I Need You Safe - 5/??
Series: I need you safe
Part: Five
Word Count: 1965
Characters: Jack Harkness, Martha Jones, mentions of the team, OC's
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Martha/Tom
Rating: PG-13
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.
Author's Note: First a little note on my original characters, since i've had some comments. I'm not usually one the write OC heavy fics because i always feel the team is interesting enough without the need for new characters, but that being said. The reason there are so many OC's in this fic is because they are quite simply, cannon fodder. They are there to help move the story along, because the plot i have going i felt was too large for Martha to handle on her own. I know some people don't like original characters, but they do serve a purpose. And in this case, they're there to help push Jack forward. Which means you will be seeing more of them with each passing chapter, but that doesn't take away from what the underline story is. Which is a Janto story, you just have to be patient until the famed Mr. Jones reemerges. Which will be soon, very soon.
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.
The next morning when Martha showed up at the Hub via the tourist entrance, she was greeted by the sunny blonde receptionist.
"Morning Emma." Martha smiled.
"Morning Miss."
"Oh jeez, no. Emma please, drop the formality. Just call me Martha." She told the young woman as she reached behind the desk and pressed the button to open the door to the Hub.
"But, that's rude." Emma argued, which just caused Martha to chuckle.
"It's not if i gave you permission." She said with a grin before disappearing through the door whilst shaking her head. She had to admit, Jack really did have the staff well trained. As she entered the Hub, Martha could hear panicked shouting.
"What the fuck Collin!?" James snapped.
"I'm sorry, i'm sorry! I didn't know what would happen!"
"Which is why you let Nareesh deal with the alien tech!" James' loud voice echoed throughout the Hub.
"I'm sorry!"
Martha rushed over to where everyone was in the main level, she saw Collin looking widely at something on the ground with fear in his eyes.
"Sorry doesn't cut it!"
"Enough!" Jack's voice cut through loudly. Everyone turned to look at the Captain standing stoically on the upper level, his arms crossed over his chest. "Martha." He nodded his head forward, causing her to follow his gaze.
"Oh my god!" She gasped.
Mackenzie was laying on the floor clutching her chest, which was bleeding rather profusely. Nareesh was next to her, placing pressure on another wound on the doctor's neck.
"Move! Move!" Martha order, pushing James out of the way. She dropped to the ground next to the hurt woman, surveying the damage. She attempted to pull Mackenzie's hands away from her chest, but she refused to move them. "Come on Mac." Martha coaxed, pulling at the woman's blood covered hands.
"No." Mackenzie croaked. "I need...."
Martha cut her off. "Doctor's make the worst patients, i'll know what you'll need when i can see." She urged, finally pulling the other woman's hands away, getting sight of multiple tiny puncture wounds to her chest.
"Okay, and there? Same?" Martha asked Nareesh, who was still placing pressure against Mackenzie's neck. Nareesh just nodded, looking worried. "Okay, into the med bay. Now!" Martha ordered, getting James to carry the injured woman into the bay whilst she and Nareesh continued to hold her wounds.
####
It wasn't until a few hours later that Martha finally brought herself to look at Jack, who was standing in the med bay's theater. He still had his arms crossed, looking as indifferent as all hell.
She sighed, snapped her blood covered gloves off and tossing them in the bin. She shook her head, unable to hide the disgust she felt toward him.
"What?" He questioned.
"Nothing." She huffed, checking Mackenzie's vitals. The woman was patched up and sedated, laying on the exam table. Martha adjusted the light sheet that covered her as she asked. "Where are the others?"
"Working, that's what they do here you know. Although i'm pretty sure Collin's hiding somewhere in one of the lower levels." His voice was blank of any emotion as he spoke.
Martha laughed tiredly, the sound holding no emotion to it at all. "Mac's right, i'm going to have to hit you with something heavier than file folders next time." She said in an angry tone, finally looking up at Jack.
He just arched an eyebrow at her in question.
"You heartless bastard. One of your team almost died today! At the hands on another team member no less, and you what? Ordered them back to work!?" Her voice was tight. "And you stood there, the stoic boss. And you watched her bleed! You did nothing Jack!" Martha all but shouted.
"You were handling it." He told her calmly.
