water under the bridge (fic)
Sep. 6th, 2009 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseUnedited (apologies, and please let me know of any mistakes!) and bizarre, but I do love when I can finish something in one day. ♥
Title: Water Under the Bridge
Fandoms: Hellboy and Torchwood/Doctor Who.
Characters: Yvonne Hartman, Jack Harkness, Liz Sherman, Hellboy, and Abe Sapien, and one other brief cameo if you a) squint and b) aren't too attached to canon.
Pairing: Jack/Abe
Summary: The BPRD wants some help from Torchwood, and Yvonne sends someone she wants to get rid of for a while. Jack decides he doesn't mind one bit.
Warnings: Again, it's Jack-fic. There is sex. It's consensual and not graphic, but if you're underage or that's not your thing, don't read it. Also, spoilers for Hellboy II.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, and I don't mean to infringe.
Notes Set, mysteriously, pre-series for Torchwood, and yet post-movie for the Hellboy crew. Don't ask me how that works. The back-stories here are not compliant with the Torchwood episode Fragments, which I, personally, detest. Because really, there are so many more interesting and sensible ways that all of that could have happened. None of them, unfortunately, involve the BPRD. Except here.
And it’s all![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
beam_oflight’s fault. This one’s for you, sweetheart. As usual, you managed to send me exactly the bunny I never knew I needed to write. ;) (And look! Despite being Jack, it even has a sort of a plot!)
This is not the Abe-fic I've been working on for a year. That, with luck, will come later.
“Why me?”
“Because you, Mr Harkness, are a problem for Torchwood.”
“I’ve worked with Torchwood for--”
“Entirely too long. I realize that, Mr Harkness--”
“Captain,” Jack corrected sourly, and took a deep swig of coffee. At least whoever was in charge of that here at Torchwood One knew what they were doing. It was probably the best coffee he’d ever had. If she’d been in a better mood, he might have asked Yvonne what brand it was.
“Fine, Captain. While I realize that your tenure here gave you some leeway under previous heads of Torchwood operations, you’ll find that I prefer to run a tighter ship. And a ship entirely free of sexual harassment charges.”
“Harassment!” Jack gaped. “Look, you can read my records going back over a hundred years - I haven’t had a single complaint.”
“Be that as it may, Captain, you’ll find that some behavior simply isn’t appropriate in the modern Torchwood. We can’t have you... propositioning co-workers, making lewd jokes in the work-place, or otherwise creating an unprofessional and potentially uncomfortable office environment.”
“Whoa, whoa - uncomfortable?!” Jack sputtered. “Look, Yvonne--”
“Excuse me, Captain Harkness.” Yvonne’s expression brooked no further argument. Jack shut up, still seething. “Now, given the length of your tenure and the number of commendations in your file, I’ve decided not to take disciplinary action at this time for these recent incidents. I would advise you, however, to be much more careful in the future. And please, actually read the Human Resources handbook? Before I have to schedule another anti-harassment workshop for you personally.”
“Pity.” Jack grinned. The last HR representative Torchwood had brought in for the workshops had been damned cute, and really friendly once he broke through the professional protests.
Yvonnne gave him the evil eyeball once more, and he settled down. “Really, though... why me? And Connecticut? Don’t you think my skills would be better put to use here at home...”
Yvonne ignored the innuendo with cold malice. I really should probably have mentioned who I was before we got in bed Jack thought. “Because you’re Torchwood’s only nominally-American agent, and because the satellite office I’d like to transfer you to can wait a few weeks before you arrive. They’re going through a quiet spell up in Cardiff right now--”
“Cardiff? That’s even worse than Connecticut!”
“Then you’ll have plenty of time to get used to the idea, won’t you?” Yvonne, hands on her hips, glared at him. “Get used to it, Captain. You can stop by the front desk to pick up your plane tickets - I’ve already had my personal assistant order them for you. And you will get on that plane. You will go to our American liaisons, and you will help them to the best of your abilities with your case. And I will not receive any complaints about your behavior while there from their director, or I will see to it that you’re assigned to a new Torchwood office in the mountains of Antarctica - is that understood, Captain Harkness?”
“Sir. Yes, ma’am.” Jack tossed off a crisp salute, his expression utterly blank, and then turned on his heel and marched out of the office. Fine. If that’s how she wants to play it, that’s how we’ll go.
He took a special pleasure in being sweet as honey to Yvonne’s assistant - a handsome young man with a soft Welsh accent - as he picked up his tickets on the way out. Maybe when I get back... But he was getting assigned to Cardiff immediately on his return, and the silver-framed portrait of a gorgeous young woman with dark skin and sparkling eyes on the man’s desk told him that he might not be all that welcome, anyway. Pity.
* * *
“Thank you for coming out on such short notice, Agent Harkness.”
“Please, call me Jack. And you are...?” He grinned at the dark-haired woman who’d met him at the airport.
“Liz. Agent Liz Sherman.”
“Liz. Beautiful. Anyway, it’s no problem - I mean, we’re fighting the same war, right?”
“I have to say, I was expecting someone more...”
“British?” Jack laughed, and was encouraged when Liz joined in, chuckling softly with an embarrassed expression tilted toward the floor as they walked.
“Silly of me. I guess you guys have people from all over, the same as we do.”
“Not particularly... as far as Americans go, I’m pretty much it.”
