TDS (act 1, chapter 2)
CHAPTER TWO: here, let’s start this unravel
He found the card crumpled at the bottom of one of his many still-packed suitcases. The phone rang perfectly normally for half a minute, then there was a burst of static, and a familiar voice said, "Mr. Lambert. I must say, Gwen thought that you being a celebrity would make keeping an eye on you easier, but you and Mr. Ratliff are even better at staying below the radar than some top-secret agents of Her Majesty."
"I have really crazy and intense fans," Adam said defensively. He frowned. "You were expecting me to call?"
"I was hoping you wouldn't." A sigh, followed by a female voice in the background - Gwen? Adam realized that it was too convenient for her to have been just a passing friend, that strange afternoon in Cardiff. "How is he doing?"
So Harkness knew. "He's... okay? There's nothing wrong with him, physically. Or so the doctors say."
Captain Harkness let out a derisive chuckle. "Of course they would. Better than admitting that they can't understand the results they did get. After all, if trace substances show up that they can't identify, that don’t show up in any medical or scientific database, it can't be important."
Adam's grip on the phone handset tightened. He wished phones still had cords, just so he had something to do with his other hand. "Captain. Tommy's scared out of his mind. I can't tell if he’s hurting, but he's at least really confused, and... he's a tough guy, it takes a lot to faze him. What's going on?"
"I'm sorry. I am. I'd love to explain everything to you - you sound pretty freaked out yourself, if you don't mind me saying so - but there's classified information here that I am not at liberty to share, especially over the phone.” The Captain cleared this throat. “But if you will… transfer Mr. Ratliff to me, I'll get to the bottom of this. Let me have two weeks to work on him. From your schedule, it looks like you won't be needing him until next month anyway."
Adam didn’t bother asking how the Captain got hold of his schedule. "Wait, what are you going to do?"
"Can’t tell you that, either. Actually, it’s because I don’t know - it will depend on what our tests find. But I'll pick him up myself. There's a... facility I can take him to, in the United States. I have a colleague who specializes in these kinds of cases. We'll do our best to help him."
Adam let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Tommy was going to be okay. "And- two weeks? That's all you need?"
"If we can be done sooner, I'll let you know and deliver him safely back to you as soon as possible."
Adam hadn’t realized how much tension he’d been carrying from the whole debacle. He dropped back on the couch, feeling boneless. "Thank you.”
There was a long pause, and Adam wondered if the Captain was expecting him to say something else. He thought he caught the female voice speaking again in the background. Harkness cleared his throat. "I've told you all that I should, as far as my job description goes. But Gwen - you remember her? - she wants me to let you know: your friend, Tommy, he'll only listen to you. You have to tell him to come with me."
"I'm not telling him to do anything," said Adam, sitting up, "I'll let him know that you can help him, that I think it's a good idea, but he's making the decision himself."
"Yes, yes, maybe I didn't say that right," amended Harkness. "The decision would be his. But... you have to give him permission."
"I don't understand."
"I don't know exactly what's wrong with him, but I have several good guesses," explained Harkness. "And in most of them, this is what he'd do to cope with what's going on inside his body - he'll fixate on someone, and use them as a kind of... anchor. I'm pretty sure Tommy's using you."
"How can you know that? Why me?" But Adam thought of Tommy going missing, Tommy turning up inside his house within minutes of Adam calling his cell. Tommy had had nothing on him but the clothes on his back, his cell phone. But he’d remembered where Adam kept the spare key. He hadn't even carried the keys to his own apartment. And then, going up to Adam’s room.
"He was saying your name over and over when I found him," said Harkness. "The way he was saying it... it was like he was terrified of forgetting. He didn't pay attention to me until I told him I would help him find you."
"So he won't go with you unless I, what, tell him it's okay?"
"Essentially, yes."
"I guess I can do that." Adam rubbed a hand over his face. "When... when will you come pick him up?"
"I'm in the middle of something else right now, but I should be able to come by tomorrow afternoon." He rattled off Adam's home address.
