Managing Change: Chapter 2
Nov. 21st, 2010 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galadriel1010Title: Managing Change
Chapter Title: Chapter 2
Challenge/Fest:
Prompt:
Rating: T
Dedication: To everyone I've NaNo-ed with in the past or present.
Summary: A NaNoWriMo novel charting the rise of Yvonne Hartman and her professional relationship with Jack Harkness and Torchwood Three. Eventual Jack/Ianto
Characters: Jack Harkness, Yvonne Hartman, OCs as they occur, Ianto Jones, probably the Doctor.
Contains: Creepy invasion of privacy, discussion thereof
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Advice
Rules of engagement for getting to the top at Torchwood:
1) Make Queen and Country your priority.
2) Make Torchwood an even higher priority
3) Keep an open mind to using Torchwood's knowledge for furthering Torchwood's power
4) Plan for every contingency, and then the ones you haven't thought of. And then the ones that happened in your nightmares.
5) Read everything that comes across your desk, and everything else you can get your hands on. Financial reports to trashy science fiction novels
6) Never turn down an opportunity for socialising and networking. Meet as many people as you can.
7) Keep fit and healthy. Cut down on the chocolate caramel biscuits and walk to and from the train station on your way into work. I'll have my eye on you
8) Don't shag people. Shagging your way up the ladder does not work.
9) Dress to impress – yes, I'll take you shopping, but this time we're going serious
10) Don't mention my name. It won't help. I'll mention your name enthusiastically; you mention mine scornfully if you have to.
Rules of being Director:
1) Don't get cocky
2) Really, don't get cocky
3) Read as much as you can – Starting with Pratchett's Discworld, if you've not already read it.
4) Form committees – preferably made up of people who annoy you
5) Go to bed for at least ten hours every night, eat well, and exercise to make up for it.
6) Don't. Get. Obsessed. Shiny stuff is for researchers with safety procedures
7) Don't piss off the neighbours. That includes me and UNIT.
8) Trust the Doctor.
9) Don't annoy the Queen. It's really annoying when she cuts your budget.
10) Avoid timetravel like the plague, and lock it down if it happens.
Rules of getting on with Torchwood Cardiff, particularly it's devastatingly handsome and roguishly charming leader.
1) He likes chocolate cake
2) He likes good whiskey
3) They like their information on time and useful
4) Cardiff is a fantastic city
5) Don't annoy Mainframe. She hacks back.
Print them out and frame them. I'll even autograph it for you next time I'm in town.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: RE: Advice
Gee, thanks.
Nice, simple, non-patronising rules to follow, Jack. How many times have you done this now?
Yvonne
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: RE: RE: Advice
I've only been doing this since the turn of the millennium, remember.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Advice
Been around since the turn of the last millennium, if the stories are true, but still haven't learned how to communicate with people without pissing them off.
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Sorry?
You're unusually tetchy. Are you pre-menstrual, or am I? Or is power getting to you already?
The rules are sarcastic, but I've had a long time of watching people fucking up, and this, right here, is the closest I'll ever get to being able to put it right, because no one ever listens to me.
We lost five civilians today, because Suzie and I can't handle Cardiff between us and, quite honestly, you are my only hope of this situation getting any better. I'll use any means necessary to keep the people of this city alive. I think you'll make a damn fine director, but that only really matters to me if you let me do my job.
Jack
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Point taken
I should apologise. You're the expert and you're trying to do what you always do, save lives. That's my first priority too, and I should recognise that we're singing from the same hymn sheet.
If I make it to the shiny top office, it will be my honour to bring you back onto the committee where you belong.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Cessation of hostilities?
We were both a little out of order. I'll accept your apology if you'll accept mine. Friends?
Dinner?
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Again?
You only saw me last week; you'll give Suzie a complex.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne:
Subject: Yes, again
But this time I suggest that you come to us, so the three of us can go out together. I might even treat you to some beat practice.
It'll look good on your CV.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject:You
You are a hopeless creature, possibly depressingly so. There is no chance of rehabilitation or reintroduction to polite society.
I would love to have dinner with you. Should I wear something nice, or something street safe?
