[RM] Problems that need Solving... my innie should be an outtie!

[onlysayinghello]

Despite having a wonderful time as the opposite sex Jack was thoroughly convinced that enough was indeed enough and he was really tired of having to sit in order to go to the bathroom. Highly inefficient was what came to mind, along with the fact that there no longer was that option to ask Owen to 'pull over' so he could relieve himself on route somewhere. No now it was a procedure, and it involved sanitation issues and indoor plumbing.

Indeed enough was finally enough for Jack, even with the visit to New York and the run in with a few that were less than strangers before that evening. Now he was pressing bitten down nails against his forehead as he scanned over more files and documents trying to sort out what he could have missed.

A full blood work up had been run. Every toxic screen they could think of to run within the confines of Torchwood had been run, and now Jack was looking at the list of naturally occurring plants and vegetation that resided in the area that he had found... and torched the Tachkrin in. Gwen had been trying to track down another plant, Owen and Tosh were both running whatever they could in house and Jack was pretty sure he just needed a new set of eyes on the matter.

Which of course reminded him that when he got back from New York he should have called Martha straight away, but for some reason his mind had wandered during the events of the party and thinking of her now was just like happenstance.

Grabbing his cell he sent her a text message,
/STILL UP TO SOLVE MY PROBLEM DROP BY SOON - HARKNESS/

Leaning back in his chair he wished it would hang back further but the slender frame didn't have the same body weight to it, so it just felt pointless. So instead he let his feet slip out of the shoes Gwen loaned him and pressed bare feet against the ledge of his desk trying to force the lean back a bit further. Although the sight of his slender legs was going to be a distraction of a different kind for a while as he contemplated shaving them again while he waited for Martha to either show up, or call for a pick up... or call to cancel.

Comments

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

Martha had taken the week off at the hospital in preparation for meeting Jack when he needed her. Monday morning, she had headed down to Cardiff, though she didn't know where Torchwood was exactly. So she got a hotel and waited for his call.

When the text came, she smiled. With a shake of her head, slightly amused by his "problem," she texted back, I'M IN CARDIFF. WHEN AND WHERE SHOULD WE MEET?

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Jack saw his phone vibrate against the desktop for a moment and when he spotted Martha's reply he sent back an address for her to meet him at. Just outside the old tourism center for the Roald Dahl Plaza. Sending the message he set his phone back on the desk and started to gather up all the files he had been pouring over during the past few days.

He had to keep the thought in the back of his head that this was a necessary step to take, that bringing Martha in on this was a smart choice, because even if he wasn't technically alive... or human... that she might know a bit better than him how to go about this.

After a few minutes of shuffling papers Jack grabbed his standard coat, which was too long in the sleeves now and looked a bit bulky on the slender form but still headed up to meet Martha outside the tourism building and lead her in the back way instead of the lift.

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

Some parts of her might have been surprised at where he told her to meet him, but really, once you traveled around in a space ship that looked like a police box you learned quickly not to judge things by their appearances.

She shrugged into her jacket, smoothing her hair back quickly, then hurried out to meet him. The cab ride didn't take very long. She paid the cabbie and got out, looking around for anyone--any girl--who might be Jack and wondering just how he'd managed to get himself into this, and what she was supposed to do to get him out.

ooc: sorry for the delay--was out with friends all weekend and not around computer. :-)

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Jack spotted Martha stepping out of the cab and took a brisk jog from the comfort of the tourism office out to greet her, "Martha, it's been too long."

Of course it had been too long simply for the reason that Jack was ready to get back to being his usual self and Martha just might be up to the challenge, or at least Jack knew she could handle the strangeness of it. Shoving 'her' hands deep into the pockets of his coat he shrugged, "So this is me, and if you'll follow me," Jack ushered Martha toward the doorway and into the confines of the well disguised hub of Torchwood.

"This is Torchwood. The Cardiff location at least, I'd warn you not to touch things, but really I think you have more to worry about with my team." It was still the same Jack even if there was a sway to his step these days, crossing over into his office he gestured at the heap of paperwork.

"So this is all I have on the whole thing, and to be honest," Jack rubbed at the back of 'her' neck, "I think... well I'm pretty sure it's because of my uh... condition, that this has stuck to me. Either that or it's some new breed of the Tackhrin and that... well that's just not fun."

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

Martha followed him and tried not to stare as they walked through the hub. Not at Jack with his--her--red hair and rather disturbing walk and not at everything around them, collected here. She'd seen alien artifacts--and aliens--before after all. Just never all collected like this in one place.