“Well, I hope you’ll be able to take some time and enjoy being home once we get all this figured out, at least. I’d feel badly bringing you all the way out here for nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you guys mostly do aliens, right?”
“Mostly...”
“Well, our experts in the science division are pretty sure...” Liz stopped herself. “I’d better let them tell you, honestly. I’m a field agent - most of the advanced biology crap goes right over my head.”
“Hmm. I’m all about biology under the right circumstances, but that’s definitely not an autopsy, for me.”
“Yeah, right.” Liz smiled again, a little more hesistant this time, and then gestured him toward a set of steel-reinforced doors. “A couple of our guys are in here, waiting to meet you and talk about the case.”
She pushed open the door and held it for him, waving him forward emphatically when he tried to change places with her out of chivalry... and then gasped as he pushed her behind him with one hand, pulling his gun with the other.
“Hands in the air! Drop what you’re holding!” The weird-looking blue thing complied immediately, dropping a tool it had no doubt intended to use on the next unsuspecting technician who walked through the door. “Agent Sherman, do you people usually let prisoners stand around loose in your labs? ‘Cause where I come from we consider that a bad idea.”
Liz shoved him aside. “Put the gun away, Harkness, that’s not a prisoner. That’s the agent I was taking you to meet.”
Now that he’d had a second to recover, Jack realized that the creature - the being, he corrected himself - standing in front of him didn’t exactly look like the most threatening thing in the world. He was bright blue, granted, and he had quickly-fluttering purplish gills on the sides of his neck - fluttering, Jack realized, probably because of a fright. Ditto that reason for why his huge dark eyes now blinked rapidly at Jack as he slowly lowered arms that ended in elegant webbed hands colored pale lilac on the palms down toward abs that were... really damned impressive, even if they were fish-white and glittering with water. Those abs, Jack noted, disappeared into skin-tight short black trousers that looked like they were made of shiny wet-suit material, and left very little about the wearer’s physique to the imagination.
“You’re fine, Abe. This is Jack Harkness, the agent sent out by Torchwood in England. Jack, this is Abe.”
“Captain Jack Harkness,” Jack offered with his most winning grin and hand out-held - “Sorry for the misunderstanding, I am definitely pleased to meet you. Just wasn’t expecting to meet anyone here from out of town, if you know what I mean.”
The being - Abe, apparently - cocked his head quizzically. “Out of town?”
“Well, you’re obviously not from around here...” Jack chuckled. “It’s okay. I’m not exactly from this neck of the woods myself, except in a purely genetic sense. I mean I’m Human,” he clarified. “But I’ve been around a fair bit. Never seen anyone like you before, though - where you from?”
“Er. Here, actually. Or, well... That is to say... as much as I am from anywhere, to my knowledge. I was more... found this way. In a tube of water hidden beneath a hospital, actually. I remember nothing prior to being wakened after the Bureau removed me from that tube.”
“Amnesia?” Jack suggested. “Maybe your ship was destroyed, and you lost your memory. If we could find the ship...”
“The tube had been sealed since 1865,” Abe explained apologetically. “I’m afraid if there ever was a ship, it’s long gone now. Besides, while I don’t know precisely what I am... I do have the sense that I am from this world. I could, of course, be incorrect,” he added quickly, as though afraid to be thought rude.
Jack shrugged. “It’s your life. Gotta say, though, I’d think ‘alien’ would be a better explanation than anything else I can think of for something like you. Someone, I mean. I mean, what else? Magic?”
“It’s a popular theory.”
Jack turned to follow the deep, rolling voice and found himself face to face with... “Whoa!” A really big, reg guy with... what looked a whole hell of a lot like cut-off horns on his forehead.
“Red, this is the guy they sent out from England to work with us.” Liz stepped up to the big guy’s side like there was nothing unusual about this - which, Jack was quickly getting the idea, was exactly the case, for her at least. “Captain Jack Harkness. Jack, this is Red. Or, officially, Agent Hellboy.”
“Pleased to meet’cha,” ‘Red’ rumbled, eyeing Jack suspiciously. “Any reason I should know that your tools are on the ground, there, Blue?”
“We had... a bit of a misunderstanding, I’m afraid.”
“All cleared up, now,” Jack put in.
“Yeah. Good. So? You gonna look at this thing we got, or what?”
“Uh. Yeah. Yeah, let’s have a look.”
He spent the next twenty minutes listening to Abe and Liz discuss the little bipedal creature they’d found dead in the woods somewhere in New Hampshire. Apparently, at the time they’d found it they’d thought it might be an alien creature similar to one dealt with by Torchwood in recent years, but since then it had turned out to have more supernatural origins. “We’ve had to ice it three times to keep it down,” Liz explained. “The second time it woke up and bit Abe’s finger while he was working on it.”
“Ouch,” Jack commented, looking a little nervously at the rows upon rows of tiny, needle-like teeth on the little creature.
“Indeed.” Abe waved one finger, topped with an incongruous tan band-aid.
“Well, I wish I could help, but it doesn’t look at all like what Torchwood had - I took a look at our specimen on ice before I came here, and it was definitely taller, greyer, and less hairy. As for what this is...”
“We think it might be a form of troll,” Liz suggested. “There’s a good-sized population of them in the forested areas around the Catskills, we’ve just never seen one that looked like this. They do have a pretty broad range of variation, though.”
“Trolls. Aren’t they... usually bigger? I mean, in stories?”
