Many Happy Returns (2/?)
Title: Many Happy Returns (1/??)
Fandom: Torchwoood/Doctor Who
Characters/Pairings: Team Torchwood, Lacey Harkness, Tessa Harkness, Alex O'Connell, Tavish Harkness, Meredith Harkness, Martha Jones, Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond.
Summary: When two Rift Spikes happen simlantiously, the explosion separates Lacey from the team. Is she all right, and who is the mysterious seventh person on the scene?
Notes: I only claim Lacey as my own Alex O"Connell is a fanon represenation of Rick and Evelyn O'Connell's kid from the Mummy Returns, in which he is just about sixteen. Tessa is about to turn seventeen. The Twins are eleven. This is set Post Exit Wounds. CoE doesn't exist in this setting.
He’d fallen through the Rift, that much he knew. The explosion caught him off guard, but then again, so did falling through the Rift. What was one more hiccup in the road? Still, being in an abandoned building that just decided to blow up and crash down around his ears did not bring back happy memories. The rubble shifted, and he held his breath, worried that more was about to fall. When the moment passed and nothing else fell, he worked on trying to crawl free. He hadn’t been buried by much, and was remarkably unscathed, which was a good thing in his mind.
As he moved, he could hear voices, so naturally, he moved towards them, thinking that perhaps some folks had come to see the amazing exploding building. However, as he got closer, he recognized the voice of Jack and Martha. He was calling for Lacey. Oh god, what had that crazy bird gotten herself into now? He turned the corner and realized he was hearing the voices through the girl’s com unit. He had to swallow hard not to be sick at the sight in front of him.
She looked like a child’s rag doll, tossed aside after hours of play. One leg was bent at an unnatural angle underneath her body, the other splayed out as though she was trying to do the splits. Her right arm was folded across her chest while her left was thrown over her head. Actually, minus the scrapes and obvious broken bones, she could have been asleep from the waste up. What worried him the most was the small trickle of blood from her nose. A brain injury, though not surprised, she must have been thrown hard. He knelt next to her. He could see the rise and fall of her chest, which was a good thing, she was breathing. He took her wrist in his hand gently; her pulse was quick, too quick. Dammit, he wished he had more in his medical kit. He pulled a penlight out of his pocket, flashing it quickly into each eye, watching the dilation. Not good, he thought, looking grim. He looked at her ear piece, still hearing Jack and Martha over it, this time Ianto coming through as well.
He hesitated a moment. They all thought he was dead, he was sure. Hell, he should have been dead. His flesh should have been eaten away by the radiation. He took the device, and put it in his ear. Pressing a button, Owen Harper said, “Ok, Jack, first things first, no screaming, questioning your sanity or otherwise wasting time that we don’t want to be wasted.” He waited a second to make sure there were no stupid questions, before continuing. “Ok, I’ve got her, but she’s in bad shape. We need to get her out of here and to the hospital.”
“How bad is bad, Owen?”
“Definite head injury, possible internal injuries that I’m not going to find without a thorough scan. Broken arm, her leg’s twisted back so that it’s underneath her. Where are you at?”
“She forced everyone inside before running back in to find whomever the Rift deposited in there. The front entrance is blocked. I’ve got two team members coming in from the back. “
“Try to get a hold of the Doctor, Jack,” Owen said, glancing at Lacey. “Hang on, I think she’s coming around. See if the Doc can get his Tardis in here. It’d be the easiest and safest way to get her out.” He clicked off his mic, so he could focus on the red head in front of him. “Hey,” he said softly as she whimpered and tried to move, “hey, try not to move.”
Lacey opened her eyes, blinking a few times at the face hovering over her. “I’m dead or dreaming,” she muttered, closing her eyes.
“Oh no you don’t,” Owen said, “don’t go drifting off, you stay awake and you talk to me, you got that?” As long as she was awake and talking, then she wasn’t going into shock. “Tell me where it hurts the most.”
