2
Jenny kept her eyes trained on the man's back in the half-light of the stairwell. She couldn't seem to stop staring at him, though it made her skin crawl. Something about him just wasn't right. It wasn't the man himself, not really. He seemed nice enough. In fact, she couldn't put her finger on what was setting her off.
"So this is the Torchwood of the modern ages, aye?" The Doctor was commenting ahead of her. "Bit stuffy."
"We like to keep our operations low-key." The man in the military coat replied lightly. "Besides, it keeps the heating bill down."
She watched the black coat flap with narrowed eyes. It was his timelines, that was it. He was… out of synch, that was a good description. Out of step with…everything, really.
Father? she murmured internally.
"Hmm?"
What's wrong with him?
Her father turned his head, meeting her eyes.
You mean Jack?
She nodded. The Doctor glanced at the man ahead of him, then back at his daughter. Rather twists your guts up to look at him, doesn't it? No worries, it's just instinct pointing out how unnatural he is. Everything in time changes, except for Jack. See how still his lines are, how none of them interact with the lines of his environment? He's pretty much a slap in the face to relative time-space and the continuum, so looking at him throws your instincts off a bit. But, like I said, no worries, harmless.
Why?
Her father shrugged, his eyes leaving hers. It's rather a long story. There was a crisis a while back, and Jack's timelines… essentially, Jack became a fixed point in time during the mess. He doesn't change, or rather he changes at a different rate from everything else. And if you want to know how it happened, I'll have to tell you that I frankly have no idea.
Beside Jenny, the girl called the Walker nodded.
That does explain a great deal.
The Doctor shot her a glance.
You caught that all, Walker?
Yes. My apologies, I couldn't help but overhear the question.
Jenny shrugged.
No problem.
But how…
The Walker's question was cut short as the man ahead of them announced "Here we are." He clicked a button on the wall, and the door in front of them rolled open, followed by a rather impressive set of barred gates. The man called Jack grinned at them.
"Welcome to Torchwood Three. Home sweet home, for the most part." He strode into the room, calling out.
"Gwen! Got those readouts for me?"
A disgruntled female voice replied from somewhere in gloom. "Yes, Jack, I got your bloody readouts. Where in hell have you been? You went gallivantin' off this morning, an' I've been tracking up and down the city, an' you said you'd call, an' instead-"
The speaker walked into sight around a column, a sheaf of papers in her hand. She froze in mid sentence, her eyes widening.
"Oh-" she stared at them, her dark eyes huge. "You're the Doctor!"
The Doctor grinned. "Yep, that's me. Hello Gwen-Cooper, wasn't it? Yes, Gwen Cooper. Nice to meet you in person this time."
"Yeah," the woman said, stepping forward, "But what are you doing here? Is something gone wrong? And who-"
"Oh, nothing wrong, just a social visit." The Doctor shrugged. "Just dropped by, an' bumped into Jack, an' he invited us home."
"Done that often enough." Jack commented, grinning. The Doctor rolled his eyes.
"Yes, Jack, we get that. By the way, something has to be wrong whenever I'm around? What's Jack been telling you about me then? Or was it just last time setting a precedent? Sorry, no moving the world this time." He glanced at his daughter. "By the way, sorry, terrible at introductions. This is Jenny, and-"
"The Walker." The older girl said, nodding to Gwen. "A pleasure."
"Who happen to be the Doctor's kids." Jack grinned, pulling off his military coat."Doc, how come you never told me you had kids?"
"Probably because you never asked. By the way, nice place you have here." He said, eyes roving around the room. Glancing to the side, he grinned.
"Oh, your rift manipulator! I've got to take a look at that. You mind?"
"Be my guest."
The Doctor smiled widely. "Brilliant." He bounced across the room.
Gwen watched him, smirking. "This what kept you, Jack?"
The man shrugged, smiling. He glanced at Jenny, and turned the smile up a notch.
"Well, seems you ladies are in need of the ten-cent tour. Shall we?"
