I Need You Safe 3/??
Series: I need you safe
Part: Three
Word Count: 1620
Characters: Jack Harkness, Martha Jones, mentions of the team, OC's
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG-13 (might go up in later chapters)
Genre: Angst! AU!
Warning: Spoilers for Exit Wounds and the whole of the second series.
Disclaimer: Alas the Torchwood character's are not mine, they belong to other more fabulous people. Which makes me sad. The OC's are all my creations though, not that i wouldn't share them with RTD. 'Cause i so would ^_^
Un-beta'ed, sorry. Any and all mistakes are my own (i'm known as the typo queen around friends), and i apologize for them.
Authors Ramble: Again i know it's been a long while in between my posts, and i apologize for that. But at least this time i have a good reason, other than life getting in the way. I was in a car accident and suffered a rather bad blow to the head, and just recently got out of hospital. And then after that, the two part series finale of Doctor Who over took my mind and i just never found the time to post this. But i'm back now, and plan on wrapping up my fics soon enough.
Also, yes i gave the OC's last names. Just because i'm anal, and couldn't stand them being nameless. Made them feel two dimensional to me, anyway enjoy ^_^
Summary: Jack takes desperate measures to assure his remaining staff is safe, which leaves him with a new team who are experiencing a VERY different side of Jack. Now it's up to one of his closest friends to try and straighten things out.
Martha was sitting on the sofa with the new team of Torchwood Three around her. "Okay, so wait. Lemme see if i've the names right." Martha said, pointing to each person as she rang off their names. "Collin Porter." She motioned to the youngest, who was sitting on her right. "Emma Bryant." The blonde sitting on her left nodded with a smile. "James Myles and Mackenzie Watson." Martha pointed to the two people standing but the work stations. "And i'm sorry, but how to you pronounce your name again?" She questioned the woman sitting on the coffee table.
"Na-Ree-Sh" She was told.
"Nareesh. Okay, and Nareesh... Connolly? Not to be rude, but that's not a very ethnic last name." Martha said with a chuckle.
"It's not." Nareesh smiled. "My husband's from Ireland." She explained. "We're not exactly a common couple, i know. We get that a lot." She chuckled brightly.
Martha smiled, looking around at the new set of people that called themselves 'Torchwood'.
"How do you know the Captain?" Collin asked.
"And what makes it okay for you to beat him with files?" Mackenzie said with a laugh, making it rather obvious that they had all seen Martha's outburst at Jack through his office window.
"You call him Captain?" Martha questioned, raising her eyebrows in surprise as the formality of it all.
"Yeah." Emma nodded.
"You lot don't call him Jack?" They all shook their heads at that. Martha just hummed, the pieces of the puzzle falling into place in her head. When she realized that they were all still waiting on her answer, she shook herself mentally.
"Oh, we met through a friend. Traveled a bit together, worked together for a while as well." Talk about the watered down version of their friendship.
"And the beating him to death bit comes in where?" James prompted.
Martha laughed. "With years of putting up with him."
The rest of the team just smiled.
"Jesus! He's got you walking on egg shells, the lot of you." Martha exclaimed, before changing subjects with a clap of her hands. There would be time to pick apart Jack's facade later. "Okay, now for the fun stuff. Which one of you has he got?" She asked, her eyes holding a mischievous glint to them.
"What?" Emma asked.
"You lot, which one is with Jack?" She looked at the five set of bewildered eyes. "He's not shagging any of you?" Her question got a wave of laughter. "What?"
"Captain doesn't approve of interoffice dating." Collin said, casting a sideways glance at Emma who in turn blushed slightly.
It was Martha's turn to laugh. "You're kidding!" She exclaimed, but at their silence she faltered. "You're not kidding are you?"
"No." Mackenzie said with a shrug.
"He said that?" Emma nodded. "And he doesn't flirt with any of you?" Martha looked pointedly at James.
"Why are you looking at me?" He questioned.
"Well there was a time when a fit bloke got Jack call kinds of excited." She told them. "And it surprises the hell out of me that he hasn't so much as winked at you."
James shook his head. "Nope, sorry. So wait, he's gay?"
Martha tilted her head from side to side in a ho-hum kind of way. "Not really, he'll shag anything he finds attractive."
"Anything?" Emma said, looking a little confused.
"Meaning alien life forms are free range as well." Martha said with a nod. "I once saw him hit on a big blue insect alien, so yeah. Anything."
"Are you sure this is the same man?" Nareesh questioned.
"Really, the Captain is about as sexual as a eunuch." Mackenzie laughed, shaking her head.
"Oh, you all have so much to learn." Martha said with a wicked little smile, which made the other five people all the more interested in her forthcoming stories.