She opened her eyes again, a pained expression as she tried to move her mangled leg. “My leg, it won’t move.” She sounded scared. “What happened?”
“There was an explosion. You, you insane woman, decided to play the reckless hero and have succeeded in nearly getting yourself killed,” he said, going to look at her leg again. “Try moving your other leg.” He watched as she moved her foot in a circle with a whimper of pain. “Well, good news is, we’re probably not looking at a spinal cord injury.”
“I was not playing reckless Hero, I thought I had more time,” she said, her words slurred slightly, “oh joy, no spinal injuries that you can detect, well, I should just jump up and walk right out of here.”
“Oh yeah, you’ll be a regular Ginger Rogers, hopping around on one leg.” He rolled his eyes. “Ok, I need to move your leg. This is going to hurt.”
“If it’s going to hurt more, can we just not do it?”
“Just brace yourself, all right?” He took her left arm, and moved it carefully to his shoulder, “just squeeze if you need to.” He then took her leg and as gently as he could, moved it so it was no longer bent backwards
“Fuck me,” she cried, nearly sitting up in the pain, “for a dream this is far too realistic.”
Owen knew better than to argue with her over the state of her sanity when she was this out of it in pain. “there we go, oh, that’s going to leave some scarring, fast healing or not.” He looked up and tapped her shoulder, “hey, stay with me, ok? Even you think I’m not alive, I need you to stay with me.” She muttered something and he leaned on. “what was that?”
“You’re too alive, that’s the problem. You have a pulse, I could feel it in your shoulder, you don’t have that cold skin anymore, warm body, and you’re breathing, I can see your chest move from here.” She shook her head, with a whimper, “if you were real, you’d be the walking corpse.”
He looked at her with a shocked expression, before looking down at his own chest. He was in fact breathing. “Huh,” he said. He fell through a Rift and got his life back, well, weirder things had happened. He was less concerned about his newly alive status and more concerned with Lacey’s dubious hold on life status. “We’ll worry about me later, let’s focus on you. That should make you happy, always have to be the center of attention.”
“That’s Tessa’s job, not mine,” she said, “My job is to make sure she doesn’t get caught when she lets her damn snail out.”
Owen chuckled, remembering when Lacey had gotten her younger sister the snail to annoy Jack. “How old is she now?” Seemed easier to ask Tessa’s age than how long he’d been gone. He pulled his med kit off his back and started going through it. “Can’t do anything for the big injuries, but let’s see about cleaning up those cuts and scrapes.”
“She’ll be seventeen in two weeks,” she said, “I’m getting her a huge rabbit. They raise them in Germany for food. It seemed like just the thing for her collection of odd animals.”
“I hear her, come on!” Owen looked up at the voice and watched as a blond man came rushing carefully towards them. “Jesus, Dollface, you really don’t do anything small do you?” He said, kneeling down next to Lacey. He gave Owen a slight nod but didn’t pay much attention to him.
“Well, you know me,” she said with a slight smile, “if it ain’t worth doing big, it ain’t worth doing at all.”
Owen shook his head, muttering something about the more things change when another man joined them. He stopped for a few seconds, staring at Owen. It made him slightly uncomfortable. He nodded at Owen before moving over to Lacey as well. Must be the team members Jack had mentioned. “You’re him, aren’t you?”
“I’m who?”
“Harper,” he said, before hitting his com. “Yeah, it we need the Tardis. The route we took was the clearest and that was treacherous enough without carrying her. Any luck getting a hold of him.”
“Figures,” Lacey muttered, “Theta never answers his phone when you need it.” She looked at Owen. “they see you.”
“And you’ve been talking about me, haven’t you?” He said, getting a nod from Mickey and Jake.
“But if they see you, then,” she looked frightened at the very thought, “no, I’m delirious, dying, alone. This isn’t real. It can’t be real.”
