OTA

[im_torchwood]

After John Hart, after Gray, Jack couldn't be in Cardiff. He was Torchwood now, not just what he did but who he was, and he had a small crisis and had to get away. Although he'd broken with London's Torchwood after the incidents at Canary Wharf (which it seemed the population had either forgotten or written off) Jack found himself in England's jewel. He was ready to make a new start. And, he reckoned, the Doctor would probably visit London before Cardiff if truth be told.

He'd settled into the subterranean Hub that Alice and Emily had worked in. It had been long forgotten in favor of the building of steel and glass that had been built atop it. Bloody Torchwood...they were supposed to be secret. He'd made his contacts and had put himself to work. But even Jack needed to eat.

He had all of the city to choose from and rather than just go to a pub Jack stood on the sidewalk looking at his mobile reading Yelp reviews. There was a place just down the block and around the corner. Yelp was good and all but he kind of wanted a real opinion so he looked up from his screen and he smiled at the first person whose eye he caught.

"Excuse me...do you know if this place is any good?" he asked, showing the screen. His American accent immediately marked him as a tourist, even though he wasn't.

Comments

[im_torchwood]

Jack was fairly certain that the worst that could happen was he'd have to slip Q a pill and wipe this all from his memory so he decided to take the chance. It might prove useful.

And he did like talking to someone who had some technical knowledge. Maybe not fifty-first century, but a solid mind nonetheless.

Jack lead the way into the Indian restaurant and was immediately choked by the freshly lit incense. Everything was bright and white and clean and he smiled. He spoke to the woman who seated them in flawless Punjabi, which amused her to no end.

It was obvious despite any language barrier that he was flirting with her. Color touched her cheeks and she went off to get them tea. Jack turned his smile to Q.

"Butter chicken?"

[quartermaster_q]

"Please," Q replied, nodding a bit, and looking completely indifferent to the other man's behaviour. ...He really was far too accustom to this sort of thing.

[im_torchwood]

He did take time to look at the menu and when the woman came back he ordered butter chicken and masala and rice and naan. When she left he poured the tea.

"You're too young to have all the fun of life sucked out of you. What's the stick up your backside, Q?" he asked.

[quartermaster_q]

"I'm not sure what you mean," Q replied. "I'm being perfectly pleasant."

[im_torchwood]

"You've got manners like a butler," Jack chuckled. "And balls of steel for even thinking you can take down Torchwood. But I don't get the feeling you've got delusions of grandeur. So what's the story?"

[quartermaster_q]

"No story, I'm just very good at what I do," Q shrugged. "Six doesn't tend to hire amateurs."

[im_torchwood]

That struck Jack as hilariously funny and so he laughed.

"Oh yeah...not an amateur among you," he laughed. He took up his tea and considered it for a moment before drinking it. It was incredibly hot.

"Except that whole terrorist bombing at your headquarters. Who's the genius who let that slip through the system?"

[quartermaster_q]

Q bristled visibly at that, and it was clear Jack had hit a nerve.

"You know, I'm suddenly not very hungry," he said, starting to rise from the table as he spoke.

[im_torchwood]

"Sit down, Q," Jack ordered. "It's no one's fault. Trust me...trust me. We just had half of Cardiff go up and it's no one's fault."

Except it was his fault and that weighed on him.

[quartermaster_q]

Q was still for a long moment, but eventually sat back down.

"You're very volatile," he accused. "More so than your file suggested. Whoever wrote that thing thought you a saint."

[im_torchwood]

"Huh...who'd have thought. I wrote the dossier. Don't you think I'd stick to all my best qualities?"

It wasn't all written by him. If Q was half as good as he seemed to think he was he would have found Jack's full dossier, beginning with the scans of the handwritten notes from Alice Guppy detailing the rogue Torchwood had conscripted back during Victoria's reign.

[quartermaster_q]

"You didn't write all of it," Q replied simply, stoic and calm as he studied the other man.

The longer he sat here, the less he liked or trusted Harkness, and he found himself wondering if perhaps he really ought to leave. ...There was something about the other man that simply triggered a nerve in him.

