3
Outside of Mr. Forbe's grocery, there was a tin can. Danny squinted, holding his slingshot out for a better aim. The wood was cool in his fingers. He'd had to beg his mum for this slingshot for the longest time. The soda can he'd found to use for a target just sat there, daring him to hit it. He pulled back the band, and let fly.
Danny sucked in his breath as he watched the stone. His aim was a little off, not much off, but it was way too close to the shop window. He breathed again when the rock hit the brick wall and rattled down the alley. Mum would have killed him if he'd hit the window. Good thing that…what was going on? The ground was all wobbly, and he couldn't see right-where was he? Where was his mum? Everything bounced and wobbled like Jello and then…
Danny squinted, holding his slingshot out for a better aim. The wood was cool in his fingers. He'd had to beg his mum for this slingshot for the longest time. The soda can he'd found to use for a target just sat there, daring him to hit it. He pulled back the band, and let fly.
Danny sucked in his breath as he watched the stone fly. His aim was a little off, not much off, but it was way too close to the shop window. Oh please, oh please, oh please don't hit the-
CRASH!
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Inside the Hub, there was laughter
"So where do you find black holes?"
Jack crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair. He looked more like himself when he smiled, the Doctor thought. There hadn't been enough of that from Jack today.
"Where?"
"In black socks."
Jenny's brow creased at the chorus of groans. "What?"
The rest of the group smiled at the confusion on her face. The mood in Jack's station had turned jovial, and a good thing too. Everyone in the Torchwood team had been too grim when they'd arrived. Especially Jack, despite his roguish façade. He seemed to have grown somber in the last fifty years. Strain showed in the cant of his shoulders and the set of his jaw these days. Life had probably been rough on his group after that last Dalek attack a year ago, too. Though of course, the Doctor reminded himself as he sat back, it had been only three months ago for them. They were probably still picking up the pieces here on Earth, which might account for the tension in all three Torchwood members. It was good to see Jack loosening up again as he sat and laughed with Jenny. He had been delighted to find out that Jenny collected jokes, though the ones she'd come up with so far made the Doctor seriously consider going through the Libraries and clearing out all the books she'd been getting material from. But he had to admit that they did do the job of breaking the ice. Jack's subordinate, who'd been introduced as Ianto, had relaxed in the last hour as well, and dropped his butler-like manner. He sat close beside Jack now, and every once in a while they exchanged a glance or a brush of the hand that made the Doctor smile. Now if Jack's other agent would leave off her typing and join the group they'd have quite a little party going.
"If that's the level we're going to, I've got one." Jack said with a grin. "What goes bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud, bang thud?"
"What?" Jenny and Ianto asked simultaneously. Jack shrugged. "Time Lord committing suicide."
Two heartfelt groans went up from the Doctor and the Walker.
"Oh, you would have to teach her that old bit, wouldn't you?" The Doctor said. Jack shrugged again, smiling complacently.
"Seemed to fit the circumstances. I think you taught me that one, Doctor."
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I taught you that when I was in my ninth regeneration and full of hyper-vodka. Your fault, incidentally. I would have taught anyone anything in that condition."
Jack's grin turned wicked. "Could have taught me a few more things."
"Jack, really…"
"Sorry Doc. You left yourself wide open for that."
"Okay, why did the cat fall off the roof?"
"Why?"
Jenny grinned. "Because it lost its mu."
The Walker shook her head, grinning. The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, please tell me a daughter of mine did not just tell one of the worst physics jokes in existence."
"Oi! It was a good joke!" She glanced at Ianto, who was looking at her with a frown.
"Lost its mu?"
Beside him, the Walker nodded. "Mu. Coefficient of friction. Without it objects have no grip."
"Oh." Ianto said, nodding in a way that showed he had completely no idea what that meant. Jack shook his head.
"I'd throw that one out if I were you."
"You're right." Jenny admitted. She tipped her head to the side, studying Jack for a moment. "Will you teach me some jokes?"
