DISCLAIMER: The usual disclaimer still stands. I don't own anything, but a lap top to write this on.
Torchwood, Cardiff, Earth 2008
Lucy was cowering on the floor in the corner of the cell, doing her best not to take notice of any of the occupants of the other cells. People thought that her Harry's Toclafane were scary, but they were just metal balls with cute childish voices. These here were brutes. She rocked back and forth, humming some nursery rhymes that her nanny used to sing to her when she had trouble sleeping as a child. But no matter what she did, she could still hear the snarls of the Weevils and the other creatures around her. Just when she thought that she might run out of nursery rhymes and go mad, the door to her cell was mercifully opened and the young Welshman in the nice suit led her outside into a white interrogation room.
The room contained only two chairs and a table in the middle, apart from a CCTV camera in one of the corners. Lucy thought that they might be leaving her there alone to see if the silence would be any more effective at making her crack than listening to the creature's howling. Unconsciously she started tapping on the table, a four beat rhythm that she had heard her husband tap so many times.
A while later the door opened and the same young man dressed in an immaculate three piece suit entered the room, bringing her a steaming cup of coffee.
"I'm surprised," Lucy said to Ianto, smirking. "The Captain doesn't strike me as a cavalier or as someone who cares for the comfort of his prisoners."
Ianto just smiled at her, calmly and politely.
"It wouldn't do to be blamed for mistreating the widow of the late Prime Minister," he told her.
"Of course. I should have known that the tea boy would look after his position," Lucy commented. "Maybe when my husband comes back, I might recommend you to him and spare your life." She smiled at him. The man still looked unaffected by her comments and threats. She wondered if Ianto possessed feelings at all. She would have thought he would have shown at least surprise or annoyance at her bold attitude, since she was nothing more than Torchwood's prisoner. But his face remained polite and empty of emotion.
"Very kind offer, but I'm afraid I have to decline, madam. Now, if you'll excuse me," he told her and opened the door. "The Captain should be with you shortly."
Lucy watched Ianto leaving the room and hastily made a decision to try and sweet-talk him into helping her. She couldn't just let him go without trying to speak to him.
"Wait, can't you stay a moment?" she asked him, using her best damsel in distress act, looking as vulnerable as she could. Her voice shook at the right moments and she even managed to shiver and sniff. "I've been locked in here alone, in the cold, with these creatures from nightmares, and now left in an empty white room. Please, I just need a bit of human company."
Ianto looked at her and hesitated for a moment. She wasn't sure if her pleading words or her helpless act had any effect on the young man, she couldn't read anything on his closed-up face. But then he turned his back again and said: "As I said, the Captain will be with you shortly, madam. You will have your company." Ianto nodded curtly and almost managed to close the door before he heard Lucy's voice again, this time more bold and arrogant.
"Do you think you will ever be something else than the tea boy around here?" Lucy asked, raising her voice, hoping that Ianto would hear her before he closed the door and that this would make him come back. "They will never appreciate what you do. I'm sure they all think that Captain Harkness hired you for your good looks."
It had the desired effect, as Ianto opened the door and returned to the room, looking for a moment distraught and nervous. But soon his closed off expression was back and he stood near the door in a cold professional way.
"What do you want, Mrs Saxon?" he asked coldly.
"I want you to help me get out of here and get my husband back. Then I can help you," Lucy told him, smiling at him with the most charming smile she could muster. Everyone thought her the dumb blonde that couldn't hold a single thought in her head without getting a headache. Well, let them think that, it did have its benefits. No one paid her much attention when they talked; even her Harry sometimes talked about his plans in front of her, thinking that she was harmless, not understanding anything. However, she was really good at listening and observing while playing the dumb bimbo. So she thought was Ianto. What was the saying about still waters running deep?
Ianto just chuckled in response, however, obviously thinking she was joking.
"You want me to betray my team and help you, just because you asked?" he said in disbelief.
"No, but I can talk to my husband when he is back. He can put you in charge of Torchwood," she offered. "Don't tell me you don't ever feel unappreciated here. They take you for granted, don't they? The tea boy that cleans everything up after them, or the archivist that always puts the papers in order, no matter how much they mess it up – and they never care how much time it takes you to do it all!"
Not receiving any response from the stony-faced, unmoving figure of the young Welshman, Lucy continued, refusing to be discouraged.
"Do you think they ever ask themselves how the Hub is so clean in the morning after leaving it as messed up, as a front line?" she kept pressing on, hoping for a reaction.
However, before he could respond to her words, the door opened and Jack Harkness entered the room and interrupted their conversation. He looked at Ianto intently, as if hoping to pull the details of what they were talking about right from Ianto's soul. Lucy wondered if Captain Harkness had been watching them on the CCTV and was skilled in reading lips. She wasn't too bothered if that was the case - she was a prisoner anyway. Ianto, however, was paler than usual.
"Go check the monitors for Rift activity," Jack dismissed Ianto curtly but firmly. He didn't start his interrogation until he was sure the archivist was out of the room.
"Trying to corrupt Mr Jones?" Jack asked, lifting an eyebrow. "I'll tell you now, it's not going to work. It doesn't matter how much money or how many high positions you offer him. He's very loyal to our team."
