Out of the Rift - Chapter 8
Title: Out of the Rift
Rating: R (for some violence and some eventual nudity and innuendo... hell, it is Torchwood)
Synopsis: A disturbance in the Rift, and the aftereffects are not exactly what they team figured it would be.
Disclaimers: If you recognize them, then they belong to BBC, RTD, and all those wonderful people. I'm just letting them play for a couple of days.
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Carole buried her head further into the pillow. She could hear the television on in the background, the WGN Morning News droning on. She stretched out, her toes touching the far arm of the couch. She slowly raised her head up, burying her hands under her pillow and looked around the living room. She blinked the eye boogers away and saw Owen staring at her from the recliner.
“Oh, wow, yeah. Good morning,” she croaked out, feeling her dry throat. She pushed her hair back, and propped herself up on her elbows. “I was partly hoping this was all just some really strange, very realistic feeling dream. I guess not.”
“Well, you guessed right,” Owen said.
Carole stared straight ahead into space for a moment. Without even looking at Owen she asked, “Are we the only ones up?”
“As far as I can tell.” He put the recliner down and sat forward. “Although I can’t guarantee that what the two of them are doing in your bedroom is called sleeping.”
Carole furrowed her eyebrows as she remembered the arrangements from the night before. She recalled a late night phone call from her dad letting her know he was okay and that he would be crashing at her aunt and uncle’s house in Wood Dale.
Gwen and Tosh were sharing her dad’s bedroom, she was on the couch in the living room, Owen had the sleeping bag, which he apparently had not used, and Jack and Ianto were sharing her bedroom, and her full-sized bed. Joanna, the Doctor and Donna had gone with Mary Jo to her house, while John, Omni, and Naomi had slept in their own beds last night.
She let out a sigh and then looked at Owen. “I guess I should wash up and get dressed.” Carole sat up and leaned back against the couch, her muscles aching from the night before. “And probably pop several Advil or Aleve.”
Owen got up and moved over to the couch, sitting down on her left side. He picked up her left arm and checked out the scratches. “Do they hurt? Did they give you any problem while sleeping?”
“Should it have?”
“No, but we weren’t able to disinfect it right away, I just wanted to make sure.” Owen found the artery on her wrist and seemed to be taking her pulse. “Especially with the diabetes, can’t afford an infection.”
“Thanks, but I really need to pee.”
Carole went to stand up, but Owen did not let go of her arm. He began to squeeze down on one of the pressure points in her wrist. She looked at him in surprise and tried to get up again. Owen pulled her back down.
“A couple of questions first,” Owen said, looking at her dead on. He pushed on the pressure point harder.
Carole tried to not notice the pain. “What?”
“I have a couple of questions about yesterday.”
“Uh, sure, okay, but I really gotta pee.”
“Later.”
“Great, just great.” Carole rolled her eyes.
Owen put his arm over hers, holding her down and continued the pressure on her wrist. She could feel it beginning to throb.
“How did you know I was a doctor?”
“What?”
“I never introduced myself as a doctor. Yet you knew I was a doctor at the airport. How?”
“Are you sure you didn’t say anything, I mean I thought you did-“
Owen applied more pressure. “I didn’t. I’ve had all night to think about it.”
“Ow… Jack said something.”
“He said that they would need a doctor, not that anyone was a doctor specifically.” He pressed down further and she could feel a twinge in her wrist.
“Son of a bitch that hurts! At the time you seemed like a caring, doctor type. I don’t know about now.” She mentally slapped herself for the smart move of mocking the man who was inflicting the pain upon her.
“I don’t believe you.”
Carole closed her eyes trying to gather her wits. All she had to do was scream and Jack would be out here in a heartbeat, but was that better? As she recalled Jack had some interesting tricks up his sleeve, too.
“Why do you trust us so easily?”
Carole opened her eyes and looked at Owen. “Trust you?”
“Trust us. You invited us in. You kept us with you. You stood next to us while we had weapons. You let us stay in your homes and actually slept. You are not surprised to know that there are aliens.”
