Katie placed the musical instrument onto the appropriate shelf and wrote down the name and number in the book for the section. She looked around, surveying her work. Over the past several weeks, she had sorted and catalogued endlessly, and the store room was finally beginning to have a sense of order about it.
She had argued with Owen over the use of the medical supplies until Jack finally gave her permission to work on her diseases elsewhere. She had found a way to put them into a candy like form, which was much more pleasant than the injections. Owen was an interesting character, and gave her someone to spar with. What was most fun was calling him a crude word in another language, and leaving him to figure out what it meant from context.
Toshiko was another matter. Katie got along very well with her. Jack had finally let up on her restriction for the computer, and she had immediately set to work on it. She and Tosh had stayed up for thirty-six hours straight redesigning the firewall, until even Katie wouldn't have been able to break through. She had improved the sensors, and written language programs for every alien tongue she knew.
Katie and Gwen were pleasant, but not close, and Katie kept as far away from Jack as she could. Not only did he bother her, but unless she had just been artificially struck with illness, his energy scent was too powerful to resist, something that had definitely been found out the hard way. Fortunately, she hadn't kissed him that time. She had ripped his shirt off though. A slight smile touched her face. Looking back, it had certainly been…interesting trying to explain why had had her pinned to ground when Ianto had found them.
Ianto was another puzzle to Katie. The other TORCHWOOD members moved like he wasn't there, though it was obvious they wouldn't have been able to function without him. He did everything, from covering their tracks to keeping everything running smoothly. He was the backbone of the group. Jack might have been the brain, but even he could be replaced. Katie was just very careful not to get on Ianto's bad side, although she hadn't been able to resist teaching how to make coffee the right way.
Katie sighed. Tosh was still working on the chip, and was making some progress but hadn't really gotten anywhere. And if Tosh was having problems, Katie couldn't do much to help out.
Katie sighed again, this time in a frustrated manner. She felt so trapped, so useless! Every day, all she ever did was shelve things. She never got to go outside, and the only excitement she ever got was when she tested the alien weapons at the firing range. For the most part, it was inactivity, and she hated inactivity. It didn't help that yesterday she had translated and read a book of legends about "the blue box" and "the traveling physician." She should be out there now, but instead she was trapped on earth. She couldn't sleep, was technically popping pills, and her nerves were going raw. Not good.
She started walking slowly back to her desk, thoughts taking a melancholy turn. What if the Doctor wasn't even looking for her? He might not exactly be missing her. He was under no obligation to come after her even if she did call. She had been pulled through the Rift barely after invading his privacy and committing genocide. Not exactly the best way to make a good impression on the Doctor. And then there were her plants. He had never liked those. She was a stray, and now she was gone, out of his hair, no longer his problem. What if she never saw him again, and was left stuck underground in Cardiff forever?
A breeze rushed by, making the hair on the back of her neck rise. She spun about, expecting to see someone, but the space was empty.
"Yello? Harper, if you're trying to pull a fast one, I'll have you know that I'm standing next to the tranquilizer guns, and I'm not afraid to put you out."
Kavrin.
Katie's eyes narrowed. The voice, the thought, whatever it was, had been plaguing her the past few weeks as well. Always when she was alone, always when she thought of the Doctor, and only if it had been an hour since her last disease candy.
"There you go again with the weird names. Gonna show yourself this time instead of playing hide and seek?"
You already know what I look like. I am FirstSecond Friend.
"Yeah, that makes it a whole lot clearer," Katie said sarcastically. "Tell me another riddle so that I can solve the first one."
When is it the worst for a friend to betray a friend?
Katie swallowed the sudden lump in her throat, pushing the memories back down as well. "Why would that matter? We aren't exactly close."
We are. I am FirstSecond Friend. I am you.
"Talk about a multiple personality complex."
"You made me."
Katie cocked her head. The voice sounded more like a whisper now, rather than a telepathic voice. Down the hallway, she noticed a slight shape starting to form.
"I'm pretty sure I would have remembered something like that," Katie said to it. "However, my memory can go fuzzy on this planet. Maybe you could remind me exactly when I made you."
"When you left me."
Katie inhaled sharply, eyes widening as the blood drained from her face. The shape had partially solidified and stepped forward where she could see it, the dark red blood on it standing out against the white of its shirt.
"You're dead. I know you're dead."
"Am I?"
"I watched you die."
"No Kavrin. You made me die."
Katie broke, taking off down the hallway. Behind her, the shape smiled and dissipated.
Jack found Jo an hour later down in the holding cells. Literally in the holding cells. She was sitting next to Janet, TORCHWOOD's resident Weevil, stroking her head with gloved hands and talking to her.
"Yeah. I know. It's rude of them to do that to you. You are a great listener though. And a good conversationalist. Well, that's because they can't understand you. Just try to be patient with them. Humans are stupid and arrogant, but they mean well. Most of the time, anyway."
"Enjoying yourself?"
Jo looked up at Jack, her green eyes slightly distrustful. "Did you need something?"
"Making sure I know where you are."
"Now you know. Now scoot. You're interrupting."
Jack looked curiously at Janet. "You can talk to her?"
"You do it all the time," Jo said in an accusing tone. "Just because you think she can't hear you doesn't mean anything."
