A/N: Hello my lovely readers! I am back! I have recently posted a chapter and do not fear! It is not the end! Hahaha, I recently have been busy with work so it took me a while to write again. But this is the one story that I will not abandon! I decided that I will try to mash Doctor Who and Torchwood together so that Iris will be going between adventures from the two shows! Please look forward to it!
Bwburke94: Hahaha don't worry, it did resolve the adventure with the Master, but it doesn't end the story. It's not even close actually! Thank you so much for your reviews every time a chapter is posted! It means the world to me! This is meant to be a long story, so please support me to the end!
WRose: Hahaha, you raise an interesting question for me to think about yet again! You literally help to shape my story with so many great things for me to sit down and think on. I promise to try my best to see if I can get that issue resolved! Love you lots!
TheGraveKeeper: Don't worry! There is much more to come! Thank you so much for your love and support for my story!
Chapter 16: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
A black Range Rover was driving up quickly after a blowfish that was on loose. Tosh was analyzing the creature and said,
"Species not on record. DNA type says some sort of land fish."
Gwen exasperatedly told Owen, "All I'm saying is, you are speeding and there are children."
Owen replied, "Well, if kids are out at midnight, they've got it coming."
Tosh got a reading and immediately broke the conversation with, "Detecting high levels of algae."
Gwen cracked a joke, chuckling, "Who's afraid of the big scary fish then?"
Tosh and Owen groaned simultaneously at Gwen's attempt at humor. Owen then quickly asked,
"Do we need special weapons?"
Tosh shook her had as she responded, "Not that I can see."
Gwen asked, "Do we need special weapons?"
The trio were silent momentarily as Tosh whispered, "Jack, Iris and maybe Ianto would know."
Owen was silent, knowing that Iris had left them there for a reason, considering the letter that the team received, only to find that Ianto had somehow found his way to be with their boss and newest member.
As they were thinking about the lack of presence of the three pillars of Torchwood, Gwen yelled out, "Blowfish!" as she pointed towards the red rear lights of the sports car speeding away from them.
Owen quickly accelerated the car after he told the two women to hold on. Then Owen yelled out, "Hold the wheel."
Gwen grabbed the wheel as she panicked and yelled back, "Don't you dare Owen!"
Owen ignored her and shot the sports car, managing to hit a tire of the car. This forced the car to swerve. Owen quickly got back into the car and held the wheel as Gwen breathed out in relief from the fearful event that just took place.
They all got out of the car, but they were unable to find the Blowfish they had been chasing. Gwen, clearly frustrated, asked,
"Where is it? Where's it gone?"
Then several gunshots rang out and they ran towards the house the sound originated from.
When the team came into the house, they found a man who was dead by gunshot wound and the Blowfish holding a woman, using her as a human shield and leverage against the Torchwood team.
Owen gave instructions to the team as he said, "Gwen, go left. Tosh go right, I'll go take center. Positions."
He warily looked down at the dead man, wishing that they had Ianto with them, but he had to take priorities. The man was already dead and the woman needed help.
Tosh looked at the readings she got from the Blowfish and whistled lowly as she said,
"Massive levels of adrenalin, mixed with approximately three grams of cocaine. This fish is wired."
The Blowfish glared at all three of them as he bit out, "So this is Team Torchwood. The teacher's pets. But the teacher's have gone, haven't they? Leaving the kiddy kids all alone. And look at you, trying so hard to be all grown up. The doctor, trying so hard to keep the group together. The carer, with her oh-so-beating heart. The technician with her cold devices. All of you, lost without your masters. All of you, pretending to be so brave. All of you, so scared."
With that, he made a sickly display of kissing his hostage's head before he continued speaking,
"So, what about it, minion? Can you do it? How good are you? How sharp is your aim? What if you kill her? What if I kill her first? Can you shoot before I do? Can you? Dare you? Would you? Won't you?"
A loud gunshot rang and the Blowfish fell to the ground with a hole in its head. The trio turned around in surprise and jumped even more when they found another group of people. The man who had shot the Blowfish smirked as he said,
"Hey kids. Did you miss me?"
Gwen, Tosh and Owen merely gaped as Iris and Ianto came up behind from Jack. Iris smiled widely as she waved and said,
"Hey kids! We're back!"
Ianto smiled, still seeing how Iris improved health-wise. She seemed so much more lighthearted than before. He could see a little bit of a shadow that was expressed by her eyes, but it seemed to bear less burden than before the missing year with the Master.
Owen warily stared at the three people before breaking into one of his rare grins and jumped towards Iris first, hugging her tightly. Iris eyes' widened in happy surprise and then she hugged him back saying,
"It's alright, mommy's back!"
Owen grumbled something close to, "Not again…" and Ianto and Jack laughed at that. Gwen and Tosh hesitated before going up to them and hugging them too. The group spent some time hugging each other before heading back to the Hub.
They all arrived back at the hub, and Gwen immediately asked Tosh,
"Are you sure no more like him came through?"
