People Only Know What You Tell Them - Chapter Five
Title: People Only Know What You Tell Them
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing(s): Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own either Torchwood or Catch Me If You Can. Would that I did.
Spoilers: None in particular for Torchwood, indirect for the movie.
Summary: There's a conman on the run, and Agent Jack Harkness is determined to catch him. But then things take a turn for the complicated.
Warnings: Contains timelines that might make your head hurt.
Author's Notes: Written for the reel_torchwood challenge, using the prompt Catch Me If You Can.
Thanks to: morbid_sparks for being my wonderful beta, and putting up with my slightly madcap style of writing this. Also angelzbabe1989 for helping me work out plot variations.
Chapter links at Master List
Chapter Five - Earth, July 5059
“You’re never going to believe this,” Toshiko said as she came in and perched on the edge of Jack’s desk. She waved a file at him, and Jack snatched it.
“What?”
“I think I’ve found our mysterious agent Jones. Or who he was a few months ago, anyway.”
Jack flipped open the folder eagerly, reading the top page swiftly. He wasn’t more than halfway down the page when he drew back in shock. “He worked at the Agency Academy?”
Tosh nodded. “Until about seven and a half months ago. Teaching introductory temporal mechanics.”
Jack reeled. That hadn’t been an easy course to take, and Jones - he would keep calling him Jones until he had a better name to call him - had somehow been teaching the course, without any training, and without anyone noticing that he shouldn’t be there. Despite himself, he was impressed.
“And we have no idea what he’s been doing since then?” he asked Tosh.
She shook her head. “Not yet, but we’re working on it. We have a place to start though, so that’s more than we had this time yesterday.”
Jack nodded. “It’s something.”
It wasn’t much, but it was something.
Three days later, after a lot of searching, questioning and painstaking examination of surveillance footage and ID cards, they’d found him again.
Jack really wasn’t sure how Ianto had managed to convince the hospital board that he was qualified, but after four months of employment, he must have been doing something right in order to keep his job.
Jack pulled up records from several months on performance at the hospital in question, and couldn’t see any difference between the numbers for the shifts where Jones - or Doctor Johnson as he was apparently calling himself now - acted as lead consultant and those for the other (presumably properly qualified) doctors on staff.
The only trouble was that once again, they were too late. ‘Doctor Johnson’ had left the hospital a month previously.
Jack was getting more than a little frustrated at always being one step behind.
Owen called out in triumph late that evening, after a day of calling around everyone they could contact from the hospital.
“You got something?” Jack asked hopefully.
Owen grinned widely. “I know where he’s gone.”
Ianto smiled up at his girlfriend - no, fiancée, now - over her parents’ dining table. Her parents had gone through to the other room, leaving them alone, and he was enjoying just looking at her. Before he met her at his last job, he had been feeling so alone for far, far too long.
“Are you really going to join my dad in his law practice?” Lisa asked him. “I thought you liked working at the hospital.”
Ianto nodded - the hospital was a lot of work when he didn’t really know anything about medicine. “Of course I am. I said I was going to, didn’t I? And I’ve got the required certificate to practise on this planet now, so there’s nothing stopping me.”
Lisa smiled back. “Thank you for doing this. I hadn’t seen them for so long, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever manage to convince them to let me move back to the planet, even.”
Ianto reached over the table and stroked the back of Lisa’s hand. “I’m glad I could do this for you,” he said sincerely. “And I’m looking forward to it, honestly. Like I told your dad, I’ve missed being a practising lawyer. It will be good to get back into it.”
Frankly, he was terrified. He had learned enough to pass the certification exam, but actually being in a courtroom scared him beyond measure. It was far too close to his fear of being caught, but compared to treating patients at the hospital where his actions could have immediate life-changing consequences, this was preferable.
After nearly two weeks, he was starting to get the hang of it. He was up half the night most nights poring over texts, trying to keep up with what he’d need to know the day after, but during the day, he thought he was covering very well.
And then, one day, getting out of his vehicle after a day at work, he saw them. Or saw something.
There was definitely someone watching him from the darkened vehicle on the other side of the road. He was so sure he had covered his tracks, but what if they actually had caught up with him this time?
He started towards the front door, intending to find Lisa, get them packed and get out of there, but then there was a very definite movement in the vehicle across the street.
Abandoning his plan, and regretting that he wouldn’t get the chance to ever see Lisa again, he began to walk swiftly back to his own vehicle.
He’d stashed the vortex manipulator under a seat several months back, just after his last business trip. He dived into the driver’s seat and pulled it out, strapping it on swiftly and just hitting the button for it to take him back to his last travelled-from location. He didn’t have time to choose anywhere else.
And it appeared that he no longer had the luxury to settle down with friends, loved ones, a home or a job for several months at a time. They were getting closer.
From now on, he was going to have to be a lot sneakier. Even if that meant staying on the move and relegating himself to the less attractive areas of the populated universe.
