The Trouble with Nessie - Chapter Ten

Author: Milady Dragon

Author's Note: One more chapter after this one...

10 June 2012

Torchwood House

Aberdeenshire, Scotland

"And how is Nessie doing?" Jack asked from the wall monitor in Ianto's office.

Ianto was smiling. "She's doing fine. The replacement took a little more effort than we'd thought, but both Toshiko and Oscar – with a little help from FitzSimmons – had things well in hand."

Toshiko blushed a little, but she was pleased by the affirmation of her abilities. They'd arrived back at Torchwood House just that morning, after spending ten days in Tulloch monitoring Nessie's progress. She and Archie had reported to Ianto immediately, letting Oscar and Josh go off to whatever they'd wanted to do; Josh had headed up toward the main computer room, where Penelope was, and Toshiko did wonder what was up with that. It wasn't as if she didn't have access to the records of whoever was using the sub-wave, and she'd noticed that Josh had called Penelope nearly every night they'd been at Loch Ness.

She was going to keep an eye on that particular development, and cheer it on if necessary.

"The node was on the verge of crashing," she explained. "If we'd waited another day…Nessie wouldn't have survived, the node was far too degraded and was randomly sending electrical pulses through her anterior nerve clusters. It was only a matter of hours before the short would have caused a cascade along every inch of her nervous system."

"If it weren't for Josh doing what he'd done," Archie put in, "we would have lost our girl."

The Scotsman had become quite the fan of their newest recruit. It was a really big turnaround from the man who'd questioned Jack and Ianto both about hiring Josh in the first place. But, Josh had done what they'd all thought was nearly impossible: he'd gone down into that cave and had convinced Nessie to come out, so they could help her. Toshiko sincerely doubted any of them would have been able to do that, not without her having to use her magic to cause catastrophic damage to the loch's coastline in order to get to that cave, which would have brought all sorts of attention down on both Tulloch and Nessie. Which none of them needed.

"Then I'm glad he showed up on our doorstep," Jack commented, barely keeping the smugness out of his tone.

Archie crossed his arms defensively. "I'm allowed to have my doubts, Jack. And ye canna say they weren't valid."

"They were," Ianto agreed, without acrimony. "However, you should have trusted that Jack and I would have considered them in our decision to hire Josh in the first place. Besides, he'd kept Torchwood secrets for years before approaching us."

"Aye." Archie deflated. "Ye're right, of course. It was just the idea that ye'd hired a television presenter…" There was such disgust in his voice it had both Jack and Ianto laughing.

"I was the same way," Toshiko admitted. "I wasn't sure about it, but for me it was the idea that he'd originally come to Cardiff to hunt you down, Ianto. You're my best friend and, to me, that was an insult. But," she took a deep breath, "I was wrong. Josh proved himself by going into a potentially dangerous dive in order to save Nessie, without any thought to his own safety beyond the functioning of this equipment…his borrowed equipment, which he hadn't been familiar with. If there was an award we could give for that sort of bravery, I'd put him up for it."

"He'll have to settle for a commendation in his file," Ianto said.

"Already done," Jack put in, giving her a knowing look. If she hadn't already been convinced all this was a part of his plan to get Toshiko to accept Josh into their family, it would have been confirmed just then. "Patrick is now practically salivating to get Josh on his team."

"That was a foregone conclusion," Ianto added. "We were expecting him to choose London, although I can't say I'm not disappointed he isn't going to stay in Cardiff. We could certainly use him. Or Clint, but we all knew he was going to London from the moment he resigned from SHIELD."

This was true. So far, all of their efforts had really gone into getting London up and running, and to prepare Torchwood House for the last of the UNIT Archives toward the end of next year. Cardiff, while still the headquarters of the Torchwood Institute since One had fallen, was considered a bit of a backwater, not needing the large teams that London did, since that city was such a prime target for all sorts of alien invasions. Cardiff was, as well, because of the Rift, but they'd always been easily handled by a smaller team. Ianto and Jack were always looking to expand, however, but Toshiko was aware that the other two branches took priority for the time being.

"Although," Archie mused, "I could try to convince Josh to stay here at the House. He'd make a wonderful addition here."

"That would also work," Ianto allowed, "but I think our Josh is more of an adrenaline junkie than scientist, and wouldn't last two months doing pure research."