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The flower stems had begun to drip in his hand. He should have left them in their wrapper, but it just didn't seem classy. He hoped they wouldn't wilt before she arrived. They shouldn't. They really ought to be all right for half an hour.
He fidgeted in his seat, then realized he looked a bloody fool wiggling about in his chair. Calm down. He needed to calm down. She was going to get here. Give it another ten minutes.
He pulled the wrinkles from his shirt surreptitiously. How they'd ever talked him into this blind date he'd never know. The whole thing was rubbish. He took another nervous sip of his coffee. Well, maybe not complete rubbish. Talking to Christina over the phone had been pretty great. So it wasn't quite a blind date, not really. If he was really honest, he was pretty keen to meet her.
He sat forward in his chair. Was that her? He sat back. Nope. No red book in her hand. He fiddled with the flower stems. His sister had said Christina was pretty well read. So…he sat up again. Was that her? Yes, there was the red book…and my, she was even prettier than he'd thought she'd be. He stood, flowers in hand. And the world tilted underfoot, like some sort of carnival ride. For a moment he was so thrown that he wasn't sure if he was on his feet or on his arse. Come to think of it, where was he? He was waiting for something, something special…maybe the bloke standing behind him would know…he turned…
The flower stems had begun to drip in his hand. He should have left them in their wrapper. He hoped they wouldn't wilt before she arrived. He fidgeted in his seat, then realized he looked a bloody fool wiggling about in his chair. He needed to calm down. She was going to get here. Give it another ten minutes.
He pulled the wrinkles from his shirt surreptitiously. How they'd ever talked him into this blind date he'd never know. The whole thing was rubbish. He gulped coffee nervously. Bloody rubbish.
He sat forward in his chair. Was that her? He sat back. Nope. No red book in her hand. He fiddled with the flower stems.
Well wait, just wait. Give it another twenty minutes.
After an hour he left the café table, hands deep in the pockets of his jeans as he boarded the bus. He barley glanced at the lovely girl who sat near the door, digging frantically in her satchel for the red book that she'd been sure she'd brought.
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"I didn't know that humans were sanctioned to own these in the twenty first century."
Jack glanced from his computer screen to the object held in the Walker's slim fingers.
"We're not, exactly."
The Walker's eyebrows curved upwards.
"Does Grandfather know you have it?"
Jack leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Yup. Fact is he gave it to me. So if he thinks I can handle it, maybe you can stop worrying." With a small grin, he turned back to the screen.
The Walker shook her head slightly, setting the object back down. Sometimes she simply could not understand her grandfather's reasoning. At times his actions seemed positively erratic. He'd always been a bit of a rouge element, not to mention slightly impulsive and scatterbrained, and the tendency seemed to have increased with age and regeneration. Imagine forgetting to report that there was a new member of the family walking about for more than a year. She shook her head slightly, smiling to herself. The first she'd known about it was an odd, distant sense in the back of her head, a sense of something changing, something out of place. And then there'd been the day they'd met. She'd been helping to conclude a spice-trading treaty between Beloruix and the colonists of the Fanti-Havi moon when her ship had reported the landing of another TARDIS. Making her excuses, she'd all but dashed out of the main hall. And there had been her grandfather's ship, sitting on the gravel path to the gardens. Her grandfather stepped out, glancing around. He grinned widely, catching sight of her.
"Walker! There you are! Wondered how long we'd have to hunt about for you!"
"Grandfather!!" the Walker had laughed, "I hadn't expected to see you so soon!"
"Yes, I'm sure, but something cropped up, you see, and…" He had paused then, glancing behind him as someone stepped out of the TARDIS. A girl, a girl with hair like moonlight and timelines that the Walker could only stare at in shock. She couldn't be…
The Doctor's smile grew wider.
"Nope, you're not seeing things m'girl. This is Jenny. Jenny, this is the Walker."
"A pleasure." The Walker replied dazedly. After a moment she remembered to put out a hand to shake.
Instead, the girl crossed her arms over her chest, grinning.
