That Certain Night (4/5)

[cen_sceal]

Title: That Certain Night

Author: Meabhair

Summary: AU – Ianto Jones turned down an interview with his ex’s company and decided on a better offer.

Characters: Ianto Jones, Rose Taylor, 9^th Doctor

Pairing: budding Rose/Doctor, prior Ianto/Lisa

Warnings: AU, un-beta’d, PG-13  

Spoilers: Season 1 New Who, pre Season 1 Torchwood

 

Disclaimer: This work is not intended for profit, and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s). Torchwood is ©2006-present British Broadcasting Service Wales (BBC Wales).   Doctor Who is © 1963-present British Broadcasting Service (BBC). Copyrighted material is used without permission of the BBC. 

 
 

 

Chapter 4 of 5

 

The alien fish turned a corner, then another, before diving towards a narrow alley between an abandoned shop and the end of a row of old apartments.  They followed around the corner, nearly running into the back of the leather jacket. The Doctor looked round the area, an alley with several different turns off it.   It was quiet with no hint as to where the alien fish had gone.

“Some warning would be nice!” griped the blonde girl. “Where’d he go?”

“Impatient, yeah? I may be brilliant, but I do need a moment to have a look around. Those Naa’mh are usually a polite lot, very conservative. Some of the politest people you’d meet, boring parties though. Their culture does not really give much in the way of fun things to do. Their teenagers get some time to travel around before they settle down, see how other people live, get to spread their wings, before they take on their responsibilities. Some of them just get a bit carried away.”

“Alien Amish? On an intergalactic gap year?” Ianto asked, raising his eyebrows.

“’Course not, they’re not intergalactic anything. Only a few hops away on an interstellar transit. Try keep up.” The man replied, while waving what looked like a very fancy torch with a small blue light round. 

“You’re not arguing with the rest of the description” grinned the blonde, “So, that’s as good as admitting he’s right. Us dumb apes aren’t so dumb, yeah?”

“Never said that, did I? Anyway, he’s over there. Keep up.”

He was off again, running towards one of the branches off the alley, not looking back and assuming the two younger people were keeping up.  Ianto rolled his eyes as he took the unspoken order, causing the blonde girl to laugh at him as they began to jog after the retreating form. 

“Yeah, he’s like that. ‘m Rose Taylor, by the way. Nice job with the distraction back there. You ok?”

“Jones. Ianto Jones. I’m fine. Worldview’s a little broken, but nothing that an espresso won’t fix later, thanks. Any idea what the story is now?”

“No, but the Doctor will, don’t worry we do this all the time. He’ll have a plan, just won’t work out the way he thinks it will.”

“Ah. The Plan C school of thought then?” 

Rose laughed, causing Ianto a moment of jealousy that she could do that and jog at the same time, “You could say that, yeah!”

As they turned the corner, they saw that the Doctor had cornered the talking fish between a barbed wire fence and a dumpster. Ianto rolled his eyes at the clichéd dialogue he was coming out with, then rolled his eyes again at the sheer foolishness of running after a probably armed alien with a bloke in a leather jacket and a short blonde girl. Why he’d thought that was a good idea, he was not sure, but hopefully he’d walk away from this alright. 

“It’s not that bad” the Doctor continued in a soft voice to the alien fish, “You’re not the first one to have some troubles in your Time of Experiment, you haven’t hurt anyone. You can go back, if you want. If not, you can go to a planet that’s used to space travel. You won’t be alone.”

“How can you understand, you’ve never been exiled for something that wasn’t your fault”

The Doctor snorted, his face conveying his opinion of that statement with what Ianto would describe as an old fashioned look. But, in fairness, he continued on in a soothing voice.

“I’m a bit older than you, lad, I’ve seen this on both sides of the fence. I can help you.  Let me help you.  Give me the sonic blaster, it’ll be fine”

The alien hesitated and Ianto tensed, ready to push Rose behind him again, before the alien slowly pulled the gun thing from the small of his back and handed it to the Doctor. Ianto and Rose started forward, but the Doctor made a warning gesture. 

“Right, so, me an’ my new friend here need to head to a port. Rose, you wait here. Don’t wander off, I’ll be back to pick you up in a bit. Right, off we go!”

“Oi! You’re not serious! Wait here? What am I, a suitcase? You’ll pick me up in a bit?”

Ianto rolled his eyes. It was obvious that the Doctor needed to keep Rose out of the picture for some reason, and get the alien somewhere safe. It was also apparent that the Doctor had picked the worst way possible to tell her. It was equally obvious that Rose didn’t see that it was safer for everyone if she did what the Doctor had said.

“So, this may be business as usual for you lot, but can someone explain to me what happened? Like I said, my world view’s been broken, needs espresso to fix. Maybe you’d explain it to me in a way that won’t explode my brain?”

Ianto held his breath, the last bit was blatantly appealing to Rose’s ego, but he was gambling that at least part of her was as young as she appeared. The Doctor seemed to be torn between approval and jealousy, as Rose nodded and linked her arm to Ianto’s. 

“Oh, well, that’s nothing, just a bit of high spirits. My mate, Shirleen, met her in school, bit of a mad one, but she was going out with this bloke. From one of those posh schools, yeah? Anyway, the things he’d get up to! Let me tell you...”

Amused at her attempts to distract him, Ianto steered her back towards the cafe, and hoped that he was going to find Ben behind the counter, rather than the boss. Yep, it was one of those days alright. 

Chapter 5 of 5