Archienius Addams was annoyed, he was sick and tired of waiting for Torchwood Officer Gwen Cooper, he refused to call her Gwen Williams or Gwen Addams, she deserved neither title. The woman should have been there by now, she had definitely left Cardiff with enough time to spare to arrive at his headquarters, he had been assured by both Tharmus and Aluka that she had left. Tharmus had made sure that she had left work early enough to ready herself for her trip. Aluka had called him to inform him that she was on her way, that he had seen her onto the bus himself, he had also commented that she was bound to be annoyed and angry by time she reached him as she had been rather put out at her mode of transport.
Archienius didn't mind that though, in fact he was rather looking forward to it, he outranked her and would have no problems taking her to task if she tried to disagree with his choices. He had dealt with more aggravating women than Gwen Cooper in his time, he was sure that she couldn't be any more aggravating than Yvonne Hartmann had been. He reread her file, of course he had made a copy when Tharmus had brought it up to him, and to say that he was unimpressed was an understatement.
Archienius was bound and determined to find out if there was anything salvageable within the woman, he knew that there was nothing in her that would make her a decent Addams wife, but he may be able to carve out a Torchwood Officer out of her. He was sure that Jack had tried, but even he knew that Jack was rather soft at times, if he saw something in someone. Tharmus had informed him that it was Gwen's humanity that had drawn Jack in, but from what he had gleaned from her file that humanity was selective and she only chose to use it to the detriment of the team or the mission when she was sure that she was right. It wasn't something that Archienius was willing to put up with, he was meant to be teaching Cooper on Alien Technologies, but she was going to be trained in much more if he had his say. It may go out with Torchwood and his duty and loyalty would always be with both Torchwood and the family, but he would be all for sending her off to a UNIT training camp for a while. He knew that Jack would never go for it though, so he was going to have to do his best with her in the few days that he had her there with him and entrust Tharmus to deal with the rest of her retraining.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Jack to retrain her, but he was sure that she was the way she was in part due to the lax manner in which Jack had dealt with her in the past. She seemed to have some sort of emotional hold over Harkness that she would no doubt exploit to get her own way as he was sure that she had done in the past.
Archienius decided to put the woman of his mind, there was no point on dwelling on when she would turn up, she was bound to eventually, she had to realise that there would be consequences if she didn't. Instead he turned his mind to the reports that he had received earlier that morning of Nessa being a bit disgruntled. He knew that he was going to have to take a trip and check on her and find out what was upsetting her. He supposed he could take Cooper with him, se what she thought of Nessa and what Nessa thought of her. If there was a better judge of character he had never met them, and he wondered how the woman would cope with a talking alien sea snake. He was sure that it was bound to be an interesting excursion if nothing else. Archienius had just calculated the time required to deal with Nessa and fit it round Gwen's training when his phone rang. Answering it he allowed the woman entry into the building, giving her directions and informing her of the problems with the lifts. He waited for her to arrive, and seemed to wait even longer, she should have been there by now. He supposed that she had decided to prove him wrong and had waited for the lifts that he had deactivated, it would be just like her from what he had heard.
When she finally arrived she looked around rather unimpressed, something that annoyed him, how dare she look down on him and his home/base. Annoyed at her behaviour Archie decided that any nicety that he was going to show her was completely unneeded. He looked up from the file he still held open in his hands. "Gwen Elizabeth Cooper, Torchwood Operative from the Cardiff Branch Torchwood Three. Police and Community Liaison." He began looking her up and down as she turned to face him. "You're late."
He could see the anger in the woman's eyes and smiled inside, good, if she was angry she was unsettled and unbalanced, that would just make things a lot easier for him. He smiled at her wolfishly, "Miss Cooper, I do hope you realise the severity of this training and are willing to take it seriously, it could one day save your life and that of your teammates, your superiors."
Gwen looked at him and it was obvious that she wanted to say something to him, but was unsure as to how much she could get away with regarding him, she would soon find out that she would be getting away with nothing.
"Yes Miss Cooper, you wish to say something." He drawled, wondering what exactly it was that she was determined to say, especially when she had yet to get the measure of him.
"I am the second in command of Torchwood Cardiff, Jack is my only superior, the others are my subordinates." She spoke clearly, the annoyance in her voice plain for him to hear.
Archie laughed an actual full bellied laugh at that. "I think not Miss Cooper. Mr Harper is the second in command of Torchwood Cardiff, while Mr Jones is second in command of the Torchwood Institute. You are still a rookie Miss Cooper; you have not even completed all the mandated training for a rookie."
He could tell that he had succeeded in annoying her at the growl she let out. He was actually vaguely impressed, she sounded just like a weevil, maybe he could forgo some of the alien recognition training that he had intended to give her if she could mimic them so well.
"If you are ready Miss Cooper we shall be leaving now." Archie said as he indicated that she should move back the way she had come.
She stomped ahead of him and he shut the door behind him sealing it with some handy little technology. As she went to collect her bags he cleared his throat, catching her attention. "I think not Miss Cooper. They will not be necessary on this outing." He ushered her through the door, ignoring her complaints that she would need her bags when checking into her hotel, how else was she meant to take a shower after all. He smirked, she thought that they would be putting her up in a hotel, how naive of her. Torchwood only put guests and visitors up in hotels, she was a Torchwood agent, she would stay on site.
"We are not going to a hotel Miss Cooper. This is Torchwood, we have a job to do, or do you believe that we should just ask the aliens to hold off for a while so that you can shower?" Archie commented, ignoring the squeal of indignation that came from the woman at his side as he descended the stairs. "Do hurry up, Miss Cooper." He called back to her when he realised that she was lagging behind him. "How on earth do you believe you will be effective with Torchwood if you cannot even handle some stairs without being drained of your energy?"
Archie smirked to himself as he walked out of the front of the building, climbing into the driver's seat of the white Transit van that was parked there and waited for the woman that he was meant to be training. He was sure that by the time she left the woman will have deemed his training as torture instead, but he was having fun that was all that mattered. That and that she was brought up to Torchwood standards swiftly, so that she could go back to Cardiff and be out from under his feet. He had a feeling that while he would get some enjoyment from the next few days that he would also be very glad when he was able to get rid of the woman. He had a feeling that the rest of the family thought the same about her to be honest, he would have to make a few phone calls later to find some more information to use to his advantage.
He glared at her when she finally got into the front passenger seat, complaining as she did so that he hadn't held the door for her, or waited for her to catch up. He was surprised that she didn't start a diatribe about how he shouldn't be rushing off without her there to protect him and the planet. From how she had conducted herself on previous mission it was something that he was sure would be perfectly normal to come out of her mouth.
When she paused to breathe he threw her a withering look, handing her a file from the glove compartment and insisting that she be quiet and read it while they made their way to their destination. He didn't tell her where they were going or how long it would take to get there, that was basic information in the file. Instead he turned the radio on and ignored her as he thought about whatever it was that was wrong with Nessa. Hopefully it was nothing too serious, sometimes she just got agitated with things that appeared in her loch from other planets. Just like Cardiff's rift Loch Ness was always throwing out the most random of objects at times. Not all of which the resident alien occupant of the loch was happy about. Archie chuckled about what the reaction of the woman next to him would be to the largest rift in the United Kingdom.