Tosh glanced towards Iris, who just shrugged happily and smiled. She then responded to Gwen's question with,
"Cross-referencing with the rift activity monitor…. Doesn't look like it."
Ianto, Jack and Iris watched the three people try to manage to work and felt a little out of the picture. Though Ianto was with them before-hand, apparently he had been gathering people for the resistance before the Master got onboard the Valiant. So he had been out of the Hub the moment the President had been shot. And as time tried adjust, Ianto still remembered the memories from the year.
Jack smiled proudly as he said, "Got pretty organized without us."
Gwen glared a little at Jack, as she said, "Yeah, well we had to."
Jack smirked at that as he said, "I mean, did you decorate in here? Ow!"
Jack grasped his side after Iris had elbowed him. She shook her head and glared at him, indicating that it wasn't the time to be cracking jokes with the three people who had been trying to keep Torchwood going with limited manpower.
Jack winced a little when Gwen sighed as she said, "You two left us. And then Ianto sent us a message that he was alright, but took a while to come back."
Jack looked a little guilty, before saying, "I know. I'm sorry."
Owen, Tosh and Gwen accepted the apology, knowing that Iris and Jack had left for a reason before saying,
"Thanks to Ianto, we did know where you two were and what you were supposedly against. We do have Iris to thank too for the information, but seriously, you two could have let us all know if you were leaving like that."
Iris looked at the ground, feeling guilty too as she said, "I know. I'm really sorry, but we had to make sure that the Master knew only a little bit. The more people I got involved I… I risked the Master knowing too. It came so close to him finding about all of you hiding out here, I wasn't sure if I had done something monumentally stupid."
Tosh hugged her friend before asking the two, "did you find your Doctor?"
Iris and Jack nodded as Owen came up to them from the autopsy bay. He asked, "Did he fix you two?"
The three people visibly flinched, remembering how close to death Iris was again, as they thought about the best way to word the response to the question. Jack spoke first as he said,
"What's to fix? You don't mess with this level of perfection. Iris can prove it."
Everyone including Iris groaned in disgust at that joke. Iris pushed Jack away from her, running to Ianto as she said,
"Get him away from me. That kind of joke is sexual harassment and I don't want to go near it!"
Ianto chuckled as he wrapped a protective arm around Iris as he said, "Gladly. Sir, I would like to point out that it's harassment."
Owen and Tosh looked at the trio with a puzzled look before glancing at each other. What was going on between the three people? It was almost like Ianto had joined in on the relationship that Jack and Iris were in.
Then Gwen asked, "Are you going back to him?"
Iris then peeked her head around Ianto as she replied,
"We all came back for Torchwood. Especially you guys. All of you."
A beeping noise came on and Tosh said, "Rift Activity."
The team were about to head out when Iris yelled out, "Wait! I need to grab something!"
They all looked at her strangely when she went towards the autopsy bay. She rummaged around the Blowfish's pockets to find the item that was flashing.
"Got it! We're going to need it for the guest."
Jack looked at her, asking who it would be, and Iris smiled a little as she responded,
"You know him."
That answer only left him a lot of questions since that was a lot of people to sort through. Iris stored the flashing item in her coat pocket and went towards the Rover. Owen gave her a sidelong glance as he sat next to her and asked,
"How are you feeling?"
Iris smiled at his caring side, and answered, "I don't have the migraines anymore. I feel great and hungry. But the hunger can wait a bit."
Owen gave her a hug as he said, "That's great. But what happened? You all flinched when we asked you about the Doctor fixing you."
All other conversations ceased and Iris sighed out loud, before saying,
"There's this Time Lord thing where they bond to others. It's an intimate thing, but I think the first thing is bonding the mind together, but later, it gets stronger and there are physical bonds I'm assuming. I didn't get the full explanation. But when Harold Saxon, who is a Time Lord called the Master, got shot and died… I almost died along with him."
Tosh gasped and hugged her friend who sat next to her. They all still clearly remembered Iris' bloody corpse from when the Rift was forced open.
"How did you survive?" Gwen asked, curious as to how it happened.
Iris blushed a little, still feeling the tingling sensation of the bond with the Doctor. Since she wasn't close to him, it was almost like he wasn't there, but she felt a little bit of the Doctor's excitement at something. She then remembered that Gwen had asked her a question and responded.
"He broke the bond I shared with the Master by forming one with me."
Tosh then saw how Iris looked down, blushing red, and realized, "But it's.., you said it was an intimate thing for Time Lords…And he's-"
Iris blushed even more and Owen and Tosh glanced at both Ianto and Jack. The two men tensed a little, but they didn't show much emotion on that. Rather, whenever they looked at Iris, they seemed to be relieved that she was smiling and a lot healthier than before they had disappeared.
After a while of driving, they finally arrived at the car park. Iris felt giddy with excitement of her own as she wasn't' sure how it was going to be to see John Hart.
Tosh was reading of the information on her scanner, "Fragments of Rift energy around the neck, arm and shoulders."
Jack looked at the corpse as he said, "He was grabbed and pushed."
