Fic: The Right Kind of Wrong ( 5 / ? )
Title: The Right Kind Of Wrong ( 5 / ? )
Characters: Owen Harper/OFC
Rating: Just this side of R (for some language)
Warning(s): none at the moment
Spoiler(s): We have smashed into "Greeks Bearing Gifts" with our cute little AU vehicle and splattered it (chapter includes dialog from the episode).
Summary: Being an med intern is never easy. Especially if you find yourself suddenly working for Torchwood.
Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own Torchwood and its associated characters and places and things. I wish I did, but I don't.
Author note: Beta's rule! Thank you to
bellasianna ,
stopwatch_happy , and
mrs_cj_harkness once again.
Loyal readers, we have a special treat for you today. It started with an idea and ended with a challenge to 2 of my beta's,
bellasianna and
mrs_cj_harkness . I present 2 companion pieces. The first is "Goodnight Wherever You Are" by
bellasianna , and is the story of Jack and Catherine (I hear people going "Whos Catherine?"....read chapter 5 and then Bella's story to find out). The second is "Ghost of You" by
mrs_cj_harkness , which tells the story of how Jack found out about Kayla.
As always, loyal readers, comments are love! And inspire us lowly writers to create more for you to enjoy.
Previous Chapters: ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR
CHAPTER 5
Kayla ignored Owen who had taken up the unsettling habit of staring at her. Things had been uncomfortable ever since the kiss in the locker room and he wasn’t making things easier. Little comments and innuendoes, “accidental” touches, the constant watching her when she was around. That she had to work with him as he was technically in charge of her medical training at Torchwood kept her from being able to avoid him as much as she’d like.
“Owen, did you hear anything I just said to you?”
Kayla looked up from the file she was reading and gave Gwen a sympathetic look. Owen snapped out of it and turned to Gwen with a questioning look.
“I’m sorry. What?” he asked her.
“What is with you lately? You’ve been so spacey.” Gwen gave him a worried look. “Are you sure you are feeling ok?”
“I don’t remember you having a problem with how I was feeling in the car this morning.”
Kayla choked on the sip of tea that she had just taken. A quick decision to make a retreat had her scurrying to gather up the case files she had been reviewing, grabbing her cup of tea, and making a beeline for the stairs up to the conference room before Owen could somehow involve her in the conversation. She was surprised to notice Tosh following her just as quickly, laptop tucked under one arm and a stack of files in the other. She gave the other woman a questioning look.
“I can’t stand it when they start that,” Tosh confessed as they entered the conference room and deposited their stuff on the table. “How’s the case review coming?” Tosh indicated the file Kayla had just re-opened as she sat down.
“Slow and boring, if you must know. It’s amazing just how unexciting a study of an autopsy of an alien can be.”
Tosh grinned at her in amusement. “Just you wait till until you’ve been here a more than a few months. You will be longing for days when all you have to do is review case files. How much longer until you finish your degree?”
“Too long,” Kayla said with a laugh. “I am still in my first year of internship. I have at least one year, maybe more, of residency before I can sit the exam. Depends on what my student advisor and/or supervisors decide.”
“You mean it may be up to Owen when you are ready to sit the exams for your qualifications?”
“Unfortunately,” Kayla grumbled, glaring at his writing on the page in front of her. Tosh gave her an understanding look.
“Don’t let him get to you. He’s a bit of an ass, but……honestly, there is a good side to him. He has moments when he acts like he’s a normal human being.” Tosh laughed as Kayla gave her a look that said that she highly doubted that. “Come out for a drink after work, and I will tell you stories about him.”
“Thanks, but I can’t. Have an avalanche of work Mr. Humanity down there set for me to do by the end of the week. Take a raincheck?”
Tosh nodded in agreement as they settled down to their separate tasks. They worked in companionable silence until Jack stormed out of his office below, shouting orders. Kayla flipped the file closed once more with a sigh and headed out to find out what was going on.
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The SUV screeched to a halt at the construction site. Doors flew open as the team piled out, grabbing equipment and hurrying to follow Jack towards the red tent set up mid-site. Owen sent her back to the vehicle to grab a second medical kit. She ignored the stares of the construction workers standing around as she grabbed the kit and jogged back towards the tent.
“Once, just once, I'd like to walk into one of these tents and find it's a party. You know, food, drink, people dancing, the girl crying in the corner,” she heard Jack say as she entered the tent. He shared a grin with her as she skirted past him and set the second case down on the edge of the dug up pit. Crouching down next to him, she flipped the case open and pulled on a pair of gloves, ready to assist when asked.
Owen held out his hand as he was examining the dug up remains. “Specimen jar.” Kayla grabbed one from the case, unscrewed the cap and handed it to him. She watched him carefully take a scraped sample from the shattered edges of the ribs. He looked up and met her eyes as he realized she was watching him. She felt a jolt in her gut as she read the same look in his eyes that she had seen as she had fled [from]him that day he had kissed her. Standing up, she turned her back on him and took a few steps away to crouch by another of the open cases, pretending to be looking through it for something. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her shaking hands.
