...and who knows, if I get up the guts there might be a bit more than hinting (come on, an unDoctored Jack with Rose, what can you really expect?)
The reason for this fic was mainly cos while coming up with Speak Now, a backstory for what had happened to Rose while they were separated started to form. Originally it was just going to be small mentions in Speak Now (and one or two in Evil Wish ;)) but the alternate Jack just grew on me, and since he did create a fairly good and fun argument to why his story SHOULD be written, it started coming out. BUT to include it in Speak Now would draw away from that story just a bit too much which is why it gets its own...just like Jack watching Gwen with Rhys while dancing with Ianto, couldn't he tell how much guts it musta taken for Ianto to do that?? Okay so that point had nothing to do with the previous one...that I can think of anyway. But MAN it bugged me!! Yes I know all the Gwen/Jack shippers wanted more, and got an impressive amount in that ep (Something Borrowed (yes I know, you guys have already had the amazing finale in the UK :P)) but STILL!! It woulda been nice to see Jack look at Ianto just a little bit like he had Gwen during their dance!! Although Ianto has definitely become the Quips King!! Wedding fairies, tehehe...
ANYway! The opening was how I intended to start a scene in Speak Now to introduce all this. Not entirely sure how that scene's going to work now, or if it even will appear...but if it did, it would be Rose talking to the Doctor on his own...anyway I think that about covers all of it...hope you guys like it. It's a slightly longer intro (lol not even including this long AN!!) than my usual intro chaps, so enjoy :)
"I waited. So very, very long I just lived for waiting for you. Then I thought you were never coming back. It kind of just suddenly hit one day, well Davey's birthday, how long I'd waited. That maybe you hadn't just been not wanting to get my hopes up. That maybe what you'd said was true. And it must have been another few years when all I wanted was to be dead. To just stop living...and in a way I did. I mean I was still alive, but that was no life. I lived for Torchwood. Lived and breathed my work. Scared Pete and Mickey shitless at times...I mean they never admitted it, but I could tell. I didn't care whether I lived or died in a mission, and that's not good. But worse, I got cocky, felt like I ruled the place. And that? That almost got Davey killed. So then I went searching. For what I don't even know and then I found something that I thought would truly rip the shreds that were left to pieces...and something to put them back together again...if only a little..."
It had been about two years since she'd left home. She'd travelled the world over at least twice in that time, never staying too long in any one location. She'd been so absorbed in her work back in London, it came almost as a shock to find other cities, other countries doing the same work in their own ways. Without realising, she'd actually liaised with some of them through Torchwood and just assumed they were part of the company, not their own. Something about it re-surged her enthusiasm, and she found having left, she wasn't looking forward to returning to the UK.
And then Mickey had to go and send her a message. He'd sent it through the offices, and by the time his got to her she was already in Belgium wondering whether to catch the ferry or not. Of course Pete had passed the message onto her three months earlier when she'd still been in South America, but it was for the best that Mickey didn't know she still kept contact. Anything more than letting him know she was alive and well was just asking for trouble these days.
"Tyler?" She was brought back to the present by one of the men. She looked over at him, raising a brow. "Pete wants to know if you want to take the plane or the long way?"
She couldn't help but smile. Trust Pete to have thought of an easier way. "Tell him I'm leaving on a jet plane," she replied, her smile growing as she heard his laughter over the comm unit.
It wasn't long before they were airborne. She rummaged through her pockets till she found the message from Mickey.
Rose
Found old hard drive from destroyed section. Made mention of an office in Glasgow. Would check it out myself but it included a memo from there stating 'Despite earlier problems, alien is now contained'. I've been trying to find any other mentions of it, but no luck so far. Pete and I agree that you're probably best experienced to deal with this. Doubt a fire extinguisher will help on this one.