“Certain species,” Abe agreed. “Some are quite small, however. If you would like to see samples...?”
Jack laughed. “I’d rather not, if it’s all the same to you. This is all a bit...” He waved his hands, trying to restrain a bubbling near-giggle that was trying to catch up on him. “Torchwood really does only deal with alien threats.”
“So we don’t need to worry about you breathing down our necks, now that you’ve met us, huh?”
Jack glanced back at the big... well, at Agent Hellboy. “No. No, I’ve seen threats to Earth, and I’ve seen people who are just doing their jobs. You guys, definitely the latter.”
“Good to hear.”
“So.” Jack clapped his hands together, rubbing them briskly. “Now that our case is solved, what say we go out for a beer? I owe you all one, I think. How about it?”
Liz smiled. “Sure, we could--”
“Nope,” Hellboy interrupted gruffly. “Early day tomorrow, remember, Liz? Early day. Can’t go out. Too bad.”
“Red,” Liz complained.
“Come on, Liz... remember?” Almost pleading, now.
Liz scowled and, to Jack’s surprise, he saw bright gold flames appear out of nowhere to lick at the backs of her hands and neck as she glared at her... co-worker? Lover? He was starting to strongly suspect the latter, given the undertones of their conversation.
“Hey, that’s cool, if you guys have an early day. No problem. Maybe Abe and I here’ll just...”
“I don’t drink, I’m afraid.”
Damn. Tough crowd. “You gotta eat, though, right? Come on... I really do owe you one for pulling the gun on you, and I want to make it up to you before I go back tomorrow. Whatever you like.”
“We don’t really get out much, apart from missions, I’m afraid. Particularly not Red or I.” Abe’s elegant fingers made a gesture that took in his eyes, the gills, and everything beneath. “Too conspicuous.”
“I’ve got the solution, then.” Jack pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Delivery.”
* * *
They used one of the phones at the Bureau, in the end, as Jack remembered that Torchwood was less than fond of receiving colossal cellphone charges for so-called 'frivolous calls' while roaming in a foreign country, but they did manage to find a local Thai place that was both open, and had a few dishes on the menu that both thought they could share. Fermented fish sauce didn’t sound like something Jack would normally have ordered, but he was willing to try anything, particularly on what he thought of as a date. It couldn’t be worse than some of the stuff he’d eaten back in the Time Agency, he reminded himself. And with the addition of a few Thai beers, purchased on the hope that Abe might change his mind about sharing later on, his plans were well in motion.
“So, you three work together all the time, then? You, Liz, and Red, I mean?” Jack asked as they dished out noodles, vegetables and chicken onto two plates that Abe had retrieved from somewhere in the back cupboards of the library they were now sitting in. The far wall of the room opened out into a giant water tank, so Jack assumed this was Abe’s personal quarters. If they were, the amount of books were impressive, if slightly impractical for a guy who presumably spent a lot of his time in the water.
“Oh, yes. There are other agents who join us on missions on occasion, but the three of us are a permanent team.”
“I’d like that. A team I can really be close with, really trust. I had it for a while, a long time ago, but...” Jack sighed, thinking of the Doctor and Rose. “Things got complicated. They... had to leave.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Abe offered.
“Happens.” Jack shrugged and deftly picked up a piece of eggplant with his chopsticks in one hand, lifting his beer for a sip with the other. “Everybody leaves, after a while. At least I know they’re safe, wherever they are. They were...” He paused, searching for a word, and then smiled sadly. “Fantastic. They were fantastic.”
“You...” Abe hesitated. “I don’t mean to pry, but...?”
“I was in love with them. Both of them, in their ways.” Jack shrugged. “More him than her, I guess, maybe, but she was...” He laughed softly. “They were both something really special.”
“I... believe I know what you mean.”
Abe looked so sad just then that Jack knew he’d been through something similar. Jack had a feeling he knew - there’d been a quiet, unspoken chill between him and his friends earlier, he thought. “You?” he asked gently. “I mean, if you need to talk about something... Hell, I’m gone tomorrow. It’s not like I could tell anyone who’d care, and you won’t have to see me again, knowing that I know. I know how hard it is, falling for someone who isn’t interested...”
“Hmm? Oh. Oh, my, no. Not...” Abe’s hands fluttered slightly, and then he sighed. “No. Not Liz. The woman I loved... The only time I’ve ever been in love. She’s dead.”
“Shit. I’m sorry...”
“It’s been some time, now. Months. I... believe I am healing from it? But...” He frowned, as much as a guy without lips could, Jack supposed. “But I do wonder.”
“You’ll get over it. Believe me when I say, I’m older than I look, and I’ve buried more people I loved than I really want to talk about. It takes a long time, but you’ll find someone else, and you’ll heal. You might always hurt a little when you think of her, but... at some point, you’ll remember the good times more than the end.”
“That, I’m afraid, is part of the problem. We didn’t have time together. I tried... and nearly destroyed the world, to save her. I nearly gave up everything, to keep her from being harmed, and then... If not for Liz and Red, and another friend of ours...”
That explained some of the coolness, Jack thought.
“And now, Liz and Red have each other...”
And that explained the rest. Jack sighed, and wrapped a friendly arm around the other man’s shoulders. He felt slightly damp, but not unpleasantly so, and his skin was slightly cool to the touch.
“I can’t say much, other than that I promise it’ll fade with time,” Jack told him, “and that you’ll find someone else, if you give yourself a chance. You’re smart, good-looking...”