She jumped when Jack touched her arm. “You ok?” he asked her quietly. She nodded, not trusting herself to speak at that moment. Jack looked at Owen who was scowling at them and then back at her. “Listen, why don’t you go and interview some of the workers who found the remains? Owen can get along without you here to assist until we get back to the hub. Go on.” He turned back to the device that had been buried with the skeleton as Kayla gathered the interview equipment and stood up.
“Any idea what it is?” she heard Gwen ask as she hurried out of the tent. She could hear Jack’s wristband computer beeping as he pressed a few buttons before the noise of the construction site overpowered the sounds from inside the tent.
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“I really didn’t get any useful information from the workers, unfortunately.”
Seated in the chair in front of Jack’s desk, she was going over the interview notes she had put together and giving a report to him.
“I didn’t think they’d have anything particularly useful to say, but you never know when a stray piece of information will come up. Good job on the interviews. We’ll make a field agent of you yet.” He gave her a wide grin. “As long as we don’t allow you to go chasing after any more Phlynx’s, that is.” They both burst into laughter at the memory of that disaster. The sound of angry voices out in the main hub interrupted them and Jack got up from his desk and walked to the door of his office.
“What happened to the computer?” they heard Toshiko angrily ask Owen and Gwen.
“Oh. I kicked out the plug,” came Owen’s reply.
Jack closed the office door and turned back to her, catching her staring at Owen, a serious expression on his face. He moved to lean against his desk and look down at her.
“Are you going to tell me what was bothering you at the dig site this morning? What did Owen do?”
Kayla avoided looking at him. “Nothing is wrong. No one did anything.”
“Why don’t I exactly believe that?” He gave her a searching look before pulling the other chair up to face her and sitting down. His expression was serious, almost protective, as he leaned forward to speak to her. “You know you can come speak to me if something is bothering you?” She nodded in response. “So what’s going on? You’ve been jumpy around him for a few days. If he’s doing anything to bother you, tell me and I will take care of it.”
“Nothing is wrong. Just the nerves of settling into a new job is all it is.”
He gave her a doubting look. “That’s all it is?”
“That’s all,” she said evasively. “I need to get back to work. I’ve a pile of back cases to go through and make notes on. I also have to assist with the post-mortem on the remains from the dig site.” She quickly stood up and moved towards the door.
“Remember, if you need to talk, you can come talk to me. Door is always open.” He gave her a reassuring smile as she opened the door and headed out.
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Toshiko sits at the bar, nursing her drink and lost in thought when the blonde approaches her.
“The guy over there's been staring at me all evening, and I told him he's wasting his time but he won't listen. So I've come over to talk to you because I know how this ends,” she leans in to say to Tosh as she gestures at a guy at the back of the bar. “He gets a punch in the neck and I get barred, and I've already been barred from about twenty pubs. And I don't want to get barred from this one because they do these nice olives on the tables.”
Tosh gives her a perplexed look. “Right. Okay, then.”
“Cool. Let me get you a drink.”
“Really, there's no need.”
The woman signals the bartender to come over. “JD and Coke, and ... Toshiko, what do you want?”
“I didn't tell you my name,” Tosh replies warily. The other woman gives her a penetrating look.
“Oh, yeah. That was the other thing. I kind of know who you are.”
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“Make sure you put those files back in the right place,” Ianto grumbled as Kayla passed him in the archives.
Kayla gives him an innocent smile. “You mean make sure I put the A files in with the Z files and split the T files between I, O, and U?” She giggled at the aggrieved look he gave her.
“That’s not even funny.”
“Oh, come off it, yes it is. You know it is. You just refuse to admit you find it funny.”
They could hear laughter coming from the main part of the hub and Gwen singing something about bones. Ianto held out his hand for the files she was returning. “Just give them to me and I will put them back. At least I can make sure they end up in the right place.”
“You actually don’t trust me to put them away right, do you?” She gave Ianto a teasing smile as she put the folders in his hand and headed out of the archive.
“It’s just easier this way,” he called after her.
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“Why have you been avoiding me?”
Kayla looked up, startled at Owen’s question to find him studying her intensely across the exam table. He had asked it so quietly she was not even sure he had actually said anything to her. “What?”
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” She returned to taking measurements of the hole in the skeletons chest cavity.
“Liar. Ever since the day I kissed you, you’ve gone out of your way to avoid being left alone with me. Do I scare you, kitten?”
Kayla gave him an annoyed look as she walked away from the table to write down her measurements on a pad of paper sitting on stool. “First off, my name is not ‘kitten’. Second, you don’t scare me. Annoy me? Yes. Irritate me? Yes. But scare? Hardly.” She jumped as she felt his hands on her waist and twisted around to face him.
“I don’t scare you, huh? Then why so nervous?” He tightened his grip on her waist as she tried to step away. “Now, no running away.”
“Let go of me, Owen,” she whispered, not meeting his eyes.
“Look at me, Kayla.” One hand moved from her waist and trailed slowly up her arm, making her shiver as she looked up at him. He leaned in to kiss her just as they heard the hub door roll open and Tosh called out a greeting. Making a frustrated sound and letting go of her, he watched Kayla flee up the stairs as Tosh wandered into the autopsy bay carrying coffees.
