Chapter Text
"You seem rattled." Christofer pokes his fork into the zucchini on his plate, "what's wrong?"
"I'd like to be able to do my work first before eating," Kate mutters, frustrated with her partner for insisting that she eat with him. He wasn't a child. He was able to do things without her. Though, truly, she isn't so sure she'd want him to. Not many things at least. Maybe the occasional thing or two.
"When that happens, you forget about eating and I end up needing to carry you to bed." Chris explains, "and I'd rather not see you get a light head over something so silly." His tone is gentle, knowing she would argue with him. She always does.
"Why didn't you tell me you were aware that my daughter was present at the University that day?" Kate asks quietly, "her location sensor was registering at home and…that turns this into a major security flaw."
"For you." Christofer continues, "if you want them to forget you, shouldn't that then mean that you forget them?" He offers, "not monitor them, not have security detail assigned, just let them live their lives without remembering you." Christofer shakes his head almost absently, "that's what you want, isn't it?"
Kate swallows, looking across the table at him after a moment, at a true loss of what to say.
Chris can tell that he hurt her feelings, exhaling softly, "I uh…Gordon, your son, I managed to snag a copy of his security file for you." His voice is quiet, gentle, "along with the videos from Wychwood University from that day. I thought you might like to go over some of them together." Christofer lifts his gaze, looking at Kate again, "she's just as beautiful as you are."
Face softening, Kate bites her lip, giving herself a moment, "after the house…after my old home was blown to smithereens, it was just…it was a wake-up call. I immediately started thinking of hypotheticals. What if it was the holidays and one of them were home? What if they were there to surprise me when I arrived home after a long day?" She swallows, "just being near me meant that their lives were in danger."
Beginning to place the pieces together, Christofer begins to nod slowly, "so if they weren't near you and knew that they couldn't be, it would no longer be a possibility." Noticing the meek nod from his partner, he slowly reaches across the table, gently taking her hand, stroking her knuckles with his thumb, "why didn't you say that before?"
"It's difficult for others to understand." Kate's voice is only slightly above a whisper.
Waiting a moment before replying, Christofer clears his throat, "you know that things are different now though, right?" When he catches her gaze again, he offers a gentle half-smile, "you've got me." Christofer notices her blush as she turns her head away from him, amused, "and I'm not about to let anything happen to you and, by proxy, to them." He pauses again, "that still doesn't change my opinion that you owe it to yourself and your children to let them know that you're okay."
Kate licks her lips, giving herself a moment to formulate her thoughts. "Why would they even wish to speak with me?" She gives a noncommittal shrug, "I've lied to them, broken their trust, and gone radio silent with them for years now." Kate finds his eyes again, "that makes me a terrible person…and an even worse mother."
"No, it doesn't." Christofer shakes his head a little, "it makes you selfless. You put their safety and security ahead of your own wishes."
"I miss them more than-" Kate stops talking suddenly, shaking her head a little, not wanting to be too emotional about this. She knows that if she starts, she won't stop the flow easily. She swallows, her eyes glassy, "keeping track of them is the only thing that makes all of this remotely bearable."
Chris gives a single nod, stabbing a slice of squash and offering it to her on the end of his fork. "Eat so that we can look over the things I smuggled from our place of work and brought home with me."
Kate offers him a genuine smile, leaning forward and taking the bite of the food being offered to her off of his fork with her teeth.
"It's a type of drone somewhat." Frankie smiles to herself, "I've applied a sort of…artificial intelligence to mimic that of a real, biological raven. They can talk like a raven, fly like a raven, follow commands." Photograph. No, that's not important to mention now. "The issue is, though, that they're starting to…look a bit worse for wear."
"Certainly is," Violet smiles softly to herself, huffing a soft laugh when the raven looks at her. "Hello, you."
"Hello, Violet." The Raven croaks.
"It," Violet lifts her gaze, looking at Frankie, "it said my name."