Abe made a vague scoffing noise.
“Seriously. Most men, and some women, would kill to have those abs. And most people would, to touch them.”
The cocked head this time was less quizzical, more shocked. Oh, you have got to be kidding me... “When you said she was the first person you’d been in love with... does that mean you’ve never had sex?”
If blue fish people could blush, Jack had a feeling Abe would have been blushing. As it was, his gills seemed to pinken and speed up their flutter quite a bit, and his expressive eyes blinked several times in rapid succession. “I have not,” Abe agreed, after a moment. “At least...”
“Not that you remember,” Jack filled in, remember Abe’s earlier remark about not remembering anything before he was removed from the tube or whatever. “Damn. I hope you won’t mind my saying, but that is a waste.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“A waste. It’s a waste for you... not to have someone. Not to enjoy everything your body can do, and everything another body can do with yours. I know this is kind of a prudish time period, but I’d never have believed that Humans even here could be so stupid. Unless you’re holding out for someone like you?”
Abe shook his head, still seeming utterly confused by their conversation. “I... I don’t believe there are any others like me.”
“I’d believe that. One of a kind.” Jack grinned, and reached out slowly, touching the smooth, faintly slick cheek and watching nictitating membranes flicker out over Abe’s eyes in another rapid blinking spasm. “Do you mind? Being touched like this, I mean?”
“No...”
“Just let me know if I do anything that you’re not comfortable with, then.”
They sat quietly for a long moment as Jack just touched the other man - gently exploring, letting his fingers wander over cool, soft skin, finding places on the jaw, neck, and chest that made Abe’s eyelids flutter and his mouth gape. And then he leaned forward, slowly - so slowly, telegraphing every movement to make sure he wouldn’t frighten his new friend - and pressed his lips gently against Abe’s mouth. Flat, lipless, and a little odd, but nonetheless sweetly uncertain and deliciously soft when the other man awkwardly returned the kiss.
“Should we be in the water?” Jack asked quietly, nuzzling at his mouth.
“I... I...”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve drowned for less,” he added, smiling to take any unintentional sting out of the words.
“But...?”
“Let’s just say I’m tougher than I look. And that’s not bad, hmm?” he teased. “Come on. Show me how to get into this thing, and we’ll figure the rest out from there.”
It turned out that there were stairs in the back, leading into the tank via an open area at the top, and, better, that a series of steps led into the tank as well. “You okay with here in the shallows?” Jack asked, tugging off his boots and setting them carefully away from the edge before stripping off his shirt and tossing it on top of them. “This way we can be in the water, but not so deep I can’t find footing and get to the surface when I need to.
“Ah... of course, yes, I...” Abe shook his head as if trying to clear it. “This is all very strange to me. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. Just tell me when to stop. I promise, I won’t be offended. A little disappointed, maybe,” he added with a grin, “but I’ve been told I come on strong. Don’t worry about hurting me - I’m good at handling rejection. Better to try and get a no than not try when the answer might’ve been yes. No is okay.”
Abe shook his head. “It’s not that. I would like... but... that is, I’ve never...”
“I know. That’s okay, too. First time for everything.”
After pulling off his socks and tossing them on top of the abandoned shirt and boots, Jack moved over and undid the fastenings on Abe’s trousers, tugging them gently down narrow hips and long, trim legs before looking up from his kneeling position. Apart from the look of perplexed wonderment, he felt like he could have been looking at some kind of ancient, alien idol carved out of turquoise and sapphire. “God, you’re gorgeous,” he breathed.
Abe, apparently confused, knelt down as well. Jack chuckled. “Okay. Let’s take this one step at a time. Come on - into the water.”
If Jack had thought he was gorgeous on land, he was totally unprepared for the strangely natural beauty of Abe in water. It was so clearly his native element - every movement, every slight gesture, now clearly came from, and moved into, the water around him, and his striped and mottled skin was clearly camoflauge, meant to disguise him in the water both from above and below, blending into the dark curves of the deep as seen from the surface, and the flickering patterns of light from beneath. For the first time in years, Jack was intensely grateful that he was a strong and skilled swimmer. Even out of practice, he was comfortable in the water, but next to Abe, he felt like an awkward, stupid ape. Go figure, he thought with a wry grin.
They played for a bit, chasing each other and getting used to each other in the water, until an underwater tackle turned naturally into an embrace. Jack thought about suggesting a return to the shallows, but Abe seemed to have no difficulty keeping them both at or just below the surface, and there was enough air at the top of the tank that he could easily breathe whenever he needed, so it seemed both pointless to disturb the moment.
* * *
When he got back to Britain, Jack packed his office and accepted his transfer to Wales without another complaint. If Yvonne was surprised, she didn’t ask for an explanation, and Jack was a bit relieved. He didn’t think she’d be particularly pleased to find out that not only had he not been any use to the American Bureau, but that he’d had a night of amazing sex with a non-human over there, into the bargain.
He only hoped the move to the Cardiff office would bring him just as much unexpected happiness.
Title: Water Under the Bridge
Fandoms: Hellboy and Torchwood/Doctor Who.
Characters: Yvonne Hartman, Jack Harkness, Liz Sherman, Hellboy, and Abe Sapien, and one other brief cameo if you a) squint and b) aren't too attached to canon.
Pairing: Jack/Abe
Summary: The BPRD wants some help from Torchwood, and Yvonne sends someone she wants to get rid of for a while. Jack decides he doesn't mind one bit.
