| Date: 18 February 2008
Characters: Jamie Tyler, Jack Harkness Location: hotel lobby, hotel dining room Link to IJ: thread #65981 |
 Jamie flopped down on a couch in the lobby, hand over his eyes and sighed exaggeratedly before bursting into giggles. |
 Jack grinned as he leaned against the front desk, watching the young man on the couch a moment. "Mind sharing the joke?" he asked, amusement coloring his voice. He didn't need to know the joke to appreciate the laughter, but he'd like to. |
| "Bunny surveillance," he said, still giggling. |
| Jack raised an eyebrow. "Ok...." He kept the grin on his face, pushing off the desk to prowl closer. "So, what sort of bunny surveillance are we talking about? Surveying of bunnies, observation by bunnies? Bunny statue, bunny hopping around? Playboy bunny?" |
| Jamie sat up, grinning, "Surveillance by a bunny, Jack. Do you know me?" |
| "Nope." Jack put a hand on the back of the couch, leaning against it while he looked down at Jamie with a grin. "Should I?" |
| "In some universe," he smiled, then held out his hand, "Nice to meet you, Jack." |
| Jack took the hand automatically, giving it a firm squeeze before letting go. "So, in this universe I know you, what do I call you?" He wasn't about to make any assumptions here. "And what's your name, since you have me at a bit of a disadvantage on that front." |
| "Well, that you call me depends on your mood, but my name is Jamie." he grinned. |
| "Jamie. Nice." Jack tilted his head, curious. "So what do I call you when I'm in a good mood?" |
| "Sport," he drawled, a trifle embarrassed. |
| Jack's lips twitched, but he kept from laughing. "Well, that eliminates one possibility. If I'm pissed off?" |
| "...There's a lot of consonants in it and you have to make this weird clicking noise." |
| Jack raised an eyebrow. "Interesting." He shifted, crossing his arms as he leaned back on his heels. "What year are you from?" He had a short list of people he knew with offspring, most of them Torchwood personnel. And he had a few others in mind, but the last thing on his mind was his own offspring. The Time Agency really didn't want its agents producing offspring, with the amount of traveling around in time that they did. |
| "2009. What about you?" Jamie asked curiously. |
| "2024." Jack studied Jamie a moment. "Who are your parents?" He just didn't see the resemblence to anyone he could think of, though there was a niggling thought that he should know at least one of Jamie's parents. |
| He tugged an ear, sheepishly, "Why?" |
| Jack flashed him an easy grin. "Just curious. Maybe I know them." |
| "You do," he grinned, "Are you still working for Torchwood?" |
| "Cryptic much?" Jack chuckled, leaning against the wall, slipping his hands into his pockets. "Still running Torchwood. Expanded the facilities a bit, let Gwen start in on public relations." Rather, he'd dropped that project in her lap after she'd come back from her honeymoon with Rhys, and restricted her field hours a bit. Something to give her a chance to devote time to her family and life outside of Torchwood. |
| "Wasn't that why you hired Gwen in the first place? The connection with the local police and genuine people skills?" |
| Jack shrugged. "Didn't change the fact Torchwood was a pretty secret organization for a while. Public didn't really know what we were all about until I let Gwen have free reign in making them aware. Still don't get along with a lot of people, but that's to be expected." He could list the number of organizations and governments he hadn't ticked off on one hand, and still have fingers left over. Not that they'd stayed pissed off, but it was still a measure of how little humanity really wanted to accept that they really weren't alone in the universe, even now. Of course, they still hadn't gotten used to the fact they weren't alone on their own planet, so perhaps he could cut them a little slack. |
| "...You declassified? Huh. Interesting." |
| "Not all of it. They're still not ready for half the stuff we keep in the basement." Jack shrugged. "Enough to keep them happy, not enough to scare them into hiding under a rock." |
| "It takes time and people would rather it weren't real." |
| "And that doesn't change for a while yet." Jack shrugged one shoulder. "And for some things, that never changes." Even in the fifty-first, he didn't think humanity wanted to know about some of the other beings that came from their own world. |
| "But that's people." |
| "Yeah." Jack shrugged. "So, anything interesting around here that you'd suggest looking for?" |
| "Depends on what you're interested in." |
| "Meeting people, talking, relaxing. Maybe seeing if anyone else I know is here." |
| "There's a bunch of you here," he admitted, "The Doctor." |
| "The Doctor? Which regeneration?" Jack grinned at the mention of the Doctor. It had been a while since he'd seen him. |