"Yeah, that's correct." Adam had a radio interview in the morning, but he had the rest of the day free. He was pretty sure Captain Harkness knew that, too. "We'll be here, I guess. Should I, um, ask Tommy to pack?"
"No. He won't be allowed to use his own things while in the facility, anyway."
Adam blinked. "Wait. Does this mean I'll have no contact with him while he's there?"
"That's right. It's a top-secret facility, Mr. Lambert. No contact with anyone, even family. But I'll have him call you right before he goes in and right after he gets out."
Uneasiness coiled around the now-familiar lump of anxiety in his gut. "I'll tell him. We'll call you if he has any questions, or if he says no."
"I'll see you both tomorrow afternoon." The call ended.
Adam told Tommy about the phone call, about what Captain Harkness wanted to do. "It's just for two weeks. He's the only one so far who seems to have any clue about what's going on. I think... I think it'd be a good idea."
Tommy had listened to Adam quietly, not showing any surprise or worry. In fact, Adam couldn't read his expression at all. He worried that Tommy had zoned out again, until Tommy nodded and said, "It does sound… like a good idea. I really want to, you know, figure out what's wrong with me. And... it's okay with you?"
"If you think it's going to help, Tommy, then I'm fine with whatever you want to do," answered Adam, remembering what the Captain had said. "But if you're not sure... I can call him back and tell him we need more time to think about it."
"No.” Tommy let out a long breath, expression determined. “It's probably best to get it over and done with.”
They were quiet for the rest of the day. The air in the house felt… different, now that they had a course of action. After dinner, Tommy got out the acoustic guitar that had been living with him in the spare bedroom and started noodling around on the couch. Adam sat on the other end and flipped channels on the TV for a while, but eventually he turned on the closed captioning and muted the sound so he could listen to Tommy.
Tommy drifted through a lot of familiar songs, his favorites and the songs from Adam's albums. Eventually, he started deviating from the melody, throwing in unexpected key changes and chord progressions. Adam felt like he hadn't listened to Tommy play, really play, in a long time. It was relaxing. There was something about Tommy's style, the blues sound, the way he handled phrases, that translated in his head as distinctly Tommy.
"Is that something new?" he asked, after a particularly interesting melody line.
"It's just been in my head a lot," mumbled Tommy, always shy when it came to his own music.
It was the closest to normalcy Adam had felt in days, and he resisted the urge to kiss Tommy, the casual way they used to do when either or both of them were exhausted out of their heads. Instead, he laid down and stretched out a bit, Tommy shifting forward a little so Adam could tuck his feet between Tommy's bony ass and the back of the couch. Adam let the music wash over him, distantly wondering where Tommy got inspired to play such a sweet and delicate tune amidst the harsh beats normally blasting out of his iPod. His brain scattered possible lyrics through it, mostly random; the skies are singing, old roads missing, adrift, a shift, divided and divined; they definitely needed to revisit this after Tommy came back.
Adam didn't remember waking up and moving to his bedroom, but he must have, because the next thing he knew, he was in his bed and Tommy was shaking him awake. The sky outside his window was still dark, but the clock told him he had an hour before the car and Lane arrived.
During breakfast, Tommy tentatively asked to use his computer. Adam was still trying to get ready, hair wet after his quick shower, and he grabbed the buttered toast off Tommy's plate with an exasperated, "you spend more time around my stuff than I do, why do you still ask, just don't mess up my porn bookmarks".
Adam tried to be as patient and gracious in his interview as he was expected to be, but he felt uneasy, buzzing from the wrong kind of nerves. He kept going over his conversation with Harkness in his head, wondering if there was something else they could have done. The whole thing was just so weird.
Lane asked about Tommy after the interview; he figured she could probably tell how distracted he was. He gave her the brief version: someone was coming to see him and Tommy today who might have an idea about what the problem was, and he was going to take Tommy to a very exclusive facility for two weeks. Lane, predictably, wanted to know about the mysterious place, but grudgingly let it go when Adam very truthfully explained that he didn't know anything yet. He promised to tell her when he found out, and pointed out that "exclusive facility" was the magic word in Hollywood anyway, people expected rock stars to go a little dinky every now and then under the weight of their own magnificence.
