Tales Of A Time Agency - 5 Part A/?
Title: Tales of A Time Agency - 5/?
Rating: 15 to NC-17 to be safe.
Characters: Jack, Ianto, John Hart, Toshiko, Owen, Gwen, Martha, The Doctor
Pairings: Predominantly Jack/Ianto (eventually), but it’s the Time Agency so expect Jack/John, Tosh/Owen, John/the consenting population of the universe……
Chapter: Chapter Number Five.
Spoilers: Anything Torchwood could be hinted at. Could also include a dash of Doctor Who too.
Summary: Ianto Jones is thrown into the world of excess of the Time Agency Academy, but will he sink or swim? Especially when the enigmatic Jack Harkness starts looking his way….
Disclaimer: Regrettably I own nothing, none of the characters, zip. Wish I did though.
Author’s Notes: More Time Agency, and yes, yet another huge chapter! I’m not sure what’s gotten into me here. Anyway, I have to thank my marvellous beta 2nd_toshiko for just being so darn supportive, as well as all you lovely people reading this; I honestly appreciate it all so much! I really hope that this is all working out the way you want it to. And yes, of course any comments you are kind enough to give me make me such a happy writer, and are so greatly appreciated! :)
Dedicated to the effortlessly wonderful 2nd_toshiko , naddypants , skullgirl013 and morgia for being such supportive friends. You know how much you mean to me girls! :D
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
It was the first time he had felt at home since coming to TARA.
Time Ethics. The most unpopular subject within the Academy. Typical.
Ianto Jones smiled, packing away the two data cores into his kit bag as the rest of his class did the same around him. It was oddly nostalgic for him, crammed into such a small, almost study like room, the white washed walls stacked to the ceiling with books and documents, filled with legislations and rules. There was a single window, jammed towards the back of the room behind the tutor’s desk, throwing beams of light out across the floor. It wasn’t the most glamorous of places by any stretch of the imagination, but for Ianto that didn’t matter. Jack had been right about one thing though, it wasn’t much of an exciting class compared to the other training he had already encountered, but Ianto had found it comforting all the same.
“We have to do this once a week?!” Martha hissed at his side, examining one of her data cores in disgust. It was a small canister, metallic on the outside, a smooth, tough alloy protecting the delicate wiring and film on the inside. The books of the day, data cores were invaluable study tools for cadets, and something that were widely encouraged at TARA even if they weren’t too popular. “I thought they were training us to be time agents here?”
“They are, but I guess we can’t expect all the training to be about violence and danger.” A young woman by the name of Gwen Cooper piped up, throwing them both an optimistic grin. She had sat beside them by chance that morning, and her talkative nature had seen her instantly become chatty with them. She was kind mannered from what that had seen so far and even though Ianto found her overly enthusiastic nature mildly wearing, he still found himself liking her in spite of it.
“Well, let’s look at it one way eh?” Ianto nodded to them both, standing up himself. “ It gives us three hours a week to catch up on our beauty sleep...” He threw them each a confident grin, laughing alongside them as they watched the rest of the class file out. Ianto let them walk past him, standing still and looking round. There was something he needed to find first before he could leave.
“You not coming with us Ianto?” Martha said quickly, giving him a suspicious look when he didn’t follow them towards the door.
“No....not yet. I’ve got something I need to research.”
“Do you want us to hang around for you? We don’t mind waiting.”
“No.” He smiled, shaking his head. “You might as well get going; it’ll be boring as hell for you otherwise.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok.....” Gwen gave him a cautious glance, before gently pushing Martha towards the doorway. “We’ll be on the quad if you need us anyway.” She gave him a soft nod, before disappearing herself out of the room.
Turning his attentions back to the room around him, Ianto glanced round the shelves in front of him looking so daunting as they surrounded him on every wall. He had no idea where to start looking, but then again he had to start somewhere. Staring at all the books and data cores in turn, eyes scanning each label for what he was after, Ianto began his seemingly hopeless search. He knew exactly what he needed, and he knew that it would have to be somewhere in TARA. He simply guessed that the Time Ethics “laboratory” as it was called, would be the best place to start.
“Now that’s something I’m not used to seeing.” A voice behind him caused Ianto to jump in his skin, his body whirling round at the sudden noise. He sighed with relief, finding the familiar face of his Time Ethics tutor smiling behind him. “I rarely have cadets staying behind from one of my classes.”
