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Fic: Alien Abduction. Chapter 3/5.
No idea why this chapter took so long, and hopefully I'll pull myself together and finish the last two parts without this much of a delay. *crosses fingers* (Not that I'm very happy with this chapter, but I've given up on making it better...)
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Interlude | Chapter 2
Summary: This story begins with abduction and ends with waffles. In between there's some adventuring and some heartache and a fair few truths are revealed.
Setting: 2023 (Alex is 16).
Characters: The Doctor (Tenth), the Master (Simm), Lucy, Jack, OCs (Alex, Matt, Josh)
Rating: PG-13.
Word count: 2900 words approx.
Chapter 3
Holding up a hand, Alex slowly caught his breath as his giggling subsided, and then - seeing that they were rather in the middle of everything - moved towards one of the corners, telling the guards to wait a minute, which they agreed to, after a confirming nod from the Captain.
“You OK?” Matt asked carefully, wondering if there was a polite way of asking ‘Did you go completely do-dally like your Dad?’
Alex chuckled a little more, then shook his head.
“I’m fine. Honestly. It’s just... OK, there is this joke-” he shot the guards an apologetic look, “-about Glattians. Um, imagine that there are only 5 Glattians left, four males, one from every House...”
He frowned, then waved a hand. “Oh screw that, it’s all very complicated, but basically they’re all rivals. Just say four males and the last one is a female - who only has one reproductive cycle left. What do they do?"
Matt, bewildered, stared at him mutely, and Josh was clearly as lost. Alex smiled triumphantly.
"They put her in a museum because she's the last of her kind!"
"And that's... funny?"
Alex had always had a rather sideways kind of humour, but this was just bizarre.
"It's funny because it's true, don't you see? They've just done exactly the same thing - put something impossibly rare above survival."
Josh frowned. "But... they're taking us back to their planet... they said that they'd fire at anyone..."
The smile faded from Alex’s face, and he cast a rueful glance around the busy bridge, and when he spoke it seemed that he was mostly talking to himself.
"I'll need to talk to the Doctor when they arrive, if I can just explain..."
One of the guards inclined his head.
“Timelord? If you have recovered from your strange fit, we need to-”
He stopped as there was a strange cranking sound combined with a wild gust of wind, and Alex’s head snapped up.
And then - in front of Matt’s disbelieving eyes - a blue box materialised in the middle of the floor. A tall, blue police box, like the one that was now a coffee shop, next to the beach where his family had gone on holiday one year...
A second later one of the doors burst open and Harold Saxon - the actual, real, Harold Saxon - stepped out, the biggest and scariest gun Matt had ever seen in his hands.
Alex cried out "Dad!" and Saxon's face changed completely, as Alex ran across the bridge and flung himself into his father’s arms.
Of all the things that had happened that night, this was somehow the strangest. What was Harold Saxon doing here? Everyone knew he was in prison...
Slowly taking his eyes off Alex and his dad, he noticed that Alex’s uncle and Jack had also appeared - Jack with a similarly huge and intimidating gun, which he was using to hold up the whole crew as if he’d never done anything else.
As soon as Saxon let go of Alex his uncle came forward for a hug of his own, and Saxon, a grim smile on his face and eyes dancing maliciously, raised his gun again and nodded to Jack.
Then, finally, someone seemed to realise that Matt and Josh were there too, as Jack walked over to them. Could it really have been just a few hours since he’d dropped them off in a little Welsh valley, warning them against the sheep?
“Hello again,” he said, grin as wide and unconcerned as ever. “You OK?”
Matt did his best to nod, and then noticed that Alex was now talking to his uncle at breakneck speed.
“...so you see it was all a misunderstanding. But! They have a Rachnoss. It's just a dead baby, but it looks like it's perfectly sound. And they have tons of creatures locked up - like hundreds - but-"
He was cut off by Jack poking him.
"Alex? Could I just have your hand?"
"Um... what?"
Taking Alex’s hand he placed it on his odd wrist-strap thing, motioned Matt and Josh to do the same, and the next second there was a bright, disorienting flash and then the four of them - Jack, Alex, Matt and Josh - found themselves in some kind of high tech cavernous place.
Matt looked around, rather stunned and a little dizzy after his second ever teleporting, and unable to work out where on earth they could be. Then he caught sight of a wall with ‘Torchwood’ painted on the bricks, and breathed a sigh of relief. At least they were back on Earth...
