Doctor Who: Through the Glass 6
Jan. 28th, 2008 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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milieva_ficsTitle: Through the Glass 6
Characters: Ten, Rose, Martha, Jack, Mickey, and more Tylers than you can shake a stick at.
Rating: PG-13
Beta:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rachelbeann
Spoilers: Through Series Three.
Disclaimer: Only the story and a few characters belong to me. The rest belongs to these nice people.
Summary: Upon trying to return Jack to his team, the TARDIS falls through a crack in reality, taking her pilot to the woman he loves. But could his very arrival tear her world apart?
Previous Chapters
At least he’d been able to close the wounds he had inflicted upon her in the minimal time they’d had before leaving Torchwood One. He’d even gotten to the wound on her leg; though, Rose refused to tell him how she’d come to have a bullet hole in her thigh.
Chapter Six
Rose rested her head against the Doctor’s shoulder as she drifted in an out of consciousness. He had only given her a small dose of sedative. Just enough to keep her from kicking him in the face when he made use of the field model dermal regenerator. That thing felt more like it was burning a hole through your flesh, rather than healing the wound. But the sedative combined with her utter exhaustion, had incapacitated Rose.
At least he’d been able to close the wounds he had inflicted upon her in the minimal time they’d had before leaving Torchwood One. He’d even gotten to the wound on her leg; though, Rose refused to tell him how she’d come to have a bullet hole in her thigh. The shoulder would have to wait though. He’d only had about twenty minutes to work before they were herded back to the van. Hopefully the battery would hold long enough for him to do something about it during the flight.
Meanwhile, Rose’s head bobbled against his arm as she sleepily drooled on him.
Jake’s head popped up over the front passenger’s seat. He studied the blonde’s unconscious state. “So, have you killed our boss, then?”
“Sedative.” The Doctor murmured, brushing a stray hair from Rose’s face, his eyes never leaving her.
“She probably needed it.” He smiled, a sad, knowing smile. “I have honestly begun to wonder when she sleeps. It’s like she’d never off duty.”
Like the others on the team, Jake had begun to wonder how much longer it would be until Rose finally broke. She was in a precarious state as it was. Everyday was a constant battle against the supposed inevitable.
Martha looked to the woman on her right. Her skin was sort of grey. She had dark circles under her eyes, and generally looked beyond worn out. “Jackie said she didn’t take much time off, even after Lily was born.”
James scoffed from the front seat. “I don’t think she had even been out of hospital a week before she came back.”
“Yeah.” Jake agreed. “And she’s been going non-stop ever since.”
Rose snuggled closer to the Doctor, slipping under the arm she had been clinging to. He wrapped both arms around her as if his embrace could protect her. As if he could save her from herself.
The woman he’d known hated that she had hardly ever seen her mother when she was growing up. Jackie was always working, trying to keep things together. Rose had adamantly told him that she had never wanted to do that to her children if she ever had any. Yet, from all the things he had witnessed today, she was doing just what she swore she never would. Her job had consumed her life and taken her away from her child.
“Why?” He wanted nothing more than to know the reason she would go against her promise to herself.
“Solomon wants to keep her busy.” James stated as he stopped the van on the runway. The other van with Trish, Jack and the gear pulled up right beside them. Cutting off the engine, he climbed out and said a few words to the man who stood waiting for them.
Coaxing Rose’s arms around his neck, the Doctor pulled her across the seat and gently lifted her out. She sleepily sniffed his neck and mumbled something about him smelling good. He smiled and hoisted her into a more manageable position.
“Looks like we have a stowaway.” Jake called when he opened the back of the van to unload their equipment.
The Doctor stopped his progression to the waiting jet and turned back in time to see the other man lift one tiny girl and her over stuffed rucksack over his shoulder.
“Someone will be looking for her later.” Jake laughed and adjusted his little burden so he could pick up one of the cases with his free hand.
Rolling his eyes at the sight of his sleeping daughter, the Doctor shook his head. Just like her mother. Tell her to stay put and she is sure to ignore you and do exactly as she pleases. She was not willing to be left behind, and was more than clever enough to know how to manage it.