“Hey, dollface,” Jake said, waiting until she focused on him and not the medic she wanted so desperately to believe was dead, “you’re not alone. We’re really here. I mean, come on, think about it. If you were delirious and dying alone, would you really imagine Mickey and me? We’re good looking, I won’t deny it, but I would think you’d imagine your dad or siblings here.”
She shook her head. “Not real, this can’t be real. Not real, not real.”
“Hey,” Owen took her head in his hands, forcing her to look at him, “stop, you’re going to hurt yourself worse if you keep that up. You need to hold still, and take some deep breaths.”
“Hearts too fast.”
“You’ve lost some blood, possibly internally. You’re hearts are beating fast to get your blood pressure back up.” He muttered under his breath when he heard the Tardis. “Finally, for once your brother shows up right on time. Lacey?” He looked at her, but she had drifted into unconsciousness, “fuck. Lacey, come on, sweetheart.” He tried to wake her up, but it wasn’t working. “All right, boys, no time to waste,”
The Doctor came rushing out of the Tardis with Martha. To their credit they didn’t let the presence of someone they believed to be dead slow them down as they came to help with her. “Here, we brought a back board.”
Owen nodded. “All right, let’s slide her under it,” he left that to Mickey and Jake while he quickly filled Martha in on her injuries. He tried to hide how worried he was, which meant he was in full doctor mode. They had her in the Tardis, careful to walk her slowly over the few feet of rubble. Once inside, he got a look at the new layout of the Tardis, before turning to the Doctor himself. “You’ve regenerated.”
“Yes, and you survived being destroyed by radiation.” He answered. “ER?”
Owen nodded. “We’ll retcon people later.” He knew Jack or Gwen would make a note of everyone in the waiting room and staff that weren’t on Torchwood’s payroll. He started an IV, hoping the fluids would help with the blood loss.
“Heart rates still erratic,” Martha said, “breathing shallow, but regular at least.”
Owen nodded as the Tardis landed. He and Martha took over, rushing Lacey back behind the doors, leaving the Doctor, Jack and the others to wait.
Fandom: Torchwoood/Doctor Who
Characters/Pairings: Team Torchwood, Lacey Harkness, Tessa Harkness, Alex O'Connell, Tavish Harkness, Meredith Harkness, Martha Jones, Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond.
Summary: When two Rift Spikes happen simlantiously, the explosion separates Lacey from the team. Is she all right, and who is the mysterious seventh person on the scene?
Notes: I only claim Lacey as my own Alex O"Connell is a fanon represenation of Rick and Evelyn O'Connell's kid from the Mummy Returns, in which he is just about sixteen. Tessa is about to turn seventeen. The Twins are eleven. This is set Post Exit Wounds. CoE doesn't exist in this setting.
He’d fallen through the Rift, that much he knew. The explosion caught him off guard, but then again, so did falling through the Rift. What was one more hiccup in the road? Still, being in an abandoned building that just decided to blow up and crash down around his ears did not bring back happy memories. The rubble shifted, and he held his breath, worried that more was about to fall. When the moment passed and nothing else fell, he worked on trying to crawl free. He hadn’t been buried by much, and was remarkably unscathed, which was a good thing in his mind.
As he moved, he could hear voices, so naturally, he moved towards them, thinking that perhaps some folks had come to see the amazing exploding building. However, as he got closer, he recognized the voice of Jack and Martha. He was calling for Lacey. Oh god, what had that crazy bird gotten herself into now? He turned the corner and realized he was hearing the voices through the girl’s com unit. He had to swallow hard not to be sick at the sight in front of him.
