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crossoverficTitle: Time Out in Washington (10/18)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fides
Pairing: Jack/Ianto, Mulder/Krycek (mostly UST), Mark/Nicholas discussed but whether there is any truth behind the suggestion is open to the reader's interpretation
Fandom: X-Files/Torchwood/Dr Who/The State Within
Rating: NC-17 overall (most parts PG/PG-13, only one part is NC-17 and that part can be skipped with minimum confusion if you want to read the plot but are put off by the idea of graphic sex)
Warnings: Spoilers for The State Within. Some violence and fantasy sexual violence
Disclaimer: None of the recognisable characters are mine, Santa has been really falling down on his job recently, but belong to their respective right holders
Sequal to 1. Plus Ça Change, 2. Hobson's Choice
Prequel to Interlunation
Previous Parts: Part 1 - Prologue -:- Part 2 - Sir Mark -:- Part 3 - Jack -:- Part 4 - Azzam -:- Part 5 - Mulder -:- Part 6 - Skinner -:- Part 7 - Scully -:- Part 8 - George -:- Part 9 - Alex and Fox
Summary: Finding out Jack's secret in the worst possible way (Hobson's Choice), Alex takes a break from Torchwood Three while he comes to terms with events and his anger towards Jack. To give him the time he needs, Jack arranges a secondment for Alex at the British Embassy in Washington working with the secret service to counter threats to the Ambassador's family. But with Mulder around things don't go to plan and Alex discovers that aliens aren't that easy to leave behind.
Notes: I know that the timelines don't quite fit so I decided to fudge things a little because it was too tempting to compare Torchwood and the Consortium. This story is set concurrent with the early part of X-Files season 6, during the second half of Torchwood season 1, during the time of the 12th Doctor (Doctor Who) and about a year after the events in The State Within. In depth (or indeed any) knowledge of the included fandoms isn't required so please don't let them put you off. Thanks tomoth2fic for the beta. Any and all remaining mistakes are own.
Alex practically bounced with repressed energy as he stalked through the hospital hallway. If he had just been there. Fucking Mulder. He loved the man but sometimes he wanted to shoot him, badly. Or at least fuck some understanding into his thick head. Alex understood why Nicholas had switched their assignments. With the threat to Azzam there was no way they could risk the FBI pulling him in again when he was with the kid. Mark needed minding, but he could also raise merry hell if Mulder decided to try something - it made more sense that Alex shadowed him and Nicholas took over with the boy. No matter how logical, how right, the decision had been, what it came down to was that Alex hadn't been there when the shit went down. It wasn't that he didn't trust Nicholas' ability. The man had taken down five assailants and made sure that Azzam came out of it with little more than a grazed knee. Alex didn't know if he could have done as well. But it should have been him. And it should be him in surgery while Nicholas waited to hear the news and Mark took Azzam home. As it was, Azzam wouldn't leave until they heard about Nicholas, not that Mark was objecting to that with much conviction, and Alex had been sent to find a soda machine on the far side of the building as his restless pacing was scaring the staff.
He kept getting unhappy glances, quickly concealed, as he walked, probably for exactly the same reason that everyone was keeping out of his way. He knew how he must look and he didn't particularly care. It wouldn't do to upset people so much that they called security to remove him, and it was for that reason, or so Alex told himself, that he took a wide course around paediatrics. If that had resulted in his walking down corridors which were more populated by spiders than people then that was just good luck for all the poor unfortunates who might otherwise cross his path. The few cleaning staff and the odd nurse he passed didn't grate against his nerves or make his hand twitch for his gun in the way that the teeming halls had. Even the ever present smell of disinfectant seemed less pervasive in the relative quiet.
The sound of running feet was an unwelcome interruption. The echoing steps jumped from wall to ceiling and back, making it impossible to pinpoint the direction that they were coming from. Alex's hand was under his jacket and reaching for his gun before he realised what he was doing. He pushed down the instinct; there were many reasons that people ran in hospitals. It was probably a resident on call or someone late for their shift.
A tall, slender man who appeared at first sight to be a refugee from a Jane Austin costume party came swerving around a corner as Alex reached it and, even with the audible warning, nearly knocked Alex over in his hurry.
"So sorry," the man said politely in a clear English accent, brushing Alex's coat off unnecessarily. "Now I suggest you run."
Alex looked over the idiot's shoulder and did a double-take. What was coming down the corridor after him was not human. Alex revised his opinion of the man's mental status up from idiot and had his gun out and tracking the creature before he had consciously categorised the danger. At least the man had the native sense to run which was more than Alex did but gun in his hand and monster in his sights... it was the clearest and calmest he had felt since Mark had taken the call about the attack.
"Friend of yours?" he asked.
If his time in Torchwood had taught him anything it was not to make assumptions just because a ten foot creature with six arms, no head and slate grey skin was lumbering towards him with a hungry look on what he thought was its face. For all he knew that might be its way of saying hello.
The man skidded to a halt and looked back. "Yes. Best friends. In Love. Come to the wedding. The clue was in the 'run'."
That was where Alex wished he had Jack's, or one of the rest of the team's, knowledge of alien anatomy. Jack's, while broader, was also more esoteric and Alex wanted to stop the thing, not brighten its day. A glint of metal on the creature's torso caught his eye. The alien he might not have seen before but the alien device he had. Jack had called it a phase shifter and had had Ianto lock it straight in what Owen referred to as the naughty cupboard. Ianto had smirked at the description and his eyes had drifted to the entrance of Jack's room.
Taking careful aim, Alex did his best to ignore the particulars of what was bearing down on him at a worryingly fast rate of stagger. Given the particulars in question it was easier said than done.
'Just be in the moment. Breathe...' Jack's words came back to him, 'and sight the target...'
The gun kicked in his hand as he squeezed the trigger. Alex had just enough time to wonder if the creature could actually tear him limb from limb or whether it would merely steamroll over him when it shimmered. With a flash that brought tears to Alex's eyes it vanished into its own after-image.
"You killed it," the man exclaimed with a hint of accusation that Alex thought was very unfair given the circumstances.
