I Need You Safe - 6/??
Series: I need you safe
Part: Six
Word Count: 1764
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: Two posts in one day!? I know, wow. Also wonderful space cookies to anyone who can spot the bad 80's television quote i used! Hehehe, i'm a dork.
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.
In the days following Mackenzie's injury things went on as usual, much to Martha's chagrin. She had really though she was getting through to Jack, but it seemed she was premature in thinking that. Jack was as cold and distant as ever, it was as if his slight lapse in attitude when Mackenzie got hurt was just that, a lapse and nothing more. Martha had to admit to herself, things were beginning to look grim. She was starting to doubt there was anything the would knock sense into the older man.
"Isn't your husband going to start missing you if you don't go home soon?" Jack asked Martha one afternoon when he caught her sitting at Nareesh's desk, filling out an autopsy report on an alien life form that Jack had very hastily killed the night before. As he leaned again the desk, Martha noted both is posture and tone suggested that he was starting to get very annoyed with her presence in the Hub.
"He understands, besides it's only been a week or so. We've spent more time apart than that." She assured him, smirking to herself at the huff he made at her answer. "Jack if you want me to leave, all you have to do is say so."
"Leave." He said, looking at her intently.
Martha inhaled deeply before replying. "Um, no."
Jack let out an frustrated growl. "You just said if i asked, you would."
"Yes, but i'm a woman Jack. It's my prerogative to change my mind."
"Oh, you're impossible!" He said in an exasperated tone.
"Yep, why be difficult when you can be impossible." She shot him a cheeky grin.
Jack just huffed and walked away, looking rather annoyed. Martha watched him go, arching her eyebrows. She knew she was starting to drive him bonkers, and it wasn't really fair that she was actually doing it on purpose. But she was at her wits end, grasping at straws. She was running out of ways to snap Jack out of his belligerent tyrannical attitude, so resorting to childish techniques such as annoying the pants off of him, seemed like the next step.
Martha was beginning to fear there would be only one way to set Jack straight, and it was something she had been hoping she really wouldn't have to do.
####
"Hey there Emma." Martha greeted brightly as she walked into the tourist office one particularly slow afternoon.
"Hi Martha."
"I was wondering, do you have a laptop computer?" Martha asked, leaning in a bored manner against the counter.
"Of course." Emma said with a nod.
"Do you have it here?"
"Yes, why?"
Martha smirked. "Has it be hooked up to the Torchwood mainframe?" Her tone was completely conversational, yet the way she was smirking made it obvious that she was after something.
"Course it's not. I'm just the receptionist, why would i need access to the Torchwood computers from home?"
At that, Martha's smirk widened, which earned her an odd look from Emma. "Can i borrow it?"
"I guess so. I hope you don't mind me asking, but why do you want a computer that's not hooked up to the Hub's system?" Emma asked as she pulled her laptop out from where she had it place behind and counter, handing it over to the other woman.
"I've got a stalker." Martha joked to herself, remembering when she told Jack that stalking was a nasty habit. Emma's eyes went wide, causing Martha to laugh as she walked out of the headquarters with the laptop in her arms.
As she walked across the plass, she winked at one of the cameras since she had no doubt that Jack was watching her. The man had taken to watching her every movie via CCTV, which Martha found highly amusing.
It was only a short walk to the same cafe she had so 'innocently' bumped into Gwen at. Once there, she quickly found an empty table near one of the windows and set to work.
Martha managed to hack into the police record rather easily, as well as the telephone company records. She chewed on the end of her pen distractedly as she quickly skimmed the files, only when the page froze for a split second did her attention peak.
"Oh no you don't Jack Harkness." She muttered to herself.
She knew that using a computer outside of Torchwood's systems would buy her some extra time, but it had only been barely twenty minutes before Jack was able to track Emma's computer. Martha quickly pulled her palm pilot out of her pocket, and with an ease she was sure Tosh would have been proud of. She managed to connect to the laptop in front of her, and then proceeded to send a scrambler code straight from UNIT's bag of tricks to Jack's computer. She smirked brightly when the small hand held device beeped the all clear, she could almost hear Jack's cursing back at the Hub in her mind.
With a content hum, she went back to skimming the records. Mumbling to herself under her breath. "Come on Ianto, where are you?"