| "A couple of them apparently, but I've only met the skinny one. The one after the one you met. I've seen Gwen, Tosh, Tosh, and Ianto in passing." |
| "Skinny, wild hair and a suit?" Jack chuckled. "He's actually the third regeneration I've met." He leaned his head back against the wall, a warm smile on his face. "Gwen and Tosh and Owen and Ianto. It hasn't been just us five in years. Almost miss those days." |
| "How many do you have now?" he asked interestedly. Mostly because well. All five of them? Still alive? |
| Jack lifted his head, looking sideways at Jamie, mentally counting the staff. "Counting support staff, about fifteen. Three night crew, an intern to do the office work, another doctor that Owen passes off the more routine autopsies onto. A full-time therapist and a librarian. Three new field agents to chase after aliens during the day." |
| Jamie grinned, "That's almost like being an office manager, D- Jack." |
| Jack noticed the slip, and frowned a second, before shaking it off with a slight movement of his head. Though this more because he wasn't sure he wanted to connect the dots. Really. "Don't remind me," he said instead, groaning in mock-despair. "Vain hasn't let me hear the end of it!" Neither had the Doctor, either, but he wasn't around as much to tease Jack about it. |
| "Vain?" |
| "Friend of mine, met her when she and the Doctor showed up at Kennedy Space Center in . Stopped a group of alien religious nuts from sabotaging Apollo ." Jack chuckled, remembering the mission. "She drives Gwen up a wall." Something about Vain being a cold-hearted bitch, and Gwen being a naive bleeding heart, according to each other. |
| "Gwen's sweet though." |
| Jack tilted his head, conceding that point. "And Vain doesn't have much empathy. Or sense of mercy." Actually, he was fairly certain her sense of mercy came packaged with her compassion in her partner. |
| "...nice," Jamie eyeballed Jack. |
| Jack grimaced, and shrugged. "I didn't say she was easy to get along with. And there isn't anything she's done that I can say I haven't done in the past." He met Jamie's gaze steadily. "At least she's the way she is by virtue of what she was raised as, not by the choices she made." |
| Jamie tossed a gumball from his pocket at Jack. "Stop trying to be creepy and broody at me. It doesn't work." |
| Jack caught the gumball with an unrepentant grin. "Sorry." |
| "As you should be," Jamie grinned, back. "I know you too well for you to scare me." |
| "And how do you know me that well?" He leered at Jamie a moment, tossing the gumball from hand to hand a moment. "Or was that slip earlier 'dad'?" |
| "Okay, please never do that again, you are too close to my dad for that not to be creepy. Also that really is just gum." |
| Jack shrugged, rolling the gum across the back of his fingers a moment. "Force of habit." He pocketed the gum, studying Jamie a moment. "So your dad is an alternate version of me?" It wasn't so much that the idea of offspring scared him, but that he doubted his ability to be a parent. Well, not doubted. He was confident he wouldn't make a good one, no matter anybody else's assertations to the contrary. Though maybe at least one version of himself had done better. |
| "Yeah," he grinned, "I keep waiting for one of you to recognize me but...I guess I'm a fluke." |
| "Maybe." Jack shrugged. "Who's your other parent?" |
| "I don't have another parent," Jamie shrugged. "Do you have any children?" |
| "Nope." Jack grinned. "Just a goddaughter and Torchwood." Enough to keep his hands full, and to make him proud enough for any parent. |
| "Now that's weird too. Most of the Jack's I've met have been pregnant at some point." |
| Jack shrugged. "Passed on that body-mod, and haven't been that careless with someone who can get me pregnant without it." |
| Jamie had another fit of the giggles, "Smart." |
| "Are you laughing at me?" Jack grinned, stalking towards Jamie, reaching out as if to tickle him. |
| Jamie squirmed away, still laughing, "Yes!" |
| Jack followed, putting on a mock-pout. "I'm hurt. My own offspring - from a different reality, but still, in some convoluted logic, mine - is laughing at me!" |
| "You love it," Jamie told him, grinning and letting Jack catch him, "Try to deny it." |
| Jack laughed. "Not with a straight face." He engulfed Jamie in a hug instead of tickling him, a tactic almost automatic in the years since the first of the kids who called him "uncle" were old enough to walk. |
| Jamie hugged back, equally automatic, fitting his face against Jack's shoulder with the ease of long, long practice, "Get that a lot?" |
| "Handful of kids I spoil, feed full of sugar and send back home." Jack pulled back after a moment, ruffling Jamie's hair with a grin. "They remind me of what humanity can be at its best." |