"And what if i hadn't been here huh? Oh and Collin! Collin, who is way to young to be working here in the first place, just so you know. Is hiding! He's hiding for Christ sake! Probably in a Weevil cell, it wouldn't surprise me if he was in one with an actual Weevil. And you're what? Up here." She gave him a desperate look, but when Jack said nothing she exploded at him. "Why aren't you down there with him!!?" She yelled. "Assuring him, telling him that's it's alright. That is this Torchwood, and nearly killing a teammate is a right of passage. Dazzling him with some anecdote about just that, comforting him! What the hell Jack, did you retcon your fucking heart as well?" Martha seethed at him, looking so frustrated that she might actually cry.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Martha shook her head. "I'm going home." She said, looking at him once again. Jack just held her gaze, unfazed by her harsh words. "I'm leaving tonight, you do whatever the hell you want. Keep working on that totalitarian status of yours." She made a mock 'i'm rooting for you' sort of punching movement before storming out of the med bay, unable to look at Jack anymore.
Jack just continued to stand where he was, watching Mackenzie sleep. The rhythmic rise and fall of her breathing and droning beeping of the heart monitor lulling him into a thoughtful state, Martha's word's still ringing in his mind. He looked back to his old team, thinking about the multitude of time they had all screwed up. How often they all challenged him, fought him tooth and nail at every turn. Him mind then drifted to his current team, the well oiled machine that they appeared to be. Taking orders, never questioning him. Martha was right when she had told him there was no trust there, it was actually pretty obvious if he really looked. They feared him, respected him, they followed him because he was their leader. And they, he thought mournfully, they were his lemmings. And in the end there's only one place you can lead a lemming, off a cliff. That thought sent a shiver down his spine as he realized, he was going to get them all killed, again.
####
The atmosphere in the Hub was subdued, so it was no surprise that no one noticed Jack slip quietly out of the medical bay and make his way to the lower levels. It only took him a few minutes to locate Collin, who was sitting in one of the empty cells. Jack smirked slightly at the fact that Martha was right about where the young man would be.
Jack entered the cell slowly, sitting on the edge of the cement bench that stuck out of the wall.
Collin was seated on the floor in the corner, his thin legs pulled up against his chest with his arms wrapped around them. They sat quietly for a few long minutes before Collin's voice cut through the silence.
"Is she dead?"
"No." Jack shook his head. "Just hurt."
"Are you going to shoot me?"
Jack made a small snorting noise that could have been a laugh. "No."
"Is Mackenzie going to shoot me?"
"Maybe." He said in a teasing manner, which caused Collin to look up at him. His emotive brown eyes reminded Jack of Gwen, they both wore their hearts on their sleeves. Only Colling did it because he was too young to know any better, still innocent in a sense. A swaddling infant compared to Jack's hundreds of years of life.
"I had a team member." Jack started with a deep sigh. "A long time ago, well not that long ago. Feels like a lifetime though. He almost killed the entire team."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"How?" Colling asked from where he sat, still wrapped around himself.
"He let a cyberman loose in the Hub."
"He what?" Colling looked shocked. "What did you do?"
Jack smiled wistfully, thinking back to Ianto. "I fell in love with him."
"What?" The young man looked disbelieving.
"Yeah." Jack nodded. "I didn't fire him, i didn't shoot him. Although to be fair, i did come close to it. I helped him through it, i helped him heal. And we ended up falling for each other."
"Wow." Colling breathed, slightly taken aback by how open Jack was being with him.
"But that's not the point." Jack waved off the painful memories of Ianto. "What i'm trying to say is that, this is Torchwood. And everyone, past teammates, future teammates. Everyone has days like this, days were someone nearly dies because of a stupid mistake."
"Yeah, but i'm a..."
"What, a genius?" Jack cut in, Collin just shrugged in reply. "The thing i've found out about geniuses, and trust me, i've known a few. Is that the smarter you are, the more likely you are to do something really stupid." Jack beamed at him, a smile that his team very rarely, if ever saw. That in turned caused Collin to grin, the fear he had very obviously felt earlier draining from his face.
Up in the main levels, James, Nareesh and Martha all stood by one of the workstations watching the two men over the CCTV.
"He's gone completely mad." James said, watching Jack chuckle at something Collin said.
"No." Martha said with a smile. "He's just finally hearing what i had to say."
####
Later that night, Jack walked into the medical bay only to see Martha standing there reading over Mackenzie's latest vitals.
"I thought you were leaving." Jack said, snapping Martha out of her stupor.
