Disoriented Cosmos {A Torchwood Story} [COMPLETED]

4. Welcome To Torchwood

Bright. Too bright. Everything, too bright and yellow and...

CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS!

I sit up so fast I almost roll over headfirst and bump my head. Then I look around me and become even more confused: I'm in a hotel room, with the lights on even though it's morning, and there's a pounding in my head and a partial hole in my memory.

Yesterday, I got pushed out of a helicopter. Then... then...

Captain Jack Harkness! my brain yells at me, but I'm too confused and sleepy to understand fully. Names and things keep popping up in my brain with absolutely no context: Toshiko Sato, aliens, Torchwood, time, Suzie Costello, rift, space... Captain Jack Harkness.

I rub my eyes and stand up unsteadily to find something, anything to link these thoughts. Why am I thinking them? Are they part of the gap in my knowledge of like, half of the entire day yesterday?
And how did I escape death?

My brain responds with, Captain Jack Harkness!
Of course, that makes no sense to me, so instead I wobble over to the small bathroom. In the mirror I look at myself, and glance down at my fresh clean clothes. Last time I checked I was still in my scratchy ugly uniform... whose clothes are these?

I peer closer at myself, and my eyes strangely seem more animated, if that makes sense. There seems to be even more colours swirling around, and the amber in them is glowing brightly.

I stare into my eyes, and suddenly glimpse a flash of icy blue.

I grip the edges of the sink.
I remember where I saw those eyes...

ON CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS!

I march out the door and down the stairs and out the building, on a mission to find this Captain Jack Harkness and make him explain to me what the fuck is going on.
My feet begin to move in a direction I can't remember, but as I follow their path I start to get flashes of yesterday. Two women, Toshiko Sato and Suzie Costello. They are at computers in what looks like an underground sewer, which has writing on the walls saying Torchwood!

Aliens, rift, time, space - they haven't come to me yet, but rest assured as soon as I find this place I am going to find out.

In the corner of my eye I see a tower flowing with water and my legs make me stand on a particular stone square next to it. As soon as I step on, it starts moving down. Surprised but somehow also not surprised, as I descend I re-see shiny metal, flowing water, murky walls, computers, offices, leaks... Torchwood. I see the two women doing their work, the two women that help against... the rift in time and space! Which dumps aliens in Cardiff!

"I remember! Suck it!" I shout ecstatically, and look down to watch all three of them stare up at me in shock. In elation I cross my arms and put on a smug smile, as if to say, beat your weird tasting drink bitch.

The man - Captain Jack Harkness - comes out of his glass office and walks to the landing place of the stone, and as it grinds to a halt I have a satisfied grin on my face.
He stuffs his hands in his trouser pockets, grins, and says, "Wow."
Not even happy, just matter-of-fact. That's quite rude.
"Hey, man," I point to him in defiance, "you should be admiring me more than that. You put that amnesia Retcon stuff in my drink, but I can still remember you, and you," I point to each woman in turn then gesture to the whole place," and all this and," I point back to him again with now narrowed eyes, "you."

Jack shrugs his shoulders. "It might just mean we need to up your dosage, although I gave you a pretty big dose last night."
"Then that means, I win!" I point upwards, sticking my tongue out, now not knowing what else to do because I don't actually know if I should be here at all. "My mind is strong enough to withstand and overcome your precious little compound. You can't beat me, sucka! I've been a drugmule for years; you can't do shit to me, cuz it's all already happened! What you gonna do now, huh?"

I eventually run out of wind, lower my arm and breathe in. I've kind of just realised that I probably shouldn't've come back here.
Jack brings his hands out from his pockets and crosses them. He studies me again, just like I remember it.
"So... strong mind? And strong physically, if I rightly remember every single struggle I had with you yesterday."
Unsure of what else to do, I nod, and he continues.
"What else can you do?"

Okay, now I wasn't expecting that.
Hands now clasped behind my back, I ask a little quieter, "Um, what do you mean what else can I do?"
He shrugs again, and I just realise that I haven't seen his crocodile smile yet.
"Can you use weapons? What kind of smarts do you have? Do you understand everything I told you last night?"
"Uh... yeah, to all of that: I can use guns; I can use all different kinds of knives, and I have a good kick and throwing arm; I have street smarts; and I understand everything about Torchwood and aliens and time and space you told me."

He studies me again, every so often silently looking to the women. Suzie just shrugs; Toshiko tilts her head at me and smiles in a way that looks like she knows more than me.
I feel like I'm on display. Why am I still here? Oh, I know: I feel drawn here, like something inside me told me I have more business to finish, more to see, more to know, more to reveal.

After a while, Jack offers me his hand, brings me down off the stone, and shakes it heartily.
"Welcome aboard."
I tilt my head, not unlike a bird. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Welcome to the team," he repeats, and Toshiko claps her hands a little behind him. I stare at her, then back to him.
"You mean... you want me to work for you? In the aliens and things? In Torchwood?"
He nods, and I stare again. I almost can't believe what I'm hearing.

I look around the place, at the women, at the enigmatic still hint-of-dangerous man in front of me. All this insanity, this impossibility, this talk of wonder... I feel drawn to it again.
Well, I guess it beats being broke and unprotected!

"Sure!" I grin widely and shake his hand back, and he smiles his charming smile - there it is - before Toshiko runs up to me and hugs me tightly. I smile at her awkwardly, actually not having received a hug in years, and she releases me at Jack's request.
"Miss Evelina Cosmo Firestone," he commands, "you will go through the proper paperwork to become a member of Torchwood. I will teach you how to use our equipment and introduce you to our friend the Rift over there. In the meantime, whilst you gain enough money to get your own place, I will make you up a room here."

I blink, smiling blindly and being taken to the office he was just in. On the way I pass Suzie, who just harrumphs and turns back to her work. I am sat down opposite Jack, and as he pulls out papers upon papers it finally sinks in.

Why did I decide to work here?

Simple, I think to myself: I'm broke, I'm homeless, and if I stay at the place I'm for some reason drawn to, maybe I can protect people from what I've gone through.

Welcome to Torchwood.