Hi again! There are some weird formatting issues that I can't fix, so it's going in as is. Thanks again to the readers, and reviewers. They're almost as good as chocolate!
The alarm alerted to the opening of the cog door. None of the team were particularly bothered, Ianto had gone out on some errands a few hours before, and was expected any time. Tosh glanced up from her screens, and froze; she stared at Ianto and the young woman standing behind him. Slowly she slipped off her chair, and glided to the door. The tourist was back again, and this time invited.
"What happened Ianto? What is she doing here?"
"I—" Ianto began, but the young woman cut him off.
"It seems I can't lose my memories. They keep coming back." The young woman smiled, and glanced at the well-dressed man beside her. "I ran into Ianto as he came back from his…whatever he was doing, and it all came rushing back." She shrugged.
"If it isn't the cat!" Owen wandered out from the kitchen with a cup of tea, and a grin.
"Excuse me?"
"The cat who came back." Owen continued to grin. "Not quite the next day, though. You'll need to work on that, if you really want to annoy Jack. He'd almost relaxed this time."
The tourist's face twisted into something like a smile, but her eyes remained serious. She turned and caught Jack standing at the railing by his office.
"Ianto!!" Jack's voice cracked across the Hub, and Ianto winced. "In my office NOW!"
"No!" The young woman stepped in front of the archivist, and spoke firmly. "It's my turn to talk with you. You've talked with everyone, but me, and I've talked with nearly everyone, but you" she glanced apologetically at Tosh, and then turned back to face Jack. "It's time we compare notes."
Jack glared at the woman for a long moment. Finally he spun around and swept back into his office. The girl glanced back at the three team members questioningly.
"That's about the only invitation you're likely to get." Owen shrugged, masking his sudden worry with indifference. Ianto and Tosh nodded agreement, and the girl headed for the stairs up to the office.
"By the way, I can't remember if I've told any, or all of you this, but I prefer Dani, to 'the Cat.'" With that she marched up the stairs, knocked on the office door, and entered.
Jack sat at his desk reading through some papers. He overtly ignored the young woman standing by the door. The girl hesitated a moment, before coming forward and sitting on the chair in front of the desk, and began studying the office, and the man in front of her. The silence deepened.
Finally, Jack looked up over his papers.
"So, my whole team likes you enough to threaten to mutiny."
"I'm Canadian. We're the Golden Retrievers of the world. We like to be liked."
Jack shook his head. "That's quite the description."
"It's not mine, and don't think it was originally meant to be a compliment, but I liked it when I heard it." She shrugged.
"So what am I supposed to do with you?" Jack sighed.
"I suppose there's always the bay."
"Not if I want my team to continue talking to me." Jack joked
"Well, that is a problem…What about if I promise to never, ever tell, cross my heart and hope to die." Her innocent expression was lost to her twitching lips.
"Oh, so long as you promise." Jack chuckled. He sobered, and the two stared at each other, again. The girl broke her gaze first, glancing out the glass doors at the three team mates, who were still standing together watching the office.
The girl sighed.
"Okay, so we're at an impasse. You don't trust me, and I don't blame you. You don't know me. Yet, you're super amnesia pill doesn't seem to work on me. So the question is: what do you need so that you will feel comfortable trusting me?"
"What?"
"What do you need from me so that you can trust me?"
"What I need…I need coffee." Jack stood up abruptly, and left the office.
The young woman smiled slightly as Jack passed the coffee machine, and made a beeline for his three teammates.
Jack tried to look casual, as he headed for Tosh, Owen and Ianto. The woman's question had rattled him. He was used to people asking for trust, but it wasn't often that people asked to earn that trust. Especially not in the 'me' generation of the twenty-first century.
He reached the team, still shaking his head.
"She asked what she could do to make me more comfortable. Who asks that?"
Ianto looked sympathetic "She does." Owen smirked.
"You've left her in your office?" Tosh's voice made the statement a question
"I told her I was getting coffee." Jack said. Ianto headed off to make coffee.
"Right, 'cause none of us would have told her about Tea-boy and his relationship with the coffee machine. Not to mention that she's tasted Ianto's. Oh, or that you walked past the coffee machine to get to us." Owen murmured sarcastically. Ianto glared at him over his shoulder.
"If she didn't know it was pretence, then she shouldn't have made it into the Hub." Jack shrugged. "Lets go back to the reason I'm down here instead of up there."
"Well I don't know what to tell you. I've given up on figuring out the workings of your mind. Half the time it's like you don't even trust us. The other half of the time, you trust us, even after we've betrayed you. In fact, you seemed to trust us more after we betrayed you. You're going to have to work this one out on your own, mate."
Owen leaned up against the wall, and crossed his arms.
Ianto glided back with two cups of coffee, and handed them to Jack.
"The dragonfly cup is yours, the red cup is for Dani." Ianto gently grabbed Jack's shoulders, turned him around, and pushed him toward the stairs. "I think if you give her a chance, you'll find that she really wants to help you."
The young tourist was still sitting where Jack had left her, watching the door. He put the red cup down on the desk in front of her, and returned to his own chair. He took a sip of the coffee, and savoured the taste as it slid down his throat. The girl had picked up her own cup, and appeared to be lost in the sensations. Jack smiled as she slowly came back to the world.
"Ianto will be gratified by someone who appreciates a good cup of coffee."
"Someone with this kind of skill should be getting paid like a rock star to use it."
"Coffee's only one of Ianto's many skills and you're right he doesn't get paid half of what he's worth."
"I hope he gets proper compensation." The girl commented.
"I make sure he gets plenty of compensation." Jack leered back.
"I'm sure you do." The woman said dryly, "I'm also sure he does more for you than you do for him."
"Excuse me! What's that supposed to mean?" Jack was getting tired of being behind the conversation.
"Only that the man uses his, very considerable, mind to anticipate your every need."
"He does that for everyone."
"You know it's not the same."
"Yes. I know."
"Good. I like him. I'd be sad if I thought he was with someone who didn't appreciate him."
Jack took another sip of his coffee, and stared into the cup. His thoughts were spinning. What was he supposed to do with a complete stranger who couldn't seem to stay out of the Hub? On top of that, she was too smart for her own good, and perceptive. She'd fit herself into the group faster than anyone he'd ever seen, except for Martha, and Martha had learned how to fit into any situation from the Doctor.
"You wouldn't know anything about a police box."
"A what?" the young woman looked startled.
"Nothing."
That answered that question. Jack went back to his musing. He could simply kill her and dump her body. He'd done it before, and to people that were more intimately connected to his team members than this girl. Somehow, he knew that this was different. The others had been attackers, clear threats to the team and to Torchwood, and no matter how he twisted events; he couldn't make her into a threat. The woman seemed content to sit and wait, but suddenly her presence made Jack edgy.
"I need to think this through. Go do something. See if Ianto will let you make coffee. Ask Tosh to show you the rift manipulator. Maybe you can get Owen to let you use his singularity scalpel."
The tourist shook her head. "Rift manipulator…Singularity scalpel?" she muttered, and then suddenly spoke up "Why would Ianto let me try making anything as important as coffee?"
She stood up, and headed for the door.
"Do you want anyone?"
"No. They've all been corrupted by you." Jack grumbled, but with a hint of amusement.
"Alright, is there anywhere you don't want me to go?"
Jack blinked.
"Uh, stay in the public areas, and don't touch anything."
"Alright."