Iris realized how the team automatically settled into its regular pattern of work, as if they had never left. She smiled gently, feeling happy that they had not felt hostile towards Jack and her for running off to see the Doctor.
Tosh looked at Jack and responded nonchalantly, "Explains the residual energy cluster."
Jack looked at them and smirked a little as he said, "How did you ever manage without me?"
Everyone rolled their eyes at that and Owen ignored him, saying,
"So, there's a potential killer on the loose. Bipedal, maybe humanoid."
Iris chipped in, "Definitely humanoid. Might want to be wary with this one."
The team took that into consideration and Gwen asked,
"Any other alien tech involved Tosh?"
Tosh shook her head as she replied, "No readings suggest that."
Jack then looked at the team and said, "Okay, let's get back and see what we can piece together."
They all nodded and headed back towards the Range Rover while Gwen called her former partner Andy. Suddenly, Jack's Vortex Manipulator beeped, causing Iris and Ianto's eyes to immediately fall onto it. Ianto whispered out,
"Whoa, that never beeps."
Jack nodded as he looked at Iris, who also nodded upon seeing him check up if she knew what was going on. Without asking, he said,
"That's what I was thinking."
He then opened the message he got via the Vortex Manipulator and saw a hologram of John Hart come in front of them. John said,
"I can't believe I got the answer machine. What can you be doing that's more important than me?"
Jack automatically reached for Iris' hand with his own, squeezing it tightly. They kept listening,
"Anyway, you've probably traced the energy shift, found the body. All me. Sorry about the mess. Bill me for the clean up. Now. Drinks. Retrolock the transmission coordinates, that's where I am. And hurry up. Work to do. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."
Iris twitched with annoyance and huffed out a breath, puffing her cheeks to indicate her mood. Jack looked down at her and smiled apologetically. He then turned around and said,
"Stay here. Don't come after me."
Gwen, frustrated, asked, "Who was that?!"
But Jack just pointed to all of them and said, "Stay here."
They all saw him take the Range Rover and drive off. Gwen chased after him, but Iris and Ianto ran towards the empty cab and called out "Taxi!"
The team jumped into the taxi and sped off after the Range Rover. But Jack being Jack, he quickly sped away and they relied on Tosh's equipment. Not too long since they lost sight of the Range Rover, Tosh said,
"Reports coming in of a bar disturbance. Same coordinates as the SUV."
Gwen immediately contacted the police to state that Torchwood had the issue handled while Owen asked,
"Okay, so who the hell was the bloke in the hologram?"
Iris spoke up, feeling the need to explain the situation just a little bit.
"It's an old co-worker of Jack's. His name's John Hart… and you can probably guess that he's not from this time period."
The Torchwood team listened to Iris' explanation and remained silently before Gwen dejectedly said,
"I wish he would tell us about himself. He shuts out. We don't even know his real name."
Iris didn't have much to say to that herself. She had come to know him as Jack Harkness, that she never asked him about his real name. It also wasn't something she could just ask him either. He had to want to share with her.
Tosh added quietly to Gwen's statement with a, "Or which time he comes from."
Ianto noticed Iris look a little down at that and quickly said, "It is more fun when he's around, though."
Iris looked up and smiled at Ianto, happy to have him around.
Owen smiled at that too as he said, "Yeah."
Tosh nodded too with, "Definitely."
Gwen smiled widely too as she added, "Yeah, it is."
Eventually, they arrived at the Bar and quickly entered to see Jack and John holding each other by their shirts, sizing each other up angrily.
Gwen cautiously asked, "Everything all right, Jack?"
Jack responded, "It's okay, okay, okay."
John glanced at each of them amusedly as he said, "You've got a team. How sweet. Oh, pretty little friends. No blonde, though. You need a blonde."
Iris tensed a little, irritated at that statement. Owen grimaced as he noticed Iris' eyes narrow into a dangerous glare. If looks could kills, John would be long gone by now. Owen whispered out towards Tosh,
"God, he's worse than Jack."
John heard it though and smirked with a response, "Oh, oh, do you all have a team name? I love team names. Go on."
Jack said through his teeth, "Torchwood."
He cautiously stepped back towards Iris, not wanting to trust his former partner.
John looked disappointed at the name and said,
"Oh, not Excalibur? Blizzard? Bikini Cops? No? Torchwood? Oh dear…"
Jack then said, "Iris Kim, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato ad Owen Harper, meet-"
"Captain John Hart" John cut through Jack's introduction.
Jack sighed and tried to explain to his friends and Iris, "We go back"
John's eyebrows went up, as if he didn't believe what he just heard as he said, "Excuse me. WE more than go back. We were partners."
Ianto looked down at Iris, his expression unreadable as he asked, "In what way?"
Jack tensed as he put an arm around Iris' waist, causing her to look up at him exasperatedly. She side-stepped a little away from Jack, not sure if she enjoyed the sudden claim to her.
John noticed the interaction happen as he said tauntingly, "In every way. And then some."
Iris eyes widened and she honestly didn't want to hear them banter about it and she said,
"Oookay… I don't think any of us want to listen to that… so…"
Iris then looked back at John and asked, "What are you doing here?"
