Torchwood/Dr Who - fic - The Torchwood Girls, Part 5, Jack, Joan Redfern, OCs, Nine, Rose, 15
Title - The Torchwood Girls, Part 5 (final version)
Author - laurab1
Characters/Pairings - Jack, Joan Redfern, OCs, Nine, Jack/Rose
Rating - 15/R
Length - approx 2480 words
Spoilers - TW: general series, DW: to 3.11-13
Summary - "...I want you to be my second in command." It all comes out in a rush, and he looks at Joan for her reaction. She’s calculating. Again.
Hive mind disclaimer - The flashback in this bears a resemblance to a part of nina_ds/nina_musing's Relict, but I hadn't read that before I wrote this, I promise :)
Ownership disclaimer - alas, not all of these people are mine
Feedback is loved and appreciated :) Enjoy!
Note - The story previously posted as Whistle has been revised, expanded and incorporated into this part.
Final versions:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
The Torchwood Girls
by Laura
Part 5
“About that choice, Joan...” Jack says, after the train journey to Oxford, as they walk to Somerville College.
“Yes?”
“Do you think you could wait until 1920? Because I want you to be my second in command.” It all comes out in a rush, and he looks at Joan for her reaction. She’s calculating. Again.
“Would that place me in charge, when you aren’t there?”
When I’m trying to avoid being killed by German planes. “Yeah. Is that all right?”
They stop, having arrived at their destination. She smiles up at him, and his mood improves. “Yes, Captain. I accept the position, as long as you do send me to university, like you promised. Now, how do you plan on gaining access to these women’s colleges?”
Jack grins, pulling a pendant on a chain out of his pocket. “This chamelace, from...” He stops, showing the spiral markings to Joan, letting her work it out.
“...Gallifrey?” she asks.
“Got it in one. I just found a few of them in my room in the TARDIS one day, not long after I came on board. Rose and I had a lot of fun playing with them.” At the memory, his expression turns wicked. Closing his eyes, thinking, he slips the chain over his head, and lets the cloaking device do its work: longer hair, a softer face, green eyes appear, one by one.
The three of them staggered into the TARDIS. “Everyone alright?” the Doctor asked, after slamming the doors closed.
“’M okay,” Rose said.
“Just fine, Doctor. Okay, yeah, clothes covered in slime. But all the better for being with both of our beautiful ladies.”
The Doctor rolled his eyes at Jack. Again. Rose just grinned at the two of them.
“Right, then. Vortex,” the Doctor announced, and pushed levers and buttons.
“I’m gonna go shower,” Jack said, when they were sitting in the Vortex. “Rose, you’re welcome to join me, honey.”
She was equally covered in slime. The Doctor had managed to avoid it, somehow. ‘Must be the leather coat,’ Jack thought.
“Really, Captain?” Rose said, and her leer was almost a match for the one he’d just given her.”
“Yes, ma’am. Comin’?”
“Think I’ll shower on my own, Jack,” she eventually replied, tongue flicking against her teeth.
“Your loss, sweetheart,” Jack said, grinning, and went off to his room.
It was after his shower that he discovered three pendants sitting on his pillow. Wearing just some soft cotton trousers, Jack sat on his bed and exchanged the towel he’d been drying his hair with for one of the necklaces.
Which, like the other two, was covered in the same lines and spirals patterns that adorned the TARDIS’ console. Jack didn’t think the Doctor had left these, so... “Hey, beautiful,” he addressed the TARDIS, reaching out a hand to one of her walls, stroking, caressing. “Did you make these?”
The answering hum he received in his head was quite clearly a yes.
“Okay,” he carefully said. “One for each of us, I guess, then. And what do they do?”
Why should they do anything, Jack? her bell-like sound implied.
“Because you’re a sneaky old ship. Ma’am.”
Jack was sure she giggled.
He moved to the full length mirror and slipped the pendant over his head. Looking at his reflection, he circled it where it rested on his chest. “Rose’s is gonna look wonderful, nestling between her excellent breasts.”
