Vengeance - Chapter Fifty-Three

Author: Milady Dragon


4 February 5193 (Earth Standard Date)

Unknown Location

Casey had no idea how long it took Alyce to wake up.

They'd taken her wrist chronometer – and she'd better get it back, since it had been a gift from Davis – when they'd captured them, although for the life of her she had no idea why they'd think it would have caused any sort of trouble. It wasn't like she had anything built into it. It was just a chronometer, albeit a bit more expensive than she'd worn before Davis had given it to her for her last birthday.

Eventually, though, Alyce groaned her way awake. Then she cursed the rest of the way to consciousness. "Are we back in that bloody cell?" her voice was gravelly.

"Yep," Casey answered. She'd sat with her back to the wall, and had decided that Alyce didn't need to wake up with her head against the cold material of the floor, so she'd volunteered her lap as a pillow.

Alyce struggled to sit up, so the detective helped her. The dragon ended up leaning against Casey's shoulder, and she had to appreciate the warmth her companion was putting out. "I almost had him," she growled.

That was very true, and Casey agreed with her. "I really need to learn some of those moves." She'd been really impressed.

"They didn't much help in this situation."

"Yeah, but it wasn't like you can punch out tranquiliser darts."

"Point."

"And you should be gratified to know that it took five of those HYDRA goons to get you back to the cell."

"I'd be insulted by that comment if it weren't for the fact that that makes me very happy. They want to tranq me; they can carry my heavy arse back here."

That had Casey cackling. "You and I need to go out for drinks or something once we're out of this. And maybe I can talk my significant other into a threesome."

Alyce snorted. "Don't say things like that, because I might just take you up on it."

Casey's heart did a little triphammer thump at the woman's tacit agreement to an actual threesome. She hadn't failed to notice how attractive Alyce was. "I'll ask again once I've cleared it with Davis."

The dragon put her head on Casey's shoulder. "Why don't you do that? Although don't mention anything like that in front of my Tad…he still considers me a child."

"But parents do that sort of thing. It scandalised my mother when she found out I was sexually active at the ripe old age of twenty."

"Well, I'm ninety-two…which is practically a baby in dragon years. Although, my nephew, Abraham, is only seventy-three, and my sister and her mate are rueing the day they become grandparents…which, with Abraham, it's just a matter of when."

"Gets around then?"

"Oh, Goddess, yes. I think he was sexually active in the egg, if that was possible."

Casey choked on air. She practically hacked up a lung before she could say, "Dragons come from eggs?"

"Not really." Alyce laughed. "It's a really long story. Remind me to tell you when we get out of here."

"It's a date." Casey was looking forward to it. "Speaking of getting out of here…"

"You have any bright ideas?"

"Well, we could try the same thing we did the first time. They'd never expect that."

Alyce hummed. "Or we could wait for rescue."

"I hate that idea. And don't bother lying and saying you don't."

"I'm not saying a word."

"Good. Because I'd hate to think you'd want to keep sitting on that heavy ass of yours and do nothing."

Alyce snorted into her shoulder at that. Casey didn't even pretend not to find it cute.

"Although," the detective mused, "we could use the time we have to make out."

"You do know they're probably monitoring us, right?"

"Sure they are. And it will piss them off to no end when they realise we're not falling for their intimidation tactics in order to do a little heavy petting."

"You are completely unreal." Alyce lifted her head, in order to meet Casey's gaze.

And then, she leaned forward and kissed her.

Alyce's mouth was very warm, and Casey loved it. She opened her mouth under the dragon's questing tongue, moaning at the wet heat that accompanied that very talented tongue.

Casey was going to call Alyce a liar about being a kid. There was no way a kid could kiss like that.

Before she even knew what she was doing, Casey had straddled Alyce's lap, hands buried in the dragon's dark hair. Fingers cupped Casey's ass, pulling her even closer as their kiss grew even more heated. A small voice in the back of the detective's mind was saying that Davis better agree with that threesome, because there was no way she wasn't going to have her hands all over Alyce at some point and she'd prefer to have his permission and his participation. Not that she would ever cheat. That wasn't the way Casey was.

An even smaller voice was asking if that wasn't what she was doing, so she told it to shut up and get with the programme, because there was a really hot woman under her with an even hotter tongue diving for her tonsils, and there'd be time later for her conscience to poke at her.

Davis had been fucking agree.

