Fic - Where Will You Run To? 2/5
Title: Where Will You Run To? 2/5
Author: szm
Fandom: Torchwood/Being Human
Characters: Lauren, Ianto, Jack, Gwen (mentions of other BH characters)
Spoilers: Torchwood - none set between seasons 2 and 3 (non-COE compliant). Being Human - set after episode four of season 1. Slight spoiler for that.
Rating: PG13
Betaed by tanarian
Summary: Lauren runs from Bristol and ends up in Cardiff
Chapter One
It was weeks before Ianto saw Lauren again. To be honest he thought she’d left Cardiff. There’d been no reports of deaths that looked even remotely like vampire attacks.
Vampire attacks for god’s sake. Just when you think life can’t get any stranger.
He and Gwen were investigating a building that had mysteriously vanished. Lock stock and barrel. It had been there at 04.56 that morning, and gone at 04.57. No atmospheric anomalies, no flash of light, not even a cloud of coloured smoke. They’re just walking back to the SUV, as baffled as when they arrived, when her voice rang out over the stillness of the early morning.
“Caught any good aliens then?”
Gwen spun round and her eyes narrowed, and Ianto should have expected this. These things always come back to bite him on the arse. And he takes a quick moment to appreciate what a truly terrible choice of phrase that is under the circumstances.
“It’s fine, she’s a… friend,” he said quickly to Gwen.
“Really?” replied Gwen sceptically. “I’ll wait by the car then.”
Ianto doesn’t hold out the slightest hope that’s the end of it. Gwen is not going to let this go, but one problem at a time …
“She’s pretty,” said Lauren looking at Gwen retreating back. “Girlfriend?”
“No,” replied Ianto stonily, crossing his arms across his chest and glaring.
“Well,” grinned Lauren. “Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. You’re not exactly Mr Sunshine are you?”
“It’s early. And speaking of sunshine?” he raised his eyebrows questioningly.
Lauren shrugged. “It hurts my eyes, and I burn really quickly. But early mornings and late nights are fine. I’m not planning a trip to Spain anytime soon…”
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” asked Ianto cutting Lauren’s speech off.
“Wow! You are really not a morning person, but I know how to cheer you up. I know what happened to your building…”
Ianto glares. “I have no reason to trust you. Why would you want to help?”
Lauren makes a show of pretending to think about it. “Civic duty?” she replied finally.
Ianto just raised his eyebrow.
“That and I guess I owe you one,” admitted Lauren.
“Stay here,” said Ianto. He jogged over to the SUV.
“Who is she?” asked Gwen arms folded across her chest.
“Her name’s Lauren,” replied Ianto. “She might have a lead on were the building went, I’m going to take her for a coffee.”
“Where are we going then?” asked Gwen looking determined.
And this is exactly what Ianto didn’t want. He doesn’t trust Lauren enough to let her spend time with Gwen, and he’s not exactly sure how Gwen is going to react to the whole ‘Vampire’ issue.
Probably better than Jack would, but that’s not saying an awful lot.
“Look,” said Ianto finally. “She’s not going to talk if you’re around. It’ll be better if I go on my own.”
Gwen looks at him sceptically. “Ianto, even if you used to work with her before, you don’t know what her motives are now. Do you even know what she’s been doing since Canary Wharf?”
Ianto blinks at that. Then he realises that Gwen is assuming that Lauren is someone he knows from Torchwood One.
“We don’t have any other leads, I’ll be fine,” Ianto carefully doesn’t correct Gwen’s assumption. Gwen doesn’t look happy about it, but she tells him to stay on the comm, climbs into the car and drives off.
Ianto consoles himself with the fact that he didn’t actually have to lie at all.
**
Ianto got the coffees while Lauren picked a table. She chose the one furthest from the windows and the daylight streaming through them. When Ianto came back he raised his eyebrows in a meaningful manner but didn’t say anything. He sat opposite her and passed over her coffee. When he took a sip of his he frowned like he didn’t like it.
“Problem?” asked Lauren sweetly.
“This place always over roasts the beans,” he replied.
“So, why bring me here?” she asked sipping her own coffee. It tasted fine to her but then nothing tasted quite right anymore.
“I don’t trust you,” shrugged Ianto. “I’m not going to risk you wrecking the good place.”
Lauren is almost sure he’s joking but he has that dry sort of humour where it’s hard to tell.
“So,” said Ianto putting down his coffee and fixing her with a glare. “Building?”
“It’s still there,” said Lauren blithely. She’d hoped for shock on Ianto face but he just raised an eyebrow.