Jack then felt a tingling sensation all over his body, and the compulsion to close his eyes. Opening them, about thirty seconds later, he looked back at a reflection of Rose Tyler. A really sexy reflection, too. Topless, curvy, gorgeous. When he slipped the pendant off, Rose vanished.
Well. Jack grinned, imagining possibilities. “Plenty of fun to be had with these babies, old girl, I think.” Gathering all three up, he placed them on the bedside table.
Another giggle.
Then there was a knock on his door. “Who shall I be, then?” Jack slipped the pendant back over his head. There was the same tingling, and he went to answer the door. And as they were fresh from the 1940s, as a black and white Lauren Bacall.
He opened the door to Rose, who was now clean, leant against the jamb and said that line from “To Have and Have Not”:
“You know you don't have to act with me, Rose. You don't have to say anything, and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Rose? You just put your lips together and... blow.”
He made it sound even more filthy than it did in the first place, and a wicked little smile appeared on the lips. It soon transformed into a smirk, and then Rose got it.
“Jack!” she exclaimed.
Jack pulled off the pendant and shimmered back into sight. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, grinning. “Come on in, Rose, and close the door behind you.” He then pulled her close, and placed a kiss on her lips.
“How did you do that, then?” she asked, gazing up at him and doing that thing with her tongue, again.
“The old girl gave me some pretty little presents,” he replied. They separated, and Jack placed the pendant in her hand. He watched her examine it.
“This is on the console, Jack,” she soon said. “It’s...” She stopped, looked back up at him.
“Yeah. It’s his, well, their language.” Gallifreyan, Jack suspected, even if the Doctor still hadn’t told them. He was serious for a minute, before smiling again. “Anyway, I found three of the pendants on my pillow. I thought, ‘One of each of us, then.’ As I placed one over my head, I was imagining how wonderful yours would look, resting between your amazing breasts.” He ran a fingertip inside her pyjama top, making her gasp.
“Turned into me, didn’t you?” Rose immediately asked. “No, that’s not it. The pendant made a vision of me, from what you were thinking about!”
“Oh, yeah...” He gave her that wicked smile again.
Rose replied with one of her own. “Y’know, Captain Harkness, I don’t know how to whistle. Think you and Ms Bacall could teach me?”
“We’d be glad to, Miss Tyler.” Jack moved them nearer to his bed, took the pendant back from Rose. and slipped it over his head. Seconds later, he’d changed appearance. Ms Bacall took one of the pendants sitting on the bedside table and placed it around Rose’s neck, let it do its work. It was only then that Rose noticed the full length mirror they had moved in front of.
And her new appearance. “You turned me into Humphrey Bogart!” she exclaimed.
“Of course. Now, to whistle, you just put your lips together and...blow.”
Later, Rose had been taught how to whistle, along with several other things from Jack's incredibly extensive repertoire. When she was reasonably capable of coherent thought, she said, “Think we should give these things a name, Jack.”
They were still in his bed. He raised himself up on an elbow and gazed down at her. With his other hand, he circled the pendant where it rested on her chest, ‘off’ for the moment. Then he kissed her lips. “And I think you should have that honour, sweetheart.”
“Me?”
“You. C’mon!” He smiled.
Rose suggested, “Chamelace? Half chameleon, half necklace?”
“That’s clever, Rose. Very clever. A portmanteau word.” He gave her another kiss. A meeting with Lewis Carroll, somewhere along the line?
“Portmanteau! That’s it.” She grinned, happy.
“I’ll ask you later how you know that word. Now, though, I’d like to make love to you as you, Rose. Is that okay?” Jack smiled down at her, and removed the newly christened chamelaces from their necks, placing them back on his bedside table.
“That’s more than okay, Jack.” Rose pulled him to her, and then flipped them over.
Taken by surprise, Jack gasped, muttering, “Bossy woman.”
“You love it, Captain,” Rose said, moving to straddle him.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, grinning widely, as he let her pull him into a kiss, and they proceeded to lose themselves in each other.