Tosh watched in surprise as the younger woman practically sprinted out of the room, deciding to use the necklace later to find out if she was ok, before turning back to Owen and offering one of the coffees.
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Watching Owen and Kayla interact later on that day, Tosh decided something was definitely bothering Kayla. Worried for the younger girl, and knowing that something was going on between Owen and Gwen, she justified her actions as she slipped the necklace back around her neck.
Kayla’s voice echoed in her mind. “I shouldn’t have let him kiss me. I should have shoved him away.” She watched Kayla move her hand away from Owen’s when he tried to cover it with his own.
“She wear’s purple so often. It looks good on her though, that shade in particular.” Owen was studying Kayla out of the corner of his eye. “I have sheets that exact shade of purple. I wonder if she’d look as good in them…..no, don’t go there, Owen.”
Kayla looked up at Owen when he turned away. “I wonder if he’ll try to kiss me again. Not that I want him to.” Her cheeks flushed as Owen caught her looking at him and he gave her a slow smile. “Who am I kidding? I want him to kiss me. I want him to do more than that. And that’s a bad thing. Think of something else, dammit, you know he can tell you are thinking about him. That smirk on his faces says so.”
Owen leaned closer to Kayla on the pretense of reading something she was pointing out over her shoulder, but Tosh didn’t miss the deep inhalation as he brought his face close to Kayla’s hair. “She smells so good. Like roses and something else I can’t name.” He frowned as Kayla moved away from him. “She’s so skittish. Probably has to be because the first time you kissed her, she happened to be pinned up against a locker in nothing but a towel, you idiot. Here comes Gwen, pretend like everything is fine. I don’t need to deal with her jealousy. She’s already accused me of coming on to Kayla. Don’t give her any more reason to question it.”
Owen noticied Tosh watching them. “You ok, Tosh?”
“Yeah, fine,” she said hurriedly, pulling the necklace back off. “I have to go out for a bit.” She jumped up and grabbed her jacket and bag and headed for the exit. Jack came out of his office to watch her leave, a dark look of concern on his face as she disappeared through the door.
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Kayla followed Gwen out of the autopsy bay slowly, the air in the hub electrified with tension. She’d been ordered by Jack to stay with Gwen when he sent everyone to lay in wait for a visitor. Everyone was on edge after Owen’s discovery that the remains in the morgue wasn’t the last victim of whatever had killed him.
Jack stood confronting the blonde woman Toshiko had brought into the base as she confessed to being the one to kill all those people in the files Owen had located. Kayla felt sickened, remembering the photos, the gaping holes in each victim’s chest where the missing hearts should have been.
“Owen, no!” Tosh cried out, as Owen made to grab the creature calling herself Mary. Kayla’s breathing stopped as she watched Mary move so fast that she was little more than a blur of light. Next thing they all knew, she was using Tosh as a shield with a wicked looking knife pressed to her throat.
“ Let her go, Mary!” Jack ordered. “Let her go!”
Mary just smiled a feral grin. “Toshiko, tell them to give me the transporter.
“I can't, Mary,” Tosh cried brokenly. Kayla tensed, looking for any oppurtunity to do something, feeling powerless to stop it all from happening.
“How's this? I'll exchange Toshiko for that one.” She motioned to Gwen. “Your choice.” Kayla tried to edge in front of Gwen to block her. “No? Then how about the other one?” She stared at straight at Kayla, freezing her in her tracks as Owen looked at both Kayla and Gwen before looking back at Mary.
“Just put the knife down,” he said in a rough voice.
“Did you hear him? He didn't want to, did he?” Mary purred in Tosh’s ear.
“Please, don't ...” Tosh begged.
Mary continued to torment her, playing on her fears. “That's what they think of you. That's who you've been working with for all these years.”
“It's not true, Tosh, don't listen,” Owen interrupted.
“But not me, whatever I've done, it doesn't change the way I feel about you. We have a connection, Toshiko, something real.”
Tosh pleaded with Mary again. “Please.”
Jack edged closer, holding out the alien technology towards Mary cautiously. “Okay, you want the transporter, we want Toshiko. I think that’s a fair swap. Keep the knife and I'll give you the transporter myself.”
Mary pushed Toshiko toward Owen who quickly stepped between them, victory in her eyes as she reached for the transporter. Jack edged closer until she had a good hold on it. Mary paused, giving him a strange look as she leaned into scent the air.
“You smell...different to them.”
Jack just gives her a dangerous smile. “That's nothing. It's when you compare teeth with a British guy, that's when it's really scary.”
Mary’s eyes fell on Kayla who had been edging forward, ready to spring into action if needed. “She smells like you. Fainter, but the blood tells. Another of your kind, another of your line.” The words froze Kayla in place, her eyes going immediately to Jack in time to see a stricken, painful look cross his face before he schooled his features to not give anything away. Mary looked between the two of them, a curious expression on her face. “What are you?”
