The Bad Wolf Code
Part Four
Notes: Yet again, thank you so much for the kind reviews! It's so very encouraging to know that people are enjoying this. Hope you all like this chapter.
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The basement was eerily dark. Rose went down the steps cautiously. The posh, heeled shoes that she'd worn for the party clicked noisily on the floor. To her left was what looked like a row of prison cells. She shivered involuntarily.
"Cold?" Jack asked, sounding concerned.
"A bit," Rose replied, peering into the darkness so she could hide the real reason she was shivering.
"It's a beautiful dress," Jack commented sincerely. "But we'll have to get you some more practical clothes. You wouldn't last two minutes outside."
Rose wasn't paying attention. There was something moving at the end of the row. Something that was making a low growling noise. "What is it?" she asked.
"Go closer," he said. "It won't hurt you."
Rose moved forwards and looked into the cell. There was a figure crouching behind the glass, it's back towards her. She took another step, her heel clicking, and the figure turned around and snarled. Rose fought back a scream. The creature, whatever it was, had teeth like a shark and cold, inhuman eyes.
"We call them Weevils," Jack said quietly, standing just behind her with his arms folded. "And from where I'm standing, they're pretty solid proof of alien life."
Rose watched it numbly.
"Why do you want me Jack?" she asked eventually, her voice shaking. "Why am I important?"
"Because when you were in that basement…and that's when it all went wrong," Jack said. He put a hand on her shoulder and she turned to face him.
"That's when the Doctor disappeared," she said.
"Exactly," he replied.
"I heard him," she said quietly, remembering the words she thought Jack had whispered to her. Rose Tyler. I've seen what was meant for us. "Before, when I was asleep. I heard him…he spoke to me. How could he speak to me?"
"I don't know," said Jack. "But I've been hearing him for years." He studied Rose for a moment. "Come here," he said finally, opening his arms. She fell into them gratefully, so relieved to be with someone who understood that, for a while, she could barely speak.
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"I can make some coffee if you like," Gwen offered, watching Rose as she walked slowly around the living room of Gwen's flat, just looking. Rose turned her face towards Gwen and smiled weakly.
"No thanks," she replied. "I think I've already had enough caffeine."
"Aah, Ianto made you some, did he?" Gwen said with a knowing smile. Rose nodded, clutching her shawl and looking decidedly awkward. Gwen frowned, feeling concerned for her. "Are you sure you don't want anything? You look a bit shaken."
"Well yeah, I am, a bit," Rose said, laughing it off. "But honestly, it's enough for you to offer to lend me clothes."
"It's no bother," said Gwen kindly. "Why don't you come through and we can have a root around, see what'll fit you. The bedroom's just through here."
After a few minutes of searching, they found a pair of jeans that Gwen had ordered from a catalogue, discarded as being too long and then forgotten to send back, which fitted Rose fairly well. Tops were more of a problem because Gwen was a size smaller than Rose, but they managed to find an old T-shirt that wasn't obscenely tight, and then a soft white jumper than Gwen had never really liked but Rose loved on sight.
"Thank you so much for this," Rose said, doing a quick twirl and watching her reflection in the mirror.
"And here, you better change out of those heels as well," said Gwen, chucking Rose an old pair of trainers with she caught deftly.
"So how did you join up with Torchwood?" Rose asked curiously as she shoved her feet into the trainers. "Did you apply or was Jack following you around as well?"
Gwen laughed. "I sort of got transferred," she said. "I used to be a police officer, but I saw Torchwood out on a job and…well, it looked so--" She paused, trying to choose the right word. "--interesting that I wanted to know more about them. Eventually they got fed up of me pestering. Besides which, they had a vacancy."
Something about the way Gwen said it made Rose look up. Gwen had fallen silent, and was looking out of the window but not really looking. Her mind was elsewhere. "What do you mean?" Rose asked.
"Suzie Costello," she replied distantly. "She'd been acting strangely for months. And then Tosh found out what she'd been doing. All sorts of hidden computer files, messing around with the security in the Hub. And there was a man called Max. God, Suzie was clever, she'd concocted such an elaborate scheme." Gwen shook herself out of her reverie. "But anyway, she got found out, and I got a job."
"But…" Rose felt that Gwen was holding back, that there was more to this than she was letting on. "What happened to her?"
Gwen stared blankly at her. "Like I said. She got found out."
Rose lowered her head and got on with the job of tying one of the old, scruffy shoelaces on Gwen's trainers. "And…what about Jack?" she asked tentatively. "Who is he? When did he join up?"
"You're asking me?" said Gwen incredulously. "God, he doesn't tell me anything. He doesn't tell any of us anything, not about himself. He'll drop in these little anecdotes, like the time he had a threesome with Jimmy Carter and a vacuum cleaner, or what kind of place the planet Hog is and where you can buy the best alcohol there." She sighed. "He's American, probably. And Tosh's digging has revealed that he joined about three years ago and worked his way up pretty quickly because he knows all this stuff about alien life and technology. And I mean, how does he know that? Jack Harkness is a complete mystery, probably even to himself."
With this peculiar statement, she abruptly stopped talking and started hanging up all the clothes that they had discarded in their search. Rose finished tying up the trainers in silence before a sudden noise made her jump. Her handbag was jingling and vibrating.
"My phone," she muttered, opening the handbag and rummaging around inside. Her heart sank when she saw the caller ID. "Oh God…"
"What is it?" Gwen asked.
"My mum," Rose said, biting her lip. "Oh I'd better answer it, she'll only keep on ringing." She pressed the appropriate button and put the phone to her ear with the air of someone who knows they are doomed and would like to get it over with. "Hello? Hi Mum…yeah…oh, he did, did he?" She rolled her eyes at Gwen and walked off into the living room.
Gwen got on with packing away the clothes. A few moments later though, she felt a strange prickling sensation, all down her spine. It was a bit like static electricity. Before she could blame it on the Lycra top she was holding that she'd bought on a very drunken night out, a scream ripped through the air. Gwen bolted into the living room to see two abnormally tall figures swathed in black, one of whom was holding Rose by the neck. She was unconscious, and looked alarmingly limp.
Without thinking, Gwen charged at the nearest figure, her hands curled into fists. Seemingly effortlessly, it knocked her around the face with enough force to fell a rhinoceros. Gwen felt as if she'd been hit by a truck, and immediately fell on top of the coffee table, which turned on it's side, sending a stack of travel brochures and magazines flying over the floor. The last thing Gwen was aware of was a sudden flash of blue.
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