Then his body and even his clothes change; a coat of a lighter blue is cut to accommodate some spectacular... assets. Re-opening his eyes, he waits for Joan’s reaction.
Her eyes are comically wide. “I believe that appearance will work, Jack,” she eventually manages to say. “How did you discover they could do that?”
“Just by playing around with one of them. Rose came to see me one night, and got Lauren Bacall instead. So I placed another one round her neck, and got myself Bogart.”
“Who?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“You really are an extraordinary man, excuse me, woman, Jack.” Joan rolls her eyes a little.
“Yes, I am.” He shamelessly grins. “Let’s go find some science students. They should be the only ones still here, their terms are a few weeks longer.” Reaching into his pocket again, Jack takes out the leather wallets containing the psychic paper. Passing one to Joan, he, or rather his female appearance asks, “You remember what to do with this?” Before this, they’ve just played with it in the Hub.
“Yes. Today, I’m Maria Harper, from Harper Industries,” she says, showing him the ID which has now appeared.
“Your own company? That’s new.” He’s impressed. “I get the feeling you actually enjoy this cloak and dagger stuff, Joan.”
“I think I do,” she admits. “What is your legend, Jack?”
“Beth Jones, from Jones Engineering. I’m the heiress to the company, my father having no sons.” He shows her his own psychic paper.
“Is this going to work, Jack?” She suddenly sounds concerned.
“Psychic paper’s worked for twenty years, Joan. Can’t ever see it not working.”
“Very well.”
They flash the psychic paper at the porter, and con their way into the Junior Common Room.
***
Jack watches Joan speaks to some chemistry students. She’s managing to hold her own, nodding at the appropriate points, and adding the occasional point from the school textbook Michael found for her when this mission was being planned.
“Miss Jones?”
A thirty-ish, very well-spoken, dark haired woman with brown eyes approaches him. From listening to her, it appears she’s reading physics.
“Eleanor Smythe,” she introduces herself as. “Tell me, Miss Jones, what does your father’s company manufacture?”
“Guns!” ‘Miss Jones’ says, thinking of something on the spot. “Shotguns and revolvers.”
“My favourite subject,” Eleanor replies, grinning. “I’m studying physics so I have a better understanding of how they work. I’d like to design my own, when I finish here.”
Oh, this one is a possible. She’s certainly a woman after Jack’s own heart, that’s for sure. “Perhaps you could come and design them for us, Miss Smythe. I’m afraid you must excuse me, I need to speak to my friend, Miss Harper.”
“Maria!” he says, walking over to Joan. “Can we talk, please?”
“Of course, Beth.”
***
They leave the common room, and Jack asks, “Did you find any possible candidates among the girls you were talking to?”
“I think so. There’s a Jennifer Porter who appears to be very clever indeed. I believe I may have tentatively offered her a position at Harper Industries. Is that what I was meant to do? It sounded terribly false, doing that.” She’s not entirely happy.
He patiently reminds her, “Joan, one of the first things I told you when you started was that you’d have to lie a fair bit. It’s not always pleasant, but we have to do it for the greater good.”
She nods in understanding. “Did you find anyone?”
“Yeah, I did. Similar mindset to me, by the sound of it. Shall we ask them to pay us a visit?”
“But what if they don’t suit, Jack? What do we do then?”
Damn. He still hasn’t told her about the Retcon. She won’t like it, that’s for sure. “Can I tell you that when we get back to the Hub, please, Joan?” he pleads.
“If you must.” She’s annoyed, he can hear it.
***
They go back into the common room. Jack goes up to Eleanor and says, “Could I possibly speak to you outside, please?” Joan does the same, and the four of them exit again.
“What do you wish to talk about, Miss Jones?” his possible asks.
Jack’s worried about the scepticism in her voice. Oh, she’s sussed them, hasn’t she? Still, that’s the kind of person Torchwood needs. Amending her to a definite, he reaches into his coat for two business cards. Then he slips off the chamelace, and Beth vanishes.
