It's been so long since I had time to write, so I was really happy to get this chapter out.
I have a question for you readers: how would you feel if I gave this fic a name (after three and a half years XD) and called it 'Bury the Future Behind'? It's a reference to Gabrielle Aplin's Home, and both a reference to the whole time travel part of this story, and the fact that an overarching theme of this fic is Jenny finding a home and family on earth.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jenny – happening to glance over at the CCTV footage of the Roald Dahl Plass – saw Sky coming before she arrived at the hub. The young girl was beaming, clutching a sheet of paper close to her chest. Her hair, which had been in a ponytail that morning, flew around her face in the biting late-Winter breeze.
Curious, she cast a glance back to the lift, which had begun to clank in preparation for its descent. When Sky came into view, she ran right to her, exclaiming happily that she had received the results of her Christmas tests, and thrusting the sheet to her.
"I got an A* in Maths!" she declared, pointing to the result.
Jenny frowned at the array of letters on the piece of paper in her hands. "What exactly is an A*?"
"The highest grade you can get," Gwen informed, helpfully, appearing in order to pull Sky into a hug and press a kiss atop her head. "Well done!"
Sky preened, smiling broadly. "Thanks, Gwen."
Jenny, who had found the percentages printed in the third column much more helpful, declared that they should celebrate.
"Can we go to Cadwaladers?"
"Sure thing, kiddo. I'll get my coat."
They ordered ice creams – Sky caramel and Jenny mint choc chip – and sat on the pier in order to eat them. Passers-by shot them funny looks, a bracing late-January day as it was, but they were happily ignored.
"Do you like school?" Jenny asked curiously, swinging her legs off the edge the pier. Something about the sea calmed her. She loved to be near it.
Sky nodded vehemently. "It's part of life here, you know? It's nice to have that. And I made some friends."
Jenny beamed. "That's great! You should invite them round to the house."
She cocked her head to the side. "And tell them what?"
"That Gwen's your guardian, I suppose," Jenny mused, staring at her ice cream cone as if it held the answers. "And that I'm a family friend, or something."
"Okay! But," she dragged out the word, attempting to look coy with shining eyes and a smudge of ice cream on her nose. "I'd like something else too."
Jenny smiled, amused. "Would you, now? What might that be?"
"For you to start training me."
She reached out, wiping away the ice cream from Sky's nose. "Sure, kid. We'll start as soon as possible."
As soon as possible, though Sky did not know it, was dependant on outside influences other than Jenny perfecting her teaching technique. It didn't take long, however, until Jack, leaning over the railing of the landing above her head, called, "Jenny? Could you come into the office for a minute?"
"Stop trying to sound like we're a proper organisation!" she called back, though she left her desk and did just that, leaning against Jack's desk. "What's up?"
"Special delivery from UNIT," he replied, with a smile, handing her a box with 'PRECIOUS CARGO' stamped on it in black, and 'PRIVATE' in red. She opened it, freeing the metal tube from its bubble wrap casing. It was about half the length of her arm, and just as thick, tapered at both ends and with rubber grips in the middle.
"You got it!" she exclaimed delightedly, examining the baton. It was alien technology – useless to UNIT as they didn't have a power source for it – capable of killing, at its extreme, and most definitely of incapacitating an enemy. If all else failed, Sky could whack someone or thing over the head with it. It was much stronger than the pendant Sky wore, and could be used in tandem with it. That, along with hand-to-hand combat, would be enough to ensure the Flesh Kind could handle herself in a fight.
"Not me," said Jack, gesturing to his computer screen. Jenny leaned backward to see Martha on the screen. She smiled and waved, holding a mug in the other hand.
"Thanks Martha," she beamed. "Sky will love this."
"It wasn't much use to us, rotting away in the archives."
Jack seemed surprised. "Kate takes her archives very seriously, I thought. She even convinced me to give up this –" he waved his wrist, to which the vortex manipulator was attached, towards the camera –"when I find a death that sticks."
Martha laughed. "Those are some pretty extreme terms."
"What does it take for a death to stick?" asked Jenny.
"Three days, is the rule of thumb," he shrugged. "Sometimes it takes longer. A bomb in my chest, that took a while. Agony, too. When my life force was drained by a demon; that took a few days."
