Doctor Who fic: Memory Lane, Aydrdoon Valley (3/3)
Title: Memory Lane, Aydrdoon Valley
Author: Katta
Fandoms: Doctor Who
Characters & pairings: The Doctor, Jack/Ianto, Donna/Lee, original characters
Rating: PG-13
Author's notes: This fic only follows canon up to Midnight. For the purpose of the story, nothing after that episode happened.
Summary: The Doctor and Donna bring Jack and Ianto along for a holiday, but as usual, the holiday is anything but relaxing - especially for Jack.
First part here
Second part here
Ianto asked no questions when the others returned, and got no explanations - unless one counted the way Jack kissed him hard and murmured, “Thank you for staying.”
There was no quarrel; in fact, no one said much of anything when they quickly got re-dressed, nor during the somber friz trip back to Aydrdoon. Jack sat staring out at the landscape. Lee, at the helm, made no attempts to verbalize the hard angles and jerky motions of his driving, and when Donna tried to discuss what had happened, he waved her off, until she finally gave up. Even the Doctor was more subdued than usual and seemed lost in thought.
By the city wall they stepped out of the friz, which was taken away mechanically through a long corridor. Donna put her hand on Lee's shoulder. “Sweetie...”
He caught her hand in his, took a deep breath and said slowly, “I couldn't lose you again.”
Her eyes welled up, and she pulled him into a hug. “Oh, come here, you big oaf!”
With that, they seemed to have resolved the issue and instead started kissing so intently that passing strangers gave them odd glances.
The Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets. “Right, then. I'll be going up to the room. Donna?”
Donna broke loose long enough to say, “Oh. Um, tomorrow morning? Tomorrow morning, I swear.”
He grinned. “All right, see you then.” To Lee, he added, “Take care of her now!” and bounced up the stairs to the guest quarters.
Lee looked affronted. “Me!?”
“He's winding you up, love,” Donna said affectionately.
“'T-take care of her'! When he's th-the one who t-took you...”
“Hey!” she said, hitting Lee's chest lightly for emphasis. “I took myself. He did what he always does.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Get used to it. Now, how do we get that friz back?”
He punched in a code at the end of the corridor, and the friz showed up at the end of it, zooming back towards them. “I guess I'll have to get used to it,” he said softly.
Jack remained in the street until Lee and Donna had left, and Ianto waited with him. At long last, Jack sighed and said, “Okay, then,” and headed up the stairs.
It was only once they were up in their room and undressed for the night that Ianto asked, “What happened?”
Jack lay back on the bed on top of the covers and sighed. “You saw what happened. They were caught by border guards.”
“Yes, and...”
“And we got lucky. One of the guards was an old war hero who didn't want to start a diplomatic incident by drowning a bunch of clueless tourists. They let us go, and that was that.”
“Would they really have drowned you?”
“Maybe. I don't know. Things like that happen. People are drowned, or beaten, or taken prisoner. The dwellers really don't like intruders.”
“But there were dwellers on the beach,” Ianto said, “they seemed...”
“Oh, for God's sake!” Jack flew up from the bed, his voice rising more with every word. “That beach is a designated mixed area! People come there knowing what they're going to find, and most of them will be pretty mellow about planetary relations compared to their kinsmen. It's like expecting that nice guy you met at the pub to still be a nice guy after you've broken into his home. And his home is the Kremlin during the cold war!”
Ianto raised his hands in a defensive gesture. “Don't take it out on me.”
Jack let out a harsh scoff and sat down on the bed, fists clenched.
Very slowly, Ianto sat down too. “You've been in worse trouble than that, and from what you've told me about the Doctor...”
“Yeah,” Jack admitted. He rubbed his forehead hard, but the frown remained. “I don't know. I spent twenty years cruising every civilisation known to man and then some. Human, alien, it didn't matter, it was all just a big smorgasbord of adventure and fun. And then I find myself landed on Earth, where everyone's obsessing about these really unimportant differences.”
“Why, thank you.”
“I didn't mean you. I thought... I thought I was over it. That I could just deal with every situation as it came. But I come back here, and it's like being nineteen again. Logically, I know that they're just people. Sure, people who hate the look of me and want me dead, but hey -“ a quick grin, almost a grimace “- what else is new? But that's not what it feels like. When they want to kill me, I... It's like I don't have the right to be here. To be anywhere. Like they're this primeval force trying to wish me out of existence, and for some reason, it matters.”
“The monsters under the bed.”
“No,” Jack said quietly. “Just the guys who sent the monsters.”
Ianto twirled the edge of the bed cover between his fingers, thinking. “You know, I've been wondering, about your brother...”
Jack let out a desperate laugh that was more than half sob. “What, this day hasn't been crappy enough? Let it go, Ianto.”
“Yeah. Sorry.” Ianto pulled down the covers and got into the bed properly, lying an arm around Jack's shoulders to guide him down as well. Slowly, he ran his nails across Jack's collarbones, and then down the chest.
Jack's eyes drifted half-closed, and a smile flickered on his lips. “Do you think you can make me forget that this mess ever happened?”
“Yes, sir,” Ianto said, kissing him lightly. “I know I can.”
There was a knock on the door as Jack and Ianto were going out to lunch, and it stopped both men short in surprise. Knocks on the door were rare - the front door, at least. Donna and the Doctor usually knocked on the bathroom door, provided that the bathroom wasn't in use, and for all the comforts of the guest quarters, it didn't have room service.
Finally, Jack shrugged and went to open the door, giving a brief nod as he saw Kari on the other side of it. “Officer.”
“Amber Bless Franklin Boeshanya the Agent,” she said, stepping into the room. “Do you know that you're months away from crossing your own timeline?”
