Title: Legends (16/?)
Author: Merucha
Characters: Tim McGee, Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, plus the usual Torchwood and NCIS suspects
Rating: Some chapters definitely not safe for work.
Disclaimer: Oh, please. If I owned them, would I let some of those idiots write the scripts? And if I were making any money off them, would I be where they could find me?
Summary: After the events of Bloodbath, Tim McGee accepts a offer from a total stranger
Author's Note: A few weeks ago I was watching some NCIS episodes and came across Bloodbath. I hated both Abby and Gibbs in it. I hated the humiliation of making Tim kneel all day for something that was someone else's fault. I fumed for days (I am a bit obsessive about things from time to time). Then, a few days ago, this popped up. As usual, AU like nobody's business.


Part one here; Part two here; Part three here; Part four is here; Part five is here; Part six is here; Part seven is here; Part eight is here; Part nine is here; Part ten is here; Part eleven is here; Part twelve is here; Part thirteen is here:Part fourteen is here;Part fifteen is here


The spatula,  wielded efficiently by Tish, whipped down to connect with Tony's hand.  He yelped and sucked on his knuckles.

“Hands off  until dinner,” she said calmly, not even bothering to look at him. “If you're that hungry, grab some cheese and water biscuits.”

“But...”

The mock-whine cut off as Tony watched Abby and Tim come through the basement door. Abby, grinning widely, made for the dining room, where Ziva, Martha, and Jimmy were working their way through several plates of snacks, while Tim headed to the back of the solarium. 

A few years earlier, Gibbs had found the cottage's original floor plan and had discovered the solarium had been meant to be an extension of the kitchen. After consultation with the local historical society, he had knocked down the wall and replaced it with an arch similar to the one that opened between the kitchen and the dining room. From the point of view of watching the action, Tony approved of  the remodeling, because damn if the Probie didn't look downright grim.

Gibbs, Jack, Ianto, and Ducky had retreated to the sitting area near the French doors leading to the deck after Leon had gone back to the Yard to ride herd on what Tony mentally called the normal investigation. There didn't seem to be much conversation going on. Jack seemed almost to drowse, sprawling against Ianto in the loveseat, while Gibbs and Ducky occupied the matching armchairs. When Tim reached them he simply handed Jack his cell phone and waited, standing at parade rest.

“That is not good,” Tish said, looking over Tony's shoulder.

“How do you know?”

“Jack's default mode towards Tim is indulgent flirt. Tim's default mode towards Jack is pseudo-submissive flirt.” Tony could almost hear quotation marks in her voice. “When they move into Captain and soldier is when you have to start worrying.”

Tony nodded, but his attention had shifted to Gibbs. The boss was keeping his eyes on his beer bottle, but Tony could see he had gone from comfortable to rigid as soon as he had heard Tim's footsteps.

“I'm going to have to do something about that,” he murmured.

“Count me in,” Tish told him. “I don't like seeing Tim unhappy.”

He grinned at her then sobered up quickly as he watched the group in the solarium get to their feet and march – that was the only word that fit – towards them.

“There goes dinner,” Tish said resignedly. “Good thing I made stew. We can reheat it later.”

“We're going somewhere?”

She gave him a Ianto-worthy eyeroll. “Oh yeah.”

Jack barreled past them into the dining room. “Martha!”

The doctor broke off her conversation with Ziva to glance at her boss. “Yes, Jack?”

“I have a job for the medical staff, plus,” he pointed at Abby, “one of the two computer geeks. Mimi managed to break the encryption on some of the files the Doc left behind in the old UNIT computers.”

“The ones you stole?”

He shrugged. “They weren't using them. The salient point, Nightingale, is that she found out why Liam is interested in the Thals.”

“Oh, Lord.” Martha took a big gulp of the wine she was holding. “One of his damn secrets.”

“I think he didn't seriously mean to keep it secret because Mimi found the files and broke the encryption in less than a week. Long story short. Once upon a time, two nations in the planet Skaros went to war.”

“Jack, no!”

“It seems that at some point the Kaleds captured one of the Thal science facilities. The scientists were taken to Davros's complex near the Lake of Mutations to work on his new creations. After the war ended, the Doc relocated the scientists and their families. A small group came to the States and another went to Canada. They farm and raise sheep for wool and chickens for eggs. They are gardeners and environmentalists, artists and emergency ambulance volunteers. Which is all brilliant except that they are extremely long lived by human standards.”

“And they know how to make Daleks.”

The horror in Martha's voice unnerved Tony.  This was major bad news, and he didn't understand a word of it.  He turned to Tish, hoping for an explanation. Her mouth was a thin bloodless slash in an ashen face and she was trembling.

“Tish. What is it?”

“I remember.”  She managed to get the words out past her frozen lips. “I remember.”

Her knees buckled. Tony grabbed her by the waist and held her up. “Probie!”

Jack got to them first. He swept Tish up; she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung, shivering. Jack carried her into the living room and sat down in one of the big armchairs. Tony noticed that Ianto had moved very close to Martha. They held hands, and Tony could see the whiteness of their knuckles. Ducky and Tim joined Jack.

“She was close to remembering earlier,” Ducky said. “But she couldn't break through. Someone really worked on her.”

“He was good at that,” Jack said bleakly.

Tim rubbed Tish back gently. “Tish? Can you tell  us?”

After a moment she nodded. “The Toclafane...  he said they were too immature... He wanted real soldiers in the shells. He built a lab in Siberia... but his scientists couldn't figure out how to keep the... test subjects... from regressing mentally... Then some bastard who had worked at Canary Wharf reminded him of the Daleks.” She whimpered. “He set everyone to work around the clock, sifting through every record and report he could get his hands on... They found a mention of the Thals in UNIT files, but it was too late. The countdown... he wasn't going to stop that for anything. The last time he... we... visited Siberia he took the records and two empty shells back to the Valiant. Then he made me forget.” She whimpered again. “He made me forget.”