| "Kids don't have to be human to be wonderful," he smiled, straightening his hair. |
| "Nope. Not a lot of kids at home who aren't, though." Jack shrugged. "Not that you'd know from watching them who was and who wasn't." |
| "Tell me about them?" Jamie asked. |
| Jack grinned, sitting down on the couch, and stretching out to take up most of it, feet up on one end. "All of them?" |
| "Yeah," Jamie lifted Jack's legs, sat down, then put Jack's legs back down on his lap. |
| Jack leaned back against the arm of the couch, one arm draped over the back to keep his balance. "There are four of them, five when Vain and Max are visiting. Gwen and Rhys's son, Daffyd, he's twelve, curious about everything. Takes after his mother, always trying to play the peacemaker, the diplomat. "Eirian's the oldest, seventeen. Ianto's daughter, first time he met her she was six. He can't even remember meeting her mother, but most people don't remember meeting one of her species clearly. It's their best defense." He quirked a corner of his mouth up in a grin. "Al'kita came through the Rift with her mother two years ago. She's seven, cheerful, but a little clingy. More inclined to play than remember to study. "Marcus stays with Tosh or Dennis when he's not in the library, devouring books, or being dragged out to play by Daffyd and Al'kita. He's fourteen. Brilliant, talented, lost in the wrong century. He was dumped in Cardiff last year, and we can't get him home." Jack's face was hard a moment, remembering the circumstances of finding the terrified teen, before he took a deep breath, pushing the anger away. "And my goddaughter, when she's visiting. The little munchkin, Rhiannon. Curious, independent, and going to get someone killed trying to keep up with her one of these days. Stubborn, too." |
| Jamie mentally cataloged all those names and the descriptions, trying to reconcile that to his father and just. Not quite able. But. "Wait. Rhiannon? Red hair?" |
| Jack looked puzzled a moment. "Yeah. Is there a version of her in your reality?" It was a reasonable assumption, and better than thinking his goddaughter was here. |
| "No," Jamie shook his head, "She's here though. Relax, she has a nanny, she's save." |
| Jack snorted. "For however long the person can keep up with her, she has a nanny." He leaned back again, just a fraction. "It's when they can't keep up with her anymore I'll start to worry." |
| "I have a robot watching her," Jamie said a bit smugly. |
| "Might keep up with her longer, then." Jack grinned. |
| Jamie tried to get his memory going, "It's for her, I think she said." |
| "A bit later. Huh." Jack shifted, swinging his feet around to put them on the floor, leaning back against the couch. "How's she doing? Other than being minded by a robot?" |
| "She's a bit of a brat, actually," Jamie shrugged, "But I imagine it's because she's scared." |
| "If she's here alone, I'd be surprised if she wasn't scared," Jack said softly, a faint smile on his face. "There's enough in my universe that you don't want to be alone around when you're capable of taking care of yourself, much less only eleven or twelve." He wasn't trying to be creepy, or scary, it was just how it was. |
| "I think that's any universe," Jamie shrugged, "And she met an Ianto who didn't recognize her at all. I think that was hard on her." |
| "Seeing as it's the guest room at his flat that she stays at the most, I'm not surprised." Jack grimaced a little in sympathy. "You'd think from watching her that Ianto's her godfather, not me." |
| "I'm given to understand he's a bit more maternal than you are." |
| Jack snorted, grinning. "Or something. At least he has a clue what he's doing. I just feed her sugar and send her back to her parents." Well, and took her out and about Cardiff, and let her drag him to shops with the Torchwood credit card, and spoiled her as best he could. The indulgent uncle. Perhaps too indulgent sometimes. "What did she tell you about home?" He was curious what she'd said about their world, since most people, even in their universe, didn't tend to believe even half of it. |
| "Fairy tales. Well. Fairy tales at my home. I figured that's how she was alive." |
| "Vampires and weres, fey and elves and fairies?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "Not part of Torchwood's charter, but we're aware of them. They're not really common, but they're there. I even have one of them working for me - one of my night crew is a were. Zach. Decent enough, when the moon's not full. He has one of the cells with his name on it for then. Complete with porn and privacy curtain." He'd been amused when he found the night crew had decorated one of the cells on a slow night, padded and painted and installed a portable DVD player. Zach said it was better than trying to find other lone weres in Cardiff so he didn't go and infect anyone else. |