"He's still a card-carrying member of the Explorer's Club," Jack pointed out. "Which says more about his need to get himself into strange circumstances than anything else."

Archie had to concede that fact. "Although I reserve the right to call him up if there's ever another problem with Nessie. She loves him to pieces."

"He helped keep her calm for the procedure," Toshiko said. "The device I built worked to anesthetise her…to an extent. I'll have to work on it a little more, to get it up to snuff in case we do have another emergency like this one."

"We might be able to adapt it to other aliens who have a resistance to Earth anaesthesia," the dragon also suggested.

"It's on my list," she confirmed. "Also on my list, is this Blue Angels thing Angus claimed about Josh."

Ianto was nodding. "I'm interested as well. I seem to recall hearing something about that in one of the stories my Tad used to tell, but it wasn't until Penelope brought it to my attention that it came to mind."

"Sounds like alien influence to me," Jack replied. "It certainly wouldn't be the first time that sort of thing has happened."

Jack was right about that. And Toshiko couldn't help but be very curious about it, in regards to their newest teammate.

"And I know Owen will want to see what he can figure out," the dragon added.

"Oh, Josh is going to hate that," Archie sighed.

"We'll also see if we can figure it out by following other paths of enquiry." Toshiko already had some ideas.

"Good," Jack said. "Now, I want you to take today, Toshiko, and then you and Josh head back to Cardiff. Ianto, you'll make sure the Royal Navy gets their diving equipment back with our thanks."

"Already taken care of," Ianto said. "And I'm also planning on speaking to Josh about getting our own gear for Torchwood, and to get a couple more of us trained on using it."

Toshiko laughed. "You might want to wait until dinner, Ianto. I think Josh is going to be busy with Penelope for a bit. They talked over the sub-wave all the time when we were in Tulloch."

Her friend raised a single eyebrow. "Josh and Penelope? Really?"

Jack was laughing. "It wouldn't be the first Torchwood romance. And it certainly won't be the last."

He had a point. After all, the first real Torchwood romance was present in the meeting, even if one of them was still in Cardiff.

"That would mean that Josh might not be as much a stranger to Torchwood House as all that," Archie chuckled, looking pleased. "And Penelope is a wonderful lass. If that particular romance works out, they would be good together."

"She might curb Josh's more exuberant need to walk into trouble," Ianto considered.

"I'll be planning on encouraging this sort of thing as much as possible," the Scotsman promised.

"I never knew you were that much of a matchmaker, Archie." Jack looked highly amused by the whole idea.

"Everyone deserves to be happy."

"And Archie has a vested interest in that, ever since he and Kren finally got their acts together." Toshiko teased. She had to admit, Archie and Kren did make a striking couple, and the Cheem loved Archie as much as Archie loved her.

Jack waggled a finger at them. "Just remember that Torchwood isn't a dating service."

Archie put a hand over his heart. "It never crossed my mind, Jack."

"Yeah, right."

Toshiko laughed at that. Jack was possibly the biggest romantic in the Institute, which was such a change from the sharp, flirtatious man she'd met while in that UNIT prison, so long ago. Ianto had mellowed him, that much was obvious. Now, the immortal was more like the father of the Torchwood Institute, and it was a perfect fit. Yes, she knew in the back of Jack's mind was the ever-present knowledge that he'd lose them all – except for Ianto, Great Dragons willing – someday. But now, he was more willing to show how much he cared, instead of pushing them all away in the mistaken attempt at keeping them at arms' length out of a sense of his personal, emotional, survival.

"Now," he went on, "I'd like to speak to Ianto in private. Give everyone my regards, and we'll have our usual bi-weekly meeting this coming Friday."

Toshiko smirked, but didn't say anything. It wasn't as if she didn't know what the two of them would get up to. After all, the mates were now physically separated for months at a time, and took whatever opportunity they could to reconnect…even if it meant cybersex.

Still, she said goodbye to Jack and, accepting Archie's offered arm – because he knew exactly the same thing that Toshiko did as to what Jack and Ianto were going to get up to – they left the office, making certain the door was shut behind them.

"How about joining me for a scotch in my own office?" Archie asked.

Toshiko had a few things she wanted to do while they were at the House, and she also wanted to call Kathy over the sub-wave, but they could wait for a little bit longer. "That sounds lovely."

"Excellent. Because I'd like to discuss with ye this whole matchmaking thing…"

She couldn't help but laugh.