"What is there to worry about with your team?" She asked, even as she crossed to examine the paperwork, picking up the top piece and scanning it. "You mean because of whatever Rose did to alter your ability to stay dead?" It was a blunt question, but she had never been one to beat around the bush.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Jack laughed, that light feminine laugh that still sounded a bit foreign to his own ears, "Oh... well that's a different story. The whole not dying thing... well least of your problems. Though it could be the start of the solution."

Jack grinned, "My team is a bit on the unique side. Most of them are out on a mission now but if this runs long like I have a feeling it may? You'll just have to watch out for the questions. Mysterious stranger might be the way to play it for now."

Pulling out his desk chair Jack took a seat and fanned out a few pages, "Here's the normal process for the Tackhrin plant. 72 hour cycle, split with two days of transition and one day of the actual change. However... it's been well let's just say too long."

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

"How long has it been now?" Martha asked, since that seemed the obvious and natural question. "And how were you exposed to the plant? Is anyone else on your team effected? Do you have a specimen here?"

He'd managed to fully engage the scientist in her, which helped to block out thoughts of the Doctor and the fact that they were surrounded by little bits of the worlds she missed.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Jack scratched at his head... her head, and thought about it. "Nine days ago was... no ten, huh, ten days ago was the infection. Is it really an infection? Maybe it's more of an invasion..."

Jack wanted to really classify it but he was stuck on a word, "Regardless it was more than a week ago. No one else on the team got infected because I was the only one that figured they could survive the effects and get close enough to destroy the plant. Which apparently? Not the best plan."

Jack sighed, "Which leads to the last part of your series of questions, we have no sample here, but Gwen and Owen have been looking for one with the strict orders not to touch it or go near it."

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

Martha nodded, frowning a bit as she leaned back in the chair and considered the situation.

"Where did you find it? And how did it get here? I'm guessing it's not native to Earth, so was it sent as an attack or get here by some sort of natural means?" It would matter, she thought, if they were to find another specimen.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Well one thing was clear, Martha had been hanging out with the Doctor.

"Well slow down. First off we have a series of scans that detect new plantlife that isn't registered. Mostly because some people think it's hilarious to plant things they think might grow them something to get themselves high. This plant popped up on the scans and we went to check it out. I already knew what it was and knew that there was no way it could have been planted on accident. I think it's just a spore that started out a lot bigger but then drifted down to the soil and a few weeks later? Plant. Tachkrin are just the type of thing that just happen. No one plans it and really what sort of an attack is it to turn people into the opposite sex for seventy-two hours."

Jack thought about it for a moment, "Well besides an entertaining one. Needless to say we've figured out that it's probably due to my current 'condition' and the surrounding plantlife adapting around it. Now those we have samples of."

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

"You scan for unregistered plant life?" Martha asked, tilting her head, momentarily distracted which was saying a lot. "You register plant life in the first place?"

Shaking her head slightly, she bit her lower lip, worrying at it while she thought. "Where are they from? No, nevermind. Probably not relevant, just curiosity. If a spore fell, then it stands to reason there's another, unless it just came straight out of the rift, but it seems odd just one spore would come through. Can you scan for it without endangering your crew? Or would it even...endanger them? I mean, the rest of us aren't afflicted with your condition. It should just run its course, if we can find one, and we can study it."

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Jack laughed, but the laugh wasn't the usual laugh that he heard coming from his mouth, and as lovely as it was to hear the lilt of a female laugh, he really was missing the sound of his own voice. Still Martha was going on and on about something or another still.

"Well here's what I can tell you now, or at least what we've been doing lately. We've been scanning for anything remotely close, and come up with nothing. We've taken samples of all the plants that were around it, and run it through the database and once more? Nothing. Not to beat a dead horse, but I think it has to do with the fact that I am very much... not a dead horse."

Jack smiled batting eyelashes for a moment, "The whole... Jack the Fact? I'm guessing the permanence of my lifestyle sort of... took on a bit of the original plant maybe a touch... too much?"

Tilting one of Toshiko's monitors toward himself he brought up the medical scans they'd been running, and all the prior evidence from other 'victims', "Here you can watch the progress in a normal subject. See the transformation occurs, lots of hormones flying all over, then the new balance is found, then the hormones flood out and are replaced with the right ones... the 'natural state' so to speak and then tada! Transformation again."

Hitting a few keys Jack brought up his own bioreadings, "See here's me though. Flood of Hormones, transformation... flood of hormones out and they just... replenish. No natural state, which I gotta tell ya Martha... it's alarming."

