Just Imagine...

Someone to Watch Over Me

Jay was picking up Hanna and Alexa after school when he spotted her; a little girl about the same age as the older of his and Sam's two daughters, wandering by herself down a dirt path, and with a rather suspicious looking car creeping along behind her.
"I don't like the look of that," Jay murmured aloud to himself, "hang on, girls, Dada will be right back." He added to his daughters, reaching under the book bags he'd just put in the trunk of the car to grab an old baseball bat - one Sam had recklessly purchased with her allowance when they were in high school, not because she wanted to play baseball, but because she wanted to pose like Joe DiMaggio with it, apparently that was supposed to look cool. Long story short; it didn't.
Making sure to lock the car doors, Jay followed the little girl and the strange vehicle, gripping the wood of the bat.
Joe DiMaggio my ass, Sam Ryder, he thought with a slight grin.
Jay's worries were confirmed when he rounded the corner and saw that a man, probably in his late thirties, had stepped out of the car and was talking to the little girl.
"Your mummy sent me to pick you up," the man was saying in a voice that to Jay clearly stated he was lying, "just get in the car and I'll take you home."
"No," the little girl replied, "I don't know you. Go away."
"C'mon, dear, your mummy's probably worried about you. It's dangerous for you to wander around by yourself."
"Yeah, she could run into creeps like you." Jay growled.
The man turned around sharply, and as he did Jay hit him square in the nose with the baseball bat.
"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Jay asked, not even looking as the creepy man fell to the ground, clutching his bleeding nose. The little girl just stared at him with wide green-hazel eyes. Thankfully she didn't look too frightened by what had just happened.
"I was going to take her home." The man on the ground groaned.
"Was I talking to you?" Jay hissed, "rest your filthy mouth." He turned back to the little girl, "don't worry, darling, I won't let him hurt you. Do you need a ride home?"
The girl hesitated, head tilted almost like she was listening for something, then nodded.
"Yes please." She murmured in a soft voice.
"Okay," Jay murmured, extending a hand for her to take, "I'll drive you to my house and we'll call your mummy to pick you up there, do you know her phone number?"
The girl nodded as Jay walked her back to his and Sam's car.
"Good. What's your name?"
"Jasmine."
"That's a lovely name, Jasmine."
"Thank you."
"You can call me Jay. Have you met my daughters? Hanna and Alexa?"
"No."
"Are you sure? You and Hanna are probably the same age."
"I haven't met her."
Jay had to admit, the way Jasmine was talking was slightly unnerving, but he was certain it was just because she was in shock from what had just happened.
He made sure to memorize the creepy man's license plate number before leaving the scene.
"I'll be reporting you to the police, you scummy excuse for a human." He spat, and Jasmine giggled - not a loud giggle like he was used to hearing from his and Sam's daughters, but a giggle nonetheless.
"You didn't have to save me, you know," Jasmine said once Jay had gotten her buckled up in the back of the car next to Hanna and Alexa, "I have special friends who protect me."
Jay bit his lip.
"I'm sure you do, dear," he murmured, "I was just helping them in case they were busy."
"They're never busy," Jasmine stated matter-of-factly, "they're always watching over me."
"I'm sure that's lovely, how nice of them."
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"Well-"
"It's okay. Nobody else does either."
Jay cast a glance in the rear view mirror to see Hanna and Alexa exchange a comedically confused sideways look.
None of them said anything else for the rest of the drive.

Sam arrived home and was immediately concerned that Hanna and Alexa didn't come running to greet her. She didn't see Jay around either, and a tingle of anxiety crept up her spine as she hung her denim jacket on the hook by the front door and kicked off her jungle-print combat boots.
"Jay?" She called, "girls?"
"Up here, darling." Jay's voice replied from upstairs.
Sam hid her sigh of relief as she trudged up the steps, taking her socks off before entering Hanna and Alexa's room.  
The girls were sitting up together on one end of Hanna's bed, with Jay seated opposite from them and Zephyr curled on the floor at his feet. Jay scooted against the wall to make room for Sam as she entered.
"Mama!" Both girls exclaimed, leaping off the bed and into her arms.
"There you are!" Sam laughed, lifting them off the floor, "what are you three doing up here? Hiding from the tickle monster?"
Hanna and Alexa both squealed with laughter as Sam started tickling them, squirming and kicking in her strong arms.
Jay rolled his eyes affectionately as Sam carried the girls back over to the bed and set them down, sitting next to them with her feet pressed against Jay's thigh.
"But really, what're you all doin' up here?" Sam asked, addressing Jay this time, "you had me worried, baby."
"It's alright, darling," Jay assured her, "the girls and I were just talking about their... friend, from school."
"She's not our friend!" Alexa protested.
"Yeah, she's weird!" Hanna added.
"Girls," Sam said sternly, "we don't say those things in this house."
"But she is weird!" Hanna retorted, "she talks to the air and always has on this creepy smile!"
"Maybe she just has some really close imaginary friends. You shouldn't judge her for that." Sam murmured, then looked to Jay for support. Jay, however, looked back at her with a grave expression.
"What's wrong, baby?" Sam asked, worry returning.
"Girls, why don't you go out in the backyard and feed the horses," Jay said, putting on a smile that to Sam looked very forced, "Mama and Dada need to have a little talk."
"Okay, Dada." Alexa murmured, crawling over Sam's legs to get off the bed. Hanna followed, casting a worried glance at both of her parents as she did so. 
Zephyr flicked her tail, standing up and stretching with a massive yawn that revealed all her enormous, sharp teeth, then padded after them.
"Jay, what is going on?" Sam demanded as soon as their children were out of earshot.
"Calm down, darling, everything's fine," Jay murmured reassuringly, taking her hands in his, "it's just that something strange happened when I went to pick up the girls from school today."
He pursed his lips, as if waiting for her to respond.
"Well go on," Sam said after a moment of silence, "what happened?"
Jay then recounted his experience with the obvious pedophile and the little girl named Jasmine. How he'd protected her from the man that had tried to kidnap her and brought her here to call her mother.
"She wasn't at all afraid of Zephyr," he murmured, "and she kept talking about these 'friends' that she has who are supposed to protect her from everything. She wasn't scared of that man when he was talking to her. She just seemed so... certain that if I hadn't intervened everything would've been fine. Her mother was incredibly distraught when she came to pick her up but she just said 'it's okay, Mummy. These are the good people. My friends told me'."
"She could just have an overactive imagination," Sam chuckled, "you know how kids are."
Jay was already shaking his head.
"No, darling, this was different," he said, "the look on her face when she looked at me... and said 'these are the good people'... it made me uneasy. Like there was something else looking at me when she was."
"Baby, she's a little girl," Sam murmured, trying to wrap her head around what Jay was saying, "how could she possibly do anything to make you and the girls this scared?"
"Not scared," Jay corrected, "uneasy. There's just something off about her. You'd understand if you'd been here while she was. I think it's something Torchwood might need to investigate."
Sam leaned back slightly, scanning Jay's face to make sure he was being serious. Then she hugged him, kissing his cheek.
"Alright," she murmured, "I'll look into it for you tomorrow."
"Thank you, Sam." Jay sighed, leaning into her.
Sam felt another spike of anxiety as she realized just how off-putting this experience had been for Jay.
Whatever he'd seen in that little girl had unsettled him deeply, and Sam knew this wasn't a joke. She trusted her partner to tell her the truth about this, and if this was the truth, she was going to find the answer and make sure her family was safe at all costs.