Jack had been watching Martha and his staff for the first little while after Martha had seated herself with them, but it wasn't long before their laughing and conversing started to unnerve him. Deciding it was better to put it out of him mind, he stormed out of his office and down into the bowels of the Hub. Martha idly noted him leaving, but said nothing of it. If he wanted to fume, she was going to let him.
It was about and hour and a half later when Martha decided to excuse herself from the team and ventured into the Hub in search of Jack. True she had spent some time working there in the past, but mostly in the main levels. So had it not been for the sound of gun fire, Martha most likely wouldn't have found Jack on the gun range at all.
She entered, leaning again the back wall with her arms crossed over her chest as she watched Jack shoot the multiple Weevil shaped targets. Once he had emptied the clip, he turned and dumped the gun onto the metal table that sat in the middle of the range. Spotting Martha, he sighed.
"Shouldn't some of those have Martha shaped faces?" She asked casually as she walked up to him.
"Never." He smiled a bit, shaking his head at her.
"Good to know." She said, leaning against the table.
"You hate me." Jack said.
"No, not really." She paused. "Well, maybe a little." Jack chuckled softly. "I'm just trying to understand Jack." Martha said quickly, motioned with her hands slightly as she spoke. "Why? I understand the death of Tosh and Owen shook you, it shook all of us. When you called and told me, i couldn't believe it. I ended up crying in the middle of a meeting with the heads of UNIT because it didn't actually hit me until days later what you said. But retconing Gwen and Ianto, why would you Jack? They were all you had left."
"I know!" He said in a desperate tone, wanting her to be able to understand. "But don't you see? This way i still have them, they're safe. They're alive and happy, and that's enough for me."
"Is it?" Martha asked, looking at Jack mournfully.
"Yes." He assured her.
"Then why do those people have no idea who the hell you are!?" She exploded at him, pushing off the table to standing in front of him. "Christ Jack! They don't know you at all, they call you 'The Captain' for fuck sakes! You snap and shout and stomp around here like a bloody tyrant! They're scared of you, what kind of team is that?"
"It's better that way!" He snapped.
"For you!" She challenged loudly, her voice echoing in the large empty range.
"Yes!" Jack barked just as loudly.
At his confession Martha deflated a bit. "Jack?"
"I keep them at arms length, i'm cold toward them because i have to be. I can't lose another family." He told her calmly.
"Jack, i'm not saying you have to fall in love with them. But at least be personable with them. I mean, damn it Jack do you know anything about any of them?"
"I do." He argued.
"Oh really?" Martha placed her hands on her hips, her obvious defensive posture. "Are any of them married? Dating? Favorite color? What do they take in their coffees? Any of them have pets of any kind?" Jack went to answer, but found he couldn't.
"See? You know nothing about them. And yet they're suppose to follow you into dangerous situations on a daily basis, when you know nothing more about them than their names and blood types." She gave him a disappointed look. "And vise versa. That's not a team, not a group with trust built. That right there is a bunch of conscripts." She shook her head at him before turning and leaving Jack alone with her words still hanging in the air.
It was a while later when Jack was mulling over things in his office, that he realized that Martha didn't seem to be around. He was just about to call down to ask about her when Nareesh knocked on his door.
"Captain?" She said, peaking in.
"What is it Nareesh?" He asked from where he sat.
"I need to put this in the secure archives." She told him, holding up a small sliver ball.
"Oh right." Jack said as he got up and moved to open the secure archives in the corner of the room. "Lets keep an eye out for anymore of those things alright?" He told her, moving away from the now open archives. "Best not to have anymore people's greatest fears coming to life, i don't think i want to deal with anymore giant spiders or snakes for a while."
"Right sir." She nodded as she carefully but hastefully put the artifact away, Jack watched her from where he was sitting at his desk again.
"Nareesh?" He stopped her before she got a chance to leave once she was done with the archives.
"Sir?"
"What's your favorite color?" He asked quizzically.
"My what?" She questioned, looking at Jack like he had just grown a second head.
"Your favorite color, what is it?" He asked again.
She paused for a moment, unsure as to what to say. But the small smile Jack flashed at her caused her to relent. "Emerald green, sir." She said.
"Lovely." Jack said fondly, which made the young woman smile.
"That it is. Anything else sir?"
"No, that's all." He paused. "Oh, wait!"
Nareesh stopped again, standing by the door.
"Yes, one more thing. Have you seen Martha?"
"She went out."
"Where?" Jack questioned.
"I don't know sir, she mentioned something about looking up an old friend."
At that Jack's eyes widened. "Oh fuck!" He cursed loudly.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12
Love it? Hate it? Wanna take it home and cook it dinner? Let me know! Comments are love!