“Well, with all the crazy shit that happens in this world, it’s hard to not believe in the paranormal and the existence of other life.” She tried to pull her throbbing arm away from him, but to no avail. “And you’re supposed to be the good guys, or did I judge you wrong on that account? I trust my gut, and I thought I could trust you guys.”
Carole tried to pull away again, and this time Owen let her go. She began to rub her wrist, cradling it next to her chest. She glared at Owen, not believing that this was happening to her in her own home. Had dying actually made him psychotic?
“You knew what Weevils were, called them by name, never mind calling me ‘King of the Weevils.’” Owen just stared ahead, but yet she could feel him looking at her. “You seemed to recognize us in the elevator. Your friend had no problem sharing a shower with Jack, and then the voice on her phone. That was Jack’s voice wasn’t it?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I used to only look out for myself, but some things have changed.” His eyes flicked down to his bandaged hand. “If I can keep them out of danger, maybe some things are worth it.”
Carole looked across the room, her eyes on her grandmother’s chair. How she wished her grandmother or mother had been around a bit longer, even then, they might not have had the advice for how to deal with converging realities and dimensions. She began to finger her mother’s wedding ring. She wore it on a chain around her neck, and the night before she had pulled it out and put it on. As if the realities weren’t already screwed up, now, how much do they tell them?
“I do know who you are Dr. Owen Harper.”
At the mention of his full name, which he had never said, he quickly turned to her. She held up her hand to silence him.
“We know what Torchwood is. How we know, and why, we can’t tell you. You have things that you can’t tell people, including other members of your team, and this we can’t, we shouldn’t tell you. Your appearing in the elevator yesterday was not a good sign, and we are aware of that. This way of, ‘knowing,’ is how I know what Weevils are, and blowfish.”
“Are you with the government?”
Carole thought a moment. “Nope. We’re not with the government, we’re not with the police, not with Interpol, or even the Russian mafia. We trust you, otherwise we would not let you have taken care of Joanna. I look out for my friends, too. You need to trust us.”
Owen regarded her a moment and then shook his head. “For now.”
“It’s a start. Great!” She jumped up and ran for the bathroom. “Now I REALLY gotta pee!” She ran into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her, just making it.
She was about to get ready to take a shower when she realized that despite grabbing the shorts and t-shirt she was wearing right now, she had not grabbed extra clothes from her room. Her mind drifted to what was probably going on in her bedroom and she smiled. Yet, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to walk in on that.
She shrugged her shoulders and decided to brush her teeth first. After she was finished with her teeth and washing her face, she quickly ran a brush through her hair and then opened the bathroom door. A grin spread across her face. Standing in front of her was Ianto, wearing only a pair of trouser pants, and holding her sheets.
“Where’s your laundry facilities,” he asked.
“Downstairs in the basement,” she replied. “Let me get you the lock code for our storage locker so you have detergent.” She led him into the kitchen and wrote down the lock combination and handed it to him. She then opened the junk drawer and pulled out a container of quarters. “You’ll need these, too.”
“Thank you.” Ianto took the items and went out the back door, his cute toes padding downstairs.
Carole watched the muscles in his back flex, biting her bottom lip. She then closed the door, and a thought dawned on her. If Ianto was up doing laundry, then Jack should be up and alone, so she could get her clothes from her bedroom. She hurried through the kitchen and the hallway and waltzed right into her sunlit room, and stopped short.
“Oh come on now, leaving nothing to the imagination, again!”
Before her stood the captain completely naked, not even a vortex manipulator to be seen.
“I was just about to shower if you must know. Unless you want to play naked hide and seek?”
“It’s a little early for fun and games.”
“I don’t think Ianto would agree with that. Him and that beautiful Welsh tongue.”
Carole smiled. This was probably at least the prelude to almost every fangirl’s fantasy, and it was happening right here in her sunny bedroom. She turned towards the windows and nearly jumped out of her skin. She dived across the room throwing the curtains together.