Warnings: Again, it's Jack-fic. There is sex. It's consensual and not graphic, but if you're underage or that's not your thing, don't read it. Also, spoilers for Hellboy II.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, and I don't mean to infringe.
Notes Set, mysteriously, pre-series for Torchwood, and yet post-movie for the Hellboy crew. Don't ask me how that works. The back-stories here are not compliant with the Torchwood episode Fragments, which I, personally, detest. Because really, there are so many more interesting and sensible ways that all of that could have happened. None of them, unfortunately, involve the BPRD. Except here.
And it’s all
beam_oflight’s fault. This one’s for you, sweetheart. As usual, you managed to send me exactly the bunny I never knew I needed to write. ;) (And look! Despite being Jack, it even has a sort of a plot!)This is not the Abe-fic I've been working on for a year. That, with luck, will come later.
“Why me?”
“Because you, Mr Harkness, are a problem for Torchwood.”
“I’ve worked with Torchwood for--”
“Entirely too long. I realize that, Mr Harkness--”
“Captain,” Jack corrected sourly, and took a deep swig of coffee. At least whoever was in charge of that here at Torchwood One knew what they were doing. It was probably the best coffee he’d ever had. If she’d been in a better mood, he might have asked Yvonne what brand it was.
“Fine, Captain. While I realize that your tenure here gave you some leeway under previous heads of Torchwood operations, you’ll find that I prefer to run a tighter ship. And a ship entirely free of sexual harassment charges.”
“Harassment!” Jack gaped. “Look, you can read my records going back over a hundred years - I haven’t had a single complaint.”
“Be that as it may, Captain, you’ll find that some behavior simply isn’t appropriate in the modern Torchwood. We can’t have you... propositioning co-workers, making lewd jokes in the work-place, or otherwise creating an unprofessional and potentially uncomfortable office environment.”
“Whoa, whoa - uncomfortable?!” Jack sputtered. “Look, Yvonne--”
“Excuse me, Captain Harkness.” Yvonne’s expression brooked no further argument. Jack shut up, still seething. “Now, given the length of your tenure and the number of commendations in your file, I’ve decided not to take disciplinary action at this time for these recent incidents. I would advise you, however, to be much more careful in the future. And please, actually read the Human Resources handbook? Before I have to schedule another anti-harassment workshop for you personally.”
“Pity.” Jack grinned. The last HR representative Torchwood had brought in for the workshops had been damned cute, and really friendly once he broke through the professional protests.
Yvonnne gave him the evil eyeball once more, and he settled down. “Really, though... why me? And Connecticut? Don’t you think my skills would be better put to use here at home...”
Yvonne ignored the innuendo with cold malice. I really should probably have mentioned who I was before we got in bed Jack thought. “Because you’re Torchwood’s only nominally-American agent, and because the satellite office I’d like to transfer you to can wait a few weeks before you arrive. They’re going through a quiet spell up in Cardiff right now--”
“Cardiff? That’s even worse than Connecticut!”
“Then you’ll have plenty of time to get used to the idea, won’t you?” Yvonne, hands on her hips, glared at him. “Get used to it, Captain. You can stop by the front desk to pick up your plane tickets - I’ve already had my personal assistant order them for you. And you will get on that plane. You will go to our American liaisons, and you will help them to the best of your abilities with your case. And I will not receive any complaints about your behavior while there from their director, or I will see to it that you’re assigned to a new Torchwood office in the mountains of Antarctica - is that understood, Captain Harkness?”
“Sir. Yes, ma’am.” Jack tossed off a crisp salute, his expression utterly blank, and then turned on his heel and marched out of the office. Fine. If that’s how she wants to play it, that’s how we’ll go.
He took a special pleasure in being sweet as honey to Yvonne’s assistant - a handsome young man with a soft Welsh accent - as he picked up his tickets on the way out. Maybe when I get back... But he was getting assigned to Cardiff immediately on his return, and the silver-framed portrait of a gorgeous young woman with dark skin and sparkling eyes on the man’s desk told him that he might not be all that welcome, anyway. Pity.
* * *
“Thank you for coming out on such short notice, Agent Harkness.”
“Please, call me Jack. And you are...?” He grinned at the dark-haired woman who’d met him at the airport.
“Liz. Agent Liz Sherman.”
“Liz. Beautiful. Anyway, it’s no problem - I mean, we’re fighting the same war, right?”
“I have to say, I was expecting someone more...”
“British?” Jack laughed, and was encouraged when Liz joined in, chuckling softly with an embarrassed expression tilted toward the floor as they walked.
“Silly of me. I guess you guys have people from all over, the same as we do.”
“Not particularly... as far as Americans go, I’m pretty much it.”
“Well, I hope you’ll be able to take some time and enjoy being home once we get all this figured out, at least. I’d feel badly bringing you all the way out here for nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you guys mostly do aliens, right?”
“Mostly...”
“Well, our experts in the science division are pretty sure...” Liz stopped herself. “I’d better let them tell you, honestly. I’m a field agent - most of the advanced biology crap goes right over my head.”
“Hmm. I’m all about biology under the right circumstances, but that’s definitely not an autopsy, for me.”
“Yeah, right.” Liz smiled again, a little more hesistant this time, and then gestured him toward a set of steel-reinforced doors. “A couple of our guys are in here, waiting to meet you and talk about the case.”