Gwen had been easy enough to track, she was after all a PC. Not exactly difficult to find. Martha had just marched up to the stations front desk, said she was from UNIT and flashed her identification. After that she just simply asked to speak to PC Williams, to which she was told that Williams was on maternity leave and was given Gwen's contact info. Looking back, she thought idly that perhaps the police were to quick to just believe her. But she guessed since they dealt with Torchwood so often, that government officials demanding things were common place for them.
####
Back at the Hub, Jack was in fact cursing, and rather loudly. "God damn it Martha!" He shouted, like if he said the woman's name loud enough she would just materialize in from of him.
Down in the main level, everyone looked toward the office when they heard Jack's shouting.
"Wonderful, what did she do this time." James said blandly, taking the mug of coffee Emma offered him. "You know, that bird gets him in such horrid moods. I wish she'd just cut the shit already."
"I like her." Emma said sweetly as she handed a cup of tea to Mackenzie.
"You would." James said with a roll of his eyes.
"I like her too." Mackenzie said, causing everyone to look at her oddly. "What?" She questioned, shrugging her shoulders which made her wince in pain. Healing puncture wounds and shrugging did not go well together.
"You don't like anyone." Collin commented idly before he could stop himself, which in turn caused both Emma and Nareesh to chuckle.
"Bite it." Mackenzie told the three firmly.
"I don't know, i think she's good for him." Naressh said thoughtfully.
"Good for him?" James said. "I thought i knew what his bad moods were like, but this mood he's in thanks to her. Hell, i'm surprised he hasn't shot any of us yet."
"She's just trying to change him." Emma said defensively, not liking the fact that James was blaming Martha for Jack's dark mood.
"Into what?" James quipped.
"I think there's something going on here that we don't know." Nareesh said, cutting off Emma's chance to reply to James. "Beyond him just losing his last team. From what Martha describes, the Jack we're familiar with is just a facade. Which makes me suspect that he's just a horribly unhappy man. I mean have any of you seen him leave the Hub for anything besides missions?"
Emma went to answer when Mackenzie cut her off. "Stalking Martha counts as missions, Em." She said dryly.
"He's got no one." Nareesh continued, ignoring Mackenzie's sarcastic quip. "It's kind of sad."
"He had someone." Collin said quietly, which made the other four people look at him. He shifted uncomfortably under their expectant gazes.
"And you know this how?" Mackenzie asked.
"At the beginning of the week, when he was talking to me after you got hurt." He looked guiltily at the bandage sticking up over the collar of the doctor's shirt that was covering her healing neck. "He told me about one of his old team members, some man who nearly got them all killed. He had said that they fell in love, but that's all. He changed the direction of the conversation pretty quick after that."
"You suppose he's one of the ones that died?" Emma questioned.
"It would explain a lot." Nareesh mused. "Guilt and grief does funny things to a person."
"She's right." James said with a nod. "When my sister's husband died, she was horribly depressed for like two years."
"So that could be it right? Maybe he's in mourning." Naressh said.
"Then why would Martha be digging at him so? It's not an official medical opinion, but what she's doing is not the best way to deal with depression." Mackenzie said with a snort.
"Well maybe it has something to do with the people he retconed." James said.
"Why would it? He retcons people all the time. This morning he retconed four people before Emma even brought him his tea." Makenzie rolled her eyes.
"Well..." Naressh began, but was cut off when Jack's booming voice echoed down at them from his office doorway.
"Get to work!"
The five people all snapped into gear, moving to their work stations and other areas.
"Then again, maybe he's just one big mean angry mudsucker." James muttered as he walked pasted Nareesh, causing her to roll her eyes. She chanced a glance up at Jack's office only to see him sitting behind his desk looking flustered and exhausted, and she found herself feeling extremely sorry for him.
####
Back at that coffee shop, Martha kept deflecting Jack's attempts to eavesdrop on her web activities. She wasn't about to let him find out what she was doing, only to try and stop her.
"Christ Jack, give it up already." She sniped at the computer, once again cutting the man off. She was beginning to get discouraged, unable to find Ianto's phone records or address anywhere. That was until his name pop up on a witness statement in the police records, taken by one PC Williams.
"Gotcha!" She grinned brightly, staring at the computer screen. Now all she had to do was figure out how to go about getting the two men together, something she had neglected to thing about during her searching.