"He won't if he knows what's good for him." the Doctor commented darkly. "There are things in Jack's head that no intelligence should ever be subjected to. Trust me on this, you really don't want to learn any jokes out of him."
"He knows a few good limericks too." Ianto said, his face deadpan. The Doctor's eyes widened in dismay.
"Oh no. Oh no no no, no limericks, I absolutely forbid limericks, especially anything starting with 'there once was a man…', and anything referring to sweet Asian girls in large green-"
The squeak of the computer chair wheels cut through the air as Gwen pushed herself back from the keyboards she'd been typing at, whipping around to face the group.
"Can you all just shut it? I'm trying to get this damn system to work again an' all your wittering isn't helping, it really isn't!"
Her words shattered the air like glass, leaving them staring as Gwen turned and began to type again. The Doctor watched her, his dark eyes wide. The note in her voice had been as close to the borderline of hysteria as he'd ever heard. He'd known that Jack's team was under strain, he could see that a mile off, but it seemed to be quite a bit worse than he'd thought.
Across from him, Jack stood, his face falling into implacable lines. He stepped over to stand behind his subordinate.
"Gwen."
The wiry woman typed feverishly.
"Gwen." This time Jack's deep voice was woven with a note of command. Gwen turned, meeting Jack's eyes with an expression that reminded the Doctor of a snared rabbit. Jack held her gaze.
"Relax."
The woman stared up at him. Then she nodded, drawing a long breath.
"Course. Right. Sorry, Jack." After a moment of awkward silence, she glanced over her shoulder. "Sorry, everybody."
"Ah, no need for apologies." The Doctor threw out in his best light-hearted tone, trying to resuscitate the mood. "Technology can drive anyone into fits once in a while."
"Yeah." Jenny added, picking up on what he was trying to do. "You should see Father kicking the console when the TARDIS gives him grief."
"Oi! Percussive maintenance!"
"You look like you're having fits."
"I do not!"
Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor watched Gwen, and was relieved to see her smile at their sparring. Well, that was a good sign anyway. But he was going to have to talk to Jack. From the looks of it he was running his people to their breaking point, which was bad all round. He really ought to find a few more agents and share the load.
As the Doctor kept up the banter with his daughter, his granddaughter stood, peering at the computer screens.
"What seems to be the matter with your system?"
Gwen glanced up at her. "Mostly it's just bullocksed, is what it is. For starters I'm no good on computers, an' this bloody thing's got more encryption and safeties than you'd believe. We can get access to our basic systems, do internet searches and such, but the rest's locked down; city records and tracking, crime and disappearance rates, our vault records and just about every file on alien-erm- about…"
"Alien activity." Jack put in. "Don't be shy, Gwen. We've got a file on the Doctor thicker than an Encyclopedia and he knows it."
"S'allright, I got my own file on Jack." The Doctor said, tapping his forehead. Another thing for him to talk to Jack about, he reminded himself. He wanted no record of either his daughter or his granddaughter in any files. Bad enough that the information from the Earth intelligence groups had been used to track him before. He wanted absolutely nothing around that could be used against the girls.
"Hm." The Walker murmured, oblivious to the banter. "And none of you have gotten into it? I'd think you'd be familiar with advanced computer systems in your original timeframe." She said, glancing at Jack. He shrugged, hooking his thumbs in his suspenders.
"Doesn't mean I'm a genius. Gwen has more perseverance than either of us boys, which is why she's still working on it."
The Walker nodded, considering. "I might be able to do a bit. May I give it a try?"
Gwen looked up in surprise, then shot the merest hint of a glance at Jack, who nodded imperceptibly. "Sure. Be my guest." She stood, relinquishing her seat at the keyboards. Nodding, the Walker took her place, studying the system for a moment. Good girl. Get a feel for the workings first. She typed a few phrases, then began working quickly, scrolling through the data. Ever the helper, the Walker was. Always stepping in and making the tactful offers.
"Are you reading that?" Gwen asked incredulously.
"Mm." the young woman affirmed, eyes fixed on the screen. "And I see what you mean about the encryptions-hmm…this may take a fair amount of time."