Hope all's well
Mickey
PS Sorry, it's located on the corner in front of a coffee shop you really won't like
Not a lot to go on but she'd worked with less. She knew Mickey had gained a lot of experience since his 'Ice Gun' days, but it was still funny to remember the mix up. She couldn't help wonder how difficult it would be to break into the office. Everyone forgot that the only times she'd gotten into Torchwood offices prior to working in them she'd arrived inside. But then she had done a fair bit of breaking and entering since then...well she found ways of entering anyway. Jake seemed to enjoy the breaking and entering method.
She needn't have worried about it though. She had no idea what Mickey meant by it's location, but figured as Pete hadn't mentioned it she'd understand once she got there. Sure enough after walking around the city centre for about fifteen minutes, she found it. Or rather Riley, her partner in this mission, found it.
"Oh how corny is that?" he asked, pointing off down the shopping area they were in. "Coppuccino! Isn't that one of those old police boxes?"
Rose whipped around, looking in the direction he was. The sight that met her caused an odd feeling as it felt like her heart had leapt into her throat as well as plummeted at the exact same moment. Sure enough it was a blue police box, but not the one she'd so desperately wished it to be. "Coppuccino," she repeated. Mickey was right - shereally didn't like this coffee shop.
Without giving it a second glance, she walked into the building on the corner in front of it, thinking the fact it was in a store made it a lot easier than she expected. She checked the floor guide before heading into the lift. As she had expected, there was a second basement that hadn't been mentioned. "What's with always going underground?" she wondered aloud as Riley picked the lock.
"Gotta be grateful to the Daleks for our city views," Riley replied as he worked.
"Oh yeah, I love the Daleks," she mumbled sarcastically. She couldn't hold it against him, he hadn't been with Torchwood long enough to know the full details of Canary Wharf, or even that she wasn't from this universe. She was just glad he was good at his job as the lift descended, the duration of the trip letting them know there was more than your normal floor between the shop and their destination.
"Welcome to Torchwood," the lift announced a moment before the doors opened.
"Pity the reception isn't as friendly as the lift," Rose sighed as they found themselves the targets of handful of armed guards. "Right," she addressed the group as she stepped out the lift, clapping her hands together (softly as not to get any trigger happy soldier a jumpy finger squeeze) and giving them a smile, " if you lower your weapons now none of you will be hurt."
Riley instinctively took a step back into the cover of the lift. He'd learnt from the month or so's experience travelling with her that no one listened to that threat. He'd also learnt that it wasn't idle.
As the guards cocked their weapons, Rose sighed, shaking her head softly. "Anyone got a stopwatch?" she asked. When none came forward she sighed again, "I won't be happy if this breaks my record with no evidence," she told them. And then she began.
If you'd asked her sixteen years ago if she thought she'd be able to do something like this, she would have laughed before taking another bite of a chip. These days she was just somewhat disappointed she couldn't do it to Equilibrium's standards yet. That's when she was being cocky of course. When she was being honest she'd tell you that her ability to disarm five men with guns as quickly as she did was a combination of a little bit of skill, a lot of practice, a dash of experience, a healthy dollop of denial on their part, in that they didn't believe she was at all capable of doing what she stated. Oh and a truckload of luck!
If she ever came across the same group twice she'd probably be screwed, but thankfully once you've done something like this, it took a while before you were tested again, and then they usually wanted a one on one. One on one's weren't nearly as complicated.
She knew she was distracted from the task at hand, but she also knew that was kind of necessary. If she thought too much about how grabbing two men's guns and pushing them back, then using them pushing the guns back towards her as momentum to pull them through and headbutt each other, she probably wouldn't get it done. As it was the two closest to the lift were now lying in a heap behind her, she'd just knocked the next with a roundhouse kick, bringing her leg down to the one behind his ankles to sweep him off his feet. Finally dropping into the splits, she drew her arm back before looking up at the last man standing. "Do you really want me to finish this move?" she asked him, raising one brow.
As predicted, he dropped his weapon as both hands covered his nether regions.