Alex, however, was clearly not sharing his feelings as he jumped at Jack, reaching for his wrist.
"Take me back! Jack - take me back now!"
But Jack held his teleporting thing out of reach, incredulous.
"What?"
"Jack! That thing wouldn't even work if it wasn't for me! Take me back!"
Jack looked more pissed off than Matt and Josh had ever seen, and they both instinctively retreated backwards, not wanting to get caught up in the argument.
Why on Earth did Alex want to go back? Jack clearly had the same problem, as he started speaking, voice tight with anger.
"You listen to me Seeker! First of all, the main thing was to get you back safely and keep you safe. Second..."
For a moment his hand clenched, and it looked as if he was seriously considering punching Alex. Instead he kept talking, but his voice was so full of fury that it almost felt like a slap.
"You put a delay on your message! Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes! Do you have any - any - idea how absolutely terrified we've been? How fucking long fifteen minutes is? After-" he stopped abruptly, swallowing against emotions almost too strong to contain.
Alex opened his mouth and Jack held up a hand, and when he spoke again his voice once more under control, cold and biting.
"Keep your explanations for the Doctor, I don’t want to hear them. Right now you can just go sit down and think about the choice you made."
Radiating seething rebellion Alex walked over to a sofa and threw himself down on it, arms crossed and entire body sulking.
Jack turned to the other two, taking a deep breath and aiming for a smile.
"Welcome to Torchwood... Sorry about that. You sure you’re OK?”
“I... I think so,” Matt replied, and Josh nodded.
“Just a bit... I mean we just found out that Alex...”
He shot their sullen friend a look, and Jack’s eyes narrowed.
“Ah. Well we figured it’d come out sooner or later. Now, why don’t you sit down and I'll make you some tea and see if I can discover where Ianto hides the good biscuits. Then we can have a little chat and I can answer any questions you might have. That sound OK?"
They both nodded gratefully and sat themselves down on the sofa next to Alex, but as Jack turned to go, Alex fidgeted.
“Why aren’t they back yet?”
Jack stopped, shooting Alex a rather cold look over his shoulder.
"Hasn't even been 15 minutes yet..."
Alex glowered back at him. "Sod off Jack."
"Well excuse me young master-"
At his words Alex visibly flinched, for the first time showing hurt rather than anger.
“Don’t call me that!” he said, with such vehemence that Jack’s eyes narrowed and he obviously decided to forget about the tea for the time being as he took a step closer to the sofa, watching Alex carefully.
“What happened?”
Alex held Jack’s eyes for a moment, then he looked down, nervously playing with his bracelet.
"I... lost my temper. Apparently...”
A swift flicker of his eyes to Jack’s face then he lowered them again.
“...apparently I turn into dad when I get really angry."
If Matt hadn’t been watching Jack’s face he’d have missed it, but as it was, he saw Jack freeze - only for a second, but for that second a look of something undefinable shone out of Jack’s eyes... Fear, apprehension, worry? Matt couldn’t quite work it out, but it was extremely unsettling.
“What did you do?” Jack then slowly asked, voice so careful that Matt marvelled.
Alex shrugged.
"Oh I didn't do anything, except tell the Glattians that they weren’t fit to lick my shoes... You know the stuff. Thank goodness the Doctor will never-"
He stopped abruptly, hands covering his mouth in horror.
"Oh god! The cameras! What if they're watching... I'm so screwed. I'll be grounded until I'm 500..."
For a moment he sat perfectly still, staring into the distance, then lowered his hands, and his voice turned oddly helpless.
"The Doctor will think I never heard a single thing he taught me!"
Seeing that Matt and Josh were by now not following at all, he elaborated.
"The first - the most important thing I ever leaned - is that just because I'm better than everyone else doesn't mean that I'm better than everyone else. Fucked that up totally."
Matt slowly shook his head, not ready to let this pass.
"You're better than everyone else?"
"Well he's certainly better at feeling sorry for himself!" Jack noted drolly. Matt and Josh chuckled, and Alex shot them a dirty look, before getting defensive.
"But I am better! It’s not like I can help being what I am. Every word I told the Glattians was the truth!"
Josh raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, and his tone was deeply mocking when he spoke:
"You were 'born to rule the universe'? You seriously expect us to believe that?"
"But I was.” The angry pride was back with a vengeance now.