Perfect. This would give him the chance to talk over the issues that needed addressing.
"Well," the Doctor said, pushing himself out of his chair "That's all right then, 'cause there are a few things I saw in your vaults I wanted a look at anyway. Some of the things I saw in there looked decidedly nasty. And what was in that largest section?"
"Technology we don't have any information on." Jack replied. The Doctor looked at him in surprised dismay.
"You've got that many unknown bits and bobs hanging about? Now that we've got to fix. And it looks like you lot could use a hand in here anyhow, so p'rhaps we'll stay on for a bit, help you sort things out. That all right, girls? Good." The Doctor spun on his heel. "So, Jack, off to the vaults, shall we?"
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Jenny watched the Walker type away. It had been three hours since she had started, and aside from a few sighs and smiles she had barely moved. Father was still down in the vaults. Which left her sitting with no assignment. Bored. She spun slightly in her chair, her eyes roving over the machinery and objects in the room, studying. Interesting setup they'd worked out here. They even had their own med bay in a sunken chamber. Nice.
She glanced to the side as Gwen walked into the room, carrying two cups.
"D'you want a cup of coffee at all? Ianto just made more."
The Walker shook her head slightly. "No, thank you, I'm quite well."
She spoke such a funny kind of English, Jenny thought. It was like her Gallifreyan was bleeding through, so that she chose only the most precise words. It had made the older girl fit in perfectly when they'd gone to see the opening of the Crystal Palace in 1853, while she'd spent most of her time keeping her mouth shut. She glanced at Gwen, who was still looking at them. Maybe she could get some sort of conversation started. "You seem to take in a lot of caffeine. Ever upset your adrenal function?"
Gwen stared back at her for a long moment. "Erm…don't think so." She set the cups down on a desk, and stared at them again. Nervousness, confusion and a hint of wariness came off her like scents in the air.
"I'll just…go and work up some papers. Unless you need any-"
"Hah!!" The Walker grinned triumphantly. "I've got in! About time too."
"Which programs did you make it into?" Jenny asked, stepping over to study the system. It showed columns of dates and names, with a sidebar of charts. Jenny's eyes ran over it. Suicides. Violent assaults. Missing person reports. Accidents.
"It seems to be the city records. From here I should be able to access many of the other systems. But it'll take time, unfortunately."
"Can I give you a hand with any of it?"
"No, no. It's easier for me to work alone, thank you."
Jenny nodded, watching the numbers and names scroll by. She glanced at Gwen.
"Summer must be a bad time for you lot."
"Wha? Why?" The eyes that met her were startled, but sharp, too. Jenny pointed at the figures. "I was just looking at your intelligence. Your accident, suicide and missing person rates all shot up in the last month. Almost two percent on all three. Must be rough."
"What? Let me see."
The woman stepped over, staring fixedly at the pictures. Attention and wariness radiated off her.
"Is that not normal for your summer times?" Jenny asked, slightly surprised.
"Normal?" Gwen replied, "I'll say it's not bloody normal. Crime rates dip and rise, but the other figures don't usually change for th' whole city. Can you get into the maps, see where the rates are highest?"
"Not yet." The Walker replied. "I'll try to open those next."
"Damn." Gwen murmured distractedly, "'S weird. Jack ought to know this." She turned towards the stairs that led to the Vault. Jenny glanced at the woman, then back at the Walker.
Hey Walker?
"Hmm?"
I'm going with her. See what's going on.
Sounds sensible. Tell Grandfather not to start running the place if he's trying. It's a terrible habit of his."
Jenny grinned as she turned on her heel and jumped down the stairs.
"Hey Gwen, lemme come with you."
I'll remind him.
It was really fun having somebody around who knew her father's quirks as well as she did, somebody who she could laugh with about them. Though Father was just a little different when the Walker was around. He was a little less childish, maybe, and used fewer colloquialisms, so his speech sounded a little more like hers. He acted a little more…maybe dignified was the right word. The Walker was always so dignified and graceful. She was really good at driving a TARDIS too, almost as good as Father. Between the two of them they'd managed to land her TARDIS right inside of his, which was pretty damn cool. And her Gallifreyan was perfect.