“Months and half the galaxy,” he replied with a smile and closed the door behind her. “It took you this long to figure it out? What kind of lab have you been using?”
“The first five couldn't make head or tails of your blood. Are you on drugs?”
“No, just life.”
“Funny.”
His smile remained and his voice was amiable, but something in his posture made Ianto take a step closer, protectively. “Not after the first century or so.”
Her habitual scowl deepened, as if she feared he might be taking the mickey out of her, but then she waved it away. “That's not the interesting part.”
“Of course not,” he agreed. “What happened at the sixth lab?”
“They isolated the disturbance - and found the blockers.”
He nodded lightly, but his smile died away, and he sat down.
“I knew you were Amber, of course,” she said. “What are the odds of a hole like the Boeshane ever having another Time Agent? But the blockers... I just checked on a hunch. I didn't expect to find anything.”
“Good hunch.”
“How the hell did you fool the Time Agency?”
“I didn't.”
“Right,” she said sarcastically. “You just waltzed in there, told them that you're a hybrid, and somehow that escaped the attention of every journalist on the planet.”
“There are two reports on the Boeshane massacre,” Jack said, and there was no levity in his expression anymore. “The first one states my brother as missing, not dead. The clerk was a friend of my family and agreed to change it. The Time Agency are thorough. They found the original report, did the blood work, the whole thing. I asked them to be discreet, and they were.”
“Just like that?” she asked, and the scorn had a note that was almost wistful.
“This is a tiny planet,” he said, almost pleading with her. “The Time Agency is huge. I had the right scores, education, and - sorry to say - looks. What's a different bloodstream? They didn't care. Outside this godforsaken place, nobody cares!”
“Oh, really?” She had paled considerably, and her eyes were glowing. “Then have you told your Earthling lover the truth? That you're not human?”
Ianto had sat down in the window alcove and stayed out of the conversation so far, but now Kari was looking straight at him, and he answered truthfully: “I had my suspicions, but no. He never told me.”
“I am,” Jack insisted. “To all intents and purposes, I am. For crying out loud, he's from the 21st century, none of this shit is even on his radar!”
“'This shit'? You really think of yourself as colonial, don't you? Playing the celebrity, having young ones swoon when you enter the room - and you don't have to tell anyone you're really a hybrid, because it's such a tiny little thing. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that if any of your colonial pals knew, they'd flay you alive!”
“Shut up,” he said, not very loudly, but with unmistakeable hardness. “What do you know? I don't even get a year in the agency before someone connects the dots, and let me tell you, the people of Boeshane were the only ones who stood by me. They were still proud of me, while your kind were busy calling me a colonial whipping boy!”
“Oh, and you're not one?” There were strange ripples in her eyes as she continuously shifted away the welling tears. “Don't worry, Agent, I won't tell anyone. I'd be ashamed to count you as my kinsman.”
With that, she stormed out. Jack closed his eyes and slumped forward, taking deep, shivering breaths. After a moment's hesitation, Ianto left his alcove and sat down on the bed behind Jack, hugging him from behind.
“Sorry about this,” Jack mumbled.
“You know it doesn't matter to me, right?” Ianto asked. “It wouldn't matter even if you looked like... whatever you really look like.”
“I really look like this. I have since I was a baby. That other part of me, it's just...”
“Jack,” Ianto whispered, shaking his head.
“I won't like what you're going to say,” Jack warned him.
“I didn't like you shooting my girlfriend.” Even after all this time, there was a quiver in Ianto's voice.
“Touché.”
“I think it's time to stop being nineteen.”
Jack grimaced and leaned back into Ianto's touch, which hardened in a fierce embrace. They sat like that for a while, and then Jack nodded and stood up, taking his coat from the hanger.
“I can probably catch her at the station,” he said.
“You do that.”
“Don't run off anywhere.”
“Really?” Ianto asked innocently. “I thought I'd go play with some locals.”
Jack made a 'grr' sound, but he was actually smiling again. “Ask the Doctor if he wants to lunch with you. He could use the company.”
“I'll do that.”
“Okay. See you later.”
After Jack had left, Ianto left the bed and went over to the bathroom, but by the second door he paused, and though he'd never been superstitious, he crossed his fingers.
The police station was a large octopus-shape with exits in every direction - from the arms, policemen in frizes and by foot kept rushing in and out, while visitors walked in through the doors in between. Jack headed straight for the nearest visitor's entry, but was stopped in the doorway by a stream of people going out.
“Hi,” he said, holding up the door. “Hello, there. How do you do? I'm Jack.”
Most of them just glared at him as they passed by, but a little pale lady with her slender tentacles braided into her grey-streaked hair smiled. “I'm Helen. Nice meeting you.”
“You too, Helen.”
It was only a brief moment before she followed her group away, but his steps were jauntier as he stepped inside, and his face looked for all the world carefree.
He kept the cheerfulness up as he approached the front desk and asked for Kari, a task complicated by the fact that he didn't know her family names, but the clerk was highly susceptible to flirting, and eventually they found her in the database.
Once he reached the office in question, though, he went grim and stuck his hands in his coat pockets. Though there was no actual door, the doorway was obscured by a thick protective field, and he braced himself before telling the identifier by the ceiling “Jack Harkness Cardiffya the Captain for Kari Manon Boglárka Nordseya the Police Officer.”
The protections slid aside, letting him in. Kari was sitting by her desk, with three separate screens in front of her, and she was briskly punching some kind of codes into all three off them. Seeing Jack, she slid them aside, emphasizing her glare. “I'm working.”
“What can I do?” The question was remarkably calm.
“About my work?”