"It has the ability to learn. That's what artificial intelligence is about sometimes. Not always nefarious purposes." Frankie assures, reaching a hand over to stroke the robot's head, grinning when the bird acts excited, as if drawing pleasure from being touched. The action causes Violet to giggle softly, sounding like music to Frankie's ears. "Isn't that right, Terry?" She continues to absently stroke along the bird's back as he nods.
Violet furrows her brow, "Terry?"
"Bonehilda named him." Frankie explains, "Terrance Raven, private investigator." Another laugh from her friend causes Frankie to grin broadly, "mostly based on his inquisitive nature."
"A nature that you provided to him?" Violet connects, shaking her head absently, still providing the raven with affection, "I didn't know you were into all this."
"Just a hobby." Frankie shakes her head, "I wanted to learn coding. So I learned coding, a few different types. I wanted to see what I could do with that coding, so I did. I hacked a home control device to not only control my home, but do so without being connected to servers for corrupt companies or harm the environment by being processed through a large data center that uses hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a minute just to cool their CPUs." She moves away from the table, over to a little box and a laptop, "so I made my own server…with my own storage and my own…everything."
"Why?" Violet watches her friend with wonder, obviously impressed.
"To see if I could." Frankie shrugs, falling quiet for a moment. "My Mum was a scientist. She was always quite…encouraging of exploration. But do it safely, she'd always say." She smiles to herself, nodding a little as her eyes grow glassy. Frankie clears her throat, pushing her emotions down. "So this all makes me feel a bit closer to her in a way."
Violet's face softens slightly, seeing Frankie's tough exterior crack, "was she also interested in robotics?"
"She was interested in everything. She loved learning." Frankie falls quiet briefly, inhaling deeply, "you'd have liked her. Easily one of the most fascinating women in the world." She smiles to herself, "you'd have loved to have interviewed her at least."
"You didn't tell me your Mum died." Violet moves closer to the other woman, reaching a hand out and gently placing it on Frankie's elbow. "How long ago?"
"Nearly five years, give or take." Frankie nods a little, not quite looking at her friend just yet. "It was just her anniversary, well…the anniversary of when U.N.I.T told us she died."
"So that's why you know so much about them." Violet begins to nod slowly, piecing together the clues, "was she important there?"
"She was important everywhere." Frankie replies automatically, sighing after, "sorry, um…yeah, she was important at U.N.I.T. It's a family thing. My grandfather created it. Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart." She licks her lips in thought, allowing herself a moment, "my brother works there now. He's been trying to do so since he found out about it all."
"And you?" Violet takes another, smaller step closer. "What do you want to do?"
Finally lifting her gaze, meeting Violet's eyes, "I um…I wanted to ask you if you'd help me mend the bird." Voice quivering ever so slightly, Frankie swallows, "I've seen the things you can do with your hands." A blush forms across her cheeks, "I-I didn't mean it-" Her words are stopped by Violets lips meeting her own.
Something she certainly wasn't expecting.
Gordy furrows his brow as he sits at his desk within his cubicle. A little late night work never hurt anyone. He scrolls through another file as he clarifies it for further categorization.
Gordon places the large earphones over his head, ready to transcribe the audio file.
"-received her call late at night. It was just the Colonel and I left in the office as I wanted to tie up a few loose ends. He doesn't leave until I do, not that I haven't tried to make him, of course, but…there aren't many people that can get the Colonel to change his mind, myself included." There's a soft pause in the recording but the recording doesn't actually stop, "though I do like to try.
Furrowing his brow, Gordon pauses the recording to finish his typing. He smiles to himself, recognizing the voice. It sounds an awful lot like-
Gordon swallows, pressing play on the recording, moving to the next recording.
"I feel sorry for whoever they have assigned to transcribing these things. Geneva requests for me to record each day, said the date will mark itself automatically. Keeps me from having to look at a calendar. I normally don't know time, much less day it is anyway." A soft sigh is heard, "we've made contact with a Silurian female by the name of Va'stra. Though her species is well known to us, her subspecies is still currently unknown. She appears more human than other Silurian that I've encountered. However, I do not wish to scare her away. We've provided her with a biological dampener and perception filter to make things easier for her and she visits to tell us stories of her deceased wife and her time with the Doctor. Win-win." Another pause, "She's centuries old. As old as this planet. We'll take whatever stories she's willing to tell us." Another pause, "I should offer her a job."