“I don't know,” Jack said seriously. Suddenly, the transport sprang to life as he stepped back, holding out an arm to guide Kayla behind him, shielding her.
“What's happening?” Mary asked, perplexed, looking at the transporter.
“Oh, that. I reprogrammed it for you. It's set to enable.” He shrugged casually as a bright light engulfed Mary and the transporter and shot towards the ceiling. Mary was gone when it cleared. “Sort of now.”
Tosh looked at Jack with a stricken expression. “What did she.…? Has she gone home?”
“I reset the co-ordinates.”
“Where to?”
“To the center of the sun. It shouldn't be hot. I mean, we sent her there at night and everything.”
“You killed her,” Tosh accused.
“Yes,” he replies harshly. He turned and came face to face with Kayla, pale and staring at him.
“What did Mary mean, Jack? The blood tells? Another of your line? What the hell does that mean?”
Jack looked suddenly weary and lost. “We need to talk. It’s time you learned about something I should have told you sooner. This wasn’t the way I wanted you to find out.” He gripped her arm firmly and steered her towards his office, not giving her a chance to reply, ignoring Tosh’s tears and the rest of the team’s questions. Owen caught Ianto’s troubled expression.
“What is going on, Ianto?” he asked the other man. Ianto just shook his head.
“He’ll tell everyone once he’s talked to Kayla. She has a right to know first.” He put an arm around Tosh and guided her towards the conference room. Gwen moved to stand next to Owen, the two of them exchanging troubled looks.
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Jack guided Kayla into his office, closing the door softly behind them. Seating her on the sofa, he kneeled in front of her and held her hands firmly as she looked at him apprehensively.
“There is a story I need to tell you. And I need you to just listen until I’m finished. Will you do that?” He smiled warmly as she nodded quietly. “That’s my girl”. He got up and pulled a chair around to face her. Sitting down, he leaned forward and took her hands in his again.
“I know you’ve heard the others talking about the fact that I supposedly can’t die. It’s true. Something happened a long time ago, I don’t know what, but I’ve not been able to die since then. I can’t explain it, but its true. Because of that, I’ve lived a very long time. I’ve seen decades come and go, never really aging. People coming into my life, people I loved, only to lose them to time moving on. Do you understand what I am saying so far?”
“Yes,” Kayla whispered softly. He squeezed her hands reassuringly. He knew there were parts of his past he couldn’t reveal to her right now, but there was one part she had to know.
“The story I need to tell you starts in London during the fall of 1940. I was an American volunteer, enlisted with the RAF during the war. There was this dance, one of the ones always being held for the soldiers. It’s where I saw her for the first time. She was so unlike the other girls there, she seemed so sad and serious. I followed her out onto the balcony just to talk to her, something about her called to me. It was the start of one of the most intense loves of my life, four of the happiest months of my extended life. I loved her so much, but I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t put her through having to deal with what I was, what I am. We were intimate shortly before we parted. I never knew there was a child. Had I known, I would have gone back. It wasn’t until a little over a year ago that I knew there had been a child. It’s when I met you for the first time.” He chuckled slightly at her confused expression. “You don’t remember, do you? I ran into you literally, up there.” He gestures with a nod towards the ceiling. “The first time I looked at you, I thought you were her. You could be her twin, except for the eyes. And the necklace……you were wearing her necklace.” Tears were streaking down his cheeks at this point. “Once I saw you, I had to find out who you were. There were too many coincidences to ignore.”
Kayla’s eyes widened as the memory clicked into place. The man who hadn’t been watching where he was going who knocked her down. His calling her Catherine as he started to pull her to feet, before he dropped her and disappeared once he realized she wasn’t whom he thought.
"My god, that was you," she said in shock. "And if what you are saying is true…….she told me stories as a child, of the dashing Captain who swept her off her feet. The great war hero, the greatest love of her life. The man who was Grandpa Jack's real father." Kayla jerked her hands out of his grasp and stood up. She began to pace blindly back and forth, her heart hammering in her chest as she fought to breathe. She stopped and stared at him with a mixture of anger and disbelief. "That means…."
"That I am Jack Harkness, lover of Catherine Andrews. Father of Jack Andrews, grandfather of Alice Andrews." He felt a pain in his chest at her stricken expression as the tears poured silently down her unnaturally pale cheeks. Stepping forward he reached out to take hold of her arms. "It means I am your great-grandfather."
The sound of her hand connecting with his cheek echoed like a gunshot in the small office. "You bastard!" she screamed at him. "She mourned you till the day she died, thinking you were dead. I was there in the garden the day she passed, I was at her side. You know what she said?" Kayla fought to breathe around her hysterical sobs. "She told me not to cry, that she was going to be with her Captain again, that he was waiting for her." She backed away from him until she collided with the office door. "You fucking abandoned her! You never came back for her, or your son. I am glad she never knew the truth of what you did." Fumbling for the doorknob, she tore the door open and charged out of the office and headed for the exit.
"Kayla!" he shouted, running after her. She made it to the lift before he could stop her and he caught one last glimpse of her tearstained face as the doors slid shut. He retraced the steps to his office in stony silence, ignoring the worried questions from the others. He slammed the door shut behind himself, leaving them all standing there in shock.
