Chapter Eight: Expect the Unexpected
……………………………………………..
Cardiff, Wales (UK):
"I'm not sure you should put it on your resume," Jack said in a quiet voice as Bobby found an open window faster than he could have forced a lock open on the ground floor flat. "But you're pretty good at this."
"You can send the thank you letter to my old boss." He hoisted himself up into the window then leant out.
Jack handed him the field kit and then followed Bobby into the dark kitchen.
"Kinda sexy breaking into a stranger's house… don't you think?" Jack asked as they crept though the kitchen.
"I think you should save the bedroom talk for your boyfriend," Bobby replied, almost choking on the stench of charred flesh that hung in the air.
The Captain grinned at him with raised eyebrows, "Always room for one more."
Deciding to quit while he was ahead, Bobby turned his attention to the handheld energy detector. Once he was sure of the reading, he nodded towards a hallway. "Down there."
Jack nodded and pulled out his Welby, shrugging off the other man's questioning look.
They inched their way down the darkened hall and found the charred remains of the flat's owner standing in the bathroom.
"Now that's just wrong," Jack put his gun away.
"Tell me about it," Bobby just shook his head. At least the deceased was standing up…
A loud knock at the front door distracted them from the body.
"Police! Open up!"
"I'll go let them know it's us. You can deal with that guy," Jack jerked his thumb in the direction of the corpse.
"Gee, thanks." He was already reaching for his kit and the menthol rub. Why Jack wasn't gagging he wasn't sure, but maybe when you lived forever, you just learned to let go of the things that bothered mere mortal men. Bobby headed into the bathroom as Jack headed down the hall towards the front door.
"Police!" came a second voice and another round of banging on the door.
"Torchwood!" Jack countered just as loudly in response. He groaned as they continued pounding. He opened the door and identified himself again. "I said Torchwood. We've got this one," he informed the pair of uniformed officers. They didn't look as if they believed him. "Harkness, Jack. Authorization 474317. You boys want to call it in?"
"Sorry. Neighbours said someone was breaking in," one of the officers said. He peered around Jack, flashing the beam of his torch around the flat.
Jack grabbed it out of his hand and turned it off. "Did the neighbours say anything else?" he inquired in a sharp tone.
"Why?"
"What do you think? I'm here because I'm looking at property?"
"Jack! I think I've got something," Bobby hollered from the next room.
"That's my cue. Good night, boys," he closed the door in their faces and headed towards the sound of Bobby's voice. He was standing in the bedroom, just across the hall from the open bathroom door and the body. "What is it?"
"Harold Miller's granddaughters showed me some colored glass, or crystals maybe, that they'd collected with their grandfather on the beach somewhere. Miller had a larger one in his kitchen. It looked an awful lot like this," he nodded towards the crystalline formation sitting on the on the edge of the windowsill in the bedroom.
Jack gave him an incredulous a look, as if he was having a hard time making a connection between a series of charred bodies and some rocks.
"Look at the way the victim's head is tilted, Jack. He was looking this way when they died." To lend further credence to his theory, Bobby held the energy detector towards the rock. It was a weak blip, but it registered.
Jack frowned, "All right. We take it with us. Carefully, just in case you're right about it being connected. What about Warren's place?"
"Maybe we missed it. The boyfriend was pretty drunk when he came in. Maybe he knocked it over or something," he shrugged, half expecting to be ridiculed for coming up with stupid ideas.
"I'll call Gwen, have her and Ianto go back over there and check it out. We can go back by Miller's place on our way back in and get that one."
"Jack, if these things are somehow related to how those people died…"
"I'll tell Gwen to be careful," Jack agreed.
Bobby gave him a long measured look.
"Yes, it kills me every time I have to tell any of you to go into a dangerous situation because there is always the chance that one of you won't make it out alive. But this is what we do. Gwen knows that. So does Ianto. So did Tosh and Owen. Now come on, let's get this place cleaned up and that thing secure."
