There, Wolf [6/13]

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

Title: There, Wolf
Rating: teen [language and sexual situations]
Characters: Gwen, Ianto, Jack, PC Andy
Spoilers: post-Exit Wounds
Advisories: crossover with Being Human; also if you think about the werewolf thing a little too hard, um... yeah, but not on-screen
Disclaimer: I am apparently a very silly person at this hour

Summary: Torchwood has adopted a stray...

Note: Muse is at least not so much in the doghouse for doing this since she's also managed to nearly get to the minimum on her other urgent project...



**********

A traffic backup. A bloody traffic backup from a bloody overturned lorry, and if they weren't out of this in another few minutes -- "I suppose it wouldn't help anything if I apologized again," Jack said from the driver's seat.

"The rift waits for no man," Andy said, a little shakily. "Or wolf."

It had been madness to take him along on a mission on the day of the full moon, but he was right, there hadn't been the choice, they'd needed all four of them to settle the lost herd of alien goats out of the way in the secluded valley, and if not for this fucking lorry they would have been back at the Hub safe by now and not sitting on the M4 wondering how much damage a transforming werewolf might do in this confined a space. To the SUV, to himself, to them: however much control he'd got over himself as the wolf by now he was still a right mess getting there (although he'd managed to all but sleep through the entire change last month when he'd caught a cold just before the full moon, and hadn't that been the most interesting crank-call an emergency veterinarian had ever got but at least they'd know not to give him Lemsip if it happened again), perfectly capable of lashing out with enough force to break screens, or skulls, if he was disturbed in those moments of unreasoning agony. Ironic, that having a properly weevil-proof boot which might have done for this meant that it wasn't accessible from within the passenger compartment...

She could see to what was causing the blockage now: two lorries, it turned out, one half off the road and one just parked at the -- Gwen's heart sank. Yes, there it was, the Harwood's logo on both vehicles, and of bloody course her husband to the side of the scrum, giving his account to the emergency personnel. "Oh, that is all we need --"

Andy let slip a small pained-sounding whine. "Was that the call to abandon ship?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. Sorry. Oh, god --"

As casually as they could the other three members of Torchwood stepped down from the SUV, trying to look as if they were getting out to help rather than fleeing the vehicle before someone turned into a werewolf in the back seat. Gwen spared one extra moment to be sure that the doors had got properly locked and decided that she might as well go all the way with the pretence of usefulness, striding over to meet her husband just as he spotted her and waved. "You weren't in that?" she asked, gesturing at the disabled lorry.

"No, this one following behind, yeah? He's not badly hurt, they don't think, I might be sore a while from how fast I had to stop, it was all this bloody rain you see, you give them the training and it's still never..."

Through the soothing stream of Rhys's chatter, the unmistakable sound of an automatic window rolling itself down.

Gwen turned to see fourteen stone of blond werewolf pouring out of the rear window of the SUV and landing less than gracefully on the tarmac. Andy shook himself from nose to tail and started looking about at the slowly creeping traffic as if he were sizing up this strange herd for some sick or weak member he could pick off. "Rhys, get up into the cab. Now!"

Rhys looked less than alarmed by the supposed menace. "S'pose you're going to tell me that's an alien dog, yeah? Bloody werewolf maybe, he's big enough! What is he, some sort of a Dane cross?"

"Just listen to me and do it, Rhys, slowly, he's dangerous --"

As if to refute this slander, Andy spotted Gwen and came bumbling over for some attention, butting the top of his head into her hip almost hard enough to knock her over. "Looks like he likes you well enough," Rhys said.

The intelligence tests they'd devised suggested that Andy was in there, somewhere, although in such an altered state of consciousness it was hard to tell how he was really experiencing anything; yes, he'd been managing well enough at the Hub, when it was just them, but outside, where he could run off... Gwen took hold of a handful of thick shag at the back of the wolf's neck, trying to keep a calm face for Rhys. "He's unpredictable, is all, won't usually let anyone but me near him. We don't like to have him in the car at all but we had to take him out for a --" Andy pulled free and sauntered over to lift his leg against the front tyre of Rhys's lorry. "Andy! Oh, you wanker --"

"Alien or no he's a dog, right enough," Rhys said, blissfully immune to the nuances of the insult. "Calling him after Andy, eh? Good choice, looks just like him. Ha, he even looks as if he's about to read me a caution. How about it, boy, you a police dog?"

"Woof," Andy said. Looking as if he was just waiting for something he could claim as provocation, like a pat on the head or a thrown stick. 

Rhys, bless him, was at heart a practical man, alien-hunting wife or not. "Needs to be on a lead before someone calls him in to the police there's a bear on the loose, aye?" Gwen had a sudden crazed vision of herself being dragged across a park as those powerful legs gave chase to a squirrel. "Probably want to think what you're going to do if you keep him, don't want him running about making more alien doggies with all the local ladies. If you'd even find a bitch who'd go near him --"

"The traffic's moving," Gwen said in desperate relief as a car hooted at them to get away from the edge of the road. Please tell me you're not going to remember this conversation when you change back. "We need to get ours out of the way, see you at home, love?"

"Right, yeah, might be late with this paperwork, I'll bring us a take-away -- Oh, you said this was your night on, catch you in the morning then? Save me having to buy an extra for him, probably eats more than we do!"

Andy barked again, as short and brusque as any expressively human snort. Gwen didn't need to speak wolf to suspect that he'd meant it rudely. Rhys was still oblivious, waving happily as she led her werewolf back to the SUV and opened the rear door for him to hop up onto the seat. "Never could take you anywhere," she told the furry face, giving the flopping ears a scratch.

And oh, that toothy mouth could grin.