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

[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.

[quartermaster_q]

Q tensed at the knock, then flicked through the cameras to see who was there- Though he had a good idea already.

"What do you want, Harkness?" came Q's placid tone, only slightly distorted by the tiny tinny speaker that was embedded discreetly beside the door.

[im_torchwood]

"I just need one more thing. Please, Q...let me in," he said in his most non-threatening manner.

[quartermaster_q]

"So you can drug me?" Q asked bluntly, not sounding nearly as annoyed as one might expect. Instead he just sounded, for a lack of a better word, bored. As if being followed back to one of his secret hiding spots and threatened was dull. ...Normal even.

"I'd rather not."

[im_torchwood]

Jack nodded and sighed, then pulled out a small device and put it against the top of the door and he ran it down, unlocking all the locks, then he tried the knob and opened the door, fully expecting some sort of booby trap.

[quartermaster_q]

Q hadn't gotten that far, however. All he'd managed to do was send another text to Bond, and an email to himself.

Stepping back, he put as much distance between himself and Harkness as he was able, his mind working at a rapid speed to find a way out.

[im_torchwood]

There was no way out. Jack had done this for years and every move Q made, Jack countered until he had the man backed into a corner.

"For what it's worth, I am sorry about this," he said, then stabbed Q with the syringe, right through his shirt, and pressed the plunger.

[quartermaster_q]

Q gasped, clutching at Jack's shirt collar with one hand, and pulling something from his pocket with the other.

"Not as sorry as you will be," he said, praying Bond arrived before it was too late, and closing his eyes tightly as he dropped the flash-bang at their feet.

[im_torchwood]

Jack had enough time to look directly at it before it went off. He was instantly blinded and the sound was ungodly. He staggered back and tripped over the corner of a table, falling square on his ass.

And ass he lay there, Bond came in through the door. The agent assessed the situation and without a word put two bullets in Jack's heart, then rushed to Q.

"Can you hear me?" he asked, having heard the grenade go off just before he'd come in.

[quartermaster_q]

Q could hear nothing but a high pitched ring, and he held his head as he tried to fight the drug Jack had injected him with.

Hands shaking, he silently showed Bond where the needle had sunk into skin, just as his eyes started to drift shut and his body surrendered to the induced sleep.

[0_0_7]

Not knowing what the injection had been, ond launched into action. He called Six for a cleaner, talking on the phone even as he hoisted Q over his shoulder. He closed the door on the dead man, leaving that mess for the cleaner to take care of- completely unaware that Jack wouldn't be there when they arrived.

No one got up from two to the heart.

Bond poured Q into his car and then raced to the nearest A&E, carrying the dead weight of the unconscious man in.

He's been poisoned," he said. "Injection."

He'd let Six sort out a civilian hospital and all that. Right now all he was worried about was Q.

The doctors got him back and did a fast blood test but found absolutely nothing in Q's blood. They gave him a few things and set up and IV, but all Bond had to do was to sit and wait.

[quartermaster_q]

It was hours later when Q woke, eyes fluttering open as he sat up and gasped sharply in surprise.

"Where is he?" he asked.

Not 'Where am I?' or 'What happened?' Where is he?

He had no idea what the exact formula of Torchwood's little drug was, but he'd known enough to take precautions. He'd given himself the closest thing to an antidote he could find as soon as he'd left Jack's company- But that only left the night fuzzy, rather than totally blank.

He'd seen Jack. Jack had followed him... Jack had been in his hideout. ...One of the hideouts. Q wasn't able to remember which, but hopefully the GPS would clear that up. ...He'd contacted Bond, and then... What had happened then?

[0_0_7]

"I killed him and the cleaners took care of it," Bond said softly, so he wouldn't be overheard. "I don't want you to worry about it. You need to rest. He poisoned you."

[quartermaster_q]

"Poison? No- It's... It's not poison, and he's- He isn't dead," Q said, going quiet for a moment as his brain fumbled and struggled to stitch everything back together. However, there were massive gaps in his memory, and he sighed as he slumped back against the flat pillow on his hospital bed.

"Call them. Make sure they actually removed a body. I don't want him snooping through my things. ...Which building was I in?"

[0_0_7]

"The one not far from Six itself. I don't know why you didn't head there," he said, scolding lightly. Of course, if the man knew who Q was, headquarters would have been obvious.

He stepped away then and placed the call, frowning through the conversation.

"There was no body, only blood," he said. "Q...explain. I didn't miss. Two to the heart..."

[quartermaster_q]

"I don't think I can explain, if I'm honest. ...I just know he never seems to stay dead," Q replied, frowning deeply.