Fic: Conversations Usually Involve Talking (Highlander/Torchwood, PG)
Title: Conversations Usually Involve Talking
Author: xwingace
Summary: Methos has heard all threats before. He can wait them out. Sequel of sorts to Hunters and Hunted.
Fandom: Highlander, Torchwood
Character(s): Methos, Jack Harkness.
Rating: PG for language.
Word Count: ~730.
Disclaimer: I'm not associated with the BBC or Davis and Panzer. I'm just having fun. No harm or profit is intended.
Spoilers: None, really.
Feedback: Yes, please. Comments are more than welcome.
Note: A response to the Timestamp meme by deepfishy, who requested a ficlet set an hour after the end of Hunters and Hunted. Here we are.
Conversations Usually Involve Talking
“You realise you’re just making things more difficult, here,” Captain Harkness stated.
Methos stubbornly kept silent, glaring at his interrogator through the one transparent wall of the cell he was currently in. Clearly the Captain didn’t take well to being denied his answers. Tough luck. Methos didn’t take well to being asked personal questions at the end of a gun. Or, for that matter, while locked up and disarmed. His own curiosity about the other man be damned. He was going to keep his mouth shut until they had to let him go.
Harkness let the silence stretch. He was leaning against the back wall of the corridor leading to the cell, next to a metal door that greatly resembled the one in the back of Methos’s own little concrete-and-glass apartment. He had washed his hands and changed his clothes, but there was still a bloodstain on the strange wristband he wore. He really shouldn’t be standing there. But he was, and his eyes weren’t leaving Methos, either.
After what seemed like a small eternity, Harkness continued. “If you don’t answer my questions, I won’t know what to do with you.” He paused again to glance around the corridor. “Used to be in this place, if they didn’t know what to do with it, they killed it. Better safe than sorry.”
Methos kept up his stony glare. If Harkness thought death threats were going to get him to talk, he could think again. He’d been interrogated by far worse than this. People who honestly wanted and actually knew how to kill him, too. He’d managed to get away then, too.
Well, that was proving a little more difficult at the moment, at least. After all, all Methos’s first escape attempt had accomplished was to kill him long enough for Harkness’s team to put him in here. Well, and presumably piss off Harkness for killing him again, too. Though that had been accidental. Who knew that his subordinates would shoot through their boss with barely a flinch?
Harkness smiled. “Now I don’t really want to do that. And I think I’d have a hard time doing it, too. But I think I could make something stick in the end.”
“So here’s the thing.” Harkness had let another pause fall after his threat, but now continued in a lighter tone. “You’ve got secrets and you want to protect them. I get that.” He pushed himself up from the wall and approached the glass. “But when those secrets start to involve me, I get curious.” Another pause. Harkness was now close to the glass, looking down at Methos. “And then I might have to resort to other methods instead of asking nicely.”
Methos stretched out his legs on the concrete slab that served for a bunk and folded his arms behind his head, giving every indication of comfort. Hell, he’d been in far worse cells. Granted, those had also been easier to break out of.
Harkness waited for several long minutes, in silence. Then he nodded. “Suit yourself.”
He left.
Methos sat back up and rubbed his face, stifling the sigh. It had been tempting to shoot back some smartarse remark. But that would be talking. And right now, Methos didn’t want to be talking unless he was the one asking questions and getting answers. He’d already betrayed himself with an exclamation of surprise when he’d seen Harkness standing next to the morgue table he’d woken up on. He wasn’t going to say anything else. Anything he said would give Harkness an in. Anything he said might lead to Harkness - and by extension whatever organisation it was he worked for - finding out about his Immortality. And from what little he had seen so far, from the equipment lying around to the things in the other cells here, that would not be good.
He got up and made a round of his little cell, taking in all the characteristics he could. It looked quite secure. He’d have to plan ahead and take his chances if he was ever going to get out of here. Ah well, he had time. Time would also give him the chance to study Harkness, who seemed to be immortal without being Immortal. That story was probably worth hearing. But not at the price of his own secrets.
