Fish took Hart up to a gay club by the city centre. After shaking off his angry encounter with Ianto with a few drinks, he'd smiled and laughed and tried his best to enjoy himself. He'd invited Henry to join them but Henry had declined the invitation. Fish had felt badly about taking a night away from them but Henry had insisted he go out and enjoy himself. Nightclubs really weren't Fish's thing and he wasn't much of a dancer but Hart wasn't to be dissuaded. He'd dragged Fish onto the dance floor and the two had ended up having a great time. Eventually, Hart had managed to charm someone. Actually, it was more appropriate to say that he'd managed to chose amongst the many men he'd charmed. Fish chuckled as the two of them had stumbled off into the gents together. Shaking his head, his mobile rang. It was a text message from Miranda about a large rift spike.
With a groan, Fish started to move through the crowd towards the toilets, grateful that the few drinks he'd had were already working their way out of his system. He kept his eyes firmly on his shoes as he walked into the gents. He leaned over, searching for the correct pair of boots. When he found the stall with those boots, there was another pair with them. Fish smiled and shook his head, blushing a bit. Miranda had given them fifteen minutes. He could allow them to finish whatever was going on within reason. He leaned against the wall, trying to look as unobtrusive as possible while he waited. Time went by, Fish checking his watch on occasion. After just over five minutes, Fish walked up to the stall, about to interrupt but the door opened. A grinning man stepped out and made for the door.
Fish said, loudly over the music, "John? You there, mate?"
Hart stepped out, simultaneously doing up his trousers. He winked. "Want a turn, Joe?"
Fish rolled his eyes. Hart may have said it was highly taboo on his planet to step between committed couples but that hadn't stopped him from suggesting a threesome with him and Henry… several times. "Duty calls."
"Right," Hart said. He turned all business and headed for the door.
"You really need to learn about safe sex, John," Fish said seriously as the two of them stepped out into the street.
"Fifty first century immunity is a beautiful thing," Hart said, winking.
"I'm serious, mate. You're exposing yourself to diseases that people probably haven't seen for centuries by your time. You've no immunity, no resistance," Fish said as they reached Fish's car.
"Doesn't work like that anymore, Joe. We learned from small pox and the New World," Hart said tapping his chest as he got into the car. "Humans in my time have genetically modified immune systems. When people first started venturing out into space, there was a lot of plague. We didn't have the ability to fight off alien disease. We're an impatient lot. We didn't want to wait for evolution to give us that immunity so we gave it to ourselves. There isn't a disease on this little rock of yours that can take root in me."
"You're kidding?" Fish said.
"Nope!" Hart said with a laugh. "What's that big one from this century?"
"Cancer?" Fish asked.
"No, not that one. It's some sort of acronym," Hart said. His face was scrunched in concentration. He snapped his fingers a few times trying to think. "Fuck… I always was rubbish with the acronym ones…"
"HIV?" Fish supplied.
Hart snapped his fingers and pointed at Fish. "That's it! HIV and AIDS. You could inject that shit straight into my blood and I wouldn't get so much as a runny nose."
"No shit," Fish said with interested.
"Now, alien illnesses are a different story. I came down with Topolese pox right after I joined the Time Agency that had me in the infirmary for a bloody week. I had a nasty bout of Kastesthian fever when I was a kid that left me deaf."
"Deaf? You can hear fine," Fish said as he drove.
"Biological implants," Hart said tapping his ear. "Grown from my own DNA and genetically modified."
No wonder Hart always seemed to have such sharp hearing. Fish shook his head as he drove. It wasn't a long way to where they were headed. Miranda had asked them to meet there rest of the team at the Capitol Shopping centre. It wasn't exactly a long ride for a chat but he'd always been curious about Jack's time and the future. The immortal man was always tight lipped about it, avoiding questions. Granted, Hart wasn't telling him anything that wasn't easily deduced but it was interesting nonetheless. Seeing as Hart was in a talking mood, Fish decided to take advantage of the situation. "I'm surprised people aren't some sort of genetic perfection by your time."