| "The only werewolves I"m aware of were the ones at Torchwood- when we were formed. Fairies are...big scary elementals." |
| "Fairies are insane, but that's a good assessment of them, also." Jack grimaced a moment. "Different sort of werewolves. Not aliens, but humans infected with a virus that mutates their DNA. They're not really human after that." Jack shrugged. "No one's quite sure what vampires are, because they don't talk about it. Only know that sunlight causes a lethal allergic reaction, they're chronically anemic, and they age very, very slowly." He ran a hand through his hair, and looked over at Jamie. "I need something to drink before I go hoarse. You want anything?" |
| Jamie nodded, standing up, "Water, yeah." |
| Jack stood up as well, heading off towards the doors that led to a dining room, if the menu board beside them was any indication. He raised picked a table near the doors to the kitchen, and settled into a chair that faced the biggest slice of the room, and thus the best for people-watching. He asked the server for a carafe of water, two glasses, and a mug of coffee, black before leaning back in his chair. "So, what has the me in your universe been doing all this time?" |
| "Running Torchwood," Jamie settled cross legged in a chair. |
| Jack raised an eyebrow. "Just running Torchwood? That sounds... boring, actually." |
| "Torchwood's pretty much a full time job." |
| "Still doesn't take up all the hours in a day, but..." Jack shrugged, wrapping his hands around his coffee when it arrived. "You probably avoid thinking about his social life, mostly, don't you?" He grinned, knowing how much of his own social life over the years was tied up with his sex life. And no matter what century, no matter how open people got about sex, it was one constant - offspring didn't want to know about their parents' sex lives, and vice-versa. |
| "You mean his sex life? Yes, I avoid thinking about it as often as possible. I know he has a lover. I mean. ...From What Rhi said your Torchwood is a lot different than my dad's." |
| Jack cocked his head to one side, a curious expression on his face. "What's the munchkin been saying about Torchwood?" A grin crept across his face. "Nothing bad, I hope." |
| "Just that she gets to go into the hub." |
| The good-natured grin vanished, and Jack sighed, leaning his head back to look up at the ceiling. "If she got into the Hub, I never heard about it. She's restricted to the Information Center, like every other kid. Library, classroom, or my office. And most of them treat that like getting called to meet with the headmaster - not a good thing. Because usually it means there's bad news, or they're in trouble." |
| "...Library? Classroom? ...Your office isn't in the hub?" |
| "Not for the last nine and a half years, since we renovated the building that's the Information Center now. Except for the last few months while we've been rebuilding after an arsonist targeted it." The Information Center, and every other building that could be publically identified as belonging to Torchwood. Jack raised an eyebrow, chuckling. "She told you she'd been in my office, and you thought it was in the Hub, didn't you?" |
| "Of course I did. I think I may have suggested you were a nutter." |
| Jack chuckled. "Wouldn't be the first time someone's suggested that." |
| "And have even been a bit right." |
| "Sometimes." Jack shrugged. "You don't work at the Time Agency - or Torchwood - without going a little crazy. Save the world only for it to go careening headlong towards another disaster." He grinned. "No one sane would keep doing that." |
| "Witness, the Doctor." |
| "Yeah." Jack shook his head with a grin. "Only on a grander scale. I'd give him a hand, but I've got other responsibilities right now. Might still go with him again, once Torchwood's firmly on its feet." |
| "It's not on it's feet?" |
| "Yes and no." Jack shrugged. "They're ready, but I don't think I'm ready to leave them on their own. And I have some friends I'd rather not leave behind, too." And that four of them worked for Torchwood meant that he could use the organization as an excuse not to leave Earth at the moment. |
| Jamie nodded, "I understand that." |
| Jack nodded absently, taking another sip of his coffee. "Speaking of friends, I should find Rhiannon before she gets into too much trouble." He grinned, setting his cup down. "She's almost as good at finding trouble as the Doctor, though at least what she finds usually isn't threatening to end the world, or the universe." |
| "She's with her nanny," Jamie nodded, "So you'll find her intact, I hope." |
| Jack laughed as he stood up, ruffling Jamie's hair. "I'm sure I'll find her in one piece. Whether her nanny is or not?" He shrugged, heading for the door. "Thanks for making sure she had someone to keep an eye on her, though." |
| "Not a problem," he smiled, "Have fun, Jack." |