Disclaimer - I still don't own anything, and no one's paying me for any of this - although it sure would be nice.
"So you slipped away from your school group and they left without you?"
The stories Ianto could tell about Cardiff Castle and other landmarks were a LOT more interesting than anything I'd ever read on Wikipedia. Almost as much fun as the stories I used to tell tourists at Rock City about meeting my husband when I was going backwards through the Fat Man's Squeeze during a crowded weekend.
"We were rather a large group."
"There's still no excuse, I hope your teacher got a reprimand - what made you wander off?"
Ianto smirked and took a sip of coffee.
"It's the tunnels. I've always been quite fond of tunnels."
I grinned, taking a drink from my own mug - I'm not a coffee drinker, but Ianto's coffee is so famous that I just had to accept when he offered. It still tasted like coffee, but it was actually surprisingly ok.
The door slammed open, and Jack stormed into the tourist office, Owen behind him. Owen stepped to the side, while Jack looked around the tourist office, and gave me a once over.
"All right, you! With me. Ianto?"
He looked at Ianto and jerked his head toward the section of wall that I wasn't supposed to know was the secret entrance to the Hub.
"Where are you taking her?"
Jack loomed closer, blocking the way to the door.
"The cells, of course."
"Why? Is she dangerous?"
The door opened again, this time Gwen and Tosh came through.
"She comes through the Rift, avoids capture and then finds her way to the entrance of the only secret alien hunting base in the city? Call me paranoid, but that sounds pretty suspicious to me."
Ianto breathed a deep sigh and shook his head.
"Jack, this is a visitor center. There are signs. She was lost in a strange city and decided to follow them."
"That's what I would do" Tosh broke in from the corner that Owen had retreated to.
"I don't trust her." Jack commented, stubbornly.
"Jack," Gwen reached out and put a hand on his arm. "She's not Fae. I know you're upset about Estelle…"
"And what the HELL does that have to do with anything?" Jack interrupted her.
"You gave away a kid." Owen stepped around Jack and faced him - standing right beside me, it felt a little odd "So quite frankly, I don't think we trust your judgment right now."
Jack looked around - his entire team glaring at him. It was INCREDIBLY awkward being stuck in the middle of this level of conflict - I definitely didn't want to get involved, even if it WAS all over me in the first place.
"Fine!" Jack exploded, turning and yanking the door open. "Owen, medical exam - if she's had so much as the Aldebaran flu I want to know about it, and take her to a quarantine room to do it. Toshiko, figure out where the hell she's come from and when - I want to know if she's come through space, time, dimensions, other planets… find out! Gwen? Ianto? - do whatever the fuck you want - you don't trust my judgment? Fine. This one's on you. ALL of you."
He stormed out the door and slammed it behind him before anyone could react.
There was stunned silence.
Well, it wasn't quite silence. There was a faint clicking as the beaded curtain swayed, individual strands bumping into each other. The outer door had bounced after Jack had slammed it shut, and there was a slight squeak as it slowly drifted back and forth on its hinges. The computer on Ianto's desk hummed quietly - and the kettle that he had put on just before Jack and the others had arrived was bubbling cheerily.
But with five people in a small room, it was deathly still.
Although at first everyone stared at the door where Jack had made his dramatic exit, it wasn't long before every eye (but mine, of course) was on me.
Finally Gwen broke the silence.
"I'm not sure what you must think of us after that."
I couldn't tell them that I actually wasn't that surprised - that as soon as Gwen had mentioned Estelle I'd understood completely why Jack would be unstable, especially about the unknown.
I settled for a lame joke.
"I guess he was being the Bad Cop?"
Ianto smirked - and I wondered briefly whether he and Jack begun their "innovative dabbling" - though I was pretty sure that wasn't really established canon until They Keep Killing Suzie.
Gwen smiled sadly.
"He's had a hard week. He lost a close friend of his two days ago."
"Don't defend him, Gwen," Owen broke in bluntly. "The situations aren't remotely similar, and if you recall, he still didn't have to go giving that kid to those monsters."