Characters: Owen Harper/OFC
Rating: Just this side of R (for some language)
Warning(s): none at the moment
Spoiler(s): We have smashed into "Greeks Bearing Gifts" with our cute little AU vehicle and splattered it (chapter includes dialog from the episode).
Summary: Being an med intern is never easy. Especially if you find yourself suddenly working for Torchwood.
Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own Torchwood and its associated characters and places and things. I wish I did, but I don't.
Author note: Beta's rule! Thank you to
bellasianna ,
stopwatch_happy , and
mrs_cj_harkness once again.
Loyal readers, we have a special treat for you today. It started with an idea and ended with a challenge to 2 of my beta's,
bellasianna and
mrs_cj_harkness . I present 2 companion pieces. The first is "Goodnight Wherever You Are" by
bellasianna , and is the story of Jack and Catherine (I hear people going "Whos Catherine?"....read chapter 5 and then Bella's story to find out). The second is "Ghost of You" by
mrs_cj_harkness , which tells the story of how Jack found out about Kayla.
As always, loyal readers, comments are love! And inspire us lowly writers to create more for you to enjoy.
Previous Chapters: ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR
CHAPTER 5
Kayla ignored Owen who had taken up the unsettling habit of staring at her. Things had been uncomfortable ever since the kiss in the locker room and he wasn’t making things easier. Little comments and innuendoes, “accidental” touches, the constant watching her when she was around. That she had to work with him as he was technically in charge of her medical training at Torchwood kept her from being able to avoid him as much as she’d like.
“Owen, did you hear anything I just said to you?”
Kayla looked up from the file she was reading and gave Gwen a sympathetic look. Owen snapped out of it and turned to Gwen with a questioning look.
“I’m sorry. What?” he asked her.
“What is with you lately? You’ve been so spacey.” Gwen gave him a worried look. “Are you sure you are feeling ok?”
“I don’t remember you having a problem with how I was feeling in the car this morning.”
Kayla choked on the sip of tea that she had just taken. A quick decision to make a retreat had her scurrying to gather up the case files she had been reviewing, grabbing her cup of tea, and making a beeline for the stairs up to the conference room before Owen could somehow involve her in the conversation. She was surprised to notice Tosh following her just as quickly, laptop tucked under one arm and a stack of files in the other. She gave the other woman a questioning look.
“I can’t stand it when they start that,” Tosh confessed as they entered the conference room and deposited their stuff on the table. “How’s the case review coming?” Tosh indicated the file Kayla had just re-opened as she sat down.
“Slow and boring, if you must know. It’s amazing just how unexciting a study of an autopsy of an alien can be.”
Tosh grinned at her in amusement. “Just you wait till until you’ve been here a more than a few months. You will be longing for days when all you have to do is review case files. How much longer until you finish your degree?”
“Too long,” Kayla said with a laugh. “I am still in my first year of internship. I have at least one year, maybe more, of residency before I can sit the exam. Depends on what my student advisor and/or supervisors decide.”
“You mean it may be up to Owen when you are ready to sit the exams for your qualifications?”
“Unfortunately,” Kayla grumbled, glaring at his writing on the page in front of her. Tosh gave her an understanding look.
“Don’t let him get to you. He’s a bit of an ass, but……honestly, there is a good side to him. He has moments when he acts like he’s a normal human being.” Tosh laughed as Kayla gave her a look that said that she highly doubted that. “Come out for a drink after work, and I will tell you stories about him.”
“Thanks, but I can’t. Have an avalanche of work Mr. Humanity down there set for me to do by the end of the week. Take a raincheck?”
Tosh nodded in agreement as they settled down to their separate tasks. They worked in companionable silence until Jack stormed out of his office below, shouting orders. Kayla flipped the file closed once more with a sigh and headed out to find out what was going on.
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The SUV screeched to a halt at the construction site. Doors flew open as the team piled out, grabbing equipment and hurrying to follow Jack towards the red tent set up mid-site. Owen sent her back to the vehicle to grab a second medical kit. She ignored the stares of the construction workers standing around as she grabbed the kit and jogged back towards the tent.
“Once, just once, I'd like to walk into one of these tents and find it's a party. You know, food, drink, people dancing, the girl crying in the corner,” she heard Jack say as she entered the tent. He shared a grin with her as she skirted past him and set the second case down on the edge of the dug up pit. Crouching down next to him, she flipped the case open and pulled on a pair of gloves, ready to assist when asked.
Owen held out his hand as he was examining the dug up remains. “Specimen jar.” Kayla grabbed one from the case, unscrewed the cap and handed it to him. She watched him carefully take a scraped sample from the shattered edges of the ribs. He looked up and met her eyes as he realized she was watching him. She felt a jolt in her gut as she read the same look in his eyes that she had seen as she had fled [from]him that day he had kissed her. Standing up, she turned her back on him and took a few steps away to crouch by another of the open cases, pretending to be looking through it for something. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her shaking hands.