“We checked. Plumbing and electrics are disconnected. Ripped up at the foundations. Not to mention if it is still there I walked through a lot of walls today.”
“I know, I saw you,” said Lauren with a smirk. “It was disconcerting to watch.”
“Unless you start making some sense I’m leaving,” said Ianto. “I assume all this is for some purpose…” He raised the eyebrow again. Lauren fought the urge to rip it off his face.
“I can still see your building. I can’t touch it, but I can see it. It’s kind of… hazy? Around the edges, but it is there. And it’s buzzing.”
“Buzzing?” asked Ianto incredulously.
Lauren shrugged and took another sip of her coffee.
“Can you walk through the walls?” asked Ianto.
“Yes,” replied Lauren. “But I’d really rather not. It feels… weird.”
Ianto frowned. “There’s something else, isn’t there.”
“No,” said Lauren.
“So why tell me this? And don’t try to tell me you ‘owe me one’; that only applies in films.”
Lauren stared at her coffee for a long moment. But Ianto just waited her out. It reminded her of her Dad. She bit down on her warring instincts. Part of her, the old Lauren, missed her Daddy. But the new part would like nothing more than to bite him and feel him bleed away.
“The night after I met you I saw them,” snapped Lauren, channelling her frustration at Ianto. “Two men, well they looked like men. They were putting some… things on that building. They said I smelled wrong. They certainly did. They tried to attack me but I guess I was a bit more than they could handle. I killed one but the other got away.” She looked a challenge at Ianto expecting him to have a problem with the death but he just nodded so she carried on. “Since then they’ve been everywhere I go. They look human but I can smell that they’re not. And they taste foul. But there’s too many of them. They’re not vampire and they’re not werewolf. So I figured, maybe you were right about the aliens. And you’re the only alien hunter I know.”
Ianto looked lost in thought for a while, but finally he said. “Do you have somewhere to go?”
**
Gwen was frowning at her computer screen. Jack jogged down from his office to talk to her.
“Where’s Ianto?” he asked
“He ran into a friend from London. He said she had a lead and he took her for coffee…” Gwen trailed off still frowning at the screen.
“But?” asked Jack peering over Gwen’s shoulder. He really didn’t want ex-torchwood one people turning up. Friends of Ianto or not.
“But,” said Gwen. “I wanted to check her out so I went to pull her face off the CCTV. She’s not there.”
Jack looked at the screen. It was a recording of earlier. Gwen was standing by the SUV and Ianto was a distance away, talking to someone off camera. “Can you get another angle?” asked Jack.
“No, it’s not the angle,” said Gwen shaking her head. “She should be there.” She pointed to a space by Ianto.
Jack frowned. Just then they heard the sound of the lift descending. They walked over as Ianto and a young woman were being lowered into the Hub. Jack crossed his arms across his chest. This was going to require a very good explanation.
**
“Wow!” said Lauren as the lift descended. “A little dank, but definitely one up on a funeral home.”
Ianto didn’t look away from Jack who looked more than a little bit peeved. “Funeral home?” he asked mildly.
“A vampire in Bristol,” said Lauren with a shrug. “It doesn’t matter. What’s that!” she asked, ducking as Myfanwy swooped overhead.
Normally Ianto would smirk but the lift was reaching the bottom now and he made eye contact with Jack. Gwen had her gun drawn.
“Pterodactyl,” Ianto mumbled to Lauren, not breaking eye contact with Jack.
“Of course it is,” replied Lauren craning her head to see where Myfanwy had gone, seemingly unconcerned about Gwen’s gun.
“Jack…” started Ianto
Jack interrupted him. “So Ianto? Who is your friend?” False smile and a dangerous glint in his eye. Ianto began to reassess the wisdom of not calling ahead first.
If in doubt fall back on the habits of politeness. Ianto stepped off the lift and held out a hand to help Lauren down. “Jack and Gwen, this is Lauren. Lauren, Jack and Gwen.”
“Pleased to meet you Lauren,” replied Jack, false smile turning sickly sweet.
Lauren just grinned. “Nice place you have here. Are you Jack?”
“Oh I’m Jack,” he said, taking one slightly threatening step closer. “And what sort of thing are you, that doesn’t show up on CCTV?”
Lauren gave Jack a slow lazy smile. “I’m a vampire.” Jack didn’t react but Gwen’s grip on her gun got infinitesimally tighter. Lauren giggled and looked at Ianto. “You know that doesn’t get any less ridiculous to say out loud.” She turned back to Jack. “Ianto said you’d probably want to put me in a cell? Could you maybe hurry up with that? I’m shattered. Been up all night.”
