A/N: Chapter 50 (and the first chap where Kathy has officially arrived into the 21st century!)
—
1997 AD/CE
"All I'm saying is that it's really creepy." Kathy retorts as Clara throws some recently fallen petals into the Doctor's face. She quietly snorts at the look on the Time Lord's face.
It's 1997 and Jack is – once again – stalking Rose at the Powell Estate, watching her grow up from a distance so to avoid disrupting her timeline. Kathy has told Jack time and time again how creepy it is.
Kathy on the other hand has just dealt with some green Abominable aliens, who were carrying people off, along with the help of Clara and Eleven. London was mysteriously snowing hard and everything was covered in snow and ice instead of the expected spring, the creatures thriving in the early freezing conditions. After escaping the creatures by sledging towards the frozen Thames on a wheelie bin, the trio found a spacecraft in the ice. Inside was like a freezer with its own icy larder full of human bodies. The machine had frozen London instantly. It is Clara who suggested plugging it into the TARDIS and very soon the freeze was undone with the snow actually falling upwards. The sudden arrival of spring defeated the alien invaders as they were thwarted by the heat. After retrieving all the people, the green Abominable aliens were sent on their way with their metaphorical tails between their legs.
"It's different." Jack counters over the phone.
"You keep telling yourself, Jack." Kathy chuckles. "You're watching a child from a distance."
"Kathy!" The Doctor yells, shaking the petals out of his hair in a way that reminds Kathy of a dog. "Clara's never tried falafel! This needs to be rectified!"
"I've got to go. Behave yourself." Kathy says as she hears the Doctor tell Clara all about the amazing falafel stand that's near Kensington Palace.
"Do I ever?"
Kathy rolls her eyes fondly and ends the call. Happily link arms with Clara as they trail after the Doctor, who is doing nothing to dissuade Kathy from associating him with a dog.
—
2000–2006 AD/CE
Believe by Cher plays out of the CD player as Kathy laughs as she flops down on the sofa in her home in New York. River's sniggering at her behaviour from the floor but Kathy doesn't care.
The 21st century! Finally, a century Kathy has actually existed in before. Loads to look forward and loads to feel a sense of dread.
Wait. That's a phone ringing.
Kathy shuffles floppily as she wiggles out her phone and sees it's Jack.
"Hello…" Kathy slurs.
"Kathy?"
There's a dejected more to Jack's tone that causes Kathy to sit up quickly, trying to shake off the alcohol.
"Jack? What's happened?" She asks urgently. River looks at her curiously.
"They're gone, Kathy. They're all gone."
—
When Kathy arrives hours later, Jack still has blood under his nails from scrubbing the floors. She's relieved to find that all the bodies have been removed. They're all in drawers now in the morgue, lying in body bags sent to their eternal frozen rest.
Jack is waking up from a fitful alcoholic-induced sleep, and a bottle of empty scotch lies next to him. Probably guzzled the whole thing, his first binge in thirty years. Kathy shakes her head at the blasphemy.
Kathy crouches down next to Jack and helps him sit up. "Penance?"
Jack groans. "It's not nearly enough, but it's better than numbness."
Kathy lets out a sympathetic hum bad she guides him to the showers, encouraging him to wash and sets out new clothes for Jack to change into. She finds the papers on Alex's desk. Alex Hopkins, Jack's late boss, had been given a locket that had the power to select the worst possible future for those in its vicinity. While everyone else in the world was celebrating the new millennium, Alex, as a mercy killing, had shot all the Torchwood team. Jack had returned to the Hub to discover the massacre and Alex handed command over to him before shooting himself.
Alex has left Jack meticulous notes, master passwords, keys, secrets, and four cooling corpses in sticky puddles of crimson. Jack probably doesn't know quite what to do with his newfound freedom and responsibility.
The computer is letting out the odd ding as emails come through in reply to an email Alex had sent shortly after his suicide. Kathy chooses not to read any of it. Right now, she needs to focus on Jack. Also, a ringing phone.
"Don't answer that."
Kathy looks up to see the figure of a fresh, but still troubled, Jack.
"Why?"
Jack slumps in the chair opposite Kathy. "It's the bastards at Torchwood One. Yvonne Hartman and her personal assistant have been trying to get a hold of me. Amateur that woman, trying to flirt me into submission. Probably annoyed her with what I said."
"Why? What did you say?" Kathy asks softly, grimacing at the mention of the pseudo-fascist. She's been trying to make sure that Yvonne has no idea she exists until she has to.