“I....ummm.....I’m sorry sir.”
“Don’t call me Sir, not out of class time anyway. I’m not like one of those army robots out there!” He laughed, white teeth glimmering as he smiled, his surprisingly young face bright and cheery.
“Then what do I call you? You never said-”
“That’s because no one asked!” The man said quickly, swiping back his floppy brown hair from his face, before taking off his small wire framed glasses and looking at Ianto intently. “Not a sign of common sense in any of you. Call me Doctor. Just the doctor.....alright?”
“Ok...” Ianto nodded, suddenly feeling so unsure faced with such an eccentric man at TARA. A man who was so obviously unique in that respect, in lots of respects now that Ianto had come to think about it. Definitely one to stand out from the crowd, The Doctor had obviously decided against wearing the usual uniform that the other tutors wore, and was therefore standing before him in what could be described as practically primitive clothing, an old earth like brown suit, with a pair of trainers, worn and well loved jutting out from the bottoms of his trousers. It was enough to make Ianto smile, admire the man almost. He did almost look as if he was in fancy dress, but there had always been something about a classic suit that Ianto had found intriguing and almost beautiful.
“So what are you looking for then?” The Doctor nodded, almost bounding to Ianto’s side, staring up at the shelves himself, hands on his hips.
“Nothing important.”
“First rule of Time Ethics my boy!” The older man laughed, nudging him in the arm. “Everything is important.” He gave Ianto another large grin. “So, what can I help you with?”
“You don’t have to…I mean, it’s not like….-”
“Stop with the excuses.” The Doctor’s voice was surprisingly stern as he looked at Ianto quizzically. “Just tell me alright?”
“A record.”
“A record of what? There are plenty of those to be reading through, believe me.”
“It’s a specific record, well more like a list really..-”
“Spit it out then!” The tutor laughed, shaking his head. “Do you think I have all day?”
“No.. I’m sorry.....I mean a list of where Time Agency personnel have been stationed. You know, for their missions.”
“Pardon me?” The face of the Doctor changed in an instant, brown eyes wide with shock for a split second. “That is ‘need to know’ information. Have you any idea what you’re-”
“I don’t mean it like that.” Ianto answered quickly, cutting him off mid sentence, knowing immediately that his tutor has misunderstood him. “I mean from the past. Ten years ago. I know that the Time Agency make all movements public to their cadets after five years.”
“My my.” The Doctor smiled. “You’ve done your research.”
“Something like that.”
“I’m afraid you’re in the wrong place though.”
“I am?”
“Yes.” The older man shook his head, reaching into his pocket for a pad and pen. He gave Ianto a soft smile, not embarrassed to be using such a rudimentary form of recording information. “You want to go to the Library about this.”
“The library?”
“Yes.” The Doctor scribbled down a set of digits onto the paper, before tearing off a sheet and handing it to Ianto. “The Archives below the Library is where you want to be. This is the section you want to look in.”
“Thank you.” Ianto nodded, putting the paper into his pocket. He looked up, eyes meeting with the Doctor’s for a split second. Except this time he know longer saw the eccentric tutor he had be convinced the man was. This time he saw something more serious, a look of concern and almost worry conveyed in the man’s features, unnerving him quickly. “I guess I should be going then. I….errr…. don’t want to bother you anymore than I have to. ” Turning his back on the other man as fast as he could, Ianto made his way to the door, his heart pounding underneath his ribcage. The Doctor was by no means as naive and bumbling as Ianto had taken him for...
“I don’t know what you’re hoping to find down there...” The Doctor said quickly after him, causing Ianto to stop dead in his tracks, yet he still didn’t turn around to face him. He didn’t want to see that look again, even though now he could feel it burn through the back of his head. “Just remember, what happened in the past is meant to be forgotten and not changed. That is Time Ethics at its most basic.”
Ianto stayed silent, ignoring the words and continuing out of the door. He knew that the older, wiser man was right, although he didn’t dare even think to himself how he had known. Ianto only wished that he could listen to him. After all, things were never that easy.......
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She was being pathetic.
