Slipping Through -- It Just Walks Away
Book cover by et_muse.
Title: Slipping Through
Chapter Twenty-Seven: It Just Walks Away
Date Written: 6/27/09
Rating: PG-13/T
Word Count: 3,009
Fandom: Torchwood/FAKE
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Ryo/Dee, Gwen/Rhys, Tosh, Owen, mentioned Ten, Rose, Martha, Sarah Jane
Spoilers: Up through Torchwood 02, blink and you'll miss it reference to Slow Decay and Something in the Water, Doctor Who 04 (specifically Partners in Crime), and FAKE Like, Like, Love
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: Much thanks to my beta, muse, and all around idea bouncing board, totally4ryo! We're starting to enter the second half of this story. I'm going to miss it when this gets done...
Of course, it's Rhys who reminds Ryo and Dee of the time.
"So I was thinking about trying some of these new diet pills I heard of," he said one dinner date night, Ryo and Dee sitting across from the Cooper-Williamses. "Try to lose a bit of weight."
Dee just grinned back at Rhys. "I thought you were supposed to let yourself go after marriage," he teased.
"That's the wife," Ryo said, tapping Dee playfully on the back of the head. "According to my aunt, at least."
Dee nodded as Ryo stood to gather the now-empty dinner plates. "Exactly. And since Gwen's always out and Rhys is always cooking and doing the dishes and laundry and keeping house -- "
"Oi, you can stop right there!" Rhys exclaimed, waving his hands about excitedly, but he was grinning at the joke.
"Rhys is a wonderful cook," Gwen said, standing as well. "I know that if I wasn't running after Weevils all day -- "
" -- or after hostile aliens," Dee put in.
" -- or away from hostile aliens," Ryo added, balancing two plates in his hands.
"Yes, yes, all of that," Gwen said, fond annoyance in her voice. "Well, if I wasn't running about I'd be as big as a house!" she finished. She stopped to kiss Rhys on the cheek before following Ryo into the kitchen.
"You saying I'm as big as a house?" Rhys hollered after her.
"I said I'd be!" Gwen called back, her voice followed by Ryo's quiet chuckles.
Rhys turned to Dee. "I do sort of want to look good for the missus, you know," he said, tilting his head from side to side.
Dee chuckled a little. "I get it," he assured his friend. "Feel better, give a little extra spark in the bedroom, right?"
"Exactly!" Rhys threw up his hands. "And I do need to get in a bit more shape. Can't have Gwen worrying if I'm going to drop dead of a heart attack while she's out on the job."
"Sometimes I think it's fortunate that we have to do yearly physicals for the NYPD," Dee said. "All I have to worry about Ryo dying from is, you know, shootouts, second-hand smoke, and all that shit that was in the air after 9/11," he concluded with a sheepish grin.
Rhys snorted. "And aliens."
"And aliens," the dark-haired detective nodded. "But you're doing it to get healthy, that's good." He leaned in on his elbows. "So what's the game plan? Hit a gym?"
"Actually..." Rhys trailed off, looking down at his hands. It was a trademark nervous gesture, one Dee had seen countless times before in interrogation rooms. "I was thinking about maybe trying one of those diet pills things. I did one before," he admitted. "It worked really well, but Gwen got worried about me losing weight so fast, so I stopped."
Dee nodded thoughtfully. He didn't know about that one, he'd have to ask the fanboy later what Rhys was talking about. "Well, our Chief back home tried one for a while. Sorta gave him a bit of a kick start until it started interfering with his caffeine intake. What were you planning on taking?"
"Gwen!" Rhys called out over his shoulder
"Yeah?" Gwen called back, leaning out of the kitchen doorway.
"What's that diet pill that Ruth was raving about?"
"The one she got from her cousin?" Gwen asked, trying to figure out what Rhys and Dee were talking about. "Or the one she was talking about last week?"
"That one," Rhys confirmed. "From the office here in Cardiff."
"Oh!" Gwen thought for a moment. "Adipose."
The sound of Ryo dropping a plate in the kitchen covered Dee's groan.