John looked at her with newfound interest and said, "I was wondering when we'd get to that."
John showed the entire team his Vortex Manipulator which caused Tosh to mutter out,
"That's the same as yours."
Jack looked at it warily and said, "A little smaller."
He noticed John staring at Iris, as the man said,
"But lasts much longer. Get two Time Agents…"
Iris sighed out in annoyance and just stepped in-between the two former Time Agents and said,
"It's always about the size of the wrist strap. We get it. Let's just… stop trying to size each other up and continue with why you're here?"
Iris honestly wondered if all Time Agents just made everything sexual. It was honestly getting on her nerves.
Jack pulled her a little closer to him as he noticed her obvious annoyance and irritation at both of them when John answered Iris' question.
"I'm working with this woman. Beautiful, clever, sexy, yadda yadda, and we both get shot. And as she's dying, she begs me. She tells me about these radiation cluster bombs she'd been working on."
Owen worriedly glanced towards Jack as he commented, "I don't like the sound of that."
John ignored Owen and continued to say, "Three canisters, contents beyond toxic, swallowed up in a rift storm."
Tosh looked shocked as she whispered out, "And ended up here."
John made a sound of approval as he said, "Bingo. That's the downside of your city being built on a rift in space and time. Now, left to their own devices, the radiation will break down the canisters and then infect your people and planet. They need to be neutralized."
Jack narrowed his eyes even further at John as he asked,
"What do you get out of this?"
John just rolled his eyes at Jack's suspicious look and answered,
"Dying woman's wish. Now, there's only one problem. I don't know where they are. Hoping local knowledge might help."
Iris was about to answer to that when Tosh beat her to it and said,
"When we get back to the Hub, I can run a citywide scan on radiation surges and cross reference that with the Rift activity during that time span."
John glanced at Tosh, almost as if he was undressing her with his eyes, causing Owen to wrap his arm around Tosh's shoulders possessively while the other man said,
"What are you, the brains and the beauty? You see, together, it's an easy job."
Iris sighed in disbelief while Jack said,
"We do this, you get out of here when its finished. Right away."
John smiled in a wicked manner and asked childishly, "Does this mean I get to see your house?"
Ianto and Gwen glanced at Jack, not liking the idea of the other man coming to the Hub. However, they all arrived at the Plass and stood by the water tower to enter the Hub. Owen had dragged Tosh to the entrance with the Tourist center. Gwen followed them after hesitating a little bit, not liking John's presence. So it left Iris, Ianto and Jack with John by the Water Tower.
John just looked at them incredulously as he said, "You live in a sculpture. Could you be any more pretentious?"
Iris scoffed at that, earning a warning look from Jack. Iris smirked a little and shrugged, partly enjoying the situation that happened. As much as she disliked John, she liked him too. What could she possibly do? She was a fan of the character. It just made her giddy inside.
Jack shoved John onto the block and said, "Get on."
John just looked at Iris and Ianto for a moment and asked, "Is the rest of the team not allowed this way?"
Ianto nicely said, "This… is normally the entrance for the tourists."
Iris and Jack looked at him, not sure what brought the man to speak to John with such a calm demeanor.
John smirked a little towards Jack as he said, "I remember the time you said that to me Jack."
The slab descended taking all four of them down to the Hub, causing John to look around in decent surprise as he commented,
"It's roomy, I'll give you that. Your taste in interior design hasn't gotten any better though. What is this, sewer chic?"
They finally stopped descending. Iris hopped off with Ianto stepping off after her. They turned around to face John as Jack said,
"Weapons."
John rolled his eyes exasperatedly and took off his guns and the katana he visibly carried with him. Ianto held onto the silver platter for the weapons. John stopped innocently, prompting Jack to glare at him and say,
"And the rest."
John smirked and said, "Oh, you know me. I'm a two weapon man."
Gwen brought the scanner and listed off, "One pistol strapped to each leg, laser knife beneath left elbow, 17 small explosive charges in the lining of his coat…"
John murmured, "It slipped my mind."
Iris started taking them off with Jack helping her out with some. John had managed to shove some weapons inside his underwear, which Jack was not going to let Iris go near. As much as Iris seemed to be disgusted by the idea, Jack just felt an overwhelming sense of possessiveness and didn't want her to even think about it.
After they finally finished, Gwen dragged Jack away to the corridor to talk about something. Iris decided to stand guard by John while Ianto stored the weapons away. Tosh and Owen were analyzing the rift energy. Iris was staring at how close the two had seemed to become when John coughed a little to get her attention.
Irritated that she was brought away from her slight fangirling moment, she looked up at John. Sometimes, she purely hated how short she was. Everybody else was drastically taller than her and it pissed her off more than anything.
She lifted one eyebrow to indicate why he grabbed her attention. John smirked and said,
"Hey beautiful, I don't think I caught your name."
Iris almost gagged and she glared at him as she said, "Don't call me that."