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: K. Arwan
BCC: Yvonne
Subject: Request for personnel assistance
Good afternoon, Kashif,
We've had a particularly heavy week here in Cardiff. I need to requisition a member of your staff or two to cope with the increased workload – not like you're using them over there at the moment.
Try Hartmann in the main office; I think she's sweet on me, so she'll be more amenable to braving the lousy Welsh weather we're having.
Yours sincerely,
Jack Harkness.
Director, Torchwood Cardiff
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Sweet on you?
You are so up yourself, it's amazing you can even see. Shall I come over Friday?
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Sweet like candy
Everyone's sweet on me.
I just got my wrist slapped for using work as flirting, so I've sent him a shirty email about the death toll for this week and the difference between a jumped up administration office and a front-line defence outpost, and which one should have more staff.
People I do not have time to deal with today:
1) Grieving families
2) Kashif Arwan
3) Street preachers.
See you Friday.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Instructions
You are really, really stressed out. Here's a set of Yvonne Hartman instructions for helping you to relax before tomorrow.
1) Leave the Hub and buy a really big slice of chocolate cake and/or hot chocolate
2) Go on from hot chocolate and have an hour's swimming
3) Get an hour's massage
4) Call a rarely-seen friend and invite them to dinner
5) Check into a hotel room, with or without friend, and have a nice night in luxury. Best to check in before step 2, to get the spa at the hotel.
Or:
1) Check into a hotel room
2) Hire a boy or girl to pamper you all night and give you a night of fantastic sex and decent sleep.
Your choice. And I don't want to know the outcome in minute-by-minute detail, thank you. I have my own sex life, and it's a lot more active than yours.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: I love you too
Going for a modified version of option B, because you're not around to wine, dine and pamper.
Ciao, bella
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Tempting
You nearly had me tempted to move to Cardiff then, but then I remembered the 'Cardiff' part of the idea, and the temptation vanished. Sorry, babe.
Have a good night.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Last night
Was lovely. Thank you for giving me ideas, and remind me to buy you a drink when you're over here. Has that been confirmed yet?
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Friday
I'll remember, don't worry. It's all confirmed and ready to go. I got my orders this morning. Of course, the rules state that I can't book my own accommodation, so I got Annie to book me into the St David's.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: RE: Friday
Well, of course. It is the closest and most convenient hotel to the Hub. Well, the closest and most convenient hotel that I'd put guests in.
Hopefully they'll complain about it, and I'll say that we'll organise accommodation for our guests if they give us a bigger budget to do us with. We wouldn't need guests as often, either.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: RE: RE: Friday
Are you saying that you wouldn't want me to come over as often? I'm very hurt, Jack.
Pissing off the director like this before she's even the director might not be a wise move.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Perish the thought.
I was merely pointing out that we wouldn't need as many visits from office staff to audit us if I could afford to employ someone to do it, and to tidy up the archives so that London can get information from us on time and so that we can find the information we need when we need it. And we wouldn't need to borrow researchers and technicians to fix the network or poke at our new tech if we had our own. And we wouldn't need to spend as much on private hospital fees and bribing government officials if we had our own medic. Suzie and I are good, but we're not god.
You would, of course, be welcome any time you wished to visit, but I would make a clear distinction between visits in your capacity as my Director and those visits which are purely sociable in nature, which I would, naturally, pay for myself.
Actually, I might buy another flat. I've nowhere to entertain at the moment, and my social circle is actually increasing at last. We could have dinner parties, or tupperwear parties.
Jackx
P.S. We could have Ann Summers parties too...
P.P.S. You'd be top of the guest list. VIP.
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Oh dear
I'm sorry, but I don't think men are allowed to come to Ann Summers parties; not even men who like men.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: How cruel!
That's blatant discrimination. I'll have you know that I look extremely fetching in a black and silver satin babydoll with matching french knickers... and the stockings...
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: You
I am aware of how good you look in that selection, dear. They're on the public drive accessible by all Torchwood One employees. Very, very nice indeed.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject:
They're what?
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject:
Didn't you know?
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: No
They must have been there for years without my knowledge. I'd never have let photos like that out in public, you know that.
From:Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: I'm sorry
I've deleted them and had a word with the IT guys I'm friends with to make sure that they get deleted off the system completely. I never even considered it. I'm so sorry, Jack.
Yvonne xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Don't worry about it.