She looked like a child’s rag doll, tossed aside after hours of play. One leg was bent at an unnatural angle underneath her body, the other splayed out as though she was trying to do the splits. Her right arm was folded across her chest while her left was thrown over her head. Actually, minus the scrapes and obvious broken bones, she could have been asleep from the waste up. What worried him the most was the small trickle of blood from her nose. A brain injury, though not surprised, she must have been thrown hard. He knelt next to her. He could see the rise and fall of her chest, which was a good thing, she was breathing. He took her wrist in his hand gently; her pulse was quick, too quick. Dammit, he wished he had more in his medical kit. He pulled a penlight out of his pocket, flashing it quickly into each eye, watching the dilation. Not good, he thought, looking grim. He looked at her ear piece, still hearing Jack and Martha over it, this time Ianto coming through as well.
He hesitated a moment. They all thought he was dead, he was sure. Hell, he should have been dead. His flesh should have been eaten away by the radiation. He took the device, and put it in his ear. Pressing a button, Owen Harper said, “Ok, Jack, first things first, no screaming, questioning your sanity or otherwise wasting time that we don’t want to be wasted.” He waited a second to make sure there were no stupid questions, before continuing. “Ok, I’ve got her, but she’s in bad shape. We need to get her out of here and to the hospital.”
“How bad is bad, Owen?”
“Definite head injury, possible internal injuries that I’m not going to find without a thorough scan. Broken arm, her leg’s twisted back so that it’s underneath her. Where are you at?”
“She forced everyone inside before running back in to find whomever the Rift deposited in there. The front entrance is blocked. I’ve got two team members coming in from the back. “
“Try to get a hold of the Doctor, Jack,” Owen said, glancing at Lacey. “Hang on, I think she’s coming around. See if the Doc can get his Tardis in here. It’d be the easiest and safest way to get her out.” He clicked off his mic, so he could focus on the red head in front of him. “Hey,” he said softly as she whimpered and tried to move, “hey, try not to move.”
Lacey opened her eyes, blinking a few times at the face hovering over her. “I’m dead or dreaming,” she muttered, closing her eyes.
“Oh no you don’t,” Owen said, “don’t go drifting off, you stay awake and you talk to me, you got that?” As long as she was awake and talking, then she wasn’t going into shock. “Tell me where it hurts the most.”
She opened her eyes again, a pained expression as she tried to move her mangled leg. “My leg, it won’t move.” She sounded scared. “What happened?”
“There was an explosion. You, you insane woman, decided to play the reckless hero and have succeeded in nearly getting yourself killed,” he said, going to look at her leg again. “Try moving your other leg.” He watched as she moved her foot in a circle with a whimper of pain. “Well, good news is, we’re probably not looking at a spinal cord injury.”
“I was not playing reckless Hero, I thought I had more time,” she said, her words slurred slightly, “oh joy, no spinal injuries that you can detect, well, I should just jump up and walk right out of here.”
“Oh yeah, you’ll be a regular Ginger Rogers, hopping around on one leg.” He rolled his eyes. “Ok, I need to move your leg. This is going to hurt.”
“If it’s going to hurt more, can we just not do it?”
“Just brace yourself, all right?” He took her left arm, and moved it carefully to his shoulder, “just squeeze if you need to.” He then took her leg and as gently as he could, moved it so it was no longer bent backwards
“Fuck me,” she cried, nearly sitting up in the pain, “for a dream this is far too realistic.”
Owen knew better than to argue with her over the state of her sanity when she was this out of it in pain. “there we go, oh, that’s going to leave some scarring, fast healing or not.” He looked up and tapped her shoulder, “hey, stay with me, ok? Even you think I’m not alive, I need you to stay with me.” She muttered something and he leaned on. “what was that?”
“You’re too alive, that’s the problem. You have a pulse, I could feel it in your shoulder, you don’t have that cold skin anymore, warm body, and you’re breathing, I can see your chest move from here.” She shook her head, with a whimper, “if you were real, you’d be the walking corpse.”
He looked at her with a shocked expression, before looking down at his own chest. He was in fact breathing. “Huh,” he said. He fell through a Rift and got his life back, well, weirder things had happened. He was less concerned about his newly alive status and more concerned with Lacey’s dubious hold on life status. “We’ll worry about me later, let’s focus on you. That should make you happy, always have to be the center of attention.”