Before it could get to the point where they were putting hands inside clothes, there was a creak as the door opened.

"Well," a very familiar voice drawled, "should we come back later?"

Casey tore her mouth away from Alyce's, turning to glare over her shoulder at her partner. Walsh was lounging against the door jamb, smirking. He wasn't alone; another man was with him, one that Casey didn't recognise, wearing a ridiculous purple coat and a matching bow tie, his eyes rolling as he took in their rather… dishevelled appearance. Robyn was peeking around the door frame, a bright flush high on her cheeks as she also took in the scene in front of her.

"What the hells, Walsh?" And no, Casey's voice didn't sound at all wrecked.

Oh, who was she fooling? She was totally wrecked.

"Excuse us for thinking you needed to be rescued," Walsh said, holding his hands out in front of him in a token surrender.

Alyce rested her forehead on Casey's shoulder, laughing breathlessly. "Later," she whispered in Casey's ear, her warm breath tickling against her neck. "And talk to your significant other first."

"Your Tad would be horrified, Alyce Harkness-Jones," the man in the purple cried. "And your Dad would be thrilled to bits."

Alyce laughed even harder, raising her head to look back over Casey's shoulder. "Your timing stinks, Doctor. And you're supposed to be a Time Lord!"

Time Lord? That would mean that the man with Walsh was the infamous Last of the Time Lords, the one who called himself the Doctor. Casey had no idea what she'd done to get involved with dragons and magic and reincarnations and Time Lords, but she was beginning to like it.

Still, the man didn't look a thing like a near-mythical being. He looked more like an uncoordinated idiot. But then, maybe that was how he'd managed to defeat all of his enemies, by appearing to not have a clue. It would be a fantastic superpower to have, lulling the bad guys into a false sense of security and then kicking their asses.

"I'd say my timing was perfect in this case," the Doctor scoffed.

Robyn didn't say anything, but she looked supremely embarrassed, and there was also something in her eyes that Casey thought might have been jealousy. She'd seen how close Robyn and Alyce were; maybe she was seeing Casey as some sort of interloper? It was something else they'd have to discuss, if this was going to work between them.

Reluctantly, Casey climbed off of Alyce's thighs, straightening her clothing as she climbed to her feet. Alyce followed suit. "How did you find us?"

"Come on," Walsh urged, "and we'll explain along the way. Right now, we have an entire family outside who are pissed off, and your Dad, Alyce, is challenging the Dragon Slayer to a duel with some crazy-ass evil sword that I never want to touch again."

"My Dad?" Alyce went completely still. "Or my Tad?"

Walsh looked a little confused, but so was Casey. They never did find out what language 'Tad' was in, but she knew it applied to Second Jones.

"Tad," Robyn clarified, the flush leaving her skin as an appalled expression crossed her lovely face.

"And he has a sword with him?" Alyce was going paler by the moment.

The Doctor's eyes were old and sad, even as Robyn was nodding. "He brought the Dragon Killer with him, Alyce."

She had her hands up to her mouth, as if she was trying to keep any sort of pained sound inside. Casey put a hand on her shoulder, wondering just what she was missing from this conversation.

"The Dragon Killer is the evil-ass sword I mentioned," Walsh explained. "But we don't have time right now. We need to head out before the fireworks start."

With that, he waved them forward. Alyce took the invitation, moving so quickly Casey was almost certain she'd somehow teleported. She was out the door like a shot, the Doctor and Robyn on her heels, leaving Walsh to stare at Casey, eyebrows raised. "Are you waiting for an engraved invitation, Shraeger?"

She gave him a rude gesture as she left the cell, making her partner laugh.

Just outside in the hallway, there were two bodies on the ground, obviously stunned. That matched up with the obvious stunner in her partner's hand; without even glancing in her direction, Walsh handed one to Casey, who suddenly felt much better prepared to deal with any bad guys along the way.

"You know that Alyce and I wanted to save ourselves," she quipped as they followed the Doctor and Casey's new, possible, lover and that potential lover's sister down the hall, in the opposite direction from when they'd first escaped.

"We can lock you back up in that cell."

"Don't even think about it."

Casey couldn't help but notice the injury to his head, and knew he'd gotten it when she and Alyce had first been captured. Well, if there was one thing she knew about her partner was that hitting Walsh in the head wouldn't do that much damage, because his skull was just that thick.