Jack held Lauren’s gaze for a few moments then turned his head to look at Gwen. “Gwen,” he barked. “Could you show our guest to a holding cell please? Ianto, with me.” He turned and strode off in the direction of his office, coat sweeping behind him.
“Ooo, dramatic isn’t he?” asked Lauren winking at Ianto.
Ianto had to duck his head to hide the smirk. When he lifted it he had a serious expression he pointed at Lauren. “Behave,” he warned her. She just stuck her tongue out at him.
Gwen huffed. “This way.” She led Lauren towards the cells at gunpoint.
Ianto swallowed his amusement and followed Jack up to his office.
Jack didn’t even wait for Ianto to get completely through the door. “What the hell is going on!” he asked.
“She can still see the building, see it but not touch it. And I think she’s run into the aliens involved…” explained Ianto, But Jack interrupted.
“Gwen said you knew her from London?”
Ianto winced. “I didn’t say that, Gwen just assumed…”
“And you didn’t correct her? Ianto, did you even know she was a vampire before you brought her into the Hub?” Jack looked angry and Ianto started to get annoyed.
“You demand explanations then don’t let me finish a sentence! Yes, I knew she was a vampire and yes, I brought her into the Hub. But don’t try to tell me she’s any more dangerous than Hart was!” Ianto wasn’t shouting but there was an edge to his voice that indicated shouting was an option.
“The difference was I know Hart, I can predict him,” Jack not-shouted back.
Ianto didn’t try to answer that, he raised his eyebrow. He knew Jack was more than aware of everything that happened the last time Hart showed up.
“She knows the aliens, she can identify them. We need her,” said Ianto, appealing the Jack’s practical side.
Jack sighed. “When did you first meet her,” he asked.
“A couple of weeks ago; she was involved in a weevil attack.”
“The weevil that got scared off?” asked Jack.
Ianto nodded. Hoping that Jack wouldn’t ask why he hadn’t reported her then, because honestly he still didn’t know. But Jack just looked down at his feet, like his shoes might hold some kind of answer.
“Research her,” said Jack finally. “I want to know who she was before, when she was turned, everything. Understood?”
“Yes, Sir,” replied Ianto turning to leave.
“Ianto,” Jack called. “She’s a predator, not a victim.”
“As you say, Sir,” said Ianto not pausing as he left the office.
****
Chapter Three
Author: szm
Fandom: Torchwood/Being Human
Characters: Lauren, Ianto, Jack, Gwen (mentions of other BH characters)
Spoilers: Torchwood - none set between seasons 2 and 3 (non-COE compliant). Being Human - set after episode four of season 1. Slight spoiler for that.
Rating: PG13
Betaed by tanarian
Summary: Lauren runs from Bristol and ends up in Cardiff
Chapter One
It was weeks before Ianto saw Lauren again. To be honest he thought she’d left Cardiff. There’d been no reports of deaths that looked even remotely like vampire attacks.
Vampire attacks for god’s sake. Just when you think life can’t get any stranger.
He and Gwen were investigating a building that had mysteriously vanished. Lock stock and barrel. It had been there at 04.56 that morning, and gone at 04.57. No atmospheric anomalies, no flash of light, not even a cloud of coloured smoke. They’re just walking back to the SUV, as baffled as when they arrived, when her voice rang out over the stillness of the early morning.
“Caught any good aliens then?”
Gwen spun round and her eyes narrowed, and Ianto should have expected this. These things always come back to bite him on the arse. And he takes a quick moment to appreciate what a truly terrible choice of phrase that is under the circumstances.
“It’s fine, she’s a… friend,” he said quickly to Gwen.
“Really?” replied Gwen sceptically. “I’ll wait by the car then.”
Ianto doesn’t hold out the slightest hope that’s the end of it. Gwen is not going to let this go, but one problem at a time …
“She’s pretty,” said Lauren looking at Gwen retreating back. “Girlfriend?”
“No,” replied Ianto stonily, crossing his arms across his chest and glaring.
“Well,” grinned Lauren. “Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. You’re not exactly Mr Sunshine are you?”
“It’s early. And speaking of sunshine?” he raised his eyebrows questioningly.
Lauren shrugged. “It hurts my eyes, and I burn really quickly. But early mornings and late nights are fine. I’m not planning a trip to Spain anytime soon…”
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” asked Ianto cutting Lauren’s speech off.
“Wow! You are really not a morning person, but I know how to cheer you up. I know what happened to your building…”
Ianto glares. “I have no reason to trust you. Why would you want to help?”
Lauren makes a show of pretending to think about it. “Civic duty?” she replied finally.
