CHAPTER THREE

As Dee operated his private aircar over the Hudson River heading north, Ryo stared out ahead noticing they were almost at Dee's. Dee was looking up toward their right at the cloud city high above Manhattan with its glistening towering spires and bridges between buildings. Aircars, airbuses and airships all were coming and going various landing areas around the large cloud city. It lit up that area of the sky all through the night, being easily visible even in New Jersey and the Catskill Mountains. In the daylight the city still glistened and glowed making it easy to view but not from the same distances as at night. Upper New York was like an amped up New York City and mostly for entertainment, and it boasted some of the best resorts. The few permanent residence buildings offered the best living accommodations in the city. Most of the owners of businesses in Upper New York chose to live there. Not very many who did not spend most of their time in Upper New York chose to live there and preferred to go up for visits. It was always a fun trip when Ryo went there but he had no desire to live there, preferring to live in the city proper.

"Maybe until we can find time for that vacation, we can get a free night or weekend to take Bikky and Carol up to Upper New York," Dee said thoughtfully.

Ryo turned his head in Dee's direction and smiled. Their eyes met before Dee's moved to pay attention to the other aircar going south along the Hudson River and the zeppelin with a bright colorful balloon with the logo of a major casino in Upper New York that flew westward above them. The double decker gondola was copper and red and easily fit around 30 passengers in comfort. It seemed to be coming from one of the other boroughs or even Long Island.

"I like that thought, Dee," Ryo replied. "It's been a while since we had a family night there."

Dee chuckled slightly, and Ryo knew he was thinking of the last few times they had a couple of days off and Bikky was to stay at a friend's house, but even the last time it was just the two of them was too long ago. Ever since the first Weevil alert and they knew they did not round up all the dangerous aliens, Dee and Ryo had been working on the plans behind what they had to say in that meeting. As the Rift continued to deposit more Weevils around Manhattan and they only had a small percentage in their cells, it made it more imperative to draw up drafts of proposals for inter-agency cooperation. The NYPD needed have their patrols trained in case they were around when a Weevil attacked and other agencies had to be able to protect themselves until Torchwood arrived. All of this between other alerts and calls that kept them busy.

Dee started to lower the aircar as they approached his building. It was located in a private park for the residents of the three buildings between 79th and 81st Streets off of Riverside Drive. Both circular buildings were 20 stories tall and taking up almost a full city block with verandas going around the building at every other floor. Despite their size and shape, the architecture was that of the grand mansions and rowhouses along that area of Riverside Drive. Each building had four domes which were multi-level penthouse flats. With copper frames and iridescent windows, the domes would sparkle in the sunlight, and glow in the evening. One of the domes on the building off 79th Street Dee had called home for the last eight years. Unlike the other tenants occupying the floors below the penthouses that had to use the underground parking if they owned an aircar, Dee had a platform next to his private rooftop garden to park his, just as the other domes had.

As Dee lowered the vehicle onto his platform, Ryo reached behind him to get the brown paper shopping bag with their dinner.

"Home, sweet home," Dee sighed as he shut down the aircar. "I just hope nothing goes down tonight to drag us back to work."

"Especially after we decided no work tonight," Ryo said as he opened the door and got out.

"Exactly." Dee opened the gate leading to his garden and walked along the path toward the front door. He opened the front door and held it open for Ryo.

"Bikky, are you here?" Ryo called out as he entered.

"Of course he is," Dee said sounding amused. "We didn't leave the lights on when we left this morning and I can hear one of my games going."

As Ryo stepped out of the entryway into the living room, the sounds became louder. "And he most likely can't hear us."

Dee snorted as he took the bag from Ryo. "What about I get this on the table while you drag Biks away from holo-time?"

"Thanks, Dee," Ryo replied. He headed across the room to the archway in the wall which split the living room from the rest of the first level of Dee's home.

"Bikky," Ryo called out in the hall but still no answer. Annoyed he went down the hall, following the sounds until he stood in front of the door to the gameroom.

He opened the door and found his adopted son battling it out with metal monsters made up of gears. The boy wore a pair of black corduroy trousers and a red pullover shirt with black braces, along with a pair of beat up black runners. Ryo realized that it was time to go shopping with Bikky and get him new shoes.

Coming up behind the boy, he went over to the console and shut the game down.

Bikky jumped and turned in alarm, uttering a curse.

"Language, Bikky," Ryo warned.

"Oh hi Ryo. I guess you and the moron's home."

"Yes, Dee and I are home, Bikky." It was at that moment it sounded so right Ryo knew he would be giving up the flat he shared with the boy. From the casual way Bikky said it, it was pretty easy to work out that Bikky also considered this place his home. "Dee's putting dinner out, so go wash up. And make it quick so your dinner is still hot."