"And I guess it's better that it's him and not you, then," said Lane dryly. She dropped him off at his house, and seemed even further appeased when Tommy waved at her through the open window.
Adam walked inside and saw Tommy back on the living room couch with his guitar. Tommy looked up and met his eyes, and... Adam started to realize what had been bugging him all day. Something about the way Tommy had been looking at him- it was like he was expecting something from Adam, but he'd resigned himself to not getting it.
And it couldn't be… they'd talked about it, this weird thing between them that could never settle for just-friends but not allowed to go become anything else. If it was something about that, he was fairly sure Tommy would have said something. They loved each other - that was a given, accepted by both sides almost from the start. It was more than enough, had always been more than enough.
Tommy returned his gaze to the guitar, resumed playing. The melody he'd kept coming back to the night before sounded stronger now, fuller. It was beautiful and quiet and, in the light of day, nothing at all like Tommy.
Too many words crowded into Adam's mind, filling the awkward sunlit space.
The doorbell rang.
Adam had half-expected Captain Harkness to look less, well, ridiculously gorgeous under the bright California day. If anything, the man looked even more handsome, skin clear and ageless and eyes capable of that old movie-star twinkle. A small part of Adam thought, not without a flash of envy, that the Captain would fit into the Hollywood scene with ridiculous ease.
But this wasn’t a movie set, and the Captain was wearing the military greatcoat that Adam had previously seen him in. He nodded somberly at Adam and Tommy. "Good afternoon. Great place you've got here."
"Thanks,” said Adam automatically. “Would you like something to drink?"
"No, thank you," said the Captain. The corner of his mouth twitched, like he was amused by the courtesies. "I guess there's no point pretending this is a social call. Mr. Ratliff, are you ready to go?"
"Call me Tommy, please," said Tommy quietly. He quickly returned the guitar to the spare bedroom, and when he came out he was putting on his striped hoodie. Adam realized that he must have changed into another pair of black jeans and a black T-shirt while Adam was out. Actually, the shirt looked suspiciously like one of Adam's.
Adam paid careful attention, but Tommy didn't seem at all afraid of Captain Harkness. If anything, the Captain was the one who looked a little uncertain.
“Is this it?” Adam frowned. “No paperwork to sign or anything?”
“He comes of his own free will, right?” Captain Harkness smiled, teeth flashing white. “And I try to do as little paperwork as possible. You know, top-secret facility and all.”
"Will you be staying with him at this place?" asked Adam, after a moment spent mentally wrestling between not acting like Tommy's a child and freaking out about his friend essentially disappearing for a couple of weeks.
"Yes," answered Captain Harkness. "I'll be with him the whole time." He looked Adam in the eye, the words trust me printed in his expression. And Adam wanted to, the man just gave off that vibe, but this was Tommy.
"Can you at least give me some idea about this place?" Adam persisted.
Captain Harkness sighed. "I really can't, and it's best for you if I don't. Here," he pulled out a plain blue card that had Jack Harkness and a telephone number written on it, nothing else, "If there's some kind of emergency, you can try reaching me on this. I can’t guarantee I'll answer, but I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
Adam nodded, took the card. He walked them to the door. "Let me know when you're back, I can pick you up from the airport or something." There was a black town car waiting below the steps, even though Adam hadn't opened the locked gates.
Tommy didn't say anything, looked like he didn't know what to say. But before crossing the threshold he turned and threw his arms around Adam, embracing him tightly. Adam squeezed him back just as hard. He wasn't sure why there was a tightness in his throat; it's only two damn weeks. They'd gone longer without seeing each other, when they got caught up in their own lives.
Captain Harkness and Tommy got into the car. Its windows were tinted, but Adam could feel Tommy's gaze on him the entire time the car was rolling down the driveway. The locked gate opened at its approach, even though the remote was five feet away from Adam, inside his bag. The car went out into the street and was gone.