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

The batting the eyelashes was downright alarming, directed at her. But she followed his explanation, nodding a little.

"Right, then. What do you need me to do to get you back the way you're supposed to be, with all the right...parts?" Which she was finding she'd missed more than she'd thought she would, considering the short time they'd actually spent in each other's company.

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

There was that laughter again and Martha made the most obvious assessment given the circumstance. In fact if Jack felt like it he might have even swatted at her arm and called her a silly thing, but really that would have been more to freak her out than accomplish anything, and well... Jack was rather fond of Martha and freaking her out wasn't what he wanted to do.

"Well I'd hope they're the right parts. It'd be a shame for me to realize that this is my natural state after so many years of living it up as such an attractive man."

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

"It'd be a shame for everyone," Martha found herself saying with a slight grin. "Not that you don't make a very pretty girl, but I think I prefer you the way you were before."

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Jack really wished he wasn't a girl at that very moment, because he'd have loved to shamelessly flirt his heart out at her. Get in close to her, let her know just how much he appreciated her preferring him in his more masculine form, especially since his previous 'close' time with her had been interrupted by a very determined to shake him off the TARDIS Doctor.

Instead he could only sigh and give Martha a slight smile, hoping it wasn't too odd to have the winning Jack charm coming from a very female form, "Well I'm glad you prefer the other... I'd hate to think that when I'm back to normal that you'd ask to have this version back."

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

Martha shook off the weirdness. "I don't think you have to worry about that," she said with a positive nod. "And since you do, too, hopefully we can get you back to it really soon."

"You'd think that your body would want to revert to its natural state and find a way to do so."

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Resting his chin on his hand he nodded into her palm a bit, "You'd think that I'd want to do that. But there is something seriously wrong with my body chemistry. It's the... Huon or the whatever was in me to bring me back... forever that has gotten most of the rest of me... forgetting how I'm supposed to be forever."

He was just glad he hadn't died since the ordeal, really he wasn't sure he wanted to try and see if this body could die.

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

Martha chewed on her bottom lip, thinking. "Have you tried testosterone injections or some sort of steroids to try and fool it?"

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Turning back to the monitor Jack pulled up the list of things Owen had run on him, including testosterone, steroids, immunno supressors, all sorts of uppers and downers, and a few things that Jack was pretty sure were for Owen's own research... or entertainment.

"Tried a lot of things, but my body doesn't take too kindly to much of anything. No colds, no illness... no need for any of these drugs, and I think my body knows it."

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

Martha read over the list with a frown, running her finger down it.

"Right, so no drugs." She glanced up at him. Her. "Have you gotten hurt since you've been like this? I mean, if you think it's your being forever, are you forever like this? I mean, just as indestructible?"

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

This was where he didn't want the conversation going, because the thought of that was really not what he wanted. Of course dying as a woman could be okay... but the actual reality of it all had caused him to be exceptionally careful.

"No... I mean no on the hurt thing. I've been like walking on eggshells since this happened. For the most part staying off mission too. This body isn't really good for running after Weevils, or for that matter doing much of anything," there was that pause that was to be expected, "Well it's still good for somethings."

Still Jack shook his head, "I haven't even let myself break a nail. I think I'm more worried that nothing will happen and I'll end up some disfigured woman."

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

Martha frowned. "Jack, that should have been the first thing that you checked! We can be careful about it, do nothing that would disfigure you, but we need to see, to make sure."

[onlysayinghello.livejournal.com]

Jack rolled her eyes at Martha, "Oh sure now I'm the one not doing everything they're supposed to? I've been Owen's pin cushion for a week trying to get this fixed, and needle marks are nothing for most anyone."

Standing up and shooting Martha a look every so often he rummaged through a few of the medical instruments in the gallery where they usually had the dead bodies. He really didn't want to be the one on the table tonight that was for sure.

Grabbing a ten blade and a cloth he joined Martha back at the main station and rolled up a sleeve placing the cloth under his forearm.

"Go ahead... fillet me my dear."

[notquiteadoctor.livejournal.com]

Right. Cutting into someone awake and aware was a bit different than the few minor surgeries she had done with someone at least numb, and definitely different than cutting into a cadaver, which she had rather a lot of experience with.

Nevertheless, she took the blade firmly in her hand, steadying Jack's far too delicate looking arm. Glancing up to make sure he--she--was ready, Martha slowly drew the blade down her arm deep enough to draw blood, but not looking to sever anything important.