Children in Time
Chapter 5
Jack had stepped away from the two women and Gwen, wishing he could just hide amongst the various people darting back and forth through the Plass. He let out a sigh and looked skywards a moment as he responded to Owen.
"What kind of problem? Tosh already said you had the Weevil contained." The wind curled his long greatcoat around his legs and he looked back at Gwen, catching her eye as she listened in to the conversation on her own Bluetooth.
"Yeah, well, the Weevil attacked someone in the tourist office." Owen's voice crackled over the earpiece.
Jack licked his lips and let out a sigh. This was going to be a really long day. "What state is the body in?"
"Still breathing with a very protective friend hovering nearby. She's lost a lot of blood already. I need to at least get her down to the Hub."
"Do what you need to do Owen. We have a situation of our own up here. Make sure Ianto offers the friend some coffee." Jack clicked off the earpiece and folded his arms across his chest, staring past Gwen to the two women who could see past the perception filter on the invisible lift. No one could see the lift, that was the whole point of a perception filter, no one but him, but that was because he was used to those kinds of filters and working with chameleon circuits. He cocked his head slightly to the right in thought.
Gwen dashed over to Jack. "Jack, what's going on? What are we doing with these women?"
Gwen looked back as the redhead stood up in front of the woman that had fallen and brushed off the dust from the back of her black pants. The redhead then held out a hand to the dark brunette and pulled her up from the cement slabs that encircled the fountain. The redhead adjusted the brunette's shirt and then smiled and nodded at the brunette, placing a hand on her shoulder and neck. The two turned and looked at Jack and Gwen.
Jack put his arms down to his sides and stuck his chin out. "Might as well get it over with. Come on." Jack stalked towards the redhead and brunette.
"Just what are we doing Jack," Gwen asked as she followed on his heels.
They were almost on top of the pair who had turned and were facing both of them, when a striking girl with long black hair came running up to the redhead and brunette, her skirt flapping in the breeze as she took steady strides. Her face was flushed but her breathing was regular.
"Guys, we have a problem! Wait, you don't look right, what happened," the black haired girl rambled to the other two women.
The redhead motioned with her eyes to the space behind the black haired girl. The girl turned around slowly and stepped back as she was face-to-face with Jack.
Jack held out his hand to the black haired girl. "Captain Jack Harkness, and you are?"
"Uh, Marsh, Jillian Marsh." Jillian limply took his hand and shook it and then stepped back in between the other two women. American. These women were definitely American from their speech to their mannerisms.
"Well Marsh, Jillian Marsh, what kind of problem do you have?" Jack stuck his hands into the pockets of his navy blue trousers, as he looked upon the trio.
"Um, well... Wait! What business is it of yours?" Jillian stood there, her hands on her hips, jutting out her chest, attempting to look brave, but her eyes betrayed her. She was scared, and Jack felt like he needed to know why.
"It became my business when your friend here fell on top of me."
"Because there was a hole in the ground! Who puts a hole in the middle of a public space like this!" The redhead pointed her index finger at Jack.
"Uhhh... Samantha, I don't see a hole anywhere," Jillian said as she looked around the Plass.
"It was three feet to our left," the brunette filled in as she shivered.
"It closed up already. Another thing," the redhead, who Jack assumed was known as Samantha, continued on. "What the hell was down that hole? That was a really big drop. If you had fallen, or Lynnae had fallen... it was bad enough she was looking down into that cavern."
"Wait a minute! You mean to tell me there was a height to the hole, and she looked down into it?" On the "she," Jillian spun her head towards Lynnae.
Lynnae's lower lip quivered a moment and then she put up a mask, as her blue eyes locked with Jack's. He could feel her fear wash over him, just like it did on the invisible lift. Whatever it was about heights, it scared Lynnae to the core. Jack watched as Jillian brushed Lynnae's hair back over her shoulder and then pulled Lynnae into a hug. The two women pulled apart and Lynnae looked Jillian in the eyes. Jillian nodded her head in recognition and then pulled away.
"Since you're okay, we have other things to take care of. Since you seemed to be busy, I assume you didn't get the text message from David like a minute ago." Jillian looked from Lynnae to Samantha.
"Too busy falling into a hole," Lynnae stated.
"Too busy trying to save her ass from said hole," Samantha quipped.
"Elizabeth is hurt. David said something about her getting attacked or something and blood." Jillian pulled out her mobile and flipped open the clamshell. "Elizabeth hurt. We were attacked. Too much blood, not good. Hurry."
Samantha pulled out her own mobile, an iPhone and looked at it. "Crap! We gotta go. Where were they?"
"When they left, Elizabeth wanted to go to the tourist office, and David went with her. She claimed she wanted to get some brochures. Where was that tourist office?" Lynnae grabbed up her small brown bag. Whatever residual fear from the fall that had been still affecting her was gone.
"It was over that way and down a ramp. It was closer to the water than we are," Jillian supplied. " We need to hurry."
Jack felt a chill course through his body. He didn't even need to look at Gwen to know that she had made the connection, too. These three women were related to the one that the Weevil had attacked. Such a small world, and yet it did not surprise him. This was the least of the amount of coincidences he had experienced in his long life. Jack swooped around the women, jumping in front of them.
"Excuse me? We have to go. It's been fun falling over you and stuff, but our friend needs us," Samantha said, an edge in her voice.
"We know what attacked your friend," Jack stated, hands on his hips, his coat pushed back. "Perhaps you had better come with us.