Gwen pushed a door open, glancing inside.
"Must've gone further in. C'mon."
Jenny followed, musing. Of course it made sense that she spoke so well. She'd actually grown up on Gallifrey, gone to school there. Sometime soon she was going to get up the guts to ask the Walker all about Gallifrey. Jenny had read all the books on it. But there was a big difference between reading about somewhere and hearing what kind of games kids played and what you smelled when you walked the streets. Those were the kinds of things she didn't have the guts to ask Father, because she hated the way his eyes clouded over when she did.
Voices echoed along the rows of steel shelves.
"Bilis? Bilis Manger…no, can't say I've heard the name…course it's easy to change a name. What's he do?"
"Caused a lot of trouble for us last year. Considering what he did and what he could do with time, I thought you might have heard of him."
"Oh? What's he-" The Doctor glanced over Jack's shoulder.
"Oh. Hello! Got into the computer systems already then?"
"Not all the way, but something's come up." Gwen said shortly. She turned to her Captain. "Jack, something's off with the city records. Death, accident, suicide rates are all shooting up in the last two months. Could be a real problem."
"Up?"
"Almost two percent."
Jack nodded, his face unreadable.
"Could be coincidence. I'll check it later. Don't worry about it for now."
Jenny turned, glancing at the woman beside her in surprise. Anger was suddenly radiating off her, prickly with an undercurrent of fear and anxiety.
"Jack, you remember what happened last time you told me not to worry about our readings?" She said sharply, looking her superior in the eye.
Father and daughter glanced at each other.
Wow, is she over-stressed.
Too right.
Jack glared back at his subordinate. "I said later, Gwen. The Doctor and I are going to get the Vaults cleaned up while he's around to give me a hand, and I don't want to waste his time. When the rest of the systems open up, we'll look at it then."
Gwen opened her mouth indignantly, then closed it again, nodding sharply. "Fine. I have too much work to do anyway. How much you still got down here?"
Jack glanced at the Doctor, who shrugged.
"Oh, I dunno, maybe four hours or so, maybe's much as eight. In the meantime, Jenny, what're you going to do? Help the Walker out?"
In the back of her head, there was a nudge. She shook her head.
"No, she's capable of doing the work alone. I'm fully unassigned."
"You mean you're at odd ends?" Her father said dryly. He was always trying to fix her syntax and get rid of the military terminology. She nodded.
"Yep."
"Well then," her father said, clapping his hands, " I want you to go and see Cardiff, learn a bit of the city. We'll be landing here fairly often, and I want you to know the lay of the land. Lovely little town, even before the Great Spire gets built-" He glanced at the Torchwood members quickly, "Oops, forget about that, you two. Anyway, go on and get out and about. Of course, you'll need a guide. Gwen, you mind taking her around? Lovely."
"Ah, sorry, I can't-"
"Go on, Gwen." Jack said, glancing at the Doctor's unassuming expression. There was just a hint of amusement in his voice. Gwen stared at him, wide-eyed.
"Jack, I can't-"
"Think of it as an assignment; you're serving as alien ambassador to Cardiff. Take her to see the shops maybe. Jenny, what kind of things do you like? Clothes? Music? Lingerie?"
"Jack!"
Jack grinned at the scandalized look on the Doctor's face, then turned back to Gwen.
"Find something interesting. Now get going."
Over Jack's shoulder, the Doctor shot Jenny a wink.
Perfect. This'll get her out and away from work, take her mind off of things. Do what you can to help her loosen up a bit, will you?
Sure, Father.
Brilliant.
"Fine." Gwen was saying, sharply. She glared at Jenny with an expression that brought all her defensive instincts into play.
"Come on then."