"What are we having?"

"Pot roast, green beans and mashed potatoes."

"That's my favorite," Bikky exclaimed.

"Yes it is. So hurry up. You're probably hungry by now. I'm sorry we're so late, Biks."

"It's cool, Ryo. I know things are busy at work. Besides, I grabbed a knish from the fridge when I got here."

"Good. I told Dee it was a good idea to keep some around here. Except you're lucky there was one left to eat." Ryo started to walk toward the door with Bikky next to him. "Your homework it done, I assume."

"Yes. All of it. I finished a half hour ago."

"I want to see it after dinner."

Bikky pouted. "You don't trust me."

"When it comes to schoolwork, no," Ryo stated.

"Aw Ryo!"

"Until you give me reason to think otherwise, that's my answer." As they walked down the hall, Ryo said, "So you really like Dee's games."

"He has the best!" Bikky exclaimed. "He has programs that no one else has. I guess that's a benefit of working for Torchwood." His grin got wider. "And that he knows that hot Japanese chick in Cardiff."

"If Owen heard you talk about his wife like that…."

"He'd thank me," Bikky cut in with a smirk.

Ryo sighed. "Yes, you're right. He would. And then he'd put his fist into your face."

"You wouldn't let him," Bikky exclaimed. He stopped before a door. "I'll be out in a few minutes."

"Okay." Ryo watched as Bikky entered his room, which had a private bathroom. "You could have used the kitchen sink, you know," he said to the door.

Ryo knew Bikky liked his room here. He liked the games here. He was comfortable taking the snacks or meals Dee left if they worked late. Bikky even called it home.

It might be easier to convince Bikky they were going to be living here full-time with Dee than Ryo thought.

OoOoOoO

Dee and Ryo walked down the street from where they had left Dee's aircar. Dee had landed it on an intersection which already was jammed with Torchwood vehicles, along with police who made sure nobody wandered in on the scene.

They found Drake and Ted already there, looking over a black aircar which had gone went through a wooden building.

Ryo pointed out J.J., who was speaking to some very shaken aliens. Dee and Ryo joined Drake and Ted. "So what's going on here?" Dee asked.

Drake turned to look at Dee, while Ryo made a slow circle around the vehicle. The entire city block was in chaos. Carriages were banged up or overturned, and people were being treated by emergency services. A carriage that had been pulled by a horse was in the middle of the road crushed and the fallen horse being prepared to be removed. A couple of horses ran wild, while the sound of other wild horses could be heard from the nearby streets.

"This is a disaster," Ryo uttered, bringing Dee's attention from the destruction on the street to the vehicle.

"Blowfish," Ted replied with a snort. "Got its scaly hands on an aircar from uptown and crash landed it here."

Drake sighed. "According to the few witnesses on the street, it just dropped from the sky onto that carriage there. It skidded off and continued to skid out of control until it came to a stop here." He pointed down at the vehicle.

"Casualties?" Ryo asked.

"Plenty," J.J. replied coming over to join them.

Dee looked down the street and then back down at the stolen aircar. "How many humans?" he asked.

"None. At this time of the night, in this neighborhood, humans mostly stick to the main street," J.J. answered.

"So this one is all ours then," Dee stated.

"All alien, yes. The NYPD is helping with keeping the curious away. We have a team assisting them," Ted said.

Dee looked at his men present on the scene. Drake and Ted were dressed in linen shirts, waistcoats and overcoats, which was their normal wear. J.J. usually was a conscientious in his clothes, much like Ryo, but also like Ryo, J.J. was more casually dressed. He wore a jumper over a pair of black denim under his overcoat. Dee was also dressed casually but he had his coat closed. He was a more casual dresser than Ryo and J.J., but he was vain enough to make sure he always looked good in whatever he wore. It was even more important for him in his position to wear clothes that oozed authority.

"So what were you two doing working at this time?" Dee asked, crossing his arms, his steady gaze on the two men.

"Oh, um, Drake called me in," Ted replied.

"Oh?" asked Dee, his attention solely on Drake.

"I had an idea about the Weevils and the subway, but since I'm crap at computers, I convinced Ted to come in and give me a hand. I was hoping we'd have a preliminary report by the time you got in today," Drake replied, "but then this happened."

Dee raised an eyebrow and then grinned at Drake. "I'm up to any and all suggestions. After we're done here, unfortunately. Hey, do we have the Blowfish responsible?"

The other three nodded their heads. "Yes," J.J. replied.

"More or less," said Drake.