[im_torchwood]

"Do they pay you to be that nosy or were you just curious? Cardiff's a long way away for you to care about what I do," he said, suspicious about why Six's Quartermaster would be looking into him at all.

[quartermaster_q]

"I stumbled upon Torchwood before I ever worked for Six," Q replied, though he chose his words with a certain amount of caution. "I've always been interested in anything people try and hide."

[im_torchwood]

Jack looked at him long and hard, blue eyes steely and unblinking. The weight of his gaze was palpable but before he could say anything more the woman appeared with a tray of food and soon enough there was chicken and rice and naan on the table.

Jack finally looked away from Q to thank her, then took up a fork.

He was looking at his chicken when he said, "Are you going to be a problem for me, Q?"

He figured he may as well be direct.

[quartermaster_q]

That felt like a loaded question, and Q chose not to answer. Instead he sipped his tea, and slipped his hand into his pocket to send a text to Bond.

Dining with contact. Could be trouble. If I do not make contact before midnight, activate my tracker.

[im_torchwood]

"Are you?" he asked calmly.

[quartermaster_q]

Q sipped his tea again, then wet his lips.

"I can't predict how you'll perceive me," he said finally.

[im_torchwood]

"I don't need you, or Six, butting into Torchwood business. There's no reason for it. You clearly know what I do so I won't insult you by pretending you're ignorant. But I'm not going to get involved with the...whoever. Russians, Syrians, whoever. I'll do what I do and I don't want to hear from you. And if you can agree to that then we can enjoy dinner."

The obvious threat being that if Q couldn't guarantee that much then Jack was going to have to be a bit more aggressive.

[quartermaster_q]

"Enjoy dinner? No, Captain, threats tend to spoil my appetite," Q replied, that calm and detached tone of his growing serious for a moment.

"I should have left before, I'm not sure why I allowed you to convince me to stay," he added, getting to his feet.

A glance into his cup showed he hadn't actually been drinking his tea- Instead he'd been pretending to sip it, creating an illusion of a trusting man. ...Q wasn't trusting though, and even if he had been, he wouldn't have trusted Torchwood so easily.

[im_torchwood]

"Because you were curious," Jack said. "Curse of our kind, isn't it? Curiosity. That's okay. Go, Q. I don't think I'm going to be weighing on your thoughts."

He took a bite of his food, his heavy gaze resting on Q.

He had a feeling he was going to have one hell of a time getting a pill into the man. He'd be better with an injection...

[quartermaster_q]

He couldn't say why, but Q felt a sudden spike of fear rush through him.

Swallowing hard, he nodded and turned to leave.

He didn't feel as if he could breathe until he was outside, pulling his phone out to let Bond know he'd ended the meeting early, but needed to go back to the office to fetch something before he returned home.

[im_torchwood]

Jack watched him go, enjoying one more bite. But the second Q hit the door Jack was on his feet. He left enough money on the table to cover the food and the mess. And then he was stalking after Q. If he lost him he knew he'd need to go to the hub and find him...and he was sure the boffin wasn't going to be easy to find.

But first he'd try it the old fashioned way. He'd follow.

[quartermaster_q]

Q wasn't dim enough to take a normal route, and he slipped off down to one of the underground stations, hoping to get lost in the crowd, before slipping off through a service entrance into a tunnel that would eventually take him to one of his many secret hideouts in London.

[im_torchwood]

Jack was not so easily shaken. He kept his distance but his wrist strap was tuned to Q's bio-signature and it wasn't hard to find his trail. He caught up, coming around a corner just as the man disappeared into a nondescript building.

Jack had a feeling the boffin was smart enough not to lead him home.

He wanted to give Q the benefit of the doubt, wanted to believe his stay in London wouldn't be plagued by the shadow of MI6...but Jack had learned in his many years that he just couldn't trust anyone.

He punched a few buttons on his wrist strap and teleported to the hub and got a syringe with some 'retcon' and hit reverse to go back to Q.

Then it was just a matter of getting through the door.

He waited a bit longer then sauntered up and tried the easy way. He knocked.