"Works every time," she smiled as she caught the weapon and got to her feet. Throwing the gun back to Riley, she surprised the others by offering them hands up, just pulling them up after a moment of waiting for them to decide if it were a trick or not. "Right so I'm Rose Tyler of Torchwood One, where's the top dog in this place?" she told them by way of introduction, and then changed her mind. "Actually scratch that, just take me to the alien," she told them.
She could tell they were deciding whether or not to do as she said when an elderly gentleman walked in. "I think you'll find I am the 'top dog' and you'll need my permission to see anything beyond this point."
It was obvious he took his job very seriously, and Rose might have too, if it hadn't been for the young girl who chose that moment to barge past him and stopped only a couple feet from her, almost jumping up and down in her excitement. "Is it finally safe to go out?" she breathed.
Rose frowned at her. "Well I know shops can sometimes seem a bit scary, especially when there's readily available caffeine to the shopping hordes, but yeah I'd say so." Glancing at her wrist console she shrugged slightly, "And as for going out at night, next Wednesday through Friday might be a wee bit risky 'cause of the full moon, but other than that you've just got men in kilts to worry about." As the girl frowned at her, Rose's suspicions were becoming firmer as she cast her gaze onto the elderly gentleman once more. "How long have you been down here?"
"Seventeen years next Tuesday," the girl replied, her frown evaporating into a smile once more.
"Seventeen years?" Riley exclaimed, but Rose bit her tongue as she rose an eyebrow at the man, waiting his explanation.
"We were put on red alert," he said simply.
"What camp?" Rose asked, looking at him with a bemused expression.
He frowned at her. "Do you find danger alerts funny?"
"No, I've actually had to deal with more than a few mauve alerts. Red alerts are usually fun though," she replied, her face going serious once again.
"My dear I think you'll find the international colour for danger is red," he said in a tone that implied he thought of her as little more than the girl standing between them.
"And I think you'll find that Torchwood is a universal corporation and as such goes with the universally recognised mauve rather than Earth's red," she replied, folding her arms as she did little to hide her smug look as his face went the colour in question.
Deciding she would rather leave Pete to deal with jerks like him, she pulled out her phone and pressed the speed dial for his office.
"You won't get a signal in here," the man told her, and Rose could tell he was desperately trying to get the upper hand once more.
She just sighed. "Wanna bet? Jiggory pokery goes a long way," she told him before turning her attention to her phone as Pete answered. "Hey, it's me. Haven't completed stage one yet, but initial findings aren't good. We're going to need a team in to integrate the staff back into society."
"What does that mean exactly?" Pete asked warily.
Rose gave an apologetic smile even though she knew he couldn't see here. "Yeah, minimum seventeen years," she responded, wanting to display how efficient her team was to the man, hoping Pete would catch up quick.
"They've been holed up in there for over seventeen years?!" Pete bellowed, causing Rose to cringe, though she couldn't help a small smile as the man did as well.
"Yup. Can you send in a team? I haven't even gotten past reception yet," she answered. She could see Pete resting his forehead on his palm as he massaged his temples with thumb and middle finger in her mind's eye. She waited patiently as she heard him typing a minute later, pacing in a circle as she scanned the room.
"They'll be there in half an hour," he told her finally, snapping her back from wherever her mind had suddenly wandered. "Can we just pretend that this is the only bad thing and anything else that goes wrong...well we'll deal with tomorrow?"
She turned so the others couldn't see her as she murmured, "Bad day?"
"Had better," he replied sighing. "Don't worry, just go through the base thoroughly and give us a call when you're done yeah?"
Rose sighed too, hating that she didn't know all the details of what was going on in her family's lives. "Will do boss," she said loud enough for the others to hear before hanging up. "The team'll be here in twenty, now if I can see the alien," she said with a voice of such authority that even Riley, who knew her as well as any could, shivered.
"I'll need--"
"No, you won't," she cut off the old man. "I'm busy and this has taken up far too much of my time as is, now show me the alien!"
He glared at her, but began walking down a passage. She followed, as did Riley and two of the soldiers. She wished she could feel happy for small victories like this, but they'd long ago lost almost all meaning. There was a job to do so she did it. Her absence hadn't yet changed that.