“About whatever it is you want me to do.”
She turned off the screens entirely and folded them into a stack on the desk. “Why would I want you to do anything?”
“Well, let's see. You bit me, stole my blood, had it tested at six different labs, and came back to me with the results. Call me crazy, but it seems like you want a reaction.”
“I got a reaction,” she pointed out, more acerbic than angry.
“You got a really crappy one.”
She leaned as far back as the wall would allow, which wasn't much, and rested her chin on her fist, waiting.
“So there you have it,” he continued. “I'm listening. Unless what you really want is for that other me, the newfangled young agent, to mend his ways somehow, because I'm sorry to say, but as far as I'm concerned, that ship has sailed.”
“Why is this about me?” she asked. “Is that the way you see it? I'm making unreasonable demands on you, and you'd like to appease me?”
“I don't know what it's supposed to be about.”
“No, you don't, do you?” She shook her head and gestured for him to sit down in the corner alcove, which he did, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
“I don't understand how you can pretend it's nothing,” she said. “You're the only hybrid in the Time Agency...”
“No. I'm the first hybrid in the Time Agency. There will be more.”
“Really?” Her features softened at that.
Jack leaned forward, trying to draw her in with his words. “I know it doesn't seem like it, but things will change. I don't know how much or exactly how, because truth be told I never returned home, but I know it'll be better for you guys.”
“'You guys.' You still think of yourself as colonial.”
“No. This isn't my home anymore. The house is long gone. Most of my friends are dead - or will be. And what I went through... No, I was never a colonial. I was just never a hybrid either.”
“You didn't know?” Her voice was low and level.
“I did, but it was just a story to me. I never met my grandmother, and my mom looked like anyone else's. Even after the war started, and my parents forbade me to talk about it, I don't think I properly understood. Not until the creatures took Gray. Maybe not properly until he...” He stopped, pain flashing across his face. “I wasn't raised like you.”
“So?” she asked. “How many people here do you think were? I was the only one in my class who didn't have gills - I had to wear a mask to school. I didn't know many hybrids apart from my mothers, and I never saw a full-blooded colonial until the war. What do you think I have in common with people born here in Aydrdoon? Or your friend Lidor, for that matter? There isn't one right way to be a hybrid.”
“Well, there seems to be a wrong one,” he said bitterly. “Do you have any idea the number of messages I got telling me I had sold out on my people, that I should reconstruct the body I was born with, that my father was an abusive rapist, or my mother a lying whore... of course, that one I got from the colonials too. Seemed to be the only thing you could agree on. Everyone wanted something from me, though I guess some just wanted me dead. They were the easy ones.”
“I'm not condoning any of that.”
“Oh really?”
She stood up, resting her hands against the desk. “You're important, Amber. It doesn't matter that you're... that you were a conceited brat who cringed at the very sight of us. You're doing things no hybrid has done before. Your friend the Doctor claims that we'll grow to be dominant of this planet, and you make me believe it. Why do you want to deny us that? Why do you want to deny yourself that? You're our future!”
Her expression was so spirited that he stood up as well. He closed the distance between them and ran the back of his hand across the thick skin of her face, following every crack. “I'm a fixed point in time. You're the future, and it's going to be amazing. All right.”
“All right, what?” she asked, suspicious.
“You can have me.” He grinned, well aware of the double entendre. “That cringing brat. Call up a few reporters, tell them about the blockers, and what I told you about the double records. Someone's bound to run the story.”
She smiled, a sudden, broad, gamine grin, and her eyes were dark and brilliant. “Are you sure?”
“It's going to happen. Might as well be someone like you behind it, comfort an old man's heart.” He gently took her chin between his thumb and finger. “You know, my grandmother's one thing... but having a distant cousin of your calibre? That's a very appealing notion.”
“Are you coming on to me?” The notion seemed to amuse her more than anything else, but she drew back so that the desk came between the two of them. Her features slid back into their usual inscrutability. “You're coming on to me by talking about how we're related. That's special.”
“Distantly related,” he pointed out.
She unfolded one of the screens and set it up. “All right, Amber, if you've had your epiphany, perhaps you'll let me get back to work.”
“It's Jack.”
“Jack. Cousin. Will you let me work? I'm investigating a series of traffic accidents in the same neighbourhood. We suspect that the land owner's not maintaining the roads properly. I really am busy.”
He gave a good-natured guffaw. “You had maybe five or ten minutes head start. Are you telling me in that time, you dived straight into a case and got submerged enough that I was actually interrupting something?”
“What else was I supposed to do?”
He stared at her. “Don't you do anything except work?” he asked.
“Of course I do. I badger colonial whipping boys. What I don't do is brood over them.”
Someone else might have accompanied that jab with a smile, or a raised eyebrow, but Kari was straight back in officer mode and didn't even look up. Jack grinned.
“I don't suppose we'll be seeing each other again,” he said softly. “Crossing my timelines and all that.”
The pace of her work slowed, then stopped, and she met his eyes. “I guess so. Well. I'll call those reporters tonight after work, shall I?”
“Yeah, you do that. Spare a friendly thought for that kid I was, okay?”
“Absolutely.” She rose from her seat, walked around her desk, and sat down on the edge of it, a sign of trust in a world where everyone sat with their backs to the wall. Holding out her hand, she added, “Good luck, Jack.”
He took her hand in both of his. “Good luck to you, Kari.” For a second, he leaned forward, opening his lips for a kiss, but something halted him, and he drew back with just a final squeeze of the hands.
When he left the room, she had already picked up her work again.
After a quick conversation with Ianto, Jack went into the bathroom and knocked on the door to the next room. The Doctor bid him inside.
