Torchwood
Jack take a deep breath, jolting upwards and trying to reorientate himself. He was in a field, that was new, and there was no one around. His hand went to the bullet hole in his chest, feeling it slowly close. Whoever shot him- he'll work on remembering that in a second- must have dumped him, not even bothering to bury him.
'How many's that now?'
Jack turns to his dæmon, stretching out a hand to stroke her neck. The German Shepard presses against his side, checking on him for wounds. He pushes her away, smiling sadly. She's not really a German Shepard but rather an evolved form of dog, one with a slightly longer tail and slightly pointier ears. Touchwood just recorded this as 'individual distinctions' and wrote her species down as a dog. He's heard her called that so often it's even made its way into his thoughts.
'Nine hundred and thirteen. You think we'd stay out of things like this.'
Buxiu chuckles, sitting down at his side. They'll move later. 'We? If I recall correctly, it's you that picks a fight with every alien this side of Glasgow.'
Jack smirks, patting her side. 'There shouldn't be any aliens any side of Glasgow. So really, it's their fault.'
She hits her tail against his arm, shaking her head. 'Yes because our charging in with no weapons and no plan is entirely their fault.'
'Glad we cleared that up.'
Buxiu grins, and Jack knows instantly what she's thinking. He grins back, the smiles escalating until they are just leering at each other, on the verge of laughing.
'You remember the place right?'
'Yes.' She smirks. 'And you know all the species and their weak spots.'
'Of course, what do you take me for?'
She laughs shortly. They are getting revenge.
'Jack wants a coffee.'
Čaj flies into the room, his tiny wings fluttering madly. Ianto holds out a hand for him to land on, the beetle instantly settling down. The two were Stretched, a requirement for working at Torchwood One, but Ianto still didn't like his dæmon going too far away. Since the Cyberman attack and Lisa's later death, Ianto gets scared whenever he can't see Čaj. It's a thing the two have learnt to deal with.
'Of course he does. Let me guess, he's waiting for us to bring it up?'
The beetle laughed, flying to the doors again. He rolls his eyes, turning back to Ianto. 'No one else is around, I'm thinking you're right. He even sent the other three off on rather stupid missions, just to get them out of the Hub.'
Ianto shakes his head, smiling at Jack's lame attempts to flirt with him. The american probably thinks he's being very sly and sexy but having to work Torchwood's broken old coffee machine takes any kind of fun out of the flirtation. Ianto hits the side of the machine, sighing when only the smallest fraction of milk comes out. It's lucky both Jack and Owen like their coffee and tea almost black and Tosh normally brings in her own milk. It means Ianto and Gwen are the only ones to suffer the terribleness of Torchwood Three's coffee machine.
'Think we can convince Jack to put more money to the coffee budget?'
His dæmon shrugs. 'I have think we can convince Jack to do anything if we ask at the right time.'
'Yes but that time is normally when we're distracted.'
Čaj laughs, moving to his shoulder and hitting the man's collarbone. 'Come on. If we don't go, Jack'll come down and be naked.'
Ianto laughs.
Borac shakes his head, looking down at the paperwork they had. The bee had thought, when joining Torchwood, that the workload would decrease, that it would be all gunfights and aliens, action and adventure, but they had had no such luck. Of course, the new girl had to deal with everybody else's work as well.
'This is going to take forever.'
Gwen rolls her eyes, ticking off the last section of the page. She turns the document over, glaring at page eighteen out of twenty six, as if it personally existed to annoy her. 'Why d'you think Owen gave it to us? This is bloody ridiculous.'
Borac lands on her hand, glowering at the pen she holds. 'Lets leave. Jack doesn't care if we fill it out and no one else will even look at it.'
Gwen pauses, smirking at him. She glances once more at the paper, randomly ticking off different boxes, to see if anyone notices. Pulling on her coat and grabbing her dæmon, she grins. 'Let's go home.'
She grabs her bag, heading for the exit. Jack looks out from his office. 'Gwen, when can I get that work in?'
Gwen shrugs. 'I have no idea. I've got to read through it a couple more times but I've really got to run. See you Monday.'
'See you Monday.' Jack smiles, as if she hasn't just casually taken the weekend off. Maybe he's taken the weekend off and not told her. Either way, she isn't going in.
'Ianto does it all the time, Jack doesn't care.' Borac scowls.
'Ianto takes time off to spend it with his family.' Gwen points out. 'And I'm pretty sure he books it off months in advance.'
Borac scowl drops as they turn the corner, nearing home. 'Well we need time off too.'
He used to love his dæmon.
'Some sort of poison, obviously. But how does poison get straight into the bloodstream-'
'Lij...'
'-I mean, there's no trace of it in his liver, or his throat so it can't have been ingested. But there's none on his skin either, so it wasn't absorbed-'
'Lij.'
'-So it must have been injected, but we found no wound so-'
'Lij!' Owen shouts, glaring at his dæmon. Liječnik, leaning against the dead body, jumps, falling off the table. Owen rolls his eyes, making sure she hasn't marked the body. The lizard shakes her head, rushing up Owen's leg to get another look.
