23
A blowtorch spitting sparks.
Martha is harnessed to the nose of the ship, welding on a replacement for the very window the harpoon that almost impaled Mickey came through. Mickey is watching her as he flaps and yells that she will set the gorram place on fire.
Inside, Ianto works inside a crawlspace just above the engine room, replacing wires. Some of them run to a computer screen that he checks and adjusts.
Jax and Rhys hold onto the cannon as a crane is lifting it off the top of the ship.
He watches it go and here we see the whole ship for the first time, harnessed by the wings above the ground so she can be worked on all over. The cannon is being hoisted away from her as a crew of repairmen wheel new landing gear under her belly.
Toshiko, deeply greasy, tweaks a part on the engine and crosses to the back where Owen, shirtless and not entirely un-greasy himself, is wrenching a bolt into place above his head. A moment looking at him and she can't help herself - she slides her arms around his chest...
On a scaffold, Rose repaints the name on the nose with elegant precision.
Toshiko and Owen are just making out like fiends, work completely forgotten. With nothing resembling elegant precision, they sink out of frame to the floor.
A beat, and Ianto's head appears from the crawlspace above, looking down at them with detached curiosity.
.
.
.
.
.
It's raining as Jax is hauling in the last of the repair equipment. His gaze suddenly moves around him, skirting the ground of the junkyard, till it lands on a figure in foreground, standing watching him from some twenty feet away.
Jax stops, doesn't turn. Hand near his gun. "If you're here to tell me we ain't finished... then we will be real quick."
The Agent stands just under the canopy of the nose of the ship, framed by the rain behind. "Do you know what an uproar you've caused? Protests, riots – cries for a recall of the entire Parliament."
"We've seen the broadwaves."
"You must be pleased." The Agent says softly.
"Verse wakes up a spell. Won't be long 'fore she rolls right over and falls back asleep. Taint my worry." Jax shrugs as he looks him in the eye.
"I can't guarantee they won't come after you. The Parliament. They have a hundred men like me and they are not forgiving." The Agents warns as he moves closer and Jax drop his hand from the gun to move onto his space.
"That don't bode especially well for you... giving the order to let us go, patching up our hurt..." Jax murmurs.
"I told them the Jones' were no longer a threat - damage done."
"They might listen, but... I think they know I'm no longer their man." The Agent shrugs and the gold brocade on his red jacket glints, even in the rain.
"They take you down John, I don't expect to grieve overmuch. Like to kill you myself, I see you again." Jax warns his once friend, back before things go complicated and Hart smiles at his childhood friend.
"You won't. There is..." John Hart opens his arms wide "nothing left to see. They are not watching either of us now."
Jax looks at him a moment, then picks up his gear to head inside. The Agent starts away into the rain, then stops to look up at the nose of the ship.
"I hope he is worth it to you" John calls after Jax, no longer pretending now the inbuilt surveillance software is disabled and he is able to acknowledge his Captain.
"You know he is, you helped me didn't you" came a soft reply.
Unseen by him, Ianto stands watching from a window, just a shadow.
Jax hits the button to close the inner doors, steps inside as they slide together. Glances back at Hart, unimpressed. "You still standing there when the engine starts, you never will figure it out."
Hart watches the door shut. A moment, and he goes.
Jax stows the gear as Martha approaches.
"What a whiner..." Jax is muttering to himself, "Always the wife."
Martha approaches with her cocky step "Sir, we have a green light. Inspection's pos and we're clear for up-thrust."
"Think she'll hold together?" Jax asks.
"She's tore up plenty. But she'll fly true" Martha nods.
A beat between them before Jax speaks "Make sure everything's secure. Could be bumpy."
"Always is." Martha laughs as she takes off and Jax heads up the stairs.
Jax comes into the hallway and runs into Rose. Rhys passes through as they talk, heading down into his bunk. Pays them no mind. Neither do Owen and Toshiko, in the dining room stowing supplies.
Martha and Mickey are in their bunk, not caring what is happening other-place as they thank the gods for sparing him and enjoy each other.
"We're taking her out. Should be about a day's ride to get you back to your girls."
"Right." She nods as she watches her brother move around her.
"You ready to get off this heap and back to a civilized life?" he asks then sees her hesitate and he stops.
"I, uh..." she shrugs "I don't know."
He looks at her, a smile in his eyes.
"Good answer." He turns and heads into the bridge.
Jax eases himself into his seat. Takes a moment to adjust one of Mickey's dashboard dinosaurs, then looks to his left. "You gonna ride shotgun, help me fly?"
Ianto is in the co-pilot's seat, looking intently at the screens and buttons. "That's the plan."
"Think you can work out how to get her in the…" Jax grins and Ianto is flipping switches without even looking, as the ship hums to life.
Her engines fire up and tilt. She lifts gently off the ground. This Ianto is self assured and calm. As if the trials and hardships have been polished away along with the vessel's.
Jax looks slightly, only slightly nonplussed. "Okay, clearly some aptitude for the... but it ain't all buttons and charts. You know what the first rule of flying is little albatross? Well, I suppose you do, since you already know what I'm about to say."
"I do Cariad. But I like to hear you say it."
Jax looks out at the rain on his windows, at his screens, taking her up as he says "Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home."
"Well, that's one thing you can teach me" Ianto also looks out at the sky.
Jax snorts softly as he glances at the only co-pilot he wanted, his pretty boy.
"Storm's getting worse." Ianto points out as he looks out the window, oblivious to the adoration of his lover.
"We'll pass through it soon enough." Jax whispers, "We'll get there love."
As they shoot up with her through sheeting rain, towards the top of the sky.
Looking down on the storm clouds as Torchwood bursts out of them, comes at us, flared by the sun behind the planet as she passes us, her Firefly effect lighting up, about to shoot off into the heavens - There is a spark and a piece of panelling pops off, whips at the aft port camera, blacking out the frame.
"What was that?" Jax roars as Ianto's musical laughter fills the boat.
THE END