"The only thing that I don't get," Bobby said as he looked at the grapefruit sized stone, "Is how something this small could be responsible for the amount of energy being discharged."
"Hey it's not how big it is that counts," Jack quipped back, handing Bobby a specimen box from the field kit.
"That isn't what you used to say," Bobby grinned back at him, despite his trepidation over what he was about to do. But this is what we do, he reminded himself.
"So if this thing is somehow responsible for killing that guy," he nodded into the bathroom, "Will this actually contain it?" he asked looking at the box he was about to put the crystal into.
Jack shrugged, "That depends on what it is. The box is designed to contain most things."
"Most?"
"Most of what it can't contain isn't found on this planet in this century anyway. Of course I'm betting that isn't from this planet or this century," he added with another shrug.
"You're really not doing a very good job of making me feel better."
Jack flashed half a grin, "That isn't in my job description."
Bobby let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. The energy reading was still weak; he only hoped it was too weak to be dangerous.
When it looked like Jack was going to volunteer to be the one to touch it, he shook his head. He knew what he'd signed on for when he took the job, and Jack wouldn't always be there to take the risks for him. With one last deep breath, he picked the stone up with a pair of tongs from the field kit and set it into the box. Nothing happened. He realized Jack had been holding his breath too.
"One question for you, though," Bobby asked as he put the box into the field kit.
"Hmmm?"
"Do you actually have a job description?"
Jack grinned, a true Cheshire cat grin, "Sure. Captain Jack Harkness, dashing hero and fearless team leader, at your service. Completely at your service." he added with a lascivious smirk and a suggestive raise of his eyebrows.
Bobby laughed, "How the Hell does Ianto put up with you?"
"Practice," Jack winked. Then, in more serious tone, "Did you find anything else?"
The younger man shook his head, "Nothing new. No scorch marks on the floor or ceiling, no evidence of a fire or much of anything else except for one badly charred corpse that will probably turn into a pile of rubble and ash the instant I touch it."
"I think I saw a broom in the kitchen," Jack offered.
Bobby just gave him a look, although he couldn't deny that he was probably going to need it. "What exactly are we going to say to the families of these people?" he asked.
"State the obvious without going into detail," he answered.
Jack was at least good enough to get him the broom and lend hand with the clean up.
"Miller's daughter is convinced he was murdered," he reminded the older man.
"So we tell her she was wrong."
"And the reason we're not releasing the bodies… I'm assuming we're not releasing the bodies…"
"No. We're not releasing the bodies. Quarantine procedure, unknown pathogen," Jack shrugged. It was pretty obvious he was making it up as he went along.
"That's your version of the truth?" Bobby asked in an incredulous tone.
"Sometimes you have to get a little creative in order to avoid a panic."
"I thought you said this was when it all changed, when we finally got out there," he gestured towards the window and the night sky beyond.
"It is. But that doesn't mean that your average every day human resident of this planet is ready for the truth."
"So what exactly do we do?"
"We make sure that when the time comes they are ready."
"By hiding the truth?"
"By releasing it selectively. No one wants to remember their father or mother or sister or lover like this." He motioned to the pile of ash on the floor between them. "Do you have a problem with that?" his asked, his tone becoming sharp.
"No… Maybe... I'm not even saying I disagree it's just that I'm used to patients lying to me, not me lying to patients. Much. At least I'm not used to lying to them for what are probably all the right reasons. I'm not used to lying being the right thing to do." Bobby realized he was babbling and hoped it was just the lack of sleep making him act like this. But the Captain seemed to take it in stride.
"Most of the time it isn't," he agreed. "There are just some things that people aren't ready for. This is one of them. Give yourselves another fifty or hundred years… maybe you'll be ready."
"And if we're not?"
"You're not going to have me around holding your hand forever you know." He flashed the younger man a teasing smile.
Bobby returned it and they finished cleaning up in companionable silence.
"I'd like to go back down to Barry first thing in the morning and confirm that those rocks are really the same," he said as they were finishing up.
