Thirty Flavours of Torchwood
Right, because I'm far too tempted, this is opening up much quicker than I'd planned. :D Thanks go to those who gave me prompts (and if you want to add some, do feel free - it's never too late
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Cup of Coffee and an Ice Cream
“Coffee?” one of the men said cheerfully, bringing in a tray with three cups on it, giving one to his fellow interviewer (interrogator, more like) and putting another on the table in front of Tosh. She was about to shake her head when she remembered how long it had been since she’d drunk anything, and picked up the cup. As soon as they let her out of here she’d do her duty as a good little scientist and report back to UNIT with everything she’d learned about Torchwood from her questioning today.
The man taking notes (the one who hadn’t fetched the coffee) suddenly frowned, and raised his hand to the Bluetooth headset hooked into his ear, saying, “Yes, she’s still here. Not yet, we were just about to - are you sure? No, no sir, sorry sir. Right away sir.”
Tosh paused with the cup halfway to her lips, wondering what the other half of the conversation had been, then went to drink the coffee, only for the man to reach across the table and hastily take the cup from her hands, saying, “Change of plan.”
She sighed and sat back, coffeeless and thirsty now, but obeying all the same. The two men stood up and went to have an urgent, whispered discussion in the corner by the door, and she did her best to eavesdrop but caught only a half-strangled, disbelieving, and insulted, “Harkness?” before they hastily shushed each other and tried to act professional.
The door opened, and the two men left, then the door was closed again and she was alone with a different man. Handsome, certainly, though the period military look was hardly in keeping with fashion.
He turned away from the door, turned on a blinding grin, and took three steps towards her, holding out his hand and saying, “Captain Jack Harkness. Pleasure to meet you, Doctor Sato. Don’t drink the coffee.”
Tosh found herself shaking his hand, starting to get up until he waved her back down and twisted to sit on the edge of the table beside her.
“Working for UNIT at the moment, aren’t you?” he asked, and she automatically opened her mouth to respond, then paused, intrigued by the peculiarity of his appearance and manner, and decided she could risk being a little bit more belligerent than usual, saying, “You know well enough already. Are you Torchwood as well?”
“Not the same lot that tried to hire you last time,” he told her, smiling in an altogether irritatingly knowing way. She gave him no gasp of surprise or look of awe or confusion. It wasn’t remotely startling that he’d read Torchwood’s file on her.
“As I recall,” he continued, looking away from her, up into empty space to affect an air of thoughtful musing, “you turned them down flat. The official reason was that you didn’t want to leave your post with UNIT on such short notice. Care to tell me the real reason?”
Tosh watched him for a moment, waiting until he turned to look at her before saying, “That was the real reason, Captain.”
“So it wasn’t because you found them arrogant, power hungry and imperialist?” he asked casually, then smiled brightly at her when she said nothing.
“And you don’t find UNIT too hung up on military discipline and rules and regulations. You don’t want to be somewhere where they’d listen to you, value your opinion and include you as part of a team, rather than sidelining you because you’re not military personnel, and assigning you to the wrong taskforce because they don’t want to brief another expert, when you should be working on the technological side of things.”
Tosh bit her lip, and he grinned at her, then stood up, saying nonchalantly, “Torchwood Three, Cardiff. I can promise you a say in pretty much every decision that gets made, enough autonomy to pursue your own interests, and all the alien technology you could ever want to investigate.”
She hesitated a moment longer, and he paused, then said, “Or you can drink your coffee, go back to UNIT, and forget you ever met me. Your choice.”
For another few seconds, Tosh said nothing, considering the matter, and then she stood up and shook the Captain’s hand again, saying firmly, “I’m in,” and trying to ignore the feeling telling her she’d either just made the best decision of her life - or the worst mistake.
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This wasn’t the autonomy and decision-making and “valued opinion” she’d been promised.