-----
Ryo and Dee got into the Hub super early so they could try to be the first ones in to see Jack before anyone else got there.
They'd been there long enough to have everyone's schedules down by now: Ianto and Jack were always the first ones up and about at around 6 AM, feeding pterosaurs and Weevils and starting up computers and the coffee machine. Owen now wondered in about half past six, coming in early instead of sitting at home being bored or aimlessly wandering Cardiff's sleepy streets. Toshiko wandered in anywhere from fifteen minutes early to right at seven, depending on morning traffic. Gwen was more or less punctual, depending on how busy the bakery everyone loved up on the Plass was that morning.
When Ryo and Dee rolled in at 6:10, the Hub was empty and quiet. The half-Japanese man looked over at his husband, shrugging off his suit jacket. "Looks like Jack spent the night at Ianto's," he said.
"Again," Dee agreed, grinning.
"And I'm the fanboy," Ryo teased. Ianto and Jack had been more couple-y since coming back from Switzerland, and the Laytner-MacLeans suspected that they'd both admitted how they felt.
Dee opened his mouth to shoot a smart comment back, but was cut off when the proximity alarm went off again. The cog door rolled aside to reveal their Captain and Ianto, hand in hand. Once they realized they weren't alone, the two quickly dropped their grasp.
Ryo and Dee traded knowing glances. They'd been a bit like that once upon a time, trying to hide the little displays of affection from friends and coworkers, afraid to jinx what they had going.
Jack put his hands on his hips. "Gwen tells me we need to have a little conversation?"
"Should have taken her mobile away too," Dee sighed.
"It's -- wibbley wobbly," Ryo tried to explain. "And timey whimey. We couldn't tell you sooner."
"Time lines?" Jack guessed. When Ryo and Dee nodded, he sighed heavily. "So what is it? I'm guessing it has something to do with a diet pill?"
"Again?" Ianto sighed, easing Jack's greatcoat from his shoulders.
"It's not like Slow Decay," Ryo put in, then quickly elaborated with, "like whatever it was that Rhys took. It's not a parasite."
"It just makes the fat 'walk away'," the dark-haired detective grumbled.
"It -- what was the line she used?" Ryo said, tapping his chin. "I can’t remember the exact words, but I can tell you the gist. The person who wants to lose weight takes the diet pill, right? Then, when they're sleeping, a kilo of fat turns into a little alien. And the Adipose people -- the people who make the diet pill -- they pick it up in the middle of the night."
"They're seeding the human race?" Jack demanded.
"We know," Dee said. "It's illegal, according to the Doctor."
"Damn straight it's illegal!" Jack exclaimed, stepping down the stairs. "Earth's a Level Five planet." He stopped, looking back and forth between Ryo and Dee. "... But you two shouldn't know that."
Without realizing it, Ryo and Dee shared guilty looks.
"Their show," Ianto said, coming to stand next to Ianto. "That Doctor Who show. They know what's going to happen."
"A little bit," Ryo admitted. "But not the whole plot."
Jack and Ianto both frowned, confused. Jack crossed his arms across his chest. "You should have told us this. What the Adipose people are doing is deadly."
"Yes, I agree," Ryo said softly. "But we can't interfere with what's going on in London this time. He's going to show up, and he'll take on his next Companion."
"Donna Noble," Dee volunteered, figuring honesty was the best policy. "She's traveled with him before.
"She was a brief Companion between him losing Rose and taking on Martha," Ryo said very softly. He knew this was a sensitive subject for both his friends. "The Raconess ship the Christmas after Canary Wharf. She stopped him."
"From what?" Jack asked, although he felt that he knew the answer.
"From losing himself in his grief," Ryo replied.
Jack nodded, mulling over this information in his head. "We're still shutting down the Cardiff branch."
"It hasn't opened yet for mainstream work," Dee reported. "Apparently, Rhys' coworker, Ruth, has a cousin who was going to be working the office. They started seeding the product into the Cardiff population so when things started they'd have walking adverts on the streets. But we agree, we need to prevent them from giving out more."