"Pretty sure not." Alex breathed carefully as his heart rate dropped back to something close to normal. "Phase shifter on its shoulder. Took that out."
Alex was pleased to see there was a little bit of respect within the suspicion on the man's face as he stuck his hand out towards Alex.
"I'm the Doctor." He said the final word as if it should mean something. That was doctors for you. Alex took a surreptitious look around, just to check he hadn't accidentally wandered into some private research area.
"Alex Krycek," he said carefully. Not ready to give up his weapon he transferred it into his off-side, as he shook the offered hand. He wasn't quite as good with his left but he was good enough to buy the time to switch back to his right. His name wasn't exactly unknown in such quarters and he half expected to hear the sound of combat boots running down the corridor behind him. He could grab the doctor as a hostage but half the time the Consortium, if this was a Consortium operation, worked on a shoot-to-kill-hostages policy in the event of a security breach.
The doctor showed no recognition of his name but there was a undisguised curiosity in his face. "And who are you with, Alex Krycek?"
Alex was tempted to give a description of the statuesque blond nurse he had passed near radiography however under the penetrating stare of the man he bit the facetious comment back. "Torchwood," he admitted. The name wouldn't mean anything to most people.
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "You're a long way from home."
"Not as long as you are," Alex chanced.
A flicker of something ancient and sad passed over the Doctor's expression before he grinned. "So, Alex Krycek of Torchwood, what are you doing here?"
Alex frowned. "Getting a soda."
The Doctor laughed. Seeing Alex's dark look he stopped, still smiling in genuine amusement. "I love this planet," he announced.
Alex was beginning to wonder if he should revise his opinion of the man's mental status. If it wasn't for the strange depth in the man's eyes that belied his humour then he would have written the man off as possibly insane and definitely stupid. As it was, he had to take him at his word. Earth medicine didn't have the answers for what Jack was and Alex doubted it could explain the person standing in front of him either, no matter how human he looked.
"Wait," Alex put a few cryptic comments together. "The 'Doctor'? Jack's Doctor?"
The man cocked his head slightly. "Now that's a very interesting philosophical question. Very Torchwood. I'm everyone's Doctor so I suppose I am Jack's Doctor but I'm not Jack's Doctor, not like Jack is... what year is it... Ianto's Jack. But then when I knew him, your Jack wasn't my Jack even when he was Torchwood's Jack. It all gets very confusing when you start assigning ownership to people, doesn't it? Always best to avoid that for the sake of all concerned."
"Doctor," Alex broke in through gritted teeth, "do you know Captain Jack Harkness?"
"Know... no. Knew and possibly will know... yes." The Doctor grinned broadly. "All clear now."
Alex tightened his hold on the grip of his pistol and thought a number of uncomplimentary things about aliens. He put the gun away carefully. It didn't look like he would need it except for putting himself out of his misery.
The Doctor appeared to be paying no attention to Alex's actions as he look around the mostly featureless junction.
"Have you seen a police box around?" he asked. "Blue. Says 'Police' on the side."
Alex would have liked to ask what he had done in his life to deserve being run into by a mad alien, however even he had to admit that the list was long and bloody. Part of him wanted to just ignore the question, and the alien, and get back to his soda and tense waiting but, whether it was Torchwood's influence, knowledge of what happened if you let aliens wander around unattended or just the promise of a distraction, Alex knew he couldn't do that.
"Come on." Alex directed the Doctor back towards the more populated areas of the hospital. "Let's go find your police box before any more of those things try and find us."
The Doctor looked at him curiously. "How do you know that there are more?"
"Because there always are," Alex sighed. "I assume you can do something about that?"
"Maybe," the Doctor hedged, "once we've found my TARDIS."
"Close enough. Let's go."
Alex wondered if it was worth asking the obvious questions of where he had last seen the box or TARDIS or whatever it was. He wished Tosh was with them. When she got technical he only understood, at best, half of what she said but if anyone would know how to find an alien artefact misplaced in a hospital it would be her. Her, and her souped-up PDA which made his own model, which he had slaved over for months, look like it had been made by Fisher-Price. Not that he was jealous.
Directions from a rather bemused intern trying to catch a nap, and they were back navigating the populated thoroughfares and avoiding trolleys, orderlies, and the occasional rushing nurse. Plan One was to find someone who could point them in the direction of management to see where suddenly appearing large, blue boxes got moved to while their owners were getting distracted tinkering with the computer system. Although the Doctor had finally agreed to let Alex talk, and not to mention what he had been doing to their network.
"Doctor!" A young woman called with some relief.
Three people looked around at the shout but she ignored them, focused on the man by Alex's side. The Doctor smiled happily back at her as if being accosted by young women was a common occurrence for him. She was young in a they-seem-younger-every-year way; her brightness and freshness yet to be ground down by reality. Dark hair pulled back from her slightly tanned face and dark eyes snapping with life. She could be his daughter, Alex supposed, but he didn't think so. Lover, possibly, but again that didn't seem to fit the easy way they looked at each other.
"Dan found it," she said as she got closer. "It was blocking some duct or other so maintenance moved it down to one of the storage areas. We've found something else as well. It's red. Mostly. Sometimes it's green or blue."
English, Alex noted, and well-spoken enough that he couldn't pin down the accent as anything other than 'south'. He wondered if he should introduce himself.
"Red?" The Doctor brightened. "Well it can't be that bad then. Let's go take a look. "
With nothing better to do than drive himself insane while he waited, and concerned about the appearance of more of the aliens, Alex followed them.
The corridors got noticeably less well lit and more dusty as they walked. Even more so when the Doctor pulled out a pencil-length metallic object and did something to a lock allowing them to slip through an 'authorised personnel only' door and make their way into the underbelly of the hospital. Bare concrete and exposed piping reminded Alex of more than a few factories he had broken into; they obviously had the same decorators. Despite the Doctor's insistence that he knew where he was going they made at least two wrong turns before they found themselves in a large storage area, not that the Doctor would admit as much. Alex felt his eyebrows rise as a young man stepped out of a tall blue box in the corner which, Alex noted, did indeed have 'Police' written on the side. He limped towards them, his right leg pulling slightly as he walked. Dan, presumably.