“Okay, clothes from now on,” she said as she straightened the curtains.
“You didn’t seem to mind just a moment ago, nor yesterday.”
“I am living on the ground floor, not the 17th, and my neighbors have children and some probably have weak hearts. If Eleanor had seen you, which she almost did, we would have had to send Owen out to take care of her as she fainted to the concrete.” Carole didn’t know if it was the abundance of 51st century pheromones in the room or the apologetic look Jack was giving her, but she relented a little. “Fine! But at least make sure the curtains are closed! Now get your shower so I can get mine.” Jack strode past her. “And I have plenty of towels behind the door!”
Carole grabbed a change of clothes and underwear and headed out of her bedroom to her phone, which was ringing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Owen handed it to her. She looked down at the caller ID and stopped dead in her tracks. It registered her bosses cell phone number.
“No. No. No. Oh no. This is not good. Where’s my agenda? Oh crap, where’s my agenda?” She dove for the coffee table, flipping over magazines and the Sunday Tribune. “It’s gotta be here. No. No. No.”
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Owen just sitting back on the couch, staying out of the fray. She threw papers all around but could not find her datebook. She stopped a moment, thinking, and then ran for her bedroom and her bookbag. She tore through it until she found her datebook at the bottom of the bag. She scurried back into the living room and was surprised to see Ianto, Tosh and Gwen standing there.
“Something wrong,” Gwen asked as a yawn escaped her lips.
“Maybe. I totally forgot, god I hope I didn’t forget.” Carole started flipping through her datebook until she got to June. She ran her finger down the page to Monday and there it was, her work schedule, “Starbucks 7:30-1:30.” She found her glasses on the top of the couch and put them on and squinted at the television. The tag for the news read, “7:51.” Carole sank down into the recliner. “Oh crap.”
“What is it,” Gwen said, coming around the couch.
“I was supposed to be at work 20 minutes ago,’ Carole said. “Work is at one of the local Starbucks and 18 miles away on the Edens Expressway, which even if I left right now, I wouldn’t get there before 9.”
“That doesn’t sound express,” Owen quipped.
“Nothing is express at this time in the morning. Everybody is trying to get to work, school, or what-not.” Carole looked at the three of them. “And how could I go to work? It’s not like nothings going on.” She looked down at her datebook and saw she was scheduled to work the next three days. “Crap, crap, crap. Margaret is going to kill me.”
Carole’s mind started trying to come up with an excuse as she flipped open her phone. As she did so, the digital readout told her she had ten missed calls. She stared open mouthed and then fixed a steely gaze on Owen.
“TEN CALLS! I got ten missed phone calls! You couldn’t answer the phone? Oh my god!” She hit the button on her phone to scroll through the calls. “Two from my boss. One from Johnny, my co-worker, just great! And seven from, oh shit. Aunt Carole called seven times and no one answered!” She immediately hit the redial for her aunt and uncle’s house. “No one is answering, this is not good.”
“Isn’t that where your father is staying,” Tosh supplied.
“No. He’s with my Aunt Terry. This is my Aunt Carole, the matriarch of the family now, who lives really close. If she thinks anything is wrong and that I am not answering, and now she is not answering…..” Carole’s head jerked up as she heard someone knocking on the back window. “Oh god, it’s her! Act, I don’t know, act normal or something.”
Carole could feel herself begin to sweat as she headed down the hallway and to the kitchen. She peeked out the kitchen curtains and saw her aunt’s blonde hair. She headed for the back door and let her aunt in.
“Hi! I just tried calling you.” Carole led her aunt into the kitchen. “What brings you here?”
“What brings me here?” Her aunt just stared at her, that kind of look that seemed to bore straight through you. “What happened last night?
“Last night?”
“I’ve already talked to your uncle. Your father is over there, and something was said about his work, and then you don’t answer.”
“I had the phone on vibrate, I forgot. Once I knew dad was okay I guess I just passed out.”