"It's humanoid," he barked as they walked, "found him in the spaceship we shot down in 2005."
Rose frowned. "2005?"
"Yes Miss," he said in a way that Rose knew he was insinuating he didn't think it possible for her to possibly have a husband. "Nearly missed it, was flying over Cardiff during that huge earthquake."
"The one just before Blaidd Drwg was cancelled?" she asked as adventures of long ago slipped through her mind.
He frowned as he looked over his shoulder at her. "How did you know?"
"Lucky guess," she replied with a wry smile.
"Blaidd Drwg," the words sounded more beautiful when the Doctor said them.
"What's it mean?" Rose asked.
"Bad Wolf," he replied, still frowning.
Her own worry was growing as she replied, "But I've heard that before. Bad Wolf, I've heard that lots of times."
"Every where we go two words following us – Bad Wolf."
His calmness was starting to freak her out more. "How can they be following us?"
His serious look remained for moment longer before a wide grin spread across his face. "Na just a coincidence. Like hearing a word on the radio then hearing it all day."
Rose could have throttled him for scaring her so much.
"Never mind things to do," he continued off handedly, clapping his hands as he made his way back across the room. "Margaret, we're going to take you home."
"Hold on isn't that the easy option, like letting her go?" Jack protested.
"I can't believe it," Rose beamed, ignoring Jack's comment. "We actually get to go to Raxi.." she trailed off at the difficulty of the word, causing the Doctor to look heavenwards. "Wait a minute," she scolded him before giving it another attempt. "Raxicorico--"
"Raxacoricofallapatorius," the Doctor told her for the millionth time as she faltered.
"Raxacorico," she said slowly, taking steps towards him on the syllables.
"Fallapatorious," he finished for her, wondering if this might just be...
"Raxacoricofallapatorius," she said before squeeing, flinging her arms in the air.
The Doctor did as well before grabbing her in a tight hug. "That's it!" he exclaimed.
"I did it!" she squealed hugging him tightly back.
"She's just being modest," Riley drew her back to the present. "If luck was all it took, then I'd say Tyler was Fortuna herself."
"I've been known to bare a resemblance to her from time to time," Rose murmured, thinking of Genies and Rome.
"There you are," Mickey said. He was grinning like a dog that had just fetched her a stick.
Jackie gasped. "Oh my god, I don't believe it!"
Rose gasped too. In front of her was a perfect stone replica of herself! And according to its sign, it was nearly 2000 years old.
Once Rose had recovered from the initial shock, she got quite excited. "It's brilliant!" she said. "Do you know what this means? We must be off to," she checked, "Second secondary Rome! How brilliant is that?"
"Blimey!" said a voice from behind. "Reminds me of a girl I once knew." The Doctor had caught up with them and gave Rose a smile that could probably melt even a marble statue.
Jackie was reading the sign under the statue. "Here, it says it's a statue of the Goddess Fortuna," she said.
"Fortuna, Roman goddess of good luck," the Doctor told her.
"As I said he's humanoid, or rather has taken on human form," the old man continued.
The small smile that had been playing on Rose's lips faded as she frowned at him. "What do you mean it's taken on human form?"
"Looks human, sounds human, even the organs are where they should be."
"Then how do you know he's not?" Riley asked the question that plagued Rose.
"Just a couple differences in the DNA," he replied. "He almost escaped once. Had a weapon hidden in the most extraordinary place."
"You've gotta be ready, Rosie," Jack told her.
She giggled at him. "You can't be serious Jack!"
He raised a brow at her. "Nine times out of ten they'll do a strip search, you've gotta have a back up."
"If I've got to resort to that, I think I'll go weaponless," she retorted, poking her tongue between her teeth.
He just smiled. "Don't worry, you're more likely to come across male soldiers, and women are never weaponless against a male soldier," he replied with a wink.
"You've gotta be ready," Rose said softly, causing the man to give her an odd look.