"Yeah, so did i." Martha said distractedly, writing something down on a clip board. "But she still needs medical attention, so i couldn't exactly leave now could i?" Martha chanced a quick glance at Jack, who looked more relaxed then he did earlier in the day. "How's Collin doing?" She asked.
"Alright, i spoke to him this afternoon."
Martha arched her eyebrows. "Spoke to him? What, you didn't flog him? I thought that was more your style."
Jack made a mock aghast face. "Oh Martha, you should know better than that. The Navy flogs, i was in the Air force." He joked.
Martha chuckled despite herself, shaking her head.
"He's fine." Jack assured her seriously. "We talked a bit, and i promised to keep all guns away from Mackenzie once she's well."
"That's good." Mackenzie croaked softly, her voice thick with the sedation she was waking from. "'Cause i plan on killing him slowly, guns are too quick."
Martha laughed, moving to stand next to the wounded woman. "Hey sleepy head, how are you feeling?"
"Like a patch work quilt."
"Hmmm, funny. No really, how's the pain level?"
"Tolerable." Mackenzie said honestly. "What time is it?"
"Jack looked at his watch. "Ten thirty."
"At night?" She questioned, turning her head to look at Jack, who was standing on the stairs that lead into the bay.
"Uh-huh." He nodded.
"Shit." She cursed.
"What's wrong?" Martha asked her.
"I was suppose to meet my girlfriend for dinner at seven, she's going to be worried."
Martha's gaze snapped back to Jack, she gave him a look that said; i can't believe you didn't even think to call her partner! But to be fair, Jack knew nothing about the woman outside of work. So it hadn't even crossed his mind that she might have had someone at home waiting for her.
"We'll call her." Martha assured the other woman, patting her hand.
"I'll take care of it, don't worry." Jack said suddenly, causing both women to look at him. He nodded, flashing a tight smile at Mackenzie. "You just get well."
Mackenzie nodded slightly as she watch Jack leave toward his office. "What'd you hit him with this time?" She asked Martha, causing her to chuckle.
"Oh i hit him with something hard this time, words."
Mackenzie raised her eyebrows in surprise, looking to the medical bay entrance where Jack had just left. "Heavy." She muttered.
"Yeah." Martha smirked.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - 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: Five
Word Count: 1965
Characters: Jack Harkness, Martha Jones, mentions of the team, OC's
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Martha/Tom
Rating: PG-13
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.
Author's Note: First a little note on my original characters, since i've had some comments. I'm not usually one the write OC heavy fics because i always feel the team is interesting enough without the need for new characters, but that being said. The reason there are so many OC's in this fic is because they are quite simply, cannon fodder. They are there to help move the story along, because the plot i have going i felt was too large for Martha to handle on her own. I know some people don't like original characters, but they do serve a purpose. And in this case, they're there to help push Jack forward. Which means you will be seeing more of them with each passing chapter, but that doesn't take away from what the underline story is. Which is a Janto story, you just have to be patient until the famed Mr. Jones reemerges. Which will be soon, very soon.
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.
The next morning when Martha showed up at the Hub via the tourist entrance, she was greeted by the sunny blonde receptionist.
"Morning Emma." Martha smiled.
"Morning Miss."
"Oh jeez, no. Emma please, drop the formality. Just call me Martha." She told the young woman as she reached behind the desk and pressed the button to open the door to the Hub.
"But, that's rude." Emma argued, which just caused Martha to chuckle.
"It's not if i gave you permission." She said with a grin before disappearing through the door whilst shaking her head. She had to admit, Jack really did have the staff well trained. As she entered the Hub, Martha could hear panicked shouting.
"What the fuck Collin!?" James snapped.
"I'm sorry, i'm sorry! I didn't know what would happen!"
"Which is why you let Nareesh deal with the alien tech!" James' loud voice echoed throughout the Hub.
"I'm sorry!"
Martha rushed over to where everyone was in the main level, she saw Collin looking widely at something on the ground with fear in his eyes.
"Sorry doesn't cut it!"
"Enough!" Jack's voice cut through loudly. Everyone turned to look at the Captain standing stoically on the upper level, his arms crossed over his chest. "Martha." He nodded his head forward, causing her to follow his gaze.
"Oh my god!" She gasped.
Mackenzie was laying on the floor clutching her chest, which was bleeding rather profusely. Nareesh was next to her, placing pressure on another wound on the doctor's neck.