“What’s happening? Oh! You are a man!” they exclaim, as his true appearance is revealed.
They sound shocked and annoyed, but then a smug grin appears on Eleanor’s face. “I knew it, of course, you realise,” she says.
“Yeah, I thought as much,” Jack admits, replying with his own smug grin. “Captain Jack Harkness, ladies. My colleague is Mrs Joan Redfern.”
“You tricked us, sir.” Eleanor’s grin has been replaced by something much less pleasant.
He passes them the cards. “Yeah. We did, and I apologise for that. We work for a organisation called Torchwood. Joan?”
“Jennifer, Eleanor, we would like to consider you for positions. When are you able to come and see us?”
“What does Torchwood do, Captain?” Jennifer asks.
“You’ll have to visit us to discover that. Dates, ladies?”
“Would the end of July be all right?” Eleanor offers.
Hell, no. Jack knows he’s very likely going to be a mess by then; Great Britain enters the war the week after that. “The middle would be better.”
“The middle it is, then. Shall we call you on the 1st, Captain?”
“That’ll be just fine, Eleanor.” He smiles at her, and places the chamelace around his neck again, to more gasps from the two women. “We look forward to seeing you, ladies.” They all shake hands and bid each other farewell.
***
Outside, Jack asks, “That went well, don’t you think, Joan?”
The smile. It’s always Jack’s smile that draws people in. “Yes, it did. Do I need another legend for the next college?” She’s got plenty more up her sleeve.
“Oh, yeah,” he says.
“Could I have another appearance, too?” Joan chances.
“How did you know that was a possibility?” He pulls another chamelace from his pocket.
“I know you, Jack. You love the technology as much as you love the job itself. You enjoy watching people be fascinated by it.”
“Yeah.” He smiles, yet again, before briefly closing his eyes. “Can you whistle, Joan?” he asks her, placing the chamelace around her neck.
“What a strange question, Jack!” she exclaims. “I can, but why does it matter?”
“I just turned you into Lauren Bacall.” He grins at her. “C’mon, one down, three to go.”
They make their way to the next college, clad in their false identities.
Continue to final version of Part 6
Author - laurab1
Characters/Pairings - Jack, Joan Redfern, OCs, Nine, Jack/Rose
Rating - 15/R
Length - approx 2480 words
Spoilers - TW: general series, DW: to 3.11-13
Summary - "...I want you to be my second in command." It all comes out in a rush, and he looks at Joan for her reaction. She’s calculating. Again.
Hive mind disclaimer - The flashback in this bears a resemblance to a part of nina_ds/nina_musing's Relict, but I hadn't read that before I wrote this, I promise :)
Ownership disclaimer - alas, not all of these people are mine
Feedback is loved and appreciated :) Enjoy!
Note - The story previously posted as Whistle has been revised, expanded and incorporated into this part.
Final versions:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
The Torchwood Girls
by Laura
Part 5
“About that choice, Joan...” Jack says, after the train journey to Oxford, as they walk to Somerville College.
“Yes?”
“Do you think you could wait until 1920? Because I want you to be my second in command.” It all comes out in a rush, and he looks at Joan for her reaction. She’s calculating. Again.
“Would that place me in charge, when you aren’t there?”
When I’m trying to avoid being killed by German planes. “Yeah. Is that all right?”
They stop, having arrived at their destination. She smiles up at him, and his mood improves. “Yes, Captain. I accept the position, as long as you do send me to university, like you promised. Now, how do you plan on gaining access to these women’s colleges?”
Jack grins, pulling a pendant on a chain out of his pocket. “This chamelace, from...” He stops, showing the spiral markings to Joan, letting her work it out.
“...Gallifrey?” she asks.
“Got it in one. I just found a few of them in my room in the TARDIS one day, not long after I came on board. Rose and I had a lot of fun playing with them.” At the memory, his expression turns wicked. Closing his eyes, thinking, he slips the chain over his head, and lets the cloaking device do its work: longer hair, a softer face, green eyes appear, one by one.
