A/N: I don't own anything you recognize from the show. Of course.
Tracking Torchwood Arc Two
By
Lariel Romeniel
Chapter Eleven - Dogfight
Kit cursed as she tied off her sweater around Mariah as tightly as possible to stop the bleeding, then buckled the injured woman into her seat as tightly as she could. She returned to the co-pilot's seat and strapped in. "What do I do? Man the weapons?"
"There aren't any."
She shot him a look of terrified disbelief. "What do you mean, there aren't any?"
"Just what I said!" he replied. "There aren't any! The Lhasanesisarians are pacifists. This is a research scout. Nothing more dangerous than flares on board!"
"Oh, great! So how do you have a dogfight without weapons?"
He grinned wolfishly. "It's not just about firing missiles, Kit. Dogfights are really about flying skill. And I happen to be an excellent pilot!" He glanced at the screen again. "Bogeys at two o'clock. Hold on!"
He pulled the joystick sharply left, spinning the saucer around back in the direction they'd come from, then shoved the stick forward to accelerate and swaying it back and forth in evasive maneuvering. "I'll keep them off our tail, Kit. I need you to find the cloaking device control and turn it on."
"Don't you know which one it is?" Two more fighters had joined the chase, heading straight toward them.
"If I did don't you think I'd have turned it on by now?" he shouted as he flipped the saucer edgewise to fly between the other craft.
"I don't know!You seem to like playing chicken with the fighters!" she shouted back as she began looking at the controls. "Damn! They couldn't label these with words, like 'Cloaking Device?' How about this one?" Kit reached for one bright red button. The Doctor slapped her hand away. "That's for the cargo door!" He put both hands back on the joystick, making the craft zig-zag to avoid fire.
She pointed to another button. "Then this!"
"That's the flares!" A sharp turn to the right. Mariah moaned in pain.
"Hang in there, Mariah! Doctor, what about this one?"
He took the saucer in a low loop around the New Washington Monument, sending tourists below running for cover. "Not that button! It'll start the landing sequence!"
In exasperation, she exclaimed, "I'm running out of options here! Got a wild guess?"
"Look for a blue triangle!" he answered, sending the saucer steeply upward. Kit scanned the many buttons on the panel and spotted the right one. "Got it!" she said, and pushed it.
As Kit hit the button, the Doctor jerked the joystick back and pulled on a lever. They jerked forward in their seats as the saucer stopped dead in the sky. They watched the target screen, where four images were quickly approaching their position…and then shot past them, unable to see the now-cloaked vessel. The Doctor smiled in satisfaction. "See? I told you we don't need weapons. Just skill. The best pilot is always top dog in a dogfight."
She rolled her eyes at him as she unstrapped herself. "And you say I drive like a maniac!" She got up to check on Mariah.
He set the lever back and pulled the joystick to send them toward the edge of the Mall, where the TARDIS was parked. Behind him, he heard Kit curse again, and glanced back. Mariah was shivering, and her breathing had become labored. "Doctor, she's lost a lot of blood," Kit said. He nodded and turned his attention back to his flying.
"We're almost back to the TARDIS. I can treat her in the medical bay," he said, looking at his timeship in the viewscreen. Two men were nearby, making a poor attempt at looking casual. "Ah. Some Torchwood people hanging about. Let's give them a diversion."
He pressed the button for the flares once, then a second time. One flare after another shot from the cloaked saucer, landing in a wooded area half a block from the TARDIS. As he expected, the Torchwood guards responded by running toward the impact zone.
The Doctor set the saucer down in front of the TARDIS and hit the hatch button. "Kit, get the sigma box. I'll take Mariah."
He unstrapped the injured woman and lifted her carefully. He followed Kit out across the short space to the TARDIS. "Key in my jacket pocket, Kit!"
Trying to balance the sigma with one arm, she pulled the key out and whirled to open the TARDIS door. In a moment they were safe inside. Kit put the sigma down, and then helped him set Mariah in the chair for a moment, holding her there to let him work the console and send them back into the time vortex. As the rotor started moving, he turned back to the women. "Let's get her to the medical bay."
"Too late, Doctor," Mariah whispered. She loosened Kit's sweater from around her body and let it fall, blood-soaked, to the grate. Too much blood.
Together, they moved her down from the seat to the floor, trying to make her as comfortable as possible. "Doc- doc…" Mariah tried to talk, but couldn't. She grasped his hand and guided it to her temple. Nodding in understanding, he entered her mind one more time, then withdrew as she let out a last breath.
Kit stared at him, too stunned for tears. Together they laid Mariah back down. He stood and returned to the console, entering a set of coordinates.
Some time later, they stood under a strange purple sky. They had laid Mariah to rest in the place he saw in her last thoughts; a place she had once explored in search of alien wonders. They watched the sun set, and wordlessly returned to the TARDIS.
Once again, the Doctor returned them to the vortex. Kit leaned back against the console next to him, lost in thought. After a few more quiet moments, he squared his shoulders, bracing himself for what he needed to say. She had to know.
He turned to her and finally broke the silence. "What Smithers said was true. People get killed around me, Kit, too easily. If you don't want to stay…." His voice trailed off, his body tensed as he waited for her reaction.
She turned her head to look at him. "What Romana said was also true. None of it was your fault. So no blaming yourself! And you weren't meant to be alone, either. Not the way you get into trouble!" she said with a gentle smile. He smiled back, and she went on, "I want to stay. But we've got a lot to talk about. I want to know everything. Romana, Gallifrey, Rose...everything."
He laughed a little nervously. "That could take a while."
Her smile grew a bit wider. "Time machine, right? I figure we've got a while, and a bit more. And I told you before; I'm a very good listener."
He relaxed with a sigh, glad he wouldn't be losing another companion so quickly. Romana's message had left him too unsettled to want to be alone. "All right, then. We'll go over to the library, and I'll tell you everything you want to know."
She fell in step beside him as they left the console room, and said, "Then we can figure out how to do what Romana told you to do."
Rebuild the Time Lords. The thought made him stammer, "Kit…I…that's…it's impossible."
Wasn't it?
End of Arc Two
A/N: I know, I know. I create a nice Torchwood employee and I kill her. And she was a 10/Rose shipper! Worse and worse. I'm evil, I know. This went in places I wasn't really expecting. So, what do you think?
