Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or Torchwood, both belong to the BBC and their respected writers. But I do own Gaia! :b
A/N: I really should be doing revision right now, but this is more fun. ;) I'm planning on updating a chapter once a week from now on hopefully. I'll try at least. :) Also pre-warning this chapter contains a bit of swearing in it, but it is Torchwood...
"Jack they're all heading out." Gaia called, her eyes still fixed on the laptop in front of her. Jack ran into the room and looked at the laptop screen over her shoulder.
"Show time." He announced and grabbed his coat. Gaia shut the laptop and put it in one of her `bigger on the inside` pockets. She then followed Jack out onto the street.
For the last 2 week Jack and Gaia had been laying low in one of the many houses Jack owned in the Cardiff area, none of which were actually signed under his name hence no chance of the others finding them. The house they'd been in was nice, but that was it, nice. As much as suburban life was quaint and peaceful, the both of them had been itching to leave the minute they'd arrived. Quaint and peaceful wasn't their thing.
But now they had to get to the coordinates where the Torchwood team were at; they had to take the bus. "Okay, we need to get off at Sloper Road, that looks like where the SUV's headed." Gaia explained, looking at the tracking system on the laptop in front of her. She then turned to Jack who looked uncomfortable on the bus seat. "Oh would you grow up. A public bus isn't going to kill you." She snapped. "Not that it would matter if it did." She added in a mutter. Jack gave her a look, but stopped fidgeting on the seat.
"What are they after?" Jack asked now back in `work` mode.
"By the reports on the hub screens, it seems to be a blow fish of sorts. Police report states that "a man in fish fancy dress, driving a red stolen convertible, through down-town Cardiff"." Gaia read out to Jack. Jack nodded, taking it all in.
"Have I ever told you you're amazing?" Gaia shut her laptop and looked up at Jack, her expression neutral.
"Not nearly enough." She replied and burst out laughing.
Sneaking into the house, Gaia and Jack had their guns at the ready. They had gotten off the bus in the nick of time and had sprinted to the house from the bus stop after hearing the sound of gun fire. Now though, they could hear the taunts of the blow fish next door and it was trying both of their patients. "So, what about it, minion? Can you do it? How good are you? How sharp is your aim? What if you kill her? What if I kill her first? Can you shoot, before I do? Can you? Dare you? Would you? Won't you?" The blowfish said as it held a teenage girl hostage.
Both Gaia and Jack had readied themselves behind Ianto at this point, aiming at the blowfish. In unison they shot and hit the blowfish in either side of its head, it fell to the floor releasing the girl, dead. Ianto checked his gun to make sure he hadn't shot, before he turned to look behind him. Alike to the rest of the team he was shocked to see his bosses standing at the door, guns smoking.
"Hey kids. Did you miss us?" Jack said with a grin.
Now back in the hub for the first time in a long time, Gaia stood at Jack's side and watched the team work very effectively without them. "Are you sure no more like him came through?" Gwen asked Toshiko, it was made obvious very quickly that she had taken charge since their departure.
"Cross-referencing with the rift activity monitor, doesn't look like it." Toshiko explained, reading the results off the monitor in front of her. Ianto then walked in and straight up to Gwen, walking straight pass Gaia and Jack.
"The car's been impounded. I'll get it back to the owner in the morning." Ianto told Gwen and she nodded in response.
"Um, can you deal with the body when it's cold?" Gwen asked and Ianto smiled.
"My Pleasure... unless you mean making sushi." Ianto replied, his sarcasm evident.
"No, the morgue'll do fine. Thank you." Gwen replied with a smile.
Jack looked at the team and smiled, as did Gaia. "Got pretty organised without us." Jack commented. Gaia took a step away from him, he was on shaky ground. You didn't want to get on the wrong side of Gwen Cooper and Gaia knew that better than most people.
"Yeah, well we had to." Gwen retorted, still looking at Tosh's monitor. But Jack being Jack had to continue poking it with a stick.
"Did you decorate in here?" Gwen doesn't reply this time but pushed Jack backwards and he ended up falling into Gaia.
"You left us!" Gwen shouted to the both of them. Gaia replied this time.
"We know, we're sorry."
"We knew nothing." Gwen began and then pointed at Gaia. "And you buggered off before him and left us in shit." She continued.