She pushed open the door and held it for him, waving him forward emphatically when he tried to change places with her out of chivalry... and then gasped as he pushed her behind him with one hand, pulling his gun with the other.
“Hands in the air! Drop what you’re holding!” The weird-looking blue thing complied immediately, dropping a tool it had no doubt intended to use on the next unsuspecting technician who walked through the door. “Agent Sherman, do you people usually let prisoners stand around loose in your labs? ‘Cause where I come from we consider that a bad idea.”
Liz shoved him aside. “Put the gun away, Harkness, that’s not a prisoner. That’s the agent I was taking you to meet.”
Now that he’d had a second to recover, Jack realized that the creature - the being, he corrected himself - standing in front of him didn’t exactly look like the most threatening thing in the world. He was bright blue, granted, and he had quickly-fluttering purplish gills on the sides of his neck - fluttering, Jack realized, probably because of a fright. Ditto that reason for why his huge dark eyes now blinked rapidly at Jack as he slowly lowered arms that ended in elegant webbed hands colored pale lilac on the palms down toward abs that were... really damned impressive, even if they were fish-white and glittering with water. Those abs, Jack noted, disappeared into skin-tight short black trousers that looked like they were made of shiny wet-suit material, and left very little about the wearer’s physique to the imagination.
“You’re fine, Abe. This is Jack Harkness, the agent sent out by Torchwood in England. Jack, this is Abe.”
“Captain Jack Harkness,” Jack offered with his most winning grin and hand out-held - “Sorry for the misunderstanding, I am definitely pleased to meet you. Just wasn’t expecting to meet anyone here from out of town, if you know what I mean.”
The being - Abe, apparently - cocked his head quizzically. “Out of town?”
“Well, you’re obviously not from around here...” Jack chuckled. “It’s okay. I’m not exactly from this neck of the woods myself, except in a purely genetic sense. I mean I’m Human,” he clarified. “But I’ve been around a fair bit. Never seen anyone like you before, though - where you from?”
“Er. Here, actually. Or, well... That is to say... as much as I am from anywhere, to my knowledge. I was more... found this way. In a tube of water hidden beneath a hospital, actually. I remember nothing prior to being wakened after the Bureau removed me from that tube.”
“Amnesia?” Jack suggested. “Maybe your ship was destroyed, and you lost your memory. If we could find the ship...”
“The tube had been sealed since 1865,” Abe explained apologetically. “I’m afraid if there ever was a ship, it’s long gone now. Besides, while I don’t know precisely what I am... I do have the sense that I am from this world. I could, of course, be incorrect,” he added quickly, as though afraid to be thought rude.
Jack shrugged. “It’s your life. Gotta say, though, I’d think ‘alien’ would be a better explanation than anything else I can think of for something like you. Someone, I mean. I mean, what else? Magic?”
“It’s a popular theory.”
Jack turned to follow the deep, rolling voice and found himself face to face with... “Whoa!” A really big, reg guy with... what looked a whole hell of a lot like cut-off horns on his forehead.
“Red, this is the guy they sent out from England to work with us.” Liz stepped up to the big guy’s side like there was nothing unusual about this - which, Jack was quickly getting the idea, was exactly the case, for her at least. “Captain Jack Harkness. Jack, this is Red. Or, officially, Agent Hellboy.”
“Pleased to meet’cha,” ‘Red’ rumbled, eyeing Jack suspiciously. “Any reason I should know that your tools are on the ground, there, Blue?”
“We had... a bit of a misunderstanding, I’m afraid.”
“All cleared up, now,” Jack put in.
“Yeah. Good. So? You gonna look at this thing we got, or what?”
“Uh. Yeah. Yeah, let’s have a look.”
He spent the next twenty minutes listening to Abe and Liz discuss the little bipedal creature they’d found dead in the woods somewhere in New Hampshire. Apparently, at the time they’d found it they’d thought it might be an alien creature similar to one dealt with by Torchwood in recent years, but since then it had turned out to have more supernatural origins. “We’ve had to ice it three times to keep it down,” Liz explained. “The second time it woke up and bit Abe’s finger while he was working on it.”
“Ouch,” Jack commented, looking a little nervously at the rows upon rows of tiny, needle-like teeth on the little creature.
“Indeed.” Abe waved one finger, topped with an incongruous tan band-aid.
“Well, I wish I could help, but it doesn’t look at all like what Torchwood had - I took a look at our specimen on ice before I came here, and it was definitely taller, greyer, and less hairy. As for what this is...”
“We think it might be a form of troll,” Liz suggested. “There’s a good-sized population of them in the forested areas around the Catskills, we’ve just never seen one that looked like this. They do have a pretty broad range of variation, though.”
“Trolls. Aren’t they... usually bigger? I mean, in stories?”
“Certain species,” Abe agreed. “Some are quite small, however. If you would like to see samples...?”
Jack laughed. “I’d rather not, if it’s all the same to you. This is all a bit...” He waved his hands, trying to restrain a bubbling near-giggle that was trying to catch up on him. “Torchwood really does only deal with alien threats.”
“So we don’t need to worry about you breathing down our necks, now that you’ve met us, huh?”
Jack glanced back at the big... well, at Agent Hellboy. “No. No, I’ve seen threats to Earth, and I’ve seen people who are just doing their jobs. You guys, definitely the latter.”
“Good to hear.”