"Here we are," he said as they came to a glass window in the wall. There was a woman sitting at a desk on their side of the glass who the man gave no acknowledgement to, though she did return the smile Rose gave her.
Rose stepped in front of the window and couldn't help but gasp. It was him, years older and completely unexpected, but him none the less.
He looked that little bit older, with hair longer than she'd ever seen it, though not really all that long. What was it, nearly fifteen years since she'd last seen him? And yet she still found herself physically attracted. She knew he was a complete charmer and then she paused in thought. No, she told herself sternly, she didn't know him at all. All she did know was he looked like and more than likely was this universes version of none other than Captain Jack Harkness!
Her eyes shimmered as she watched him doing press ups. Yes his muscles seemed more defined than ever, but this was more due to how much less he appeared to weigh. He seemed paler too, as though it had been years since he'd last been out in the sun, and it was with anger that Rose realised this was probably true.
Seeming to know he was being watched, he jumped to his feet, giving them all a charming smile which caused Riley to frown though Rose couldn't help smiling back.
"Isn't that a one-way mirror?" Riley asked.
The old man nodded. "It seems Mr Harkness either has an acute ability of knowing when he is being watched, or the difference in DNA allows him to see through it. We have been unable to determine which as yet."
"And I guess asking would have just been too difficult," Rose murmured sarcastically, shaking off her anger quickly before continuing. "Right, I'm going to need a bottle of champagne, two champagne flutes and the wrist console he came in with," Rose said, deciding it would be better to get this over and done with sooner rather than later as she tried ignoring the now visible scars on Jack's chest which were probably part of the 'determining' process.
The man glared at her. "I'm going to ignore the fact you seem to think we keep alcohol on the premises and ask how can we trust you're not in cohoots with Mr Harkness since I didn't mention any wrist console!"
"Well one, don't ignore anything I say or mock my intelligence by pretending you don't have champagne on the premises, I haven't come across a base without a stock of the stuff yet! Two I'm not in cohoots with Mr Harkness because no one has used the verb cohoots for about 20 years, but you'd know that if you'd had the balls to go outside in the past couple decades to check! It couldn't have been the cybermen you feared because I was there when they were sorted, and it was further back then that, so my guess is that it was Torchwood One being taken over and you secured this base in case the same might happen here. You're the top dog of the base so holding all these personnel down here unnecessarily falls on your shoulders, but I'm going to let Pete take care of that.
As for your alien? One, he's not alien, he's actually human. Two, yeah I know you're going to point out the DNA thing," she said holding up her finger to silence him just as he went to mention it, "but last time I checked, aliens taking on human form couldn't hold the form for twenty years straight. You would have noticed something by now! Four...no three, you're going to go do as I say now because otherwise I will find a way to make the next twenty years of your life a living hell, and believe me I don't make idle threats. Oh and five, add some food to my order."
Turning her back on him, she faced the window again, taking a deep breath and leaning her head to each shoulder in turn to loosen it up as she listened to him storm off to do her bidding. She'd forgotten how good it felt to just yell abuse at someone who deserved it. Feeling a lot more relaxed than she had all day, she glanced over at Riley, giving him a small smile, which he returned, though raising his brows at her.
"Tyler this is Jake, do you read me?" a voice sounded over her radio, causing her smile to widen.
Pulling it out it's pouch, she half sang, "Oh Jakey boy hearing your voice is a dream come true...over," she added as an afterthought, knowing it wasn't entirely necessary when they bantered over the comms.
She could hear the laughter in his voice as he replied, "Aww did you miss me sweetie?"
"Not so much miss as have some important work for you to do...well I say important, more like tedious...well I say tedious, more like..." she trailed off, releasing the button as she smiled.
"'The shit you couldn't be bothered doing' the description you looking for?" he asked, but she could tell he didn't mind too much.
"Something like that, where are you?"
"Waiting in reception."
"What are you doing a silly thing like that for? Get your ass over to the alien containment so I can brief you," she scolded good naturedly.