"Where were you?" Tosh asked them both, he voice much calmer than Gwen's.
"I found my Doctor." Jack said.
"Did he fix you?" Owen asked.
"What's to fix? You don't mess with this level of perfection." Jack joked and everyone rolled their eyes.
They all then turned to face Gaia now. "I was with the Doctor kind of, it's a bit complicated." Gaia began.
"Try us." Gwen replied, her anger still evident although she simmered down a little.
"Well, the Doctor's a time traveller so he doesn't exactly do things linear and well neither do..." But Gaia stopped short when she sensed something, well someone to be exact. She grabbed her coat and walked out. "I'm gonna kill him." She shouted as she left. The rest of the team looked completely confused at Gaia's sudden departure, but they had bigger fish to fry.
"Rift Activity." Tosh shouted and they all sped into action.
Gaia was fuming. How dare he come here? After everything that happened, how bloody dare `He`. She didn't even bother with a vehicle, she ran to where `He` was, causing her bypass respiratory system to work over time. She ended up at a bar in downtown Cardiff, abandoned after gun fire from inside. Without waiting she burst through the bar door, positively peed off.
`He` was sitting very causally at the end of the bar, bottle in hand. "Princess, what a surprise to see you here!" He, namely Captain John Hart, said bottle of whiskey millimetres from his lips.
"What do you want John?" Gaia snipped not in the mood for any of his games.
"Now, now no need to be rude. The last time we met I remember you being much more kind." John toyed placing his bottle down on the bar and starting to approach Gaia. Gaia stood her ground and looked at John defiantly. They now stood face to face millimetres from each other.
"I'll ask again, what do you..." Gaia slurred the end of her question as the waft of John's pheromones hit her. John smiled devilishly as he saw Gaia's eyes mist over and taking his chances he leant in and kissed her. Unlike previous Gaia's previous kisses this kiss was lustful and untamed; Gaia's hands ran wild through John's hair and John held Gaia close pressing their bodies together.
At some point during the kiss, John seemed to loose all self control of the kiss and his pheromones wavered. This wavering broke Gaia from her pheromone induced state and she wasn't happy that he had taken advantage of her... again. Slowly opening her eyes and she saw, with relief, that John had closed his and hence she made her hands descend from John's hair to the lapels of his hideous red jacket. Making sure her hands were firmly gripped on John's lapels, she got her feet in position and then in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... she kneed him in the balls.
John's eyes flew open in shock and he gasped from breath. Gaia gave the man a gentle push and he fell to floor, winded and shocked at Gaia's actions. "Probably should have seen that one coming." He muttered breathlessly. Gaia wiped her mouth and nodded.
"Yes you should have." She spat venomously. The sound of applause from behind them caused Gaia to spin around and John to look up. Standing in the doorway was Jack with a look of amusement on his face. "I was going to break you up, but it looks like Gaia's got that one sorted on her own." He jested walking over to the pair. "I should have known it would have been you to make her react like that. "Jack stated his voice serious and unwelcoming to John.
John slowly stood up and brushed himself down before walking over to Jack. He doesn't say a word. Then WHAM! John punches Jack across the face and Jack returns to gesture to John. They end up grabbing each other and a fight ensues.
Gaia rolled her eyes at the 2 grown men fighting each other like teenage boys. She simply skirted around them, and the carnage they created, and sat at the end of the bar, drinking the remains of John's whiskey. Although she wasn't inclined to using alcohol to solve your worries, the whiskey was a nice nullifier to John's aggravating arrival. It's not like she hadn't been through enough in the last month already. As she thought this John and Jack smashed through the glass partition in the bar and Gaia winced at the sound. Finishing her bottle of whiskey she pulled another from behind the bar. She then grabbed the top between her teeth, pulled it out and spat it across the room where it hit John in the back of the head. She laughed at his confusion and took a swig of the bottle in her hand.
John's confusion allowed Jack to slip out of his grip and clamber to his feet. He instantly pulls out his gun and points it at the other man, John mirrors his actions. They smile and chuckle as they begin to circle each other, the only sound being their scraping feet on the glass ridden floor, their ragged breaths and Gaia's gulping of alcohol.
"You're putting on weight?" John teased, his gun still trained on Jack.