"Everything looks good, Doctor," he greeted them. His eyes flicked over Alex but like the girl he didn't question Alex's presence. Alex would have liked to think it was his ability to seem harmless and blend in but suspected that it was just that they were used to the Doctor turning up with random people and little or no explanation. Of course, if they were aliens then they could have some telepathic thing going on that Alex didn't know about.
"So where's this thing you found?" The Doctor wasn't quite bouncing but Alex could see the excitement lighting up his face. It was an expression he recognised from Mulder when he had a new mystery, Tosh when she had some new technology to crack, and the mirror when he had a plan to form. It might not be the thing that made them tick, but it was what made them tick faster.
Dan turned exasperated eyes towards the girl but, while she gave a little apologetic shrug in return, it didn't detract from her own eager look.
"Over there." The man waved towards another badly lit area of the room. He wasn't uninterested, Alex realised, just not as ready to rush in as the other two. Now Alex was looking carefully he could just see a red glow around a stack of crates.
The Doctor leading the way, they approached slowly. It was as much caution as to accommodate Dan's slightly halting gait. He could probably move as fast as any of them over short distances if it came to running for it but Alex doubted it would be comfortable for him. Closer he could see that the man was younger than he had first thought, the carefully trimmed moustache and goatee adding years that time had not yet got around to. Dark eyes were surrounded by smile lines and silver glinted at both lobe and top of each ear. He probably wasn't much older than the girl although some maturity about him suggested he had had a harder life. Or had lived somewhere they couldn't afford to let kids have a long childhood. They acted like siblings, pulling faces and pushing each other surreptitiously as they walked, but given the differences in features and accent (he still couldn't place the man's) he didn't think they were related either to each other or to the Doctor. Alex mentally classified it as an interesting setup and filed it away in favour of more immediate concerns.
The 'thing', when they rounded the boxes to see it clearly, was no more than ten centimetres in diameter and seemed to be made of light which Alex could only describe as fuzzy, if light could be fuzzy. Working at Torchwood had taught him that 'don't touch' (or inhale) was a good rule to work by so Alex didn't give in to the temptation to see if it was possible to stroke it. It was red in the same way that a shepherd's sunset was red, the colours streaking and swirling around the thing as it moved slightly, swaying in some force that the rest of them couldn't feel. Deep blue and green fronds that might have been nothing more than shadows and after-images wove within the mass, underlining the bright colours. It wasn't noticeably ticking or making any kind of structured change which could be a countdown, something which was frequently a good sign in an alien artefact. Nothing else about it was noticeably reassuring. Without meaning to, Alex edged himself closer to the nearest solid object.
"What is it?" Alex asked after they had stared at it for so long he was beginning to wonder if it had some kind of hypnotic quality beyond its aesthetics.
"I think..." the Doctor frowned at it and drew the silver cylinder from his pocket. Alex was pretty sure it was what the Doctor had waved at the door earlier. Since the thing most definitely wasn't a lock, Alex hoped the gadget did more than open things.
The Doctor muttered to himself as he pointed the device at the object. His companions paid close attention but Alex refused to believe that either of them understood what the Doctor was saying any more than he did. The object began to glow in a way that Alex really didn't like. Grabbing the two youngsters he hustled them behind some canisters which in all likelihood would be no protection if the thing exploded. The girl, and he realised he still hadn't got her name, glared at him crossly but peered around the side of the containers rather than returning to the Doctor's elbow.
"Got it!" the Doctor exclaimed triumphantly. "I should have realised with the phase radiation, the Tollorian photon entanglement principle, and..." he looked around confused, "what are you three doing back there?"
Alex opened his mouth to answer and decided if it wasn't obvious then he shouldn't bother. The girl slid past him without so much as a glance in his direction but Dan gave him a smile as they came out from behind their cover together.
"So what is it?" the girl asked as she got back to the Doctor's side.
"As far as I can tell, it's used as part of a bonding ritual and to increase manual dexterity in the physical development stage of the life cycle"
Alex stared at him, not entirely sure he could believe what he was hearing.
"A child's toy," the girl stated flatly. Alex got the impression she was a bit disappointed.
"If you want to put it like that," the Doctor said a bit sniffily, "I suppose so, yes."
"Bad luck, Mina," Dan teased in a low voice. "We can save the world again next time. At least it's pretty."
Alex didn't catch her non-verbal response as he looked from the Doctor to the glowing toy and back. He was almost sure it was glowing slightly brighter and the fronds wiggling faster.
"So, it's perfectly safe?" he double-checked.
The Doctor glanced at him, slightly distracted as he poked at the end of a brightly coloured protrusion. "Oh, not in the slightest."
Alex stared, waiting for him to elaborate, but the Doctor had returned to playing with the toy. As his finger passed close to any of the strands they swayed away from his touch. He seemed delighted by the interaction.
"Doctor," Alex ground out.
The Doctor looked up surprised and Alex pointedly directed his attention back to the ball with his eyes.
"Oh, don't worry. We have a few thousand years before the shielding wears out and it goes critical. But probably best not to leave it lying around." The Doctor gave Alex a pointed look. "You never know what type of people might find it."
Mina looked so attentive Alex wanted to pat her on the head and give her a dog biscuit. "What do we need to do?"
The Doctor straightened, scooping the toy up as he did. He smiled. "We throw it back."
"Back?" Dan said, looking around.
The Doctor nodded. "It doesn't belong in this phase. It malfunctioned and slipped through."
"It fell into the neighbour's yard," Alex realised. "That was what the alien wanted. It was trying to get its ball back."
The memory of the alien loomed in his mind. If that was one of the kids he hoped never to meet one of the adults.
The Doctor's eyes sparkled. "Catch."