He spoke so nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal. Both Jenny and Martha, is the way the latter was frowning at the camera was any indication, knew that this wasn't the case.
"Rather you than me," was all Martha said. "All right, I'd better get back to doing something. Tell Sky that she's welcome."
"Will do," Jenny smiled. "Thanks again."
"See you around, Minnie Mouse."
Martha signed off with a half-serious salute, the computer emitting an almost sad-sounding noise when the Skype call ended.
"Sky should be here in a few minutes," said Jack, almost conversationally.
"All right. Send her down when she arrives."
In preparation for such a day, Jenny had brought comfortable clothes for both her and Sky in which they could easily train. Setting the baton down in the training room (that doubled as a shooting range, what with the vast expanse of an old railway line stretched before them), she grabbed the duffel and went to change.
"Jenny?" came Sky's voice, and then her footsteps. "Jack said he wanted to talk to you. What are you doing down here?"
"In here!" she called, when Sky's footsteps didn't come any closer; she must have gone to check the cells first.
A head of brown hair popped in the upper corner of doorway, captured loosely in a messy ponytail. The girl to which it belonged was still wearing her uniform, and she looked confused until she saw what Jenny was wearing. Then, her eyes lit up, and she bounded down the last few steps and launched herself at Jenny.
Expecting this, she caught Sky easily, returning her hug with equal fervour. "A promise is a promise, kiddo."
"Are we starting right now?"
Jenny nodded, handing her the duffel bag. "I brought some clothes from home for you; go get changed."
Sky returned several moments later, her hair in a noticeably more secure updo, and a wide smile still in place.
"All right, come here." She led the Flesh Kind over to the table where she had laid down the baton. There were also wooden sticks with which to parry, bandages for Sky's hands so that she could practice alone with a punch bag once she had learned the basics, and a handgun. Jenny averted her gaze from the latter. She was still reluctant to teach Sky how to use it. Perhaps just how to empty it, if she could wrest it away from an attacker.
"This," she held out the object, "is an electroshock baton. Jack had it brought up from the UNIT archives especially for you."
Sky opened her mouth to say something, but Jenny cut her off with a smile. "You can thank him and Martha later. Normally it would need a battery, but I don't think that's the case with you, is it?"
Sky shook her head, reaching out tentatively. The weapon sparked, not enough to cause any damage, but enough to verify the point. Jenny handed over the baton and turned to set up the targets.
"It has enough power to kill, if used correctly." She bit her lip, looking back at Sky, who was still examining her new weapon. "I think we can use that as a last resort."
"I don't want to kill anyone."
"I don't want you to either."
There was silence, in which Jenny could hear the other girl move closer.
"It doesn't make you a bad person, the killing," she said, quietly.
There was a hand on the small of her back. Jenny turned back to see Sky looking at her, concerned. She offered a weak smile.
"It doesn't make me a good person. It stays with you. I can still see their faces …" she shook her head. "I hope you never have to experience it."
She returned her focus to the task at hand, and Sky moved away from her.
"Now, you can emit the electricity in a beam, so you don't have to be up close to do damage. Here, aim …"
Once Sky had gotten the hang of her baton, Jenny moved to hand-to-hand combat.
"Usually, you'll be facing off against a life form bigger than you," she explained. "I'm sure Jack'll let you practice your skills on him when you grasp the basics."
There was a chuckle from the doorway. "I'm sure he will."
"Everything okay?" Jenny asked, wary that he had come to find them because of an emergency.
Jack nodded. "Gwen was just wondering if you two were thinking of heading home any time soon."
Sky frowned, checking her wristwatch. "It's six o' clock? Already?"
"Time flies when you're having fun, so they say." He moved over to the targets, most of which had crackling holes blasted through them. "This was you?"
"Yep," Sky beamed, looking no less pleased with herself than she ought to have been.
"Good work," Jack smiled at them both.
Sky held her hand up for a high-five, which Jenny was only too happy to acquiesce.
"Now, we should all go home."
Being Irish, I'm not too sure about the British education system, but I think they grade tests in that way? It's hardly just the state exams, is it? I also know nothing about fighting, which is why I didn't go into detail there.