John smirked even more and said, "Well, I gotta get your name in order to stop calling you that, beautiful. Or would you rather I call you eye-candy?"
Iris shook her head vigorously, not wanting that name more than anything. "Iris." She mumbled.
John feigned that he hadn't heard her clearly and she repeated her name a little louder. He smiled childishly and asked,
"How do you know about Time Agents?"
Iris looked at him warily, only to find genuine curiosity in his eyes. She sighed and responded with,
"None of your business. It's not something you should learn about. I just know from Jack."
John then seemed to be thinking about something deeply before curiously asking,
"Jack seems to be awfully protective of you. I've never really seen him that serious about anyone."
Iris looked at him surprised at that information. She had known that Jack was well-known for flings and flirting, but not about being serious. And to hear it from John, it was that much more surprising. But before she could ask him something, Jack came back and warily glanced at her and John before saying,
"We're meeting at the conference room."
Iris nodded and went to let Ianto know. When they were all in the conference room, Tosh began the meeting with,
"Seven hours ago, we logged a minor surge in Rift energy across three locations."
John continued with, "Seven of us, three locations, that's simple. At least two people per canister."
Jack glared at him and cut in with, "Excuse me, I give the orders."
John smirked and glanced at Iris with a seductive tone in his reply, "Well, give some, big boy."
Iris almost spit out the water she was drinking. Ianto looked at the man with annoyance slipping through his normally polite smile.
But Gwen hadn't caught the sexual implication as she said,
"John's right. Sorry…er, do you prefer John or Captain?"
Owen almost burst out laughing at Gwen's obliviousness when John replied, with,
"With eyes like yours, you can call me Vera, I won't complain."
Gwen finally seemed to have caught onto what John was doing and she blushed a bright red. Jack's glare looked scarier as he bit through his teeth,
"Tosh and Owen, take the north. Ianto and I will go west-"
Iris cut through and said, "I will go with John."
John gave a wicked smile towards Jack, riling him up even more. Ianto and Jack were about to but in when Gwen said,
"I will go with you two."
Iris thought about it and nodded, knowing that Jack would never let her go if she were to go alone.
Jack looked at them with annoyance in his face as he said, "Excuse me. Not to repeat myself. And Iris, no, you can't just sign yourself-"
Iris glared at him and stepped on his foot under the table. She had been sitting by him, squished between Jack and Ianto. So she had easy access to his foot. Jack glared back when Gwen said,
"We all know you're worried about Iris after all that happened, but I will be there too, so do you have a problem with this Jack?"
Jack sighed out loud, and said, "Not at all."
John smiled even wider, almost resembling the Cheshire cat in human form in Iris' mind. John then said,
"Now, given the canisters are radioactive, don't open them, eh?"
Gwen then said, "Let's go, guys."
They all rose up when Jack grabbed Iris' hand and dragged her so that it was just the two of them. John saw and yelled at them,
"Oh can I watch this bit? He's gonna give you all the dos and don'ts. I love it."
Ianto almost face-palmed himself at John's purposeful teasing. He just grabbed John's arm and said,
"She'll be with you in a second."
John just chuckled and let the two have their moment. When they were given privacy, Jack stepped away from Iris a little bit before quickly turning back to face her as he yelled,
"What the hell are you doing?"
Iris immediately recited Gwen's line from the show,
"If I can get him talking, flirt a bit, he might drop his guard. I can find out what he's really up to."
Jack's facial expression immediately darkened at that and Iris gulped. She hadn't seen him that angry at all. So she tried to lighten the mood by saying,
"Ok…uh… no flirting?"
Jack didn't look amused in the slightest. Iris then tried again with,
"Uh… leave the flirting to Gwen?"
Jack almost smiled. The keyword being 'almost'. Iris noticed and waited for him to say something. But when he only continued to stare at her, she squirmed, not sure what to expect. The tension increased tenfold as she noticed that anger was no longer in Jack's eyes. It was something else and she wasn't sure if she was to feel all tingly. She coughed a little but when she looked up at him, she saw him coming closer to her and she gulped. This time, it was out of pure nerves.
Her back hit the wall behind her and she felt a little trapped when Jack's face was so close to hers. She stopped breathing in anticipation when Jack whispered in her ear,
"He's dangerous. Stick to Gwen as much as possible."
Iris nodded, and managed to squeak out, "I'll be careful. I won't let him close to me."
But her voice was so high, clearly betraying her nervousness at the closeness. She couldn't see Jack smirk, but she realized how both his arms were on the wall, keeping her trapped.
Oh God, Oh God, Oh God….
Iris was only able to repeat the two words rapidly, not able to process much thought as Jack whispered,
"Three rules."
With that he lowered his head a little to kiss Iris' neck once as he murmured,
"One. Don't believe anything he says."
Iris gulped when she felt a slightly longer kiss on her neck as Jack sucked on it a little, surely leaving a hickey there as he said,
"Two. Always keep him in front of you."