“That’s Tessa’s job, not mine,” she said, “My job is to make sure she doesn’t get caught when she lets her damn snail out.”
Owen chuckled, remembering when Lacey had gotten her younger sister the snail to annoy Jack. “How old is she now?” Seemed easier to ask Tessa’s age than how long he’d been gone. He pulled his med kit off his back and started going through it. “Can’t do anything for the big injuries, but let’s see about cleaning up those cuts and scrapes.”
“She’ll be seventeen in two weeks,” she said, “I’m getting her a huge rabbit. They raise them in Germany for food. It seemed like just the thing for her collection of odd animals.”
“I hear her, come on!” Owen looked up at the voice and watched as a blond man came rushing carefully towards them. “Jesus, Dollface, you really don’t do anything small do you?” He said, kneeling down next to Lacey. He gave Owen a slight nod but didn’t pay much attention to him.
“Well, you know me,” she said with a slight smile, “if it ain’t worth doing big, it ain’t worth doing at all.”
Owen shook his head, muttering something about the more things change when another man joined them. He stopped for a few seconds, staring at Owen. It made him slightly uncomfortable. He nodded at Owen before moving over to Lacey as well. Must be the team members Jack had mentioned. “You’re him, aren’t you?”
“I’m who?”
“Harper,” he said, before hitting his com. “Yeah, it we need the Tardis. The route we took was the clearest and that was treacherous enough without carrying her. Any luck getting a hold of him.”
“Figures,” Lacey muttered, “Theta never answers his phone when you need it.” She looked at Owen. “they see you.”
“And you’ve been talking about me, haven’t you?” He said, getting a nod from Mickey and Jake.
“But if they see you, then,” she looked frightened at the very thought, “no, I’m delirious, dying, alone. This isn’t real. It can’t be real.”
“Hey, dollface,” Jake said, waiting until she focused on him and not the medic she wanted so desperately to believe was dead, “you’re not alone. We’re really here. I mean, come on, think about it. If you were delirious and dying alone, would you really imagine Mickey and me? We’re good looking, I won’t deny it, but I would think you’d imagine your dad or siblings here.”
She shook her head. “Not real, this can’t be real. Not real, not real.”
“Hey,” Owen took her head in his hands, forcing her to look at him, “stop, you’re going to hurt yourself worse if you keep that up. You need to hold still, and take some deep breaths.”
“Hearts too fast.”
“You’ve lost some blood, possibly internally. You’re hearts are beating fast to get your blood pressure back up.” He muttered under his breath when he heard the Tardis. “Finally, for once your brother shows up right on time. Lacey?” He looked at her, but she had drifted into unconsciousness, “fuck. Lacey, come on, sweetheart.” He tried to wake her up, but it wasn’t working. “All right, boys, no time to waste,”
The Doctor came rushing out of the Tardis with Martha. To their credit they didn’t let the presence of someone they believed to be dead slow them down as they came to help with her. “Here, we brought a back board.”
Owen nodded. “All right, let’s slide her under it,” he left that to Mickey and Jake while he quickly filled Martha in on her injuries. He tried to hide how worried he was, which meant he was in full doctor mode. They had her in the Tardis, careful to walk her slowly over the few feet of rubble. Once inside, he got a look at the new layout of the Tardis, before turning to the Doctor himself. “You’ve regenerated.”
“Yes, and you survived being destroyed by radiation.” He answered. “ER?”
Owen nodded. “We’ll retcon people later.” He knew Jack or Gwen would make a note of everyone in the waiting room and staff that weren’t on Torchwood’s payroll. He started an IV, hoping the fluids would help with the blood loss.
“Heart rates still erratic,” Martha said, “breathing shallow, but regular at least.”
Owen nodded as the Tardis landed. He and Martha took over, rushing Lacey back behind the doors, leaving the Doctor, Jack and the others to wait.