*****
Victor shuffled through the pile of papers and forms to be filed away. He really hated doing this sort of thing. What he really needed was a new secretary. He really wished Lynda hadn’t been removed so quickly. He would have liked having a replacement hired and trained before she left.
All the regulations and paperwork required to hire someone was beyond tiresome. Sometimes he really wished he signed up to work for a sort of secret, but very closed off organization.
He glanced out his door, leaning back in his chair, he could barely see into the conference room. Of course it was empty. He’d sent Rose and her team off on another mission again. It was something he really hadn’t wanted to do. The blonde had been beyond exhausted when she and her team had checked out last night, and he had really just planned to tell her to stay home today. Last thing he needed was to have his best agent out of commission again.
She really had looked awful this morning. Probably only got a few short hours of sleep. And when that tall brown stranger had ‘borrowed’ her for a moment to look at some unreported injuries, he had returned with her fast asleep in his arms.
Rose Tyler was definitely not in the best of conditions to be doing what she had been sent to do.
But when he received the phone call this morning, he couldn’t say no. His job hung in a precarious balance as it was. If he refused a direct order from Rome, there was every chance that he would face a similar fate to Lynda. The inquisition was three times as harsh as they had been just a few short years ago. After what happened in Japan, any deviance from Solomon’s master plan was viewed with the utmost suspicion.
It wasn’t unusual that Rose was requested personally for some job that Solomon wanted her for. It actually happened at least one a month, but the fact that one Father Juliano Colgui had phoned her personally, made him a bit uneasy.
Something was beginning. Victor could feel it. It was something that could threatened to tear the very fabric of Torchwood apart.
*****
Jack examined the contents of yet another cupboard. This one held a rather well stocked mini bar. When he had heard ‘private jet’, he had assumed something old a pieced back together with uncomfortable seats. Something the Torchwood he ran would be able to afford for frequent flights, not that they owned a jet, but if they did.
When they stepped onboard and he had seen all the fine wood and leather, he had been more than a little jealous. “Better building, better transport, better everything. How do you afford all of it?”
But no one was listening to him. The Doctor had taken Rose back to the bedroom to lay her down. A jet with a bedroom. This had to have been something made for a diplomat or someone of that sort. Not a troop of alien hunters. The three remaining members of Rose’s team were hovering over her daughter, who they had sat in a seat in the corner.
Martha stood off to the side, like him, watching them.
“Don’t we have a distorter somewhere?” Tish asked.
James shook his head. “Even if we did, I can’t use it until we are back on the ground. That is unless you fancy plummeting into the ocean.”
The contents of the girl’s bag had been emptied into another available seat and Jake had started rummaging through it. Little jeans, hoodie, nightgown, toothbrush, stuffed bunny, plastic unicorn… Nothing of any real use. He turned the pink rucksack upside down and shook it.
Something small and silver bounced across the floor and landed at Jack’s feet. The captain leaned over and picked up the sonic screwdriver, turning it over in his hand before looking back over at the team huddled in the corner.
“The pony has a magnet in its foot.” Jake offered, holding the unicorn out to Tish.
“Oh? And are you offering to hold it to her neck for the next seventeen hours?” The woman rolled her eyes. Slipping the small purple jacket off their stowaway, she put two fingers under Lily’s collar and felt for a tiny bump where her neck met her right shoulder. “It’s not on yet. They don’t know she’s gone.”
Martha moved closer to them and looked over Tish’s shoulder. “Does she have some sort of tracking device or something?”
“She’s been registered since she was two weeks old.” James stated, as if that explained everything. He looked over at Tish and motioned for her to leave the girl alone. “Just let her sleep. We’ll figure something out.”
“Who wants to hold the magnet while we think?” Jake offered the unicorn out to anyone who would take it.
Jack stepped forward, wiggling the sonic screwdriver. “I bet her dad could do something.”
