A/N: Enjoy Ghost Machine
(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 10th September (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)
Jack called Lucy over to his office, she shrugged and put down the file she was writing up again - water damage and bad handwriting was a terrible mix - and walked over to his office. Jack shut the door behind her.
"What's up?" Lucy asked slightly worried, Gwen had been with the team for just over a week now and although she was still technically the Welshwoman's mentor she had taken a step or two back.
"Ianto's been making me do my paperwork. It's a pain in the ass but I have found out some interesting things," Jack started "for example it turns out you are due a holiday. You've been working for Torchwood for three months and have only had 8 days off in the entire time you've been here."
Lucy shrugged uncomfortably,
"It's not the kind of job that lends itself to days off and I always seem to have stuff to do. I'm training, or working on my personal projects or we've got an emergency and I'm in the field, or its just normal stuff with the weevils or..."
"You need to take some time off." Jack insisted her as he interrupted. "I understand why you don't want it, because if you take time off you'll be a normal person and it'll hit home that you are in a different universe."
"I know I'm in a different universe." Lucy said rolling her eyes, "Living in a TV show does make it rather obvious, although we've only had two episodes so far."
"That's something I want to discuss as well." Jack agreed, "But you're straying from the point. You've been displaced and you are burying yourself in work so you don't have to think about it. Unfortunately for you I'm not going to let you do that any longer. You've got a week of enforced holiday and UNIT are expecting you this weekend before you take it."
"Why am I going to UNIT?" Lucy asked worried, "They haven't found out about me have they? They don't want to run tests or try and find out the future?"
"Nothing like that." Jack said calming her down. "It's just they've got some different alien weapons to us and as you are Torchwood's official weapons specialist I thought you might want to go have a look. They're giving you free access to their shooting range for 48 hours." Lucy's eyes widened as she realised what Jack was saying.
"I got the promotion, but I haven't done everything you wanted me too yet."
"You deserve it, just keep working on it, we both know you'll get there." Jack laughed, "Although I'm not sure what the Doctor will say, you idolise him and yet you not only work for Torchwood but you are our weapons specialist as well."
"He'd look at me disappointingly and make some disparaging comment, probably switch my gun for a banana." Lucy replied automatically "And then he'd find a great injustice that needed fixing and forget all about it, until I saved his life with one of my weapons."
"Probably" Jack agreed, "You sound like you've thought about it."
"I've just watched far too much Doctor Who." Lucy countered. "So am I really getting to play with UNIT's toys?"
"You'll be supervised obviously, it'll be minimal but it will be there." He said, "Go have fun. I realised this was the only way I could make you take longer off work."
"You do know Ianto is due a holiday as well." Lucy said suddenly realising something, "Since I've started he's taken less than me off. He just fixes the paperwork to look like he has. It's not like any of you guys notice him - he just blends into the background."
"I'll look into it." Jack promised. He poured himself a drink and spoke again, "But before you get ready for your time off there is something else I want to talk about - your knowledge." Lucy nodded.
"I knew you would want this conversation at some point."
"I've not pressed you on how much you know or when you know it but we need to lay down some rules. For a start when are you going to tell Gwen?" Lucy shrugged looking everywhere apart from at Jack.
"I dunno. I don't really want to. I mean it doesn't make any difference because I'm not stupid enough to use this information to try and change everything and I like the fact that she doesn't know, makes me feel a bit normal."
"She needs to be told at some point."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Fine! But not for a while yet, see if she can work it out - or at least work out that something is wrong. I just don't see why she has to know."
"Because no matter how much you may or may not like her she is your team mate and you have to work together in the field and therefore you have to be able to trust each other."
"Ok, I'll tell her on election day, end of series 1. Will that do?"
"It'll do for now. That's the latest you can tell her." Jack countered, "I'm not happy about it but if you don't tell her after that I will. You've got till the new Prime Minister steps into office."
"You'll have other things to worry about." Lucy muttered remembering how the Master was going to treat the immortal captain throughout the year that never was. On election day Captain Jack Harkness would be more concerned with the Doctor, the Master and Martha Jones than Lucy needing to tell Gwen the truth.
"I don't want to know. What we need to do is work out how we deal with an episode?"
"Well I'm doing my best not to change anything, I could have said I knew the name of the human the sex gas had possessed and that would have sped everything up. We would have found Carys that night and could have potentially worked out a way to save her without her having killed anyone else."
"So why didn't you?"
"Because I don't know that impact that will have on the world! I'm not the Doctor, I can't see what is a fixed point and what isn't. He said that the worst thing is an ordinary human being alive when they shouldn't be - dammit the reapers nearly destroyed all of time when Rose saved her dad. So I figure the best thing to do is to act as though every episode is a fixed point in time."
"Can you do that?" Jack asked, he had to be sure that nothing was going to go seriously wrong.
"I can do my damned best." She said harshly before sagging slightly. "I don't know what I can and can't do, so I figure it's best to act as though I can't do anything. It's not as though I can just ask him."
They sat in silence for a while, both thinking about the Doctor and trying to guess what he would say about this situation.
Lucy was the first to speak, "So, I'm guessing that as I've got this promotion and you are sending me off to play at UNIT you have no plans to get rid of me; due to the circumstances, I mean."