Ianto just raised his eyebrow.
“That and I guess I owe you one,” admitted Lauren.
“Stay here,” said Ianto. He jogged over to the SUV.
“Who is she?” asked Gwen arms folded across her chest.
“Her name’s Lauren,” replied Ianto. “She might have a lead on were the building went, I’m going to take her for a coffee.”
“Where are we going then?” asked Gwen looking determined.
And this is exactly what Ianto didn’t want. He doesn’t trust Lauren enough to let her spend time with Gwen, and he’s not exactly sure how Gwen is going to react to the whole ‘Vampire’ issue.
Probably better than Jack would, but that’s not saying an awful lot.
“Look,” said Ianto finally. “She’s not going to talk if you’re around. It’ll be better if I go on my own.”
Gwen looks at him sceptically. “Ianto, even if you used to work with her before, you don’t know what her motives are now. Do you even know what she’s been doing since Canary Wharf?”
Ianto blinks at that. Then he realises that Gwen is assuming that Lauren is someone he knows from Torchwood One.
“We don’t have any other leads, I’ll be fine,” Ianto carefully doesn’t correct Gwen’s assumption. Gwen doesn’t look happy about it, but she tells him to stay on the comm, climbs into the car and drives off.
Ianto consoles himself with the fact that he didn’t actually have to lie at all.
**
Ianto got the coffees while Lauren picked a table. She chose the one furthest from the windows and the daylight streaming through them. When Ianto came back he raised his eyebrows in a meaningful manner but didn’t say anything. He sat opposite her and passed over her coffee. When he took a sip of his he frowned like he didn’t like it.
“Problem?” asked Lauren sweetly.
“This place always over roasts the beans,” he replied.
“So, why bring me here?” she asked sipping her own coffee. It tasted fine to her but then nothing tasted quite right anymore.
“I don’t trust you,” shrugged Ianto. “I’m not going to risk you wrecking the good place.”
Lauren is almost sure he’s joking but he has that dry sort of humour where it’s hard to tell.
“So,” said Ianto putting down his coffee and fixing her with a glare. “Building?”
“It’s still there,” said Lauren blithely. She’d hoped for shock on Ianto face but he just raised an eyebrow.
“We checked. Plumbing and electrics are disconnected. Ripped up at the foundations. Not to mention if it is still there I walked through a lot of walls today.”
“I know, I saw you,” said Lauren with a smirk. “It was disconcerting to watch.”
“Unless you start making some sense I’m leaving,” said Ianto. “I assume all this is for some purpose…” He raised the eyebrow again. Lauren fought the urge to rip it off his face.
“I can still see your building. I can’t touch it, but I can see it. It’s kind of… hazy? Around the edges, but it is there. And it’s buzzing.”
“Buzzing?” asked Ianto incredulously.
Lauren shrugged and took another sip of her coffee.
“Can you walk through the walls?” asked Ianto.
“Yes,” replied Lauren. “But I’d really rather not. It feels… weird.”
Ianto frowned. “There’s something else, isn’t there.”
“No,” said Lauren.
“So why tell me this? And don’t try to tell me you ‘owe me one’; that only applies in films.”
Lauren stared at her coffee for a long moment. But Ianto just waited her out. It reminded her of her Dad. She bit down on her warring instincts. Part of her, the old Lauren, missed her Daddy. But the new part would like nothing more than to bite him and feel him bleed away.
“The night after I met you I saw them,” snapped Lauren, channelling her frustration at Ianto. “Two men, well they looked like men. They were putting some… things on that building. They said I smelled wrong. They certainly did. They tried to attack me but I guess I was a bit more than they could handle. I killed one but the other got away.” She looked a challenge at Ianto expecting him to have a problem with the death but he just nodded so she carried on. “Since then they’ve been everywhere I go. They look human but I can smell that they’re not. And they taste foul. But there’s too many of them. They’re not vampire and they’re not werewolf. So I figured, maybe you were right about the aliens. And you’re the only alien hunter I know.”
Ianto looked lost in thought for a while, but finally he said. “Do you have somewhere to go?”
**
Gwen was frowning at her computer screen. Jack jogged down from his office to talk to her.
“Where’s Ianto?” he asked
“He ran into a friend from London. He said she had a lead and he took her for coffee…” Gwen trailed off still frowning at the screen.
“But?” asked Jack peering over Gwen’s shoulder. He really didn’t want ex-torchwood one people turning up. Friends of Ianto or not.
“But,” said Gwen. “I wanted to check her out so I went to pull her face off the CCTV. She’s not there.”