“I just wanted to say... oh, hi, Donna. Didn't expect to see you here.”
Donna was sitting in the corner with her legs stretched out on the windowpane, and had been eating roast palm-oak seeds and listening to music. Now she threw a seed at Jack. “Oi! I'm not attached to Lee's hip!”
“Well, that's good, because it would have made some of your activities a little bit difficult.”
She dug a whole handful of seeds from the bowl and threw them at him. He caught a couple in his mouth. “Don't waste those, you'll need the... energy.” Suddenly serious, he fidgeted with his coat a little. “I'm not trying to interfere with anything. I mean, I'm fine with staying as long as you'd like.”
“What are you talking about?” the Doctor asked. Some seeds had fallen on the table, and he swept them off and ate them.
“I'm pretty much done here.”
The Doctor made a surprised grimace. “Really?”
“Yeah. Mission accomplished.” Jack circled his shoulders as if shaking a load off them, and beamed. “Thank the TARDIS for me.”
“I will,” the Doctor promised.
“Well, good thing something's finally cheering you up, whatever it is,” Donna said. “Good for you!”
“Thanks. I meant what I said, we don't have to leave right now. If you'd rather...”
“Oh, no problem!” she said. “I'll just check with Lee if there's anything he wants to pack.”
They both stared at her.
“What?” Doctor asked flatly.
“Pack. I mean, I know he doesn't have much, but there's his research, and clothes of course. He's got some rather smart clothes, in a casual way.”
“You can't just invite him along!”
“I already have. He said yes.”
The Doctor sputtered incoherently, and Donna's eyes narrowed.
“Oh no, you don't,” she said. “You don't strand me here in the West Side Story. No way.”
“But...”
“Quick wedding in Chiswick,” she explained. “My mother would never forgive me if she missed it, and I do want granddad to be there. It'll be nice for Lee too, genuine twenty-first century. Nothing big, though, done that once, never again, and we're not staying, because quite frankly, I've had enough of the place. Anyway, there's no knowing what our children will look like, is there? So after the wedding, we'll try to think of a nice time and place. Lee has a couple of suggestions, though if you've got any advice I'd love to hear it. I can't imagine it'll take long. Got to be hundreds of nice spots to choose from, yeah?”
The Doctor's eyes were very, very wide, and he looked to Jack, making a small pitiful sound.
Jack hid his mouth in his hand. “Sounds like you've got it all figured out.”
“All right, then,” Donna said, stepping into her shoes. “Oh, don't look at me like that,” she added to the Doctor. “What did you think was going to happen?”
“I... don't know,” he said weakly. “Not you house shopping all over the universe.”
She crossed her arms, looking quite stern, though there was an uncertain quiver to her chin. “Are you kicking me out?”
“No! No,
of course not!”
“Are
you kicking Lee out?”
“Uh... no?”
“So it's all right, then?”
“Yes,” he said, as if he didn't entirely trust his own judgement.
“Great!” She gave him a firm, happy hug. “Thank you so much! So, what about you, Jack?”
“Just plain old Cardiff for me,” he laughed. “Unless we're invited to that wedding?”
“Oh, sure! Lee could use a couple of best men. Brilliant! I'll go talk to him then!”
She flew out the door, and it slammed shut behind her while she was still putting on her jacket.
“They've known each other for a week!” the Doctor said helplessly.
“Not in their timeline.” Jack was still laughing.
“That was an artificial universe! What if they don't like each other?” The Doctor blanched. “What if they start having spats in the TARDIS? I can't do domestic quarrels.”
“There's this practical little thing called a divorce, don't know if you've heard of it?”
“He's a historian,” he complained. “That's one step below archaeologist!”
Jack gave the Doctor a comforting squeeze on the shoulder, though the effect was somewhat ruined by the way his body shook with laughter. “Be strong, Doctor. You'll survive somehow.”
The TARDIS landed rather roughly on a Chiswick pavement, and all five passengers stumbled out. Donna lit up seeing her house, and rushed off, dragging Lee, who did his best to see as much of the view as possible during the short run.
Jack peered at a church tower some distance away. “Eight o'clock. I wonder what day it is.”
“Friday,” the Doctor said. “Supposed to be, anyway. I wanted you to lose as little time as possible.”
“I'll call Gwen and tell her we won't be in,” Ianto said, fishing his mobile from his inner pocket. “Might as well check the date at the same time.”
“Good idea.”
“What are we going to do about clothes?”
“That's a thought.” Jack turned to the Doctor. “Considering what the TARDIS is like with pants I dread to ask, but, tuxedos?”
“Maybe?” the Doctor offered, looking doubtful.
Jack sighed. “Well, at least my ATM card will work again. I was getting tired of flirting my way to food.”
“Oh, but you do it so well!” Ianto said, and then, into the phone, “Oh, hello, Gwen...”
He walked off some distance to hear better, which left Jack and the Doctor still lounging by the TARDIS door.
“Should we go and say hi?” Jack asked, nodding towards Donna's house.
“Yeah,” the Doctor agreed without moving at all. “Definitely.”
Quite a long pause later, the Doctor said, “So, straight back to Cardiff after the wedding, eh?”
“Yeah, duty calls. But that reminds me, I've been thinking. If anyone needs a holiday, it's that policewoman...”
“No,” the Doctor said firmly. “Not you too! I'm not a taxi service.”
“Suit yourself, but my guess is, it'll be pretty couply with Donna and Lee in there together. And when they leave, you're still going to need someone.”
“She's so grim!”
“She's more fun when you get to know her.”
“Really?”
“No. Still.”
“I'm fine on my own.”
Jack watched Ianto's silhouette in the morning sun as he put the mobile back down and started walking back.