She jumped when Jack touched her arm. “You ok?” he asked her quietly. She nodded, not trusting herself to speak at that moment. Jack looked at Owen who was scowling at them and then back at her. “Listen, why don’t you go and interview some of the workers who found the remains? Owen can get along without you here to assist until we get back to the hub. Go on.” He turned back to the device that had been buried with the skeleton as Kayla gathered the interview equipment and stood up.
“Any idea what it is?” she heard Gwen ask as she hurried out of the tent. She could hear Jack’s wristband computer beeping as he pressed a few buttons before the noise of the construction site overpowered the sounds from inside the tent.
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“I really didn’t get any useful information from the workers, unfortunately.”
Seated in the chair in front of Jack’s desk, she was going over the interview notes she had put together and giving a report to him.
“I didn’t think they’d have anything particularly useful to say, but you never know when a stray piece of information will come up. Good job on the interviews. We’ll make a field agent of you yet.” He gave her a wide grin. “As long as we don’t allow you to go chasing after any more Phlynx’s, that is.” They both burst into laughter at the memory of that disaster. The sound of angry voices out in the main hub interrupted them and Jack got up from his desk and walked to the door of his office.
“What happened to the computer?” they heard Toshiko angrily ask Owen and Gwen.
“Oh. I kicked out the plug,” came Owen’s reply.
Jack closed the office door and turned back to her, catching her staring at Owen, a serious expression on his face. He moved to lean against his desk and look down at her.
“Are you going to tell me what was bothering you at the dig site this morning? What did Owen do?”
Kayla avoided looking at him. “Nothing is wrong. No one did anything.”
“Why don’t I exactly believe that?” He gave her a searching look before pulling the other chair up to face her and sitting down. His expression was serious, almost protective, as he leaned forward to speak to her. “You know you can come speak to me if something is bothering you?” She nodded in response. “So what’s going on? You’ve been jumpy around him for a few days. If he’s doing anything to bother you, tell me and I will take care of it.”
“Nothing is wrong. Just the nerves of settling into a new job is all it is.”
He gave her a doubting look. “That’s all it is?”
“That’s all,” she said evasively. “I need to get back to work. I’ve a pile of back cases to go through and make notes on. I also have to assist with the post-mortem on the remains from the dig site.” She quickly stood up and moved towards the door.
“Remember, if you need to talk, you can come talk to me. Door is always open.” He gave her a reassuring smile as she opened the door and headed out.
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Toshiko sits at the bar, nursing her drink and lost in thought when the blonde approaches her.
“The guy over there's been staring at me all evening, and I told him he's wasting his time but he won't listen. So I've come over to talk to you because I know how this ends,” she leans in to say to Tosh as she gestures at a guy at the back of the bar. “He gets a punch in the neck and I get barred, and I've already been barred from about twenty pubs. And I don't want to get barred from this one because they do these nice olives on the tables.”
Tosh gives her a perplexed look. “Right. Okay, then.”
“Cool. Let me get you a drink.”
“Really, there's no need.”
The woman signals the bartender to come over. “JD and Coke, and ... Toshiko, what do you want?”
“I didn't tell you my name,” Tosh replies warily. The other woman gives her a penetrating look.
“Oh, yeah. That was the other thing. I kind of know who you are.”
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“Make sure you put those files back in the right place,” Ianto grumbled as Kayla passed him in the archives.
Kayla gives him an innocent smile. “You mean make sure I put the A files in with the Z files and split the T files between I, O, and U?” She giggled at the aggrieved look he gave her.
“That’s not even funny.”
“Oh, come off it, yes it is. You know it is. You just refuse to admit you find it funny.”
They could hear laughter coming from the main part of the hub and Gwen singing something about bones. Ianto held out his hand for the files she was returning. “Just give them to me and I will put them back. At least I can make sure they end up in the right place.”
“You actually don’t trust me to put them away right, do you?” She gave Ianto a teasing smile as she put the folders in his hand and headed out of the archive.
“It’s just easier this way,” he called after her.
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“Why have you been avoiding me?”
Kayla looked up, startled at Owen’s question to find him studying her intensely across the exam table. He had asked it so quietly she was not even sure he had actually said anything to her. “What?”
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” She returned to taking measurements of the hole in the skeletons chest cavity.
“Liar. Ever since the day I kissed you, you’ve gone out of your way to avoid being left alone with me. Do I scare you, kitten?”
Kayla gave him an annoyed look as she walked away from the table to write down her measurements on a pad of paper sitting on stool. “First off, my name is not ‘kitten’. Second, you don’t scare me. Annoy me? Yes. Irritate me? Yes. But scare? Hardly.” She jumped as she felt his hands on her waist and twisted around to face him.
“I don’t scare you, huh? Then why so nervous?” He tightened his grip on her waist as she tried to step away. “Now, no running away.”
“Let go of me, Owen,” she whispered, not meeting his eyes.
“Look at me, Kayla.” One hand moved from her waist and trailed slowly up her arm, making her shiver as she looked up at him. He leaned in to kiss her just as they heard the hub door roll open and Tosh called out a greeting. Making a frustrated sound and letting go of her, he watched Kayla flee up the stairs as Tosh wandered into the autopsy bay carrying coffees.
