Going Offline

"Son! What's up?" Yaz's voice rose in concern as the crowded table turned towards her sister.

Sonya had stopped screaming and was now clutching her mobile phone and breathing hard.

"What's wrong, sweetie?"

"Sonya, if this is another of your games –"

"It's not Mum, I promise," the young girl gasped, still staring fixedly at the lit-up phone screen, "It's… it's Nina."

"What now? Has she broken your Chatsnap streak or something?"

It was a mark of how upset Sonya was that she didn't correct her mum's mispronunciation. Picking up on this, Yaz leaned in a little closer, lowering her voice.

"Son, what's wrong with Nina?"

"She's gone."

"Gone where?"

"She's just gone."

Gently, Yaz prised the phone out of her sister's hands and glanced at the screen. The Facebook feed showed a video feed with a scrolling headline: 'CHILD MISSING, PARK HILL'. She tapped on the video and watched as the girl's parents stood in front of their house, tear-streaked and desperate as they pleaded with the audience to help them find their daughter.

"Please, if you have seen Nina… our… our daughter, please get in touch. We just want her back."

Yaz felt sick. She'd met Nina a few times before when Sonya had her friends round – she'd always seemed a bubbly girl – chatty and erring on sassy, her sister's equal in many respects.

She passed the phone quietly to her mother and leant forward to pull Sonya into a tight hug.

"Oh, Son, I'm so sorry," she whispered, feeling her sister grip her arms in response.

Drawing away, she looked around the table, her friends' faces drawn as they listened to the pleas for Nina's safe return echoing from the phone's speakers.

"You don't think this has got anything to do with –" Yaz frowned, gesturing at the two small cubes on the table.

"Don't know," the Doctor muttered, brows knitted in thought, "I mean, I don't see how, but it's a pretty weird coincidence."

"Sonya," Gwen's tone was soft, "if there's anything we can do – please let us know. Me and Jack, well, we've got some experience with cases like this."

"Thanks," Sonya muttered, before turning to her mother. "Can I go now? I said I'd go and help look?"

"Of course, darling," Hakim nodded, patting her gently on the shoulder. Najia nodded slowly as though she had only been half-listening, still frowning.

The others said brief farewells as Sonya grabbed a hat and scarf and left, the door shutting with a reverberating bang. Relapsing into silence, they looked around each other, brows knitted together in perplexed frowns.

Najia was the first to break the subdued silence, taking a deep breath in through her nostrils and fixing the Doctor with a frank look

"Right – so what's the plan?"

Raising her own eyes to meet Najia's darker ones, the Timelord said nothing, her own thoughts still racing.

"I mean," the matriarch continued, insistently, "I assume you have some sort of a plan?"

"I… uh," the Doctor absentmindedly mussed her hair, playing for thinking-time.

Najia rolled her eyes, "Seriously?" She looked around the table, fixing each of them with a look. "Between us we've got two police officers, a soldier, a detective, a doctor –" she was interrupted by John and the Doctor cleared their throats with comedic timing, "– sorry, two doctors – not to mention myself and Hakim, and you're telling me that you can't come up with a plan to investigate whether these alien cubes and a missing child might be connected?"

The group stared back at her, though no-one could quite meet her eye. Rolling his eyes at the display of British indecisiveness, Jack cleared his throat so loudly that John nearly fell off his chair in surprise.

"Huh-hum! Easy there, soldier… Right you are, Najia! As I see it, this is a kinda 'divide and conquer' situation, right? So, I'm thinking we split up into pairs and comb the heck out of this city to get to the bottom of this?"

Everyone nodded slowly, John shooting the Captain a slightly withering look as he righted himself once more in his seat.

"Great," Jack flashed a trademark smile at the group, "Ok, so I thought maybe Gwen and Yaz could use their police knowhow and check out the databases for similar incidents or any other weird stuff they can find?"

The brunettes glanced at each other and nodded their assent.

"And then I figured, who better to track down missing kids than our number one, consulting detective over here?" Jack raised a salacious eyebrow in Sherlock's direction, grinning as the latter returned the gesture, "And who better to give him a hand than Mr Local Knowledge Extraordinaire himself?"

Hakim sat up in his chair and bobbed his head with enthusiasm, ignoring his daughter's gentle smirk.

"Yes, sir, of course. It would be an honour."

"Teamwork makes the dream work, am I right?" Jack smiled warmly, before moving swiftly on. "Doc, I'm thinking you've probably got the tech to start a trace on these bad boys?" He pushed the cubes across the table to the Timelord.

"Yeah, brill," the Doctor nodded, still seeming slightly dazed as she pocketed the cubes.

"I'm coming too then," Najia interjected.

The Doctor opened her mouth to reply but no words came out.

"I know I don't know much about alien objects and tracing equipment, Doctor," Najia said, fixing the Timelord with that gaze again, "but I'll listen and help you where I can – as you know, I'm pretty capable."

Sticking her lip out slightly, the blonde met Najia's eyes and nodded briefly.

"Cool…" Jack nodded nonchalantly, "So that just leaves me and you Johnny boy?"