“What could I do?” The Doctor leaned casually against the door frame of the little sitting room area. He wasn’t exactly wanting to step into the tiny room. Five adults had it crowded enough, a sixth would just made it a bit too snug.
“I have a GPS tracker that needs to be disabled.” James answered matter-of-factly. He hadn’t been too pleased with the turn of events today, but if the Doctor was anything like Rose had described, he would likely have an idea of what to do about problem number one.
Always willing to do anything involving technology, the Doctor plucked his specs out of his pocket and strode through the other to get a good look at what had their attention. He was mildly surprised to find his sleeping daughter in the middle of this.
Turning back to the blond man he had met this morning, the time lord asked, “What GPS tracker?”
James gently moved Lily. Drawing the collar of her t-shirt away, he pointed to a tiny raised bump on the little girl’s neck. “ID chip.”
The Doctor’s expression had stiffened when he looked back at the other man. “Why has my child been fitted with an ID chip?”
“Because she is your child.” Tish quipped, before thinking about what she was saying. Sure Rose joked about it, but the truth was far more serious. “It is standard procedure for Other registration.”
A shiver ran down her spine when she caught a glimpse of the rage in his eyes.
“Others?” He tried to keep his voice light. Invasive procedures for the purpose of registration were not something he ever felt comfortable with.
“Anyone not fully human.” Jake piped in. “Anyone with alien blood is required to visit the registration office every year.”
“Lily has to be taken every six months.” James spoke grimly, his eyes communicating to the Doctor how much he did not approve of the organization’s actions. “She fascinates them.”
The Doctor hunched over his little girl, contemplating what his best plan of action should be. “It’s a tracking device, right? Does it have any other function outside of tracking and identification?”
“The ones we have been able to study don’t do much else, but we were only able to get our hands on those years back. I do know that Lily has had hers upgraded twice.” Tish commented, trying to be as helpful as she could. She didn’t know much about it, but any information was better than no information. “With all the money and power Solomon’s got, God only knows what sort of technology they are implanting now.”
Nodding, the time lord reset the screwdriver and directed it toward the spot he’d been shown. He fought the urge to just cut the skin and rip the damned thing out. Such an action could have plenty of fallout. If someone were monitoring her, a sudden loss of data would send up a huge red flag.
“Pulse… blood oxygen levels… Really nothing more than just general statistics.” He stated before changing to another setting and pressing the glowing tip to his daughter’s skin.
The little girl’s eyes flashed open in surprise at the sudden deep vibration. She jumped back and away for the abrupt intrusion.
“Oh! Hello. Sorry. I should have woken you before I did that.”
Lily blinked at him for a moment before straining her neck at an awkward angle in an attempt to see the back of her shoulder. “Did you make it stop?”
“Make it stop?” He crouched down so he was at her eye level.
“Did you make it stop watching me?” She scratched at her shoulder a moment. The thought of the thing made her itch. She didn’t like. She’d never liked it.
Her dad shook his head. “Not yet. But no one can find you with it now, OK?”
“OK.” She looked past him at the other curious faces watching her. She’d known most of them for her entire life. But they were all so close at the same time. Their fear and worry was making her uncomfortable. Sliding farther back in her seat, Lily looked down at her shoes. She should have stayed at home. That was where she was supposed to be anyway.
And with that thought, came a very important question.
“Am I in trouble?”
*****
The Doctor glanced back into the sitting area. His gaze focusing particularly on the tiny little girl that was enjoying the attention she was now receiving. She was giggling as a story Jack was telling her. Likely the one about meeting her mum while she was hanging from a barrage balloon. He smiled at her bright face. Her grin was so much like her mother’s but he could see a lot of himself in her as well.
Turning back to James, his expression sobered. “Okay. I want to know who this Solomon is.”
“Not who. What.” James leaned back against the worktop of the kitchenette, crossing his arms over his chest. “Solomon is not a person. Solomon is an organization.”
“What sort of organization?” The first thoughts through the time lord’s head were things along the lines of the Torchwood he had known back in the other world. Power mad and dangerous.