"Move! Move!" Martha order, pushing James out of the way. She dropped to the ground next to the hurt woman, surveying the damage. She attempted to pull Mackenzie's hands away from her chest, but she refused to move them. "Come on Mac." Martha coaxed, pulling at the woman's blood covered hands.
"No." Mackenzie croaked. "I need...."
Martha cut her off. "Doctor's make the worst patients, i'll know what you'll need when i can see." She urged, finally pulling the other woman's hands away, getting sight of multiple tiny puncture wounds to her chest.
"Okay, and there? Same?" Martha asked Nareesh, who was still placing pressure against Mackenzie's neck. Nareesh just nodded, looking worried. "Okay, into the med bay. Now!" Martha ordered, getting James to carry the injured woman into the bay whilst she and Nareesh continued to hold her wounds.
####
It wasn't until a few hours later that Martha finally brought herself to look at Jack, who was standing in the med bay's theater. He still had his arms crossed, looking as indifferent as all hell.
She sighed, snapped her blood covered gloves off and tossing them in the bin. She shook her head, unable to hide the disgust she felt toward him.
"What?" He questioned.
"Nothing." She huffed, checking Mackenzie's vitals. The woman was patched up and sedated, laying on the exam table. Martha adjusted the light sheet that covered her as she asked. "Where are the others?"
"Working, that's what they do here you know. Although i'm pretty sure Collin's hiding somewhere in one of the lower levels." His voice was blank of any emotion as he spoke.
Martha laughed tiredly, the sound holding no emotion to it at all. "Mac's right, i'm going to have to hit you with something heavier than file folders next time." She said in an angry tone, finally looking up at Jack.
He just arched an eyebrow at her in question.
"You heartless bastard. One of your team almost died today! At the hands on another team member no less, and you what? Ordered them back to work!?" Her voice was tight. "And you stood there, the stoic boss. And you watched her bleed! You did nothing Jack!" Martha all but shouted.
"You were handling it." He told her calmly.
"And what if i hadn't been here huh? Oh and Collin! Collin, who is way to young to be working here in the first place, just so you know. Is hiding! He's hiding for Christ sake! Probably in a Weevil cell, it wouldn't surprise me if he was in one with an actual Weevil. And you're what? Up here." She gave him a desperate look, but when Jack said nothing she exploded at him. "Why aren't you down there with him!!?" She yelled. "Assuring him, telling him that's it's alright. That is this Torchwood, and nearly killing a teammate is a right of passage. Dazzling him with some anecdote about just that, comforting him! What the hell Jack, did you retcon your fucking heart as well?" Martha seethed at him, looking so frustrated that she might actually cry.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Martha shook her head. "I'm going home." She said, looking at him once again. Jack just held her gaze, unfazed by her harsh words. "I'm leaving tonight, you do whatever the hell you want. Keep working on that totalitarian status of yours." She made a mock 'i'm rooting for you' sort of punching movement before storming out of the med bay, unable to look at Jack anymore.
Jack just continued to stand where he was, watching Mackenzie sleep. The rhythmic rise and fall of her breathing and droning beeping of the heart monitor lulling him into a thoughtful state, Martha's word's still ringing in his mind. He looked back to his old team, thinking about the multitude of time they had all screwed up. How often they all challenged him, fought him tooth and nail at every turn. Him mind then drifted to his current team, the well oiled machine that they appeared to be. Taking orders, never questioning him. Martha was right when she had told him there was no trust there, it was actually pretty obvious if he really looked. They feared him, respected him, they followed him because he was their leader. And they, he thought mournfully, they were his lemmings. And in the end there's only one place you can lead a lemming, off a cliff. That thought sent a shiver down his spine as he realized, he was going to get them all killed, again.
####
The atmosphere in the Hub was subdued, so it was no surprise that no one noticed Jack slip quietly out of the medical bay and make his way to the lower levels. It only took him a few minutes to locate Collin, who was sitting in one of the empty cells. Jack smirked slightly at the fact that Martha was right about where the young man would be.
Jack entered the cell slowly, sitting on the edge of the cement bench that stuck out of the wall.
Collin was seated on the floor in the corner, his thin legs pulled up against his chest with his arms wrapped around them. They sat quietly for a few long minutes before Collin's voice cut through the silence.
"Is she dead?"
"No." Jack shook his head. "Just hurt."