Jack shrugs listlessly. "Dunno. Just know that Hartman hanged up on me after levelling some vague and impotent threats. I don't care. After one hundred years, I'm my own man again, and I don't really feel like slipping back into Torchwood's collar willingly. I'm staying, but on my own terms."
Kathy knows Yvonne won't get rid of Jack as he is the only remaining member of Torchwood Cardiff and familiar with the Rift in a way it would take a new team years to learn. Years they might not have. Plus he's a known, on a need-to-know level, associate of the Doctor's, Torchwood's enemy.
"Then you'll need people Jack. A new team."
Jack looks around the took as if seeing the bodies of his colleagues again. "I can't…" then he slaps on a smirk and shrugs nonchalantly. "Also, I have you. Who else do I need?"
"I'm not here all the time Jack. You need a new team. Not Torchwood One personnel assigned here on Yvonne Hartman's orders." Kathy argues. Jack still looks unsure. Kathy sighs. "Look, let me help you set up then we can go through possible candidates."
Jack raises an amused eyebrow. "Got people in mind?"
Kathy grins. "Spoilers."
Jack lets out a genuine laugh.
—
In between hunting down Weevils, salvaging cloning devices and D'ranian tasers from jumble sales and Kathy pulling Jack away from riding his pain with convenient strangers, the two of them meticulously comb the Archives. There's nothing they can do about London, who no doubt have reams of their own files, but Cardiff is Jack's. His first instinct is to burn the lot, to erase every trace of himself, but Kathy soon rejects it. The mission reports are valuable records, and he'd be putting too many at risk by destroying them. It's the work of long months to edit Jack's name from them. However, the medical and scientific records from three separate eras labelled 'Subject: Harkness, J' they destroyed with no hesitation and a good measure of unnecessary aggression, along with a stack of others for Jane or John Does returned by the Rift.
This had started soon after the turn of the century, with lost people who had been taken by the rift popping up again. At first, they were put inside the Hub vaults until they established an institution for them on Flat Holm Island and told the carers there that they were experiments that had gone wrong.
Jack takes the information Alex left him and uses it to make the Hub his, completely. He moves his belongings from the cell-like room in the sub-levels that's been his for fifty years to a disused bunker directly below his new office. It's cold, Spartan and damp. Despite his protests, Kathy drags him to the shops so as to vamp up the space and make it feel more homely.
—
The first recruit they find is a Ben Brown. An honest mistake as Kathy had no idea who he was prior to meeting him. It sends her off-kilter a bit. She doesn't know if he had always become part of Torchwood prior to the show or if this is Kathy's own fault when she'd been trying to capture that Weevil in front of Ben while he had been making his way home from work through an alleyway.
Kathy had asked Jack to keep who and what she is on a need-to-know basis. Clearly, she's going to be meeting Torchwood members that she doesn't know anything about and will need to work out if she can trust them. Same with the ones she does know as, while she knows them through the show, she doesn't know them personally (though she definitely knows not to trust Suzie, that girl was up to too many dodgy things) and things may be different.
Ben's a good man. He is passionate, impulsive and warm-hearted but also laser-focused and dedicated. And finally, a brilliant opponent for Kathy to play chess with. Sort of.
—
Kathy and Ben sit opposite one another at a chess table in the Hub, one of the quiet areas away from the main Hub.
Ben is hunched over the chess board, his chin in his hand as he peruses the sixty-four squares with a heavy frown, while Kathy sits back in her seat with her fingers intertwined as they rest casually on her belly. Kathy absentmindedly gazes up at the ceilings as she patiently awaits Ben's move. They'd grabbed a moment of quiet for a game, a game that shouldn't be taking this long.
Ben raises his hand and puts a finger down on one of the pieces, snapping Kathy's attention back to the game, but Ben swiftly removes his finger from his piece with a frustrated groan.
"You have to move that rook now, Ben." Kathy reminds Ben, grinning. "You touched it."
Ben clicks his tongue and gives Kathy an exasperated look. "Barely!"
Kathy shrugs. "Rules are rules."
Ben shakes his head and, while making a face, begrudgingly moves his rook.
"One day I will beat you at this crap game, Kathy," Ben says as he watches Kathy sit forward to peruse the board. "If it is the last thing I do."
"Keep trying, Ben." Kathy chuckles. She's selectively made the decision not to admit it's because of centuries of practice that she can play this well. Kathy then swiftly moves her bishop, mumbling, "Checkmate."