"Wonderful." She huffed dryly, suddenly deflated when she realized that she had no idea what to do with her newfound knowledge about the ever allusive mister Jones.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - 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: Six
Word Count: 1764
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: Two posts in one day!? I know, wow. Also wonderful space cookies to anyone who can spot the bad 80's television quote i used! Hehehe, i'm a dork.
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.
In the days following Mackenzie's injury things went on as usual, much to Martha's chagrin. She had really though she was getting through to Jack, but it seemed she was premature in thinking that. Jack was as cold and distant as ever, it was as if his slight lapse in attitude when Mackenzie got hurt was just that, a lapse and nothing more. Martha had to admit to herself, things were beginning to look grim. She was starting to doubt there was anything the would knock sense into the older man.
"Isn't your husband going to start missing you if you don't go home soon?" Jack asked Martha one afternoon when he caught her sitting at Nareesh's desk, filling out an autopsy report on an alien life form that Jack had very hastily killed the night before. As he leaned again the desk, Martha noted both is posture and tone suggested that he was starting to get very annoyed with her presence in the Hub.
"He understands, besides it's only been a week or so. We've spent more time apart than that." She assured him, smirking to herself at the huff he made at her answer. "Jack if you want me to leave, all you have to do is say so."
"Leave." He said, looking at her intently.
Martha inhaled deeply before replying. "Um, no."
Jack let out an frustrated growl. "You just said if i asked, you would."
"Yes, but i'm a woman Jack. It's my prerogative to change my mind."
"Oh, you're impossible!" He said in an exasperated tone.
"Yep, why be difficult when you can be impossible." She shot him a cheeky grin.
Jack just huffed and walked away, looking rather annoyed. Martha watched him go, arching her eyebrows. She knew she was starting to drive him bonkers, and it wasn't really fair that she was actually doing it on purpose. But she was at her wits end, grasping at straws. She was running out of ways to snap Jack out of his belligerent tyrannical attitude, so resorting to childish techniques such as annoying the pants off of him, seemed like the next step.
Martha was beginning to fear there would be only one way to set Jack straight, and it was something she had been hoping she really wouldn't have to do.
####
"Hey there Emma." Martha greeted brightly as she walked into the tourist office one particularly slow afternoon.
"Hi Martha."
"I was wondering, do you have a laptop computer?" Martha asked, leaning in a bored manner against the counter.
"Of course." Emma said with a nod.
"Do you have it here?"
"Yes, why?"
Martha smirked. "Has it be hooked up to the Torchwood mainframe?" Her tone was completely conversational, yet the way she was smirking made it obvious that she was after something.
"Course it's not. I'm just the receptionist, why would i need access to the Torchwood computers from home?"
At that, Martha's smirk widened, which earned her an odd look from Emma. "Can i borrow it?"
"I guess so. I hope you don't mind me asking, but why do you want a computer that's not hooked up to the Hub's system?" Emma asked as she pulled her laptop out from where she had it place behind and counter, handing it over to the other woman.
"I've got a stalker." Martha joked to herself, remembering when she told Jack that stalking was a nasty habit. Emma's eyes went wide, causing Martha to laugh as she walked out of the headquarters with the laptop in her arms.
As she walked across the plass, she winked at one of the cameras since she had no doubt that Jack was watching her. The man had taken to watching her every movie via CCTV, which Martha found highly amusing.
It was only a short walk to the same cafe she had so 'innocently' bumped into Gwen at. Once there, she quickly found an empty table near one of the windows and set to work.
Martha managed to hack into the police record rather easily, as well as the telephone company records. She chewed on the end of her pen distractedly as she quickly skimmed the files, only when the page froze for a split second did her attention peak.
"Oh no you don't Jack Harkness." She muttered to herself.
She knew that using a computer outside of Torchwood's systems would buy her some extra time, but it had only been barely twenty minutes before Jack was able to track Emma's computer. Martha quickly pulled her palm pilot out of her pocket, and with an ease she was sure Tosh would have been proud of. She managed to connect to the laptop in front of her, and then proceeded to send a scrambler code straight from UNIT's bag of tricks to Jack's computer. She smirked brightly when the small hand held device beeped the all clear, she could almost hear Jack's cursing back at the Hub in her mind.
With a content hum, she went back to skimming the records. Mumbling to herself under her breath. "Come on Ianto, where are you?"