It's done now, and there's nothing either of us can do about it beyond what you've done. Thank you for that. They'd blocked access from my end, which is why I didn't know about them.
Someone put those up there and kept them from me on purpose.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Awful
I can't believe anyone would do that. Is common courtesy such an ancient concept that people can't contemplate it any more?
Yvonne xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: RE: Awful
I'm used to invasions of my privacy by Torchwood. I gave up all hope of privacy about one hundred and five years ago.
Friday can't come soon enough.
Jackx
Jack's favourite restaurant on Mermaid Quay during the summer was an Italian place that did superb pasta dishes, mediocre pizza and excellent wine, all served, if you reserved a table or got lucky, on the balcony which overlooked the new development and the wide expanse of the Bay. The staff there knew him and Suzie by now, and understood that if they ran out with their meal half-eaten and their bill unpaid then it would get paid later with a hefty tip added on. They, like many other Cardiff residents, coped with the reality of Torchwood without realising it, going about their everyday lives with slight flexing to allow for aliens they didn't know they were avoiding and to make it easier for an organisation they didn't know were in trouble. Human nature was Torchwood's greatest weapon.
Yvonne settled down into the chair that Jack held out for her and exchanged an amused smile with Suzie, who'd claimed her seat before Jack could give her the same treatment. But Jack loved to play Prince Charming occasionally, and Yvonne didn't have the heart to deny him the chance. They ordered pasta based on Jack's advice and let him debate wine with the waiter to match it perfectly with the meal. Sometimes it was hard to remember that Jack had been on the planet for longer than anyone else. Sometimes it was very easy to remember, and hard to feel anything other than young and foolish. He knew so much, mostly things that he'd picked up through experience rather than actual study, and he very rarely seemed to realise it. Right now he was showing off, of course, but he had two attractive ladies depending on him for the right wine to go with their meal.
There was a gentle, cool breeze off the Bay, which served to ease the dry, oppressive heat of the day that had been brought by one of Cardiff's occasional heatwaves. They'd spent the day 'pounding the beat' as Jack called it, usually in a dreadful imitation of a cockney accent. There were resident aliens, known conspiracy theorists and collectors and dealers who occasionally, by chance or design, found something not of this world amongst their goods; they all needed checking up on, as did the numerous safe houses scattered around the city now. Some of them were in use, home to people displaced by the Rift who'd just skipped a few years by accident and needed somewhere to start afresh, but most stood empty and cold, even in this weather.
Yvonne leaned her elbows on the wood of the tabletop, keeping them well clear of the sun-heated metal, and rested her cheek on her clasped hands. Jack was slouched back in his seat like every artist's dream muse, shirt sleeves rolled up above muscled forearms and eyelids at half mast, turned into the warm rays of the sun that lit him in gold and bronze. Across from him, Suzie was a more angular beauty, with the sun behind her catching in her curls and casting dark shadows across her face. Her quick, dry wit was the perfect underscore and foil for Jack's bawdier, innuendo-laden humour. She brought to mind the elegant, empty beauty of the sky at night over a too-bright city, against Jack's golden glow of a summer's afternoon.
Jack was smiling at her, possibly even smirking. “Penny for them,” he asked.
She laughed and shook her head. “Jack, you know you couldn't afford them.”
“I like her,” Suzie announced seriously. “Jack, can we keep her?”
“Unfortunately not,” he lamented. “London would get very annoyed if we tried, and we're in enough trouble as it is. Besides, we can't afford her salary.”
Yvonne frowned as a thought returned to her and lifted her head. “Jack, have you thought about ways you could solve your funding problem without London's help? Get ahead, as it were?”
He shrugged. “Thought about it, sure. I don't really have the time to take it very far, though.”
She raised one eyebrow in a question. “Have you thought about renting out the empty safe houses?”
“Would London let me?”
“Worth an ask, don't you think?” she asked, grinning.
They returned to more terrestrial topics when dinner arrived, mostly discussing Jack's flat search. He was, as Suzie and Yvonne eagerly pointed out, a very simple creature; the fact that he'd been living in the Hub for so long was all the corroborating evidence they needed on that score. But really, it was no wonder that even he had eventually started craving his own space. Torchwood had taken his life and free will away, there had to come a point when he had to take something back.