"You're losing your hair?" Jack responded, just as quick and witty.
"What are you wearing?" John retorted, seemingly unaffected by Jack's comments, although Gaia knew otherwise.
"Captain Jack Harkness, note the stripes."
"Captain John Hart, note the sarcasm."
"Hey, I worked my way up through the ranks." Jack argued, slightly peeved.
"I bet the ranks were very grateful." John sighs and his gun wavers. "I need a drink." He states calmly. Jack lowered his gun.
"I thought you'd never ask." Jack replied and caught a bottle of whiskey Gaia threw him. He then sat himself down next to Gaia; John sat next to him, away from Gaia.
"How was rehab?" Jack asked between sips.
"Rehabs. Plural." John replied wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Drink, drugs, sex and..." Gaia listed.
"Murder." John finished and Jack laughed.
"You went to murder rehab?" Gaia said shocked.
"I know, ridiculous. The odd kill, who does it hurt?"
"You clean now?" Jack asked. John nodded.
"Yeah. Kicked everything. Living like a priest." John replied with a smile, taking a swig of his vodka for good measure.
"I can see." Gaia smirks taking a bit of her own bottle. Jack laughed at the pair; it was just like the old days when they use to `travel` together. He used the word `travel` on loose terms, most of the time it was an intergalactic pub crawl.
"So, how's the Time Agency?" Jack asked as a passing comment. John's head rose a little and he lowered his drink.
"You didn't here,,, It shut down."
"Your kidding." Jack said shocked.
"No. There are only seven of us left now." John stated.
"Wow." Jack commented shocked and Gaia had raised eyebrows. She knew of the time agency, although most of them were borderline alcoholics and sometimes played on the wrong side of the law, they were nice enough people if you were nice to them.
"Yeah. It's good to see you. It was never the same without you two." John said and went in to kiss Jack. Jack ducked out the way.
"You need to go." Jack stated in all seriousness.
"What?" John spluttered shocked.
"I certainly don't want you on my planet." Gaia added, putting her drink down on the side.
"Time was, you couldn't get enough of me." John retorted, his anger evident. Before either Jack or Gaia could react, no doubt due to the added alcohol in their systems, John grabbed one of the discarded guns on the bar and shot the door, causing the glass to smash. "All right, everybody out!" He yelled.
Unsurprising to any of the trio, Gwen and Ianto step out. "Everything all right, Jack?" Gwen asked her gun out training the area. Ianto mirrored her actions the other way.
"It's okay." Jack insisted as Owen and Tosh came in through the back.
"You've got a team! How sweet! Oh, pretty little friends! No blonde though. You need a blonde." John commented snarky. Gaia lobbed an empty bottle at him, yet he swerved out the way at the last second. "Temper, temper Princess." John commented waggling his finger. Gaia scowled.
"Bite me." She snapped. Everyone looked at the interaction with shock; the team still inched towards John though.
"God! He's worse than Jack." Owen said and was ignored by everyone else.
John turned to face Jack. "Oh do you have a team name? I love team names, go on!" He asked like an excitable child. Jack sighed.
"Torchwood." Jack answered. John looked almost disappointed.
"Oh. Not Excalibur? Blizzard? Bikini Cops? No? Torchwood, oh dear." John said. Jack profusely ignored him, Gaia on the other hand didn't.
"You're unbelievable." Gaia snipped and John winked.
"Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, meet..." Jack began.
"Captain John Hart." John finished.
"We go back." Gaia added.
"Excuse me. We more than go back. We were partners." John retorted and Gaia glared at him.
"In what way?" Owen asked, almost sounding disappointed.
"In every way and then some." John assured Owen much to Gaia's discomfort.
"It was only 2 weeks." Gaia retorted.
"Except that 2 weeks was trapped in a time loop, so we were together 5 years. It was like marriage." John explained strangely cheerfully.
"Oh shut up." Gaia argued.
"Make me."
Jack rolled his eyes. "As fun as this is, what are you doing here?" Jack asked, tired of `the happy couples` arguing.
"I was wondering when we'd get to that." John said a pulled back his sleeve to reveal his vortex manipulator.
"That's the same as Jack's." Tosh noted.