"Meaning…"
"Weevil's are telepathic, moron. All you humans keep taking turns coming down here to stare at her, as though if you stare long and hard enough all your problems will be solved. Well, she hears all your problems until they start to become hers."
"You can hear her thoughts."
Jo wrinkled her nose. "Sort of. I get pictures and feelings mostly and have to fill in the rest. I collect the energy from brain waves, but that doesn't make me telepathic."
"Why are you in there anyway?" Jack asked.
"I felt like it. Can't talk to someone through a plastic wall, you know."
Jack studied Jo for a few moments. "You look more like you're hiding from something."
Jo smiled wryly. "I think we all are. Some more than others, but we all have memories to run from."
"Which memory are you hiding from?"
"None of your business," Jo said sharply. "Look, if you don't need anything, and aren't going to ask any of the questions I know you have, get ye gone from here."
Jack sat down across from the cell.
"I've yet to get a good reason on why you carry that pouch around all the time."
Jo's free hand went up to grasp the pouch automatically. "Why is it so important?"
"You came out of a drug induced sleep solely for the reason of protecting it, when you did nothing about being stripped."
"I suppose it would make you curious."
Jack stared at Jo. She sighed. Opening the pouch with one hand, she pulled out a smooth, black stone and held it up for Jack to see.
"If I told you the Doctor gave it to me, would you believe me?"
"No."
Jo smiled lightly. "Not surprised. Still, it is a sort of a keepsake from the time I met him. It's really the reason I met him. Well, one of the reasons." She gazed at the rock before putting it away. "It's a DNA transporter. The race that built me placed it in my path in hopes of using it as a recall button. It activated early when a Grixzen mercenary bit my shoulder. I landed in TARDIS, panicked and tried to shoot the Doctor, and in the end escaped being returned to my creators."
"You were made?"
"It's not as though someone like me grows on trees," Jo said in a cutting tone. "I had to be constructed. Before you ask, I've never met my maker, nor do I intend to. The day I do, I'll either be killed, recycled, or die avoiding either fate. So, next question."
"How often have you died?"
"Only twice. I never know it happened until I wake up. It's like falling asleep, that's all," Jo said, shrugging. "What about you?" she asked. Jack laughed humorlessly.
"More often than I could ever count. It doesn't happen the way yours did though."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just before you came back, everything vanished. Honestly everything. The only thing that still existed was my heartbeat."
Jo clicked her teeth, thinking. Mindlessly, she reached into her pocket and unwrapped one of her candies. Rolling it around her mouth, she answered,
"It sounds like all the energy around you vanished. I must take it all in and use it for physical reconstruction. Only thing that makes sense."
Jo fixed Jack with a quiet stare. "I know that now you're wondering why that doesn't happen to you. Well, I can't give you a solid answer, but I can make an educated guess. Wanna hear it?"
Without waiting for an answer, she plunged into her explanation. "You, mi querido capitán, are stuffed practically to the bursting point with temporal energy. Now, I really only learned about it the day before I got pulled through the Rift, but when you hang around energy as long as I do, you pick up a few things. Temporal energy is a form of potential energy. You can live out your potential with more time and you need more time to live out your full potential, etcetera. So, you literally have so much potential that you can't die. Don't worry though, you'll run out eventually."
Jack thought about that for a few moments, and then nodded. "Better explanation than he could give me."
"How recently did you see him?"
Jack smiled secretively. "The end of time."
"Sounds fun."
"Not really. We set loose a mad Time Lord and he took over the earth for a year until the Doctor reversed time. Well, Martha did most of the work, but the Doctor saved everything ultimately."
"There was another Time Lord? I thought he was the last. Everyone else got stuck in a time lock."
"One escaped."
"I suppose that's all it would take," Jo said quietly. She straightened and smiled lightly. "So, you met Martha Jones. That must have been something."
Jack smiled. "She certainly is. Brilliant, tough woman. You would not want to be on her bad side."
"She was the one right after the blond chick, right?"
Jack seemed to grow suspicious. "How do you know about Rose?"
"Ha ha! Finally I have a name," Jo said. "I caught a peek of her in the Doctor's mind. Was she the one who left you this way?"
Jack held steady, finally answering. "Yes. She had taken the entire time vortex into her head, using it to save the Doctor from a race called the Daleks."
Jo nodded. "I thought she might have been. She had that feeling about her. The Daleks are the up-side-down gold garbage buckets, right? With the plunger arms and things?"
"Never heard them described quite that way, but yes. They've had all the emotions bred out of them except hate. They live to destroy everything that is not them."
"Space Nazi's?"
Jack laughed lightly. "Yeah. Space Nazi's."
Jo was silent for a moment, thinking. "I wonder if the Doctor will ever recover from her. Rose, I mean."
"Why, have you set your sights on him?"
Jo fixed Jack with a look. "He's even older than you are, Skippy."
Jack shrugged. "By Time Lord standards he probably isn't much older than you."
"Look," Jo said acidly. "We're just two people who found each other. No more, no less."
"You make it sound romantic."
"It's not. I was a stray that could have taken care of itself, but he felt sorry enough to give me a lift. That's all. He's a father figure, a brother, and a friend. No, my only friend. And that's the end of it."
Jack didn't say anything in reply. Jo ignored him, leaning her head back and closed her eyes, still stroking Janet, who was now asleep.
They stayed there the rest of the night, both wondering who the observer was really.
*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*