“When I was born my father ruled the world and was just about to unleash war on the whole universe. Think Star Wars. I swear, we could have ruled until the end of time...” His eyes unfocussed, as he slowly continued.
“100,000 warships. 6 billion Toclafane - ready to fly and blaze and slice. I look down that path and...”
He stopped and buried his head in his hands, just as Matt was beginning to get seriously freaked out.
“Look I’ll explain later OK? It’s... complicated,” Alex mumbled between his fingers, and Matt nodded cautiously. If he was honest with himself, he wasn’t sure he wanted an explanation.
Jack, who had been almost immobile throughout, now stepped forward and layed a hand on Alex’s shoulder.
“Listen, Seeker - why don’t you come with me and help make some tea? Maybe you can even persuade the coffee maker to work...”
Alex looked up and nodded, before slowly getting up, and Matt wondered if he’d ever again come close to understanding his friend. At least he and Josh still had each other...
“Jack!” Josh called out, and Jack stopped, half-turning.
“Yes?”
”Are you... are you an alien too?”
This hadn’t occurred to Matt at all, but he now watched Jack with some of the same unease Josh was displaying.
“No Josh, I’m not an alien. Although I am from the future - the 51st Century to be exact - if you were wondering about...”
He made a flourish with his hand, and Josh nodded, looking very thoughtful, as Jack sent him a small, rather private smile, before following Alex towards the kitchen, wherever that might be. And yet again Matt decided to never ask them exactly what was going on there.
Really, Alex-being-an-alien would slot in quite neatly alongside his decision to never inquire into Josh’s love life. Sometimes Matt seriously wondered how someone as normal as him had ever made such unusual friends.
***
In the kitchen Jack found the Seeker studying the coffee maker with great concentration.
“I don’t know what happened to it, but it absorbed some kind of artificial intelligence at some point. Not a lot, but enough so that it’s established a psychic bond with Ianto... Don’t think it’s wise to try to mess with that.”
Watching him Jack’s throat all of a sudden felt much too tight. His little brother-by-proxy... concerned about interfering with a coffee maker. In a flash the night’s antics was thrown into sharp relief, and in a single swift move he stepped up to the Seeker and swept him up into a big hug.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered (’Like I lost Gray’), and he could feel the Seeker smile against his shirt.
“Can’t get rid of me that easily.”
“Shut up.”
Two hearts beating against his chest - his very own clever Seeker. (Not Alex. No, not Alex. Certainly not tonight. He’d never realised it before, but he suddenly understood that one reason the Seeker insisted on those in the know using his ‘real’, self-chosen, name, was because it had nothing to do with his father... Alexander the Great was the Master’s projection, the heir-apparent to a could-have-been empire, built on humanity's pain...)
“Wish you’d been there with us,” the Seeker finally mumbled into Jack’s coat, and he could feel the mountain of guilt that he’d tried to hold at bay threatening to tumble down and bury him. He had been the one to suggest the camping holiday, he had chosen the camp site...
Noting his silence, the Seeker pulled away, studying him.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he said bluntly, then turned around and started filling the kettle.
“Seeker-” Jack said, and the boy slowly turned around, reaching out for the tea pot on the work top behind Jack.
“Look, the guilt is pretty much dripping off you. Stop it. I was never in any danger. The only ones at risk were my friends, so if you want to beg forgiveness off anyone, go back to them. Josh, certainly, wouldn’t mind letting you cry on his shoulder...”
The minutely raised eyebrow spoke volumes, and Jack’s eyes hardened.
“Listen, I’ve had enough of all these insinuations. Yes I’ve taken him under my wing, but dammit, he’s a child! I would never-”
He stopped abruptly at the triumphant gleam in the Seeker’s eyes, and took a calming breath. Damn the boy, always ten steps ahead, and far, far too good at playing people...
“And... don’t change the subject,” he added, trying to find four clean mugs and a tray to put them on.
“Actually I think I have to,” the Seeker said, as he spooned tea leaves into the pot, before shooting Jack a wary look.
“Did they ask about the wrist strap?”
For a second Jack’s thoughts jumped to the Master’s laser screwdriver, still tucked away safely, and secretly, in the Torchwood safe, and sighed.
“No they didn’t ask. Yet... What’s the cover story again? Three years ago?”
The Seeker nodded as he poured the now boiling water into the pot.
“Yup. I was studying teleportation then - the Doctor specifically told me not to mess with your vortex manipulator.”
“I... see”, Jack said cautiously. “Are you sure this particular cover story is a good idea?”