Adam didn't notice the new file on his desktop until the next morning. It was named, simply, "New Song - Tommy", and the file type was from his expensive new music recording program. Adam clicked on it, feeling oddly nervous.
The now-familiar melody floated out of his speakers: it was the song that Tommy had been playing a lot, the one that was not at all his usual style. It was just the guitar, plucking and strumming a slow, simple melody line; it felt familiar now after hearing it repeated so often. Adam had to stop halfway through, heart hammering. He heard, with relief, his cell ringing from the other room, and he shut his computer down.
That night, though, he finished dinner and brought his glass of wine over to the couch. He played the song again, and laid back down exactly where he had the last night Tommy had been there. If he didn't move, he could pretend that the pillow resting on his feet was Tommy's back. He tried casting lyrics into the melody again, but his mind kept getting pulled back into the melody.
There was something subtly different about the song. Adam couldn't tell if it was just a few notes changed or the tempo or something in the musical phrasing, but the beauty and fragility that the song had had before was now overlain with a sense of loneliness, loss. Heartbreak.
Adam blinked at the ceiling.
He wondered if Tommy had meant the recording to be a gift, a think of me while I'm away kind of thing. He pulled out the Captain's card. Hesitated. On a whim, he went online to check on the phone bill he’d picked up that morning. Searched his history until he found the day he'd called the Captain.
Nothing. There was no record of his call, even though he must have been on the phone for nearly half an hour. His landline plan didn't cover international calls, since he used his work cell for that. He looked up the number of his landline service and called them. He had the customer service rep go through every call he'd made that day, both on his landline and his cell phone. All the calls he'd made were there, correct in the details - all except for the one to Cardiff, Wales.
He put Tommy's song on a loop. Stared at the Captain's card.
Tommy had never been very good with words. He preferred action, physical contact, or music. On tour, Adam had only needed to peek at the song playing on Tommy's iPod to get an idea of his mood. It was simple, and honest, especially compared to the circus of words and media that Adam had to navigate through every day.
The song felt like a breakup. No - a goodbye.
Captain Harkness had said it would only take two weeks. Nothing bad could happen so short a time, right? (Like nothing bad could have happened in an hour.) And the Captain would be with him the whole time. Adam had a career, responsibilities, other friends and family to spend time with. He’d heard Tommy call his mum and give her the same abbreviated version of the situation as Adam had given Lane. Tommy said she didn't sound worried, which was a relief. But Adam also thought, she hasn’t seen what happens to Tommy.
Two weeks.
He picked up the phone.
There was no answer the first time Adam called. Nor the second, the following morning. Adam tried not to panic. The next day, he was gearing himself up for call #3, and maybe looking up plane fare for the next flight to the Heathrow, when his phone finally rang. Adam was annoyed enough to ask, right out, where Tommy was. To his surprise, the Captain answered easily.
“He - well, we, are at a UNIT base. UNIT stands for Unified Intelligence Taskforce.”
"A military base?"
Harkness sighed. "Yes. Hush-hush, top secret, you have to sign a hundred contracts before you can even know about it - which means I'm already bypassing a number of regulations just by having this conversation - and if you are associated with it in any way, you're put under observation until it's decided that you're not a threat."
Adam thought about this. "So I'm already under observation."
"Good man." There was a creak in the background; Adam imagined Captain Harkness lounging in an old office chair somewhere. "Mr. Lambert, regulations say that I should discourage your interest in our operations and reassure you that your friend is receiving the best treatment there is."
Adam closed his eyes. "But what do you think? As... as Jack Harkness?"
"As Captain Jack Harkness, I'm telling you that what we’re dealing with may be more advanced than even the people here can handle. I have my own ideas, and my specialist is arriving today. But to be totally honest, we’re stumbling around in the dark. The one sure thing that's helped Mr. Ratliff is you."
"You want me to come?" said Adam.
"I want your friend to get better."
He’s asking me to come, Adam took a deep breath. “When can I get out there?”
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