“Yeah,” Jack said. “Of course you are.”
Author: Katta
Fandoms: Doctor Who
Characters & pairings: The Doctor, Jack/Ianto, Donna/Lee, original characters
Rating: PG-13
Author's notes: This fic only follows canon up to Midnight. For the purpose of the story, nothing after that episode happened.
Summary: The Doctor and Donna bring Jack and Ianto along for a holiday, but as usual, the holiday is anything but relaxing - especially for Jack.
First part here
Second part here
Ianto asked no questions when the others returned, and got no explanations - unless one counted the way Jack kissed him hard and murmured, “Thank you for staying.”
There was no quarrel; in fact, no one said much of anything when they quickly got re-dressed, nor during the somber friz trip back to Aydrdoon. Jack sat staring out at the landscape. Lee, at the helm, made no attempts to verbalize the hard angles and jerky motions of his driving, and when Donna tried to discuss what had happened, he waved her off, until she finally gave up. Even the Doctor was more subdued than usual and seemed lost in thought.
By the city wall they stepped out of the friz, which was taken away mechanically through a long corridor. Donna put her hand on Lee's shoulder. “Sweetie...”
He caught her hand in his, took a deep breath and said slowly, “I couldn't lose you again.”
Her eyes welled up, and she pulled him into a hug. “Oh, come here, you big oaf!”
With that, they seemed to have resolved the issue and instead started kissing so intently that passing strangers gave them odd glances.
The Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets. “Right, then. I'll be going up to the room. Donna?”
Donna broke loose long enough to say, “Oh. Um, tomorrow morning? Tomorrow morning, I swear.”
He grinned. “All right, see you then.” To Lee, he added, “Take care of her now!” and bounced up the stairs to the guest quarters.
Lee looked affronted. “Me!?”
“He's winding you up, love,” Donna said affectionately.
“'T-take care of her'! When he's th-the one who t-took you...”
“Hey!” she said, hitting Lee's chest lightly for emphasis. “I took myself. He did what he always does.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Get used to it. Now, how do we get that friz back?”
He punched in a code at the end of the corridor, and the friz showed up at the end of it, zooming back towards them. “I guess I'll have to get used to it,” he said softly.
Jack remained in the street until Lee and Donna had left, and Ianto waited with him. At long last, Jack sighed and said, “Okay, then,” and headed up the stairs.
It was only once they were up in their room and undressed for the night that Ianto asked, “What happened?”
Jack lay back on the bed on top of the covers and sighed. “You saw what happened. They were caught by border guards.”
“Yes, and...”
“And we got lucky. One of the guards was an old war hero who didn't want to start a diplomatic incident by drowning a bunch of clueless tourists. They let us go, and that was that.”
“Would they really have drowned you?”
“Maybe. I don't know. Things like that happen. People are drowned, or beaten, or taken prisoner. The dwellers really don't like intruders.”
“But there were dwellers on the beach,” Ianto said, “they seemed...”
“Oh, for God's sake!” Jack flew up from the bed, his voice rising more with every word. “That beach is a designated mixed area! People come there knowing what they're going to find, and most of them will be pretty mellow about planetary relations compared to their kinsmen. It's like expecting that nice guy you met at the pub to still be a nice guy after you've broken into his home. And his home is the Kremlin during the cold war!”
Ianto raised his hands in a defensive gesture. “Don't take it out on me.”
Jack let out a harsh scoff and sat down on the bed, fists clenched.
Very slowly, Ianto sat down too. “You've been in worse trouble than that, and from what you've told me about the Doctor...”
“Yeah,” Jack admitted. He rubbed his forehead hard, but the frown remained. “I don't know. I spent twenty years cruising every civilisation known to man and then some. Human, alien, it didn't matter, it was all just a big smorgasbord of adventure and fun. And then I find myself landed on Earth, where everyone's obsessing about these really unimportant differences.”
“Why, thank you.”
“I didn't mean you. I thought... I thought I was over it. That I could just deal with every situation as it came. But I come back here, and it's like being nineteen again. Logically, I know that they're just people. Sure, people who hate the look of me and want me dead, but hey -“ a quick grin, almost a grimace “- what else is new? But that's not what it feels like. When they want to kill me, I... It's like I don't have the right to be here. To be anywhere. Like they're this primeval force trying to wish me out of existence, and for some reason, it matters.”
“The monsters under the bed.”
“No,” Jack said quietly. “Just the guys who sent the monsters.”
Ianto twirled the edge of the bed cover between his fingers, thinking. “You know, I've been wondering, about your brother...”
Jack let out a desperate laugh that was more than half sob. “What, this day hasn't been crappy enough? Let it go, Ianto.”
“Yeah. Sorry.” Ianto pulled down the covers and got into the bed properly, lying an arm around Jack's shoulders to guide him down as well. Slowly, he ran his nails across Jack's collarbones, and then down the chest.
Jack's eyes drifted half-closed, and a smile flickered on his lips. “Do you think you can make me forget that this mess ever happened?”
“Yes, sir,” Ianto said, kissing him lightly. “I know I can.”
There was a knock on the door as Jack and Ianto were going out to lunch, and it stopped both men short in surprise. Knocks on the door were rare - the front door, at least. Donna and the Doctor usually knocked on the bathroom door, provided that the bathroom wasn't in use, and for all the comforts of the guest quarters, it didn't have room service.
Finally, Jack shrugged and went to open the door, giving a brief nod as he saw Kari on the other side of it. “Officer.”
“Amber Bless Franklin Boeshanya the Agent,” she said, stepping into the room. “Do you know that you're months away from crossing your own timeline?”
