m_findlow

Title: Things that go bump in the night
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Tosh, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,637 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Any, any, late night snack" at fic_promptly and Fffc May Special Daily Challenge - May 2nd - Was it a knock that had woken her?
Summary: Tosh has a visitor to her apartment block.

Was it a knock that had woken her? Tosh pulled the bed covers away from her ears and lay there, listening. Perhaps it had just been her imagination playing tricks on her. Everything sounded different and strange at night. It was all too easy to imagine any one of a hundred unlikely reasons for a noise like that. Satisfied that her overactive imagination was toying with her, she nestled back down into the pillow and closed her eyes.

There it was again, that knocking sound. Could someone be at her door? Of course they could, she realised. It could be Jack, though why he didn't try calling her phone seemed odd. She pulled off the covers and padded towards the door, peering through the tiny viewfinder but seeing nothing. Slowly she undid the latch and pulled it open, taking a look out into the hallway. Nothing there, not that she expected there to be. The block of apartments was small, four up and four across, more upmarket than most. Not something she would have been able to afford herself, but then she didn't have to. It had been a gift from Jack, rent free so he said, because it was his. A favour for accepting to come and work for him. It seemed a grand favour for doing what she did best, tinkering with technology and computers. There was more to it than that, of course, but after six months of working with the enigma that was Jack, she was only just beginning to scratch the surface.

She'd only just closed the door and was fingering the latch when she heard the noise again. It wasn't her door, but it sounded like it was definitely outside. She knew she shouldn't go out there, not at three in the morning. It could be anyone out there, wandering the halls, even though the block had security. Then again, it might be something as innocent as a dog getting locked out of its owner's apartment, scratching at the doors to be let back inside. She hadn't seen a dog of course, but she hadn't been looking that hard either. Hearing the sound once more, this time as if it was coming from the floor below, she made up her mind. She pulled on a saggy track top and her slippers. For reasons unknown she slipped her phone into the front pocket of the top, just in case.

She stepped out through the door and silently looked left and right, listening out for the sound. It came again from somewhere further away, but still sounded like it was coming from the floor below. She crept along the hall and towards the emergency stairwell, pulling open the door and slipping inside. She nearly jumped out of her skin when her phone beeped.

"Rift alert at 113 Batman Hill Road. On my way. Stay inside and stay awake. J."

But that was right here! she realised. There was a rift alert right here in her apartment block. She looked at the message again. It didn't make any sense. She could understand the "stay inside" part, but the "stay awake"? Did he really think she'd be able to sleep knowing something was happening right under her nose? There were more knocking sounds coming from below. She didn't have to be a genius to put two and two together and know that whatever was making the noise had come through the rift.

She wanted to heed Jack's advice and to go back to her own apartment, but whatever it was down there, it sounded like it was getting serious. She wasn't very good at handling aliens. Her strengths lay in her other skills, though Jack had taken her on any number of rift alerts, showing her the ropes. He wouldn't put her in danger but she had to learn how to handle herself. She couldn't very well hide away now. Jack was still on his way, but she was here right now, and people could be in danger. She didn't felt brave but she knew she had to do something, so she continued down the stairs until she came to the second floor.

She carefully pulled open the door, waiting for something to be on the other side. Instead all she saw was yet another empty hallway, until she spotted the apartment door at the very end, standing ajar. There were no more sounds coming from the spot. Whatever had been trying to get inside had succeeded. She rushed to the edge of the door and held her breath, before poking her head inside.

She could make out from the limited light coming through the windows that some of the furniture had been knocked over, like a haphazard break-in. She looked around for any sign of the people who lived here. She should probably know her neighbours, given the size of the complex, but she'd always kept to herself and worked long hours. As she listened for any other sound she swore she could hear something like snoring. How could anyone have slept through their apartment being turned over? Perhaps the would be thief had already gone, finding nothing of value. She'd have to tell Jack that it had gotten away. Taking a chance, she made toward the bedroom, hoping to wake whoever was there so that they wouldn't wake up to find this mess. It seemed like the good samaritan thing to do.

As she padded down the hallway towards the bedroom she began to feel tired. She put it down to the adrenaline having worn off. And it was an ungodly hour of the morning to be awake. The closer she got, the more tired she felt. She could have just about slumped to the floor in the hallway and gone to sleep right there. Then she caught sight of something long and serpentine swaying out through the bedroom door. Coming to stand right in front of the door, she caught her first glimpse of the rest of it.

The creature was huge, almost filling the room completely. The thing she'd seen was only its tail, but the rest of it was like a morphing of five different creatures. The back end of the four-legged beast was scaly, but the front end looked like a lion, and somewhere in the middle was a second head protruding from its huge body. It turned and saw her standing there, distracting it from where it had been hovered over the bed, looking like it was about to eat the man.

She froze, being caught in its sights. She wanted to move, or run or do anything, but she felt exhausted. She couldn't remember ever having felt this tired before. She should be terrified or at least try to do something to stop the creature, but all she could think about was falling asleep. She felt the wall behind her and slid down to the floor. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered Jack's warning. Stay awake. But she couldn't, no matter how hard she tried. 'Don't hurt him, please,' she said, trying to stay awake. As her eyes were drifting shut, she heard the sound of heavy boots racing through the apartment towards her, then nothing.

'Wake, wakey, Tosh,' she heard a voice floating over her. When she opened her eyes, she found herself back in her own bed, Jack sitting beside her on top of the covers, looking down at her.

'I had the strangest dream that there was a monster downstairs,' she said.

'That wasn't a dream, Tosh.'

'Oh.'

'I told you to stay inside,' he said, though he didn't sound angry.

'I know, but I could hear noises downstairs. I thought maybe... actually I don't know what I was thinking.'

Jack settled his hands in his lap as he watched her. 'Well, whatever it was, it was lucky you were there when you were.'

Tosh tried to wriggle her way into a sitting posiiton. 'What was that thing? And more importantly where is it now?'

'I took care of it,' Jack said, without elaborating. 'Ever heard of the chimera? Part lion, part dragon, part goat and part snake, so the story goes. The fire breathing part was put in to scare people. They don't breathe fire but they do breathe out a rather toxic little chemical that puts their victims to sleep, right before they eat out their brains.'

'Their brains?'

'Tastier when the victim is dreaming, apparently. Like adding sauce to fish and chips.' She wasn't sure how he could talk about things like that in such a blasé way, but then again, he'd been doing this a lot longer than she had.

'I felt so tired, like I couldn't stay awake even if I tried.'

'It's potent stuff,' Jack replied. 'Lucky I got there when I did, though it was probably you who saved the guy downstairs.'

'Me?' She hadn't done anything.

'Yeah. The chimera was so busy distracted by you and trying to prepare you for dessert that it didn't have time to tuck into main course.'

Tosh frowned, trying to take it all in. 'The message. How did you know what it was?'

'Unusual rift energy signature gave it away.'

'How come you weren't affected? Why didn't you fall asleep when you got close?'

'I don't sleep much,' he said. It didn't sound like much of an explanation, but Tosh took it as gospel that prying further wouldn't get her anywhere.

'So, it's gone?'

'Yup. Everyone can rest easy knowing that they're safe. And as for you,' he said, pulling up the duvet a little higher, 'I think maybe a day off is in order. It's not every day you can say you came face to face with a mythical being and lived to tell the tale. Turns out Torchwood suits you. Although, next time you want to be brave, wait for backup.'

'Got it,' she said.