Alex found himself holding the glowing ball before he had thought about whether he wanted it or not. It was slightly warm to the touch, tickling his palm as it moved. He was a highly trained assassin and had survived through situations which would have driven other men insane so he did not scream and drop the thing - but it was close. Looking at the shifting colours he concentrated on how much Mulder would love to be in his skin right at that moment. There was something so pleasingly dirty about the thought that he could ignore whatever it was the Doctor was doing with his strange little device and the fact that it was pointing at him as much as it was pointing at the thing in his hand. It was changing colour again, rippling happily as it cycled through the various shades of red, orange and pink.
"Ready?" the Doctor asked.
Alex nodded, not entirely trusting himself to speak. There was a definite squirmy feeling against his skin and it was only the bright, swirling colours that were in no way inky-black which allowed him to keep hold. He was more than ready to deep-six the thing.
"Fore!" Mina called, giggling slightly, as Alex pitched the ball down the room as hard as he could.
As it travelled it grew brighter until, with a flash of brilliance that left his eyeballs tearing, it vanished from sight. Alex blinked a few times to try and persuade the splodges in his vision to follow the ball into non-existence.
The silence that followed had a slightly anti-climactic edge.
"So, in however many thousand years, when that thing went boom," Alex said conversationally, "how big a punch would we have been talking?"
The Doctor looked thoughtful. "That thing. The matter~quasi-matter interaction... no more than half the city. Maybe two-thirds. Of course that would be Washington then rather than Washington now."
"And that was a kids' toy?" His palm and fingers tingled where they had been touching the thing as if his skin was imagining what would have happened if it had gone off while still in his hand.
"Don't worry," the Doctor said cheerily, "it's perfectly inert now it's returned to its own phase. It was just contact with ours that caused the problem."
What worried Alex the most was that that actually made some kind of sense.
"So are we ready to go," Dan asked, "or do we need to do more shopping?"
The Doctor looked over to Mina. "Did you get everything?"
She nodded; Alex thought her cheeks looked a little reddened.
"I can't believe we had to stop to pick up toiletries," Dan grumbled.
Mina gave him a defiant stare. "And I can't believe that the TARDIS didn't have what I needed."
"Which was what exactly?"
"None of your business." Mina pointedly turned and started walking towards the blue box which Alex assumed was the TARDIS they had all been talking about. Alex noticed she did so slow enough that Dan had no problem catching up. They were bickering about where they wanted to go next right up until they stepped through the box's door. It didn't seem like a good recipe for a small space; still that was hardly the strangest thing he had seen that day.
Alex and the Doctor followed at a quieter and more sedate pace, Alex carefully looking around for any signs of more alien activity he needed to worry about.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at him. "You coming?" he asked as they drew close to the box.
"That," Alex didn't know whether he should be impressed or sceptical, "is your spaceship?"
He supposed a blue box with Police on the side was at least different from the traditional designs of 'saucer' or 'phallic'.
The Doctor patted the side proudly. "That's my old girl. She can go anywhere, she can. She's a TARDIS. Any time, any place."
Alex couldn't help but think of Jack with the description and firmly squashed down the little voice in the back of his head that sounded a lot like Ianto and was chuckling.
The Doctor peered at him. "You want to see?"
"I've got a friend upstairs..." Alex began reluctantly. That, and he had come to Washington to get away from aliens for a bit, not that he was about to mention that part.
The Doctor looked at him like he was an idiot. "Time machine," he said distinctly, emphasising the first word. "I can have you back the minute we leave."
He was right - Alex was an idiot. As aliens went this one seemed friendly, which was a nice change, but how many people thought that before vanishing from earth never to be seen again? The Doctor knew Jack, and not in a bad way, which could mean almost anything; Jack clearly had some good old, bad old days quietly hidden away. Did Alex want to put himself in the hands of an alien who seemed to think that the nineteenth century was the height of style and whose sanity was clearly in question? On the one hand, if he let a little thing such as mental state, or fashion sense, put him off he would have been heading away from Cardiff as fast as he could go five minutes after arriving at Torchwood Three and the thought of what he could learn was staggering; on the other...
"The minute we leave?" he asked, wanting to be sure. There was nothing he could do at the hospital except get in the way and going with the Doctor meant he could actually be doing rather than waiting. He didn't do waiting well when it wasn't something he had planned.
"The nanosecond," the Doctor said sincerely.
"Why not?" Alex agreed. All of the reasons why this was undoubtedly a bad plan clamoured for his attention. He ignored them; sometimes you just had to go under the wire.
The Doctor opened the door for him and, not totally sure he believed he was actually doing it, and worse doing it without his gun in his hand, Alex stepped inside. The first thing he noticed was that it was much bigger then one would have expected given the external dimensions.
"Huh," was all Alex said.
The second was that he was being watched expectantly. The two youngsters looked away from him quickly as he turned to see why they were staring at him.
"He didn't say it," Dan muttered to Mina.
Alex supposed most visitors hadn't worked at Torchwood Three. He could feel the curiosity burning off them like a small supernova. If they lived with a friend of Jack's in a blue box that was bigger on the inside then they were probably coming up with all sorts of amazing reasons why a man, or someone who appeared to be a man, whom they picked up wandering around a Washington hospital, wasn't more impressed. Anyone else would have assumed head trauma or psychological problems.
"My boss, Jack, he has a box which is similar." He put them out of their misery.
"Really?" Mina looked intrigued. "What does he use it for?"
Alex opened his mouth and shut it again, trying to decide on the best way to answer the question.
"Just keeps things in it." He shrugged the importance away.
"Yasmine Ashtari and Chandan Mehta." The Doctor could not have popped back up at a better time as far as Alex was concerned. Not that Jack would care about Alex bandying his personal life around to total strangers but there were just some things you did not admit to knowing about your boss. "This is Alex Krycek." He introduced him somewhat belatedly.
"Dan," the so-named young man put in.
"No time for that now," the Doctor interrupted before Alex could respond, waving him away from the controls. "Things to do, places to go." He looked over to where Alex stood. "So one trip. Anywhere in time and space. Where do you want to go?"
Alex smiled. There was only one answer to that.
Next Part...