“Months and half the galaxy,” he replied with a smile and closed the door behind her. “It took you this long to figure it out? What kind of lab have you been using?”
“The first five couldn't make head or tails of your blood. Are you on drugs?”
“No, just life.”
“Funny.”
His smile remained and his voice was amiable, but something in his posture made Ianto take a step closer, protectively. “Not after the first century or so.”
Her habitual scowl deepened, as if she feared he might be taking the mickey out of her, but then she waved it away. “That's not the interesting part.”
“Of course not,” he agreed. “What happened at the sixth lab?”
“They isolated the disturbance - and found the blockers.”
He nodded lightly, but his smile died away, and he sat down.
“I knew you were Amber, of course,” she said. “What are the odds of a hole like the Boeshane ever having another Time Agent? But the blockers... I just checked on a hunch. I didn't expect to find anything.”
“Good hunch.”
“How the hell did you fool the Time Agency?”
“I didn't.”
“Right,” she said sarcastically. “You just waltzed in there, told them that you're a hybrid, and somehow that escaped the attention of every journalist on the planet.”
“There are two reports on the Boeshane massacre,” Jack said, and there was no levity in his expression anymore. “The first one states my brother as missing, not dead. The clerk was a friend of my family and agreed to change it. The Time Agency are thorough. They found the original report, did the blood work, the whole thing. I asked them to be discreet, and they were.”
“Just like that?” she asked, and the scorn had a note that was almost wistful.
“This is a tiny planet,” he said, almost pleading with her. “The Time Agency is huge. I had the right scores, education, and - sorry to say - looks. What's a different bloodstream? They didn't care. Outside this godforsaken place, nobody cares!”
“Oh, really?” She had paled considerably, and her eyes were glowing. “Then have you told your Earthling lover the truth? That you're not human?”
Ianto had sat down in the window alcove and stayed out of the conversation so far, but now Kari was looking straight at him, and he answered truthfully: “I had my suspicions, but no. He never told me.”
“I am,” Jack insisted. “To all intents and purposes, I am. For crying out loud, he's from the 21st century, none of this shit is even on his radar!”
“'This shit'? You really think of yourself as colonial, don't you? Playing the celebrity, having young ones swoon when you enter the room - and you don't have to tell anyone you're really a hybrid, because it's such a tiny little thing. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that if any of your colonial pals knew, they'd flay you alive!”
“Shut up,” he said, not very loudly, but with unmistakeable hardness. “What do you know? I don't even get a year in the agency before someone connects the dots, and let me tell you, the people of Boeshane were the only ones who stood by me. They were still proud of me, while your kind were busy calling me a colonial whipping boy!”
“Oh, and you're not one?” There were strange ripples in her eyes as she continuously shifted away the welling tears. “Don't worry, Agent, I won't tell anyone. I'd be ashamed to count you as my kinsman.”
With that, she stormed out. Jack closed his eyes and slumped forward, taking deep, shivering breaths. After a moment's hesitation, Ianto left his alcove and sat down on the bed behind Jack, hugging him from behind.
“Sorry about this,” Jack mumbled.
“You know it doesn't matter to me, right?” Ianto asked. “It wouldn't matter even if you looked like... whatever you really look like.”
“I really look like this. I have since I was a baby. That other part of me, it's just...”
“Jack,” Ianto whispered, shaking his head.
“I won't like what you're going to say,” Jack warned him.
“I didn't like you shooting my girlfriend.” Even after all this time, there was a quiver in Ianto's voice.
“Touché.”
“I think it's time to stop being nineteen.”
Jack grimaced and leaned back into Ianto's touch, which hardened in a fierce embrace. They sat like that for a while, and then Jack nodded and stood up, taking his coat from the hanger.
“I can probably catch her at the station,” he said.
“You do that.”
“Don't run off anywhere.”
“Really?” Ianto asked innocently. “I thought I'd go play with some locals.”
Jack made a 'grr' sound, but he was actually smiling again. “Ask the Doctor if he wants to lunch with you. He could use the company.”
“I'll do that.”
“Okay. See you later.”
After Jack had left, Ianto left the bed and went over to the bathroom, but by the second door he paused, and though he'd never been superstitious, he crossed his fingers.
The police station was a large octopus-shape with exits in every direction - from the arms, policemen in frizes and by foot kept rushing in and out, while visitors walked in through the doors in between. Jack headed straight for the nearest visitor's entry, but was stopped in the doorway by a stream of people going out.
“Hi,” he said, holding up the door. “Hello, there. How do you do? I'm Jack.”
Most of them just glared at him as they passed by, but a little pale lady with her slender tentacles braided into her grey-streaked hair smiled. “I'm Helen. Nice meeting you.”
“You too, Helen.”
It was only a brief moment before she followed her group away, but his steps were jauntier as he stepped inside, and his face looked for all the world carefree.
He kept the cheerfulness up as he approached the front desk and asked for Kari, a task complicated by the fact that he didn't know her family names, but the clerk was highly susceptible to flirting, and eventually they found her in the database.
Once he reached the office in question, though, he went grim and stuck his hands in his coat pockets. Though there was no actual door, the doorway was obscured by a thick protective field, and he braced himself before telling the identifier by the ceiling “Jack Harkness Cardiffya the Captain for Kari Manon Boglárka Nordseya the Police Officer.”
The protections slid aside, letting him in. Kari was sitting by her desk, with three separate screens in front of her, and she was briskly punching some kind of codes into all three off them. Seeing Jack, she slid them aside, emphasizing her glare. “I'm working.”
“What can I do?” The question was remarkably calm.
“About my work?”
“About whatever it is you want me to do.”
