m_findlow

Title: Deceptive appearances
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Karen Baldwin
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 979 words
Content notes: Spoilers for episode 1.12 Fragments
Author notes: Written for fffc May Special Daily Challenge - May 14th - Necklace, Angel, Attic
Summary: In which a strange locket is found by the team.

'Anything?' Jack yelled out.

'Give me a break, Jack!' Karen yelled. 'Rome wasn't built in a day.'

'Yeah yeah, whatever,' he said, running a scanner over the mantle piece. This was so boring he didn't even know where to begin. Following up on minor rift alerts sucked. Given him a good old fashioned weevil chase any day. This trivial stuff was for the birds.

'I'm bored already!' he yelled out.

'Well,' she yelled back, walking slowly down the hallway upstairs, 'maybe this is Alex's way of taking you down a peg or two.'

'He wouldn't dare,' Jack replied, although knowing it was just the kind of reasoning Alex might have for sending him out here on such a menial task. He took the stairs two at a time to join Karen on the upper floor, convinced that if something so small had come through the rift and been collected by the current occupant, it wouldn't be in the kitchen cupboards.

'Where is Mr What's His Face, anyway?'

'Who? Alex?' she queried

'No, they guy who lives here. Gone to Spain for the week?'

'Oh.' Her face fell. 'Didn't Alex mention it? He committed suicide. That's why he suggested we come now and check the place out, since it's not being occupied and the police have given it the all clear. Poor chap was mentally unsound by all counts. Left a note and everything saying how the future was so bleak and horrifying he couldn't bear to go on living.'

'Huh,' Jack muttered, seeing the items in the bathroom all lined up with scary precision along the back edge of the counter. OCD as well, he thought. Hardly surprising someone like that might finally snap.

'It's so sad,' Karen said. 'There's so many lonely people out there. As a society we should really be doing more.'

'Can't change the whole world, Karen,' he said. A few lonely souls who couldn't cope with the world were the least of their problems.

'I'm gonna take a look up in the attic,' she said. 'Nothing ringing alarm bells down here.'

'You want a hand?' he asked.

'Yeah, can you reach the ladder?' At five foot three, she was never going to be tall enough to pull it down.

'Aren't you glad I'm here?' he said, teasing.

'Yup,' she replied, sweeping back a few loose strands of blonde hair that had fallen out of her ponytail. 'Knew we brought you here for a reason. Good for reaching tall stuff. I bet you can unscrew tight jam jar lids as well.'

'Hey, I'm good at other stuff, too, though cramped roof cavities are a short person specialty. Ladies first, as I always say.'

'Such a gentleman,' she said, clambering up the ladder and pushing open the sliding hatch, pulling herself inside.

She flipped on her torch, illuminating the claustrophobic interior. She expected it to be full of dust and cobwebs, like every other attic in Britain, but it was remarkably tidy, everything in neat boxes, taped up and labeled. Whether it was done recently or years ago she couldn't tell. Perhaps he'd thought he'd be doing everyone a favour, having everything packed away in advance. She might have been single, but she wasn't giving up on life just because of that.

Her PDA began to click more excitedly as she crawled between boxes marked "sheets and towels" and another marked "books". In the torchlight, something shiny caught her eye, lying on top of another box. Taken a closer look, she saw it was a silver locket, big and heavy, like something that might have belonged to a grandmother, or even a great grandmother. It was the thing causing her PDA to go crazy.

'Call off the dogs. I think I found it,' she called out.

'Karen, you're an absolute angel, you know that?'

She clutched it in her hand, feeling how cold it was, and taking it back toward the attic entrance. She climbed back out, Jack standing there waiting for her.

'What did you find?'

She held it up by the long chain, watching as it twirled around.

'That's it?' he said, looking unimpressed.

'Soaked in rift radiation. It's definitely what came through. Half a wonder something this small registered at all.'

'Well, you know Alex,' Jack said. 'No job too small and all that jazz.'

'Everything else up there was boxed up, but this was just lying there.' She frowned at it. 'I wonder why?'

'Probably where it landed when the rift saw fit to dump it on us.'

'It's very ornate,' she said, admiring the engraving on the silver oval.

'It's old, creepy junk,' Jack replied, pulling a face. 'Ten quid at a car boot sale.'

'I'm sure it's worth more than that. It's probably antique.'

'And now it's property of the Torchwood Institute where it's value no longer matters.'

She wanted to open it to see if there was a photo inside, curious as to whether is would be a human picture, or maybe something from another world. Before she could open it though, Jack had snatched it by the locket, tearing the chain from her fingers.

'Alright, we got what we came for. Let's mosey on outta here. Job done. Not too late for lunch, and if I remember correctly, you still owe me one for that bet you lost two weeks ago.'

'You cheated, I swear,' she replied.

'Me? I never cheat. You're just a really sore loser.'

'Fine,' she said, watching him nonchalantly slip the locket into his large coat pocket. 'Just this once, mind you. Next time there's a wager, I'm keeping both of my eyes on you,' she warned.

'I'm surprised they weren't already,' Jack said, laughing. 'I'm the best looking thing going around in this city.'

She punched him playfully, forgetting all about the locket as they carefully sealed the house back up behind them.