Toshiko Sato had hoped that all the feelings (and the slight head ache) she had woken up with that morning would have left her as soon as she got a laser cutter and some circuitry in her hands. But she had been wrong, and now, even though she knew that she should have her mind totally focused on the delicate wiring in her tight grasp, in reality her brain was somewhere else entirely. With Owen to be precise. And she hated every second of it.....
She didn’t sleep around half as much as the others, but Toshiko had still had her fair share of casual sex in her time on Adronax Minor. Partly she wished that she hadn’t, but when she had first started at TARA a year before, things hadn’t been so clear to her. She was fresh faced woman of twenty(*), the city was nothing new to her, a home away from home considering that she had grown up in the Delta system, a densely packed metropolis of buildings, sky bridges and teleport systems. But Toshiko had grown up sheltered from it all, sheltered from all the clubs and the sex and the alcohol and stayed with her parents, studying at the school and eventually the galactically acclaimed University nearby. It was only when the Time Agency found her that Tosh really went out on her own, and she could still remember her first night....the music drumming through her, a stranger’s hand on her hips. A 2nd year cadet, he had known all the right things to say to her, what drinks to buy her and when, just the right amount of compassion and comfort to give to her that evening in the club. She’d gone home with him, of course she had, she had never felt so special and so attractive in her life. And she had remembered spending those hours with him, lying in his bed as he showered her with so much affection...so much pleasure. She could even remember being hopeful, thinking so much about the future, about the fact that she had someone in this new and fucked up place. Until morning, when she had woken up in her bed and he had asked her for her name. That was when she first realised the cold reality of what she had done. She hadn’t made love to him, she’d simply been his play mate for the night. More of an object than anything else since he couldn’t even remember her name. Not that she could forget his.......John Hart was someone you rarely forgot about in a hurry, despite wanting too.
So she had gotten her education that night, and thus thought that every night would be like that. So she did just that, became just like all the other cadets and visited the clubs practically every night, taking whoever took her fancy home for the night and then discarding them in the morning. But to her, it was not something that ever brought a smile to her face when she remembered in the morning, as she looked in the mirror and wiped away her make up. It was something shallow, empty and lifeless. Worthless. And that had been the moment that Toshiko Sato realised that sex actually did mean something to her. One hell of a lot. And if Toshiko could see anything, she could see the same feelings in Ianto that night at Poseidon. It was all she could do to try and stop him making the same mistake.
It wasn’t like she had been waiting for Owen, not by any means. She had been attracted to him yes, those deep brown eyes, that smile, the way his face creased as he laughed. But she had never thought any more about it, after all, how could she? He was her tutor, her commanding officer. There were rules, regulations and bans crammed between them, joined by the fact that she was convinced that he had never even noticed her. But then she had seen him that night in Poseidon, and the rules of the game had suddenly changed. He’d bought her a drink, he’d stood with her and talked, and laughed....and listened. She’d felt herself falling again, like she had done with John, felt herself be won over by words yet this time know what was coming. Except it never did, and he simply asked to see her again the next night. That had changed everything, because if it told her one thing...it told her that Medical Officer Owen Harper didn’t just want her for sex.
But why had she slept with him? She was inwardly kicking herself for it now, the morning after, when the pheromones and the hyper vodka had left her bloodstream and she was left with pure hard fact. She’d started something now, sprouted that biological attachment that is inbuilt into anyone woman when she sleeps with anyone. She couldn’t forget him....not now that the biology of every cell in her body and her mind were now saying the same thing. Screaming at her that there was something more, that the young tutor’s looks weren’t the only thing that had made her lose control. After all this was different than all the others, different from anyone else she had ever slept with. She admired him, thought of him fondly....looked forward to their next arranged meeting, her stomach jumping. She knew it was wrong, deep down that she should never have let it happen, never mind let it happen all over again. A mistake, she knew that.....but one she would happily make over and over again.
“Bad choice there....” Officer Stewart said above her, throwing Tosh from her thoughts in a blur. “I really wouldn’t have done that if I were you.”
“Sir?” She replied, her heart thudding in her chest at the double meaning of his words.
“That wiring.” He stooped down, taking the small piece of circuitry from her hands and staring at it intently. “No, no. You’re power wire is far too close to the hyper switch. You’ll cause a burn out as soon as you get electricity through that circuit.” He tossed it down casually back onto her work bench, his voice blunt and harsh. “I’m very disappointed in you cadet Sato. Do it again, correctly this time.”