Suddenly they could hear an argument or something break out in the living room. Carole could feel her stomach drop right through the floor as he aunt gave her an unusual look. Her aunt took off for the living room. Carole tried to stop her.
“You don’t have to worry about it! Don’t worry about what is in there!” Carole stayed on her aunt’s heels as they both turned the corner and saw the same four people huddled around a massive laptop on the couch.
“I think we have another problem,” Tosh was saying as Carole and her aunt came upon them.
“You think so,” Carole replied. She dared to not even look at her aunt.
“What is going on here?!” Her aunt had that scary look that was a cross between an impending storm and the ultimate mother look. Even Owen seemed unsettled by it.
Carole came around her aunt and stood in front of her. “The thing that happened at dad’s work, it goes beyond an accident. These people are with the government, kind of a cross between the FAA and Homeland Security. They lost their base when Signature was shut down and the FAA Building is not accessible right now either. They needed a base, and, you know us, we offered, especially since they did respond and helped dad and his coworkers. And dad is fine, why are you getting so freaked out?” As soon as she said them she knew those were the wrong words to say.
“Why am I upset? Because my family is in danger.” She bore down on Carole. “Ever since your mother died, I have been-“
Someone behind her aunt cleared their throat. Her aunt stopped and turned around coming face-to-face with Jack, in only a towel. Carole could feel her whole body seeping through the floor.
“Hi. Good Morning.” Jack held out his hand. “Captain Jack Harkness, and you are?”
“This is my aunt, Carole also,” Carole filled in.
“Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Jack shook her aunt’s hand. “What brings you here?”
“Homeland Security huh? Then why is he naked?” Her aunt turned on Carole.
“If I may, it was a rather, busy night, with everything that happened. I did need to wash up, and Carole here was gracious enough to offer the use of the facilities.” Jack pulled out a small black leather wallet from where no one could figure out. “My ID ma’am.”
Her aunt leaned forward and read it. “Captain Jack Harkness, Special Forces. Homeland Security, special liaison to the FAA. Security clearance alpha.” She looked up at him. “It’s the same picture. I see.” She turned to Carole. “I don’t like this. This doesn’t feel right. We don’t want you getting hurt or getting into trouble.”
“Trust me, we don’t want that either,” Jack said.
“Is this really dangerous? I don’t want her doing anything dangerous.”
“I don’t think so Aunt Carole.”
“It’s not meant to be,” Jack said. “But if you would excuse us, my team and I need to get back to work unfortunately. It seems we have very little time for even a shower nowadays.” Jack started to walk her aunt out to the back door. In the kitchen he stopped in the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water and opened it for her. “In case you get thirsty on the way home.”
Carole looked at the bottle and swore she saw a pill dissolve in the water as it sank to the bottom. She shook her head in disbelief. Was Jack actually retconning her aunt? Her aunt took the water bottle from him and put the cap back on.
“I’ll be fine.” She handed the bottle back to Jack, and the turned to Carole. “Stay out of trouble, and I expect to hear from you later, and tomorrow. We are talking after this.”
“I know, bye.” Carole gave her aunt a kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Behave.”
Her aunt left and Carole closed the door behind her. After a moment she whirled around and snatched the bottle out of Jack’s hands.
“What the hell do you think you were doing?” She started dumping the water bottle down the sink. “You put something in here and were going to give it to my aunt? Bullshit! Stuff like that will quickly make me not trust you.” She threw the bottle in the garbage. “Now, show me the paper. I want to test something.”
Jack opened the psychic paper and showed it to her. She looked at it from a couple of different angles. Yet she still saw nothing.
“Brilliant! It doesn’t work on me.”
“What?”
“When you showed it to my aunt I saw nothing, well, I did see something, but that was a really naughty limerick. Does Ianto know you think of his, well you know, that way? Anyway, the psychic paper doesn’t work on me!”
“How do you know it’s psychic paper? Only one other person I know who knew, well they already had experience with it.”
“I uh, hear things. If psychic vampires can exist, why not psychic paper?”
“Psychic vampires don’t exist.”