"No, I don't think so," John shook his head, "where Sherlock goes, I go."

Jack raised a sardonic eyebrow, "Seriously?"

"Yeah, actually," John puffed himself up, trying to appear taller, "because but Sherlock has a terrible habit of getting himself lost or into trouble, and no offence, Mr Khan, but-"

"Oh, for goodness sake, John, I am not a child," Sherlock huffed, "and for the record, I think the implication probably causes Mr Khan great offence."

"Oh, don't worry about me," Hakim chuckled, "I'll do whatever I can to help."

However this quiet contribution went largely unnoticed as tempers around the table began to flare.

"Sherlock, the last time I let you set the pace you got me knocked unconscious and Yaz and the Doctor shot –"

"I hardly think it's fair to blame that on me when the nerve gas was mostly to bl-"

"You get my daughter shot and you think I'm going to let you take my husband out there?"

"Mum, I told you about this."

"Honestly, Mrs Khan, sorry – Najia – it wasn't like that, I'd never put Yaz in danger if I –

"Sherlock, will you just listen –"

"John, if this is about your inferiority complex again –"

"How can you promise not to put her in danger?

"Mum, the world's not safe but the Doc, she does her best."

"I do, I really do."

"Oi!"

Gwen's chair grated along the floor as she stood up, placing her hands down firmly on the table. The bickering ceased immediately, Jack smirking quietly to himself as he watched them.

"Thank you," she narrowed her eyes at them, "now there's a lot going on here, and tensions are running pretty high, but we've got a job to do, right?"

The group muttered agreement.

"Right, so seeing as Jack here is the only one of us with a plan, I think we should at least hear him out."

More nods.

"Great, and now that's settled, shall I put the kettle on again? I think we'll be needing another brew."

"Cheers, Gwen," Jack waved his cup at her, "mine's a coffee. And as for this plan," he looked around at them all, grinning, "here's what I was thinking, gang."

"Look, just please be careful," John muttered quietly, shoving his hands deep into his jacket pockets.

"Honestly, John, if you carry on like this people will think –"

"Yeah, well, let them think," the shorter man spoke so quietly, Yaz almost didn't catch it. She didn't miss the upward quirk of Sherlock's lips in response though.

She turned to the Doctor, her Doctor.

"This'll be alright, won't it?"

"Yeah, course!"

"Doctor," she frowned, letting her fingers slide down the sleeve of the Timelord's jacket, "look at me and tell me it'll be alright?"

Brown eyes met and the blonde's expression softened. "I'm sorry, Yaz, it's just that something about this doesn't feel right."

"What do you mean?" Yaz's brows furrowed further.

"I don't know," the Doctor sounded distant again, "these cubes, Jack and Sherlock turning up, and now Sonya's friend? Something's going on and I don't like not understanding things."

"Ok, but we'll work it out, right? We always do. And now we've got like this whole mad team!"

"Yeah, mad's about right," the Doctor's lips shifted into a wonky grin as she watched Najia fussing over Hakim and handing out Thermos flasks of tea while John flashed a look at Jack as the American brushed past a haughty looking Holmes.

Yaz allowed herself a small smile, and slipped her hand into the Doctor's, giving it a squeeze for good measure.

"Ready?" a lilting Welsh voice interrupted her quiet moment.

"Sure, be right with you," Yaz grinned back at Gwen.

The Torchwood agent chuckled lightly and stepped away to a give the pair a moment, "Sure thing, hun, just save the hanky-panky for later, yeah?"

Rolling her eyes, Yaz turned back to the Doctor and pulled her into a hug, burying her face in the Timelord's neck and breathing deeply.

"Oi, that tickles!" the Doctor squirmed ineffectually, wrapping her own arms around the brunette.

"Didn't hear you complaining much last night," Yaz murmured against the warm skin, feeling the quickening pulse beneath her lips.

"Yaz…"

The breathy moan hushed against her own neck, and instinctively the younger woman clamped her lips tightly against the Doctor's skin, their surroundings melting away as the tension suddenly ratcheted up.

"Oh, Yaz…"

They clung to each other, heady with a sudden need to be as close as possible, mouths hot against damp skin, sensation sparking as lips and teeth grazed already bruised necks.

"Oi, Yaz!"

The voice seemed different, the brunette thought foggily. The next thing she knew, she was being tugged backwards, the hot mouth releasing her neck with a reluctant groan.

"Come on, lovebird! I'm doing you a favour."

Yaz blinked again, shaking her head slightly and looking across to see Gwen's smirk as they stumbled away from the small group.

"I didn't have you down for a PDA kinda girl," the Welsh officer laughed, reading the confusion on Yaz's face, "but I'd say since I saved your bacon just now, you can probably pay for the taxi to the station, yeah?"

As Yaz looked back, she saw John, Jack, Sherlock and her father all make a hasty exit as Najia approached a dazed looking Doctor.

"Now, can you tell me which part of my daughter's neck you think is appropriate for public consumption?"

Yaz gulped and shot the Doctor a hasty apology look before joining a chuckling Gwen as they made a quick retreat to the taxi rank.

*** TO BE CONTINUED ***