“Rose said there is a Torchwood in your world. But here we have the ‘Big Three’. Torchwood, Special Other Forces, and Solomon.” He counted them off on his fingers as he spoke. “Torchwood came about much the same as your own. Special Other Forces is purely American. But the oldest and largest is Solomon. They have branches all over the globe. But their headquarters is situated in Rome.”
“That explains the Italian.” The Doctor commented.
“Yeah. ‘Know your enemy’ and all that.” James glanced over at the little doorway that shut off the bedroom from the rest of the passenger areas. “Basically they have wriggled their fingers into the fabrics of every governing body on the planet. So they basically run everything.”
“Ah. And they are the ones who don’t like ‘Others’?” He tried to keep his mind on the conversation at hand, but James’s body language spoke volumes about a completely different subject. The man kept shuffling uncomfortably unwilling to meet his gaze. There was something he didn’t want to talk about.
“Not just that. They are interested in reclaiming the human race.” James kept his eyes on the coffee pot, trying ever so hard not to meet the other man’s eyes.
James felt sick. There were things he’d done in the past he did not want to share with this man. But something about the way the Doctor’s eyes bore into him left him feeling open, as if his entire life were laid bare before him. All he could see when he looked at the other man were the things he was ashamed of.
“Okay. Wait.” The Doctor raised his hands up as if that would make the motions cease. This whole avoidance thing was beginning to frustrate him. He just wanted answers the the question at hand, not anything else, right now. “Could you stop that?”
“Stop what?”
“The whole guilty school boy thing. Look me in the eye. You are an adult. Act like it. I’m not here to judge you. I’m not some Solomon operative sent here to infiltrate your unit. I am just wanting to know what I am dealing with here.”
The two were interrupted by a voice from the bedroom. The Doctor answered to his name and skipped over to the door before turning abruptly back to the blond man staring at his shoes. “It's because you slept with her, isn't?”
James’s head shot up and he stammered some incomprehensible gibberish that sounded something like an apology.
“I told her ‘impossible’.” The Doctor shrugged and slipped through the open door.
James was just barely able to make out a cheerful chirp of ‘good morning’ before the door shut again.
He stared at the door, dumbfounded. This wasn’t how he had imagined this would come out. He had expected some sort of jealous rage some show of passion or aggression. The man Rose had described in her stories was always after anyone who had hurt her. That he was always wary of anyone who looked too fondly at her.
Rose mentioned her husband so often, almost unknowingly, that it had felt like a sort of betrayal when she did go home with him those few times.
He felt even guiltier for stealing her time away from her daughter. She was only able to spend such a little amount of quality time with her little girl, that even the tiniest fraction of a minute was precious.
The fact that the Doctor hadn’t even made a big deal about it bothered him even more. He’d shrugged as if he expected as much. As if he thought, ‘Oh, she’s human. Humans have a strong sex drive’.
It was only a few moments before the wild brown head popped back out.
“Now, that doesn’t mean you have my permission to do it again. Rose is off limits. Now, she’s a big girl and can make her own choices, but you...you have my warning.” He pointed an accusatory finger before withdrawing it and slipping back into the room.
“Right.” The dark head appeared again with a smile on his face. “If you would be so kind as to ask Miss Martha Jones to come back here, I would very much appreciate it.”
Chapter Seven >>
*.*.*.*.*
Author’s Note: Okay, I am not going to give any more deadlines for the upcoming chapters. I always seem to be off by a number of days. But I am working on getting the next chapter finished.
All questions, comments and happy thoughts welcomed.
Characters: Ten, Rose, Martha, Jack, Mickey, and more Tylers than you can shake a stick at.
Rating: PG-13
Beta:
rachelbeannSpoilers: Through Series Three.
Disclaimer: Only the story and a few characters belong to me. The rest belongs to these nice people.
Summary: Upon trying to return Jack to his team, the TARDIS falls through a crack in reality, taking her pilot to the woman he loves. But could his very arrival tear her world apart?