“Yeah right. Then there’s some people I need to introduce you to.”
Rating: R (for some violence and some eventual nudity and innuendo... hell, it is Torchwood)
Synopsis: A disturbance in the Rift, and the aftereffects are not exactly what they team figured it would be.
Disclaimers: If you recognize them, then they belong to BBC, RTD, and all those wonderful people. I'm just letting them play for a couple of days.
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Carole buried her head further into the pillow. She could hear the television on in the background, the WGN Morning News droning on. She stretched out, her toes touching the far arm of the couch. She slowly raised her head up, burying her hands under her pillow and looked around the living room. She blinked the eye boogers away and saw Owen staring at her from the recliner.
“Oh, wow, yeah. Good morning,” she croaked out, feeling her dry throat. She pushed her hair back, and propped herself up on her elbows. “I was partly hoping this was all just some really strange, very realistic feeling dream. I guess not.”
“Well, you guessed right,” Owen said.
Carole stared straight ahead into space for a moment. Without even looking at Owen she asked, “Are we the only ones up?”
“As far as I can tell.” He put the recliner down and sat forward. “Although I can’t guarantee that what the two of them are doing in your bedroom is called sleeping.”
Carole furrowed her eyebrows as she remembered the arrangements from the night before. She recalled a late night phone call from her dad letting her know he was okay and that he would be crashing at her aunt and uncle’s house in Wood Dale.
Gwen and Tosh were sharing her dad’s bedroom, she was on the couch in the living room, Owen had the sleeping bag, which he apparently had not used, and Jack and Ianto were sharing her bedroom, and her full-sized bed. Joanna, the Doctor and Donna had gone with Mary Jo to her house, while John, Omni, and Naomi had slept in their own beds last night.
She let out a sigh and then looked at Owen. “I guess I should wash up and get dressed.” Carole sat up and leaned back against the couch, her muscles aching from the night before. “And probably pop several Advil or Aleve.”
Owen got up and moved over to the couch, sitting down on her left side. He picked up her left arm and checked out the scratches. “Do they hurt? Did they give you any problem while sleeping?”
“Should it have?”
“No, but we weren’t able to disinfect it right away, I just wanted to make sure.” Owen found the artery on her wrist and seemed to be taking her pulse. “Especially with the diabetes, can’t afford an infection.”
“Thanks, but I really need to pee.”
Carole went to stand up, but Owen did not let go of her arm. He began to squeeze down on one of the pressure points in her wrist. She looked at him in surprise and tried to get up again. Owen pulled her back down.
“A couple of questions first,” Owen said, looking at her dead on. He pushed on the pressure point harder.
Carole tried to not notice the pain. “What?”
“I have a couple of questions about yesterday.”
“Uh, sure, okay, but I really gotta pee.”
“Later.”
“Great, just great.” Carole rolled her eyes.
Owen put his arm over hers, holding her down and continued the pressure on her wrist. She could feel it beginning to throb.
“How did you know I was a doctor?”
“What?”
“I never introduced myself as a doctor. Yet you knew I was a doctor at the airport. How?”
“Are you sure you didn’t say anything, I mean I thought you did-“
Owen applied more pressure. “I didn’t. I’ve had all night to think about it.”
“Ow… Jack said something.”
“He said that they would need a doctor, not that anyone was a doctor specifically.” He pressed down further and she could feel a twinge in her wrist.
“Son of a bitch that hurts! At the time you seemed like a caring, doctor type. I don’t know about now.” She mentally slapped herself for the smart move of mocking the man who was inflicting the pain upon her.
“I don’t believe you.”
Carole closed her eyes trying to gather her wits. All she had to do was scream and Jack would be out here in a heartbeat, but was that better? As she recalled Jack had some interesting tricks up his sleeve, too.
“Why do you trust us so easily?”
Carole opened her eyes and looked at Owen. “Trust you?”
“Trust us. You invited us in. You kept us with you. You stood next to us while we had weapons. You let us stay in your homes and actually slept. You are not surprised to know that there are aliens.”