The three of them staggered into the TARDIS. “Everyone alright?” the Doctor asked, after slamming the doors closed.
“’M okay,” Rose said.
“Just fine, Doctor. Okay, yeah, clothes covered in slime. But all the better for being with both of our beautiful ladies.”
The Doctor rolled his eyes at Jack. Again. Rose just grinned at the two of them.
“Right, then. Vortex,” the Doctor announced, and pushed levers and buttons.
“I’m gonna go shower,” Jack said, when they were sitting in the Vortex. “Rose, you’re welcome to join me, honey.”
She was equally covered in slime. The Doctor had managed to avoid it, somehow. ‘Must be the leather coat,’ Jack thought.
“Really, Captain?” Rose said, and her leer was almost a match for the one he’d just given her.”
“Yes, ma’am. Comin’?”
“Think I’ll shower on my own, Jack,” she eventually replied, tongue flicking against her teeth.
“Your loss, sweetheart,” Jack said, grinning, and went off to his room.
It was after his shower that he discovered three pendants sitting on his pillow. Wearing just some soft cotton trousers, Jack sat on his bed and exchanged the towel he’d been drying his hair with for one of the necklaces.
Which, like the other two, was covered in the same lines and spirals patterns that adorned the TARDIS’ console. Jack didn’t think the Doctor had left these, so... “Hey, beautiful,” he addressed the TARDIS, reaching out a hand to one of her walls, stroking, caressing. “Did you make these?”
The answering hum he received in his head was quite clearly a yes.
“Okay,” he carefully said. “One for each of us, I guess, then. And what do they do?”
Why should they do anything, Jack? her bell-like sound implied.
“Because you’re a sneaky old ship. Ma’am.”
Jack was sure she giggled.
He moved to the full length mirror and slipped the pendant over his head. Looking at his reflection, he circled it where it rested on his chest. “Rose’s is gonna look wonderful, nestling between her excellent breasts.”
Jack then felt a tingling sensation all over his body, and the compulsion to close his eyes. Opening them, about thirty seconds later, he looked back at a reflection of Rose Tyler. A really sexy reflection, too. Topless, curvy, gorgeous. When he slipped the pendant off, Rose vanished.
Well. Jack grinned, imagining possibilities. “Plenty of fun to be had with these babies, old girl, I think.” Gathering all three up, he placed them on the bedside table.
Another giggle.
Then there was a knock on his door. “Who shall I be, then?” Jack slipped the pendant back over his head. There was the same tingling, and he went to answer the door. And as they were fresh from the 1940s, as a black and white Lauren Bacall.
He opened the door to Rose, who was now clean, leant against the jamb and said that line from “To Have and Have Not”:
“You know you don't have to act with me, Rose. You don't have to say anything, and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Rose? You just put your lips together and... blow.”
He made it sound even more filthy than it did in the first place, and a wicked little smile appeared on the lips. It soon transformed into a smirk, and then Rose got it.
“Jack!” she exclaimed.
Jack pulled off the pendant and shimmered back into sight. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, grinning. “Come on in, Rose, and close the door behind you.” He then pulled her close, and placed a kiss on her lips.
“How did you do that, then?” she asked, gazing up at him and doing that thing with her tongue, again.
“The old girl gave me some pretty little presents,” he replied. They separated, and Jack placed the pendant in her hand. He watched her examine it.
“This is on the console, Jack,” she soon said. “It’s...” She stopped, looked back up at him.
“Yeah. It’s his, well, their language.” Gallifreyan, Jack suspected, even if the Doctor still hadn’t told them. He was serious for a minute, before smiling again. “Anyway, I found three of the pendants on my pillow. I thought, ‘One of each of us, then.’ As I placed one over my head, I was imagining how wonderful yours would look, resting between your amazing breasts.” He ran a fingertip inside her pyjama top, making her gasp.
“Turned into me, didn’t you?” Rose immediately asked. “No, that’s not it. The pendant made a vision of me, from what you were thinking about!”
“Oh, yeah...” He gave her that wicked smile again.