Tosh watched in surprise as the younger woman practically sprinted out of the room, deciding to use the necklace later to find out if she was ok, before turning back to Owen and offering one of the coffees.
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Watching Owen and Kayla interact later on that day, Tosh decided something was definitely bothering Kayla. Worried for the younger girl, and knowing that something was going on between Owen and Gwen, she justified her actions as she slipped the necklace back around her neck.
Kayla’s voice echoed in her mind. “I shouldn’t have let him kiss me. I should have shoved him away.” She watched Kayla move her hand away from Owen’s when he tried to cover it with his own.
“She wear’s purple so often. It looks good on her though, that shade in particular.” Owen was studying Kayla out of the corner of his eye. “I have sheets that exact shade of purple. I wonder if she’d look as good in them…..no, don’t go there, Owen.”
Kayla looked up at Owen when he turned away. “I wonder if he’ll try to kiss me again. Not that I want him to.” Her cheeks flushed as Owen caught her looking at him and he gave her a slow smile. “Who am I kidding? I want him to kiss me. I want him to do more than that. And that’s a bad thing. Think of something else, dammit, you know he can tell you are thinking about him. That smirk on his faces says so.”
Owen leaned closer to Kayla on the pretense of reading something she was pointing out over her shoulder, but Tosh didn’t miss the deep inhalation as he brought his face close to Kayla’s hair. “She smells so good. Like roses and something else I can’t name.” He frowned as Kayla moved away from him. “She’s so skittish. Probably has to be because the first time you kissed her, she happened to be pinned up against a locker in nothing but a towel, you idiot. Here comes Gwen, pretend like everything is fine. I don’t need to deal with her jealousy. She’s already accused me of coming on to Kayla. Don’t give her any more reason to question it.”
Owen noticied Tosh watching them. “You ok, Tosh?”
“Yeah, fine,” she said hurriedly, pulling the necklace back off. “I have to go out for a bit.” She jumped up and grabbed her jacket and bag and headed for the exit. Jack came out of his office to watch her leave, a dark look of concern on his face as she disappeared through the door.
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Kayla followed Gwen out of the autopsy bay slowly, the air in the hub electrified with tension. She’d been ordered by Jack to stay with Gwen when he sent everyone to lay in wait for a visitor. Everyone was on edge after Owen’s discovery that the remains in the morgue wasn’t the last victim of whatever had killed him.
Jack stood confronting the blonde woman Toshiko had brought into the base as she confessed to being the one to kill all those people in the files Owen had located. Kayla felt sickened, remembering the photos, the gaping holes in each victim’s chest where the missing hearts should have been.
“Owen, no!” Tosh cried out, as Owen made to grab the creature calling herself Mary. Kayla’s breathing stopped as she watched Mary move so fast that she was little more than a blur of light. Next thing they all knew, she was using Tosh as a shield with a wicked looking knife pressed to her throat.
“ Let her go, Mary!” Jack ordered. “Let her go!”
Mary just smiled a feral grin. “Toshiko, tell them to give me the transporter.
“I can't, Mary,” Tosh cried brokenly. Kayla tensed, looking for any oppurtunity to do something, feeling powerless to stop it all from happening.
“How's this? I'll exchange Toshiko for that one.” She motioned to Gwen. “Your choice.” Kayla tried to edge in front of Gwen to block her. “No? Then how about the other one?” She stared at straight at Kayla, freezing her in her tracks as Owen looked at both Kayla and Gwen before looking back at Mary.
“Just put the knife down,” he said in a rough voice.
“Did you hear him? He didn't want to, did he?” Mary purred in Tosh’s ear.
“Please, don't ...” Tosh begged.
Mary continued to torment her, playing on her fears. “That's what they think of you. That's who you've been working with for all these years.”
“It's not true, Tosh, don't listen,” Owen interrupted.
“But not me, whatever I've done, it doesn't change the way I feel about you. We have a connection, Toshiko, something real.”
Tosh pleaded with Mary again. “Please.”
Jack edged closer, holding out the alien technology towards Mary cautiously. “Okay, you want the transporter, we want Toshiko. I think that’s a fair swap. Keep the knife and I'll give you the transporter myself.”
Mary pushed Toshiko toward Owen who quickly stepped between them, victory in her eyes as she reached for the transporter. Jack edged closer until she had a good hold on it. Mary paused, giving him a strange look as she leaned into scent the air.
“You smell...different to them.”
Jack just gives her a dangerous smile. “That's nothing. It's when you compare teeth with a British guy, that's when it's really scary.”
Mary’s eyes fell on Kayla who had been edging forward, ready to spring into action if needed. “She smells like you. Fainter, but the blood tells. Another of your kind, another of your line.” The words froze Kayla in place, her eyes going immediately to Jack in time to see a stricken, painful look cross his face before he schooled his features to not give anything away. Mary looked between the two of them, a curious expression on her face. “What are you?”
“I don't know,” Jack said seriously. Suddenly, the transport sprang to life as he stepped back, holding out an arm to guide Kayla behind him, shielding her.
