Ghosts in the Halls (3/?)
Title: Ghosts in the Halls (3/?)
Author: Nightchaser_sla
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: explicit m/m sex.
Crossover: Torchwood/Bad Girls.
Disclaimer: Don't own don't sue.
Summary: 1000 years in future Captain Jack Harkness makes a decision that changes the past for everyone.
Prologue:
Chapter One:
Chapter Two:
Monica had never actually met Captain Jack Harkness before. In the ten years she had worked for Torchwood One his name had been whispered around the halls as if he were some kind of monster, a renegade who wasn't searching for the Doctor in order to hand him over to Torchwood Tower ... instead the man had some sort of personal vendetta against the Time Lord. She had never thought that she would ever have a use for someone like Harkness, that was until one day twelve years ago the most beautiful person she had ever seen appeared in her living room and asked her to perform a very important task. She had been given the job of finding the child of Captain Jack Harkness and bringing her to Torchwood Tower so that she could be protected during the dark days to come. Unfortunately when Monica had tried to complete this task, she had found it impossible to do.
Now the man himself was here, and Monica didn't know whether this particular Jack was aware of her betrayal or not.
Taking a sip of her tea, Monica found herself slinking back into the shadows desperately hoping that the Captain wouldn't take any notice of her. He had spent most of the morning wandering around the wing with a tiny (gorgeous of course) asian woman by his side, both of them waving familiar bits of alien technology around and talking to each other in low voices. She had heard that there was three other members of the team, but they were hidden away somewhere else in Larkhall conducting interviews with the other inmates ... which meant that it was only a matter of time until she was called up.
There was the usual clanging sound of the gates at the other end of the wing opening and closing, and looking up Monica saw something that made her heart sing again. Ianto Jones, looking more than perfect in a expensive suit and tie was walking down the wing, ignoring the interested looks and leers he was receiving. He stopped beside Mr. McCallister and the two of them had spoke for a moment, before two sets of brilliant blue eyes slid in her direction. Ianto nodded at Mr. McCallister and then walked right up to Monica, standing in front of her while she scrambled to her feet.
"Monica," he said softly. "You survived?"
She reached out and gripped his arm, clinging tightly to him and staring in horror at the bruises covering his face.
"They told us that you were dead," she whispered. "I was informed by UNIT that nobody from my division lived through the attacks."
"I ran," he answered, a shudder going through him. "What with Lisa and everything ..."
His voice broke and she saw a flash of pain run through his eyes.
"Oh Ianto," she loosened her grip. "I'm so sorry."
He looked as if he was about to say something, then stopped so suddenly that his body seemed to completely freeze. She watched him take several deep steadying breaths, and glancing over his shoulder she saw that the Captain had descended the stairs from the upper levels and was watching them with harsh eyes.
"Gwen wants to interview you about the unusual occurances that have been happening," said Ianto softly, and she released his arm suddenly.
He turned on his heel and, after gesturing for her to walk ahead, left the wing without so much as a backward glance.
---
Nikki knew that somebody was watching her before she even turned around from the bathroom sink. This was nothing new at Larkhall, after all this was a prison and the word privacy meant absolutely nothing to anybody around here. Unfortunately being watched with this intense kind of focus in the bathroom could only mean one of two things, either someone was going to try and beat her up or rape her. Wiping her hands one last time on the paper towel, Nikki exhaled heavily to centre herself and then turned around.
It was the little girl, Julie S had said that her name was Rayne but Nikki wasn't entirely sure if she believed in the womans 'special' skills.
"Hello there," whispered Nikki, deciding that maybe communication was the best answer here. "Rayne is it?"
The moment Nikki started talking a huge smile split the girls face, and she hugged her teddy-bear closer to her chest. She opened her mouth several times, but no sound came out which seemed to both frustrate and then amuse the girl.
"What are you trying to say sweetheart?" Nikki took a couple of steps forwards, but at that moment the bathroom door flung open and the tiny asian woman ran in with the Captain at her heels.
"Oh my God ... Jack!" said the woman, a strange contraption in her hand which she held up to Rayne.
"I see her," he answered.
At the sight of them Rayne looked back at Nikki with huge eyes and then completely disappeared.
"Its extraordinary Jack," whispered the woman. "Its like she's opening the rift so that she can come and go whenever she wants."
"But that's not possible," answered Jack. "Well not for her species anyway."
"Species!?" demanded Nikki, grabbing the man by his coat and pulling him around to face her. "What do you mean species?"
The two of them looked at each other, before the woman pulled off her glasses and walked out of the room.
"That's nothing you need to know," he answered, gently dislodging her fingers from his coat.
Oh now he was just pissing her off. There were ghosts running amok through Larkhall, the government had taken control and now some idiot who thought he was still in 1943 was talking about little girls being another species ... Nikki really didn't need any of this right now.
"My life is difficult enough without this," she hissed. "So why don't you just be honest with me?"