Part: Three
Word Count: 1620
Characters: Jack Harkness, Martha Jones, mentions of the team, OC's
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG-13 (might go up in later chapters)
Genre: Angst! AU!
Warning: Spoilers for Exit Wounds and the whole of the second series.
Disclaimer: Alas the Torchwood character's are not mine, they belong to other more fabulous people. Which makes me sad. The OC's are all my creations though, not that i wouldn't share them with RTD. 'Cause i so would ^_^
Un-beta'ed, sorry. Any and all mistakes are my own (i'm known as the typo queen around friends), and i apologize for them.
Authors Ramble: Again i know it's been a long while in between my posts, and i apologize for that. But at least this time i have a good reason, other than life getting in the way. I was in a car accident and suffered a rather bad blow to the head, and just recently got out of hospital. And then after that, the two part series finale of Doctor Who over took my mind and i just never found the time to post this. But i'm back now, and plan on wrapping up my fics soon enough.
Also, yes i gave the OC's last names. Just because i'm anal, and couldn't stand them being nameless. Made them feel two dimensional to me, anyway enjoy ^_^
Summary: Jack takes desperate measures to assure his remaining staff is safe, which leaves him with a new team who are experiencing a VERY different side of Jack. Now it's up to one of his closest friends to try and straighten things out.
Martha was sitting on the sofa with the new team of Torchwood Three around her. "Okay, so wait. Lemme see if i've the names right." Martha said, pointing to each person as she rang off their names. "Collin Porter." She motioned to the youngest, who was sitting on her right. "Emma Bryant." The blonde sitting on her left nodded with a smile. "James Myles and Mackenzie Watson." Martha pointed to the two people standing but the work stations. "And i'm sorry, but how to you pronounce your name again?" She questioned the woman sitting on the coffee table.
"Na-Ree-Sh" She was told.
"Nareesh. Okay, and Nareesh... Connolly? Not to be rude, but that's not a very ethnic last name." Martha said with a chuckle.
"It's not." Nareesh smiled. "My husband's from Ireland." She explained. "We're not exactly a common couple, i know. We get that a lot." She chuckled brightly.
Martha smiled, looking around at the new set of people that called themselves 'Torchwood'.
"How do you know the Captain?" Collin asked.
"And what makes it okay for you to beat him with files?" Mackenzie said with a laugh, making it rather obvious that they had all seen Martha's outburst at Jack through his office window.
"You call him Captain?" Martha questioned, raising her eyebrows in surprise as the formality of it all.
"Yeah." Emma nodded.
"You lot don't call him Jack?" They all shook their heads at that. Martha just hummed, the pieces of the puzzle falling into place in her head. When she realized that they were all still waiting on her answer, she shook herself mentally.
"Oh, we met through a friend. Traveled a bit together, worked together for a while as well." Talk about the watered down version of their friendship.
"And the beating him to death bit comes in where?" James prompted.
Martha laughed. "With years of putting up with him."
The rest of the team just smiled.
"Jesus! He's got you walking on egg shells, the lot of you." Martha exclaimed, before changing subjects with a clap of her hands. There would be time to pick apart Jack's facade later. "Okay, now for the fun stuff. Which one of you has he got?" She asked, her eyes holding a mischievous glint to them.
"What?" Emma asked.
"You lot, which one is with Jack?" She looked at the five set of bewildered eyes. "He's not shagging any of you?" Her question got a wave of laughter. "What?"
"Captain doesn't approve of interoffice dating." Collin said, casting a sideways glance at Emma who in turn blushed slightly.
It was Martha's turn to laugh. "You're kidding!" She exclaimed, but at their silence she faltered. "You're not kidding are you?"
"No." Mackenzie said with a shrug.
"He said that?" Emma nodded. "And he doesn't flirt with any of you?" Martha looked pointedly at James.
"Why are you looking at me?" He questioned.
"Well there was a time when a fit bloke got Jack call kinds of excited." She told them. "And it surprises the hell out of me that he hasn't so much as winked at you."
James shook his head. "Nope, sorry. So wait, he's gay?"
Martha tilted her head from side to side in a ho-hum kind of way. "Not really, he'll shag anything he finds attractive."
"Anything?" Emma said, looking a little confused.
"Meaning alien life forms are free range as well." Martha said with a nod. "I once saw him hit on a big blue insect alien, so yeah. Anything."
"Are you sure this is the same man?" Nareesh questioned.
"Really, the Captain is about as sexual as a eunuch." Mackenzie laughed, shaking her head.
"Oh, you all have so much to learn." Martha said with a wicked little smile, which made the other five people all the more interested in her forthcoming stories.
