Love and Paradox
Art by idontlikegravy (LJ | e-mail | comment)
Chapter Two: Tea V Coffee
Mickey sat in the passenger seat of Ianto's car. They used it for stakeouts as it wouldn't do to have a huge SUV with Torchwood's name emblazoned on the side! Some secret organisation: at least the other world's Torchwood was public and he had even appeared on TV defending their clear-up rate of the Cybus factories!
Mickey shuffled down to a comfy position. They were watching a drug dealer's house that had just started to distribute an alien drug. They weren't interested in him, however much a scumbag, but in his supplier. Once they were done they would leave the dealer to the plods. The driver's door opened and Veronica got in armed with tea for him and coffee for her. His nose wrinkled at the bitter smell; the one thing Mickey Smith and the Doctor agreed on was the supremacy of tea!
"Tea, serviette, stirrer, sugar; just how much does one man need for his hot beverage?"
"Well you take your coffee black but I like a little milk and a little sugar in my tea. Nothing wrong with that!" Yawned Mickey.
"Except tea is foul! Well coffee isn't much better but it's drinkable and the caffeine has the desired effect!" Spat out Veronica not without a little irony.
"So what do they drink in the future?"
"Some still drink tea, would you believe..." sighed Veronica.
"I do!"
"And fewer drink coffee; my foster parents actually drank tea, oceans of it..."
"Foster parents?" Mickey quirked an eyebrow, his curiosity peaked.
"I'm a foundling. The distant colony I was born on, was attacked when I was an infant, everyone, including my biological parents, was killed: unless you were under six. Somehow the aggressors felt that if you preserve the future generation then it isn't genocide which technically is true. I was found and then placed with my foster parents. They were friends of my biological parents, they lived on the Earth Moon Station; as they were both biologists.." Veronica's voice was flat, factual, like a newsreader, not someone describing their own childhood!
"Were you happy?" Mickey wasn't sure how she could have been.
"Yes, I suppose, I was. School was rudimentary for someone of my talents but at twelve I was put on a gifted child program and sent to Mars for the rest of my education. The Time Agency waited in the wings and recruited me on gradation." Veronica remained staring ahead, she really didn't seem comfortable at all.
"What did you study?" Mickey changed the subject and watched Veronica relax.
"You would call it quantum mechanics." She turned to look at him with a smile.
"And what would you call it?"
"Time and dimensional theorem."
"Ah!" Mickey really couldn't be doing with all that! He glazed over when the geeks and boffins started twittering on...
"It's not as complicated as it sounds and there is nothing like personal experience which you have; unlike so many of your era!" Mickey shifted in his seat keeping his eyes on the house, which is why they were here after all.
"And Jack? He doesn't strike me as the 'boffin' type!"
"He was recruited to be a soldier. They severely underestimated him though, considering they knew what he could become..."
"Could?" Mickey glanced back at Veronica, puzzled.
"The Time Vortex is in constant flux very little is set in stone. Jack could have just died, that first time, and stayed dead." Mickey glanced at her from the corner of his eye. She had a strong profile, which was unexpected, as for all her height and severe hairdo's her face was feminine.
"It's saying stuff like that that makes my head hurt." Moaned Mickey.
"But you have done it! You have skipped across galaxies and eras, you have lived in a parallel world and returned. You know only too well the effect of choosing to stay in on a Friday night, for once, then when you switch on the news and see the club you would normally go to; up in flames." Mickey swallowed how the hell did she know? The fire that had killed Jake. He had refused to go to that 'bloody gay club' yet again. He had hurt Jake then lost him. "I know lots of things; recently I've been able to look into to the time vortex. Really read the timelines and help manage them a lot better. Something stopped and the legend of the Time Lords was born and with that vortex slipped into unmanaged chaos. We are regaining control." Veronica seemed to answer the very question he was thinking...
"Is that why you are here to contact the last Time Lord, the Doctor?" Veronica glanced at him. She hadn't been expecting that, so perhaps to her the Doctor was just a rumour too.
"Maybe. Our fates are so hard to pin down except Jack's of course. We all spin creating paradox as we go and Jack is just still, utterly, perfectly still."
"So he could be the key?" Veronica smiled a long cat like smile, baring teeth over her lips, ever so slightly.