Rose replied with one of her own. “Y’know, Captain Harkness, I don’t know how to whistle. Think you and Ms Bacall could teach me?”
“We’d be glad to, Miss Tyler.” Jack moved them nearer to his bed, took the pendant back from Rose. and slipped it over his head. Seconds later, he’d changed appearance. Ms Bacall took one of the pendants sitting on the bedside table and placed it around Rose’s neck, let it do its work. It was only then that Rose noticed the full length mirror they had moved in front of.
And her new appearance. “You turned me into Humphrey Bogart!” she exclaimed.
“Of course. Now, to whistle, you just put your lips together and...blow.”
Later, Rose had been taught how to whistle, along with several other things from Jack's incredibly extensive repertoire. When she was reasonably capable of coherent thought, she said, “Think we should give these things a name, Jack.”
They were still in his bed. He raised himself up on an elbow and gazed down at her. With his other hand, he circled the pendant where it rested on her chest, ‘off’ for the moment. Then he kissed her lips. “And I think you should have that honour, sweetheart.”
“Me?”
“You. C’mon!” He smiled.
Rose suggested, “Chamelace? Half chameleon, half necklace?”
“That’s clever, Rose. Very clever. A portmanteau word.” He gave her another kiss. A meeting with Lewis Carroll, somewhere along the line?
“Portmanteau! That’s it.” She grinned, happy.
“I’ll ask you later how you know that word. Now, though, I’d like to make love to you as you, Rose. Is that okay?” Jack smiled down at her, and removed the newly christened chamelaces from their necks, placing them back on his bedside table.
“That’s more than okay, Jack.” Rose pulled him to her, and then flipped them over.
Taken by surprise, Jack gasped, muttering, “Bossy woman.”
“You love it, Captain,” Rose said, moving to straddle him.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, grinning widely, as he let her pull him into a kiss, and they proceeded to lose themselves in each other.
Then his body and even his clothes change; a coat of a lighter blue is cut to accommodate some spectacular... assets. Re-opening his eyes, he waits for Joan’s reaction.
Her eyes are comically wide. “I believe that appearance will work, Jack,” she eventually manages to say. “How did you discover they could do that?”
“Just by playing around with one of them. Rose came to see me one night, and got Lauren Bacall instead. So I placed another one round her neck, and got myself Bogart.”
“Who?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“You really are an extraordinary man, excuse me, woman, Jack.” Joan rolls her eyes a little.
“Yes, I am.” He shamelessly grins. “Let’s go find some science students. They should be the only ones still here, their terms are a few weeks longer.” Reaching into his pocket again, Jack takes out the leather wallets containing the psychic paper. Passing one to Joan, he, or rather his female appearance asks, “You remember what to do with this?” Before this, they’ve just played with it in the Hub.
“Yes. Today, I’m Maria Harper, from Harper Industries,” she says, showing him the ID which has now appeared.
“Your own company? That’s new.” He’s impressed. “I get the feeling you actually enjoy this cloak and dagger stuff, Joan.”
“I think I do,” she admits. “What is your legend, Jack?”
“Beth Jones, from Jones Engineering. I’m the heiress to the company, my father having no sons.” He shows her his own psychic paper.
“Is this going to work, Jack?” She suddenly sounds concerned.
“Psychic paper’s worked for twenty years, Joan. Can’t ever see it not working.”
“Very well.”
They flash the psychic paper at the porter, and con their way into the Junior Common Room.
***
Jack watches Joan speaks to some chemistry students. She’s managing to hold her own, nodding at the appropriate points, and adding the occasional point from the school textbook Michael found for her when this mission was being planned.
“Miss Jones?”
A thirty-ish, very well-spoken, dark haired woman with brown eyes approaches him. From listening to her, it appears she’s reading physics.
“Eleanor Smythe,” she introduces herself as. “Tell me, Miss Jones, what does your father’s company manufacture?”
“Guns!” ‘Miss Jones’ says, thinking of something on the spot. “Shotguns and revolvers.”