"It's against the law," Hart said, seriously. "Gestation and life threatening genetic disease, hair colour, eye colour and gender are about all you're allowed to fuck around with prenatally and there are heavy restrictions. You have brown eyes and want a blue eyed kid? You have to be tested to prove you have the ability to pass on blue eyes. You want a female child? You better already have a male. The penalty is pretty harsh for doing anything else. The prosecutors are ruthless."
"They'll send you to prison for genetic manipulation?" Fish gasped.
"The parents go to prison. The physicians who perform the procedures are stripped of their licence to practice and barred from healing for life. They go to prison too. What happens to the kid is worse… reproductive sterilisation and black listing. They go on a registry list for life. They're barred from most professions and any medical reproductive intervention," Hart said. He shifted in his seat and fiddled with his seat belt. "There's also a serious social stigma attached to being genetically enhanced."
"Christ," Fish said and then realised something. "How is it your hearing's genetically modified then?"
"The illness made me deaf because of a genetic defect in my hearing. I would've gone deaf on my own by the time I was twenty," Hart said with a shrug. "If they're correcting a problem, the original can be improved upon as long as it's within a standard deviation of the human average."
"You hear like a fucking hawk!" Fish exclaimed.
"A standard deviation of the fifty first century human average," Hart said with a sneer. What he didn't mention was that his conniving father had taken advantage of that small loophole, bending the rule until it almost broke. He'd paid the right amount of money to the right doctor. Hart's hearing had been modified to the very edge of the standard deviation plus the margin of medical error. What he also didn't mention was that he'd long suspected his father had infected him with Kastesthian fever on purpose as an excuse for the genetic engineering. There was no way the man couldn't have known about the genetic hearing defect, there was too much prenatal testing.
"Good to know I'm a fucking caveman," Fish said sarcastically.
"Don't think about it like that," Hart said. He waved out of the car window. "This level of society? It's a big achievement. Not every planet bound species out there has this or wants it for that matter. The big evolutionary changes started when humans broke out into space and mixed with alien species."
"Survival of the fittest," Fish mused. "Darwin'd be pleased."
"Who?"
"Charles Darwin? The man who theorised evolution?" Fish said with disbelief. How can this man not know who Charles Darwin is?!
"I vaguely remember the name. There's a lot more history to memorize by my time."
It was a few more minutes before Hart spoke. He nodded towards the steering wheel as he did, "I should probably learn to do that."
"What? Drive?" Fish said, surprised. "You've been skulking about the planet for years. You never learned how to drive?"
Hart shook his head. "Nah, didn't think I was staying for long, did I?" He tapped his wrist strap. "And I've never needed to learn."
"Well, I can teach you," Fish said. He gave into another curiosity. "Why did you stay anyway?"
Hart shrugged and looked out the window.
"Was it Evie?" Fish asked with a sly smile.
"What? By the Twins, no!" Hart said, aghast. He shifted a little in his seat and Fish could tell he'd hit it close to the mark. Fish wasn't blind. He saw the way the two of them acted around each other. Angry barbs and sarcastic eye rolls were constantly tossed between them, like teenagers. One was always constantly trying to irritate or annoy the other. No one else may have noticed because they were too busy hating Hart but Fish could see it clear as day. He knew chemistry when he saw it and the two of them had it and they didn't even realise it. Miranda was constantly calling Jack woefully obtuse but she was just as bad sometimes. Fish thought it was worse because Miranda was thousands of years old. What was it his father used to say? Growing old's inevitable. The wisdom's optional.
"Why do you call her that anyway?" Hart asked, trying to change the subject.
"She was using a different name when I met her about… Christ, nearly twenty years ago now. I can't think of her as anything else. I tried calling her Miranda at first but I slipped up so much I gave up," Fish replied. The attempt at a subject change wasn't going to side track him. He smirked and asked, "You fancy her?"
