Well here it finally is. My next chapter, finally finished.
I know it's taken a long time so I thank you all for being so patient.
I'm not too sure about the way this chapter ended up but I hope you all enjoy it and of course please let me know what you think.
For those of you who have read this chapter before it has been reloaded because a new friend of mine Felinarian gave me some brilliant advice for my German translation. Enjoy.
xxxXxxx
Doctor
As the team stepped off the invisible lift at the end of another long day chasing aliens and capturing weevils Megan looked around the Plaza it was starting to get busy; people bustling around, hurring to get home everyone looked similar blending into each other. Then she saw someone that stuck out like a sore thumb.
"DOCTOR!"
Jacks head shot up when he heard what she said. No it couldn't be.
Everyone turned at her shout and saw her running across the plaza and throw her arms around a short, stocky man with a shock of white hair and a thick moustache.
"Lucas." Jack looked over at Ianto whose face lit up at the sight of the older man and was staring at the two before also running over and embracing the older man.
"Ianto, wie geht es Ihnen?" the old man asked with a thick German accent as he embraced Ianto.
"Fein, Dr Steinberg. It's good to see you again."
"I vas just saying zat I don't recognise young Megan she has gvown und she is nearly as tall as me, vich isn't hard but still." Dr Steinberg stood with Megan and Ianto stood in front of him and a hand on each of their shoulders. He looked up and saw the rest of the Torchwood team watching them. "Ianto are zay who I sink zay are"
Ianto looked over his shoulder and saw them "Yeah they are come on, come and meet them." With that he and Megan walked with him across the Plaza to the waiting team.
"Everyone" Ianto said "this is Dr Steinberg; I worked with him in London. Dr Steinberg this is Dr Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato and Captain Jack Harkness."
They all nodded a hello to him and Jack tried to step forward to shake his hand but Dr Steinberg seemed to have other ideas and enthusiastically shook Tosh's hand instead.
"Miss Sato may I say zat it is an honour to finally meet you, I have followed your vork since you started at Torchwood" he brought his voice down to a whisper as he said "und before" he said giving a wink and tapping his nose. She gave a shy smile and blushed under the praise.
"Dr Steinberg" Jack interrupted "we were just going to the pub, would you like to join us?"
"Ja, ja I would zat is very kind of you Kapitän" he held his arm out to Tosh who smiled as she took it "so ver are ve going?"
"Um just round here."
"He's um… he's a scientist" Ianto explained to Jack as they walked to the pub, Dr Steinberg and Tosh still deep in conversation.
"Nah don't worry about it, it's not often Tosh gets someone to talk geek too who actually understands what she's on about."
They sat round their usual booth, with Dr Steinberg on an extra stool sitting at the head, they chattered until Jack arrived with the first round of drinks, that was when something odd happened.
Doctor Steinberg raised his glass and said in German "Jenen, die wir verloren haben, mögen sie das Paradies gefunden haben und in Frieden ruhen."
"Frieden"
"Frieden" Ianto and Megan both repeated while Jack and the rest of the team just looked at each other, not able to understand the language.
"What language was that if you don't mind my asking?"
"Not at all dear Toshiko it vas ze beautiful language of German, my native tongue."
"How come you two speak it so well?" Jack asked watching them over the rim of his glass and taking a sip of his ever present water.
"The good doctor here tends to go on a bit of a rant when he's working and he'll just flip from English to German so we needed to learn it to understand what he was saying."
"Well you speak it very well, both of you."
"Danke" Ianto replied to Tosh, rising his beer glass to her.
They carried on drinking, talking about everything from music to films, even swapping stories about Torchwood. The Torchwood Three team were very impressed with some of Doctor Steinberg's (or Lucas as he insisted they called him) stories even if they were from Torchwood One.
"Und zen there vas ze time ve had slugs in ze air vents, und vone fell srew und landed in Yvonne's hair, hahaha you should have heard her scream."
"Well what about the time you tried to make a smoothie"
Dr Steinberg's face fell and he attempted to hide behind his beer "Nein, nein I don't remember zat."
"I do" Megan said hardly able to talk due to laughing "he thought he'd found an alien blender"
"No" they both said together
"What was it?" Jack asked leaning forward enjoying watching Dr Steinberg turn a delicate shade of pink
"Well it turned out to be some kind of alien duplicator that just looked like a large blender so of course Dr Steinberg fills it right to the top with strawberries and put it on for what he thought was three minutes but actually duplicated the strawberries three hundred times. The 'blender' couldn't take the pressure and it exploded, and…" Ianto shared a look with Megan and both were trying, and failing, to keep their laughter under control.