"More or less?" Ryo asked.

"Let's just say it pissed off someone in the family whose home it drove into," J.J. said. "They ended up scaling it with a laser gun."

Ryo's eyebrows rose. "Are we doing anything about the laser gun?"

"Yup, but we're also trying not to make them feel like the criminals here. I mean, they are homeless right now," Drake said.

Dee nodded his head. "We can't overlook that certain weapons are illegal but we'll make sure the rest of the family is taken care of. I can't make promises for whoever shot off the gun. Get the family settled in a safehouse, then finish getting their statements. Ryo and I will escort the laser happy family member. He may or may not join the family later. And of course, let us know if they feel they want to file any complaints with the Off-World Consulate."

"Roger that," Drake replied.

"Care to point out the laser-happy Rymorian?" Ryo asked.

"He's still with his family. He has a wife and a litter of hysterical children. They're keeping him busy enough," said Drake, pointing out the man who was comforting his family.

"Let's go get them settled," Ryo said with a sigh. "I do hate having to separate them."

"Transport them together, I guess," Dee replied, watching the scene in front of him.

"Change of plans, boss?" Drake asked.

"Yes. It's our duty to protect the alien citizens of this city, and that poor family needs protecting. If it makes them feel safe after having their home destroyed, then he can stay a little longer with them before we take him for interrogation," Dee decided.

Ryo had to agree. If he was in the father's place, even if he was in the wrong, he'd want to make sure his family was okay first. The man wasn't dangerous; at least Ryo didn't think so. Ryo knew how he could get when Dee or Bikky was threatened, or even Carol or his aunt and uncle and Mother. He certainly knew how Dee could get. He took a step closer to Dee, standing right behind him and a little to Dee's left.

"Dee and I probably should check with the other squads first anyway," Ryo spoke up. When Dee turned his head in Ryo's direction, Ryo continued, "Whenever we're done here, we'll collect the father for questioning."

Dee nodded and winked at Ryo, making him smile. "What Ryo said. I take it you already confiscated the weapon?"

"J.J. has it locked up," Drake replied, "We'll place it in evidence storage for now."

"Good. Well then, you and Ted escort them to a suite in the tower," Dee said. "J.J. will stay with us for now."

"Right."

OoOoOoO

It was in the early hours before Dee and Ryo found themselves entering the 27th Sector. They had the body of the Blowfish in the Torchwood morgue and the crashed aircar impounded until the owner was located. Until then, they had a team go through the vehicle.

It was very likely they would never know why the Blowfish stole the vehicle but they could take a good guess. Blowfish tended to do wild and dangerous things because it was fun. Fun for Blowfish usually amounted to not good for them or for anyone else who had the misfortune to be in the area.

Like the family that was now homeless along with several others who were on Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets in Alphabet City. It was a bad neighborhood but had many poor aliens who couldn't afford to live elsewhere in Manhattan. Instead of brick and stone buildings there were rows of wooden houses and tenement buildings. It was no different than other neighborhoods with poor immigrants, only the immigrants in Alphabet City came from other worlds rather than countries on Earth. For many of those living in the neighborhood chose to live there instead of their home worlds. Whatever they faced living on a low income was better than where they had come.

What Dee, Ryo and J.J. had discovered while speaking to neighbors who knew the displaced family, the father was hard working who had a job in a factory with long hours and had taken odd jobs to keep his family in the tiny apartment. His wife was a housewife, who took care of their seven children. Rymorians, who despite their looking mostly human but with deep burnt red skin and tiny ridges on their foreheads, tended to have litters rather than a single child. He loved his wife and his children and would do anything to protect them. He also would at times take a job to help an elder, be it alien or human, and not charge them. He was quick to help when he could and would pass up taking money from someone he felt could use the money better, like to feed their own family.

Dee and Ryo had already agreed they could not fault the man for dealing with the Blowfish who crashed an aircar into their tiny but neat flat and were going to report he acted out of self-defense. The man's only crime was owning an unregistered and illegal weapon and using it. Thankfully it was Dee's decision to make whether the man would have to face a jury for his crime, or be under probation by Torchwood. They still had to question him before Dee made his decision official. He did not say much about what he planned to do, but Ryo could tell Dee had a plan.

There were other families in the 10-flat tenement that were also displaced that night because the first inspection of the building declared its structure to be unstable. All tenants in the building were alien, so it was Torchwood's responsibility to find them temporary housing until a final decision would be made on the building. That decision was not Torchwood's to make, even if they would provide a couple of engineers to be part of the inspection team. They would be there only to assure there was a fair assessment in the case the tenants would not be able to move back soon or ever. There were some city officials who were prejudiced and did not like the idea of having so many beings from other worlds in the city. Some of them even did not like many of the non-white humans too. Then there were some who had their interests in companies like S-Corp, who bought up older areas of the city little by little until there was enough to raze to build new factories, high income housing and new skyscrapers.