Previous Chapters
At least he’d been able to close the wounds he had inflicted upon her in the minimal time they’d had before leaving Torchwood One. He’d even gotten to the wound on her leg; though, Rose refused to tell him how she’d come to have a bullet hole in her thigh.
Chapter Six
Rose rested her head against the Doctor’s shoulder as she drifted in an out of consciousness. He had only given her a small dose of sedative. Just enough to keep her from kicking him in the face when he made use of the field model dermal regenerator. That thing felt more like it was burning a hole through your flesh, rather than healing the wound. But the sedative combined with her utter exhaustion, had incapacitated Rose.
At least he’d been able to close the wounds he had inflicted upon her in the minimal time they’d had before leaving Torchwood One. He’d even gotten to the wound on her leg; though, Rose refused to tell him how she’d come to have a bullet hole in her thigh. The shoulder would have to wait though. He’d only had about twenty minutes to work before they were herded back to the van. Hopefully the battery would hold long enough for him to do something about it during the flight.
Meanwhile, Rose’s head bobbled against his arm as she sleepily drooled on him.
Jake’s head popped up over the front passenger’s seat. He studied the blonde’s unconscious state. “So, have you killed our boss, then?”
“Sedative.” The Doctor murmured, brushing a stray hair from Rose’s face, his eyes never leaving her.
“She probably needed it.” He smiled, a sad, knowing smile. “I have honestly begun to wonder when she sleeps. It’s like she’d never off duty.”
Like the others on the team, Jake had begun to wonder how much longer it would be until Rose finally broke. She was in a precarious state as it was. Everyday was a constant battle against the supposed inevitable.
Martha looked to the woman on her right. Her skin was sort of grey. She had dark circles under her eyes, and generally looked beyond worn out. “Jackie said she didn’t take much time off, even after Lily was born.”
James scoffed from the front seat. “I don’t think she had even been out of hospital a week before she came back.”
“Yeah.” Jake agreed. “And she’s been going non-stop ever since.”
Rose snuggled closer to the Doctor, slipping under the arm she had been clinging to. He wrapped both arms around her as if his embrace could protect her. As if he could save her from herself.
The woman he’d known hated that she had hardly ever seen her mother when she was growing up. Jackie was always working, trying to keep things together. Rose had adamantly told him that she had never wanted to do that to her children if she ever had any. Yet, from all the things he had witnessed today, she was doing just what she swore she never would. Her job had consumed her life and taken her away from her child.
“Why?” He wanted nothing more than to know the reason she would go against her promise to herself.
“Solomon wants to keep her busy.” James stated as he stopped the van on the runway. The other van with Trish, Jack and the gear pulled up right beside them. Cutting off the engine, he climbed out and said a few words to the man who stood waiting for them.
Coaxing Rose’s arms around his neck, the Doctor pulled her across the seat and gently lifted her out. She sleepily sniffed his neck and mumbled something about him smelling good. He smiled and hoisted her into a more manageable position.
“Looks like we have a stowaway.” Jake called when he opened the back of the van to unload their equipment.
The Doctor stopped his progression to the waiting jet and turned back in time to see the other man lift one tiny girl and her over stuffed rucksack over his shoulder.
“Someone will be looking for her later.” Jake laughed and adjusted his little burden so he could pick up one of the cases with his free hand.
Rolling his eyes at the sight of his sleeping daughter, the Doctor shook his head. Just like her mother. Tell her to stay put and she is sure to ignore you and do exactly as she pleases. She was not willing to be left behind, and was more than clever enough to know how to manage it.
*****
Victor shuffled through the pile of papers and forms to be filed away. He really hated doing this sort of thing. What he really needed was a new secretary. He really wished Lynda hadn’t been removed so quickly. He would have liked having a replacement hired and trained before she left.
All the regulations and paperwork required to hire someone was beyond tiresome. Sometimes he really wished he signed up to work for a sort of secret, but very closed off organization.