"Let's just say" Megan continued "it took the four of us three days to clean the strawberry jam off the walls and all the pieces of equipment Steinberg leaves lying around the lab
"Ja well where were you ven zis vas all going on Ianto?" like someone had flicked a switch Ianto stopped laughing and turned serious "flirting zats vot und who vas it?"
"Stop trying to change the subject Doctor!" Megan said pointing accusingly at the German which started another burst of laughter.
Jack saw Ianto give a sigh of relief that the attention was no longer on him. It didn't take a genius to take a guess at who Ianto's answer would have been. The older man slipped a comforting hand on the man's knee and gave it a gentle squeeze and received a small smile in thanks.
"I admit" Gwen said coming back to the table with another tray of drinks and handing them out before taking her seat next to Owen "it's a little difficult to believe the stories you're telling after what I've already been told about Torchwood One."
"Und zot was zat? Hmm? Zat we ver cruel, heartless basters who exploited aliens for our own gains?" Doctor Steinberg asked looking over his Scotch glass at the slightly guilty looking Torchwood Three members.
It was Megan who spoke up next "We did what was necessary for the advancement of Earth technology."
Jack scoffed at her "You sound like Yvonne"
"Thank you" she said looking him directly in the eyes, there was something defiant and cold that hadn't been there before.
"Working for London was like working anywhere else." Ianto went on to say. "There were people there with their own personalities and faults. I mean Yvonne had faults."
"No she didn't" Megan interjected quickly, drawing looks from everyone at the table.
"Ja she did" Doctor Steinberg muttered sadly.
"I mean" Ianto continued "she was terrified of spiders. Jason in engineering was claustrophobic and Hannah in IT did all that spirits beyond the grave stuff, you know fortune telling and turret cards"
"You believe in ghosts?" Gwen asked. Jack knew it was a perfectly innocent question, since she didn't know what really happened at Canary Wharf, but Jack felt and saw the almost instant change in the three London agents. He felt Ianto tense beneath his hand which still rested on the younger man's leg.
"Of course not they don't exist" Megan snapped tilting her head back and finishing the wine in her glass and banging it back on the table.
"But how can you say that when you had all those ghosts that appeared a few months ago they were real." Oh god, Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing from Gwen.
"No. They weren't."
"Gwen it doesn't matter just leave it." Owen growled at the ex-constable and Jack was grateful at him for trying but…
"I just want to know why she's so adamant about something not being real when as a scientist she's supposed to have this great open mind." He saw Ianto's hand tighten around his pint glass. "What actual proof do you have that ghosts don't exist"
"GENUG!" The German word brought silence, despite the language it wasn't difficult to under the meaning. The 'spiritual discussion' was clearly over and Jack didn't think he had ever been so grateful. "Ve vill not sit here und be insulted. Ve are leaving. Jetzt." The old man stood up and held out his hand for Megan and Ianto brushed Jack's hand off his leg as he downed the rest of his pint ready to leave.
Megan stood up and twisted round so she could look round Owen and straight at Gwen. "Something you need to know and remember Gwenie." Megan said in a falsely sweat voice that sent shivers up Jack's spine. She picked up her wine glass and looked at it for a moment as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world. Before she brought it down on the edge of the table with a smash, drawing inquisitive looks from tables all over the pub. The girl put the broken stem of the glass back on the table and slid it round so it was in front of Gwen. "I am one of the few people in the world who can kill you with this glass in front of witnesses and get away with it. I can get away with murder." From the look in her eyes, eyes he didn't recognise, Jack believed her.
"Goodnight" Ianto said quickly jumping up from his seat and dragging Megan up from hers, and then steering her and Doctor Steinberg out of the pub.
Jack was left just sat, watching and wondering what the hell had just happened.
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Languages – German translation
Wie geht es Ihnen – how are you
Fein – fine
Ja – yes
Und – and
Kapitän – captain
Nein – no
Fantastisch – fantastic
Astronomisch – astronomically
Danke – thank you
Jenen, die wir verloren haben, mögen sie das Paradies gefunden haben und in Frieden ruhen – to those who we lost, they may have found paradise and rest in peace
Frieden – peace
Genug – enough
Jetzt – now