There was a squad who was working hard at finding temporary places for those displaced families to stay until they were able to move back into the building or find something more permanent to settle into. Other divisions sent squads to comfort and console the families of those injured that evening because of the Blowfish. Another squad was hard at work identifying the now dead Blowfish.

Dee and Ryo personally took responsibility that the family who had the aircar crash into their flat was settled in, having Ted and Drake in constant contact and an update on which suite the family was settled in the transient section of the Torchwood tower. By the time they finished at the scene and arrived in Torchwood, checking in with all divisions working on the incident, they heard that the family was still awake.

Chief Smith was waiting for them in their office. Dee and Ryo had given him a brief rundown of their activities while Smith briefed them on reports that had come in from the other departments.

"One of the little ones was grazed by the car," Smith explained when Ryo inquired on the family. "The Hollenswogs, as tired as they were, were unable to get rest until their child was patched up and told he would recover. That wasn't too long ago. I think they are just too wired to sleep."

Dee and Ryo shared a look which even Smith was able to interpret. "Go on," he said. "Go check in on the Hollenswogs and whatever else you feel you need to be doing. Whenever you're done, come to my office. Tell your squads involved I want full reports by end of day, unless something else comes up that requires their attention. I already told the other divisions under me the same."

"Chief, I would like my teams to have some downtime during the day," Dee requested. "At least the ones who have been called in and been up all night."

The Chief grumped as he folded his beefy arms. "I suppose you can. Fine. You're right. We can't have exhausted people out on a mission, I suppose."

Dee shrugged and leaned back in his chair behind his large wooden desk. "I'm sure the big bosses won't mind reports coming in a day or two after," he said. "Besides, I want to go over all the reports before they are sent off to headquarters."

"I suppose you're going to want to help him, MacLean?" Smith asked.

Ryo nodded his head. "Yes. I do."

"You know Rose will be wanting something by end of today," Smith pointed out.

Dee indicated the folders with files and this computer. "I think Rose needs to be satisfied with everything that already came in and will continue to until all teams are in."

"I think you're right, but you know he'll feel otherwise," Ryo said.

"Then Chief can tell Rose to go take it to the Directors," Dee replied. "If you don't want to, then I will. After Ryo and I are done running around here."

"Chief, is Director Rose in yet?"

Smith made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "It doesn't directly involve him, so what do you think? He's most likely still getting his beauty rest so he can look good when he speaks to the Lord Mayor later today."

"He'll have more than enough to fill in the Lord Mayor with," Dee remarked. "Meanwhile Ianto and Jack will gladly accept the complete reports whenever we give them after everyone has some well-deserved rest."

"Rose never worked on a squad that can be on call 24/7," Smith stated. "He has no idea. I doubt he ever will, even if he likes to stick his nose in places it doesn't belong and try to get his hands dirty."

Dee laughed, throwing his head back. "He might have gotten his hands dusty, but that's it. I'd like to offer him a taste of what we really go through, but I know just what a pain in the ass he'll be getting in the way of operations."

Ryo chuckled as he nodded his head. "I have to agree with that, Dee. Best let him play with his toys at the top and leave the real work to us."

Dee grinned at Ryo. "I really do believe you've finally got the hang of this." He winked and then leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk surface. "Besides, it would put him in close proximity of you for a full shift or more and that just ain't gonna happen."

"Listen you two," Smith said seriously. "I know you have the Directors looking after you, but they do leave our time for a while and you need to be careful because that's when Rose would strike. He did it before, which is how we ended up with him in charge of Torchwood New York."

"Yeah, I know," Dee replied. "But I'm still not going to let him push me around because he still wants to get into Ryo's pants. And Ryo has gotten very good of not letting Rose make all his not so smooth moves."

Ryo let out a snort.

"What?"

"Just what you said about no so smooth moves," Ryo said. "You're lucky that I actually was attracted to you during those first years, even if I couldn't admit it to myself then."

Smith let out a guffaw. "I only saw a little of that, and I do have to agree with that."

"At least I wasn't so greasy as he can be," Dee protested as Smith stood up.

"Do whatever you need to do with your men and women, Laytner, but sometime later this morning let me know what that will be. Even if you call from home."

Dee was still frowning over the last comments made about when he was chasing after Ryo and did not reply.

"If he doesn't, then I will, sir," Ryo called out.

"Thank you, MacLean."