Sorry it took so long I just didn't know how to bring it to an end.
11...x
"Do you think their going to show up in uniform?" Rachel asked. Sat by her desk sipping her coffee.
"I don't know, why?" said Ianto, doing some last minute cleaning before the UNIT representatives arrived.
"Well, I've only ever heard of them, I've never actually seen one." she answered. At first she had been nervous about the UNIT visit, now she was just curious.
"I don't think so," Tosh told her. "If they're coming by train, imagine if armed people were saw on a train," Tosh smiled. But Rachel seemed oblivious; she looked over to john confused.
"It's not the norm on earth, love." John told her.
"Oh, so you don't have armed people on a train, but you do have bombs on planes?" she concluded.
"Yeah, messed up world." Jack said as he came down from his office. "Ianto, could you go up to the tourist office to greet our new arrivals, they should be here soon."
Ianto nodded and head upstairs,
"Ok, well, come on people. Look like your doing some work," jack commanded as he headed up to his office. He turned on the last step and said to his team,
"And, behave."
Rachel walked over to the rift tower, opened a hatch and pretended to be fixing the wires; instead she was taking in the complicated tangle of copper steel and some unknown metals. She gave up and went to her latest project. It was an artificial intelligence, nano-sized technology, she was hoping to put it in the SUV. It wasn't working to well so far. She pulled down the lens that magnified her work to a see-able size and tweaked some of the wires, at the moment it simply looked like an LED light which had too many wires. She was about to start tweaking wires, when a familiar set of strong arms wrapped around her.
"What 'cha doing?" John crooned.
"Trying to resist a very sexy man that appears to be clung onto my shoulders," She smiled.
"And how's that working out?" he whispered, his chin resting on her shoulder. She turned, so they were face too face.
"Not well," she murmured, pulling him into a kiss, her eyes sliding shut as his hands slipped down to her waist and she entangled her hands in his hair. All the tension that she didn't know she had, dropped. And, as always, the world around them melted to nothing. It was just John.
Someone cleared their throat, Rachel opened her eyes and broke away from John, whose arms were still hugging around her waist. Rachel took a step back as john gave her a mischievous wink, she ran her hand through her hair, slightly flustered. The whole team except Ianto, who wasn't there, were staring at them.
"This is Rachel Falcon and John Hart," said Jack to the person Rachel hadn't noticed.
"Captain," Both John and Rachel said at the same time.
A petit thin woman, died blonde hair, hour-glass figure and glasses perched on the end of her nose, she looked about Gwen's age. But trying to look 16. In a short black skirt and plain white blouse. She looked, sort of trashy. Too much make up and Rachel could swear she was wearing contacts that made her eyes blue.
"You allow relationships between workers," She said, it wasn't a question.
"Why not?" Rachel asked. The woman simply looked at Rachel then turned to John and said,
"I am Miss Jessica Harrow," She said.
John looked at his team mates confused. "Hi," he said. Wrapping his arm around Rachel's waist and hugging her close. The cog door opened up again, and Ianto and someone else worked through.
Jessica turned and began saying, "And this is my co-worker, Miss…" But she was cut short because the Jack had caught sight of who was with Ianto.
"Martha Jones!" he exclaimed a huge grin on his face.
"You just can't seem to stay away," Said Owen as Martha came to give him a hug as did the rest of the team. John and Rachel stayed where they were. After the little reunion, Martha turned to face Rachel and John. Jessica stood by her side.
Then realisation hit Rachel like a train. "Martha?" She asked,
"Fawks?" Martha replied, a smile appeared on her face. Martha rushed to give Rachel a hug.
"Look at you, all posh now working for UNIT," Rachel laughed as she pulled back to get a good look at her.
"Me? First of look at how big you got! And you finally made it home that's brilliant!"
"You know each other?" Jack asked.
"I've known her since I was 12." Rachel smiled. "I saved your butt," She said to Martha.
"You did not," Martha retorted. "Are you going to introduce me to your friend," she said with raised eyebrows, her eyes darting between John and Rachel.
"This is…"
"Captain John Hart," John purred, swooping down to kiss Martha's hand. At this moment Jack dragged the UNIT representatives off for a tour of the hub. Martha gave Rachel a look that clearly stated: We'll talk later.