Author:
fidesPairing: Jack/Ianto, Mulder/Krycek (mostly UST), Mark/Nicholas discussed but whether there is any truth behind the suggestion is open to the reader's interpretation
Fandom: X-Files/Torchwood/Dr Who/The State Within
Rating: NC-17 overall (most parts PG/PG-13, only one part is NC-17 and that part can be skipped with minimum confusion if you want to read the plot but are put off by the idea of graphic sex)
Warnings: Spoilers for The State Within. Some violence and fantasy sexual violence
Disclaimer: None of the recognisable characters are mine, Santa has been really falling down on his job recently, but belong to their respective right holders
Sequal to 1. Plus Ça Change, 2. Hobson's Choice
Prequel to Interlunation
Previous Parts: Part 1 - Prologue -:- Part 2 - Sir Mark -:- Part 3 - Jack -:- Part 4 - Azzam -:- Part 5 - Mulder -:- Part 6 - Skinner -:- Part 7 - Scully -:- Part 8 - George -:- Part 9 - Alex and Fox
Summary: Finding out Jack's secret in the worst possible way (Hobson's Choice), Alex takes a break from Torchwood Three while he comes to terms with events and his anger towards Jack. To give him the time he needs, Jack arranges a secondment for Alex at the British Embassy in Washington working with the secret service to counter threats to the Ambassador's family. But with Mulder around things don't go to plan and Alex discovers that aliens aren't that easy to leave behind.
Notes: I know that the timelines don't quite fit so I decided to fudge things a little because it was too tempting to compare Torchwood and the Consortium. This story is set concurrent with the early part of X-Files season 6, during the second half of Torchwood season 1, during the time of the 12th Doctor (Doctor Who) and about a year after the events in The State Within. In depth (or indeed any) knowledge of the included fandoms isn't required so please don't let them put you off. Thanks to
moth2fic for the beta. Any and all remaining mistakes are own.Alex practically bounced with repressed energy as he stalked through the hospital hallway. If he had just been there. Fucking Mulder. He loved the man but sometimes he wanted to shoot him, badly. Or at least fuck some understanding into his thick head. Alex understood why Nicholas had switched their assignments. With the threat to Azzam there was no way they could risk the FBI pulling him in again when he was with the kid. Mark needed minding, but he could also raise merry hell if Mulder decided to try something - it made more sense that Alex shadowed him and Nicholas took over with the boy. No matter how logical, how right, the decision had been, what it came down to was that Alex hadn't been there when the shit went down. It wasn't that he didn't trust Nicholas' ability. The man had taken down five assailants and made sure that Azzam came out of it with little more than a grazed knee. Alex didn't know if he could have done as well. But it should have been him. And it should be him in surgery while Nicholas waited to hear the news and Mark took Azzam home. As it was, Azzam wouldn't leave until they heard about Nicholas, not that Mark was objecting to that with much conviction, and Alex had been sent to find a soda machine on the far side of the building as his restless pacing was scaring the staff.
He kept getting unhappy glances, quickly concealed, as he walked, probably for exactly the same reason that everyone was keeping out of his way. He knew how he must look and he didn't particularly care. It wouldn't do to upset people so much that they called security to remove him, and it was for that reason, or so Alex told himself, that he took a wide course around paediatrics. If that had resulted in his walking down corridors which were more populated by spiders than people then that was just good luck for all the poor unfortunates who might otherwise cross his path. The few cleaning staff and the odd nurse he passed didn't grate against his nerves or make his hand twitch for his gun in the way that the teeming halls had. Even the ever present smell of disinfectant seemed less pervasive in the relative quiet.
The sound of running feet was an unwelcome interruption. The echoing steps jumped from wall to ceiling and back, making it impossible to pinpoint the direction that they were coming from. Alex's hand was under his jacket and reaching for his gun before he realised what he was doing. He pushed down the instinct; there were many reasons that people ran in hospitals. It was probably a resident on call or someone late for their shift.
A tall, slender man who appeared at first sight to be a refugee from a Jane Austin costume party came swerving around a corner as Alex reached it and, even with the audible warning, nearly knocked Alex over in his hurry.
"So sorry," the man said politely in a clear English accent, brushing Alex's coat off unnecessarily. "Now I suggest you run."
Alex looked over the idiot's shoulder and did a double-take. What was coming down the corridor after him was not human. Alex revised his opinion of the man's mental status up from idiot and had his gun out and tracking the creature before he had consciously categorised the danger. At least the man had the native sense to run which was more than Alex did but gun in his hand and monster in his sights... it was the clearest and calmest he had felt since Mark had taken the call about the attack.
"Friend of yours?" he asked.
If his time in Torchwood had taught him anything it was not to make assumptions just because a ten foot creature with six arms, no head and slate grey skin was lumbering towards him with a hungry look on what he thought was its face. For all he knew that might be its way of saying hello.
The man skidded to a halt and looked back. "Yes. Best friends. In Love. Come to the wedding. The clue was in the 'run'."
That was where Alex wished he had Jack's, or one of the rest of the team's, knowledge of alien anatomy. Jack's, while broader, was also more esoteric and Alex wanted to stop the thing, not brighten its day. A glint of metal on the creature's torso caught his eye. The alien he might not have seen before but the alien device he had. Jack had called it a phase shifter and had had Ianto lock it straight in what Owen referred to as the naughty cupboard. Ianto had smirked at the description and his eyes had drifted to the entrance of Jack's room.
Taking careful aim, Alex did his best to ignore the particulars of what was bearing down on him at a worryingly fast rate of stagger. Given the particulars in question it was easier said than done.
'Just be in the moment. Breathe...' Jack's words came back to him, 'and sight the target...'
The gun kicked in his hand as he squeezed the trigger. Alex had just enough time to wonder if the creature could actually tear him limb from limb or whether it would merely steamroll over him when it shimmered. With a flash that brought tears to Alex's eyes it vanished into its own after-image.
"You killed it," the man exclaimed with a hint of accusation that Alex thought was very unfair given the circumstances.