Iris whimpered a little, feeling like her legs were about to give out. Her head automatically had tilted to give Jack more access, feeling how his body was right against her as he went back to her neck and felt his tongue flick on it after the administration. Jack looked up at her, seeing her eyes glazed over as he managed to say,
"And three. Under no circumstances let him kiss you."
With that, Jack kissed her on the lips, getting a response from Iris. But before she could deepen the kiss, Jack chuckled and pulled away, leaving her frustrated. She glared at him and huffed, pouting at what he had done.
She stormed away, trying to vent the frustration that had automatically built up inside her. Jack followed. When they were back at the Hub, John smirked at how Iris' eyes displayed the frustration that he could only guess was Jack's fault.
He teasingly asked,
"Has he gotten to the no kissing rule yet?"
Iris glared at him, her blush becoming so obvious that Iris looked like she would explode. Ianto almost laughed out loud at that when Gwen rolled her eyes as she pushed John and said,
"Keep in front."
When they traveled to the docks, Iris sat in the back, keeping an eye on John, but also tuning him out. Jack's actions from earlier was so sudden that it had caught her off-guard and then made her melt from the inside-out. They had kissed before, but they had never been that intimate. There was never that much amount of sexual tension between them. Or at least from her perspective. She blushed and opened the window slightly, even though the winter air outside was freezing.
Once they were at the docks, they immediately looked through the container storage area. After a while, John said,
"Nothing. Are you two sure this is the right spot?"
Iris nodded at him while Gwen said,
"Yeah. But containers get shifted all the time."
John groaned as he leaned one container and complained, "This could take days."
Iris warily eyed John, but tuned out what Gwen and John were talking about. Then Gwen got a phone call and she tailed John, not letting him out of her sights. John noticed her following him. John just groaned again as he said,
"God, you're so untrusting. But with your boss, it's probably wise."
Gwen then ran over to them after the call as she murmured, "Yeah, well, we trust him just fine, thank you."
John ignored her as he said, "Once a conman, always a conman."
Iris grimaced a little and countered, "Not really. Those days have been long over."
John looked at her funny, clearly knowing that he was missing something about Jack when Gwen asked them both,
"What does he mean by that?"
John said, "Look, just don't rely on him, Gwen. There's a lot about him you don't know. Fancy a peek?"
Gwen glanced at Iris, noticing that the younger girl was glaring at John and decided to ignore what the man had just said to her. If Iris thought that Jack was trustworthy, she was going to rely on Iris more than a stranger. They then all opened up the nearest container and then heard John exclaim in joy at his discovery of the canister they had been looking for.
Gwen looked at it warily and asked, "Is that it?"
She maintained her distance from John, actually standing behind Iris a little. Iris knew more about John, and she didn't trust John. Iris noticed Gwen's hesitation in approaching the canister and sighed as she went to go pick it up herself. She quickly grabbed it and walked backwards as quickly as she could. However, she wasn't fast enough to avoid John as she had intended. So she felt John push her to the wall and kiss her intensely. It caught her off-guard and she was barely able to push him off of her.
Gwen pulled her gun out and pointed it at John as she asked angrily,
"What are you doing? Get off her!"
John raised both hands and said, "Celebrating, that's all. God, the 21st century is so frigid."
"Gwen, poison…" Iris murmured as she slumped to the floor. Gwen immediately ran over to Iris, hoisting her up so that her head rested on Gwen's lap. Gwen looked up at John angrily and asked,
"What've you done?!"
John just smirked amusedly as he said, "Don't get up beautiful. I mean, you can't anyway. Paralyzing lip gloss. I think it might have even been Jack that taught me that trick. Just one problem If Iris is no cured in two hours, your major organs will go into shutdown."
Then he shook the canister he grabbed from Iris and said,
"Thanks. You two gonna be okay in here without me?"
John then looked at Iris, who was glaring at him, as he continued with, "He won't stay with you. He and I shared something."
With that, John stepped out of the container and shut the doors. But he had forgotten one crucial detail as he smugly left the area. Gwen still had her phone with her. Iris immediately told Gwen to call Owen and Tosh first. The woman followed her instructions and called them, warning them about John.
Iris managed to hear Owen curse as they noticed John appear by them and wreak havoc. Gwen then phoned Ianto, hoping that the Welsh man would come over to help them.
Luck wasn't with her however, as her phone was about to lose batteries. She dug around Iris' pockets and quickly grabbed her phone. Of course Iris' phone was practically fully charged. Iris never let her phone battery die if she could have helped it.
Gwen immediately called Ianto again, hoping that he could find them. After over an hour, Iris began to sweat while her body began to go limp even more. Gwen tried to offer body heat so Iris wouldn't go cold, but it was difficult. It wasn't exactly comfortable in the container and her legs were complaining from sitting so long.
"Hold on Iris, they will find us soon." Gwen muttered to the girl who was shaking from the cold. The winter air was flowing into the container, and chilling even Gwen's bones.
After what seemed like an eternity, Gwen saw the container door open. Owen, Tosh and Ianto ran into the container.