"See, Mickey, you do understand so much more than you give your self credit for!"
"Maybe..." Mickey rested his head against the cool window and closed his eyes for a second.
He had run to the club as soon as he has seen the news. He had become part of the crowd craning their necks watching the bodies being taken out.One of the fire exits had been blocked; all those who died had been ushered there by one of the security men. They had made their way back when they realised; but it had been too late the fire had been too strong and the smoke had overcome them. Jake forever the soldier, who would never surrender, died in a club with his lungs full of smoke. It all came out at the inquest. There were fines and prison sentences but eleven people had died and were still dead. He could look for Jake in this world, he had been tempted to do so, but what if this Jake was not gay, was not his Jake? Mickey had to bite his lip. He must not cry.
"I grieved for Jack." Veronica suddenly stated.
"You had to wipe his memories?"
"Yes. He would have gone mad if he remembered. Or so I was led to believe..."
"Why wasn't he told?" Mickey challenged.
"He ran before he could be debriefed and I missed him. John missed him."
"I've met John he's in Prague at the moment, he sent a postcard...He turned up after Martha and me first joined the team. All 'fur and no knickers', as my Gran would have said!"
"That is his mask; Jack's is his flirting."
"Yours?" Mickey smiled that was kind of obvious!
"Ice maiden!" Another thin smile crept across her face.
"Whatever gets you though the night!" Mickey sighed and sipped his tea.
On his turn to trot to the all night coffee shop, he took his time and breathed in the cool night air. There was no one about, maybe the occasional taxi, as they were near the centre, taking a few clubbers home. Thursday night was student night and Mickey could well imagine the state of the centre right now, kebabs and chips strewn around everywhere. Drunken girls in short, short skirts puking up in the gutter and boys fighting over which 'tart' to take home. Mickey sighed, it just didn't appeal to him any more, he must be getting old.
After picking up the tea and coffee he cringed at the smell. He tried to work out in his head when he decided he hated coffee. His Gran drank it on Saturdays, instant of course and only in the morning; loaded with sugar. The bitter smell meant nice things, no school, sitting with his Gran watching kiddie programs, as she called them, and laughing at the silly jokes and enjoying the pop songs of the day. As he had gotten older he had even made it for her. Never tried it though the smell had put him off even then; though it hadn't disgusted him like now. Mickey didn't know how he went from not fancying coffee to hating it...
"Any movement?" He asked as he got into the car.
"Nope." And Veronica reached out for her coffee which he placed into her hand.
"Thanks".
"So any exciting 'when I was in the Agency' stories? Jack's full of them though mostly about his conquests." Mickey was filling in time; he never believed Jack's stories, really.
"My experience at the Agency was different to Jacks." Veronica sipped her coffee staring ahead.
"But still interesting to a backward twenty-first century boy!" Veronica laughed then blew on her coffee.
"Why didn't you ever sleep with Jake?"
"I'm not gay." Shouted a shocked Mickey
"Wrong answer! Again why did you not sleep with Jake?" She turned her head and stared at Mickey; unblinking green bore into him.
"He wanted Ricky not me!" Mickey felt sick, he had said it out loud the real reason his 'relationship' with Jake had been so fucked up. Suddenly a cool hand cupped his face and turned it so they were looking into each other's eyes. They kissed, softly, and then forcefully, a need so hidden, so in denial, then suddenly Mickey pulled back
"What is that perfume?"
"51st century pheromones, a hundred years before Jack and I were born there was a crash in libido among the human race so the government put an edict on every couple that could, should bear at least four children, even if it meant forcing themselves! And then those children had an injection at puberty that made their hormones well 'super'. What they didn't realise it was actually genetic! We believe the effects will finally fade in another three generations."
"Why did the libido crash in the first place?"
"Pollution, they think. Anyway, let's get back to the task in hand!" And Veronica smiled as they leaned towards each other again; a door slammed, they jumped apart. Their target walked off ,away from them. Mickey jumped out the car and went to follow him. The taste of Veronica's lips was still tingling and teasing him.