"Pretty sure not." Alex breathed carefully as his heart rate dropped back to something close to normal. "Phase shifter on its shoulder. Took that out."
Alex was pleased to see there was a little bit of respect within the suspicion on the man's face as he stuck his hand out towards Alex.
"I'm the Doctor." He said the final word as if it should mean something. That was doctors for you. Alex took a surreptitious look around, just to check he hadn't accidentally wandered into some private research area.
"Alex Krycek," he said carefully. Not ready to give up his weapon he transferred it into his off-side, as he shook the offered hand. He wasn't quite as good with his left but he was good enough to buy the time to switch back to his right. His name wasn't exactly unknown in such quarters and he half expected to hear the sound of combat boots running down the corridor behind him. He could grab the doctor as a hostage but half the time the Consortium, if this was a Consortium operation, worked on a shoot-to-kill-hostages policy in the event of a security breach.
The doctor showed no recognition of his name but there was a undisguised curiosity in his face. "And who are you with, Alex Krycek?"
Alex was tempted to give a description of the statuesque blond nurse he had passed near radiography however under the penetrating stare of the man he bit the facetious comment back. "Torchwood," he admitted. The name wouldn't mean anything to most people.
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "You're a long way from home."
"Not as long as you are," Alex chanced.
A flicker of something ancient and sad passed over the Doctor's expression before he grinned. "So, Alex Krycek of Torchwood, what are you doing here?"
Alex frowned. "Getting a soda."
The Doctor laughed. Seeing Alex's dark look he stopped, still smiling in genuine amusement. "I love this planet," he announced.
Alex was beginning to wonder if he should revise his opinion of the man's mental status. If it wasn't for the strange depth in the man's eyes that belied his humour then he would have written the man off as possibly insane and definitely stupid. As it was, he had to take him at his word. Earth medicine didn't have the answers for what Jack was and Alex doubted it could explain the person standing in front of him either, no matter how human he looked.
"Wait," Alex put a few cryptic comments together. "The 'Doctor'? Jack's Doctor?"
The man cocked his head slightly. "Now that's a very interesting philosophical question. Very Torchwood. I'm everyone's Doctor so I suppose I am Jack's Doctor but I'm not Jack's Doctor, not like Jack is... what year is it... Ianto's Jack. But then when I knew him, your Jack wasn't my Jack even when he was Torchwood's Jack. It all gets very confusing when you start assigning ownership to people, doesn't it? Always best to avoid that for the sake of all concerned."
"Doctor," Alex broke in through gritted teeth, "do you know Captain Jack Harkness?"
"Know... no. Knew and possibly will know... yes." The Doctor grinned broadly. "All clear now."
Alex tightened his hold on the grip of his pistol and thought a number of uncomplimentary things about aliens. He put the gun away carefully. It didn't look like he would need it except for putting himself out of his misery.
The Doctor appeared to be paying no attention to Alex's actions as he look around the mostly featureless junction.
"Have you seen a police box around?" he asked. "Blue. Says 'Police' on the side."
Alex would have liked to ask what he had done in his life to deserve being run into by a mad alien, however even he had to admit that the list was long and bloody. Part of him wanted to just ignore the question, and the alien, and get back to his soda and tense waiting but, whether it was Torchwood's influence, knowledge of what happened if you let aliens wander around unattended or just the promise of a distraction, Alex knew he couldn't do that.
"Come on." Alex directed the Doctor back towards the more populated areas of the hospital. "Let's go find your police box before any more of those things try and find us."
The Doctor looked at him curiously. "How do you know that there are more?"
"Because there always are," Alex sighed. "I assume you can do something about that?"
"Maybe," the Doctor hedged, "once we've found my TARDIS."
"Close enough. Let's go."
Alex wondered if it was worth asking the obvious questions of where he had last seen the box or TARDIS or whatever it was. He wished Tosh was with them. When she got technical he only understood, at best, half of what she said but if anyone would know how to find an alien artefact misplaced in a hospital it would be her. Her, and her souped-up PDA which made his own model, which he had slaved over for months, look like it had been made by Fisher-Price. Not that he was jealous.
Directions from a rather bemused intern trying to catch a nap, and they were back navigating the populated thoroughfares and avoiding trolleys, orderlies, and the occasional rushing nurse. Plan One was to find someone who could point them in the direction of management to see where suddenly appearing large, blue boxes got moved to while their owners were getting distracted tinkering with the computer system. Although the Doctor had finally agreed to let Alex talk, and not to mention what he had been doing to their network.
"Doctor!" A young woman called with some relief.
Three people looked around at the shout but she ignored them, focused on the man by Alex's side. The Doctor smiled happily back at her as if being accosted by young women was a common occurrence for him. She was young in a they-seem-younger-every-year way; her brightness and freshness yet to be ground down by reality. Dark hair pulled back from her slightly tanned face and dark eyes snapping with life. She could be his daughter, Alex supposed, but he didn't think so. Lover, possibly, but again that didn't seem to fit the easy way they looked at each other.
"Dan found it," she said as she got closer. "It was blocking some duct or other so maintenance moved it down to one of the storage areas. We've found something else as well. It's red. Mostly. Sometimes it's green or blue."
English, Alex noted, and well-spoken enough that he couldn't pin down the accent as anything other than 'south'. He wondered if he should introduce himself.
"Red?" The Doctor brightened. "Well it can't be that bad then. Let's go take a look. "
With nothing better to do than drive himself insane while he waited, and concerned about the appearance of more of the aliens, Alex followed them.
The corridors got noticeably less well lit and more dusty as they walked. Even more so when the Doctor pulled out a pencil-length metallic object and did something to a lock allowing them to slip through an 'authorised personnel only' door and make their way into the underbelly of the hospital. Bare concrete and exposed piping reminded Alex of more than a few factories he had broken into; they obviously had the same decorators. Despite the Doctor's insistence that he knew where he was going they made at least two wrong turns before they found themselves in a large storage area, not that the Doctor would admit as much. Alex felt his eyebrows rise as a young man stepped out of a tall blue box in the corner which, Alex noted, did indeed have 'Police' written on the side. He limped towards them, his right leg pulling slightly as he walked. Dan, presumably.