Ben opens his mouth to throw insults at Kathy then, when suddenly Jack's voice interrupts them.
"You two sure look like you're hard at work." He quips. "Hope you're not having too much fun without me." Jack grins, wiggling his eyebrows. Despite the usual flirtations, Ben hadn't accepted any of Jack's advances and Jack hadn't pushed, most likely because Kathy had warned him against it.
Ben huffs. "I'm happy to get back to work if I can get away from this game."
Kathy rolls her eyes amusedly. "Please, don't make me laugh."
Ben flashes them both a grin before scurrying off back to his station.
—
Jack is under no misconception that finding people to join his team would be easy. Finding time to actually recruit people is hard enough as it is, what with the rift as active as ever. He has Ben and Kathy helps somewhat but she can't be around all the time. So he is relieved when he finds Suzie Costello. He was investigating an alien incident at Suzie's workplace with Ben when he met her – three of her coworkers were apparently not as human as previously thought; the claws and yellow eyes were a giveaway – and Suzie showed herself to be very capable and intelligent. It didn't take him long to hire her.
Suzie takes the Hub, the Rift and the Weevils in her stride remarkably well. Within a few weeks, she's romping about the Mainframe as though she designed it herself, and she's as good a shot as Jack predicted. The Armoury is obviously as appealing to her as a toy shop to a child, and Jack finds himself showing off just a little bit, explaining the features of the various pieces of earth and alien weaponry. They spend hours together in the firing range, getting high and giddy together on the adrenalin and the smell of cordite. She has an infectious glee for the power of destruction that makes him oddly nostalgic for John and his conman days. It's been so long since he had someone who can be just as enthusiastic as himself over a weapon, not just as a tool, but as a thing of beauty in and of itself.
He thought Kathy would be thrilled to have another female around but he's surprised when Kathy's reaction is rather muted, her gaze calculating as she stares at Suzie. It confuses Jack to no end especially after Kathy confirms that Suzie is indeed a recruitment she's aware of. If she's meant to be a part of the team, why is Kathy being so cold about it?
—
Kathy is less thrilled by the next one that Jack and Ben drag back when they return from investigating an alien incident.
Suzie Costello. Weapons expert.
Knowing where her path will lead, Kathy's very reluctant to trust the girl. Kathy hovers around the edges with Suzie, uncomfortable with what she knows about the girl and what she will eventually be up to. She knows that she can't stop Suzie from being recruited and she has been a model employee but Kathy knows she'll grow to hate it at Torchwood, in Cardiff, and will become drunk on the power the equipment at Torchwood gives her. Kathy's already making lists and flow charts on how to cut any future related Suzie problems in the bud but not yet.
Suzie is watching her. Kathy's not stupid when she sees a Weevil come towards her and Suzie doesn't do anything to stop it. Thankfully, Kathy is able to avoid being mauled and needing to rely on Suzie's discretion on Kathy's very nonhuman abilities. Kathy doesn't want to be subjected to Costello's blackmail.
The main thing that registers in Suzie's world though is the alien technology that falls through the Rift and what she can learn about it but also who can she use to achieve that. That's why Kathy's keeping her distance from Suzie, her guard up – or at least one of the many reasons why. Kathy wouldn't put it past Suzie to use Kathy as a side project to practice using a certain strange glove that will turn up one day if she finds out what Kathy is. And Kathy needs to stop her before she starts practising on innocent members of the public.
—
Everything about Torchwood is new to Toshiko Sato; it's confusing, scary, and exciting all at the same time. Being out in the real world again after her time in the UNIT prison is a heady experience in itself, at least once she manages to push past the initial feelings of agoraphobia. But it's still a bit daunting too, because she's never even visited Cardiff before, she doesn't know her way around, and she's scared of getting lost, especially once she's been introduced to the creatures that lurk in the city's sewers.
Nevertheless, she signed herself over to Torchwood for the next five years in exchange for her freedom. It was that or life in the tiny, unfurnished cell she'd been in for she doesn't know how long. Time lost all meaning in that place and she'd soon given up any attempt at keeping track of the passing days. There hadn't seemed any point.
All of it's a steep learning curve but Kathy and Jack are there to catch her up to speed. Jack with the weaponry and going out on missions which feels a lot like 'follow my leader' and Kathy explaining the hub's electric systems; simultaneously explaining how amazing they are and how much improvement they need before sending Tosh a conspiring wink as if she already knows all about the ideas Toshiko has flying through her head.