For a moment, despite her curiosity about the new town, Jenny wasn't sure if it wouldn't have been better to sit around bored. But she had her assignment. Her father had organized everything to his taste. Running things, following his terrible bad habit. Smiling to herself, she followed Gwen.
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"Thanks, Doc."
"Didn't do anything, Jack."
"Doctor, don't try modesty. It doesn't work on you."
"Not modest? Me? Are you saying I'm not modest? I stopped the Black Plague once, but do you hear a word about it from me? Oh no, never a word." The Doctor pulled an object from the metal box in front of him and held it up to the light, examining it."This thing's a neural emission dampener off ZXsensa."
"Dangerous?"
"Nah. The ZXe use it like marijuana; if I remember right it just makes a human laugh and fall over a lot. Actually might be good for your crew at the mo, now that I think about it. By the by, now that we're alone, tell me what's been happening to put you all under such a lot of strain, eh?"
"Well, now that we're alone…."
The Time Lord rolled his eyes. "Jack."
Jack smirked, but the frivolity faded away as he pulled another sealed metal container from the wall.
"Some of my past caught up to me. And my team got stuck in the middle of it."
"Bad, I take it." The Doctor said, wrinkling his nose at another object and setting it aside. He missed the flash of pain that swept over Jack's face.
"You could say that."
The Doctor glanced at Jack, gauging him. But Jack had always been exceptionally good at covering his emotions. For a human.
They worked in quiet efficiency for nearly half an hour, cataloguing and classifying objects. Every so often the Doctor would set an item aside in a small but steadily growing pile of things that he wasn't leaving on Earth, even in the best of hands. He undid the lock and pulled the lid from another steel box, peering inside warily. He'd already been bitten by a hibernating Teaope earlier, and was none too keen on a repeat performance.
What he saw inside this container made him react almost as much as the bite had.
"Oh!! Would you look at this lil' beauty!" Grinning, he pulled out a squat cylinder a little longer than his hand and thicker than his wrist, which appeared to be made up mostly of wires.
"Prototype sonic screwdriver! Oh, this must be the great great however many great grandfa-" The Doctor stopped for a moment, peering at the tube. "Hang on…this's all wrong. Looks like this was made right around now, or not long before."
"Three years ago." Jack said shortly. The Doctor's eyes met his, puzzled.
"Did you-"
Jack shook his head.
"Tosh did. One of the best I'd ever seen."
"Tosh." The Doctor hadn't heard that name before.
"Toshiko Sato, pride of Torchwood Three." Jack said on a long breath. He wasn't hiding his emotions now. "Computer whiz, technician, creative genius, all around romantic optimist. Lost her four months ago."
"Computer whiz." The Doctor said softly. Some of the pieces fell into place in his head. "She was the one who put your computer system together, wasn't she? That's why you couldn't get in."
Jack was looking in his direction, but his eyes lacked focus. "Yep. Like I said, one of the best."
So that was it. Loss and trauma. That was what had Jack's team on emotional near-shutdown.
The Doctor nodded, his face somber. "I'm so sorry, Jack."
Jack turned away, running a hand over the stacked boxes.
"We work a risky business. Sometimes it catches up to us. You know how that goes, Doc."
"You could have called me, you know. I might've been able to help."
Jack glanced at him with an expression that the Doctor couldn't quite read, and turned his back again.
For a time, there was silence. More items were catalogued and described in the Doctor's slightly scrawly hand. He had never gotten the English letters quite right; they still came out more circular than anything.
Jack's voice was almost a surprise when it rang in the silence.
"Doctor?"
The Doctor glanced up.
"If we're talking about things that should have been said, why didn't you tell me you had kids?"
"Didn't get around to it, maybe," the Doctor said lightly, "I'm nine hundred and six years old. I've got a lot of life behind me; you're not going to know every detail of it. Besides, I didn't have them when I met you. Jenny was only born five years ago, give or take a few months, I told you about that. So I didn't have a daughter then."
But Jack wasn't letting him off that easy. "What about your granddaughter? We've called you the Last Time Lord as long as I've known you, but all that time, you had a granddaughter."