“Well, with all the crazy shit that happens in this world, it’s hard to not believe in the paranormal and the existence of other life.” She tried to pull her throbbing arm away from him, but to no avail. “And you’re supposed to be the good guys, or did I judge you wrong on that account? I trust my gut, and I thought I could trust you guys.”
Carole tried to pull away again, and this time Owen let her go. She began to rub her wrist, cradling it next to her chest. She glared at Owen, not believing that this was happening to her in her own home. Had dying actually made him psychotic?
“You knew what Weevils were, called them by name, never mind calling me ‘King of the Weevils.’” Owen just stared ahead, but yet she could feel him looking at her. “You seemed to recognize us in the elevator. Your friend had no problem sharing a shower with Jack, and then the voice on her phone. That was Jack’s voice wasn’t it?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I used to only look out for myself, but some things have changed.” His eyes flicked down to his bandaged hand. “If I can keep them out of danger, maybe some things are worth it.”
Carole looked across the room, her eyes on her grandmother’s chair. How she wished her grandmother or mother had been around a bit longer, even then, they might not have had the advice for how to deal with converging realities and dimensions. She began to finger her mother’s wedding ring. She wore it on a chain around her neck, and the night before she had pulled it out and put it on. As if the realities weren’t already screwed up, now, how much do they tell them?
“I do know who you are Dr. Owen Harper.”
At the mention of his full name, which he had never said, he quickly turned to her. She held up her hand to silence him.
“We know what Torchwood is. How we know, and why, we can’t tell you. You have things that you can’t tell people, including other members of your team, and this we can’t, we shouldn’t tell you. Your appearing in the elevator yesterday was not a good sign, and we are aware of that. This way of, ‘knowing,’ is how I know what Weevils are, and blowfish.”
“Are you with the government?”
Carole thought a moment. “Nope. We’re not with the government, we’re not with the police, not with Interpol, or even the Russian mafia. We trust you, otherwise we would not let you have taken care of Joanna. I look out for my friends, too. You need to trust us.”
Owen regarded her a moment and then shook his head. “For now.”
“It’s a start. Great!” She jumped up and ran for the bathroom. “Now I REALLY gotta pee!” She ran into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her, just making it.
She was about to get ready to take a shower when she realized that despite grabbing the shorts and t-shirt she was wearing right now, she had not grabbed extra clothes from her room. Her mind drifted to what was probably going on in her bedroom and she smiled. Yet, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to walk in on that.
She shrugged her shoulders and decided to brush her teeth first. After she was finished with her teeth and washing her face, she quickly ran a brush through her hair and then opened the bathroom door. A grin spread across her face. Standing in front of her was Ianto, wearing only a pair of trouser pants, and holding her sheets.
“Where’s your laundry facilities,” he asked.
“Downstairs in the basement,” she replied. “Let me get you the lock code for our storage locker so you have detergent.” She led him into the kitchen and wrote down the lock combination and handed it to him. She then opened the junk drawer and pulled out a container of quarters. “You’ll need these, too.”
“Thank you.” Ianto took the items and went out the back door, his cute toes padding downstairs.
Carole watched the muscles in his back flex, biting her bottom lip. She then closed the door, and a thought dawned on her. If Ianto was up doing laundry, then Jack should be up and alone, so she could get her clothes from her bedroom. She hurried through the kitchen and the hallway and waltzed right into her sunlit room, and stopped short.
“Oh come on now, leaving nothing to the imagination, again!”
Before her stood the captain completely naked, not even a vortex manipulator to be seen.
“I was just about to shower if you must know. Unless you want to play naked hide and seek?”
“It’s a little early for fun and games.”
“I don’t think Ianto would agree with that. Him and that beautiful Welsh tongue.”
Carole smiled. This was probably at least the prelude to almost every fangirl’s fantasy, and it was happening right here in her sunny bedroom. She turned towards the windows and nearly jumped out of her skin. She dived across the room throwing the curtains together.
“Okay, clothes from now on,” she said as she straightened the curtains.