Owen immediately checked Iris, aware of her poisoned state from Gwen's phone call earlier. He said,
"She's still breathing. No other discernible injuries. Tosh, let's get this thing started. Ianto, take a swab. Right, pupils dilating, she's still conscious. Stay with us, Iris."
Owen then looked up at Gwen and asked her to fetch the anti-toxin kit for them as he whispered to Iris,
"Iris, hold on."
Iris felt weak and like she was about to throw up when she regained the strength to move her muscles again. Ianto helped her into the car and drove her to the Hub with Owen checking on her on their way back. Jack was going to kill her for what happened.
Ianto helped her into the Hub while Owen, Tosh and Gwen barged into the Hub with guns in their hands. John was frustratedly looking for something by the Blowfish. Iris spoke up and asked,
"Looking for this?"
She held up the item she had found in the Blowfish's pocket from earlier. The team looked at it curiously while John responded with,
"Okay, Pretty and resilient. Is that even fair?"
Gwen glared at him and said, "Maybe you didn't realize. You can beat, shoot, threaten, and even poison us and we keep coming back stronger every time. Also, nobody messes with Iris. We will make sure to get back to those who do."
Iris looked up at Gwen, surprised that the woman said this about her. Her eyes were about to tear when John just glanced at Iris and then said,
"Well, I think you ought to know your boss is splayed out on the-"
Jack walked in looking pissed more than ever when John gawked at his former partner and said,
"Pavement… Now that's impressive. Seriously, you can earn a fortune in the Vegas galaxies with an act like that. Go on, how's it work?"
Jack glared at the man and responded, "I can't die."
John didn't believe Jack as he said, "No but, really."
Jack shook his head and continued with, "No, but really, you can't kill me. No matter how many times you try, I can't die. Ever."
John looked surprised and then curious as he gently asked, "Hey, but what does I cost you? Every time you have to drag yourself back here, how does it feel? All that pain and trauma. Plus, you're reborn into this god forsaken mess. I pity you.
Jack remained quiet for a bit before responding,
"These people, this planet, all the beauty you could never see That's what I come back for."
Iris looked up at Jack, who gave Ianto a appreciative nod and then Gwen asked John,
"What's in the canisters?"
Owen added in, "It's come clean time, Captain."
John gave in and answered, "Yeah, all right. That woman I told you about had herself an Arcadian diamond. It's the rarest gem in the Damascene Cluster. Just when I'd got my hands on her, she only generates her own personal Rift storm. God, I hate technological geniuses."
Tosh and Iris looked offended. Tosh accused John with,
"You said this was a dying woman's request."
John scoffed as he said, "Yeah, she was dying. I shot her. Thought my luck had changed when I found it had ended up here. So, I'm thinking fifty-fifty. Even split, good deal. Or if anyone fancies an orgy?"
"Ugh…" Iris exclaimed disgusted by the thought.
Having heard enough, Jack pushed John into his office, having the entire team follow in. Jack shoved the item Iris had retrieved earlier and commanded,
"Open it."
John complained, "What, not even a please? Don't your manners get brought back to life too?"
Jack slammed the desk as he yelled, "Now!"
John worked his way through the tetrahedron as he murmured.
"This should give us the location of the diamond."
A hologram of a woman appeared and Gwen whispered, "The woman you murdered."
The woman in the hologram taunted John and the item opened up, later revealing a circular device to latch onto John's chest."
They all exclaimed in surprise and the hologram continued to say,
"It's an explosive device which will latch onto the DNA of whoever killed me. It'll detonate in ten minutes. It can't be removed without exploding…so, don't bother trying. Goodbye, lover."
John's face paled as he said, "No, wait."
But the woman in the hologram smirked as she said, "See you in hell."
Gwen looked at Iris and asked, "She can't be serious. Ten minutes?"
John begged them to take the machinery off of him and Ianto started his stopwatch. Gwen asked quickly,
"Okay, how big is this explosion likely to be Jack?"
Jack studied the machine and said, "That technology, that size? Big"
Owen responded with, "So we should really get him out of the city."
John pleaded to Jack, "You've got to help me. Please."
Jack questioned "Why?"
John, angry that Jack would ask such a question, punched him and grabbed Gwen, who had put herself between him and Iris since the poisoning incident.
Iris yelled out, "Let her go!"
John immediately threatened them with, "Get back. Back. Back off. Get Back."
Gwen gulped in fear as she said, "Iris, help me."
Iris' heart clenched at that and her mind was turning at speed of lightning. But John handcuffed himself to Gwen and Iris heard Owen ask in panic,
"Would shooting him stop the DNA trigger?"
Jack shook his head and responded with, "No."
John glanced at them and said,
"So, what are we gonna do now, team? The orgy's still an offer, by the way. Especially now I've got the cuffs out."
Iris almost growled in frustration before she realized and yelled towards Tosh,
"Tosh, the Rift predictor program, have you perfected it yet?"
Tosh's eyes widened in what Iris was planning and nodded as she said, "Pretty much."
Jack wasn't quite understanding it when Iris looked at Owen and said, "Torchwood DNA."