The day progressed without that much excitement. A couple of weevils but nothing more. Rachel had been avoiding jack and the UNIT people as much as possible, she doubted she'd made the best first impression. Snogging a co-worker, whilst meant to be doing mechanics. She'd just avoid them until they were gone. Plus she was getting the impression that Jessica Harrow, did not like her very much. Rachel was lay under a propped up part off what the team guessed was a spaceship, but there was no way to know until it could be opened.
She had recently found a control panel on the base of the ship. She was pulling at the wires inside. Like hot wiring a car, but a bit more complicated. She heard multiple footsteps approaching. She guessed it was Jack, Martha and Jessica. Rachel carried on working.
"This is the garage, it's where we keep the cars, obviously and it makes a good area to hold the bigger artefacts that need working on." She heard Jack explain. They walked past and Rachel really thought they would just walk past until a stiletto heel stabbed into her tail. As she jumped up, hitting her head on the control panel, and shorting out two wires that gave her a nasty shock.
Cussing under her breath, she came out from under the artefact. Looking at the heel that was still on her tail. A red stiletto shoe. She followed the shoe up, until she was looking at Jessica Harrow. Rachel suppressed a growl.
"Get off my tail." She said through clenched teeth, she let out a whimper when she looked at her tail. Then when she went to touch it her fingers stung she looked down at them to see a red burn where the electricity had hit as well as a tender bump at the top of her head.
"What are you?" Jessica sneered.
"A mechanic," Rachel answered out of the corner of her eye she saw Martha smile.
"I mean what species?"
"I'm a hybrid, mostly human."
"And…?"
"Void Demon," Rachel answered curtly.
"A creature from the void," She sounded intrigued.
"Thus the name," Rachel smiled as she stood up.
"Do you remember anything about the void? Have you ever been?"
"Yes and No," Rachel said walking off, back to the main hub.
"What do you remember? Tell me," Jessica ordered. Following after her, as did Jack and Martha.
"I don't want to talk about it," Rachel said as politely as she could. Jessica was starting to get annoyed,
"I demand you tell me," She said in a stern voice.
"No," Rachel said finally. Turning her back on Jessica and walking into the main hub.
"Is it too much like home," she said maliciously.
Rachel turned her gun drawn, pointed at Jessica. The whole hub was silent.
"Let's throw you in and see how you like it, shall we? Then you can see for yourself how homely it is." Holstering her gun and walking away.
Her temper bubbling she stormed off down to the firing range, always a way to cool down. Shoot something.
3 rounds of bullets later she had calmed down a lot. She could smell a familiar scent of fireworks and toffee apples.
"I'm not going to apologise, so don't ask me to." He wrapped his arms around her,
"I wasn't going to." Rachel leant back against him. "You should have seen it, she kicked off saying all this about disrespectful aliens then, honestly, it was like bedlam. Gwen almost hit her, then she turned to Martha for support, and Martha was like, serves you right. You'd have loved it."
"I doubt it," Rachel grumbled.
"She's talking to Jack right this moment, I don't think he was too impressed."
The rift alarm echoed through the walls.
"Come on," John said taking her hand and dragging her along.
Toshiko was sat at her desk, looking at the computer.
"It was just a little spike, big energy reading though something must have come through."
"I got it," Rachel said taking her coat and hat from Ianto, Jack threw her a comm.
"Keep it open, call for back up if you need it." He called after her.
"Oi!" John called after her, she stopped and turned, he gave her a kiss. "You might need some keys," He said handing her keys to his car.
"I'm working on getting myself a car." She laughed.
Driving to the location, she heard Tosh in her ear. "Go left and you should be there" Rachel turned the corner to see a beautiful sight, a tiny orange bundle squirming on the ground. Rachel walked up to it, it was a fire lion. All the way from Ignite this cub was far from home,
"Hey there," Rachel cooed. It squeaked as she approached. "Hey it's alright little fella," she bent down to it, "Come on," she looked into the amber eyes of the cub. It stumbled towards her. Fire lions were known not just by their flaming manes but the ability to understand people's natures. Clearly this one knew Rachel wasn't going to hurt it. Rachel wrapped the cub in her coat so it didn't get cold. She hugged the coat to her chest as the cub looked up at her. She put the cub in the passenger seat, but as she set off she noticed the cub crawl from her coat onto her lap.