"You heard her boys, triple time!" he said over the radio just for her enjoyment before murmuring, "Did I pick up on some sarcasm there?"
She smiled as she listened to a couple seconds of his teams boots pounding before he released the button. "Course not. Here at Torchwood we pride ourselves on being able to take twenty years to prove a human isn't alien," she replied
He frowned at her as he jogged around the corner, two soldiers from the base lagging behind him and his team as they gulped for breath. "What do you mean it takes twenty years to prove a human isn't an alien?" he asked, breathing slightly harder than normal but otherwise fine.
She glanced at the window, watching him as he turned to face it.
Apparently bored of his watchers not paying him enough attention, Mr Harkness had gone back to exercising. They watched him go from doing jumping jacks to jumping up and grabbing a bar attached to the roof of his cell and begin doing chin ups.
"Who's Jumping Jack Flash then?" Jake asked as he raised a brow.
Rose couldn't help but smile as his choice of words.
There was a knock on the TARDIS door, and Rose couldn't help the smile that crossed her face as she watched Jack rip it open.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked, keeping the door closed against him so Rose couldn't even see Mickey.
"What d'you mean who am I? Who the hell are you?" she heard Mickey reply, and she had to bite her lip to stop from laughing as she switched the controls the Doctor had instructed her to.
"Captain Jack Harkness. Whatever you're selling, we're not buying!"
"Get out of my way!" She heard the door being pushed open, but kept her head down as she forced herself to stop giggling.
"Don't tell me, this must be Mickey," she heard Jack say as he closed the door, letting her know she better turn around.
"Here comes trouble, how you doing Rickey boy?" the Doctor called from up his ladder.
Mickey glared over at him. "It's Mickey!"
"Don't listen to him, he's just winding you up," she told him, glad her boys had given her enough time for her giggles to fully subside before Mickey looked at her properly.
"You look fantastic!" he told her before they shared a tight hug.
"Ah, sweet, look at these two. How come I never get any of that?" Jack whinged from the other side of the console.
"Buy me a drink first," the Doctor replied, and Rose couldn't help wonder if she was imagining the hint of annoyance in his voice, and if not, what was causing it?
She pulled away from Mickey as Jack retorted, "You're such hard work."
"But worth it!" the Doctor replied, the smile back in his voice.
"Did you manage to find it?" she asked, smiling as Mickey pulled her passport from his pocket.
"There y'go," he said as he passed it over.
"I can go anywhere now," she told the Doctor with a huge grin.
He frowned back at her. "I told you, you don't need a passport."
"'sall very well going to Platform One and Justicia," she spoke, flipping through the blank pages before looking back up at him, "and the Glass Pyramids of San Kloon, but what if I end up in Brazil? I might need it. You see I'm prepared for anything," she finished, smiling and poking her tongue between her teeth.
"Sounds like you're staying then," Mickey grumbled. There was an awkward moment as he stared at her, and she glanced nervously at the Doctor. Mickey followed her gaze before looking back at her and forcing a smile. "So what are you doing in Cardiff? And who the hell is Captain Jack Flash?" he asked glaring over at Jack. "I mean, I don't mind you hanging out with Big Ears up there--"
"Oy!" the Doctor protested.
" Look in a mirror," Mickey told him before turning back to Rose. "But this guy," he said, looking over her shoulder at Jack warily, "I don't know. He's kind of--"
"Handsome?" Jack interjected before Mickey could finish the sentence, his charming smile returning in an instant.
"More like cheesy," Mickey sneered.
"Early 21st century slang," Jack spoke, clearly trying to remember the information, or at least pretending to, "Is "cheesy" good or bad?"
"It's bad," Mickey answered so quickly he almost spoke over Jack.
"But bad means good, isn't that right?" Jack asked with a smile.
Before any of them had a chance to answer, the Doctor asked, "You saying I'm not handsome?" as he climbed down the ladder.