—
It's late morning when Tosh finally spots her moment. Jack, Suzie, and Ben have left to interview some witnesses and Kathy has left to see family a couple of days ago so the hub is silent. There's no one to see Tosh taking her chance to do some sleuthing, particularly Kathy. There's something about the girl that is strange, stranger than Jack, that Tosh can't put her finger on. Jack had said she's a long-time friend of his but had kept it vague.
Tosh doesn't have much time so she quickly flicks through the employee documentation on them all, nothing too unusual except Jack's, which lacks information in some areas and conflicting in others.
She stops short when she realises that there's nothing on Kathy. Nothing at all. Tosh starts looking through all the Torchwood Three documents – quick to do as thankfully they've all been digitalised – but still comes up with nothing.
She then hears the telltale sign of the hub door opening and quickly switches to the demo of the rift manipulator that she has been developing and tackling before her sleuthing temptation. She's innocently focused on this when Kathy walks up.
"Hello, Tosh." Kathy greets, seemingly not noticing anything unusual. "Still settling in or has everything just been natural?"
"Oh, no. All good. How's the family? Your brother was it?" Tosh asks, still trying to act different and not like she has just been trying to pry into the other woman's private life behind her back. Kathy's been nice to Tosh since she started at Torchwood nearly two weeks ago now, has encouraged her to improve the systems and has been supportive of all her ideas. This had been the opposite of what Toshiko had expected when UNIT had released her into Jack's custody. She had expected to be little more than a prisoner at Torchwood, carrying out whatever tasks she was assigned during the day and locked away at night like any other valuable piece of equipment.
Tosh shouldn't be too surprised about it considering how Jack – when he interviewed her with the intention of freeing her from the UNIT prison the Ministry of Defence had put her into and starting a job at Torchwood – had told her that Kathy had been the one to insist that Toshiko be brought on board due to her talents. They had been impressed by her ability to assemble a sonic modulator despite flawed instructions.
"Good. Good. Where's the others?"
"Investigating some strange rumblings in the area plus an explosion at a derelict building," Tosh explains.
Kathy frowns and nods. "Alright." She pauses for a moment. "Er, you know what, I was, um, thinking about maybe you and me going out for drinks something at a bar." Kathy blushes at the way it sounds. "Like a girls' night out."
"Okay, have you asked Suzie?" Tosh practically probes. She's noticed that Kathy seems a bit off with Suzie though she can't bring herself to ask.
Kathy shifts uncomfortably. "Oh, well, maybe just us two. Can be a Tuesday tradition or something."
"Er, okay. Sure, why not?" While she feels bad that Suzie hasn't been invited along, Tosh can't help but perk up at the fact that someone wants to hang out with just her and has picked her as a first choice.
Kathy beams. "Great! Let's meet up after you finish, yeah?"
Tosh nods with a small but warm smile.
—
Sebastian Vaughan, another one Kathy doesn't know but one she has mixed feelings about. Sebastian has come from a very good family, an excellent school, and a degree from the finest College. He's charming, he's smart, and he's good in a fight. Sebastian Vaughan is the kind of person bred for Torchwood.
Sebastian's father works at Lodmoor Research Facility for the Ministry of Defence before being promoted to Cabinet minister. He wanted Sebastian to join MI5 but arranged for him to join Torchwood Three after learning of the institute. Sebastian wanted to serve his country and made the move to Cardiff.
Kathy can't fault him for that, or she wouldn't if he that nicer to his colleagues. He's quite dismissive of Ben and Tosh, particularly Tosh. He's not a hard worker and makes fun of Tosh for being the opposite.
—
Sebastian sits with his arms crossed as he sizes up his new colleagues, Jack had introduced them before rushing off with Kathy on a rift alert, leaving him to get acquainted with Toshiko Sato, Suzie Costello and Ben Brown. Great.
"So," he turns his attention to the mousy woman across from him at the conference table, "what's with the sexy brunette that glares at me all the time?" He's honestly a bit put off. He thought he and Kathy Davis would get along great maybe even escalate to some bedroom activities but she's remained distant and mysterious and that's saying something when she stands next to Jack Harkness.
"Kathy?" Tosh says, grimacing at his choice of words as Suzie scoffs next to her at the description. "I don't know. She's always been nice."