“What's happening?” Mary asked, perplexed, looking at the transporter.
“Oh, that. I reprogrammed it for you. It's set to enable.” He shrugged casually as a bright light engulfed Mary and the transporter and shot towards the ceiling. Mary was gone when it cleared. “Sort of now.”
Tosh looked at Jack with a stricken expression. “What did she.…? Has she gone home?”
“I reset the co-ordinates.”
“Where to?”
“To the center of the sun. It shouldn't be hot. I mean, we sent her there at night and everything.”
“You killed her,” Tosh accused.
“Yes,” he replies harshly. He turned and came face to face with Kayla, pale and staring at him.
“What did Mary mean, Jack? The blood tells? Another of your line? What the hell does that mean?”
Jack looked suddenly weary and lost. “We need to talk. It’s time you learned about something I should have told you sooner. This wasn’t the way I wanted you to find out.” He gripped her arm firmly and steered her towards his office, not giving her a chance to reply, ignoring Tosh’s tears and the rest of the team’s questions. Owen caught Ianto’s troubled expression.
“What is going on, Ianto?” he asked the other man. Ianto just shook his head.
“He’ll tell everyone once he’s talked to Kayla. She has a right to know first.” He put an arm around Tosh and guided her towards the conference room. Gwen moved to stand next to Owen, the two of them exchanging troubled looks.
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Jack guided Kayla into his office, closing the door softly behind them. Seating her on the sofa, he kneeled in front of her and held her hands firmly as she looked at him apprehensively.
“There is a story I need to tell you. And I need you to just listen until I’m finished. Will you do that?” He smiled warmly as she nodded quietly. “That’s my girl”. He got up and pulled a chair around to face her. Sitting down, he leaned forward and took her hands in his again.
“I know you’ve heard the others talking about the fact that I supposedly can’t die. It’s true. Something happened a long time ago, I don’t know what, but I’ve not been able to die since then. I can’t explain it, but its true. Because of that, I’ve lived a very long time. I’ve seen decades come and go, never really aging. People coming into my life, people I loved, only to lose them to time moving on. Do you understand what I am saying so far?”
“Yes,” Kayla whispered softly. He squeezed her hands reassuringly. He knew there were parts of his past he couldn’t reveal to her right now, but there was one part she had to know.
“The story I need to tell you starts in London during the fall of 1940. I was an American volunteer, enlisted with the RAF during the war. There was this dance, one of the ones always being held for the soldiers. It’s where I saw her for the first time. She was so unlike the other girls there, she seemed so sad and serious. I followed her out onto the balcony just to talk to her, something about her called to me. It was the start of one of the most intense loves of my life, four of the happiest months of my extended life. I loved her so much, but I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t put her through having to deal with what I was, what I am. We were intimate shortly before we parted. I never knew there was a child. Had I known, I would have gone back. It wasn’t until a little over a year ago that I knew there had been a child. It’s when I met you for the first time.” He chuckled slightly at her confused expression. “You don’t remember, do you? I ran into you literally, up there.” He gestures with a nod towards the ceiling. “The first time I looked at you, I thought you were her. You could be her twin, except for the eyes. And the necklace……you were wearing her necklace.” Tears were streaking down his cheeks at this point. “Once I saw you, I had to find out who you were. There were too many coincidences to ignore.”
Kayla’s eyes widened as the memory clicked into place. The man who hadn’t been watching where he was going who knocked her down. His calling her Catherine as he started to pull her to feet, before he dropped her and disappeared once he realized she wasn’t whom he thought.
"My god, that was you," she said in shock. "And if what you are saying is true…….she told me stories as a child, of the dashing Captain who swept her off her feet. The great war hero, the greatest love of her life. The man who was Grandpa Jack's real father." Kayla jerked her hands out of his grasp and stood up. She began to pace blindly back and forth, her heart hammering in her chest as she fought to breathe. She stopped and stared at him with a mixture of anger and disbelief. "That means…."
"That I am Jack Harkness, lover of Catherine Andrews. Father of Jack Andrews, grandfather of Alice Andrews." He felt a pain in his chest at her stricken expression as the tears poured silently down her unnaturally pale cheeks. Stepping forward he reached out to take hold of her arms. "It means I am your great-grandfather."
The sound of her hand connecting with his cheek echoed like a gunshot in the small office. "You bastard!" she screamed at him. "She mourned you till the day she died, thinking you were dead. I was there in the garden the day she passed, I was at her side. You know what she said?" Kayla fought to breathe around her hysterical sobs. "She told me not to cry, that she was going to be with her Captain again, that he was waiting for her." She backed away from him until she collided with the office door. "You fucking abandoned her! You never came back for her, or your son. I am glad she never knew the truth of what you did." Fumbling for the doorknob, she tore the door open and charged out of the office and headed for the exit.
"Kayla!" he shouted, running after her. She made it to the lift before he could stop her and he caught one last glimpse of her tearstained face as the doors slid shut. He retraced the steps to his office in stony silence, ignoring the worried questions from the others. He slammed the door shut behind himself, leaving them all standing there in shock.