He glanced out his door, leaning back in his chair, he could barely see into the conference room. Of course it was empty. He’d sent Rose and her team off on another mission again. It was something he really hadn’t wanted to do. The blonde had been beyond exhausted when she and her team had checked out last night, and he had really just planned to tell her to stay home today. Last thing he needed was to have his best agent out of commission again.
She really had looked awful this morning. Probably only got a few short hours of sleep. And when that tall brown stranger had ‘borrowed’ her for a moment to look at some unreported injuries, he had returned with her fast asleep in his arms.
Rose Tyler was definitely not in the best of conditions to be doing what she had been sent to do.
But when he received the phone call this morning, he couldn’t say no. His job hung in a precarious balance as it was. If he refused a direct order from Rome, there was every chance that he would face a similar fate to Lynda. The inquisition was three times as harsh as they had been just a few short years ago. After what happened in Japan, any deviance from Solomon’s master plan was viewed with the utmost suspicion.
It wasn’t unusual that Rose was requested personally for some job that Solomon wanted her for. It actually happened at least one a month, but the fact that one Father Juliano Colgui had phoned her personally, made him a bit uneasy.
Something was beginning. Victor could feel it. It was something that could threatened to tear the very fabric of Torchwood apart.
*****
Jack examined the contents of yet another cupboard. This one held a rather well stocked mini bar. When he had heard ‘private jet’, he had assumed something old a pieced back together with uncomfortable seats. Something the Torchwood he ran would be able to afford for frequent flights, not that they owned a jet, but if they did.
When they stepped onboard and he had seen all the fine wood and leather, he had been more than a little jealous. “Better building, better transport, better everything. How do you afford all of it?”
But no one was listening to him. The Doctor had taken Rose back to the bedroom to lay her down. A jet with a bedroom. This had to have been something made for a diplomat or someone of that sort. Not a troop of alien hunters. The three remaining members of Rose’s team were hovering over her daughter, who they had sat in a seat in the corner.
Martha stood off to the side, like him, watching them.
“Don’t we have a distorter somewhere?” Tish asked.
James shook his head. “Even if we did, I can’t use it until we are back on the ground. That is unless you fancy plummeting into the ocean.”
The contents of the girl’s bag had been emptied into another available seat and Jake had started rummaging through it. Little jeans, hoodie, nightgown, toothbrush, stuffed bunny, plastic unicorn… Nothing of any real use. He turned the pink rucksack upside down and shook it.
Something small and silver bounced across the floor and landed at Jack’s feet. The captain leaned over and picked up the sonic screwdriver, turning it over in his hand before looking back over at the team huddled in the corner.
“The pony has a magnet in its foot.” Jake offered, holding the unicorn out to Tish.
“Oh? And are you offering to hold it to her neck for the next seventeen hours?” The woman rolled her eyes. Slipping the small purple jacket off their stowaway, she put two fingers under Lily’s collar and felt for a tiny bump where her neck met her right shoulder. “It’s not on yet. They don’t know she’s gone.”
Martha moved closer to them and looked over Tish’s shoulder. “Does she have some sort of tracking device or something?”
“She’s been registered since she was two weeks old.” James stated, as if that explained everything. He looked over at Tish and motioned for her to leave the girl alone. “Just let her sleep. We’ll figure something out.”
“Who wants to hold the magnet while we think?” Jake offered the unicorn out to anyone who would take it.
Jack stepped forward, wiggling the sonic screwdriver. “I bet her dad could do something.”
“What could I do?” The Doctor leaned casually against the door frame of the little sitting room area. He wasn’t exactly wanting to step into the tiny room. Five adults had it crowded enough, a sixth would just made it a bit too snug.
“I have a GPS tracker that needs to be disabled.” James answered matter-of-factly. He hadn’t been too pleased with the turn of events today, but if the Doctor was anything like Rose had described, he would likely have an idea of what to do about problem number one.
Always willing to do anything involving technology, the Doctor plucked his specs out of his pocket and strode through the other to get a good look at what had their attention. He was mildly surprised to find his sleeping daughter in the middle of this.