Jack had been watching Martha and his staff for the first little while after Martha had seated herself with them, but it wasn't long before their laughing and conversing started to unnerve him. Deciding it was better to put it out of him mind, he stormed out of his office and down into the bowels of the Hub. Martha idly noted him leaving, but said nothing of it. If he wanted to fume, she was going to let him.
It was about and hour and a half later when Martha decided to excuse herself from the team and ventured into the Hub in search of Jack. True she had spent some time working there in the past, but mostly in the main levels. So had it not been for the sound of gun fire, Martha most likely wouldn't have found Jack on the gun range at all.
She entered, leaning again the back wall with her arms crossed over her chest as she watched Jack shoot the multiple Weevil shaped targets. Once he had emptied the clip, he turned and dumped the gun onto the metal table that sat in the middle of the range. Spotting Martha, he sighed.
"Shouldn't some of those have Martha shaped faces?" She asked casually as she walked up to him.
"Never." He smiled a bit, shaking his head at her.
"Good to know." She said, leaning against the table.
"You hate me." Jack said.
"No, not really." She paused. "Well, maybe a little." Jack chuckled softly. "I'm just trying to understand Jack." Martha said quickly, motioned with her hands slightly as she spoke. "Why? I understand the death of Tosh and Owen shook you, it shook all of us. When you called and told me, i couldn't believe it. I ended up crying in the middle of a meeting with the heads of UNIT because it didn't actually hit me until days later what you said. But retconing Gwen and Ianto, why would you Jack? They were all you had left."
"I know!" He said in a desperate tone, wanting her to be able to understand. "But don't you see? This way i still have them, they're safe. They're alive and happy, and that's enough for me."
"Is it?" Martha asked, looking at Jack mournfully.
"Yes." He assured her.
"Then why do those people have no idea who the hell you are!?" She exploded at him, pushing off the table to standing in front of him. "Christ Jack! They don't know you at all, they call you 'The Captain' for fuck sakes! You snap and shout and stomp around here like a bloody tyrant! They're scared of you, what kind of team is that?"
"It's better that way!" He snapped.
"For you!" She challenged loudly, her voice echoing in the large empty range.
"Yes!" Jack barked just as loudly.
At his confession Martha deflated a bit. "Jack?"
"I keep them at arms length, i'm cold toward them because i have to be. I can't lose another family." He told her calmly.
"Jack, i'm not saying you have to fall in love with them. But at least be personable with them. I mean, damn it Jack do you know anything about any of them?"
"I do." He argued.
"Oh really?" Martha placed her hands on her hips, her obvious defensive posture. "Are any of them married? Dating? Favorite color? What do they take in their coffees? Any of them have pets of any kind?" Jack went to answer, but found he couldn't.
"See? You know nothing about them. And yet they're suppose to follow you into dangerous situations on a daily basis, when you know nothing more about them than their names and blood types." She gave him a disappointed look. "And vise versa. That's not a team, not a group with trust built. That right there is a bunch of conscripts." She shook her head at him before turning and leaving Jack alone with her words still hanging in the air.
It was a while later when Jack was mulling over things in his office, that he realized that Martha didn't seem to be around. He was just about to call down to ask about her when Nareesh knocked on his door.
"Captain?" She said, peaking in.
"What is it Nareesh?" He asked from where he sat.
"I need to put this in the secure archives." She told him, holding up a small sliver ball.
"Oh right." Jack said as he got up and moved to open the secure archives in the corner of the room. "Lets keep an eye out for anymore of those things alright?" He told her, moving away from the now open archives. "Best not to have anymore people's greatest fears coming to life, i don't think i want to deal with anymore giant spiders or snakes for a while."
"Right sir." She nodded as she carefully but hastefully put the artifact away, Jack watched her from where he was sitting at his desk again.
"Nareesh?" He stopped her before she got a chance to leave once she was done with the archives.
"Sir?"
"What's your favorite color?" He asked quizzically.
"My what?" She questioned, looking at Jack like he had just grown a second head.
"Your favorite color, what is it?" He asked again.
She paused for a moment, unsure as to what to say. But the small smile Jack flashed at her caused her to relent. "Emerald green, sir." She said.
"Lovely." Jack said fondly, which made the young woman smile.
"That it is. Anything else sir?"
"No, that's all." He paused. "Oh, wait!"
Nareesh stopped again, standing by the door.
"Yes, one more thing. Have you seen Martha?"
"She went out."
"Where?" Jack questioned.
"I don't know sir, she mentioned something about looking up an old friend."
At that Jack's eyes widened. "Oh fuck!" He cursed loudly.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12
Love it? Hate it? Wanna take it home and cook it dinner? Let me know! Comments are love!