"Yeah, she's nice to you and Ben." Suzie butts in, "She looks at me as if I'm up to something when I'm not! I think she's blackmailing Jack personally, the way he practically bends over backwards for her all the time. It's pathetic really."
"I'm sure they've just known each other a long time. He knows her better than us." Ben defends. Tosh nods in agreement while Suzie rolls her eyes.
"How long has she worked here?" Sebastian digs deeper, curiosity piqued.
"I think she just works here temporarily? She was here before me and Suzie." Ben frowns as he tries to remember what Jack had told him when he started, it was a bit of a blur really as the rift had been in a foul mood all of his first week. "I dunno. She's just here and then she isn't. Just pops up."
"She doesn't seem to have files though. I've looked." Tosh adds, frowning.
"Blackmail, I'm telling you." Suzie nods knowingly. "Whatever she's got on Harkness has got to be good."
Settling into his seat comfortably, Sebastian raises an eyebrow. "What else do you know about him?"
Suzie grins, leaning forward eagerly. Tosh and Ben shake their heads at the two of them.
—
Jack had been staring blankly into space in his office, looking too emotionally exhausted to do much else when Kathy found him. He raises his head when Kathy appears in the doorway.
"Jack," she greets, "you hired Owen Harper?"
"I did." He slumps in his chair. Kathy takes the seat in front of him. "His fiancé didn't make it."
This saddens Kathy despite her expecting it. Poor Owen and Katie. Owen had desperately wanted to help his fiancée get better. Kathy had tried to warn the hospital to not do the operation but the surgeon and his team went ahead anyway to remove the alien on Katie's brain despite Kathy's warnings. The alien lifeform, realising it was under threat, emitted a toxic gas, killing all the humans in the operating room. Jack had arrived too late. After explaining the situation to Owen, knocking him out before later encountering the Doctor at Katie's grave to recruit him as Torchwood's medic.
They needed a medic but a horrible and horrific event had precursed it. Kathy's not surprised that Jack didn't return to the hub triumphant.
"You're blaming yourself." Kathy realises. Jack doesn't answer her. "Please don't do that."
"Why not? I failed to save her, I failed… I failed Kathy and I can't stop failing–"
"Stop." Kathy closes her eyes and takes a fortifying breath. "Please don't torture yourself."
Huffing an empty laugh, Jack stares at his hands. Kathy reaches and grips his hand.
"Please. It's my fault. I knew what was going to happen." Kathy argues. "I should've done more."
"No, you're wrong." Jack insists.
Kathy nods but she disagrees. She failed to save poor Katie. It seems there is always a price, one that everyone Kathy comes into contact with has to pay.
—
Doctor Owen Harper splutters as he checks Kathy's blood pressure. To give Owen some experience on how to tackle different immune systems in other species, Kathy had offered herself up as long as it remained confidential between him, Kathy and Jack.
Owen Harper, the man is resilient, determined and when he puts his mind to it, a hell of a Doctor. It is also worth noting that the medic has an extremely powerful left hook – which Jack had found out due to personal experience – should that ever come in handy on the job. It will.
Owen turns away from Kathy, picking up a syringe.
"I'm sorry," Kathy speaks.
"What for?" Owen asks, not looking her in the eye as he withdraws some blood.
"Your fiancée."
Owen freezes at her words before continuing as if nothing had happened. "Don't know what you're talking about."
"Trust me, I know how it feels, I've had a few losses myself ."
"Whatever," Owen replies shortly. He carries on with the rest of his check up largely ignoring her.
When Owen had come to Cardiff, and to Torchwood Three, spoiling for a fight. He'd screamed his fury at the world and fate in the only way he knew how; by brawling and fucking and drinking himself into oblivion. Jack said that while Owen needs to act out, he also needs a distraction, something to give him a purpose. He fed Owen the more interesting cases, spared with him hand to hand, and trained him to be a pretty damn good marksman. Once he started coming in hung over only on alternate mornings, Jack pushed him up to field operative.
Owen comes across as a bastard, bad-tempered, always ready with a barbed insult. It would be easy to dismiss him as arrogant and obnoxious, but Kathy knows not to be too bothered by Owen's prickly personality. She can recognise that he is grieving, lashing out, afraid of opening himself up to more pain. He's been like that everyone at Torchwood but there is kindness and compassion underneath all of that. Yet, there is a sort of vulnerability buried beneath the sharp tongue and self-destructive behaviour.