Mickey watched the house discreetly from a corner when he heard Veronica pull the car up just behind him. He was armed but was pleased to have her company again. Her marksmanship was proven and if Gwen was to be believed she was a telepath too and perhaps their recent conversation had just confirmed that! He was beginning to like Veronica she was alone like him, out of place, although he was out of place in his own time...
He backed up and got into the car.
"A new view." Veronica pointed out.
"No coffee shop!" Mickey sighed.
"Damn." They stared at the large Victorian town house not unlike Martha's, the first floor lights were one.
"Didn't Martha say these houses often had their main reception on the first floor and many people kept the tradition?" Asked Mickey.
Veronica shrugged. He rubbed his forehead. It was so late and his head hurt, too many thoughts of Jake, Veronica had somehow gotten to the root of it; then kissed him? Was he bisexual? Becoming more like, god forbid, Captain Cheesecake? Mickey sighed and on cue the target emerged. They let him pass and then Mickey went to the house, Veronica called in back-up and then covered him.
Mickey took a deep breath and knocked. A very tall, grey looking man answered Mickey gave him no chance to speak and knocked him straight down with a swift punch and ran up the stairs. He burst into the upstairs drawing room and two reptilian creatures were sorting through packages of the drug. They started and Mickey shot the hand of one, the other went to run and Veronica clipped him with her wristband.
Gwen came charging up with Ianto just behind her.
"You've got it all under control then?" She holstered her weapon and grinned at Mickey, but the grin dropped when her eyes met Veronica's. Gwen turned and left the room.
"Sorry." Mouthed Mickey
"Not your problem." Smiled Veronica, rolling her eyes and she carried on helping Ianto accompany their prisoners to the SUV. Jack was waiting outside.
"Mickey the idiot!"
"Captain Cheesecake!" Grinned Mickey. Veronica and Ianto manhandled the prisoners into the SUV including the strange doorman. He reminded Mickey of someone but he couldn't put his finger on it. Mickey drove back with Ianto in his car. The others went with the prisoners. Suddenly there was a commotion on their Blue Tooth's. Ianto looked at Mickey in a panic and Mickey put his foot down...
Gwen stood outside the SUV, at the side of road, the reptiles dazed and confused still inside the car. Jack was enraged as he climbed out the drivers seat onto the hard shoulder and Veronica was fiddled with her Wristband, turned away from the prisoners ignoring their panicked squeaks..
"Just like Bilis! He bloody vanished with a thin smile!" Gwen explained her face red, eyes wild.
"Nothing on the Rift." Reported Veronica.
"Contact Martha she is in the Hub alone with IT!" Shouted Jack.
Ianto got on his phone when he couldn't raise her on the comms.
"Martha thank god! What is the status of Bilis...?" Ianto went silent as Martha ran to check the monitors. They all waited holding their breath. "Martha? He's still there? And the same? Good. We are on our way back now!" The group gave a united sigh of relief and jumped back into their vehicles and sped back to the Hub.
Martha was sitting at the monitor watching Bilis intently. She didn't even glance at them arriving, announced by the proximity alarm. Ianto and Veronica shifted their prisoners down to the cells and the rest gathered around Martha and looked at the frankly creepy image of Bilis silently screaming.
"We have to deal with the fact there is another, like Bilis..." Jack said quietly Mickey felt sick and glanced at Gwen. He didn't need to be an empath, telepath, whatever, to know she felt the same way.
"We have to identify what Bilis is." Martha stated, eyes still locked on the screen.
"Agreed. Mickey trawl the internet, Gwen assist. him Martha bug your contact, if there are two of them there must be some kind of history." Jack barked.
"Didn't Faith come up with anything thing?" Ianto had appeared from the cells Jack had gone a little white, who the hell was Faith?
"I'm going to pretend you didn't ask that Ianto...."
"Jack?" Gwen was looking up at him with her puppy dog eyes.
"Gwen I've given you a direct order, get on with it!"
"And what's my order Jack?" Ianto glared at him as Veronica appeared.
"You and Veronica go back to the house and see what you can find." Veronica started to leave Ianto continued to glare at Jack. Mickey watched, lovers spat? Then Ianto, in silence, turned on his heel and followed Veronica; Jack let out a long breath.
"Jack?" Gwen tried again.
"Not now." This time Jack was softer, quieter and went to his office and closed the door. Mickey was sure Gwen was going to cry.