His question went unanswered as well as Rose turned back to Mickey. "We just stopped off - we need to refuel. Thing is Cardiff's got this rift running through the middle of the city. Its invisible, but its like an earthquake fault between different dimensions."
"The rift was healed back in 1869," the Doctor declared with a grin, as Rose took over.
"Thanks to this girl named Gwenyth. 'cause these creatures called the Gelth, they were using the rift as a gateway, but she saved the world and closed it," she told him proudly.
"But closing a rift always leaves a scar and that scar generates energy, harmless to the human race--"
The Doctor took over the story from Jack, "...but perfect for the TARDIS. I just park it here for a couple of days right on top of the scar and--"
"Open up the engines, soak up the radiation," Jack took over once again.
Rose jumped in as Jack paused for breath, "Like filling up with petrol and off we go--"
"Into time," Jack exclaimed, high fiving the Doctor.
"And space," the Doctor and Rose declared, high fiving.
The desperate look of confusion as he'd tried to keep up with their explanation finally left Mickey's face as he forced himself to look at them with distaste. "My god! Have you seen yourselves? You all think you're so clever, don't you?"
"Yeah," the Doctor replied enthusiastically.
Rose shrugged, "Yeah!"
"Yup," Jack chipped in slapping Mickey's cheek for good measure. Without a word the three simultaneously headed for the doors, leaving Mickey to tag behind.
"Should take another 24 hours which means we've got time to kill," the Doctor told them as he locked up.
"That old lady's staring," Mickey told them, nodding his head towards the woman.
"Probably wondering what four people can do inside a small wooden box," Jack replied, clapping the Doctor's shoulder as the three of them laughed.
Mickey scowled at them as Rose moved from his side to between the other two men. "What are you captain of? The innuendo squad?"
Jack just made a 'W' with both hands in response.
Rose wondered if this man would be anything like the one she once knew. Judging by the flirtatious smile he threw them every once in a while, she guessed there would be at least a few similarities. "Officially I'm not sure, but he looks like someone I knew before..." she trailed off.
Jake looked over at her. "What like Mickey..." he trailed off too.
"Yeah," Rose quickly filled in. She knew she wasn't the only one that had lost someone they really loved. She went on to cover the void. "I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet, but should be able to figure it out pretty quick if he's anything like Jack."
"That's his name," the woman at the desk spoke up, causing them to jump having forgotten she was there.
"Sorry?" Rose asked, turning to face her.
The woman quickly bowed her head, softly mumbling, "Mr Harkness, his name is Jack."
Rose scrubbed her face with her hands before running them through her hair. "Great, like the world really needed two Captain Jack Harknesses," she mumbled softly to herself, before a smile crossed her face. No, two was too many, but none was too few, so having one here might be just right.
"Do you know him?" the woman asked, frowning slightly, having only heard Rose's last words.
Rose looked at her again. This could get interesting. "If he's the man I think he is, then yes, he's an old ally," she said, deciding it was as close as she could get without giving away too much. "Umm when you found him, he should have had this wrist console?" Rose asked hopefully.
The woman nodded, quickly making her way to a nearby safe. A few minutes later she returned with the item. She stared down at it, then Rose, appearing to suddenly realise she might not be able to trust her.
Rose sighed, she was hoping to have been in there before this had time to settle in. "Look, you can trust me," she told her with a smile. "The weapon he had hiding up his," she paused, seeing the woman blush, she continued, "Yeah, it looks like those metal fist things nasty fighters wear yeah? But with...like...what you'd expect if you had a pistol squashed flat with a short barrel yeah?" Rose smiled as the woman nodded. "It's called a Compact Laser Deluxe. Only Jack's changed the settings.. He used it to hold someone hostage right? Probably fired a shot at one of your computers?" The woman nodded once more. "Thing is, it was all a bluff."
Now the woman shook her head. "How can you know that? He could have killed her!"
"That's the thing, he couldn't have," Rose quickly told her. "If you hid a weapon where he does, would you really have it so it could do damage to you?"