Jack gave him a look; technically it was first thing in the morning.
"You know what I mean," he amended.
"We can talk about Barry tomorrow. After you've at least six hours sleep."
"You won't get any arguments out of me there."
……………………………………………………………………
Entirely too tired to bother with a shower, Bobby stripped out of his bloodied, soiled, ash covered clothing and crawled into bed. Glancing at the clock, he realized he'd crawled out of it just over twenty six hours ago. "And I left New Jersey for this…" he muttered.
The last year working on a regular surgical team had given regular hours. He missed that, but he still wouldn't trade this job in for anything… Almost anything… Allison…
Sleep came rapidly, giving him little time to dwell on how much he missed her or how empty he knew he was going to feel when he finally got a break, because he knew this pace wouldn't keep up forever. Eventually he'd get a proper night's sleep, find the time to look for his own place and realize just how alone he was without her.
……………………………………………
Six hours later, the alarm went off. At least Jack gives enough of a shit about his team to make sure we get some sleep. He couldn't remember how many times House had kept the rest of them up pulling all nighters while he went home and slept. Or worse went out drinking with Wilson.
He checked his mobile. There was nothing on the screen, no missed calls, no emergencies that he'd inadvertently slept through, so he took the time for a hot soak in the tub. When he got out he decided that he almost felt human again.
Bobby slipped into a clean soft cotton shirt and found a tie that matched it, wondering what Gwen would say to today's ensemble. She'd taken to questioning his fashion sense and even pulling up the website for the store where he did most of his shopping wasn't enough to convince her he wasn't making it up, it really did match.
The light knock on Ianto's front door pulled him out of his thoughts. Ianto had lent him his car, so he didn't need a lift in to work, and he certainly wasn't expecting anyone else. Besides, he couldn't imagine Gwen knocking that softly. Liz maybe? Bobby pulled on what he discovered to be his last pair of clean jeans and headed towards the door.
He opened it to find a tall dark skinned woman with long curly hair standing there, staring at him with a bewildered expression on her face. "Can I help you?" he asked her.
"You're not Ianto."
"No, obviously not."
Her nostrils flared. "But he still lives here."
"Sort of. Who are you?"
"Who are you?"
"Bobby Chase. I… work with Ianto. He's letting me use his place for a while. I'm from out of town," he added, although he figured his accent made it obvous.
"Where is he, then?" she inquired.
"Look, erm… if you're a friend of his… "
"He's not answering his mobile," she said before he could suggest that she just call him.
Bobby sighed. "I'm not surprised." With the looks Jack had been giving the Welshman last night, he would have been surprised if Ianto was conscious yet. "So… you know my name…?" he prompted, extending his hand as he stepped out into the hall.
"Wendy Shutten," she accepted. "I need to talk to Ianto. And Jack. It's important."
He gave her another look. "All right. Come on in. I'll try calling them." He used Ianto's phone to dial the Hub directly. It would annoy the Hell out of Jack, especially if they had had a late night, but it also might be the only way to get through if Ianto wasn't answering his mobile.
Wendy followed him into the apartment, bringing her duffle bag with her and lingered near him, her arms crossed over her chest.
Ianto answered in four rings. "You weren't answering your mobile earlier," Bobby began, testing her story.
"Sorry. It was in my trouser pocket."
"And your trousers were…?"
"Nowhere near the bedroom."
Ask a stupid question, he sighed. "Here, I think somebody wants to talk to you." He handed the phone over.
"Ianto?" she began uncertainly, before grinning. It didn't last long, "I didn't know where else to go. No… no, Ianto, I'm fine. I just needed to talk to you, that's all… Sweetheart, honestly… Besides, I've got that information Liz wanted… I love you too." She handed the phone back to Bobby.
"Hello?"
"Bobby, it's ok. Wendy's a friend of ours. Well… mine actually. Would you bring her in with you?"
"No problem," he hung up and shot an apologetic look Wendy. "Sorry. Just… I…"
"I don't blame you. In your line of work you never know what might show up at your door."