Methos settled himself on the bunk again. He was going to be here for a while.
Author: xwingace
Summary: Methos has heard all threats before. He can wait them out. Sequel of sorts to Hunters and Hunted.
Fandom: Highlander, Torchwood
Character(s): Methos, Jack Harkness.
Rating: PG for language.
Word Count: ~730.
Disclaimer: I'm not associated with the BBC or Davis and Panzer. I'm just having fun. No harm or profit is intended.
Spoilers: None, really.
Feedback: Yes, please. Comments are more than welcome.
Note: A response to the Timestamp meme by deepfishy, who requested a ficlet set an hour after the end of Hunters and Hunted. Here we are.
Conversations Usually Involve Talking
“You realise you’re just making things more difficult, here,” Captain Harkness stated.
Methos stubbornly kept silent, glaring at his interrogator through the one transparent wall of the cell he was currently in. Clearly the Captain didn’t take well to being denied his answers. Tough luck. Methos didn’t take well to being asked personal questions at the end of a gun. Or, for that matter, while locked up and disarmed. His own curiosity about the other man be damned. He was going to keep his mouth shut until they had to let him go.
Harkness let the silence stretch. He was leaning against the back wall of the corridor leading to the cell, next to a metal door that greatly resembled the one in the back of Methos’s own little concrete-and-glass apartment. He had washed his hands and changed his clothes, but there was still a bloodstain on the strange wristband he wore. He really shouldn’t be standing there. But he was, and his eyes weren’t leaving Methos, either.
After what seemed like a small eternity, Harkness continued. “If you don’t answer my questions, I won’t know what to do with you.” He paused again to glance around the corridor. “Used to be in this place, if they didn’t know what to do with it, they killed it. Better safe than sorry.”
Methos kept up his stony glare. If Harkness thought death threats were going to get him to talk, he could think again. He’d been interrogated by far worse than this. People who honestly wanted and actually knew how to kill him, too. He’d managed to get away then, too.
Well, that was proving a little more difficult at the moment, at least. After all, all Methos’s first escape attempt had accomplished was to kill him long enough for Harkness’s team to put him in here. Well, and presumably piss off Harkness for killing him again, too. Though that had been accidental. Who knew that his subordinates would shoot through their boss with barely a flinch?
Harkness smiled. “Now I don’t really want to do that. And I think I’d have a hard time doing it, too. But I think I could make something stick in the end.”
“So here’s the thing.” Harkness had let another pause fall after his threat, but now continued in a lighter tone. “You’ve got secrets and you want to protect them. I get that.” He pushed himself up from the wall and approached the glass. “But when those secrets start to involve me, I get curious.” Another pause. Harkness was now close to the glass, looking down at Methos. “And then I might have to resort to other methods instead of asking nicely.”
Methos stretched out his legs on the concrete slab that served for a bunk and folded his arms behind his head, giving every indication of comfort. Hell, he’d been in far worse cells. Granted, those had also been easier to break out of.
Harkness waited for several long minutes, in silence. Then he nodded. “Suit yourself.”
He left.
Methos sat back up and rubbed his face, stifling the sigh. It had been tempting to shoot back some smartarse remark. But that would be talking. And right now, Methos didn’t want to be talking unless he was the one asking questions and getting answers. He’d already betrayed himself with an exclamation of surprise when he’d seen Harkness standing next to the morgue table he’d woken up on. He wasn’t going to say anything else. Anything he said would give Harkness an in. Anything he said might lead to Harkness - and by extension whatever organisation it was he worked for - finding out about his Immortality. And from what little he had seen so far, from the equipment lying around to the things in the other cells here, that would not be good.
He got up and made a round of his little cell, taking in all the characteristics he could. It looked quite secure. He’d have to plan ahead and take his chances if he was ever going to get out of here. Ah well, he had time. Time would also give him the chance to study Harkness, who seemed to be immortal without being Immortal. That story was probably worth hearing. But not at the price of his own secrets.
Methos settled himself on the bunk again. He was going to be here for a while.