Daughter of Torchwood

Getting to Know You

An extra update for you because I felt like it, my regular readers know that I do this every once in a while otherwise I will stick to the once-a-week updates on Sundays.

"Gran!" Starla calls bouncing down the stairs as she ties her hair back. She swoops into the kitchen where her grandma is making some breakfast, "Do you need anything while I'm out today?"

"Just some bread, dear. Eat this before you run off please," Mavis hands her granddaughter some toast and leaves the room.

Starla devours it quickly wanting to get to Cardiff Bay as soon as possible. After running from Jack yesterday, she has decided to go back, she's wanted a father for as long as she can remember and now is her chance.

Mavis comes back with her purse in hand, "Here," She hands her a £20 note.

"Gran," She raises an eyebrow, "Bread is not going to cost £20."

"I know, the rest is for you to spend. Now off you go," Mavis nudges her towards the front door with a smile.

"Thanks, Gran, see you later," She runs down the street racing for the bus she can see just pulling up to the bus stop.

The bus journey is uneventful, she just sits at the back watching the world go by. Getting off by the Millennium Centre, she walks past the water tower straight to the tourist information shop.

She stops just before the door takes a deep breath then go's in, she frowns at how small the shop is. It seems strange for her dad to work at such a place and why they would need CCTV, she remembers them saying they had it.

Ianto comes out of a little back room, "Starla?!"

"Hi..." She realises she doesn't know his name.

"Ianto," He smiles answering her silent question.

"Hi Ianto," She returns the smile, "I um... I've come to see my... to see Jack," It doesn't feel right to call him dad yet, that has to be earned.

"He was hoping you'd come back," Jack shut himself in his office for most of yesterday after she left and this morning, "We all were."

"All?" She frowns.

Ianto smirks pressing a button behind the desk that opens a secret door in the wall, her jaw drops, "Cool. I thought it was a bit weird that an information shop had CCTV."

Chuckling Ianto leads the way, "Smart thinking."

They come to a lift at the end of a corridor, she raises an eyebrow when he gets in but she does follow before the door closes, "Why do I feel like I'm going to end up as part of some evil science experiment?"

Ianto laughs again, "It certainly has that kind of vibe, I'll give you that," He turns serious for a moment, "But your dad would never let that happen."

He can imagine his boss to be quite protective of his daughter and he can honestly say that the Torchwood team will probably be quite protective of her too, once they fully know her.

"Wow," She gasps when they exit the lift into the main hub, "This place is huge. I can't believe this exists under Cardiff."

"A rift in space and time runs right through the city," Jack's voice comes from a walkway above her, "All sorts of things get washed up here, creatures, time shifts, space junk, debris etc..."

She watches him as he comes down the stairs onto the main platform, "You catch aliens?"

"Yes," He leans against the yellow railings, "We also scavenge the stuff they leave behind and find ways of using it. But enough on that, come on," He leads her back up the stairs he just came down to the private meeting room.