The woman frowned, clearly having never thought about this. "But he destroyed the computer--"
"It only works on mechanical objects. Fire it at any living organism and...well it's as useful as flashing a torch at them," Rose told her. "Honest, you can even test it on me," she told her, nodding towards the safe.
After a moment, the woman headed back to the safe, obviously going to retrieve the weapon.
"Do we really have time for this?" Jake murmured in her ear.
"I need them to trust me. I don't wanna end up in that cell for twenty years," she answered him. She smiled holding her hand up as the woman looked at her, holding the weapon. "Just aim directly for my palm."
The woman took aim, but didn't fire as she looked at Rose with just a bit of fear, her glance moving to the four soldiers that worked with her. Their faces mirrored her disbelief, as did those of Torchwood One who didn't know Rose.
"It's fine, just fire," Rose told her, with just a hint of impatience.
The woman finally did as she was told, shrieking slightly as the beam hit Rose's hand.
Rose just twinged slightly. "Tickles," she smiled, holding her hand out for the woman to inspect. "See? He's actually harmless...well mostly harmless...just never leave him alone with a spaceship, it'll never be the same again," she added with a smile thinking of the poor TARDIS as the woman giggled.
Knowing she had gained the woman's trust, she realised she hadn't even introduced herself. "Sorry, I'm Rose Tyler of Torchwood One, and you are?"
"Martha Latimer of Torchwood Two," she replied smiling.
Rose smiled back, forcing herself not to pull her nose up as memories of Mickey's Martha flashed through her mind. "And that isn't a Scots accent," Rose replied, forcing the memories out as she took Jack's wrist console from her, hoping she would remember how to do this.
"No, originally from England. But my grandfather..." she trailed off as the top dog arrived back, an assistant tagging along with the champagne and food. "Sir," she said crisply, giving a quick nod before turning to her seat.
"No, Torchwood's not run by very strange men or psychotic women," Jake murmured in her ear as she placed the the wrist console on the table and pulled out one of her toolkits.
She glared at him over her shoulder. "You better be talking about my predecessor."
"Course," he chirped out a bit too quickly, though with a cheeky grin that made her smile.
"Good, I'd hate to have to retcon you Jake," she replied.
"Promises, promises."
She just rolled her eyes. "Right, while I take care of Mr Harkness, you and your team go through a 75-55 scan followed by 20Y Rehab," she told him, her voice of authority returning.
"Geez, how long you planning on taking care of him for?" Jake asked, raising a brow.
Rose glared at him for a moment, just long enough for him to know better than to question her orders, then smiled, letting her tongue poke between her teeth, "Long as it takes," she told him with a wink, then headed inside the cell as he tried to hold in his laugher.
Before I forget – flashbacks are from Boom Town, Stone Rose (the audiobook so might be slightly different from text (though SO very good listening to DT read it!! And his versions of the others voices!! Hilarious!!), my own creation, and another scene from Boom Town.
And the Coppuccino booth really is there in Glasgow...think I've got a photo of it somewhere. Lol and (as far as I know) there isn't a hidden Torchwood base in the...whatever bookstore it is there...though the Starbucks was a godsend...even if I couldn't afford the Scotland mug at the time :(
Oh and in case you couldn't guess, which I'm sure you all did, Jake is the Jake that was dating Ricky, you know the one, he pointed out the lift in Doomsday...anyway. Also Riley is based on Buffy's Riley (needed a name and an face for the character while I was writing it, and he just suited the part ;))
And yes I know TECHNICALLY 'top dog' might not be quite so willing to do Rose's bidding as he is...well not so much willing as just doing them (cos we all know he isn't willing!) but would you REALLY want to mess with a woman who single handedly took out five armed guards? Let's just put it down to him being a coward yeah?
Oh and yes, Martha Latimer is named for her grandfather's adventure with a Martha we all know and love...bearing in mind I'm using the term 'love' VERY loosely there!!
And now that I've rambled your ears off, hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know by reviewing, means the world!!