“So.” Jack clapped his hands together, rubbing them briskly. “Now that our case is solved, what say we go out for a beer? I owe you all one, I think. How about it?”
Liz smiled. “Sure, we could--”
“Nope,” Hellboy interrupted gruffly. “Early day tomorrow, remember, Liz? Early day. Can’t go out. Too bad.”
“Red,” Liz complained.
“Come on, Liz... remember?” Almost pleading, now.
Liz scowled and, to Jack’s surprise, he saw bright gold flames appear out of nowhere to lick at the backs of her hands and neck as she glared at her... co-worker? Lover? He was starting to strongly suspect the latter, given the undertones of their conversation.
“Hey, that’s cool, if you guys have an early day. No problem. Maybe Abe and I here’ll just...”
“I don’t drink, I’m afraid.”
Damn. Tough crowd. “You gotta eat, though, right? Come on... I really do owe you one for pulling the gun on you, and I want to make it up to you before I go back tomorrow. Whatever you like.”
“We don’t really get out much, apart from missions, I’m afraid. Particularly not Red or I.” Abe’s elegant fingers made a gesture that took in his eyes, the gills, and everything beneath. “Too conspicuous.”
“I’ve got the solution, then.” Jack pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Delivery.”
* * *
They used one of the phones at the Bureau, in the end, as Jack remembered that Torchwood was less than fond of receiving colossal cellphone charges for so-called 'frivolous calls' while roaming in a foreign country, but they did manage to find a local Thai place that was both open, and had a few dishes on the menu that both thought they could share. Fermented fish sauce didn’t sound like something Jack would normally have ordered, but he was willing to try anything, particularly on what he thought of as a date. It couldn’t be worse than some of the stuff he’d eaten back in the Time Agency, he reminded himself. And with the addition of a few Thai beers, purchased on the hope that Abe might change his mind about sharing later on, his plans were well in motion.
“So, you three work together all the time, then? You, Liz, and Red, I mean?” Jack asked as they dished out noodles, vegetables and chicken onto two plates that Abe had retrieved from somewhere in the back cupboards of the library they were now sitting in. The far wall of the room opened out into a giant water tank, so Jack assumed this was Abe’s personal quarters. If they were, the amount of books were impressive, if slightly impractical for a guy who presumably spent a lot of his time in the water.
“Oh, yes. There are other agents who join us on missions on occasion, but the three of us are a permanent team.”
“I’d like that. A team I can really be close with, really trust. I had it for a while, a long time ago, but...” Jack sighed, thinking of the Doctor and Rose. “Things got complicated. They... had to leave.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Abe offered.
“Happens.” Jack shrugged and deftly picked up a piece of eggplant with his chopsticks in one hand, lifting his beer for a sip with the other. “Everybody leaves, after a while. At least I know they’re safe, wherever they are. They were...” He paused, searching for a word, and then smiled sadly. “Fantastic. They were fantastic.”
“You...” Abe hesitated. “I don’t mean to pry, but...?”
“I was in love with them. Both of them, in their ways.” Jack shrugged. “More him than her, I guess, maybe, but she was...” He laughed softly. “They were both something really special.”
“I... believe I know what you mean.”
Abe looked so sad just then that Jack knew he’d been through something similar. Jack had a feeling he knew - there’d been a quiet, unspoken chill between him and his friends earlier, he thought. “You?” he asked gently. “I mean, if you need to talk about something... Hell, I’m gone tomorrow. It’s not like I could tell anyone who’d care, and you won’t have to see me again, knowing that I know. I know how hard it is, falling for someone who isn’t interested...”
“Hmm? Oh. Oh, my, no. Not...” Abe’s hands fluttered slightly, and then he sighed. “No. Not Liz. The woman I loved... The only time I’ve ever been in love. She’s dead.”
“Shit. I’m sorry...”
“It’s been some time, now. Months. I... believe I am healing from it? But...” He frowned, as much as a guy without lips could, Jack supposed. “But I do wonder.”
“You’ll get over it. Believe me when I say, I’m older than I look, and I’ve buried more people I loved than I really want to talk about. It takes a long time, but you’ll find someone else, and you’ll heal. You might always hurt a little when you think of her, but... at some point, you’ll remember the good times more than the end.”
“That, I’m afraid, is part of the problem. We didn’t have time together. I tried... and nearly destroyed the world, to save her. I nearly gave up everything, to keep her from being harmed, and then... If not for Liz and Red, and another friend of ours...”
That explained some of the coolness, Jack thought.
“And now, Liz and Red have each other...”
And that explained the rest. Jack sighed, and wrapped a friendly arm around the other man’s shoulders. He felt slightly damp, but not unpleasantly so, and his skin was slightly cool to the touch.
“I can’t say much, other than that I promise it’ll fade with time,” Jack told him, “and that you’ll find someone else, if you give yourself a chance. You’re smart, good-looking...”
Abe made a vague scoffing noise.
“Seriously. Most men, and some women, would kill to have those abs. And most people would, to touch them.”
The cocked head this time was less quizzical, more shocked. Oh, you have got to be kidding me... “When you said she was the first person you’d been in love with... does that mean you’ve never had sex?”
If blue fish people could blush, Jack had a feeling Abe would have been blushing. As it was, his gills seemed to pinken and speed up their flutter quite a bit, and his expressive eyes blinked several times in rapid succession. “I have not,” Abe agreed, after a moment. “At least...”