She said so. Walsh rolled his eyes at her.

The three of them were a bit ahead, so she and Walsh hurried to catch up. Every once in a while, they would pass an unconscious minion, and Casey couldn't help but take the opportunity to kick a couple of them, because being kidnapped sucked.

Someone stepped into the hallway, and she tensed as she noticed it was a person Casey didn't know. It was a woman, humanoid, and as she got closer she could make out the double pupils of her blue eyes, the irises limned with gold. She bore a slight resemblance to Alyce, and Casey guessed this was some sort of relation…which was confirmed when she called out, "Aunt Alyce!" and then wrapped her in a hug. Robyn hovered a little, which was endearing in a way.

"Dad's made it to the security suite," the unknown woman reported as soon as they were all together. "He, Aunt Cadi, and Aunt Tosh have all the defences shut down. It's just all clean-up now."

"What is this place?" Casey demanded, her curiosity finally getting the best of her.

"It's an old UNIT facility," the Doctor told her.

Casey didn't know what UNIT was, and said so.

"They were a military organisation back in the 20th century. However, they fell out of favour with the then-ruler of then-Great Britain in the early 21st century and were eventually kicked out of the country." The Doctor's face went hard, and suddenly he didn't seem all that much of an idiot after all. "This place was buried and built over, but it was rediscovered about thirty years ago, from what we've been able to discover. We've been able to trace back ownership through several shell companies to the villain of the piece."

"Jeffrey Dorian," Walsh supplied. "Turns out he's an insane immortal called Adam."

"Sounds like we have a lot to catch up on," Alyce commented.

"And we'll be glad to catch you up," another voice put in, "but at the moment we have other things that need doing."

Casey turned in the direction of the voice. Coming down a branching corridor was the Director of the Torchwood Institute, Phillip Coulson, another Harkness-Jones, judging from the family resemblance and who was armed to the teeth, and – to Casey's immense surprise – a child who looked to be about ten years old with obvious alien blood. She had white hair and impossibly bright blue eyes, and was holding a mass of equipment that she was fiddling with as she followed them both, appearing to be completely distracted by whatever it was she was doing.

"We have the place surrounded," Coulson said, "but there hasn't been any sign of Garrett or de Marigny."

"The Dragon Slayer uses magic to get around," Alyce growled. "He's here. We saw him. I tried to take him out, but Garrett has a gun that shoots out tranquilising darts that are sharp enough to penetrate dragon dermis."

"We'll watch out for that," Coulson nodded. "Melinda sent us some troops, and Danielle volunteered the Shieldsmen as well, so Steve and his people are checking out another section of the complex. From what they've found, there was actually quite a large HYDRA cell here, and we're rounding up people as we speak."

It took Casey a few seconds to figure out that Danielle was the actually, honest-to-Goddess Empress of the Human Empire, and she indulged in a couple of moments of boggling over the fact that the man was obviously on first-name terms with Her Imperial Majesty. Although, since he was the newest Hero of the Empire perhaps that wasn't quite so farfetched.

"I've got all of the internal cameras and such working again the way I want them to," the child added, "and Shieldsman Charlton is posted in the security suite. He's going to be our eyes in the facility." She looked up from what she was doing. "I was hoping I'd never see the inside of this place again. I thought it had been destroyed."

The Director and the Doctor – and even Walsh – seemed to understand what she was saying. Casey didn't, and made a mental note to ask that question while she was asking others. The girl – Aunt Tosh, apparently – didn't look old enough to be walking about what could have become a warzone, and yet Coulson and the other woman were obviously there to protect her, which was a good thing or else Casey might have had to put charges up of child endangerment against them. Still, the girl was their obvious technician onsite, which was about as big a surprise as Casey had had that day.

She added yet another question to her mental list, about just why her partner had thought it was alright to let them put a little girl in harms' way. There must have been something very special indeed about her.

"What about Tad?" Alyce demanded.

"He's outside. Waiting. We should be going out to him."

With those words, Coulson gently took Alyce by the elbow, and led her down the corridor. Casey found herself going along, mostly because she really wanted to see the end of this, and a bit because she wanted to go where Alyce was going.

This had become personal to her, and that was even before she'd been kidnapped and used as bait. And, with this thing between her and Alyce, it was now even something more.

In that moment, Casey Shraeger felt as if she was a part of the Jones Clan. She liked that feeling a lot.