Turning back to the blond man he had met this morning, the time lord asked, “What GPS tracker?”
James gently moved Lily. Drawing the collar of her t-shirt away, he pointed to a tiny raised bump on the little girl’s neck. “ID chip.”
The Doctor’s expression had stiffened when he looked back at the other man. “Why has my child been fitted with an ID chip?”
“Because she is your child.” Tish quipped, before thinking about what she was saying. Sure Rose joked about it, but the truth was far more serious. “It is standard procedure for Other registration.”
A shiver ran down her spine when she caught a glimpse of the rage in his eyes.
“Others?” He tried to keep his voice light. Invasive procedures for the purpose of registration were not something he ever felt comfortable with.
“Anyone not fully human.” Jake piped in. “Anyone with alien blood is required to visit the registration office every year.”
“Lily has to be taken every six months.” James spoke grimly, his eyes communicating to the Doctor how much he did not approve of the organization’s actions. “She fascinates them.”
The Doctor hunched over his little girl, contemplating what his best plan of action should be. “It’s a tracking device, right? Does it have any other function outside of tracking and identification?”
“The ones we have been able to study don’t do much else, but we were only able to get our hands on those years back. I do know that Lily has had hers upgraded twice.” Tish commented, trying to be as helpful as she could. She didn’t know much about it, but any information was better than no information. “With all the money and power Solomon’s got, God only knows what sort of technology they are implanting now.”
Nodding, the time lord reset the screwdriver and directed it toward the spot he’d been shown. He fought the urge to just cut the skin and rip the damned thing out. Such an action could have plenty of fallout. If someone were monitoring her, a sudden loss of data would send up a huge red flag.
“Pulse… blood oxygen levels… Really nothing more than just general statistics.” He stated before changing to another setting and pressing the glowing tip to his daughter’s skin.
The little girl’s eyes flashed open in surprise at the sudden deep vibration. She jumped back and away for the abrupt intrusion.
“Oh! Hello. Sorry. I should have woken you before I did that.”
Lily blinked at him for a moment before straining her neck at an awkward angle in an attempt to see the back of her shoulder. “Did you make it stop?”
“Make it stop?” He crouched down so he was at her eye level.
“Did you make it stop watching me?” She scratched at her shoulder a moment. The thought of the thing made her itch. She didn’t like. She’d never liked it.
Her dad shook his head. “Not yet. But no one can find you with it now, OK?”
“OK.” She looked past him at the other curious faces watching her. She’d known most of them for her entire life. But they were all so close at the same time. Their fear and worry was making her uncomfortable. Sliding farther back in her seat, Lily looked down at her shoes. She should have stayed at home. That was where she was supposed to be anyway.
And with that thought, came a very important question.
“Am I in trouble?”
*****
The Doctor glanced back into the sitting area. His gaze focusing particularly on the tiny little girl that was enjoying the attention she was now receiving. She was giggling as a story Jack was telling her. Likely the one about meeting her mum while she was hanging from a barrage balloon. He smiled at her bright face. Her grin was so much like her mother’s but he could see a lot of himself in her as well.
Turning back to James, his expression sobered. “Okay. I want to know who this Solomon is.”
“Not who. What.” James leaned back against the worktop of the kitchenette, crossing his arms over his chest. “Solomon is not a person. Solomon is an organization.”
“What sort of organization?” The first thoughts through the time lord’s head were things along the lines of the Torchwood he had known back in the other world. Power mad and dangerous.
“Rose said there is a Torchwood in your world. But here we have the ‘Big Three’. Torchwood, Special Other Forces, and Solomon.” He counted them off on his fingers as he spoke. “Torchwood came about much the same as your own. Special Other Forces is purely American. But the oldest and largest is Solomon. They have branches all over the globe. But their headquarters is situated in Rome.”
“That explains the Italian.” The Doctor commented.
“Yeah. ‘Know your enemy’ and all that.” James glanced over at the little doorway that shut off the bedroom from the rest of the passenger areas. “Basically they have wriggled their fingers into the fabrics of every governing body on the planet. So they basically run everything.”