The Seeker waved a dismissive hand.
“Compared to the mess I’m in right now, it’ll hardly register. Plus your wrist strap works perfectly, right? Which will help when it comes to-”
He cut off, one of those secretive smiles on his face that Jack knew he’d not be able to penetrate, and put the tea pot and a strainer on the tray, along with the bottle of milk he'd fished out of the fridge.
“Biscuits?”
Jack reached behind him and grabbed the biscuit tin (trying to find Ianto’s secret stash was a task for another time), and then followed the Seeker back to where Matt and Josh were waiting. Surprisingly they hadn’t fallen asleep, but then he noticed the slightly guilty looks in their eyes and the furtive glances, and realised that they’d obviously done some exploring of the mysterious Torchwood... Trying to suppress a smile he dumped the tin on the table and Matt cleared his throat.
“Um, Alex- you know how you used to say that your uncle made it snow at Christmas?”
The Seeker looked up from distributing mugs and smiled, a hint of tension draining away.
“Oh he does! Really it’s very simple - just basic atmospheric excitation. Here, let me show you!”
He grabbed a pen and paper from a nearby desk, and started writing as Jack poured the tea, and for a few minutes the three young friends were clearly back to normal, as Matt and Josh made space in the middle of the sofa and the Seeker happily explained the more complex aspects of weather manipulation. Just three pyjama-clad boys, not worrying about the past or the future or what species they were...
The grind of the TARDIS engines cut through the scene as the sudden wind blew the papers away, effectively ending the mini-lecture and breaking the mood.
Jack saw the Seeker look up, considerably paler than before, but clearly ready to face whatever was coming, never mind the consequences.
Chapter 4.
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Interlude | Chapter 2
Summary: This story begins with abduction and ends with waffles. In between there's some adventuring and some heartache and a fair few truths are revealed.
Setting: 2023 (Alex is 16).
Characters: The Doctor (Tenth), the Master (Simm), Lucy, Jack, OCs (Alex, Matt, Josh)
Rating: PG-13.
Word count: 2900 words approx.
Holding up a hand, Alex slowly caught his breath as his giggling subsided, and then - seeing that they were rather in the middle of everything - moved towards one of the corners, telling the guards to wait a minute, which they agreed to, after a confirming nod from the Captain.
“You OK?” Matt asked carefully, wondering if there was a polite way of asking ‘Did you go completely do-dally like your Dad?’
Alex chuckled a little more, then shook his head.
“I’m fine. Honestly. It’s just... OK, there is this joke-” he shot the guards an apologetic look, “-about Glattians. Um, imagine that there are only 5 Glattians left, four males, one from every House...”
He frowned, then waved a hand. “Oh screw that, it’s all very complicated, but basically they’re all rivals. Just say four males and the last one is a female - who only has one reproductive cycle left. What do they do?"
Matt, bewildered, stared at him mutely, and Josh was clearly as lost. Alex smiled triumphantly.
"They put her in a museum because she's the last of her kind!"
"And that's... funny?"
Alex had always had a rather sideways kind of humour, but this was just bizarre.
"It's funny because it's true, don't you see? They've just done exactly the same thing - put something impossibly rare above survival."
Josh frowned. "But... they're taking us back to their planet... they said that they'd fire at anyone..."
The smile faded from Alex’s face, and he cast a rueful glance around the busy bridge, and when he spoke it seemed that he was mostly talking to himself.
"I'll need to talk to the Doctor when they arrive, if I can just explain..."
One of the guards inclined his head.
“Timelord? If you have recovered from your strange fit, we need to-”
He stopped as there was a strange cranking sound combined with a wild gust of wind, and Alex’s head snapped up.
And then - in front of Matt’s disbelieving eyes - a blue box materialised in the middle of the floor. A tall, blue police box, like the one that was now a coffee shop, next to the beach where his family had gone on holiday one year...
A second later one of the doors burst open and Harold Saxon - the actual, real, Harold Saxon - stepped out, the biggest and scariest gun Matt had ever seen in his hands.
Alex cried out "Dad!" and Saxon's face changed completely, as Alex ran across the bridge and flung himself into his father’s arms.
Of all the things that had happened that night, this was somehow the strangest. What was Harold Saxon doing here? Everyone knew he was in prison...