Chapter Title: Chapter 2
Challenge/Fest:
Prompt:
Rating: T
Dedication: To everyone I've NaNo-ed with in the past or present.
Summary: A NaNoWriMo novel charting the rise of Yvonne Hartman and her professional relationship with Jack Harkness and Torchwood Three. Eventual Jack/Ianto
Characters: Jack Harkness, Yvonne Hartman, OCs as they occur, Ianto Jones, probably the Doctor.
Contains: Creepy invasion of privacy, discussion thereof
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Advice
Rules of engagement for getting to the top at Torchwood:
1) Make Queen and Country your priority.
2) Make Torchwood an even higher priority
3) Keep an open mind to using Torchwood's knowledge for furthering Torchwood's power
4) Plan for every contingency, and then the ones you haven't thought of. And then the ones that happened in your nightmares.
5) Read everything that comes across your desk, and everything else you can get your hands on. Financial reports to trashy science fiction novels
6) Never turn down an opportunity for socialising and networking. Meet as many people as you can.
7) Keep fit and healthy. Cut down on the chocolate caramel biscuits and walk to and from the train station on your way into work. I'll have my eye on you
8) Don't shag people. Shagging your way up the ladder does not work.
9) Dress to impress – yes, I'll take you shopping, but this time we're going serious
10) Don't mention my name. It won't help. I'll mention your name enthusiastically; you mention mine scornfully if you have to.
Rules of being Director:
1) Don't get cocky
2) Really, don't get cocky
3) Read as much as you can – Starting with Pratchett's Discworld, if you've not already read it.
4) Form committees – preferably made up of people who annoy you
5) Go to bed for at least ten hours every night, eat well, and exercise to make up for it.
6) Don't. Get. Obsessed. Shiny stuff is for researchers with safety procedures
7) Don't piss off the neighbours. That includes me and UNIT.
8) Trust the Doctor.
9) Don't annoy the Queen. It's really annoying when she cuts your budget.
10) Avoid timetravel like the plague, and lock it down if it happens.
Rules of getting on with Torchwood Cardiff, particularly it's devastatingly handsome and roguishly charming leader.
1) He likes chocolate cake
2) He likes good whiskey
3) They like their information on time and useful
4) Cardiff is a fantastic city
5) Don't annoy Mainframe. She hacks back.
Print them out and frame them. I'll even autograph it for you next time I'm in town.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: RE: Advice
Gee, thanks.
Nice, simple, non-patronising rules to follow, Jack. How many times have you done this now?
Yvonne
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: RE: RE: Advice
I've only been doing this since the turn of the millennium, remember.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Advice
Been around since the turn of the last millennium, if the stories are true, but still haven't learned how to communicate with people without pissing them off.
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Sorry?
You're unusually tetchy. Are you pre-menstrual, or am I? Or is power getting to you already?
The rules are sarcastic, but I've had a long time of watching people fucking up, and this, right here, is the closest I'll ever get to being able to put it right, because no one ever listens to me.
We lost five civilians today, because Suzie and I can't handle Cardiff between us and, quite honestly, you are my only hope of this situation getting any better. I'll use any means necessary to keep the people of this city alive. I think you'll make a damn fine director, but that only really matters to me if you let me do my job.
Jack
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Point taken
I should apologise. You're the expert and you're trying to do what you always do, save lives. That's my first priority too, and I should recognise that we're singing from the same hymn sheet.
If I make it to the shiny top office, it will be my honour to bring you back onto the committee where you belong.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Cessation of hostilities?
We were both a little out of order. I'll accept your apology if you'll accept mine. Friends?
Dinner?
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Again?
You only saw me last week; you'll give Suzie a complex.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne:
Subject: Yes, again
But this time I suggest that you come to us, so the three of us can go out together. I might even treat you to some beat practice.
It'll look good on your CV.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject:You
You are a hopeless creature, possibly depressingly so. There is no chance of rehabilitation or reintroduction to polite society.
I would love to have dinner with you. Should I wear something nice, or something street safe?
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: K. Arwan
BCC: Yvonne
Subject: Request for personnel assistance
Good afternoon, Kashif,
We've had a particularly heavy week here in Cardiff. I need to requisition a member of your staff or two to cope with the increased workload – not like you're using them over there at the moment.