But when she notices now and then that Owen smells of Suzie's perfume, and it isn't hard to put two and two together, Kathy wants to throw up. She knows it isn't about love – with Suzie, it never is – but she really does wonder, out of the two of them, who hates themselves more.
—
When Captain Innuendo had come along in his poncy coat, offering Owen a chance to do something worthwhile with what was left of his existence instead of just wasting away day by day, waiting to die. A chance to perhaps prevent other people from suffering the way Katie had, the way Owen himself still is. Fight the aliens and stop them before they can take someone else's loved one from them. It is a noble cause, something worth doing, and better than wallowing in his grief, but it didn't change Owen's outlook on his own life much. He still drinks to excess, still gets into fights, and still sleeps around, but at least now he has some sense of purpose, a reason to drag himself out of bed in the morning.
Harkness has a team; two women, Suzie and Toshiko, one brash and confident, the other quiet and geeky. And two men, Sebastian and Ben, one is a daddy's boy who happily joins in on Owen's crassness and the other is respectful and kind, which Owen hates as it reminds him of the man he used to be. Owen treats them all pretty much the same, making fun of them, even picking on them, when he isn't completely ignoring them. Playing nicely with others is no longer his thing; he doesn't care what anyone thinks of him as long as they leave him alone. He has cultivated a reputation as a heartless bustard.
Then there's Detective Davis, as he likes to call her, who analyses him closely every time she's near him, offering understanding and kindness. Reminding that pain is understandable and that he shouldn't punish himself. He doesn't feel like he deserves kindness, compassion, understanding, or friendship, not after he'd failed Katie so completely, so he works hard to keep his new colleagues at arm's length. It doesn't deter Davis in the slightest and she seems to encourage Tosh to do the same. Deep down, he likes the pretty Asian tech, a lot more than he really likes Suzie who is too much like him, only looking out for herself. More than Ben who reminds him of who he used to be. And definitely more than Sebastian. But Tosh deserves better than a broken wreck of a man like him. He'd only hurt her. Far better if she hates him, although he wonders if Tosh's, gentle, warm-hearted soul that she is, could ever truly hate anyone.
Another thing about Harkness and Davis is that they must be sleeping together. Sebastian and Owen have been watching their boss and his shadow closely for the past few weeks. Tosh, Ben and Suzie disagree with them but they clearly haven't seen their leader and his 'friend' are like around each other.
It is kinda scary actually, how in-tune Davis and Harkness are.
"I'm telling you, either they used to fuck and now Davis is blackmailing him or Harkness tried something on and got rejected." Owen insists. Sebastian is nodding as if Owen has spoken the wisest words in the whole world, which Owen definitely believes he has. Suzie is packing up their kit and Ben is loading it into the SUV. "I don't understand how you two can't see it."
Ben scrunches up his nose. "I thought Suzie's stalking was bad," he lets out a yelp when Suzie hits him in the stomach, "and, anyway, the rest of us are doing our jobs."
Suzie rolls her eyes before turning a teasing smile onto Owen. "Why so invested in Jack's love life, eh? Trying to tap that?"
Sebastian scoffs. "Like you weren't trying to find out what dirt Kathy might have on Jack. This must be it."
"And I prefer my bed partners with a little more cleavage and a little less… well you get the picture. Rest assured Davis is welcome to keep our esteemed leader." Owen actually feels a little nauseous thinking about Suzie's quip.
"Though I wouldn't mind joining in with Kathy there," Sebastian remarks, his smile lascivious.
Owen almost feels himself grimacing at the way Sebastian is lusting over Davis. Davis – or should he say, Kathy? – has been kind and has given him the space he needed also she's quite funny. But Owen stops himself from reacting, remembering to keep up his hardened walls.
"Charming Sebastian," Ben mutters as the four of them get back into the SUV, ending the conversation as they head back towards the hub with their newest piece of rift tat.
Owen grunts irritably at the other three. He can't wait to get back, to finish work and carry on trying to give himself alcohol poisoning at the nearest bar. What else is he going it do outside of Torchwood?
—
A/N: Gwen and Ianto are to come!
It made sense that Kathy would be there at the beginning of the new Torchwood Three considering her closeness to Jack (not in the way Sebastian and Owen seem to think). I'll do a few Torchwood episodes in the future.
Ben and Sebastian are characters from the Torchwood Big Finish dramas but in this chapter, they're more or less my own interpretation of them.
Also, Owen joined Torchwood only a week before Aliens of London and World War Three in 2006 but I'll be going back to 2005 for a brief stint before going back to 2006.