Slowly taking his eyes off Alex and his dad, he noticed that Alex’s uncle and Jack had also appeared - Jack with a similarly huge and intimidating gun, which he was using to hold up the whole crew as if he’d never done anything else.
As soon as Saxon let go of Alex his uncle came forward for a hug of his own, and Saxon, a grim smile on his face and eyes dancing maliciously, raised his gun again and nodded to Jack.
Then, finally, someone seemed to realise that Matt and Josh were there too, as Jack walked over to them. Could it really have been just a few hours since he’d dropped them off in a little Welsh valley, warning them against the sheep?
“Hello again,” he said, grin as wide and unconcerned as ever. “You OK?”
Matt did his best to nod, and then noticed that Alex was now talking to his uncle at breakneck speed.
“...so you see it was all a misunderstanding. But! They have a Rachnoss. It's just a dead baby, but it looks like it's perfectly sound. And they have tons of creatures locked up - like hundreds - but-"
He was cut off by Jack poking him.
"Alex? Could I just have your hand?"
"Um... what?"
Taking Alex’s hand he placed it on his odd wrist-strap thing, motioned Matt and Josh to do the same, and the next second there was a bright, disorienting flash and then the four of them - Jack, Alex, Matt and Josh - found themselves in some kind of high tech cavernous place.
Matt looked around, rather stunned and a little dizzy after his second ever teleporting, and unable to work out where on earth they could be. Then he caught sight of a wall with ‘Torchwood’ painted on the bricks, and breathed a sigh of relief. At least they were back on Earth...
Alex, however, was clearly not sharing his feelings as he jumped at Jack, reaching for his wrist.
"Take me back! Jack - take me back now!"
But Jack held his teleporting thing out of reach, incredulous.
"What?"
"Jack! That thing wouldn't even work if it wasn't for me! Take me back!"
Jack looked more pissed off than Matt and Josh had ever seen, and they both instinctively retreated backwards, not wanting to get caught up in the argument.
Why on Earth did Alex want to go back? Jack clearly had the same problem, as he started speaking, voice tight with anger.
"You listen to me Seeker! First of all, the main thing was to get you back safely and keep you safe. Second..."
For a moment his hand clenched, and it looked as if he was seriously considering punching Alex. Instead he kept talking, but his voice was so full of fury that it almost felt like a slap.
"You put a delay on your message! Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes! Do you have any - any - idea how absolutely terrified we've been? How fucking long fifteen minutes is? After-" he stopped abruptly, swallowing against emotions almost too strong to contain.
Alex opened his mouth and Jack held up a hand, and when he spoke again his voice once more under control, cold and biting.
"Keep your explanations for the Doctor, I don’t want to hear them. Right now you can just go sit down and think about the choice you made."
Radiating seething rebellion Alex walked over to a sofa and threw himself down on it, arms crossed and entire body sulking.
Jack turned to the other two, taking a deep breath and aiming for a smile.
"Welcome to Torchwood... Sorry about that. You sure you’re OK?”
“I... I think so,” Matt replied, and Josh nodded.
“Just a bit... I mean we just found out that Alex...”
He shot their sullen friend a look, and Jack’s eyes narrowed.
“Ah. Well we figured it’d come out sooner or later. Now, why don’t you sit down and I'll make you some tea and see if I can discover where Ianto hides the good biscuits. Then we can have a little chat and I can answer any questions you might have. That sound OK?"
They both nodded gratefully and sat themselves down on the sofa next to Alex, but as Jack turned to go, Alex fidgeted.
“Why aren’t they back yet?”
Jack stopped, shooting Alex a rather cold look over his shoulder.
"Hasn't even been 15 minutes yet..."
Alex glowered back at him. "Sod off Jack."
"Well excuse me young master-"
At his words Alex visibly flinched, for the first time showing hurt rather than anger.
“Don’t call me that!” he said, with such vehemence that Jack’s eyes narrowed and he obviously decided to forget about the tea for the time being as he took a step closer to the sofa, watching Alex carefully.
“What happened?”
Alex held Jack’s eyes for a moment, then he looked down, nervously playing with his bracelet.
"I... lost my temper. Apparently...”
A swift flicker of his eyes to Jack’s face then he lowered them again.
“...apparently I turn into dad when I get really angry."
If Matt hadn’t been watching Jack’s face he’d have missed it, but as it was, he saw Jack freeze - only for a second, but for that second a look of something undefinable shone out of Jack’s eyes... Fear, apprehension, worry? Matt couldn’t quite work it out, but it was extremely unsettling.