"And Gaia's." Ianto added not missing a trick. John eyed Gaia's wrist as Ianto said this and was surprised to see a Vortex Manipulator there.
"It's a little smaller than mine." Jack commented. John rolled his eyes.
"But lasts much longer. Get Time Agents in the same room together, it's always about the size of the wrist strap." John joked.
"Ah, yes, sorry? What's a Time Agent?" Owen asked, vocalising the question the rest of the Torchwood team were thinking. John looked up at him in genuine shock.
"What? They never told you about their past?" John asked, although he already knew the answer.
"No, they haven't." Gwen answered; Jack seemed unfazed by this, whilst Gaia shifted uncomfortably. She really should tell them.
"Anyway..." John continues and his manipulator produces a hologram of a canister appears. "I'm working with this woman - beautiful, clever, sexy, yadda yadda yadda - and we both get shot. And as she's dying, she begs me. She tells me about these radiation cluster bombs she'd been working on." As John pressed more buttons on his manipulator, causing the hologram to disappear, Gaia looks up at the others to see if any of them were buying it. To her disappointment it seemed like they were.
"3 canisters, contents beyond toxic, swallowed up in a riftstorm." John pressed; Gaia still couldn't believe the incredulity of the story he was inventing. "They ended up here. That's the downside of your city being built on a rift in space and time. Now, left to their own devices, the radiation'll break down the canisters and then infect your people and planet. They need to be neutralised." John concluded, finishing, in Gaia's eyes, his far fetched story.
"What do you get out of this?" Jack asked sounding sceptical.
"Dying woman's wish." John tried and Jack raised his eyebrow, Gaia looked equally unconvinced. "Now there's only one problem: I don't know where they are. Hoping local knowledge might help." John said, now addressing everyone.
"When we get back to the hub..." Tosh began but Gaia interrupted her before she could continue.
"You believe him?" Gaia asked shocked. Although shocked at Gaia's outburst and general behaviour through the course of the evening, each member of Torchwood slowly nodded. Gaia raised her eyebrows. "I'm going back to the hub." She stated and walked out... again.
Gaia walked back to the hub, her head slightly fuzzy from the alcohol. She hoped the fresh air may do her some good, as well as the fact that she good connect out here. She had been quite fortunate in the last few weeks; she had managed to get a few hours meditation in that suburban house, a day. She thought it would be best to meditate after the incident on the Tardis. She hadn't slept too well after then, the pain and screams of the dying massacre haunted her every dream. She had tried to hide it from Jack; those nights when he'd go to sleep and she'd stay up, but she had her speculations that he had caught on.
They hadn't talked about what went on, well not for the 2nd departure. Gaia had explained to him what had happened on the Byzantium and her confusion of her relationship with River and the Doctor. Jack had obviously put in some comments and observations on the matter and the both of them had laughed themselves silly. It was the first proper laugh she'd had with Jack and it had been a lovely night.
Now though Gaia was standing on the invisible lift, descending into the hub. She was tired and wanted to sleep. She'd have to battle the `Night Terrors` tonight; her body was running adrenaline, fuelled by alcohol. Hence, upon arrival on the ground, she wasted no time in clambering up to her office and collapsing of exhaustion on her bed. Letting her eyes drift shut she let her exhaustion succumb her body and mind, not caring if she was still fully clothed.
Her rest was short lived though. Roughly an hour after her return the sound of the hub alarm went off, indicating that the team had returned and their voices carried well in the cavernous hub. "She's gone nuts. Wherever she's been over the last few weeks has sent her off her rocker." Owen said. Although he said it at rather a normal conversation level Gaia heard every word, a mixture of her heightened hearing and the cavernous hub. Her ears pricked at the words and she slowly sat up, anticipating the other's response.
"We don't know that Owen, it could just be John. They obviously didn't end of very good terms, she hates him." Gwen replied, the voice of reason.
"Yeah, but what about before? How in the hell did she know he was here? She couldn't even see the monitor from where she was standing and we didn't even know it was him until Jack's thing went off." Owen argued, now sitting on one of the computer chairs. Everyone else had gotten back to work, although they did listen to what Owen said and although they wouldn't admit aloud they were curious.
"I don't know Owen. But right now the whole city could be flooded by radiation no thanks to Captain nut cases canisters. So if you would be so kind and help." Gwen ordered, clearly peed at Owen's behaviour.