“You didn’t seem to mind just a moment ago, nor yesterday.”
“I am living on the ground floor, not the 17th, and my neighbors have children and some probably have weak hearts. If Eleanor had seen you, which she almost did, we would have had to send Owen out to take care of her as she fainted to the concrete.” Carole didn’t know if it was the abundance of 51st century pheromones in the room or the apologetic look Jack was giving her, but she relented a little. “Fine! But at least make sure the curtains are closed! Now get your shower so I can get mine.” Jack strode past her. “And I have plenty of towels behind the door!”
Carole grabbed a change of clothes and underwear and headed out of her bedroom to her phone, which was ringing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Owen handed it to her. She looked down at the caller ID and stopped dead in her tracks. It registered her bosses cell phone number.
“No. No. No. Oh no. This is not good. Where’s my agenda? Oh crap, where’s my agenda?” She dove for the coffee table, flipping over magazines and the Sunday Tribune. “It’s gotta be here. No. No. No.”
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Owen just sitting back on the couch, staying out of the fray. She threw papers all around but could not find her datebook. She stopped a moment, thinking, and then ran for her bedroom and her bookbag. She tore through it until she found her datebook at the bottom of the bag. She scurried back into the living room and was surprised to see Ianto, Tosh and Gwen standing there.
“Something wrong,” Gwen asked as a yawn escaped her lips.
“Maybe. I totally forgot, god I hope I didn’t forget.” Carole started flipping through her datebook until she got to June. She ran her finger down the page to Monday and there it was, her work schedule, “Starbucks 7:30-1:30.” She found her glasses on the top of the couch and put them on and squinted at the television. The tag for the news read, “7:51.” Carole sank down into the recliner. “Oh crap.”
“What is it,” Gwen said, coming around the couch.
“I was supposed to be at work 20 minutes ago,’ Carole said. “Work is at one of the local Starbucks and 18 miles away on the Edens Expressway, which even if I left right now, I wouldn’t get there before 9.”
“That doesn’t sound express,” Owen quipped.
“Nothing is express at this time in the morning. Everybody is trying to get to work, school, or what-not.” Carole looked at the three of them. “And how could I go to work? It’s not like nothings going on.” She looked down at her datebook and saw she was scheduled to work the next three days. “Crap, crap, crap. Margaret is going to kill me.”
Carole’s mind started trying to come up with an excuse as she flipped open her phone. As she did so, the digital readout told her she had ten missed calls. She stared open mouthed and then fixed a steely gaze on Owen.
“TEN CALLS! I got ten missed phone calls! You couldn’t answer the phone? Oh my god!” She hit the button on her phone to scroll through the calls. “Two from my boss. One from Johnny, my co-worker, just great! And seven from, oh shit. Aunt Carole called seven times and no one answered!” She immediately hit the redial for her aunt and uncle’s house. “No one is answering, this is not good.”
“Isn’t that where your father is staying,” Tosh supplied.
“No. He’s with my Aunt Terry. This is my Aunt Carole, the matriarch of the family now, who lives really close. If she thinks anything is wrong and that I am not answering, and now she is not answering…..” Carole’s head jerked up as she heard someone knocking on the back window. “Oh god, it’s her! Act, I don’t know, act normal or something.”
Carole could feel herself begin to sweat as she headed down the hallway and to the kitchen. She peeked out the kitchen curtains and saw her aunt’s blonde hair. She headed for the back door and let her aunt in.
“Hi! I just tried calling you.” Carole led her aunt into the kitchen. “What brings you here?”
“What brings me here?” Her aunt just stared at her, that kind of look that seemed to bore straight through you. “What happened last night?
“Last night?”
“I’ve already talked to your uncle. Your father is over there, and something was said about his work, and then you don’t answer.”
“I had the phone on vibrate, I forgot. Once I knew dad was okay I guess I just passed out.”
Suddenly they could hear an argument or something break out in the living room. Carole could feel her stomach drop right through the floor as he aunt gave her an unusual look. Her aunt took off for the living room. Carole tried to stop her.
