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]

Q didn't wake again until they were parked, then frowned as he looked up at his flat.

"Did you leave the lights on?" he asked.

[0_0_7]

"No. Didn't you?" he asked. He let Q dead with the food- he was busy drawing his gun.

[quartermaster_q]

"I never leave the lights on," Q replied, picking up the bags and following after Bond.

[0_0_7]

Bond lead the way in, breaching the door with his gun at the ready. He cleared the room, cleared all of them, then came back to Q.

"Someone's been here," he said. "Do you think it was him?"

[quartermaster_q]

"Yes," Q replied, visibly annoyed as he booted up all his systems to see just what Jack had done.

[0_0_7]

At first it appeared fine, all systems in order. But as Q dug it became clear there was an incredibly intricate trojan horse in his system. Something miles beyond most people's ability to even understand code. It was devilish to track down and it would take all of Q's work if he tried to remove it. He could get rid of it, but at a high cost.

And when Q swept for bugs there was one, just one, and its signal bounced around. Narrowing the parameters of the search zeroed in on Oberon. The cat was no worse for wear, given that Jack had injected him with a microchip listening device.

[quartermaster_q]

To say Q was furious would have been an understatement.

The usually calm boffin smacked his open palms down hard on his desk, and there was pure murder in his gaze.

It took him a moment to calm down, but he finally pulled out a pad of paper and wrote a message down on a post it.

Take Oberon to B. Tell her it's a code 254. She'll know what to do.

I have something I need to take care off.

The fact that he was silent ought to have told Bond everything he needed to know. ...Though what he didn't say was he wasn't going to fight with his systems. The moment Bond was gone, he was going to go see Jack.

[0_0_7]

Bond nodded and followed orders. He went and got the cat carrier and loaded Oberon in, then gave Q a bit of a touch to reassure him.

And then he was gone, sure Q would be fighting with the computer all night.

He locked the door on the way out.

[quartermaster_q]

Q waited until he was sure he was alone, then set about dismantling his computer, removing the hard drives and slipping them into his bag.

Changing into something a bit more casual and easy to move in, he grabbed some tech and set out to find Mr. Torchwood himself. It wasn't hard, they'd always been dreadful at keeping themselves hidden.

An hour later and he was standing outside, looking up at a hidden camera and offering his most unamused frown.

"I'm not knocking. Just let me in. We've got a lot to talk about."

[im_torchwood]

It took a minute and then the door clanked and slid open. It was an abandoned tube stop, long ago walled off from the system. White tile gleamed on the walls and throughout was some of the most high tech equipment available. Computers that were clearly not entirely earthly- or if they were they were decades ahead of their time.

Jack walked out of an office, the great coat gone. He looked casual in his shirtsleeves, cuffs rolled up. Dark blue braces broke up the spread of his shirt.

"Q," he said. "You got my message. Your cat's sweet."

[quartermaster_q]

"He is," Q agreed. "Touch him again, and you'll find yourself drowning for all eternity in a tar-pit."

Confidently, he walked into the space, looking around.

"Drugging me was just rude, by the way," he added. "You forced my hand as well- Having to call Bond in wasn't part of the plan. He wants to involve M now, and that spells trouble for you. He's not like her. He'll want a full report, which will lead to someone, somewhere, checking in on you as well."

Huffing, he pulled his hard drives out, and held them out in offering.

"Take your bloody trojan off my drives, and let's see if we can't undo some of what's been done."

[im_torchwood]

"No," Jack said. "I would have, but then you made that crack about the tar pit. So you can figure it out yourself. You are Six's golden boy, aren't you? You are, don't deny it. There's, like, five or six people who can do what you do. And Toshiko is dead now. So I know you can figure it out if you apply yourself."

He stood with his arms folded, unafraid of M, unafraid of Q.

Really, after what he'd just been through, Q was little more than a pest. An amusement.

[quartermaster_q]

"You broke into my home!" Q snapped. "You violated the only private space I have in the whole bloody world!"

It was rare that Q lost it, that he grew this upset or appeared this worked up. Emotions were something he guarded, but here and now, he set them free.

[im_torchwood]

"And here you are in mine," Jack replied calmly. He stood against the door jamb for another long moment, then he pushed off and sauntered over to where Q raged. He reached out.

"Give me the drives."

[quartermaster_q]

Q hesitated, tensing again, as if expecting another attack.

Eventually, however, he held them out in offering.

[im_torchwood]

He took them and walked to a station where he slipped the drives into a rigged up reader and then he began to type. But what was on screen wasn't code...or if it was it certainly wasn't alpha-numeric or even Asian. It was something completely...

Alien.

[quartermaster_q]

Q watched, but he kept his distance, not wanting to be caught off guard.

"Bugging my cat was uncalled for- That was an attack, not a precaution," he said after a moment. "I didn't tell Bond to shoot you, if that's what you were cross about."

[im_torchwood]

"I didn't hurt him. All I did was reprogram his lo-jack chip to make it more useful," Jack said. The program ran, a status bar popping up to show progress.

Jack spun in his chair to look at Q.

"Do you really think I care that your boyfriend shot me in the heart? That's just...foreplay. He's good looking, by the way. A little old for you but I doubt anyone your own age can keep up with you."

[quartermaster_q]

"Fiancée," Q corrected coolly. "James is my fiancée."

[im_torchwood]

"You're going to marry a double-o?" Jack asked incredulously...then he started to laugh. e laughed deep and hard for a long moment, then he shook his head.

"Why don't you just tear your heart out and get it over with?"

[quartermaster_q]

Q had heard it all before. Though usually in kinder words. It didn't even make him blink- However, it did open up a new path for the young quartermaster to try and take.

"Why do you care, Jack?" he asked, his tone pleasant and crisp. "Were you hoping tonight might end with me being very grateful, and your bed a little less empty than it has been recently? That doesn't have to be off the table completely you know. James and I have an understanding."

That understanding didn't exactly apply to this situation, but Q had an eye for strategic moves, and this could prove to be a good one.

[im_torchwood]

Jack smirked at that and moved to stand chest to chest with Q. He caught hold of his face and looked into his eyes. Fifty first century pheromones clouded the air as Jack caressed him. It was...dizzying. And his touch was electric.

There was no way Jack was human. Of course not. But it quickly became clear there was much more to him than just being immortal.

"If I'd wanted you in my bed I would have been much more direct, Q," he said.

[quartermaster_q]

It was sudden and overwhelming, and while his body was certainly enthusiastic about it, Q honestly wasn't sure he liked it. ...For someone so willing and eager to dabble in submission, he really disliked not feeling as though he had full control.

"What do you want then? You drugged me, it could have ended there. The trojan I get, but the bug was obnoxious. You were needling me, you wanted me to come here."

[im_torchwood]

"Ah, but I'm not an amateur, Q. The dose I gave you should have wiped everything away. You shouldn't have any memory of me, you shouldn't have caught onto the trojan so fast, you should have never suspected your cat. What did you do, text yourself?" he asked, his fingers smoothing over Q's cheek. He knew what power he had and he wasn't going to relinquish it just yet.

[quartermaster_q]

Q swallowed hard, and though common sense told him to pull away, his body refused. It liked the attention- it liked the buzz.

"I created an antidote when I first caught wind of the possibility of you turning up in London- An imperfect one, but strong enough to weaken the retcon. Two texts, an email, and some information uploaded to a private cloud I maintain helped fill in some blanks."