Hours later they had found veiled references, very few, but some; mostly on scanned ancient documents. All seemed centred around Cardiff, which because of the Rift wasn't really a surprise. There was a lot about Abaddon and the End of Days. But some much older, oral stories had been recorded hundreds of years after they had started to be told around the hearths of the dark ages maybe even earlier. Bilis and his kind had been more numerous. Merlin, maybe a title rather than a name, seemed to be connected. But it was all hints and rumours no direct description, nothing conclusive.
They sat in silence in the conference room. Martha still was unlucky with UNIT though this time she felt they were holding out on her. Veronica and Ianto had found nothing useful at the house.
"Faith was unable to help other than do my cards again." Jack shifted uneasily in his chair.
"Faith?" Dared Mickey.
"Owen's future if he hadn't actually found the one thing he couldn't be protected from." Jack stated sadly.
"It is still not safe to go down there yet. For all we know he is still functioning in some form or other..." muttered Ianto.
"What? I thought Owen was dead." Mickey was shocked, although he really should know better by now.
"He was dead, but walking and talking like you or me." Explained Martha
"And Faith is more than five hundred years old!" Snapped Ianto who then shifted and glanced at Jack. This was obviously a sore point between them.
"Her longevity has given her a gift. She knows our possible futures." Jack looked down at the table sad and fallen; Mickey had never seen him so dejected. For the first time he began to understand Jack's 'condition' as the probable curse it was.
"In our time. It has been realised that all humans have certain abilities, though some more than others." Veronica was looking directly at Gwen and Ianto. They were special, he was not. "Whose to say even the most basic latent wouldn't develop such gifts over time?"
"Should we know that Jack? And could Owen be still down there alone?" Asked Gwen.
"Yes and yes!" With that Jack got up and walked out of the conference room, Ianto following him, Veronica stood up and took charge just like that.
"Mickey, Gwen, go home, go to bed; Martha a word..." Mickey and Gwen slunk out together.
"Did you bring your car today Mickey?" Gwen asked, her voice strained with tiredness. He shook his head and just like that extreme fatigue had swamped him. "I'll give you a lift as soon as I've called Andy to tip him off about the human drug dealer and get our speeding tickets cancelled!"
Mickey woke up at two pm. He staggered into the kitchen and found some not out of date milk and some cereal. He put the radio on and music he didn't recognise blared out, so he switched it off again and ate in silence. He stared at his orange tea and remembered why he really hated coffee. His Gran had spilt it on herself as she had fallen down the stairs to her death, it was all he could smell when he found her. It had been a Saturday.
Suddenly his doorbell rang. He sighed, as lonely as he was; there was a part of him that embraced it. He opened the door to Veronica standing there. She was wearing her signature coat and her hair was tied tightly back as always and Mickey felt the desire to release it. She wore just a T-shirt and jeans both bought on an over enthusiastic shopping trip with Gwen; both probably had jaw ache from all the clenched teeth!. Veronica gave a nervous smile, not one he had seen before and not one he was sure she was used to giving.
And they were kissing. His hand slipped upwards and let loose her hair. It tumbled down like a fairytale, his hand got satisfyingly lost in it. His other hand held her taller body flush to his. It was strange having to look up to kiss someone but she was firm and demanding in her kisses. Mickey pulled back. Veronica kicked off her shoes and led the way into the bedroom.
"It's been a while for me!" She whispered.
"And me!" Admitted Mickey and they kissed while pulling off each other's clothing. They somehow fell onto his bed naked and were in the act, having sex, for that was what it was, pure, fantastic sex.
Mickey was up first and as she slept he gathered up her clothes. A lot had fallen out of her coat, her mobile, a notebook, a scrunched up receipt, half a pack of Polos, an old style watch, a piece of blue tack, a lipstick, Torchwood ID. No wonder she didn't carry a bag; she wore it. All women were the same however much from the future!
He piled up the shrapnel of her life, here in the 21st century, on the side and went to make a cup of tea. Then his mobile on his table came to life hand heard Veronica's in the hall too. He looked at the screen 'Torchwood'. Seven hours sleep, then fantastic sex made for a good start. Mickey smiled he wasn't feeling so alone now.