In quite a huff, she stared moodily out at the water, getting so lost in her thoughts that she barely even heard the gulls screeching incredibly loudly nearby until she realised that of course there were no gulls, and it wasn’t even the fake call that scared them off that she was hearing. By the time she realised that, the sound had stopped.
Straightening up and looking around, she was wracking her brains trying to work out what the noise had been (and why it was ringing vague bells in the back of her mind) when she spotted a familiar figure, and paused, startled.
He was walking with a blonde girl, gesturing out at the Bay and clearly in the middle of telling her an amusing anecdote, as her attention was utterly focused on him, and she laughed occasionally, shaking her head in amused denial. Carefully, Tosh got close enough to be sure, and then dared to interrupt, asking nervously, “Doctor?”
They both turned, and the girl glanced between them as the Doctor paused, then suddenly recognised her and grinned from ear to ear, saying delightedly, “Doctor Sato!” and hugging her enthusiastically.
Tosh smiled back at him when he let her go, telling him, “I just wanted to thank you for everything -”
“Oh, that was nothing,” the Doctor said cheerfully, still grinning. “How are you, though?”
“Um… I’m fine,” Tosh answered, smiling when the blonde girl pulled apologetic faces behind the Doctor’s back. “Working for Torchwood now, but -”
From behind her, an all too familiar voice said loudly, “And you tell me not to flirt with everyone I meet.”
Tosh froze, while the Doctor affected an indignant look, saying, “Doctor Sato and I were just catching up on old times, actually,” and the blonde girl skipped past her, with a broad smile and a quick, “Thanks, Mickey.”
Tosh turned, as Jack handed the Doctor an ice cream, asking, “Do I still need to buy you a drink?”
The Doctor grinned, told him simply, “Yep,” and then turned back to Tosh, gesturing at each of the other three in turn, and saying, “Rose, Ricky -”
“Mickey.”
“- and Jack.”
Jack grinned at her, saying, “Pleasure to meet you, Doctor Sato. Let me buy you an ice cream?”
Shaking her head absentmindedly, Tosh looked him up and down, debated for a moment whether any interaction with Jack on her part would cause the universe to implode, then decided that her Jack had left her behind in the full knowledge of his earlier arrival, whatever she was going to do she’d already done, and it was far too late to turn and run now anyway, and said, “You look better with the coat.”
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“Have a good time while we were away?” Jack asked cheerfully as she came to help them unload the SUV.
“Yeah, solve any useful equations?” Owen asked, far less cheerfully, carrying a heavy box past them and heading for the armoury.
Ignoring him, Tosh stared at Jack until he stopped loading Suzie and Elijah up with the rest of their stuff, and turned to face her, folding his arms and raising his eyebrows.
“Problem?” he enquired, the faintest curve to his lips telling her that he knew precisely what had been going on in his ‘absence’.
She waited until the others had gone into the Hub to unload properly, aware that Jack was beginning to look slightly wary, unsure how she was going to react. It would be so easy to use what she knew to force more answers out of him - who knew how many more secrets he was keeping from them all? - but she had the feeling that if she took that route Jack would be the one offering her a drink, rather than the one saving her.
So she smiled instead, and told him, “You owe me an ice cream.”
The smile he gave her in return helped her squash her curiosity, and he offered her his arm, saying, “We’ll let the others finish unpacking. So, Doctor Sato. The million dollar question. Strawberry or vanilla?”
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I love the Hot Fuzz/shaun of the dead ref, I love Jack leaving Tosh behind so he can meet up with her, I love Nine hugging her (I'll hug anyone)and Jack “And you tell me not to flirt with everyone I meet.” Bless him, he's jealous!
Anyway, love lots and yay! Longest fic yet. Wouldn't put it past you to write a longer one.
Back to the karaoke!
#Flash! O-oh!# Flash, I love you! But we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!
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Longest Flavour yet, and at over 1500 words it may well stay that way... We shall see. :)
#Flash! Aa-aah! Saviour of the Universe! (What do you mean, Flash Gordon approaching?)#
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