Evie's TARDIS Diary: Work Experience

Age: 16

Location: Cardiff, Wales, Earth

Date: March 2013

Mum had dropped me off at Torchwood Three, the Cardiff Hub to spend some time with Jack while she went off hunting some rare painting that she had recently tracked down. For once I'd been given the option of whether I wanted to go with her, but art and paintings bored me and, however exciting the chase was, I knew I'd get bored quickly.

"Hey?" I called, heading down on the chuck of pavement that served as an invisible lift from Roald Dhal Plass above. There didn't seem to be anyone in and, since Mafanwy had been killed when the hub had been destroyed several years previously, it was in silence. This seemed to be the case the majority of the time when I arrived.

I didn't have long to wait before the alarms sounded and the doors moved across slowly. Animated chatter reached my ears Jack appeared with a plastic bag in one hand and a large pizza box under his other arm. A pretty black woman appeared behind him, another pizza box clutched in her hands.

She spotted me first, her eyebrows furrowing slightly before she reached for a gun on the desk beside her, aiming it at me. I didn't flinch.

"Uncle Jack?" I said with a sigh. He turned his attention away from his colleague and the puzzled expression on his face vanished as he spotted me.

"Evie Song!" He said with a laugh, moving towards me. I jumped into his arms and he swung me round, as he always did. "What are you doing here?"

"Work Experience." I told him with a grin. "Mum's off on one of her missions."

"Fabulous!" He laughed, before standing aside and waving his arm in the direction of the bewildered woman who was still pointing her gun at me. "This is Martha Smith… she was Martha Jones when she met the Doctor."

I smiled at her. "Nice to meet you, Martha, I've heard lots about you."

"How much?" She asked, smirking slightly and raising an eyebrow. I looked a little confused. "What have you heard?"

"That you travelled with the Doctor after Rose and before Donna and that you're a doctor yourself." I said with a shrug, wondering what she meant.

"Oh…" Martha seemed a little surprised. "So… you travel with the Doctor now? His companions are getting younger then… how old are you?"

"Sixteen." I told her with a shrug, settling myself in one of the swivelling chairs and spinning it quickly. "But I don't always travel with him, so technically I'm not a companion."

"Evie's Mum is a friend of the Doctor's… the future Doctor."

I raised an eyebrow, grabbing hold of the desk to bring the spinning chair to an abrupt halt. "She's a bit more than his friend." I said meaningfully.

Jack smirked and moulded his face into a shocked expression. "Evie! Whatever do you mean!" As I opened my mouth to explain, he held up a hand to stop me. "On second thoughts, don't answer that."

I laughed and started spinning round again. I could hear Martha and Jack muttering quietly, as though they hoped that I couldn't hear. They were discussing what to do about my sudden appearance. Apparently there was an interesting case for them to deal with but Martha wasn't sure whether I should get involved. I sighed loudly, raising an eyebrow and Jack glanced over.

"Pizza?" He offered. Nodding I opened the box and helped myself to a slice, removing the onions and peppers with a grimace. Vegetables did not belong on pizza; it was supposed to be unhealthy.

"You do realise that you won't be getting rid of me, or palming me off on anyone else." I told them, interrupting their conversation. "I've been dealing with dangerous stuff since I could walk."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Jack informed me, picking up a slice of pizza and jamming most of it in his mouth in one go. I shook my head slightly, pulling a face and proceeded to demolish the rest of my own slice in another bite. He grinned. Martha sighed and sat down, opening the other box and starting to eat.

The doors opened once more and Gwen walked in, with a man. His gaze went immediately to Martha and her face lit up. I guessed this must be her husband from the look that was passing between them. Gwen beamed at me, ruffling my hair and squeezing my shoulders as she passed.

"Evie, this is Micky, Martha's husband." Jack said through a mouthful of pizza. "Micky, this is my Goddaughter, Evie."

"Alright?" The man nodded to me, before moving to kiss his wife.

"Aww, sweet…" I muttered, glancing at Jack and pulling a face. He grinned at me, but there was something different about him. Something flashed through his eyes and he jumped to his feet, announcing that there was something he had to do but he'd be back soon. Then he was gone through the door and he vanished.

x-x

Unlike Martha, Gwen had no qualms about involving me on their new case. She called me over and showed me a series of photographs. Each showed a different person, of different genders, races and ages, but there was one similarity between them. Each person had a small triangular mark above their left eyebrow. In each photograph it was in an identical position.

"Any thoughts?" The Welsh woman asked, glancing up at me. I leant on the back of her chair, screwing up my face slightly as I concentrated.

"Two. Perhaps all of these people have an identical tattoo; possibly the mark of some club or religious order." I suggested, glancing briefly at her, before scrolling through the images again. "But my money would be on a shape shifter or chameleon or something along those lines… There's obviously a slight malfunction in the process because the mark is always present. I'd say there would be other similarities between all of these people as well… maybe height or foot size or something similar?"