It takes Gordy a moment to realize that he hasn't notated anything down for that one. He stops the recording again. Taking a breath, listening to the date at the beginning of the next recording.
Only a month ago.
His back straightens, rewinding and replaying the audio again. And again. And again.
"How is this possible?" Gordon asks himself, rewinding the audio again.
"This is the small activities room, and here's the Employee area, and here's the Newsletter and print office." Christofer flips through the different feeds, pausing on the last feed as he glances over at his partner, "this one would probably be of interest to you." They lie next to one another in bed, completely comfortable and relaxed. At this point, this was something just to earn him back some appreciation points. Chris lets the video play, looking at his lover's face.
Kate leans against his side in order to see the screen of the laptop a bit better, smiling to herself, "that's my Frances." She pauses, nodding a little as she points to one of the young women in the video. "The one at the computer." The camera feed is clearer than Kate anticipated.
Christofer starts to grin, as his attention returns to the monitor, "she has your eyes." He hears the young woman speaking to the other in the video, "and your voice, and your-"
"Watch it." Kate mutters, playfully teasing him.
"Keep watching," Christofer feels as Kate takes hold of his hand while leaning into him, her head against his bare shoulder and upper bicep. Another moment passes as the two young women look at the door, leading towards the hall. "Watch how quickly her instincts kick in."
Kate can't help except smile proudly as her daughter quickly barricades the door. All of the actions from that day play through. Frankie scanning the courtyard through the window. Frankie warning the other young woman about people coming to help. Frankie helping her friend escape through the window, telling her…something.
"Sorry, can you play that back?" Kate asks quietly, "just before Frances helps the other woman through the window."
"Follow the helpers."
Kate's back straightens ever so slightly, lifting her head off of Christofer's shoulder as she thinks about it for a moment. Glad when Christofer pauses the video.Finally, she mumbles softly to herself, her voice nearly at a whispers, "follow the helpers."
Chris glances over at her, "everything alright?"
Nodding slowly, Kate gives him a quick half-smile, returning her head to its previous position against his shoulder and upper bicep, "everything's perfect."
The video shows as Frankie removes her mobile from her pocket, touching the screen briefly before bringing it up to her ear, muttering quietly, but just loud enough to be picked up by the cameras, "Bonehilda, building four."
"And that's when all the cameras in the building turn to static." Christofer explains, "for roughly six to seven minutes." He fast-forwards through the video until the feed returns, "and then it comes back up as if nothing happened at all, and as you can see-"
"Frances is gone," Kate finishes for him, impressed. "Osgood said she wasn't found on campus or as part of the Retcon distribution."
Christofer nods, "correct." He pauses, "so that then begs the question, how did she get away unnoticed?"
Kate continues to watch the video, glad when he instinctively rewinds it back, letting it play though, "maybe she didn't. Maybe she hid instead." She offers, smiling to herself before exhaling a soft huff of amusement, "if she escaped, you would have seen her, but you didn't, and I doubt the soldiers checked anything that wasn't immediately apparent."
Beginning to shake his head negatively, Christofer speaks again, "we checked rooms, closets, stairwells…
"What about the ceiling?" Kate asks after a moment, "this Uni has drop ceilings. She could have climbed into the ceiling…and waited until everyone vacated the building."
"Roughly six hours?" Chris furrows his brow, "maybe more?"
Kate shrugs the opposite shoulder than is leaning against him, "the Lethbridge-Stewarts can be patient when we need to be."
Christofer slowly turns his head to look down at her, leaning against his arm. He feels a playful nudge from her.
"One word out of you and you're sleeping on the sofa." Kate warns with a cheeky half-smile in the corner of her mouth.
"You love me too much to make good on that promise." Christofer beams, hearing another laugh leave her lips before leaning his face down to capture her in a tender kiss.