"Nothing at present" Jack smirked, "Just try not to destroy all of time and everything will be fine."
"I'll try." Lucy replied, "Sooo... UNIT? What do they know about me?"
"They have your official existence but nothing about how you appeared here. That's not leaving Torchwood - ever."
"Thank you." She spoke sincerely. Lucy knew that although the Doctor preferred UNIT over Torchwood - mainly because of the Brig and that he had worked for them in their golden years - UNIT was still not above the idea of locking people away forever or running tests on people with 'abnormalities'. She also knew that she would be considered an 'abnormality' and her knowledge a potential threat.
"No one hurts any member of my team apart from me." Jack said equally seriously but with a twinkle in his eye. "Anyway, the minute you leave this office you are officially on holiday. UNIT will be picking you up are 6am on Friday and give you lodging until they drop you back off at 9pm Sunday evening. And then you can come back to work on Wednesday."
Lucy made to complain but Jack just looked at her and she knew that she wasn't going to win. "Fine" She sighed. "I'll go grab my bag. See you in a week."
"Have fun at UNIT and don't let them push you around. You're Torchwood's weapons specialist, remind them of that every now and again - you have just as much right to be there as they do if not more."
"See you Jack." Lucy said with a laugh, "I'll make sure to send you a picture of their faces when I beat them in a shooting competition."
Lucy walked out of the office with a smile, Ianto was waiting near her desk with a mug of coffee. "Wasn't sure if it was good or bad news and thought you might need a pick-me-up." He said as he passed her the mug.
"Thanks Yan." She replied as she started to tidy her stuff away. "Mixture of good and bad - I'm on enforced holiday leave. Jack seems to think I spend too much time here."
"You do." Ianto interrupted wryly. "Almost as much as me, and I have a reason to be spending my spare time here; you don't."
"Yeah well, he's kicking me out for a week, but I get to spend the weekend at UNIT playing on their range with all their lovely toys. It's only fitting for Torchwood's weapons specialist to have an idea of what they have and how to use it."
"Congratulations." He said, understanding that this meant that she got the promotion she wanted
"Thanks." Lucy grinned, "Feels like I actually belong here."
"You've always belonged here."
"You know what I mean."
"Oi Tea-boy!" Owen called over "Stop gossiping and come and help me over here. I need another pair of hands."
"Duty calls. I'll see you later, I'll walk home and leave you the car" Lucy said as she grabbed her bag and left the hub. She spent some time just enjoying the view of Cardiff bay on a normal morning - cold and windy and still somehow beautiful - before walking back to the flat that she and Ianto shared.
(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)
Lucy walked back into the tourist office with Ianto a week later, looking forward to going back to work. Her weekend at UNIT had given her some new ideas of training practice and competitions between the team to make sure that their skills didn't drop.
Ianto had informed her of the incident with the ghost-machine that happened while she wasn't there. Although she wanted to come in and help, Jack had Ianto tell her that she still wasn't allowed into work and he would get her arrested for breaking into government property if she tried and she knew he wasn't joking.
As she went to walk into the hub Lucy spotted a new addition to her list of rules, written in Jack's handwriting.
'Rule 15 - NEVER press flashing buttons on alien technology if I haven't cleared it for use
'Rule 16 - You MUST have 1 day off for every 7 days working (Lucy and Ianto this is for you), end of the world excepting.'
She laughed at the idea of Jack holding back on his rant to Owen and just scribbling on the list instead, she took a pen out of her pocket and wrote another couple of rules she had thought of while she was on 'holiday'
'Rule 17 - NO PLAYING WITH TIME TRAVEL
Rule 17a - Unless you are with the Doctor in which case have fun but leave us a note to let us know where you are going'
Ianto smirked when he saw what she added. "You ready to get back to work again?" he asked as they walked down the corridor between the tourist office and the hub
Lucy nodded, "You know I am. Although I am kinda glad I missed that episode. It's fairly dull."
"I doubt Owen or Gwen thought that."
"Oh well." She shrugged, "They're hardly going to hold it against me, it's not the worst this series - that's later on. But come on you have to admit from the point of view of a story it's not the most exciting. You went to Splott - or Sploe however you want to pronounce it. Also I know you Ianto Jones, you've lived in Cardiff all your life, you call it Splott just like everyone else, you just wanted to annoy them." Ianto just smirked.
"I will admit that it doesn't make the best story."
"But you still make the best coffee and you want to make it for me now as a 'welcome back to work' present." Lucy said jokingly
"I make a coffee as soon as I get in anyway. And it's not like I haven't been making it at home"
"It's not the same though."
The cog door opened and neither were surprised to see that apart from Jack they were the first ones in.
"Yes I'll make you some coffee" Ianto sighed, he knew that Lucy wasn't going to let it go. "You go and fill Jack in and get the official story and I'll prepare my best coffee for you."
"Thanks Yan." Lucy grinned as she walked over to Jack's office, "see you in a bit."
(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I decided to leave Ghost Machine because it's an important mmoment for Gwen and I couldn't work out how to do it with Lucy in. It was too Gwen-centric.
But next week is part 1 of 2 for Cyberwoman and Lucy makes a BIG impact in that.
Please Review *puppy dog eyes*
Rea