"Impossible little minx," Hart said with a snort. "Not worth the trouble. There's easier game out there."
Fish smiled inwardly. The two of them were really clueless. He decided to let the subject drop. He drove into the car park and started looking around for the SUV. He wasn't surprised to find it parked with the front wheel up on the kerb. Fish parked behind the SUV and got out.
"Where is everyone?" Hart asked, looking at his wrist strap. "They got here first."
"Don't know…" Fish craned his neck looking around and then the two men heard what sounded like the popping of gunfire.
"Fuck!" Fish shouted, opening the glove box and reaching for his gun. Hart, his own weapon already drawn, was running towards the shops.
"John! Wait!" Fish yelled.
Hart stopped at the door, giving Fish a glare of impatience but he knew that they'd both get the fourth degree from Jack if they split up. With six members of the team, Jack had started to insist they remain in pairs at all times. Jack preferred one mortal member of the team to be paired with an immortal one but this would have to do.
Fish jogged and caught up to Hart who flung the glass door open and stepped inside, gun drawn. No sooner had the two men moved down the hall than the glass front of the shops exploded and over a dozen humanoids dressed in black tactical gear sprawled onto the tile floors.
"Don't move!" Fish shouted, raising his weapon and advancing slowly.
Hart grabbed Fish by the arm and yanked him out of the way just as one of the beings fired some manner of projectile weapon at them, several shots echoing in the empty building. The two of them ended up pressed against the wall behind a decorative pillar for cover.
"Thanks," Fish said.
"Don't mention it," Hart said.
"Oh, fuck! John, you're hit!" Fish said, looking at Hart's arm. The silk shirt's sleeve was torn and blood was flowing freely.
"Flesh wound," Hart said, peering around the pillar. A few more shots came their way. "You know this evening is turning into a complete cock up. That blow job back at the club was fantastic. They're getting away."
Fish and Hart both dashed after the group who were ignoring them as they sprinted for the nearest exit. Hart fired off a few warning shots, yelling at them in some odd language, but they continued to run.
Fish looked behind him, to see if any of the others were there and saw no one. He took a breath and stopped. One was trailing behind the others. Fish took careful aim and fired off one round. The bullet flew threw the air and landed in the straggler's legs. He stumbled and fell with a screech. One of his comrades went to help but stopped at the sight of Fish and Hart descending. He turned and fled with the others. The injured person was clearly begging not to be abandoned.
"Go and be careful!" Fish said as he bent down to restrain the injured assailant. Hart nodded and bolted for the door.
After he took out some plastic restraints, Fish rolled the injured man onto his belly, securing his wrists behind his back as he cried and flailed. 'Man' was probably a strong word. Fish thought he looked no more than a teenager. Just as he got the restraints tightened, Jack and Ianto turned the corner.
"Fish!" Jack shouted. "We were outside, what happened?"
"John and I got here and heard what sounded like gunfire. We thought you lot were in trouble so we came to help," Fish said. He jerked his head in the appropriate directions. "A dozen plus beings, humanoid, came diving through the shop window. They shot at us and then ran out that door. John's in pursuit."
"This is a good shot, Fish," Ianto said, examining the injury of the bound boy.
"We thought the reading was over on Station Terrace, must've been just inside the building," Jack said. He poked at the boy with his boot. "Hey! Who are you?"
The injured boy only cried out in pain and sobbed. Hart came back through the exit door looking thoroughly put out. "Sorry, they went down Newport Road and I lost them. We need to find them. They're all wearing what looks like tactical gear."
"Jack? Where's Evie? John's been shot," Fish said.
"What?" Jack crossed over to his former partner.
"It's just a flesh would, Jack," Hart said, backing away. He waved Jack off, dismissive of his injuries.
"I want Will to take a look at it anyway," Jack said. "Let's get this one back to the Hub and into interrogation. It's our best lead in finding the rest of them."