Jack nodded in agreement. Next to him, Ianto cleared his throat. "What else do you know?" he asked.
"Like we said, the ATMOS system," Dee said immediately. "You really do need to get it off the SUV, and off of everyone's cars. And call Martha, tell her to get UNIT to start investigating the product plant."
"We could go in today," Jack pointed out.
"You can't spend eternity butting heads with UNIT," Ryo said, giving a little bit of a smile. "I know they drive you crazy, but we will need to work with them sometime."
"How much do you know about what will happen?" Jack asked.
"Honestly, not a lot," Dee said.
"We left in the middle of the season," Ryo explained. "So we don't know the entire story, but we do have little clues that they left us."
"What clues are those?" Ianto asked before Jack could.
Ryo looked over at Dee, the two of them coming to a silent agreement on what they should and shouldn't tell their Captain. "Planets were disappearing," the half-Japanese detective said. "The Adiposian breeding planet. The ancient Pyroville home world of Pryovilla. The Sontar breeding planet. The Water Hag's home world, even, in Something in the Water."
"How do you lose an entire planet?" Ianto wondered aloud.
"You'd be surprised," Jack said. "Between black holes and other natural phenomena, intergalactic travel, interplanetary wars, and despot rulers with enough firepower to literally destroy the very foundation out from under them, a lot of planets disappear." He shook his head. "But I don't remember hearing about this. What was it for?"
Both New Yorkers shrugged at the same time. "We didn't get that far," Ryo said apologetically.
"Well, it's something we'll look into ourselves," Jack said. "Ianto, if you would look up species who mentioned having missing homeworlds when you have a moment after we get the Adipose offices shut down permanently," he ordered, launching into full Captain mode and striding across the Hub for his office.
"Of course, Jack," Ianto nodded, hanging up his lover's greatcoat. "And I'll have all our information about Pyrovilles and Sontarans for you with your coffee."
"Jack," Ryo called out. "There was one other thing. A theme that they had threaded throughout the season so far."
"Like Ryo said before, when we first met, Torchwood was a prominent theme in the second season," Dee explained. "It set up the spin-off and let us know that we were in for something big."
"Canary Wharf," Ianto said quietly.
Ryo nodded. "Season Three mentioned Saxon heavily -- the Master." He took a deep breath. "Season One talked about the Bad Wolf."
"And just who was the Big Bad Wolf?" Jack asked, grinning.
"Rose Tyler," both Dee and Ryo said at the same time.
Jack looked like a stiff breeze could knock him down.
"She scattered the words back through Space and Time when she had the Vortex in her," Ryo said. "When she destroyed the Dalek Emperor and brought you back. A message to herself. Wherever she went, so did the words."
"He said they were following him," Jack said. "In Cardiff, with Margaret."
"Blaidd Drwg," Dee spoke quietly. "And it followed her to Season Two, all the way across the parallel universes. She ended up in Bad Wolf Bay in the end."
"Then besides the planets disappearing, what was the other theme?" Ianto asked.
"She is returning," Ryo quoted. "The Bad Wolf. Rose Tyler is coming back."
-----
"Who the hell are you and what do you think you're doing in here?" the pretty, thin blonde director demanded, standing up from behind her desk.
Ryo took off his sunglasses with a practiced attitude, pulling out a little -- freshly printed -- swipe card-style badge and flashed it at her. "Randy Laytner-MacLean, Health and Safety."
Dee turned a laugh into a cough. Now, if only they had some psychic paper...
The blonde director put her hands on her hips. "I find that hard to believe."
"We're actually with the Food and Drug Administration in the US," Ryo said, tucking his makeshift badge into his pocket. "The UK isn't the only place that has been selling Adipose, and the US Government is very wary of some of the science behind the pill. Both of our governments are taking a vested interest in the company."
On Ryo's other side, Gwen gave Dee and Owen a not-so covert confused look. Dee winked back at her. Ryo had thought up a plausible lie off the cuff, something that he was rather good at since no one expected someone with such a sweet baby face to be such a practiced liar.