"Are you going to shoot me?"
Jack made a small snorting noise that could have been a laugh. "No."
"Is Mackenzie going to shoot me?"
"Maybe." He said in a teasing manner, which caused Collin to look up at him. His emotive brown eyes reminded Jack of Gwen, they both wore their hearts on their sleeves. Only Colling did it because he was too young to know any better, still innocent in a sense. A swaddling infant compared to Jack's hundreds of years of life.
"I had a team member." Jack started with a deep sigh. "A long time ago, well not that long ago. Feels like a lifetime though. He almost killed the entire team."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"How?" Colling asked from where he sat, still wrapped around himself.
"He let a cyberman loose in the Hub."
"He what?" Colling looked shocked. "What did you do?"
Jack smiled wistfully, thinking back to Ianto. "I fell in love with him."
"What?" The young man looked disbelieving.
"Yeah." Jack nodded. "I didn't fire him, i didn't shoot him. Although to be fair, i did come close to it. I helped him through it, i helped him heal. And we ended up falling for each other."
"Wow." Colling breathed, slightly taken aback by how open Jack was being with him.
"But that's not the point." Jack waved off the painful memories of Ianto. "What i'm trying to say is that, this is Torchwood. And everyone, past teammates, future teammates. Everyone has days like this, days were someone nearly dies because of a stupid mistake."
"Yeah, but i'm a..."
"What, a genius?" Jack cut in, Collin just shrugged in reply. "The thing i've found out about geniuses, and trust me, i've known a few. Is that the smarter you are, the more likely you are to do something really stupid." Jack beamed at him, a smile that his team very rarely, if ever saw. That in turned caused Collin to grin, the fear he had very obviously felt earlier draining from his face.
Up in the main levels, James, Nareesh and Martha all stood by one of the workstations watching the two men over the CCTV.
"He's gone completely mad." James said, watching Jack chuckle at something Collin said.
"No." Martha said with a smile. "He's just finally hearing what i had to say."
####
Later that night, Jack walked into the medical bay only to see Martha standing there reading over Mackenzie's latest vitals.
"I thought you were leaving." Jack said, snapping Martha out of her stupor.
"Yeah, so did i." Martha said distractedly, writing something down on a clip board. "But she still needs medical attention, so i couldn't exactly leave now could i?" Martha chanced a quick glance at Jack, who looked more relaxed then he did earlier in the day. "How's Collin doing?" She asked.
"Alright, i spoke to him this afternoon."
Martha arched her eyebrows. "Spoke to him? What, you didn't flog him? I thought that was more your style."
Jack made a mock aghast face. "Oh Martha, you should know better than that. The Navy flogs, i was in the Air force." He joked.
Martha chuckled despite herself, shaking her head.
"He's fine." Jack assured her seriously. "We talked a bit, and i promised to keep all guns away from Mackenzie once she's well."
"That's good." Mackenzie croaked softly, her voice thick with the sedation she was waking from. "'Cause i plan on killing him slowly, guns are too quick."
Martha laughed, moving to stand next to the wounded woman. "Hey sleepy head, how are you feeling?"
"Like a patch work quilt."
"Hmmm, funny. No really, how's the pain level?"
"Tolerable." Mackenzie said honestly. "What time is it?"
"Jack looked at his watch. "Ten thirty."
"At night?" She questioned, turning her head to look at Jack, who was standing on the stairs that lead into the bay.
"Uh-huh." He nodded.
"Shit." She cursed.
"What's wrong?" Martha asked her.
"I was suppose to meet my girlfriend for dinner at seven, she's going to be worried."
Martha's gaze snapped back to Jack, she gave him a look that said; i can't believe you didn't even think to call her partner! But to be fair, Jack knew nothing about the woman outside of work. So it hadn't even crossed his mind that she might have had someone at home waiting for her.
"We'll call her." Martha assured the other woman, patting her hand.
"I'll take care of it, don't worry." Jack said suddenly, causing both women to look at him. He nodded, flashing a tight smile at Mackenzie. "You just get well."
Mackenzie nodded slightly as she watch Jack leave toward his office. "What'd you hit him with this time?" She asked Martha, causing her to chuckle.
"Oh i hit him with something hard this time, words."
Mackenzie raised her eyebrows in surprise, looking to the medical bay entrance where Jack had just left. "Heavy." She muttered.
"Yeah." Martha smirked.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - 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!