She turned off the screens entirely and folded them into a stack on the desk. “Why would I want you to do anything?”
“Well, let's see. You bit me, stole my blood, had it tested at six different labs, and came back to me with the results. Call me crazy, but it seems like you want a reaction.”
“I got a reaction,” she pointed out, more acerbic than angry.
“You got a really crappy one.”
She leaned as far back as the wall would allow, which wasn't much, and rested her chin on her fist, waiting.
“So there you have it,” he continued. “I'm listening. Unless what you really want is for that other me, the newfangled young agent, to mend his ways somehow, because I'm sorry to say, but as far as I'm concerned, that ship has sailed.”
“Why is this about me?” she asked. “Is that the way you see it? I'm making unreasonable demands on you, and you'd like to appease me?”
“I don't know what it's supposed to be about.”
“No, you don't, do you?” She shook her head and gestured for him to sit down in the corner alcove, which he did, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
“I don't understand how you can pretend it's nothing,” she said. “You're the only hybrid in the Time Agency...”
“No. I'm the first hybrid in the Time Agency. There will be more.”
“Really?” Her features softened at that.
Jack leaned forward, trying to draw her in with his words. “I know it doesn't seem like it, but things will change. I don't know how much or exactly how, because truth be told I never returned home, but I know it'll be better for you guys.”
“'You guys.' You still think of yourself as colonial.”
“No. This isn't my home anymore. The house is long gone. Most of my friends are dead - or will be. And what I went through... No, I was never a colonial. I was just never a hybrid either.”
“You didn't know?” Her voice was low and level.
“I did, but it was just a story to me. I never met my grandmother, and my mom looked like anyone else's. Even after the war started, and my parents forbade me to talk about it, I don't think I properly understood. Not until the creatures took Gray. Maybe not properly until he...” He stopped, pain flashing across his face. “I wasn't raised like you.”
“So?” she asked. “How many people here do you think were? I was the only one in my class who didn't have gills - I had to wear a mask to school. I didn't know many hybrids apart from my mothers, and I never saw a full-blooded colonial until the war. What do you think I have in common with people born here in Aydrdoon? Or your friend Lidor, for that matter? There isn't one right way to be a hybrid.”
“Well, there seems to be a wrong one,” he said bitterly. “Do you have any idea the number of messages I got telling me I had sold out on my people, that I should reconstruct the body I was born with, that my father was an abusive rapist, or my mother a lying whore... of course, that one I got from the colonials too. Seemed to be the only thing you could agree on. Everyone wanted something from me, though I guess some just wanted me dead. They were the easy ones.”
“I'm not condoning any of that.”
“Oh really?”
She stood up, resting her hands against the desk. “You're important, Amber. It doesn't matter that you're... that you were a conceited brat who cringed at the very sight of us. You're doing things no hybrid has done before. Your friend the Doctor claims that we'll grow to be dominant of this planet, and you make me believe it. Why do you want to deny us that? Why do you want to deny yourself that? You're our future!”
Her expression was so spirited that he stood up as well. He closed the distance between them and ran the back of his hand across the thick skin of her face, following every crack. “I'm a fixed point in time. You're the future, and it's going to be amazing. All right.”
“All right, what?” she asked, suspicious.
“You can have me.” He grinned, well aware of the double entendre. “That cringing brat. Call up a few reporters, tell them about the blockers, and what I told you about the double records. Someone's bound to run the story.”
She smiled, a sudden, broad, gamine grin, and her eyes were dark and brilliant. “Are you sure?”
“It's going to happen. Might as well be someone like you behind it, comfort an old man's heart.” He gently took her chin between his thumb and finger. “You know, my grandmother's one thing... but having a distant cousin of your calibre? That's a very appealing notion.”
“Are you coming on to me?” The notion seemed to amuse her more than anything else, but she drew back so that the desk came between the two of them. Her features slid back into their usual inscrutability. “You're coming on to me by talking about how we're related. That's special.”
“Distantly related,” he pointed out.
She unfolded one of the screens and set it up. “All right, Amber, if you've had your epiphany, perhaps you'll let me get back to work.”
“It's Jack.”
“Jack. Cousin. Will you let me work? I'm investigating a series of traffic accidents in the same neighbourhood. We suspect that the land owner's not maintaining the roads properly. I really am busy.”
He gave a good-natured guffaw. “You had maybe five or ten minutes head start. Are you telling me in that time, you dived straight into a case and got submerged enough that I was actually interrupting something?”
“What else was I supposed to do?”
He stared at her. “Don't you do anything except work?” he asked.
“Of course I do. I badger colonial whipping boys. What I don't do is brood over them.”
Someone else might have accompanied that jab with a smile, or a raised eyebrow, but Kari was straight back in officer mode and didn't even look up. Jack grinned.
“I don't suppose we'll be seeing each other again,” he said softly. “Crossing my timelines and all that.”
The pace of her work slowed, then stopped, and she met his eyes. “I guess so. Well. I'll call those reporters tonight after work, shall I?”
“Yeah, you do that. Spare a friendly thought for that kid I was, okay?”
“Absolutely.” She rose from her seat, walked around her desk, and sat down on the edge of it, a sign of trust in a world where everyone sat with their backs to the wall. Holding out her hand, she added, “Good luck, Jack.”
He took her hand in both of his. “Good luck to you, Kari.” For a second, he leaned forward, opening his lips for a kiss, but something halted him, and he drew back with just a final squeeze of the hands.
When he left the room, she had already picked up her work again.
After a quick conversation with Ianto, Jack went into the bathroom and knocked on the door to the next room. The Doctor bid him inside.
“I just wanted to say... oh, hi, Donna. Didn't expect to see you here.”