He blinked at the odd tone in her voice, but dismissed it. "I… just need about five more minutes. Erm… can I get you anything?"
"I'm fine, thanks," she sat down on the very edge of the sofa cushion to wait.
When he came back out of the bedroom with his shoulder bag and jacket, he offered to help her with her bag.
"I've got it. Thanks." She shouldered the large duffle bag without effort and followed him silently down to Ianto's car.
Bobby had driven almost four blocks before she spoke again, asking in a quiet tone how long he'd been with Torchwood.
"'Bout a week. Long enough to collect bruises on top of my bruises."
She flashed him a sympathetic smile.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's your connection to Torchwood?"
"Ianto," she answered simply.
Glancing at the woman in the passenger seat, Bobby got the feeling that she wasn't so much secretive as she was shy. It was the way her hair hung half in her face, the way she kept her arms wrapped across her chest… defensive. The only time she'd made direct eye contact was when she was asking where Ianto was.
He also realized she had probably been trying to make polite small talk with him by asking how long he'd been with Torchwood.
Bobby cleared his throat, "I met Jack a few years ago," he said, unsure what to really say to keep the conversation going, but he felt compelled to at least try. "In London," he added.
"But you're Australian, right?"
"Technically American, but try not to hold it against me."
She flashed another shy smile, "Well at least you sound Australian."
"I was born and raised there, lived here for a while, well London, anyway. Then I moved to the States. New Jersey."
"Why'd you come back?"
"I got a new job," he smiled as he pulled into the car park. Ianto was waiting for them, his hands resting on his hips, an anxious look clouding his face.
He barely waited until Bobby had the car parked before joining them. He opened Wendy's door and scooped her into his arms as soon as she was free of the seatbelt.
"I'm fine, honestly," she assured him, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and hanging on tight. The embrace lasted longer, in Bobby's opinion, than the average friendly hug. "Really. I'm fine," she said again.
Ianto held her at arm's length a moment, looking at her very closely. "You're lying," he argued. "You're not fine."
"I'm not fine," she agreed.
"They kicked you out, didn't they?" his tone was pained.
"I made my choice. I knew the consequences." She turned, reaching to take her bag from Bobby who had already pulled it out of the back seat. "I can get that…" she told him.
"I don't mind." He hoisted it to his shoulder.
"Wendy, what's going on?" Ianto pressed, steering her towards the tourist office. "You said you didn't know where else to go…"
"I've spent the last few years… " She case a quick, sidelong glance in Bobby's direction, "I spent the last few years with my own kind. I'm fine, I just don't have much to fall back on right now. It doesn't matter," she added quickly, as Ianto opened the tourist office door for her. "I really came back to see you again before deciding what next." She gave him a warm smile that was clearly doing nothing to assure the Welshman that she was all right. "Don't worry about me, I'll figure something out. Anyway, I was able to get some information Liz might be able to use. Even if the Elders don't want to know the truth I do. I'm not the alone; I just seem to be the only one willing to go looking for answers."
Ianto pressed the button under the desk. The wall slid back and he led the way in. "You're thinking of running away again, aren't you?"
"I didn't run away the first time. You did."
"I didn't hear from you in five years."
"And you wouldn't have wanted to."
He opened his mouth then closed it again. "You're right. But please, promise me you're not going vanish on me again."
"I can't promise anything."
"Wendy…"
They stepped into the small lift, allowing it to take them down to the lower level.
"Yan, I have no idea where I'm going after this, I just know I didn't want to go without seeing you again. Stop spoiling it," she gave him a sweet smile. "Please?"
The cog door slid open and the alarm sounded loudly, announcing their arrival. "All right. Here, I've got that," Ianto took her bag from Bobby and set it at his station as Gwen and Liz came up to greet Wendy with an exchange of warm hellos.
Bobby took a seat at his desk and watched. Despite the warmth displayed by both the ladies, Jack was obviously hanging back, keeping both hands on his coffee cup and watching Wendy closely. It seemed almost as if he was waiting for her to make the first move, which was definitely out of character.