The words 'why didn't you tell me?' seemed to hang in the air. The Doctor sighed, looking back at Jack in exasperation. Surely he of all people should be able to understand.
"Jack, I didn't tell you about her, and I didn't tell anyone else. I didn't actually know she'd survived until a few months after I regenerated last time, and after that, well, why does everybody need to know?"
"Why wasn't she with you?"
The Doctor shrugged.
"Ah, Walker's three-eighty and some. That's full-grown by our standards. She deserves at least a chance to go off an' live her own kind of life, not rattle around the universe with this ol' codger." He picked up another object, barely noting what it was.
"And I don't want every two-bit warlord, nutball and rough customer going after her t' get at me. I've had enough of that. I can protect my daughter, or try anyway, by keeping her with me until she knows everything she needs to know. I can keep my granddaughter safe by keeping a secret."
For a moment, their eyes caught and held. Then Jack's full lips quirked in a smile.
"No worries, Doc. Secret's safe."
The Doctor nodded slowly. "Thank you, Jack."
Then they turned back to the work at hand. More to do. For himself and Jack, there would always be more to do.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
She hadn't expected it, but Jenny was having a pretty good time. Gwen had driven them to a place she'd called 'St. Davie's' which turned out to be a large shopping mall. There were people everywhere, a swirl of clothing and hair styles, personalities, needs and prerogatives. The air was full of smells; perfumes and fried food and fruit, endorphins, the smell of rubber and air conditioning ducts and just a hint of cleaning supplies under all the other scents. She took it in with interest, glancing from one store to another.
"So," Gwen said slowly, "You want to look for anything in particular, or just window shop?"
Jenny shrugged. "Hm, just look around. This is a pretty neat place. I like the architecture."
"You ever been to a mall before then?"
Jenny nodded, peering into a book store with interest.
"Yep. They have them on a couple of the stations we've landed on."
"Space stations." She added, glancing at Gwen's perplexed expression. "And there are bazaars and the like all over timespace. Last one we went to was a pretty cool outdoor market on Rekatash."
"Ah." Gwen nodded. Was that still puzzlement in her voice? Jenny shrugged it off. If she didn't ask her questions, Jenny couldn't really answer them. Too bad, really; that might have started a decent line of conversation going. As it was, they just walked along awkwardly, until Jenny noticed a display of chocolates in a store window. She grinned. "A chocolate shop! I love chocolate!" She started to jog for the little shop, but checked herself, waiting for her escort.
They bought treats, and sat on small benches outside Thorton's to eat. Jenny slurped at her fudge brownie sundae. She loved it when they landed on planets that had chocolate.
"Don't get much for sweets then, do you?" Gwen asked. Finally, there was a hint of amusement in her voice. Jenny shrugged, taking another bite.
"Not-mm-not a lot of places have chocolate. And we eat what's on the TARDIS pretty fast, so I don't get it very often."
"What, all the places you go to and you don't pick up chocolate?"
"We do, but like I said, it gets consumed almost the day we buy it. That and the jam. I blame Father for that."
"Guess blokes are the same everywhere then. My man Rhys does the same thing with the ice cream." Gwen smiled slightly, taking a bite of her small chocolate bar. She glanced at Jenny.
"Does your fellow like chocolate too?"
"My fellow?"
"Your husband-or mate, or whatever you call it."
Jenny cocked her head.
"I don't have a mate."
"Oh? Single mum, then. Sorry, don't mean to bring up anything."
Jenny didn't know what that was supposed to mean. But at least the woman was talking.
"So…" Gwen dropped her voice-"I heard about that regeneration thing you lot can do. When'd you last do it?"
"Me? Never. I'm in my first body still."
"Oh…" the woman stared at her, more puzzled than ever. "Sorry, I just kind of guessed, what with…I mean…."
"What?"
"Well…you sorta look younger than your daughter. Got some super face lift tech out there?"
Jenny stared at the human for a long moment, her brow furrowed. Then she let out a laugh.
"I'm not the Walker's mother."