“What did you do?” Jack then slowly asked, voice so careful that Matt marvelled.
Alex shrugged.
"Oh I didn't do anything, except tell the Glattians that they weren’t fit to lick my shoes... You know the stuff. Thank goodness the Doctor will never-"
He stopped abruptly, hands covering his mouth in horror.
"Oh god! The cameras! What if they're watching... I'm so screwed. I'll be grounded until I'm 500..."
For a moment he sat perfectly still, staring into the distance, then lowered his hands, and his voice turned oddly helpless.
"The Doctor will think I never heard a single thing he taught me!"
Seeing that Matt and Josh were by now not following at all, he elaborated.
"The first - the most important thing I ever leaned - is that just because I'm better than everyone else doesn't mean that I'm better than everyone else. Fucked that up totally."
Matt slowly shook his head, not ready to let this pass.
"You're better than everyone else?"
"Well he's certainly better at feeling sorry for himself!" Jack noted drolly. Matt and Josh chuckled, and Alex shot them a dirty look, before getting defensive.
"But I am better! It’s not like I can help being what I am. Every word I told the Glattians was the truth!"
Josh raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, and his tone was deeply mocking when he spoke:
"You were 'born to rule the universe'? You seriously expect us to believe that?"
"But I was.” The angry pride was back with a vengeance now.
“When I was born my father ruled the world and was just about to unleash war on the whole universe. Think Star Wars. I swear, we could have ruled until the end of time...” His eyes unfocussed, as he slowly continued.
“100,000 warships. 6 billion Toclafane - ready to fly and blaze and slice. I look down that path and...”
He stopped and buried his head in his hands, just as Matt was beginning to get seriously freaked out.
“Look I’ll explain later OK? It’s... complicated,” Alex mumbled between his fingers, and Matt nodded cautiously. If he was honest with himself, he wasn’t sure he wanted an explanation.
Jack, who had been almost immobile throughout, now stepped forward and layed a hand on Alex’s shoulder.
“Listen, Seeker - why don’t you come with me and help make some tea? Maybe you can even persuade the coffee maker to work...”
Alex looked up and nodded, before slowly getting up, and Matt wondered if he’d ever again come close to understanding his friend. At least he and Josh still had each other...
“Jack!” Josh called out, and Jack stopped, half-turning.
“Yes?”
”Are you... are you an alien too?”
This hadn’t occurred to Matt at all, but he now watched Jack with some of the same unease Josh was displaying.
“No Josh, I’m not an alien. Although I am from the future - the 51st Century to be exact - if you were wondering about...”
He made a flourish with his hand, and Josh nodded, looking very thoughtful, as Jack sent him a small, rather private smile, before following Alex towards the kitchen, wherever that might be. And yet again Matt decided to never ask them exactly what was going on there.
Really, Alex-being-an-alien would slot in quite neatly alongside his decision to never inquire into Josh’s love life. Sometimes Matt seriously wondered how someone as normal as him had ever made such unusual friends.
In the kitchen Jack found the Seeker studying the coffee maker with great concentration.
“I don’t know what happened to it, but it absorbed some kind of artificial intelligence at some point. Not a lot, but enough so that it’s established a psychic bond with Ianto... Don’t think it’s wise to try to mess with that.”
Watching him Jack’s throat all of a sudden felt much too tight. His little brother-by-proxy... concerned about interfering with a coffee maker. In a flash the night’s antics was thrown into sharp relief, and in a single swift move he stepped up to the Seeker and swept him up into a big hug.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered (’Like I lost Gray’), and he could feel the Seeker smile against his shirt.
“Can’t get rid of me that easily.”
“Shut up.”
Two hearts beating against his chest - his very own clever Seeker. (Not Alex. No, not Alex. Certainly not tonight. He’d never realised it before, but he suddenly understood that one reason the Seeker insisted on those in the know using his ‘real’, self-chosen, name, was because it had nothing to do with his father... Alexander the Great was the Master’s projection, the heir-apparent to a could-have-been empire, built on humanity's pain...)
“Wish you’d been there with us,” the Seeker finally mumbled into Jack’s coat, and he could feel the mountain of guilt that he’d tried to hold at bay threatening to tumble down and bury him. He had been the one to suggest the camping holiday, he had chosen the camp site...
Noting his silence, the Seeker pulled away, studying him.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he said bluntly, then turned around and started filling the kettle.