It curled up with a yawn and let its eyes slide shut. When she arrived at the hub. She put her coat on and picked up the baby lion like a baby. It briefly opened its eyes, had a look around, licked the side of Rachel's face and closed its eyes again. Rachel chuckled, "Terrifying beast you are. One little tuft of fire on your tail, the rest is just orange fur." Carrying the baby in through the cog door.
"Hey, guys. I got a new pet," she smiled, everyone coming to see. Gwen and Tosh were nearest.
"Aw, he's adorable," fussed Gwen.
"What is it?" Tosh asked,
"Fire Lion," Jack said as he came over,
"We can't keep him," John said, next to him.
"What" said all the girls at once.
"He's dangerous," said Jack, gently, fearing an onslaught from the women of his team.
"No, he's not, he's about as dangerous as having an Alsatian. They can be trained," Rachel countered.
"And he's just a baby," Gwen said.
"Yeah, we can train him," Tosh suggested.
"It is kind of cute, Jack," Said Ianto.
"Not you too," Jack complained.
"Come onnnn!" Rachel begged squeezing in between Jack and John. "Look at his 'ikle Faaacccceee!" Rachel implored giving jack her own puppy dog face. Jack looked undecided. "What do you think?" he asked John, immediately John was swamped by Tosh, Gwen and especially Rachel. "Pleaseeeeeeeee!"
At this moment the cub opened its eyes, and looked straight up at John, he looked back at it. He tutted, "Fine!"
"We best make sure he's not a health hazard first," Owen said. Rachel still bundling the cub went with Owen and placed the cub on the medical table. The cub looked a little perplexed, Owen laughed at the little cub as it sat and let him take blood, measure it's heartbeat and it even opened it's mouth for Owen when he wanted to see it's teeth. "This little guy is something special for sure." Owen said. As the cub followed him back. "He's about 12 weeks old." The cub had a look that seemed smug. Rachel laughed as it jumped onto the couch, that was under the TORCHWOOD sign.
Jessica Harrow and Martha came up to where the team was Rachel ignored Jessica but smiled at Martha.
"What is that?" Martha asked curious, smiling over at the lion.
"It's our new pet." Tosh smiled.
"Why not just kill it, how does it benefit to humanity?" Jessica said in disgust at the lion,
"Well, you can say that about some humans to," Rachel sneered, pulling the cub into her arms.
"We're leaving tomorrow, to report back to HQ that we don't need a base here. The majority of your employees seem to be up to scratch." Jessica snarled. She left out the cog door, Martha waited behind. She sat down next to Rachel as the team dispersed going back to their stations. The cub had followed Ianto to the Kitchen for supper. "Sorry about her," Martha apologised,
"Doesn't matter, See you around, Martha Jones." She smiled. Martha stood and left.
"Where's John?" She asked, looking around he was gone.
"He left early," Jack called.
"Charming," she was hoping he would be around to cheer her up. She had had a bad day, what with Jessica Harrow around, showing all the bad aspects in humanity (in her opinion any way.)
"Right," She said to the little lion, "You better stay here for tonight, I don't think John was pleased when I undermined him," she said with a small smile.
"I'm going home!" she shouted to the hub.
Goodnight calls were shouted from around the hub. As she got outside, it was still raining, Rachel frowned on top of everything today, she didn't need this. John had taken the car so she was left to walk.
He's in a mood with us isn't he? The demon whispered.
I think so, just to top of such a wonderful day. Rachel seethed through the rain.
She reached the flat, climbed the stairs only to be stopped by a locked door.
"That can't be a good sign," Rachel murmured.
"John?" She called through the wooden door. "Hello? Baby, let me in I'm freezing," She begged.
There was no answer.
"oh, Come on John. Let us in."
Still no answer.
"I'm sorry about the whole lion thing, please, I've already had a bad day, let me in."
The door clicked open. Rachel walked in to the apartment to see it transformed. Candles covered every surface, the table was set for a romantic meal and Rachel could hear the bath running. She looked around for john. She couldn't see or even smell him until he came up behind her wrapping his arms around her.
"You've got to tell me how to do that," She smiled.
"Did you have a bad day babe?" He whispered. "I thought you could do with cheering up,"
"Your brilliant, you know that right?" Rachel smiled.
"Go get it the bath," he laughed.
Next time: a familiar face presents itself to Rachel causing trouble for all the team.