“Y.....Yes Sir.”
Toshiko sighed, looking over her shoulder to throw daggers at her tutor. She returned her gaze to the wiring, nodding in disappointment when she realised that he was...of course right. She shook her head, feeling anger well up within her system. She had been so stupid, her mind wandering as her hands remained on auto pilot, easily making such an easy mistake in the minutes that she had been in class. Picking up the laser cutter, Tosh started to remove the wiring, cutting it away with the best accuracy that she could muster. She was not going to mess this up, wasn’t going to think about Owen anymore that morning. She had work to do, other things to think about....her life. That was what counted, not a man that she barely even knew or how she thought she might feel about him.
“Ouch!” A searing pain shot through her hand, as she misjudged a slice with the laser cutter, sending it shooting into her skin. She dropped it quickly, along with her circuit, clutching at her hand as she felt the pain grow. She looked down, trying not to feel faint as the blood began to leak out from underneath her fingers, where the cut lay in her fleshy palm. It seemed that she would be seeing Owen a lot earlier that she anticipated that day.....
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“Jones!” A familiarly arrogant voice was yelling at him from down the corridor, as Ianto turned left towards the Library. He kept on walking, pretending he hadn’t heard, really not wanting to be disturbed as he heard footsteps chase after him. “Hey!” There was a firm grip on his shoulder, forcing him to stop. “You deaf or something?”
“No, just busy Jack.” Ianto sighed, turning round to face his “friend”.
“Too busy for me?” The older cadet pouted.
“It does happen, surprise, surprise.”
“Oh very funny.” Jack nudged him in annoyance, before raising a quizzical eyebrow. “How can you be busy anyway? Your morning class is finished right?”
“Yeah. Yours isn’t though.”
“I’m excused.” Jack grinned, tossing a small data chip around in his left hand. “Medi centre scanned me. Concussion and a broken rib, so I can’t go back to training until tomorrow.”
“Lucky for some.”
“Oh yeah.... being mugged is real lucky.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Yeah, I know you didn’t. Anyway.....you still didn’t answer my question. What are you doing?”
“A project.” Ianto said quickly, lies tumbling from his mouth like a second language. “I was heading over to the Archives to do my research.”
“A special project? For Time Ethics?”
“Yeah....that’s right.”
“What the fuck are you doing that for?”
“Excuse me?”
“Jones.....time ethics, it’s pretty pointless unless you want to be in a tutor in it.”
“Well...... maybe I do.”
“You must be kidding me.” Jack rolled his eyes. “That’s worse than being a techie.”
“Jack.....”
“Don’t give me that look. I was just saying....”
“Yeah well just don’t.”
“Hey.....” For a brief moment Ianto could have sworn seeing a glimmer of hurt in the other man’s eyes. “I’m only trying to help. Isn’t that what friends do?”
“There’s helping and there’s not Jack...” Ianto sighed, not able to stay irritated with him for long. “What do you have against the techies anyway?”
“Its a long story.”
“You should tell me sometime.”
“A really long story.”
“You should definitely tell me sometime then.” Ianto smiled, suddenly realising how close that statement was to what to what he called “flirting”. He gathered himself quickly, covering his tracks. “I er.....mean if you want. It sounds interesting.”
“I’m sure it does.” Jack winked, lips parting in a satisfied grin. “Admit it Jones, you just can’t resist the urge to spend more time with me.”
“I assure you that’s not it.”
“Then what is?”
“Maybe the fact that I want to know what you’re problem is with my friend?”
“It’s not her specifically.”
“I don’t care. I’d still like to know.”
“Maybe I will tell you someday....” The other cadet, nodded and smirk tearing across his features as he grabbed Ianto’s arm and dragged him after him. “But not now.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Saving you from yourself.”
“How?”
“Shooting range.” Jack grinned, releasing his arm from his tight grip. “Anyone who wants to be a field agent puts in some serious hours there.”
“Who says I want to be a field agent?”
“I do. Now come on.”
(*) For the purpose of TOATA, I haven’t stuck to the team’s real ages, since it fits for them all to be young recruits in their early twenties. :)
Click Here for Chapter 5 Part B