Try Hartmann in the main office; I think she's sweet on me, so she'll be more amenable to braving the lousy Welsh weather we're having.
Yours sincerely,
Jack Harkness.
Director, Torchwood Cardiff
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Sweet on you?
You are so up yourself, it's amazing you can even see. Shall I come over Friday?
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Sweet like candy
Everyone's sweet on me.
I just got my wrist slapped for using work as flirting, so I've sent him a shirty email about the death toll for this week and the difference between a jumped up administration office and a front-line defence outpost, and which one should have more staff.
People I do not have time to deal with today:
1) Grieving families
2) Kashif Arwan
3) Street preachers.
See you Friday.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Instructions
You are really, really stressed out. Here's a set of Yvonne Hartman instructions for helping you to relax before tomorrow.
1) Leave the Hub and buy a really big slice of chocolate cake and/or hot chocolate
2) Go on from hot chocolate and have an hour's swimming
3) Get an hour's massage
4) Call a rarely-seen friend and invite them to dinner
5) Check into a hotel room, with or without friend, and have a nice night in luxury. Best to check in before step 2, to get the spa at the hotel.
Or:
1) Check into a hotel room
2) Hire a boy or girl to pamper you all night and give you a night of fantastic sex and decent sleep.
Your choice. And I don't want to know the outcome in minute-by-minute detail, thank you. I have my own sex life, and it's a lot more active than yours.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: I love you too
Going for a modified version of option B, because you're not around to wine, dine and pamper.
Ciao, bella
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Tempting
You nearly had me tempted to move to Cardiff then, but then I remembered the 'Cardiff' part of the idea, and the temptation vanished. Sorry, babe.
Have a good night.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Last night
Was lovely. Thank you for giving me ideas, and remind me to buy you a drink when you're over here. Has that been confirmed yet?
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Friday
I'll remember, don't worry. It's all confirmed and ready to go. I got my orders this morning. Of course, the rules state that I can't book my own accommodation, so I got Annie to book me into the St David's.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: RE: Friday
Well, of course. It is the closest and most convenient hotel to the Hub. Well, the closest and most convenient hotel that I'd put guests in.
Hopefully they'll complain about it, and I'll say that we'll organise accommodation for our guests if they give us a bigger budget to do us with. We wouldn't need guests as often, either.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: RE: RE: Friday
Are you saying that you wouldn't want me to come over as often? I'm very hurt, Jack.
Pissing off the director like this before she's even the director might not be a wise move.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Perish the thought.
I was merely pointing out that we wouldn't need as many visits from office staff to audit us if I could afford to employ someone to do it, and to tidy up the archives so that London can get information from us on time and so that we can find the information we need when we need it. And we wouldn't need to borrow researchers and technicians to fix the network or poke at our new tech if we had our own. And we wouldn't need to spend as much on private hospital fees and bribing government officials if we had our own medic. Suzie and I are good, but we're not god.
You would, of course, be welcome any time you wished to visit, but I would make a clear distinction between visits in your capacity as my Director and those visits which are purely sociable in nature, which I would, naturally, pay for myself.
Actually, I might buy another flat. I've nowhere to entertain at the moment, and my social circle is actually increasing at last. We could have dinner parties, or tupperwear parties.
Jackx
P.S. We could have Ann Summers parties too...
P.P.S. You'd be top of the guest list. VIP.
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Oh dear
I'm sorry, but I don't think men are allowed to come to Ann Summers parties; not even men who like men.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: How cruel!
That's blatant discrimination. I'll have you know that I look extremely fetching in a black and silver satin babydoll with matching french knickers... and the stockings...
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: You
I am aware of how good you look in that selection, dear. They're on the public drive accessible by all Torchwood One employees. Very, very nice indeed.
Yvonne xxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject:
They're what?
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject:
Didn't you know?
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: No
They must have been there for years without my knowledge. I'd never have let photos like that out in public, you know that.
From:Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: I'm sorry
I've deleted them and had a word with the IT guys I'm friends with to make sure that they get deleted off the system completely. I never even considered it. I'm so sorry, Jack.
Yvonne xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: Don't worry about it.
It's done now, and there's nothing either of us can do about it beyond what you've done. Thank you for that. They'd blocked access from my end, which is why I didn't know about them.