"Owen," Tosh spoke quietly but firmly "This isn't helping."
"Well, neither is going on and on about how Jack doesn't have to behave like a decent human being because some old lady he was friends with kicked the bucket."
"He loved her!" Gwen shot back, "she wasn't just some old lady to him…"
"Is this REALLY the time?"
I hadn't realized Tosh had it in her, to silence the entire room nearly as effectively as Jack himself had.
"We do have a guest." Ianto pointed out into the silence. "Perhaps we should be addressing her needs, not squabbling amongst ourselves."
Gwen finally stopped glaring at Owen and actually turned to look at me.
She smiled again apologetically.
"I'm sorry. Maybe we should start this again. I'm Gwen, this is Owen and Toshiko, and I think you've already met Ianto?"
I nodded. I didn't feel the slightest urge to jump in and take over.
"Do you have any idea what's happened?" Tosh asked.
"Not really, no." I shrugged. "I was walking home from the bus stop, then I was between two buildings and came out in front of my imaginary flat in Cardiff."
"Excuse me" Owen broke in "you have an imaginary flat? What does that even mean?"
I felt my cheeks heat up.
"I know, it's kind of stupid. But I kind of like to pretend I live in Cardiff, and go exploring. In googlemaps, I mean."
"Googlemaps?" Owen sounded incredulous. "What's googlemaps?"
Tosh answered before I had the chance to even gather my thoughts.
"It's an internet-based satellite mapping protocol, featuring street maps most of the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the U.K., Japan, and some cities of the Republic of Ireland."
"So you study maps of Cardiff?"
"Well, I mean, I use street view and the satellite images. It's fun."
"But they only just launched street view a couple months ago." Tosh sounded puzzled. "And only for a handful of major cities in the United States."
"Oh." I'd almost forgotten. "Um, what… what year is it?"
Gwen and Owen looked uncertainly at each other, Ianto closed his eyes, and Tosh's eyes brightened as if she suddenly understood something.
"It's two thousand seven. You didn't know that?"
I shook my head.
"This morning, before I came here, it was twenty-seventeen."
Ianto's eyes widened.
"Jack did say something about time travel."
"No, wait" Owen broke in again.
"See, what I don't understand is, even if you're from the future - why would anyone even want to study Cardiff?"
"You mean because Wales is the Alabama of the U.K.?"
"Well, I don't know much about your different states, but if you mean it's the backside of the middle of nowhere, then yeah, that's what I mean."
I thought quickly. I couldn't tell them about Torchwood, about being a fanfiction writer. But the easiest lie is the one that's mostly true.
"There's a TV show. It's popular on both sides of the pond."
I thought about the novel I was trying to plot out - something I could legally make money off of, but it was still in the planning stages and mostly just a fanfic of Torchwood only with names changed.
"It's called Excalibur, about a group of misfits based in Cardiff who fight crime and keep the world safe from the scum of the galaxy."
This time it was Gwen's eyes that lit up.
"You mean there's going to be a show on the telly about us? That people are going to watch - when do they start filming, maybe we can be in it!"
"Oh come on Gwen, like anyone in telly would want to work with us!"
"Owen! Come on, I just want to know."
Crap. I couldn't tell them…
wait, Jack had said something about different dimensions - and the name of the main character wasn't ACTUALLY the name of the series, no matter how many people got it mixed up. If I didn't actually spoil any of the plot I could probably get away with it AND tip them off I'm not from here without spilling what I didn't want them to know.
"Well, I'm not quite sure. I mean, the whole thing was out before I started watching it. It might even be on now..."
"Toshiko," Gwen interrupted me, "can you find out?"
"Actually," Ianto broke in, from where he leaned over his desktop computer "I've already taken the liberty. There is no such show, either on the air or in production."
"Well, what I was going to say - To…Excalibur was a spinoff of a long-running British sci-fi staple. Any of you guys know about Doctor Who?"