"Everything looks good, Doctor," he greeted them. His eyes flicked over Alex but like the girl he didn't question Alex's presence. Alex would have liked to think it was his ability to seem harmless and blend in but suspected that it was just that they were used to the Doctor turning up with random people and little or no explanation. Of course, if they were aliens then they could have some telepathic thing going on that Alex didn't know about.
"So where's this thing you found?" The Doctor wasn't quite bouncing but Alex could see the excitement lighting up his face. It was an expression he recognised from Mulder when he had a new mystery, Tosh when she had some new technology to crack, and the mirror when he had a plan to form. It might not be the thing that made them tick, but it was what made them tick faster.
Dan turned exasperated eyes towards the girl but, while she gave a little apologetic shrug in return, it didn't detract from her own eager look.
"Over there." The man waved towards another badly lit area of the room. He wasn't uninterested, Alex realised, just not as ready to rush in as the other two. Now Alex was looking carefully he could just see a red glow around a stack of crates.
The Doctor leading the way, they approached slowly. It was as much caution as to accommodate Dan's slightly halting gait. He could probably move as fast as any of them over short distances if it came to running for it but Alex doubted it would be comfortable for him. Closer he could see that the man was younger than he had first thought, the carefully trimmed moustache and goatee adding years that time had not yet got around to. Dark eyes were surrounded by smile lines and silver glinted at both lobe and top of each ear. He probably wasn't much older than the girl although some maturity about him suggested he had had a harder life. Or had lived somewhere they couldn't afford to let kids have a long childhood. They acted like siblings, pulling faces and pushing each other surreptitiously as they walked, but given the differences in features and accent (he still couldn't place the man's) he didn't think they were related either to each other or to the Doctor. Alex mentally classified it as an interesting setup and filed it away in favour of more immediate concerns.
The 'thing', when they rounded the boxes to see it clearly, was no more than ten centimetres in diameter and seemed to be made of light which Alex could only describe as fuzzy, if light could be fuzzy. Working at Torchwood had taught him that 'don't touch' (or inhale) was a good rule to work by so Alex didn't give in to the temptation to see if it was possible to stroke it. It was red in the same way that a shepherd's sunset was red, the colours streaking and swirling around the thing as it moved slightly, swaying in some force that the rest of them couldn't feel. Deep blue and green fronds that might have been nothing more than shadows and after-images wove within the mass, underlining the bright colours. It wasn't noticeably ticking or making any kind of structured change which could be a countdown, something which was frequently a good sign in an alien artefact. Nothing else about it was noticeably reassuring. Without meaning to, Alex edged himself closer to the nearest solid object.
"What is it?" Alex asked after they had stared at it for so long he was beginning to wonder if it had some kind of hypnotic quality beyond its aesthetics.
"I think..." the Doctor frowned at it and drew the silver cylinder from his pocket. Alex was pretty sure it was what the Doctor had waved at the door earlier. Since the thing most definitely wasn't a lock, Alex hoped the gadget did more than open things.
The Doctor muttered to himself as he pointed the device at the object. His companions paid close attention but Alex refused to believe that either of them understood what the Doctor was saying any more than he did. The object began to glow in a way that Alex really didn't like. Grabbing the two youngsters he hustled them behind some canisters which in all likelihood would be no protection if the thing exploded. The girl, and he realised he still hadn't got her name, glared at him crossly but peered around the side of the containers rather than returning to the Doctor's elbow.
"Got it!" the Doctor exclaimed triumphantly. "I should have realised with the phase radiation, the Tollorian photon entanglement principle, and..." he looked around confused, "what are you three doing back there?"
Alex opened his mouth to answer and decided if it wasn't obvious then he shouldn't bother. The girl slid past him without so much as a glance in his direction but Dan gave him a smile as they came out from behind their cover together.
"So what is it?" the girl asked as she got back to the Doctor's side.
"As far as I can tell, it's used as part of a bonding ritual and to increase manual dexterity in the physical development stage of the life cycle"
Alex stared at him, not entirely sure he could believe what he was hearing.
"A child's toy," the girl stated flatly. Alex got the impression she was a bit disappointed.
"If you want to put it like that," the Doctor said a bit sniffily, "I suppose so, yes."
"Bad luck, Mina," Dan teased in a low voice. "We can save the world again next time. At least it's pretty."
Alex didn't catch her non-verbal response as he looked from the Doctor to the glowing toy and back. He was almost sure it was glowing slightly brighter and the fronds wiggling faster.
"So, it's perfectly safe?" he double-checked.
The Doctor glanced at him, slightly distracted as he poked at the end of a brightly coloured protrusion. "Oh, not in the slightest."
Alex stared, waiting for him to elaborate, but the Doctor had returned to playing with the toy. As his finger passed close to any of the strands they swayed away from his touch. He seemed delighted by the interaction.
"Doctor," Alex ground out.
The Doctor looked up surprised and Alex pointedly directed his attention back to the ball with his eyes.
"Oh, don't worry. We have a few thousand years before the shielding wears out and it goes critical. But probably best not to leave it lying around." The Doctor gave Alex a pointed look. "You never know what type of people might find it."
Mina looked so attentive Alex wanted to pat her on the head and give her a dog biscuit. "What do we need to do?"
The Doctor straightened, scooping the toy up as he did. He smiled. "We throw it back."
"Back?" Dan said, looking around.
The Doctor nodded. "It doesn't belong in this phase. It malfunctioned and slipped through."
"It fell into the neighbour's yard," Alex realised. "That was what the alien wanted. It was trying to get its ball back."
The memory of the alien loomed in his mind. If that was one of the kids he hoped never to meet one of the adults.
The Doctor's eyes sparkled. "Catch."