Someone put those up there and kept them from me on purpose.
Jackx
From: Yvonne
To: Jack
Subject: Awful
I can't believe anyone would do that. Is common courtesy such an ancient concept that people can't contemplate it any more?
Yvonne xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Jack
To: Yvonne
Subject: RE: Awful
I'm used to invasions of my privacy by Torchwood. I gave up all hope of privacy about one hundred and five years ago.
Friday can't come soon enough.
Jackx
Jack's favourite restaurant on Mermaid Quay during the summer was an Italian place that did superb pasta dishes, mediocre pizza and excellent wine, all served, if you reserved a table or got lucky, on the balcony which overlooked the new development and the wide expanse of the Bay. The staff there knew him and Suzie by now, and understood that if they ran out with their meal half-eaten and their bill unpaid then it would get paid later with a hefty tip added on. They, like many other Cardiff residents, coped with the reality of Torchwood without realising it, going about their everyday lives with slight flexing to allow for aliens they didn't know they were avoiding and to make it easier for an organisation they didn't know were in trouble. Human nature was Torchwood's greatest weapon.
Yvonne settled down into the chair that Jack held out for her and exchanged an amused smile with Suzie, who'd claimed her seat before Jack could give her the same treatment. But Jack loved to play Prince Charming occasionally, and Yvonne didn't have the heart to deny him the chance. They ordered pasta based on Jack's advice and let him debate wine with the waiter to match it perfectly with the meal. Sometimes it was hard to remember that Jack had been on the planet for longer than anyone else. Sometimes it was very easy to remember, and hard to feel anything other than young and foolish. He knew so much, mostly things that he'd picked up through experience rather than actual study, and he very rarely seemed to realise it. Right now he was showing off, of course, but he had two attractive ladies depending on him for the right wine to go with their meal.
There was a gentle, cool breeze off the Bay, which served to ease the dry, oppressive heat of the day that had been brought by one of Cardiff's occasional heatwaves. They'd spent the day 'pounding the beat' as Jack called it, usually in a dreadful imitation of a cockney accent. There were resident aliens, known conspiracy theorists and collectors and dealers who occasionally, by chance or design, found something not of this world amongst their goods; they all needed checking up on, as did the numerous safe houses scattered around the city now. Some of them were in use, home to people displaced by the Rift who'd just skipped a few years by accident and needed somewhere to start afresh, but most stood empty and cold, even in this weather.
Yvonne leaned her elbows on the wood of the tabletop, keeping them well clear of the sun-heated metal, and rested her cheek on her clasped hands. Jack was slouched back in his seat like every artist's dream muse, shirt sleeves rolled up above muscled forearms and eyelids at half mast, turned into the warm rays of the sun that lit him in gold and bronze. Across from him, Suzie was a more angular beauty, with the sun behind her catching in her curls and casting dark shadows across her face. Her quick, dry wit was the perfect underscore and foil for Jack's bawdier, innuendo-laden humour. She brought to mind the elegant, empty beauty of the sky at night over a too-bright city, against Jack's golden glow of a summer's afternoon.
Jack was smiling at her, possibly even smirking. “Penny for them,” he asked.
She laughed and shook her head. “Jack, you know you couldn't afford them.”
“I like her,” Suzie announced seriously. “Jack, can we keep her?”
“Unfortunately not,” he lamented. “London would get very annoyed if we tried, and we're in enough trouble as it is. Besides, we can't afford her salary.”
Yvonne frowned as a thought returned to her and lifted her head. “Jack, have you thought about ways you could solve your funding problem without London's help? Get ahead, as it were?”
He shrugged. “Thought about it, sure. I don't really have the time to take it very far, though.”
She raised one eyebrow in a question. “Have you thought about renting out the empty safe houses?”
“Would London let me?”
“Worth an ask, don't you think?” she asked, grinning.
They returned to more terrestrial topics when dinner arrived, mostly discussing Jack's flat search. He was, as Suzie and Yvonne eagerly pointed out, a very simple creature; the fact that he'd been living in the Hub for so long was all the corroborating evidence they needed on that score. But really, it was no wonder that even he had eventually started craving his own space. Torchwood had taken his life and free will away, there had to come a point when he had to take something back.