“Not that you remember,” Jack filled in, remember Abe’s earlier remark about not remembering anything before he was removed from the tube or whatever. “Damn. I hope you won’t mind my saying, but that is a waste.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“A waste. It’s a waste for you... not to have someone. Not to enjoy everything your body can do, and everything another body can do with yours. I know this is kind of a prudish time period, but I’d never have believed that Humans even here could be so stupid. Unless you’re holding out for someone like you?”
Abe shook his head, still seeming utterly confused by their conversation. “I... I don’t believe there are any others like me.”
“I’d believe that. One of a kind.” Jack grinned, and reached out slowly, touching the smooth, faintly slick cheek and watching nictitating membranes flicker out over Abe’s eyes in another rapid blinking spasm. “Do you mind? Being touched like this, I mean?”
“No...”
“Just let me know if I do anything that you’re not comfortable with, then.”
They sat quietly for a long moment as Jack just touched the other man - gently exploring, letting his fingers wander over cool, soft skin, finding places on the jaw, neck, and chest that made Abe’s eyelids flutter and his mouth gape. And then he leaned forward, slowly - so slowly, telegraphing every movement to make sure he wouldn’t frighten his new friend - and pressed his lips gently against Abe’s mouth. Flat, lipless, and a little odd, but nonetheless sweetly uncertain and deliciously soft when the other man awkwardly returned the kiss.
“Should we be in the water?” Jack asked quietly, nuzzling at his mouth.
“I... I...”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve drowned for less,” he added, smiling to take any unintentional sting out of the words.
“But...?”
“Let’s just say I’m tougher than I look. And that’s not bad, hmm?” he teased. “Come on. Show me how to get into this thing, and we’ll figure the rest out from there.”
It turned out that there were stairs in the back, leading into the tank via an open area at the top, and, better, that a series of steps led into the tank as well. “You okay with here in the shallows?” Jack asked, tugging off his boots and setting them carefully away from the edge before stripping off his shirt and tossing it on top of them. “This way we can be in the water, but not so deep I can’t find footing and get to the surface when I need to.
“Ah... of course, yes, I...” Abe shook his head as if trying to clear it. “This is all very strange to me. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. Just tell me when to stop. I promise, I won’t be offended. A little disappointed, maybe,” he added with a grin, “but I’ve been told I come on strong. Don’t worry about hurting me - I’m good at handling rejection. Better to try and get a no than not try when the answer might’ve been yes. No is okay.”
Abe shook his head. “It’s not that. I would like... but... that is, I’ve never...”
“I know. That’s okay, too. First time for everything.”
After pulling off his socks and tossing them on top of the abandoned shirt and boots, Jack moved over and undid the fastenings on Abe’s trousers, tugging them gently down narrow hips and long, trim legs before looking up from his kneeling position. Apart from the look of perplexed wonderment, he felt like he could have been looking at some kind of ancient, alien idol carved out of turquoise and sapphire. “God, you’re gorgeous,” he breathed.
Abe, apparently confused, knelt down as well. Jack chuckled. “Okay. Let’s take this one step at a time. Come on - into the water.”
If Jack had thought he was gorgeous on land, he was totally unprepared for the strangely natural beauty of Abe in water. It was so clearly his native element - every movement, every slight gesture, now clearly came from, and moved into, the water around him, and his striped and mottled skin was clearly camoflauge, meant to disguise him in the water both from above and below, blending into the dark curves of the deep as seen from the surface, and the flickering patterns of light from beneath. For the first time in years, Jack was intensely grateful that he was a strong and skilled swimmer. Even out of practice, he was comfortable in the water, but next to Abe, he felt like an awkward, stupid ape. Go figure, he thought with a wry grin.
They played for a bit, chasing each other and getting used to each other in the water, until an underwater tackle turned naturally into an embrace. Jack thought about suggesting a return to the shallows, but Abe seemed to have no difficulty keeping them both at or just below the surface, and there was enough air at the top of the tank that he could easily breathe whenever he needed, so it seemed both pointless to disturb the moment.
* * *
When he got back to Britain, Jack packed his office and accepted his transfer to Wales without another complaint. If Yvonne was surprised, she didn’t ask for an explanation, and Jack was a bit relieved. He didn’t think she’d be particularly pleased to find out that not only had he not been any use to the American Bureau, but that he’d had a night of amazing sex with a non-human over there, into the bargain.
He only hoped the move to the Cardiff office would bring him just as much unexpected happiness.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-07 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-07 06:01 pm (UTC)It would be nice if the next time we saw Jack he was at an earlier point in his personal time-line, but, sadly, I sort of doubt they'll do that as long as RTD is in charge. He seems to love dragging poor Jack through as much angst as humanly possible.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-07 06:16 pm (UTC)But RTD is leaving soon...
no subject
Date: 2009-09-07 06:24 pm (UTC)He totally is. And I really, really hope that means Moffat will bring back fun con-man-Time-Agent Jack, rather than meaning that Moffat will ditch Jack altogether as part of RTD's tenure and not something he wants to play with anymore, now that he has the show to himself.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 01:26 am (UTC)My one criticism is that you don't have a lot of description. The visual ones, especially of Abe's body, are nice but you don't have a lot of describing what the characters are doing as they speak (shifting weight, moving hands, doing other things, etc.) or what their tones of voice happen to be like at the time. Including those would make the scenes seem more dynamic.