Gwen grinned at me. "You're right… they all have size six feet and while there is a little variation in height it seems to only be a few inches difference either side of five foot ten; four inches different at the most."

"See… I'm a freakin' genius!" I announced, grinning. For a minute Gwen looked as though she didn't know whether to laugh or shake her head in exasperation. Then she decided to laugh and I grinned, pivoting on the balls of my feet to perch on her desk. "Where's Jack?"

"Hmm?" She said, suddenly feigning distraction as she shuffled through the folders in front of her. I raised an eyebrow.

"Where's Jack gone?"

"Oh… he had to pop home to sort something out."

I looked at her in confusion. "Home? I thought Jack lived here… at the hub?"

"What? Oh… No. Not anymore." She said vaguely, obviously not wanting to say anything that I could latch onto and draw more information from.

"Why?"

"Well… maybe he wanted to start separating work and life." Gwen suggested with a shrug. I knew that she was hiding something instantly. "I don't know!"

"Has he got another new girlfriend? A boyfriend?" I asked with a sigh, tilting my head and remembering the look on his face when Mickey had kissed Martha. "He does, doesn't he? Is it serious?"

"What are you talking about?" Gwen asked, pretending to be totally lost. I could tell she was pretending because her eyes flicked slightly to the left as they did when she lied. It was hardly noticeable, but it was there.

Shrugging I smirked. "I suppose I'll find out, later. I mean, if Jack doesn't live here anymore I'll have to stay at his house. So I'll get to meet whoever it is that's got him acting like this."

"Actually, you're staying with me tonight." She announced, standing up and sliding her gun into the inside pocket of her jacket. "Come on… we've got a shape shifter to track down."

x-x

I bombarded Gwen with questions as we stalked through the streets of Cardiff following the flashing dot on the screen of the tracker Mickey had handed us. He and Martha had a night off so they'd left early, keen to make the most of it. The Welsh woman glared at me as I continued to annoy her.

We turned down an alley and spotted a tramp sitting against the wall beside a bin. Gwen accidently nudged him with her foot as she passed, too focused on the flashing light on the tracker. The tramp's eyes flashed with red light as he turned to look at her.

"Gwen, look out!" I shouted, pushing her out of his reach and firing a shot from my laser blaster without thinking.

There was a popping sound and a stream of smoke, which obscured our vision for a moment, before Gwen fired at the fleeting figure. I joined her and somehow one of our shots did what it was intended to do because the body fell in a crumpled heap.

"Come on… let's get it to the SUV." Gwen said, glancing around. There was no one in sight, so we heaved the body between us and lugged it along the road to where we'd left the car. Opening the back door, Gwen and I heaved the man onto the back seat, before getting into the front.

"D'you think there's only one?" I asked, glancing warily over my shoulder at the man. It was almost as though I thought that if I took my eyes off him he would come back to life and kill us both. I'd obviously heard too many stories about the Weeping Angles.

"Not sure… We'll get Martha to examine the body in the morning and set up scans of the city and surrounding area using its DNA. That should tell us if there are any more of them around." I nodded, not moving my gaze. "It's not going to get you if you turn around."

"Yeah, I know…" I said in a small voice.

"Come on, sweetheart." Gwen coaxed. "You did good. Jack will be so proud when I tell him you saved me."

"I didn't save you?" I said, slightly confused.

"What d'you think would have happened if you hadn't shoved me out of the way and shot him the first time, eh?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Fair point…" I conceded with a grin. "You owe me… so where's Jack?"

Gwen laughed. "You don't give up, do you?"

"Nope."

"I can't tell you, darling. I promised Jack."

I gave up then, knowing that Gwen wasn't going to tell me Jack's secrets and that it wasn't fair to keep on at her. Instead I turned my attention to questioning her about her daughter and what had been happening around the hub.

"Evie? Are you here?" A voice called out and River appeared on the lift, descending from the ceiling. The teenager was a little disappointed to see her Mother. Jack hadn't come back yet, so she hadn't had a chance to bombard him with questions about his whereabouts.

"Yeah, I'm here." Evie called back, standing up and heading towards the centre of the hub. River looked around and grinned at Gwen who came over to hug her.

"Is he here?" The woman asked, looking around frostily.

"Jack?" Gwen asked, knowing that something had happened between her boss and River that had stopped their previously close friendship. Neither would reveal the reason and everyone had given up trying to find out. For Gwen it was particularly confusing because, depending on which River turned up sometimes they were fine with each other. Apparently a little further down her timeline they made up.

"Yes. HIM."

"He's out… he's gone home for a while." Gwen said with a meaningful smile. River obviously understood her, because she growled slightly, hugged her friend goodbye and headed off, leaving Evie to say her goodbyes and follow quickly after her.