Gwen stared at her with those big dark eyes as Jenny giggled. She might as well have had 'what the hell?' plastered on her forehead.
"Oh-but-erm…"
Jenny got a hold of herself enough to answer. "Sorry, it's just funny, you thinking I was the Walker's mum. She's about three centuries ahead of me. Almost four."
"But your dad said that you're his daughter, an' she's his…"
"She is, and I am. He had kids before me. The Walker's actually…I'd guess she'd be my niece." She grinned at Gwen, crossing her arms in front of her on the table.
"And if I look old enough to have a three-hundred year old kid, I hope there is some sort of face lift out there. Otherwise I'm done for."
Finally, Gwen cracked a grin. Then she began to laugh, loud and long.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Benny Holmes was a good runner. He had two strong wiry legs that carried him way faster than most eleven-year-olds could go. It was great on the track, but it was even better on the streets. Right now his fast feet were flying across pavement and now, with a leap, over asphalt. The crosswalk said 'do not cross', but the things were always a little slower than the light change. If you ran quick, no problem.
Benny jumped the median. Uh-oh. This light change was faster than most. The cars were already zooming down the pavement. Well, okay, put on an extra bit of a turn. His shoes slammed the road as he dashed across and leaped for the curve. Whew. Made it, and not a minute to spare. The cars honked as they zoomed by. Benny grinned, and took a step.
Only his foot couldn't seem to find the ground. He teetered, nearly toppled into-the road? Or into his mom's garden? No, stupid, that was this morning…or this afternoon…or…
Benny Holmes was a good runner. He had two strong wiry legs. Right now his fast feet were flying across pavement and now, with a leap, over asphalt. The crosswalk said 'do not cross', but they were always a little slower than the light change. Just gotta be quicker than they were, is all.
Benny jumped the median. Uh-oh. This light change was faster than most. The cars were already zooming down the pavement. Well, okay, put on an extra bit of a turn. His shoes slammed the road as he dashed across. His feet came down. But his left sneaker skidded under him. Pinwheeling, Benny pitched to the asphalt, dazed, completely winded. The cars honked. They were so loud close up. That and the screech of tires.
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
Gwen smiled at the pretty girl walking beside her. Taking this girl around really wasn't too bad at all. In fact it was actually turning out to be a real good time. The sun was shining overhead when they left St. Davie's and took off to tour one of the street markets. It was nice when work allowed you to feel like a normal girl, and not all that common in her line of duty. She glanced at Jenny, who was staring at a roundabout. If you didn't know to look, you'd never guess that either she or her father were from another planet, never mind another time period.
"That looks like a pretty impractical way to direct the flow of traffic." Jenny mused out loud. "How do you lot cope with it?"
"We honk the horn a lot and try not to hit anyone." Gwen said, only half-joking. Jenny nodded.
"Yeah, I guess that works. Kind of nerve wracking though, isn't it?"
Gwen laughed. "Living in Cardiff is nerve-wracking. The traffic you get used to."
She was surprised to hear her own laughter. It had been a long time since she felt like laughing much. But today was really a good day, and it felt good to be out in it.
Beside her, Jenny's laughter stopped. She turned, staring again at the street, her brow furrowing. Gwen looked her over, curious.
"What's-"
The screech of tires crashed into her ears. Both girl and woman turned in time to see a boy running, running-falling, the wheels of a car rolling over him.
"Oh." Gwen gasped, horrified. Beside her, Jenny took a few loping steps forward, her eyes huge. Gwen hurried to catch her up.
"No, don't. We can't do anything." She was going to say more, decide what they should do. But when Jenny turned, the look in her eyes froze Gwen's words on her tongue.
"No." the girl said, half to herself. The emotion in her voice hit Gwen like a blow.
"No. It's not supposed to be this way. It's wrong."
Snapping her head around, Jenny stared straight into Gwen's face, her eyes wide.
"We need to go, we need to go back. Now. I have to tell Father. We have to go now. Right now." Then she turned on her heel, and took off running down the street.
