Chapter Eleven
When the two teens had finished off the pizza they ordered, Trace found that she was truly enjoying Todd's company. She quickly looked at her watch and saw that it was only about a quarter after eight.
In order to prolong returning to her aunt's house, she and Todd started wandering around town with no real destination in mind.
The moon was full, casting a magnificent silver glow onto all the buildings, streets, signs, and cars. They soon found themselves alone down a quiet street with small businesses that were all closed for the night.
The two had just reached a quaint, low, one-story building when Trace suddenly stopped. Todd, realizing that he was the only one walking, turned around and opened his mouth to ask what was wrong.
Before he could form the words, the girl said, "Let's climb onto the roof."
Todd stared at her for a moment before replying, "The roof? Why on earth would you want to go up there?"
He watched as she shrugged her shoulders and told him it's calming. Once again, the boy found himself staring at her in disbelief.
"Come on, it'll be fun," she told him before walking around the shop to a back alley. She chuckled to herself when Todd slowly followed her, a confused look on his face. Trace soon located a closed dumpster and climbed up on it.
She turned to her companion and asked, "Coming?" before jumping, grabbing hold of the side of the building, and hoisting herself up.
Todd looked around worriedly, wondering if he should before Trace's head appeared above him and she fixed him with a glare. So, with a sigh, he climbed onto the dumpster and jumped, grabbing the side of the building just as she had done.
However, the boy had no upper-body strength and started to slip. Luckily, Trace was standing over him, and she grabbed his wrists to pull him up. Once Todd was safely on the roof, she let him go and stepped away.
When his breathing and heart rate returned to normal, he glanced over at the girl. He watched as she just stood there, right before the edge, looking out into the night. Todd found himself unable to look away; she was beautiful in the moonlight.
The teens stayed like that for a while, until the captivating silence was interrupted by a horrified scream.
Both pulled out of their respective trances and rushed to the other side of the building, where they cautiously peaked over the edge. What they saw made Todd gasp and Trace grimace.
The two watched as an ugly creature (a weevil, as Trace recalled) stalked its prey, a terrified young man. They looked on in silence for a minute, before the girl finally came to her senses and reluctantly pulled out her cell phone and a card.
After Clarice had invited Jack inside and offered him a drink (which he turned down), the two sat down in the living room to talk.
"I thought you were dead," Clarice stated.
Jack shifted, a touch uncomfortable, before answering. "It was a freak accident. I managed to get out of the car, but I was hurt, and luckily a passerby saw me and stopped to offer help. I was in the hospital for awhile and suffered some trauma."
The woman just nodded her head, looking uninterested. "Right, so how do you know about the girl?"
The Captain gave a small smile, and told her that they randomly "ran into each other" and after spending a bit of time chatting, he put the pieces together.
He went on, giving many more (mostly made up) details and anecdotes while Clarice's eyes glazed over a bit.
"Okay, so you live here in Cardiff?" she finally interrupted, looking a bit more attentive.
"Yes ma'am," came Harkness' answer.
"You got a job?" the woman asked, squinting her eyes at him.
Once again, Jack answered in the affirmative, "I head an agency which, you could say, aids and protects people." Depending on how you choose to look at it, he thought.
Clarice just nodded, reaching for her drink. She had just opened her mouth to ask another question when the Captain's phone rang. Knowing it could be important, Jack excused himself to the hall before answering.
"Harkness." He listened intently, his brow furrowing, for a moment before replying, "I'll be right there."
The man stepped back into the room to apologize and say that there's an emergency at work and he needs to go. As soon as Clarice gestured to him to leave, Jack was out the door and on his comm.
"Gwen, Tosh, Owen, Ianto, we've got a weevil attack, I'll pick you up," he said as he sped away down the street.
A second horrific scream was heard as Trace hung up, and the girl realized there was no way the team could get there in time to prevent anything bad from happening.
She made a split-second decision before carelessly grabbing the edge of the roof and swinging herself down. As soon as her feet made contact with the ground, she launched herself at the creature with a war cry.
The weevil was startled long enough to be tackled by the girl, but soon it grew angry and got out from under her. The monster swung its arm at her and its claws dug into the teen's shoulder.
Trace cried out and kicked at the thing. Before long the two were engaged in a struggle.
Todd watched with horror as the creature brought its sharp teeth down into his date's side. She gave a strangled scream before the weevil tossed her into a brick wall.
When the girl made no move to get up, and the thing turned back to its original prey, Todd made his own hasty decision. Just as the boy got ready to jump down, a black SUV screeched to a halt at the alley's entrance and five people hopped out.
He recognized two of them as the people who questioned him about Trace the other week. The teen watched as the group quickly brought the strange creature down before noticing that Trace was trying to stand up.
As soon as the monster was rendered immobile and hauled to the trunk of the car, Captain Jack Harkness took notice of his daughter trying to stand up and hurried over to her. He helped her to stand before glancing at the roof that Todd was currently crouched on and shouted, "It's safe; you can come down now."
The Captain watched Ianto secure the weevil in the back of the SUV, Gwen and Tosh tend to the young man on the ground, and Owen run back towards them before he returned his attention to his injured girl.
"Are you okay?" "Are you hurt?" "What were you thinking?" "What happened?" "You weren't thinking, were you?" "Where did it get you?"
The two men's questions overlapped and Trace just looked at the ground. The two realized they should give her a chance to speak, so Jack finished off by repeating, "Are you okay?"