Alex found himself holding the glowing ball before he had thought about whether he wanted it or not. It was slightly warm to the touch, tickling his palm as it moved. He was a highly trained assassin and had survived through situations which would have driven other men insane so he did not scream and drop the thing - but it was close. Looking at the shifting colours he concentrated on how much Mulder would love to be in his skin right at that moment. There was something so pleasingly dirty about the thought that he could ignore whatever it was the Doctor was doing with his strange little device and the fact that it was pointing at him as much as it was pointing at the thing in his hand. It was changing colour again, rippling happily as it cycled through the various shades of red, orange and pink.
"Ready?" the Doctor asked.
Alex nodded, not entirely trusting himself to speak. There was a definite squirmy feeling against his skin and it was only the bright, swirling colours that were in no way inky-black which allowed him to keep hold. He was more than ready to deep-six the thing.
"Fore!" Mina called, giggling slightly, as Alex pitched the ball down the room as hard as he could.
As it travelled it grew brighter until, with a flash of brilliance that left his eyeballs tearing, it vanished from sight. Alex blinked a few times to try and persuade the splodges in his vision to follow the ball into non-existence.
The silence that followed had a slightly anti-climactic edge.
"So, in however many thousand years, when that thing went boom," Alex said conversationally, "how big a punch would we have been talking?"
The Doctor looked thoughtful. "That thing. The matter~quasi-matter interaction... no more than half the city. Maybe two-thirds. Of course that would be Washington then rather than Washington now."
"And that was a kids' toy?" His palm and fingers tingled where they had been touching the thing as if his skin was imagining what would have happened if it had gone off while still in his hand.
"Don't worry," the Doctor said cheerily, "it's perfectly inert now it's returned to its own phase. It was just contact with ours that caused the problem."
What worried Alex the most was that that actually made some kind of sense.
"So are we ready to go," Dan asked, "or do we need to do more shopping?"
The Doctor looked over to Mina. "Did you get everything?"
She nodded; Alex thought her cheeks looked a little reddened.
"I can't believe we had to stop to pick up toiletries," Dan grumbled.
Mina gave him a defiant stare. "And I can't believe that the TARDIS didn't have what I needed."
"Which was what exactly?"
"None of your business." Mina pointedly turned and started walking towards the blue box which Alex assumed was the TARDIS they had all been talking about. Alex noticed she did so slow enough that Dan had no problem catching up. They were bickering about where they wanted to go next right up until they stepped through the box's door. It didn't seem like a good recipe for a small space; still that was hardly the strangest thing he had seen that day.
Alex and the Doctor followed at a quieter and more sedate pace, Alex carefully looking around for any signs of more alien activity he needed to worry about.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at him. "You coming?" he asked as they drew close to the box.
"That," Alex didn't know whether he should be impressed or sceptical, "is your spaceship?"
He supposed a blue box with Police on the side was at least different from the traditional designs of 'saucer' or 'phallic'.
The Doctor patted the side proudly. "That's my old girl. She can go anywhere, she can. She's a TARDIS. Any time, any place."
Alex couldn't help but think of Jack with the description and firmly squashed down the little voice in the back of his head that sounded a lot like Ianto and was chuckling.
The Doctor peered at him. "You want to see?"
"I've got a friend upstairs..." Alex began reluctantly. That, and he had come to Washington to get away from aliens for a bit, not that he was about to mention that part.
The Doctor looked at him like he was an idiot. "Time machine," he said distinctly, emphasising the first word. "I can have you back the minute we leave."
He was right - Alex was an idiot. As aliens went this one seemed friendly, which was a nice change, but how many people thought that before vanishing from earth never to be seen again? The Doctor knew Jack, and not in a bad way, which could mean almost anything; Jack clearly had some good old, bad old days quietly hidden away. Did Alex want to put himself in the hands of an alien who seemed to think that the nineteenth century was the height of style and whose sanity was clearly in question? On the one hand, if he let a little thing such as mental state, or fashion sense, put him off he would have been heading away from Cardiff as fast as he could go five minutes after arriving at Torchwood Three and the thought of what he could learn was staggering; on the other...
"The minute we leave?" he asked, wanting to be sure. There was nothing he could do at the hospital except get in the way and going with the Doctor meant he could actually be doing rather than waiting. He didn't do waiting well when it wasn't something he had planned.
"The nanosecond," the Doctor said sincerely.
"Why not?" Alex agreed. All of the reasons why this was undoubtedly a bad plan clamoured for his attention. He ignored them; sometimes you just had to go under the wire.
The Doctor opened the door for him and, not totally sure he believed he was actually doing it, and worse doing it without his gun in his hand, Alex stepped inside. The first thing he noticed was that it was much bigger then one would have expected given the external dimensions.
"Huh," was all Alex said.
The second was that he was being watched expectantly. The two youngsters looked away from him quickly as he turned to see why they were staring at him.
"He didn't say it," Dan muttered to Mina.
Alex supposed most visitors hadn't worked at Torchwood Three. He could feel the curiosity burning off them like a small supernova. If they lived with a friend of Jack's in a blue box that was bigger on the inside then they were probably coming up with all sorts of amazing reasons why a man, or someone who appeared to be a man, whom they picked up wandering around a Washington hospital, wasn't more impressed. Anyone else would have assumed head trauma or psychological problems.
"My boss, Jack, he has a box which is similar." He put them out of their misery.
"Really?" Mina looked intrigued. "What does he use it for?"
Alex opened his mouth and shut it again, trying to decide on the best way to answer the question.
"Just keeps things in it." He shrugged the importance away.
"Yasmine Ashtari and Chandan Mehta." The Doctor could not have popped back up at a better time as far as Alex was concerned. Not that Jack would care about Alex bandying his personal life around to total strangers but there were just some things you did not admit to knowing about your boss. "This is Alex Krycek." He introduced him somewhat belatedly.
"Dan," the so-named young man put in.
"No time for that now," the Doctor interrupted before Alex could respond, waving him away from the controls. "Things to do, places to go." He looked over to where Alex stood. "So one trip. Anywhere in time and space. Where do you want to go?"
Alex smiled. There was only one answer to that.
Next Part...
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Date: 2008-06-05 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 01:43 pm (UTC)