Donna was sitting in the corner with her legs stretched out on the windowpane, and had been eating roast palm-oak seeds and listening to music. Now she threw a seed at Jack. “Oi! I'm not attached to Lee's hip!”
“Well, that's good, because it would have made some of your activities a little bit difficult.”
She dug a whole handful of seeds from the bowl and threw them at him. He caught a couple in his mouth. “Don't waste those, you'll need the... energy.” Suddenly serious, he fidgeted with his coat a little. “I'm not trying to interfere with anything. I mean, I'm fine with staying as long as you'd like.”
“What are you talking about?” the Doctor asked. Some seeds had fallen on the table, and he swept them off and ate them.
“I'm pretty much done here.”
The Doctor made a surprised grimace. “Really?”
“Yeah. Mission accomplished.” Jack circled his shoulders as if shaking a load off them, and beamed. “Thank the TARDIS for me.”
“I will,” the Doctor promised.
“Well, good thing something's finally cheering you up, whatever it is,” Donna said. “Good for you!”
“Thanks. I meant what I said, we don't have to leave right now. If you'd rather...”
“Oh, no problem!” she said. “I'll just check with Lee if there's anything he wants to pack.”
They both stared at her.
“What?” Doctor asked flatly.
“Pack. I mean, I know he doesn't have much, but there's his research, and clothes of course. He's got some rather smart clothes, in a casual way.”
“You can't just invite him along!”
“I already have. He said yes.”
The Doctor sputtered incoherently, and Donna's eyes narrowed.
“Oh no, you don't,” she said. “You don't strand me here in the West Side Story. No way.”
“But...”
“Quick wedding in Chiswick,” she explained. “My mother would never forgive me if she missed it, and I do want granddad to be there. It'll be nice for Lee too, genuine twenty-first century. Nothing big, though, done that once, never again, and we're not staying, because quite frankly, I've had enough of the place. Anyway, there's no knowing what our children will look like, is there? So after the wedding, we'll try to think of a nice time and place. Lee has a couple of suggestions, though if you've got any advice I'd love to hear it. I can't imagine it'll take long. Got to be hundreds of nice spots to choose from, yeah?”
The Doctor's eyes were very, very wide, and he looked to Jack, making a small pitiful sound.
Jack hid his mouth in his hand. “Sounds like you've got it all figured out.”
“All right, then,” Donna said, stepping into her shoes. “Oh, don't look at me like that,” she added to the Doctor. “What did you think was going to happen?”
“I... don't know,” he said weakly. “Not you house shopping all over the universe.”
She crossed her arms, looking quite stern, though there was an uncertain quiver to her chin. “Are you kicking me out?”
“No! No,
of course not!”
“Are
you kicking Lee out?”
“Uh... no?”
“So it's all right, then?”
“Yes,” he said, as if he didn't entirely trust his own judgement.
“Great!” She gave him a firm, happy hug. “Thank you so much! So, what about you, Jack?”
“Just plain old Cardiff for me,” he laughed. “Unless we're invited to that wedding?”
“Oh, sure! Lee could use a couple of best men. Brilliant! I'll go talk to him then!”
She flew out the door, and it slammed shut behind her while she was still putting on her jacket.
“They've known each other for a week!” the Doctor said helplessly.
“Not in their timeline.” Jack was still laughing.
“That was an artificial universe! What if they don't like each other?” The Doctor blanched. “What if they start having spats in the TARDIS? I can't do domestic quarrels.”
“There's this practical little thing called a divorce, don't know if you've heard of it?”
“He's a historian,” he complained. “That's one step below archaeologist!”
Jack gave the Doctor a comforting squeeze on the shoulder, though the effect was somewhat ruined by the way his body shook with laughter. “Be strong, Doctor. You'll survive somehow.”
The TARDIS landed rather roughly on a Chiswick pavement, and all five passengers stumbled out. Donna lit up seeing her house, and rushed off, dragging Lee, who did his best to see as much of the view as possible during the short run.
Jack peered at a church tower some distance away. “Eight o'clock. I wonder what day it is.”
“Friday,” the Doctor said. “Supposed to be, anyway. I wanted you to lose as little time as possible.”
“I'll call Gwen and tell her we won't be in,” Ianto said, fishing his mobile from his inner pocket. “Might as well check the date at the same time.”
“Good idea.”
“What are we going to do about clothes?”
“That's a thought.” Jack turned to the Doctor. “Considering what the TARDIS is like with pants I dread to ask, but, tuxedos?”
“Maybe?” the Doctor offered, looking doubtful.
Jack sighed. “Well, at least my ATM card will work again. I was getting tired of flirting my way to food.”
“Oh, but you do it so well!” Ianto said, and then, into the phone, “Oh, hello, Gwen...”
He walked off some distance to hear better, which left Jack and the Doctor still lounging by the TARDIS door.
“Should we go and say hi?” Jack asked, nodding towards Donna's house.
“Yeah,” the Doctor agreed without moving at all. “Definitely.”
Quite a long pause later, the Doctor said, “So, straight back to Cardiff after the wedding, eh?”
“Yeah, duty calls. But that reminds me, I've been thinking. If anyone needs a holiday, it's that policewoman...”
“No,” the Doctor said firmly. “Not you too! I'm not a taxi service.”
“Suit yourself, but my guess is, it'll be pretty couply with Donna and Lee in there together. And when they leave, you're still going to need someone.”
“She's so grim!”
“She's more fun when you get to know her.”
“Really?”
“No. Still.”
“I'm fine on my own.”
Jack watched Ianto's silhouette in the morning sun as he put the mobile back down and started walking back.
“Yeah,” Jack said. “Of course you are.”