“Seeker-” Jack said, and the boy slowly turned around, reaching out for the tea pot on the work top behind Jack.
“Look, the guilt is pretty much dripping off you. Stop it. I was never in any danger. The only ones at risk were my friends, so if you want to beg forgiveness off anyone, go back to them. Josh, certainly, wouldn’t mind letting you cry on his shoulder...”
The minutely raised eyebrow spoke volumes, and Jack’s eyes hardened.
“Listen, I’ve had enough of all these insinuations. Yes I’ve taken him under my wing, but dammit, he’s a child! I would never-”
He stopped abruptly at the triumphant gleam in the Seeker’s eyes, and took a calming breath. Damn the boy, always ten steps ahead, and far, far too good at playing people...
“And... don’t change the subject,” he added, trying to find four clean mugs and a tray to put them on.
“Actually I think I have to,” the Seeker said, as he spooned tea leaves into the pot, before shooting Jack a wary look.
“Did they ask about the wrist strap?”
For a second Jack’s thoughts jumped to the Master’s laser screwdriver, still tucked away safely, and secretly, in the Torchwood safe, and sighed.
“No they didn’t ask. Yet... What’s the cover story again? Three years ago?”
The Seeker nodded as he poured the now boiling water into the pot.
“Yup. I was studying teleportation then - the Doctor specifically told me not to mess with your vortex manipulator.”
“I... see”, Jack said cautiously. “Are you sure this particular cover story is a good idea?”
The Seeker waved a dismissive hand.
“Compared to the mess I’m in right now, it’ll hardly register. Plus your wrist strap works perfectly, right? Which will help when it comes to-”
He cut off, one of those secretive smiles on his face that Jack knew he’d not be able to penetrate, and put the tea pot and a strainer on the tray, along with the bottle of milk he'd fished out of the fridge.
“Biscuits?”
Jack reached behind him and grabbed the biscuit tin (trying to find Ianto’s secret stash was a task for another time), and then followed the Seeker back to where Matt and Josh were waiting. Surprisingly they hadn’t fallen asleep, but then he noticed the slightly guilty looks in their eyes and the furtive glances, and realised that they’d obviously done some exploring of the mysterious Torchwood... Trying to suppress a smile he dumped the tin on the table and Matt cleared his throat.
“Um, Alex- you know how you used to say that your uncle made it snow at Christmas?”
The Seeker looked up from distributing mugs and smiled, a hint of tension draining away.
“Oh he does! Really it’s very simple - just basic atmospheric excitation. Here, let me show you!”
He grabbed a pen and paper from a nearby desk, and started writing as Jack poured the tea, and for a few minutes the three young friends were clearly back to normal, as Matt and Josh made space in the middle of the sofa and the Seeker happily explained the more complex aspects of weather manipulation. Just three pyjama-clad boys, not worrying about the past or the future or what species they were...
The grind of the TARDIS engines cut through the scene as the sudden wind blew the papers away, effectively ending the mini-lecture and breaking the mood.
Jack saw the Seeker look up, considerably paler than before, but clearly ready to face whatever was coming, never mind the consequences.
Chapter 4.
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Sorry, I couldn't help myself :D
Nice transitional chapter. I like Jack here of course, but I'm wondering what happens when the doctor deal with poor Alex. Granted poor Alex really should have know better, but he is a teenage boy.
And awesome Master!
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Heeee! I can't believe I didn't think of that! (What I was actually thinking about was some comment somewhere in the Torchwood extra bits where Jack complains about no one being able to work the coffee maker apart from Ianto, so he thought it might be alien...)
Nice transitional chapter.
Thank you. I still can't work out why it was such a pain, but maybe it was just the transitional nature of it.
I like Jack here of course, but I'm wondering what happens when the doctor deal with poor Alex. Granted poor Alex really should have know better, but he is a teenage boy.
Ah, but his thinking was sound, as will become clear in the next chapter. Not that this stops him from sulking for Gallifrey. ;) (Teenage boys are fun!) Anyway, glad you liked Jack - he was a bit all over the map emotionally, but unfortunately that was rather necessary.
And awesome Master!
The Master is always awesome!
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LOL! What a fabulous description. (Poor Alex, he is usually able to rise above it all, but this time everything was thrown at him at once... And he has a tendency to get stubborn.)
Bound to be even more, in a moment, when those TARDIS doors open....
No kidding! ;)
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