'But seriously.' Lij says, hitting her tail against the back of his head. 'How can there be poison in his blood but not anywhere else?'
He flicks her tail, scowling. 'Like you said, it's got to be a wound.'
She digs her claws into his shoulder as he inspects the body. 'I checked everywhere, no wound.'
'Really?' Owen said, and showing her the guy's fingers. Just beneath the nail is a minuscule hole. 'What's this then?'
Liječnik bit her man's ear.
A year later he doesn't have a dæmon. Most people don't notice because lots of people have tiny dæmons that hide themselves. The team notices though, looks at him with pity because his little lizard soul is gone. He wonders what that says about him, if he doesn't have a soul.
Buxiu is scared of him now but Pametan isn't. Pametan is the only dæmon who doesn't shy away from him. In fact, the monkey sometimes jumps on his back, with no reaction from Tosh. That just proves how broken he is.
He's lost his dæmon, who he used to joke with. And if he can't die, he won't even see her again.
Toshiko types on her computer, programming a new algorithm into the system. Beside her, on a different machine, Pametan is pulling out the wiring, trying to find the problem with the monitor. The monkey pinches his face up, glaring at the wires.
'Not working?' Tosh says, not even looking up from her typing. Her fingers seem to move faster than her brain, the correct symbols lighting up before Tosh even looks at them. 'Have you tried creating a parallel circuit to redirect the current?'
'Of course.' Pametan says, turning his scowl in her direction. 'It was the first thing I did. It almost blew up on me, I barely stopped it. I'm trying to add in multiple parallel circuits, at once and change the current to alternating. Hopefully that will make it easier to see the problem.'
Tosh laughed, her eyes narrowing slightly at the monitor. The virus blocker she installed months ago was being fussy, fighting against the new algorithm like a petulant child. Tosh, removing one hand the keyboard briefly to stroke Pametan's back, rolls her eyes when she spots the solution, easily overcoming the first obstacle. Her dæmon cheers next to her, looking up.
'Done?' She says, typing in the next bit of code.
'Done.' He laughs, jumping into her arms to read over the code she's written. 'Looks good but if we rewrite the virus blocker, this would be so much easier.'
'Why don't you start on that?' She says, adjusting her glasses slightly. 'If we do it simultaneously, the solution should appear twice as fast.'
He rolls his eyes, jumping down again and moving to another computer. Liječnik waves at him from the next table over.
'Alright then, Toshiko.' He says, bowing his head to stop himself blushing at the lizard. 'Let's get to work.'
'No hard feelings, love.'
John has turned around before the alien hit the ground. The gender-less being thought they could trust him, thought the two had a connection and it had made it infinitely times easier to con and betray them. Flertovati hadn't even had to do anything, because the alien had no dæmon to speak of. It was pitiful.
'If they had one, they might not have been so easy to trick. Stop complaining.'
The parakeet-like-creature on John's shoulder is quick to hit his head, hurting more than it should because of Vati's triple layered wings. He shakes his head, running one hand over her chest and smirking. She tilts her head up, seemingly torn between liking the sensation and wanting to still criticise him. Theirs is a relationship torn between love and hate, one they both know well. They project it on every other lasting relationship they have.
'Oh, like it would be difficult either way. You're just annoyed you had nothing to do.'
Vati inclines her head the tiniest fraction. Normally, she would charm the dæmon so well the alien couldn't even concentrate on what John was doing. The dæmon was normally the only thing that saw through their schemes because they could see Vati clearly. It meant she had to be very good at her job.
'Well the next one better have a dæmon. I don't want to get the loot without doing anything.'
John smirks more, pressing his vortex manipulator and disappearing.
Rhys watches as Gwen gets off the phone, grabbing her jacket and gun, heading for the door. Borac flies to land on Običan's head, saying goodbye as Gwen shouts the same thing before the two are out the house. Borac barely makes it through the door as Gwen slams it shut.
'Have a good day.' Rhys says to the door. His donkey dæmon shakes her head, moving to sit closer to him. He pats her side, grabbing the remote. He can't remember what they were watching and the remote was jogged on Gwen's way out. She had jumped up as soon as she got the call.
'Don't start.' Običan chuckles, batting her head against his knee. 'Gwen enjoys her job.'
'I know, I know.' Rhys complains, glaring at her. 'Its just annoying sometimes, alright. It's supposed to be her night off, we were supposed to be going out.'
'And we will.' She smiles, as always more optimistic than him. 'Gwen will finish at work, meet us here and we'll go out. You'll see.'
Rhys finally lands on a program that has nothing to do with cops, mystery or aliens. It seems that every time Gwen goes to work those shows come on in full force. He stares at the television for a second before talking. 'Obi?'
'Yeah, Rhys?'
'You do know we were meant to go out an hour ago, right.'
'Of course I do, Rhys. Now shut up.'
He laughs, letting his hand rest on her head. 'Bloody Torchwood.'