Owen looked at her like she lost her mind for a moment before his brain caught up to what he guessed she was telling him to do. He nodded and quickly prepared a syringe of various blood samples of Torchwood agents.
They finally reached the rooftop car park and saw the Rift appear. Owen quickly ran after John and injected him with the blood samples. John winced in pain and yelled out,
"Argh! Get off me!"
Jack anxiously looked for the machine to fall off and said, "Owen, Iris, it's not working."
Ianto said, "15 seconds."
Gwen asked them, "What are you doing?"
Owen responded with, "Trying to confuse the disk."
Jack asked Iris, "Why hasn't it worked?"
Iris glared at him and said, "It did! It's confusing the disc, just wait for it!"
Ianto counted down from five and Jack yelled, "Go! Run!"
Suddenly, the daylight disappeared and rain fell down on them. John looked around him, clearly surprised that he was still alive as he whispered out,
"What the hell?"
Gwen asked her team, "Guys, what's going on? Why's it gone dark?"
Iris answered Gwen with, "The rift's reverted to the moment John came through. Everything's jumped back to the beginning of the night."
Gwen said, "Like you were never here." Understanding what Iris was saying
Jack groaned and said, "Now we've got to avoid ourselves. Great."
John said, "It's a temporal displacement. Makes your tongue tingle, doesn't it? It's lovely."
That comment earned him a glare from everyone of the Torchwood team. John deflated a little at that and remained silent for a while as they explained a little about how Owen and Iris confused the disc with Torchwood DNA.
Iris was brought back to the real world when she heard a loud thump and saw John fall to the ground as Gwen fumed in anger with a fist. Iris laughed out loud at how John looked like a puppy that had been kicked really hard. Ianto smiled a little as she continued to laugh. Ianto then remarked,
"Remind me to never get on your bad side."
Gwen smiled as she realized that everybody seemed proud of her for punching John squarely in the face. Then Jack made John go back from wherever he came from when John suddenly said,
"Oh, by the way, I meant to tell you. I found Gray."
Iris immediately tensed at the name of Jack's little brother when Gwen curiously asked, "Who's Gray?"
Jack shook his head, noticing Iris' all too familiar look of recognition and said,
"It's nothing. Let's get back to work."
Later, when they had all finally managed to go home, Jack followed Iris to her place. When they finally closed the door behind them, Jack said,
"You let him kiss you."
Iris looked up at Jack in disbelief and said,
"Are we seriously going to talk about that now?"
Jack looked at her and said, "Look, even if it was an accident, I don't like it."
Iris understood what he was saying and responded, "I know, but seriously, if you think I enjoyed that one bit, you're hallucinating. And anyways, I was distracted by something else."
Jack lifted one eyebrow at that statement and asked, "Oh, and what could that be?"
Iris looked at him, easily reading that Jack knew what she meant and she almost slammed her head on the wall in regret.
She whispered out, "You know what I mean."
Then she went to go to her room. And as she was about to open her door, Jack turned her around and slammed her back on the door, pressing himself closer to her.
Iris gulped in anticipation and anxiety, feeling the heat roll off of Jack.
"Uh…." Was all she could manage before Jack's lips slammed on top of hers and kissed her passionately. Iris responded when Jack pulled away all too soon again and she growled out,
"You tease."
Jack smirked and said, "Why Ms. Iris, I didn't know you had it in you to be so desperate."
Iris glared at him, noticing what he was trying to do. She wanted to retort back when her phone suddenly went off. She wanted to ignore it, but decided against it and looked at the number. She didn't recognize it and accepted the call when she heard a familiar excited voice say,
"Oh Iris! Oh good, you picked up! I was just calling to make sure you were alright! I just finished reading about Adipose Industries and thought it would be pretty interesting to check out when I felt you go through some painful things and then your emotions get all overboard and I thought-"
Iris blushed deep red at what he was saying and realized that some of her emotions must have slipped through while interacting with Jack. Jack lifted an eyebrow at her, curious as to who was on the other side, but she blushed even further. She hurriedly cut the Doctor's rambling as she said,
"Doctor…uh… not the best timing…"
Jack laughed out loud at that, realizing what she must have been implying. He understood some aspects of the bond Iris shared with the Doctor, and though it did annoy his possessive side for Iris, it made him crack up.
The Doctor didn't seem to catch up at first as he said, "What? Why? What's wrong?" Silence on the other side came through and Iris felt the wriggling sense of embarrassment flow through the bond she shared with the Doctor and she laughed a little, helping it ease her own embarrassment.
"Oh…" Was all the Doctor could manage and then she heard him hurriedly say,
"I will…uh… leave you two… to… uh… finish… whatever you were doing."
Iris blushed and she scolded the Doctor via the bond and felt the Doctor wince at his intrusion. With that, she ended the phone call and looked at Jack, who just grabbed his stomach and fell down to the ground laughing.
Glaring at the man, she quickly ran into her room and locked the door, yelling,
"See you tomorrow Jack Harkness!"
Jack immediately stood up in shock and then realized that the door was locked and groaned. Well, there went that opportunity.