“My favourite subject,” Eleanor replies, grinning. “I’m studying physics so I have a better understanding of how they work. I’d like to design my own, when I finish here.”
Oh, this one is a possible. She’s certainly a woman after Jack’s own heart, that’s for sure. “Perhaps you could come and design them for us, Miss Smythe. I’m afraid you must excuse me, I need to speak to my friend, Miss Harper.”
“Maria!” he says, walking over to Joan. “Can we talk, please?”
“Of course, Beth.”
***
They leave the common room, and Jack asks, “Did you find any possible candidates among the girls you were talking to?”
“I think so. There’s a Jennifer Porter who appears to be very clever indeed. I believe I may have tentatively offered her a position at Harper Industries. Is that what I was meant to do? It sounded terribly false, doing that.” She’s not entirely happy.
He patiently reminds her, “Joan, one of the first things I told you when you started was that you’d have to lie a fair bit. It’s not always pleasant, but we have to do it for the greater good.”
She nods in understanding. “Did you find anyone?”
“Yeah, I did. Similar mindset to me, by the sound of it. Shall we ask them to pay us a visit?”
“But what if they don’t suit, Jack? What do we do then?”
Damn. He still hasn’t told her about the Retcon. She won’t like it, that’s for sure. “Can I tell you that when we get back to the Hub, please, Joan?” he pleads.
“If you must.” She’s annoyed, he can hear it.
***
They go back into the common room. Jack goes up to Eleanor and says, “Could I possibly speak to you outside, please?” Joan does the same, and the four of them exit again.
“What do you wish to talk about, Miss Jones?” his possible asks.
Jack’s worried about the scepticism in her voice. Oh, she’s sussed them, hasn’t she? Still, that’s the kind of person Torchwood needs. Amending her to a definite, he reaches into his coat for two business cards. Then he slips off the chamelace, and Beth vanishes.
“What’s happening? Oh! You are a man!” they exclaim, as his true appearance is revealed.
They sound shocked and annoyed, but then a smug grin appears on Eleanor’s face. “I knew it, of course, you realise,” she says.
“Yeah, I thought as much,” Jack admits, replying with his own smug grin. “Captain Jack Harkness, ladies. My colleague is Mrs Joan Redfern.”
“You tricked us, sir.” Eleanor’s grin has been replaced by something much less pleasant.
He passes them the cards. “Yeah. We did, and I apologise for that. We work for a organisation called Torchwood. Joan?”
“Jennifer, Eleanor, we would like to consider you for positions. When are you able to come and see us?”
“What does Torchwood do, Captain?” Jennifer asks.
“You’ll have to visit us to discover that. Dates, ladies?”
“Would the end of July be all right?” Eleanor offers.
Hell, no. Jack knows he’s very likely going to be a mess by then; Great Britain enters the war the week after that. “The middle would be better.”
“The middle it is, then. Shall we call you on the 1st, Captain?”
“That’ll be just fine, Eleanor.” He smiles at her, and places the chamelace around his neck again, to more gasps from the two women. “We look forward to seeing you, ladies.” They all shake hands and bid each other farewell.
***
Outside, Jack asks, “That went well, don’t you think, Joan?”
The smile. It’s always Jack’s smile that draws people in. “Yes, it did. Do I need another legend for the next college?” She’s got plenty more up her sleeve.
“Oh, yeah,” he says.
“Could I have another appearance, too?” Joan chances.
“How did you know that was a possibility?” He pulls another chamelace from his pocket.
“I know you, Jack. You love the technology as much as you love the job itself. You enjoy watching people be fascinated by it.”
“Yeah.” He smiles, yet again, before briefly closing his eyes. “Can you whistle, Joan?” he asks her, placing the chamelace around her neck.
“What a strange question, Jack!” she exclaims. “I can, but why does it matter?”
“I just turned you into Lauren Bacall.” He grins at her. “C’mon, one down, three to go.”
They make their way to the next college, clad in their false identities.
Continue to final version of Part 6