Gaia smiled at Gwen's response. She was some what glad Gwen had taken charge in her and Jack's absence; she kicked arse. Gaia got herself out of bed and straightened herself in the mirror. Sleep could wait. She was about to leave her office when she heard Tosh raise her voice. "I've got the CCTV footage of the bar; you might want to check this out." Tosh called to the others and they all gathered around her monitor. "Okay, you have the standard night parties ECT. Then John arrives and scares everyone off. He pulls himself a drink and Gaia arrives and well...look." Tosh finished and silence fell over the group as they watched the CCTV footage. Gaia cringed as she heard the sound of her own voice carry around the cavernous hub and she could feel herself blush as she heard her words slur on the video footage.
"What's happening to her?" Gwen asked.
"It looks like he's drugged her." Owen commented, still watching the rolling CCTV. "They're really going for it." The sound of John's grunt in pain carried to Gaia as did the laughs of Gwen and Tosh and the sucked in breaths of Ianto and Owen and they winced in sympathy.
"That's gotta hurt." Gwen commented, no hint of sympathy in her voice. Owen nodded beside her. "Question is what made her act like that in the first place?" Gwen continued and everyone shrugged.
"It was pheromones." Gaia said from behind the group, scaring the hell out of them.
"How long have you been standing there?" Gwen asked.
"Long enough." Gaia began with a soft smile, her eyes at that moment revealing her true age. "Captain John Hart is from the 51st century where, through years of evolution, they have developed the ability to produce certain pheromones." Gaia explained. The others nodded in understanding,
Owen still had more questions. "What about all that weird shit when Captain whats-his-face arrived?" He asked his arms crossed in front of him. He had been wanting to ask Gaia about her biology for years, she never got ill, never got injured and as he's previously mentioned she doesn't register on the Torchwood scanners.
"Well, um..." Gaia looked extremely uncomfortable for a second as she thought this through. This was something unseen by the Torchwood team and they couldn't help but worry at the severity the reason must be. "Pass me the scanner." Gaia asked Owen and although he had raised eyebrows, he complied and handed her the scanner. Gaia placed her hand on it and the results came up instantly on the screen. "I'm not human, never have been. I'm from a planet 5 galaxies from here and I'm quite a bit older than all of you, including Jack." Gaia explained she had by no means any confidence explaining this to the rest of the Torchwood team; in fact she was terrified at their reaction.
No one said anything for a moment as they all seem to absorb what Gaia had just admitted to them. Their silence was broken by the arrival of John and Jack coming down the lift. "It's roomy, I'll give you that." John said as he inspected the hub from above. Everyone jumped into action as John's voice caught their ears. Gaia felt some what relieved that she didn't have to face the onslaught of questions the group no doubt had but she couldn't deny the anticipation might end up killing her.
"Weapons." Jack demanded as the lift reached the bottom. Ianto and Gwen stood on hand, Ianto with tray to carry said weaponry and Gwen with mobile scanner in hand. John removed 2 standard guns, his samurai sword and a small blade on his arm. He then shrugs innocently and Jack raises his eyebrows. "And the rest. " Jack demanded. John defended himself saying he only had the few. Gwen then proceeded to read the weaponry scan results. John reluctantly pulled each out as Gwen listed them.
"Slipped my mind." He defended and Gaia snorted. John and Jack turned to face her eyebrows raised; the rest of the team ignored her and got back to work.
Gaia now found herself sitting in the conference room, watching as Tosh briefed the team. "Seven hours ago we logged a minor surge in rift energy, across 3 locations." Tosh explained pointing at the highlighted regions on the map behind her.
"Seven of us, three locations. That's simple." John explained, for some reason taking charge and Jack noticed.
"Excuse me, I give the orders." He argued and John chuckled.
"Well, give some, big boy!" John taunted and Gwen thankfully stepped in before the arguing could begin.
"John's righ. Sorry... um... d'you prefer John or Captain?" She asked and Gaia smiled and leant back in her seat. Gwen had just inflated John's ego two fold.
"With eyes like yours, call me Vera, I won't complain." John replied, his tone lustful. Gaia caught Ianto in the corner rolling his eyes, Gaia mirrored his action.