"Well that's some way to say hello to a sister." She had said.
Sister. The knowledge still had the tendency to hit her like backwash from a hyperspace engine at times. The Walker glanced up to where Jenny was peering over the shoulder of the woman sitting at the main computer. Aunt, actually, if you wanted to be specific. But she might as well be a younger sister. Much younger, of course. To think that the Doctor hadn't told her a thing about it for a year. Silly old man.
She set aside another piece of technology, distantly wondering why something like it would have survived the trip through the Rift. Sister. She'd never had a sister. Only the Cousins in her House and peers in the Academy class. This girl rather reminded her of her classmates, though she was quite a lot less quiet than they had been. 'The little soldier' her grandfather had said fondly, and that was an apt description for Jenny. A warrior, active and spontaneous. The Walker had begun to see that in the two weeks since she'd met the girl, when Jenny and Grandfather had asked her to take a holiday from her work and travel with them for a bit at least. Jenny acted, actually, quite a lot like Grandfather, all energy and impulse and fight. Which made sense, given her manner of birth.
She glanced over a vial set out on the table, marked 'Danger-Do Not Inhale' Humans assuredly ought not to have that compound, if it was what she thought it was.
A sister. Another Time Lord. Such a strange and lovely thing to happen. But the poor girl had such a lot to learn, and only Grandfather to teach her. Granted, he was probably one of the most experienced and knowledgeable creatures in the Universe. But he was, for all that, still a man, and still rather elderly. Ah well.
"Anyone up for coffee?"
The Walker glanced over her shoulder. The smaller man she'd met earlier was carrying a tray of cups as he came down a flight of metal-grill stairs into the main room.
"I've also got tea if you prefer. If you're allergic to coffee or something of the sort."
"Somebody say tea?"
The Doctor appeared from around a corner, hands in the pockets of his brown suit.
"That'd be lovely, ta. Could use a cup of something. Come to think of it, haven't had anything today. Forgot to eat this morning when we got to working."
"I've got biscuits too."
The dark-haired woman called Gwen snorted. "Ianto, you trying to poison these people, and they just got to Earth? Those things are a misery."
The man shrugged placidly as he handed out cups.
"I could order in donuts if you want. Just don't feed any to Myfanwy and make her ill again."
Gwen shrugged. "Wasn't me last time."
"Myfanwy?" Jenny asked, straightening. In response, all three humans in the room pointed upwards. The Time Lords looked up. High in the wide twilight of the vaulted ceiling, something dark and leathery was sitting on a strut. Then it moved. The Walker caught a glance of one beady eye and a long, thin bill.
Is that a…
The Doctor leaned back, his eyes wide . "Ha! Pteranodon! Jack, you've got a pteranodon! Beautiful!!"
"Not when she's got diarrhea she's not." Gwen said ruefully. "Course anyone who's dotty enough to feed her slices of pizza deserves to clean up after her. Aye Jack?"
The dark man smiled lightly. "Oh, I don't know. Anyway-" he pushed himself from his chair, "Got an idea. Special guests, special breakfast. Gwen, shut that down. Ianto, put that away. We're going out to breakfast. Interested, Doc?"
"Interested? Me? Oh, always interested in a free meal, me."
"But Jack!" the dark-haired woman called from her seat, "We can't leave! There's this work to do, and we've got to watch the Rift, you know it's acting up, and-"
"It'll keep, Gwen. Anything goes wrong, it'll pop up on here." Jack said, tapping the unit on his wrist. "Now let's get moving."
The Doctor turned to his granddaughter with a wide smile.
"Breakfast! Lovely! Come on!" He turned on his heel, bounding up the stairs. His daughter had already beaten him to the door. The Walker followed, unable to suppress a bit of a grin.
Jack had chosen a pleasant, airy café for their meal. He dropped into a chair with an air of complete relaxation, his arms behind his head.
"Best food in Cardiff, Doc. See what you think."