Whatever happened, he couldn’t let them catch up.
Chapter Six
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing(s): Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own either Torchwood or Catch Me If You Can. Would that I did.
Spoilers: None in particular for Torchwood, indirect for the movie.
Summary: There's a conman on the run, and Agent Jack Harkness is determined to catch him. But then things take a turn for the complicated.
Warnings: Contains timelines that might make your head hurt.
Author's Notes: Written for the reel_torchwood challenge, using the prompt Catch Me If You Can.
Thanks to: morbid_sparks for being my wonderful beta, and putting up with my slightly madcap style of writing this. Also angelzbabe1989 for helping me work out plot variations.
Chapter links at Master List
Chapter Five - Earth, July 5059
“You’re never going to believe this,” Toshiko said as she came in and perched on the edge of Jack’s desk. She waved a file at him, and Jack snatched it.
“What?”
“I think I’ve found our mysterious agent Jones. Or who he was a few months ago, anyway.”
Jack flipped open the folder eagerly, reading the top page swiftly. He wasn’t more than halfway down the page when he drew back in shock. “He worked at the Agency Academy?”
Tosh nodded. “Until about seven and a half months ago. Teaching introductory temporal mechanics.”
Jack reeled. That hadn’t been an easy course to take, and Jones - he would keep calling him Jones until he had a better name to call him - had somehow been teaching the course, without any training, and without anyone noticing that he shouldn’t be there. Despite himself, he was impressed.
“And we have no idea what he’s been doing since then?” he asked Tosh.
She shook her head. “Not yet, but we’re working on it. We have a place to start though, so that’s more than we had this time yesterday.”
Jack nodded. “It’s something.”
It wasn’t much, but it was something.
Three days later, after a lot of searching, questioning and painstaking examination of surveillance footage and ID cards, they’d found him again.
Jack really wasn’t sure how Ianto had managed to convince the hospital board that he was qualified, but after four months of employment, he must have been doing something right in order to keep his job.
Jack pulled up records from several months on performance at the hospital in question, and couldn’t see any difference between the numbers for the shifts where Jones - or Doctor Johnson as he was apparently calling himself now - acted as lead consultant and those for the other (presumably properly qualified) doctors on staff.
The only trouble was that once again, they were too late. ‘Doctor Johnson’ had left the hospital a month previously.
Jack was getting more than a little frustrated at always being one step behind.
Owen called out in triumph late that evening, after a day of calling around everyone they could contact from the hospital.
“You got something?” Jack asked hopefully.
Owen grinned widely. “I know where he’s gone.”
Ianto smiled up at his girlfriend - no, fiancée, now - over her parents’ dining table. Her parents had gone through to the other room, leaving them alone, and he was enjoying just looking at her. Before he met her at his last job, he had been feeling so alone for far, far too long.
“Are you really going to join my dad in his law practice?” Lisa asked him. “I thought you liked working at the hospital.”
Ianto nodded - the hospital was a lot of work when he didn’t really know anything about medicine. “Of course I am. I said I was going to, didn’t I? And I’ve got the required certificate to practise on this planet now, so there’s nothing stopping me.”
Lisa smiled back. “Thank you for doing this. I hadn’t seen them for so long, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever manage to convince them to let me move back to the planet, even.”
Ianto reached over the table and stroked the back of Lisa’s hand. “I’m glad I could do this for you,” he said sincerely. “And I’m looking forward to it, honestly. Like I told your dad, I’ve missed being a practising lawyer. It will be good to get back into it.”
Frankly, he was terrified. He had learned enough to pass the certification exam, but actually being in a courtroom scared him beyond measure. It was far too close to his fear of being caught, but compared to treating patients at the hospital where his actions could have immediate life-changing consequences, this was preferable.
After nearly two weeks, he was starting to get the hang of it. He was up half the night most nights poring over texts, trying to keep up with what he’d need to know the day after, but during the day, he thought he was covering very well.
And then, one day, getting out of his vehicle after a day at work, he saw them. Or saw something.
There was definitely someone watching him from the darkened vehicle on the other side of the road. He was so sure he had covered his tracks, but what if they actually had caught up with him this time?
He started towards the front door, intending to find Lisa, get them packed and get out of there, but then there was a very definite movement in the vehicle across the street.
Abandoning his plan, and regretting that he wouldn’t get the chance to ever see Lisa again, he began to walk swiftly back to his own vehicle.
He’d stashed the vortex manipulator under a seat several months back, just after his last business trip. He dived into the driver’s seat and pulled it out, strapping it on swiftly and just hitting the button for it to take him back to his last travelled-from location. He didn’t have time to choose anywhere else.
And it appeared that he no longer had the luxury to settle down with friends, loved ones, a home or a job for several months at a time. They were getting closer.
From now on, he was going to have to be a lot sneakier. Even if that meant staying on the move and relegating himself to the less attractive areas of the populated universe.
Whatever happened, he couldn’t let them catch up.
Chapter Six