"Tosh and Owen, take the north. Ianto and Jack go west. Me and Vera'll take the docks." Gwen commanded and Jack looked perplexed.
"Excuse me, not to repeat myself..." He began but Gwen cut him off.
"Got a problem with this, Jack?" Gwen snipped. Jack smiled and lifted his hand.
"Not at all." He replied.
Everyone then began to leave, bar Gwen, Jack and Gaia. Gaia sat their and watched with amusement as Jack went through the dos and don'ts of handling John Hart. Gwen took it all in, although reassured Jack that she could handle herself adding a snide comment of being able to control herself. Gaia growled under her breath at that. Once Gwen had left the room Jack turned to Gaia. "You've been quiet in all this." He observed. Gaia shrugged.
"I don't think I'm exactly on the best terms with everyone at the moment. They managed to see the CCTV footage." Gaia replied.
"Oh... surely they've seen worse."
"Yeah, most likely. But there was also..." Gaia didn't get to finish what she wanted to say and Ianto came in saying that he and Jack had to get a move on. Jack didn't argue with the Welshman and was out the door before Gaia could blink.
After Jack had left, Gaia had stayed in the main hub area not opting to go back up to her office. She had no work that needed completion in her office so she took the opportunity to update her profile on the Torchwood database, changing it from Human to Planet Keeper, she also unlocked the Planet Keeper folders that had remained encrypted on the Torchwood database since it was developed in the late 90s. Once done she sat down on the couch and finished the book she had hidden in its pillows weeks ago. They team had been gone a few hours now and she was expecting them all to arrive together. Hence she was surprised to see John strut back into the hub, all 3 canisters in hand and no other Torchwood members to be seen.
"John where is everyone?" Gaia asked, although she already knew the answer to that.
"Shit I forgot you were here." John said and without second though grabbed one of the guns on the nearby table and shot at Gaia. The bullet disintegrated before it could even touch her.
"Big Mistake." Gaia said and before John knew it he was on the floor, Gaia was straddling him and holding his hand above his head, the canisters and gun discarded across the floor.
"What did you do to them?" Gaia spat. She was furious and raged at how John had so easily walked all over her team.
"You know what I did to them. Y'know I almost regretted having to this on Earth, seeing as it's your planet and all." John began and Gaia growled and tightened her grip on him. "As I said, almost." He finished and let his pheromones run amuck. Gaia didn't stand a chance and within milliseconds she had closed the small gap between their lips. Her hands ran down his arms and began to run down his chest. Before she could get very far though, John flipped her so she was on the floor. Gaia didn't argue, the pheromones were still messing with her brain and her lips still locked with John. What she wasn't expecting was the whack of her head on the floor and the darkness that over took her.
When Gaia finally came around she was lying on the uncomfortable bed in the medical room. "Erg..." Gaia moaned.
"Don't worry your fine. Just a whack on the head." Owen's voice told her, it was void of any comfort or compassion.
"That will explain the headache." Gaia groaned at she sat up. She then realised something. "Wait, did John leave?" Gaia asked, although she knew he wasn't on the planet she still would like to know where he went.
"Yeah." Owen replied and left the room, leaving Gaia on her own. It seemed he still wasn't over it yet.
Gaia slowly got to her feet and swayed a little before getting her bearings. Even more slowly she climbed the medical room stairs to the main hub, where she was met with a cold shoulder. "Err... hi." Gaia said trying to get someone's attention. She was replied with a general muttering of hellos. Gaia rolled her eyes at her dismal response and headed to Jack's office.
She entered and slammed the door shut, just for good measure. Jack didn't react when the door slammed, he didn't even flinch. "You told them then." He said, saying it as if he was describing the weather.
"I did, I did what you've been badgering at me for months to do and this is how they react." Gaia retorted on the verge of tears. Jack was up and put his arm around Gaia and led her over to the couch. He had learnt a long time ago not to let Gaia get overly emotionally or the Earth suffered the consequences.
"They just need to get use to the idea. Hey, when I told them I couldn't die, they shot me." Jack said reassuringly. Gaia didn't seem to take in the reassurance though.
"Jack, I can hear them, all their nattering, all their thoughts and... they think I'm a monster." Gaia said softly. Jack kissed Gaia on the forehead. It was going to be a long day.