Gwen had been easy enough to track, she was after all a PC. Not exactly difficult to find. Martha had just marched up to the stations front desk, said she was from UNIT and flashed her identification. After that she just simply asked to speak to PC Williams, to which she was told that Williams was on maternity leave and was given Gwen's contact info. Looking back, she thought idly that perhaps the police were to quick to just believe her. But she guessed since they dealt with Torchwood so often, that government officials demanding things were common place for them.
####
Back at the Hub, Jack was in fact cursing, and rather loudly. "God damn it Martha!" He shouted, like if he said the woman's name loud enough she would just materialize in from of him.
Down in the main level, everyone looked toward the office when they heard Jack's shouting.
"Wonderful, what did she do this time." James said blandly, taking the mug of coffee Emma offered him. "You know, that bird gets him in such horrid moods. I wish she'd just cut the shit already."
"I like her." Emma said sweetly as she handed a cup of tea to Mackenzie.
"You would." James said with a roll of his eyes.
"I like her too." Mackenzie said, causing everyone to look at her oddly. "What?" She questioned, shrugging her shoulders which made her wince in pain. Healing puncture wounds and shrugging did not go well together.
"You don't like anyone." Collin commented idly before he could stop himself, which in turn caused both Emma and Nareesh to chuckle.
"Bite it." Mackenzie told the three firmly.
"I don't know, i think she's good for him." Naressh said thoughtfully.
"Good for him?" James said. "I thought i knew what his bad moods were like, but this mood he's in thanks to her. Hell, i'm surprised he hasn't shot any of us yet."
"She's just trying to change him." Emma said defensively, not liking the fact that James was blaming Martha for Jack's dark mood.
"Into what?" James quipped.
"I think there's something going on here that we don't know." Nareesh said, cutting off Emma's chance to reply to James. "Beyond him just losing his last team. From what Martha describes, the Jack we're familiar with is just a facade. Which makes me suspect that he's just a horribly unhappy man. I mean have any of you seen him leave the Hub for anything besides missions?"
Emma went to answer when Mackenzie cut her off. "Stalking Martha counts as missions, Em." She said dryly.
"He's got no one." Nareesh continued, ignoring Mackenzie's sarcastic quip. "It's kind of sad."
"He had someone." Collin said quietly, which made the other four people look at him. He shifted uncomfortably under their expectant gazes.
"And you know this how?" Mackenzie asked.
"At the beginning of the week, when he was talking to me after you got hurt." He looked guiltily at the bandage sticking up over the collar of the doctor's shirt that was covering her healing neck. "He told me about one of his old team members, some man who nearly got them all killed. He had said that they fell in love, but that's all. He changed the direction of the conversation pretty quick after that."
"You suppose he's one of the ones that died?" Emma questioned.
"It would explain a lot." Nareesh mused. "Guilt and grief does funny things to a person."
"She's right." James said with a nod. "When my sister's husband died, she was horribly depressed for like two years."
"So that could be it right? Maybe he's in mourning." Naressh said.
"Then why would Martha be digging at him so? It's not an official medical opinion, but what she's doing is not the best way to deal with depression." Mackenzie said with a snort.
"Well maybe it has something to do with the people he retconed." James said.
"Why would it? He retcons people all the time. This morning he retconed four people before Emma even brought him his tea." Makenzie rolled her eyes.
"Well..." Naressh began, but was cut off when Jack's booming voice echoed down at them from his office doorway.
"Get to work!"
The five people all snapped into gear, moving to their work stations and other areas.
"Then again, maybe he's just one big mean angry mudsucker." James muttered as he walked pasted Nareesh, causing her to roll her eyes. She chanced a glance up at Jack's office only to see him sitting behind his desk looking flustered and exhausted, and she found herself feeling extremely sorry for him.
####
Back at that coffee shop, Martha kept deflecting Jack's attempts to eavesdrop on her web activities. She wasn't about to let him find out what she was doing, only to try and stop her.
"Christ Jack, give it up already." She sniped at the computer, once again cutting the man off. She was beginning to get discouraged, unable to find Ianto's phone records or address anywhere. That was until his name pop up on a witness statement in the police records, taken by one PC Williams.
"Gotcha!" She grinned brightly, staring at the computer screen. Now all she had to do was figure out how to go about getting the two men together, something she had neglected to thing about during her searching.
"Wonderful." She huffed dryly, suddenly deflated when she realized that she had no idea what to do with her newfound knowledge about the ever allusive mister Jones.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - 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!