WELL HELLO THERE EVERYONE. Sorry about this chapter, its just a bit of a filler as I struggle with bringing the next into life. School work's a bit of a nightmare, but you all know how it is. Hope you guys enjoy it anyway! :D

30th of April, 2012. Scotland

McDonald struggled out of the building with the gibbering Animus attendant, who was sobbing with near panic and had, if that dampness on his crotch was anything to go by, had wet himself out of sheer terror. They struggled outside, and the attention of a few people passing by was soon drawn by the sound of the man's screaming. McDonald grimaced, and dragged him down the road, hauling him into a nearby alleyway. It got them out of sight, but it didn't help matters too much – the poor bloke was convinced that this was where McDonald would do him in, and howled in fear as McDonald shoved him up against the wall -

And held out his hand.

'Give me your phone.'

'Please, don't kill me! I-I couldn't help it!'

'Give me your phone.'

The attendant stopped his shrieking, his chest heaving with effort. 'W-what?'

'Give me your fucking phone!' McDonald snapped at him. The attendant started at the growl in McDonald's voice, and with a shaking hand reached into an inside pocket of his white lab coat and handed it to McDonald, who took the expensive looking thing in hand and hurled it against the wall. The attendant cried out as it smashed into pieces.

'That's mine - !'

'They'll have a chip in it, and if I let you go with it, they'll know you're still alive.'

The attendant's eyes widened. 'Y-you're not going to kill me?'

'Our little secret,' McDonald said sarcastically, and then pulled at the attendant's lab coat. 'Take that off. And give me your ID.'

As the attendant shrugged off his coat and stood there with a general aura of uselessness, McDonald systematically broke up his identification card up into tiny little chards, and then ground them all under his foot for good measure. He took the lab coat from the attendant, and then fished in his pocket for something, pulling it out and handing it to him. It was a credit card Maria had given him – a TORCHWOOD standard one: it was untraceable and the credit limitless.

'Here,' he said. 'Don't ask me how, or why, but that thing's got all the money you'll ever need on it. Go get yourself some new clothes, find yourself a better job that doesn't have any shady bastards pulling the strings behind it.'

The attendant gaped at him uselessly.

'Go on!' McDonald barked at him. The attendant took his advice and fled from the alley, clutching the credit card to him. McDonald sighed, and considered the lab coat before figuring he'd head over to the local canal and dump it in there. Abstergo would assume McDonald had drowned him. He was balling it up into something easier to carry when someone jumped on him from the roof. He yelled out as his head and ribs cracked nastily on the hard dirt ground, and fought viscously with his attacker, blocking the jabs he made at his face while yelling at him to get off. But the other man was obviously far more skilled, and landed McDonald a hard punch to the face. McDonald roared in agony and, less able, was easily dragged to his feet and a face he recognised was thrust into his face.

'Kevin? What the bloody fuck do you think you're doing?'

'Giving you a warning,' Maria's brother snarled back. 'You leave my sister the fuck alone!'

'I'm helping you guys out, I haven't touched her!'

'The fuck you haven't,' Kevin replied, and threw McDonald back onto the ground. Before McDonald to scramble to his feet, Kevin landed a foot in his ribs. He grunted in pain and curled up into the tightest ball he could manage, fending off the worst Kevin's foot could deal him. And when Kevin tired of that, he squatted and seized McDonald's front, hauling him upwards.

'Whatever your involvement is in all this, I want you out of the picture when this is all over. The last thing Maria needs in her life is a little dickhead like you.'
McDonald spat in his face. 'Go fuck yourself.' He said in his best Scottish growl. 'And then we'll see what she wants.'

Kevin shook him once, and let him go abruptly. When he stood, the two men glared at each other for a minute or two before Kevin narrowed his eyes, and turned to the wall. He scaled it in a matter of seconds, and then was gone. McDonald hauled himself upright, leaning back against the wall and touching his nose gently. Bleeding. Probably broken. He reached for the lab coat, which was now dirty, and wiped a good amount of blood on it. He was a sucker for realism. And then, getting to his feet, staggered out of the alley. There'd be some explaining to do when he got back to work, but his mind was occupied with another kind of explaining.

The explaining he'd do to Maria. Or rather, the absence of it. He'd say the attendant threw a lucky punch. But only because he didn't want to hurt her. Kevin was right – what would she want with a guy like him? He'd duck out of her life when this was all done.

And that thought alone pained him more than anything else ever had.

DARREN FANCIES MARIA.

Talking of which, how well balanced do you think these OCs are? The very few OCs I have are locked away in a private fictional universe and the only contact they come into my fanfiction is when I let them go out and play with my muses - and I never publish them. Maria, Kevin and Darren exist purely for the sake of this fic, literally just made up on the spot, so I'm just curious to what you guys think of them. Do you see depths and sides to them that I don't see? Anyway, let me know what you think! And always, thanks for reading! :)