After a moment of what seemed like uncertainty on her part as well, Wendy finally took a step in the Captain's direction, her arms wrapped protectively around herself again. Her expression was as weary as Jack's. "Captain," she said in a cool tone.
He nodded, staying where he was, "Welcome back."
"Thanks for having me."
"Any time." This was the first time Bobby could remember seeing Jack not flirt with someone.
Before he had much time to ponder it, Jack turned to him, his expression and his tone business as usual. "Priscilla Doyle went back to work today and her daughters should be at school. That means the house is empty."
"Right. Breaking and entering it is."
Jack smirked, "Wouldn't want all that fine on the job training you had at your last place to go to waste."
Bobby stood, "I'll be back in a couple of hours," he said. "Assuming I don't get arrested for breaking in."
"You saw me dealing with the police last night," Jack reminded him. "Follow my example. You'll do fine."
"Oi, I heard about that," Gwen cut in, "I had a desk sergeant chewing my ear off first thing this morning about why didn't we call them. And they'd like to know what happened to Randolph Mitchell – that would be the body you two brought back last night." She glared at both Jack and Bobby.
"Sorry," the Captain apologized shooting a Bobby a look that clearly suggested the younger man should get out while he still could.
Bobby nodded his appreciation and slipped out the door.
Gwen wasn't done, "Honestly, Jack. Slamming the door in their faces like that?"
He just shrugged, "I'm sure they'll get over it."
She gave him an exaggerated sigh and went back to her station, muttering loudly about how Ianto was the one who usually altered victims' records, not her.
"I have faith in you," Jack assured her, leaning back against the wall to take in the scene around him. It really was business as usual, he thought, draining his coffee cup. Jack couldn't help the small smile as he watched Ianto taking Wendy over to the coffee station.
"I feel as if I've come at a bad time," she said quietly.
"It's been a hectic week, that's all."
Jack joined them, although he shot the younger man a questioning look before coming too close.
He and Wendy had parted on good terms, but she was obviously still unsure about him. Ianto's expression didn't answer any of his questions, but at least he wasn't shaking his head for Jack to go away.
He waited until Wendy looked up to speak to her. "So how did it go with your people?" he asked, as Ianto started to work on a fresh pot of coffee.
"I convinced some of my kin to speak with me about our history, our line. Some of them do believe me… or at least were willing to believe that there might be more to the old stories than we've been taught. Others weren't as convinced."
"Can you ever go back?" Ianto asked her.
"No. I broke our oldest and most scared laws by talking to you." She looked back at Jack again, but only allowed him to hold her gaze for a few seconds. "They're more afraid then ever. The Elders believe you only let me go so you could use me to find the rest of them. So you could kill them… us… just like just like humans have always done." Her tone was filled with uncertainty.
Jack stepped closer, intentionally setting his empty cup on the counter directly behind her so he could measure her reaction. She didn't shy away, but he could see the fear in her eyes when he came close.
"You don't believe that, do you?" Ianto asked.
"I'm not sure what I believe any more. But I do trust you." Her gaze flickered from him to Jack and back again. "I just have to figure out where to go from here."
"Who says you have to go anywhere?" the Captain asked her.
She looked at him, clearly surprised by the question and its obvious implication. "You… can't honestly mean… stay…?"
He shrugged. "Why not?"
"But…?"
"The way I figure it, we owe you," he told her. "I owe you. Besides, I've still got that job vacancy, if you're interested."
……………………………………………………………
A/N:
Wendy is an original character who appeared in my story "A New Day." Theoretically, you don't have to read that one to get this one. More details will be forthcoming (and questions always cheerfully answered ;-)
Because she's a main character and I like visuals, if I actually had the pleasure of casting an actress in the role, I would want Gina Torres as Wendy Shutten.
Thank you again for the reviews on this one! I know crossovers aren't everyone's favourite, so I really appreciate the warm reception this has gotten.