He gave her a contemplating look, grey/blue eyes giving her a once over before placing his hands on his hips.
"We think she's an alien," he said.
"Who?" asked Nikki. "There's a lot of women here I think might be aliens."
With a deep sigh he shook his head.
"I'm being serious," he muttered. "That little girl ... she's probably not even human."
Nikki rolled her eyes and pushed past him.
"Whatever," she hissed.
A strong hand on her arm made her stop, and she turned around to glare at him.
"I'm deadly serious," he hissed, his fingers tightening until she thought there would be bruises the next day. "And I'm going to need your help."
She pulled herself away from his grasp and placed her hands on her hips.
"What do you mean help?" she demanded.
The man pushed aside the edges of his coat so as to put his fists against his hips.
"Whatever it is has obviously attached itself to you for some reason," he answered with a shrug. "These things don't just happen."
He did have a point there, this little girl, Rayne or whatever, was following her around Larkhall in a way that was akin to stalking.
"What's your name?" she asked.
The grin he gave her was wide and full of perfect white teeth.
"Captain Jack Harkness." He took a step forwards and held out his hand. "And you are?"
"Nikki Wade," she answered, shaking his hand. "You've probably heard of me."
A look of confusion came over his handsome face, and he scrubbed a hand through his hair before shaking his head.
"Should I have?"
That completely baffled Nikki, after all she had been all over the media as the lesbian cop-killer, and even though this man was clearly American it was unlikely that he had been in the country for such a short amount of time. In fact she found it quite soothing to have a conversation with somebody who wasn't constantly looking over their shoulder for an escape route just in case she went mad and tried to kill them ... actually this Captain Harkness seemed quite fearless and Nikki respected that.
"I'm a lesbian and I killed a cop so yeah you should have," she answered.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"So I'm everything and I've killed a lot of cops," he answered.
"B-but I'm evil," she floundered.
"Trust me I've seen evil ... and you're not it." He sighed. "Now are you going to help me or not?"
"Yeah," she breathed. "I'll help you."
At that moment the door flew open again and the illusive final three members of this Torchwood came bursting in. The woman at the front of the group was good-looking in a girl-next-door sort of way, with long dark hair and a gap between her front two teeth. Her green eyes automatically attached to Jack before whipping around to glare at Nikki again.
"Jack, you know what Miss. Stewart said, none of us should be alone in a room with a prisoner without proper backup," she hissed.
"Leave it Gwen," answered Jack.
Their argument continued but Nikki was no longer listening, her attention was fixed on the two men standing behind the outspoken woman. One was maybe late twenties with an impish face and a gleam in his eye, definately the kind of man that Nikki could be friends with. After a few moments of watching his colleagues arguing, he merely gave Nikki a sharp nod and sauntered back out of the bathroom.
That left the other man, the one which Nikki had observed from a distance early that morning and decided was much to young for the likes of Julie S. Up close he seemed even younger, despite the expensive suit and proper manner, so young in fact that the softness of youth covered the angles of his face. His eyes however told a different story, this was a boy who had seen a lot of pain and suffering ... something which Nikki could certainly understand. She felt drawn to him in a way that she had never felt towards a man before in her life, and this disturbed her mostly because he was almost young enough to be her son ... if she had been a very young mother. Thankfully it wasn't sexual nor even attraction, in fact it was something far deeper ... something that was hidden deep in her sub-conscious, and it scared the shit out of her.
"Okay." It seemed that the argument had finished, and with a flourish of his coat Jack turned and stormed out of the bathroom with Gwen following closely on his heels.
With one final look at the young man Nikki also followed the Captain, stopping outside in the corridor where they were all assembled.
"Whose this?" The impish man asked, angling his head towards Nikki before glancing over at where the other man had finally joined them.
"Everybody this is Nikki Wade, she'll be helping us on this investigation," said Jack.
"She has a lot of strange readings around her," said the asian woman, holding what appeared to be some kind of scanning device.
"What kind of readings?" demanded Nikki.
"We'll get to that later," said Jack. "Firstly introductions. This is Gwen Cooper." He gestured to the dark haired woman. "She's second in command. And this is Dr. Owen Harper he's our team medic." The impish man waved a greeting. "Toshiko Sato technician." The asian woman nodded. "And this is Ianto Jones, he's pretty much everything else." The boy offered her a smile which she returned.
"So what is it that you want me to do?" asked Nikki.
Looking over at Toshiko, Jack held out his hand she placed a small device with a strap in it.
"We need you to wear one of these at all times," he said. "Its a rift detection monitor, basically whenever anything strange happens it sends a signal straight to our computers along with a tracking signal so we can tell exactly where you are and the level of activity."
Nikki held out her arm and let him attach it snuggly around her wrist.
"Is that it?" she asked.
"For now," answered Tosh. "We need to gather some readings first before we can make any actual scientific decisions."