“Ah. And they are the ones who don’t like ‘Others’?” He tried to keep his mind on the conversation at hand, but James’s body language spoke volumes about a completely different subject. The man kept shuffling uncomfortably unwilling to meet his gaze. There was something he didn’t want to talk about.
“Not just that. They are interested in reclaiming the human race.” James kept his eyes on the coffee pot, trying ever so hard not to meet the other man’s eyes.
James felt sick. There were things he’d done in the past he did not want to share with this man. But something about the way the Doctor’s eyes bore into him left him feeling open, as if his entire life were laid bare before him. All he could see when he looked at the other man were the things he was ashamed of.
“Okay. Wait.” The Doctor raised his hands up as if that would make the motions cease. This whole avoidance thing was beginning to frustrate him. He just wanted answers the the question at hand, not anything else, right now. “Could you stop that?”
“Stop what?”
“The whole guilty school boy thing. Look me in the eye. You are an adult. Act like it. I’m not here to judge you. I’m not some Solomon operative sent here to infiltrate your unit. I am just wanting to know what I am dealing with here.”
The two were interrupted by a voice from the bedroom. The Doctor answered to his name and skipped over to the door before turning abruptly back to the blond man staring at his shoes. “It's because you slept with her, isn't?”
James’s head shot up and he stammered some incomprehensible gibberish that sounded something like an apology.
“I told her ‘impossible’.” The Doctor shrugged and slipped through the open door.
James was just barely able to make out a cheerful chirp of ‘good morning’ before the door shut again.
He stared at the door, dumbfounded. This wasn’t how he had imagined this would come out. He had expected some sort of jealous rage some show of passion or aggression. The man Rose had described in her stories was always after anyone who had hurt her. That he was always wary of anyone who looked too fondly at her.
Rose mentioned her husband so often, almost unknowingly, that it had felt like a sort of betrayal when she did go home with him those few times.
He felt even guiltier for stealing her time away from her daughter. She was only able to spend such a little amount of quality time with her little girl, that even the tiniest fraction of a minute was precious.
The fact that the Doctor hadn’t even made a big deal about it bothered him even more. He’d shrugged as if he expected as much. As if he thought, ‘Oh, she’s human. Humans have a strong sex drive’.
It was only a few moments before the wild brown head popped back out.
“Now, that doesn’t mean you have my permission to do it again. Rose is off limits. Now, she’s a big girl and can make her own choices, but you...you have my warning.” He pointed an accusatory finger before withdrawing it and slipping back into the room.
“Right.” The dark head appeared again with a smile on his face. “If you would be so kind as to ask Miss Martha Jones to come back here, I would very much appreciate it.”
Chapter Seven >>
*.*.*.*.*
Author’s Note: Okay, I am not going to give any more deadlines for the upcoming chapters. I always seem to be off by a number of days. But I am working on getting the next chapter finished.
All questions, comments and happy thoughts welcomed.
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:57 am (UTC)So Soloman is an organisation,really didn't see that one coming.Its awful what they have put Lily through not to mention Rose.I kind of expected the Doctor to get jealous about the fact that James slept with Rose but he didn't,I guess the warning thats she's off limits kind of makes up for it.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 03:57 pm (UTC)Thank you for commenting.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 09:19 am (UTC)I can beta if you like.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 04:00 pm (UTC)Thank you, I will put your name down. Any preference?
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Date: 2008-01-31 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-13 04:24 am (UTC)You are not too far off with the idea of witch hunts. Burnings... not so much since medieval times.
Sunshine
Date: 2010-09-21 03:44 am (UTC)Re: Sunshine
Date: 2010-09-21 04:02 am (UTC)Actually, I crossed over a few fandoms in this while I was writing it. As I got farther in, I tried to tone some things down, given Robin McKinley's request of no fanfiction, which I hadn't thought of before. If the dragons remind you of Dragonhaven, there might be a reason.
Glad you're enjoying it.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-14 07:00 am (UTC)