"Thanks! Oh look girls, they've got chocolate-chip pancakes! Chocolate in breakfast! Humans do think up some of the best ideas! Got to order that." He snapped the menu down on the table with a grin, glancing around the table."Everybody ready to order, then?"
"Doctor," Jack said amusedly, "nobody else has read the menu."
The Doctor glanced at them, surprised. "Oh, right. Sorry."
Sitting beside him, Jenny caught the Walker's eyes and shook her head. The Walker grinned in reply as she glanced at her own menu.
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"I believe you're really going to be pleased with the new product."
The pitch was going perfectly. She was perfectly professional, a businesswoman. But on the inside she was a giddy girl hugging herself in sheer delight. The investors were eating out of her hand. She'd picked the perfect time and the perfect place for them to fill their faces while they listened to her pitch. This was so very great. Sure and they'd buy the stuff, and when she got back to the home office and they saw what a job she'd done she'd be promoted for sure. Senior sales associate! Wouldn't that be something to tell the folks!
"The Daffodil cordial is just the thing for a healthy growing child. And soon every mother in the UK is going to know it, with a little help from us, of course." She gave the cheeky smile that she'd practiced in the mirror, then popped the top off the can.
"To your health!"
They were all smiling at her.
"Well," their head man said, "I think that-"
What was wrong with her eyes? She blinked hard to clear her vision. Everything was swimming. But it wasn't her eyes. She felt it under her feet too, a bending, like the floor was going to give way-and why couldn't she hear the buyers anymore? And where were they? Silly, they'd gone home already, they'd made their purchase and gone…but no, that wasn't right, they were arriving here to see her deal pitch…she had to put the deal through…was she in the wrong place? Someone was stepping up close behind her, and she turned to ask…
"I believe you're really going to be pleased with the new product."
The pitch was going perfectly. She was perfectly professional. The investors were eating out of her hand. She'd picked the perfect time and the perfect place for them to fill their faces while they listened to her pitch. She made a circuit as she spoke, using the can of cordial to gesture emphatically. This was so very great. Sure and they'd buy the stuff, and when she got back to the home office and they saw what a job she'd done she'd be promoted for sure. Senior sales associate! Wouldn't that be something to tell the folks!
She stopped in front of their head man. Everybody had said the guy was such an old troll and vindictive to boot, but here he was, smiling placidly.
"The Daffodil cordial is just the thing for a healthy growing child. And soon every mother in the UK is going to know it, with a little help from us, of course." She gave the cheeky smile that she'd practiced in the mirror, then popped the top off the can.
Fizzy drink geysered up out of the can, to her utter mortification. It fountained over her nice new blouse, over her shoes-and over the buyer.
For a moment, she just stood there, drenched. Everyone at the table was staring at her. And not in a good way.
"Well," their head man said, "I think that we'll have to…turn down your offer, miss. And I'll bill your firm for a new suit."
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"Could you give me the-" The Walker turned from the counter, leaving her sentence unfinished.
What was that? Something…
"What now, dear?"
"Oh."
Called back to the moment, she turned towards the woman again.
"Six of the honey scones, please, to take. And the bill for the Harkness party."
"Right you are."
The Walker allowed her eyes to rove over the room as she waited. She could have sworn that something had changed in Time, twinged in her senses. But everything looked fine. She shook her head to rid herself of the lingering sensation of unease. Paying the woman, she turned away.
Outside, the rest of the group was waiting for her. The humans were quite a bit more at ease than they had been at first, relaxed and talking. Though all three of them appeared to have been under quite a bit of stress recently. It showed around their eyes.
Looking at her, the Doctor quirked an eyebrow.
"Something up?"
She glanced at him. "What? Oh, no. I simply haven't adjusted to being this close to the Rift, I suppose."
"Ha!" Jack laughed, "I don't think anybody 'adjusts' to the rift. They just survive."
"Always throws you something new." Ianto agreed placidly.
"Yes." The Walker murmured to herself, "I suppose so."
With a last glance at the café, she turned and followed the others.