Jack looked at the screen. It was a recording of earlier. Gwen was standing by the SUV and Ianto was a distance away, talking to someone off camera. “Can you get another angle?” asked Jack.
“No, it’s not the angle,” said Gwen shaking her head. “She should be there.” She pointed to a space by Ianto.
Jack frowned. Just then they heard the sound of the lift descending. They walked over as Ianto and a young woman were being lowered into the Hub. Jack crossed his arms across his chest. This was going to require a very good explanation.
**
“Wow!” said Lauren as the lift descended. “A little dank, but definitely one up on a funeral home.”
Ianto didn’t look away from Jack who looked more than a little bit peeved. “Funeral home?” he asked mildly.
“A vampire in Bristol,” said Lauren with a shrug. “It doesn’t matter. What’s that!” she asked, ducking as Myfanwy swooped overhead.
Normally Ianto would smirk but the lift was reaching the bottom now and he made eye contact with Jack. Gwen had her gun drawn.
“Pterodactyl,” Ianto mumbled to Lauren, not breaking eye contact with Jack.
“Of course it is,” replied Lauren craning her head to see where Myfanwy had gone, seemingly unconcerned about Gwen’s gun.
“Jack…” started Ianto
Jack interrupted him. “So Ianto? Who is your friend?” False smile and a dangerous glint in his eye. Ianto began to reassess the wisdom of not calling ahead first.
If in doubt fall back on the habits of politeness. Ianto stepped off the lift and held out a hand to help Lauren down. “Jack and Gwen, this is Lauren. Lauren, Jack and Gwen.”
“Pleased to meet you Lauren,” replied Jack, false smile turning sickly sweet.
Lauren just grinned. “Nice place you have here. Are you Jack?”
“Oh I’m Jack,” he said, taking one slightly threatening step closer. “And what sort of thing are you, that doesn’t show up on CCTV?”
Lauren gave Jack a slow lazy smile. “I’m a vampire.” Jack didn’t react but Gwen’s grip on her gun got infinitesimally tighter. Lauren giggled and looked at Ianto. “You know that doesn’t get any less ridiculous to say out loud.” She turned back to Jack. “Ianto said you’d probably want to put me in a cell? Could you maybe hurry up with that? I’m shattered. Been up all night.”
Jack held Lauren’s gaze for a few moments then turned his head to look at Gwen. “Gwen,” he barked. “Could you show our guest to a holding cell please? Ianto, with me.” He turned and strode off in the direction of his office, coat sweeping behind him.
“Ooo, dramatic isn’t he?” asked Lauren winking at Ianto.
Ianto had to duck his head to hide the smirk. When he lifted it he had a serious expression he pointed at Lauren. “Behave,” he warned her. She just stuck her tongue out at him.
Gwen huffed. “This way.” She led Lauren towards the cells at gunpoint.
Ianto swallowed his amusement and followed Jack up to his office.
Jack didn’t even wait for Ianto to get completely through the door. “What the hell is going on!” he asked.
“She can still see the building, see it but not touch it. And I think she’s run into the aliens involved…” explained Ianto, But Jack interrupted.
“Gwen said you knew her from London?”
Ianto winced. “I didn’t say that, Gwen just assumed…”
“And you didn’t correct her? Ianto, did you even know she was a vampire before you brought her into the Hub?” Jack looked angry and Ianto started to get annoyed.
“You demand explanations then don’t let me finish a sentence! Yes, I knew she was a vampire and yes, I brought her into the Hub. But don’t try to tell me she’s any more dangerous than Hart was!” Ianto wasn’t shouting but there was an edge to his voice that indicated shouting was an option.
“The difference was I know Hart, I can predict him,” Jack not-shouted back.
Ianto didn’t try to answer that, he raised his eyebrow. He knew Jack was more than aware of everything that happened the last time Hart showed up.
“She knows the aliens, she can identify them. We need her,” said Ianto, appealing the Jack’s practical side.
Jack sighed. “When did you first meet her,” he asked.
“A couple of weeks ago; she was involved in a weevil attack.”
“The weevil that got scared off?” asked Jack.
Ianto nodded. Hoping that Jack wouldn’t ask why he hadn’t reported her then, because honestly he still didn’t know. But Jack just looked down at his feet, like his shoes might hold some kind of answer.
“Research her,” said Jack finally. “I want to know who she was before, when she was turned, everything. Understood?”
“Yes, Sir,” replied Ianto turning to leave.
“Ianto,” Jack called. “She’s a predator, not a victim.”
“As you say, Sir,” said Ianto not pausing as he left the office.
****
Chapter Three