The director must have picked up on Gwen's surprise, because she looked at the three well-dressed officials and the doctor in front of her. "I... will need to call Miss Foster in London," she said.
"By all means," Ryo said. Tosh was hacked into the phone lines back in the Hub and was ready to reroute the call and pose as Foster's PA.
"But while you're doing that, we'll need a list of your clients here in Cardiff," Dee said.
"Names and addresses," Gwen elaborated.
"And a sample of your product," Owen added.
The director blinked at them.
"Now!" the four of them barked in unison. Their order sent her scurrying, and they all shared a quiet chuckle once she left the room.
-----
Ianto awoke to find the bed empty, Jack's side still slightly warm. The Captain was apparently getting better at sneaking out of their bed without waking Ianto.
He didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
The sleepy Welshman stopped to pick up his boxers and pull them back on before heading out in search of his lover. He found Jack sitting at the kitchen table, back to the doorway, staring out the window at nothing. He crossed the kitchen and put his arms around Jack's neck from behind.
Jack closed his eyes and leaned back into Ianto's embrace. "Didn't mean to wake you," he said softly.
"You didn't," the younger man reassured him, gently pressing his lips to Jack's temple.
The Captain took one of Ianto's hands and pressed a kiss to the palm. He smiled when Ianto curled his fingers in around the small affection as if he could hold onto it for a little bit longer. "You should go back to sleep."
"Mmm." Ianto pulled away, trailing his hands over Jack's bare shoulders. "Let me make you a pot of coffee first," he said, moving over to the kitchen counter.
"Don't deserve you," Jack said with a happy sigh.
"Tell me something that I don't know," Ianto teased back over his shoulder as he started pulling things down out of his cabinets.
Jack watched Ianto sway a little back and forth, shifting his weight from one foot to another and back again as he went about making coffee. He was also not asking questions in that very Ianto sort of way that Jack appreciated. The others, Gwen and Owen -- and even Tosh and Dee, so like his mother sometimes -- they demanded that he tell them what they wanted to know. Ianto and Ryo were alike in that they didn't force things along, they waited for Jack to come around on his own time.
So he deserved to pay the little concessions Ianto gave him back.
"Rose coming back," he said after a moment. "It's a big deal."
"I thought she died at Canary Wharf," Ianto commented.
"She as good as," Jack sighed. "She got pulled through into the universe that the Cybermen were originally from."
Ianto stopped and turned to look at Jack. "... Do you mean that the walls between the universes are collapsing again?" he asked, real concern in his voice. "Those... Those monsters could come back?"
"I have no idea," Jack sighed again, leaning on his hand. "I mean, she could be using something natural, like the Rift."
"Or it could be man-made."
"I doubt that they would go mucking about with Time and Space again intentionally," Jack theorized.
Ianto poured two mugs of coffee and sat next to him. "So. Universe hopping. This will be a big deal."
Jack nodded. "And Rose will probably need our help," he said, taking a sip of his coffee.
The young Welshman grinned. "The Companion Code?" he guessed. Jack raised his eyebrows, giving him a surprised look. "You take care of Martha and her family, you've got surveillance on that Sarah Jane lady but don't step in because you say she can handle herself. And I saw you start a recording system for Donna Noble today."
Jack took a deep breath. "For as much as we Companions do love the Doctor... In the end we're alone. We either leave him, or he leaves us. And in the end, being a Companion is a lot like being in Torchwood. It's something that no one else can ever understand but another Companion."
"So you do what he can't," Ianto said. "You take care of them. Those survivors that he leaves behind."
The always clearing up his shit was left unsaid, but Jack still heard it. "It's not just that... They need someone. And I'm here."
"And he's not," Ianto pointed out.
Jack opened his mouth, but Ianto cut him off by standing. "I understand, Jack. I do. You know I still talk to some of my surviving colleges from London." He leaned over and kissed Jack softly, a lovely coffee-flavored Ianto Jones good night kiss. "But in the end, you're so much better than him."
"You're being biased!" Jack accused as Ianto made his way back to bed.
"So come do something about it," Ianto challenged back.
Jack grinned and downed the rest of his coffee.