Lucy smiled sweetly. "Money!" she thought contemptuously to herself. Everyone always assumed that if you offered a person something, it would be money and success. But what she had learned from living in her father's house, and then with her husband, was that where money wouldn't work, envy and pent up frustration, manipulated in the right way, could work even better.
"Now tell me, sweetheart, how did you open the Rift? And please don't waste my time with playing dumb," Jack asked her straight away, not in the mood for matching wits or mind games.
"I didn't," Lucy answered, shaking her head.
"Bullshit!" Jack snapped and hit the table with his fist, making her jump on her seat. "I said I don't have time for playing. So unless you want to share your suite with a Weevil, you'd better start answering when I ask," he spat at her. Lucy could almost imagine him like some enraged Doberman, spitting saliva as he barked. It slightly amused her and a thin smile crept over her lips. She tried to hide it by lowering her head. It wouldn't help her to anger him further by finding him funny.
"I really didn't," she tried to sound serious, not amused. "I heard some people who are devoted to my husband talk about resurrecting him by placing his ring near the Rift when it starts opening. I talked them into using me because I wanted Harry not the Master. The Rift did give a reaction to the proximity of the ring but that is all I know." She decided to be sincere. It wouldn't hurt anyway, now she was caught and the ring was gone, who knows where.
Jack studied her features silently, outwardly looking completely relaxed, with his body leaning back into the chair and his arms crossed. He wasn't smiling, but there wasn't even a muscle moving or twitching in his face to suggest nerves. His eyes were as expressionless and closed as his face. Lucy wished that she could read this man; she wished she knew what he was thinking. Probably deciding that he would not be getting any more information from her, or at least not useful information, he let her go back to her cell.
"Please, not here, not with these creatures again." Lucy tried to appeal to Jack's humanity, but it had no effect, as he gave no indication that he even heard her. He locked the door and she wondered if the Torchwood 3 commander possessed any sense of humanity at all.
Torchwood, Manchester, Parallel Earth, 2007
Rose Tyler left the examination of Sam's medical chart to calmly make her way towards Mickey and his PDA. Whatever these readings were, they were - if not serious or dangerous – then at least curious enough to take his interest and confuse him. She looked over his shoulder at the readings and gasped, looking at Mickey and waiting for an explanation.
Mickey took his time studying the data before shaking his head at her and pocketing the PDA. All this secrecy was getting on Rose's nerves. She took a deep breath to calm herself and, trying not to take her frustration out on Mickey, she nodded and made her way towards the door.
"We're going to get this to the HQ and analyse the readings. I'm sorry, Tyler, but I can't make head or tail of it here. I'm a technician not a bio-scientist," Mickey told Rose, mindful of using her first name after her outburst earlier for calling her Rose.
All the time during the drive to HQ, the two Torchwood agents were silent, lost in their thoughts and speculation of what the readings from the hospital could mean and what their connection was to the Rift. Rose was trying not to get her hopes too high, because she had already been burnt once before by getting too hopeful about the possibility of breaching the void and reaching the Doctor, just to be brought back down with more pain. Now she couldn't help speculating on the possibility that what she had seen on the PDA was evidence of a bridge between the two worlds, but she tried to keep her interest in it professional rather than personal. She was wondering what Mickey was thinking about, but did not give in to her curiosity, keeping a cold distance from her friend. She didn't want to get too attached to him again, in case she found a way to get back to the Doctor. Now she could understand the Time Lord's reluctance to get attached to people he knew he would end up leaving behind. Too many goodbyes. She sighed when the car pulled into the parking lot in front of the tower that housed Torchwood's Manchester's branch.
Entering her office, Rose sat in front of her computer and started to analyse the Rift activity they had detected near the hospital. She wished she could understand the readings that the DCI in Manchester gave to the PDA. She didn't know the techs here as well as she knew her colleagues in London, but she hoped they would be quick to inform her when they found something. Her thoughts were cut off when she heard an urgent knock on the door. After a muttered "Enter," from Rose, a smartly dressed young technician came into the room, but didn't enter further or close the door.
"Agent Tyler you need to come and see the readings," the technician said urgently and exited without waiting for an answer, assuming that Rose would follow. She did, since she was no less eager to find out the results.
Entering the tech's room after him, Rose immediately made her way towards the work desk and looked at the computer. She frowned at the numbers and swirling lines on the screen, not able to understand a thing.
"What is it?" she snapped, annoyed that she had not had more time to study high technology and bio-data before starting to work for Torchwood.
"It's DCI Tyler's DNA matrix, but something is happening to it," the technician explained and pointed at the screen. "Do you see here? Look at the way it's splitting. Human DNA is a double helix, this one is trying to split into triple. It's still unsuccessful but it's connecting with some sort of energy. The DNA line is breaking and forming a succession of double helix, triple helix, double helix, double helix and so on."
Rose looked blankly at the screen for a moment and then shook her head.
"I don't know anything about genetics, so I have no idea what's going on, but what's the energy you mentioned?" she asked, still confused and not satisfied with the answers.
"It's Rift energy," the technician answered her.