“You don’t have to worry about it! Don’t worry about what is in there!” Carole stayed on her aunt’s heels as they both turned the corner and saw the same four people huddled around a massive laptop on the couch.
“I think we have another problem,” Tosh was saying as Carole and her aunt came upon them.
“You think so,” Carole replied. She dared to not even look at her aunt.
“What is going on here?!” Her aunt had that scary look that was a cross between an impending storm and the ultimate mother look. Even Owen seemed unsettled by it.
Carole came around her aunt and stood in front of her. “The thing that happened at dad’s work, it goes beyond an accident. These people are with the government, kind of a cross between the FAA and Homeland Security. They lost their base when Signature was shut down and the FAA Building is not accessible right now either. They needed a base, and, you know us, we offered, especially since they did respond and helped dad and his coworkers. And dad is fine, why are you getting so freaked out?” As soon as she said them she knew those were the wrong words to say.
“Why am I upset? Because my family is in danger.” She bore down on Carole. “Ever since your mother died, I have been-“
Someone behind her aunt cleared their throat. Her aunt stopped and turned around coming face-to-face with Jack, in only a towel. Carole could feel her whole body seeping through the floor.
“Hi. Good Morning.” Jack held out his hand. “Captain Jack Harkness, and you are?”
“This is my aunt, Carole also,” Carole filled in.
“Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Jack shook her aunt’s hand. “What brings you here?”
“Homeland Security huh? Then why is he naked?” Her aunt turned on Carole.
“If I may, it was a rather, busy night, with everything that happened. I did need to wash up, and Carole here was gracious enough to offer the use of the facilities.” Jack pulled out a small black leather wallet from where no one could figure out. “My ID ma’am.”
Her aunt leaned forward and read it. “Captain Jack Harkness, Special Forces. Homeland Security, special liaison to the FAA. Security clearance alpha.” She looked up at him. “It’s the same picture. I see.” She turned to Carole. “I don’t like this. This doesn’t feel right. We don’t want you getting hurt or getting into trouble.”
“Trust me, we don’t want that either,” Jack said.
“Is this really dangerous? I don’t want her doing anything dangerous.”
“I don’t think so Aunt Carole.”
“It’s not meant to be,” Jack said. “But if you would excuse us, my team and I need to get back to work unfortunately. It seems we have very little time for even a shower nowadays.” Jack started to walk her aunt out to the back door. In the kitchen he stopped in the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water and opened it for her. “In case you get thirsty on the way home.”
Carole looked at the bottle and swore she saw a pill dissolve in the water as it sank to the bottom. She shook her head in disbelief. Was Jack actually retconning her aunt? Her aunt took the water bottle from him and put the cap back on.
“I’ll be fine.” She handed the bottle back to Jack, and the turned to Carole. “Stay out of trouble, and I expect to hear from you later, and tomorrow. We are talking after this.”
“I know, bye.” Carole gave her aunt a kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Behave.”
Her aunt left and Carole closed the door behind her. After a moment she whirled around and snatched the bottle out of Jack’s hands.
“What the hell do you think you were doing?” She started dumping the water bottle down the sink. “You put something in here and were going to give it to my aunt? Bullshit! Stuff like that will quickly make me not trust you.” She threw the bottle in the garbage. “Now, show me the paper. I want to test something.”
Jack opened the psychic paper and showed it to her. She looked at it from a couple of different angles. Yet she still saw nothing.
“Brilliant! It doesn’t work on me.”
“What?”
“When you showed it to my aunt I saw nothing, well, I did see something, but that was a really naughty limerick. Does Ianto know you think of his, well you know, that way? Anyway, the psychic paper doesn’t work on me!”
“How do you know it’s psychic paper? Only one other person I know who knew, well they already had experience with it.”
“I uh, hear things. If psychic vampires can exist, why not psychic paper?”
“Psychic vampires don’t exist.”
“Yeah right. Then there’s some people I need to introduce you to.”