Waylaid In London

Chapter 13

Gazing at Kathryn seated in the chair next to him, Jamie touched her arm reassuringly. They were now at UNIT HQ, having traded the cold, December air for the Brigadier's warmer, brightly lit office. After finding Tom in such a state, Jamie had contacted them and they'd sent a car to pick him and Kathryn up. UNIT had also brought a van with which to pick Tom up once they'd subdued him. Jamie felt a bit uneasy about getting Kathryn involved as he didn't want her to be more overwhelmed than she already was. However, because she knew the victim personally, he realized this now concerned her as well. He'd tried to explain things to her as delicately as possible on the ride over to HQ.

"Are ye alright?" he asked softly.

He watched her give a tentative nod, still avoiding his gaze. "I think so. I just ... this is so much to process. You say these people look into strange happenings going on in this city? Are they like a secret police sort of thing?"

Hearing footsteps, Jamie looked up to find the Brigadier had returned. He had overheard Kathryn, if the amused grin on his face was anything to go by. "Your friend here once made the same assumption," he said. "We're not quite all that. We're simply an intelligence task force. We don't actually arrest people. We do investigate possible paranormal and extraterrestrial threats."

Kathryn looked almost lost and Jamie decided it was a good time to step in. "Ye see the patch on his arm? 'UNIT' stands for 'United Nations Intelligence Task Force.'"

She nodded, her face showing some sign of understanding, but she still seemed confused.

"None of that is very important at the moment," the Brigadier continued. "Just be assured you are in good hands." He gave Kathryn a thin smile. "Now, McCrimmon tells me you know the man that was brought in?"

"Er, yes. He was a former boyfriend of mine. We'd dated several years before breaking up about five months ago."

Jamie watched the Brigadier nod as he scrawled some notes on a small tablet of yellow paper. He'd turned to Kathryn and found her looking almost uncomfortable. How he wished she didn't have to be involved in this, but it was too late. He quietly cleared his throat and once she'd turned to him, he nodded and gave her a small smile.

"So, before you found him in this state, he seemed perfectly normal?"

Jamie snorted. "Well, if ye call tormentin' an innocent lassie normal, then I --"

"Please just stick to the business at hand, McCrimmon."

Jamie felt a warmth rising in his cheeks as he caught the Brigadier's stern, impatient expression. "Sorry. Aye, he seemed ... normal." He swallowed around a lump in his throat, feeling just disgusted to have to refer to Tom as normal. He tried hard to cast his emotions aside.

"Good," the Brigadier replied, making more notes.

"So, what now?" Jamie prompted once the other man had finished writing.

"Well, we sedated the man in question as best we could so we could obtain a blood sample. The Doctor is studying it now and I'm sure he'd like to speak to you about it."

Jamie nodded. Taking hold of Kathryn's arm, he followed the Brigadier out of the office and down the corridor toward the lab. Once they reached the doors, he turned back to Kathryn. "Don' worry. The Doctor is a nice, clever chappie."

She'd given him a smile that seemed affectionate and it warmed his heart.

"Oh, Doctor? I've got McCrimmon and the girl here to see you."

As they made their way further into the room, Jamie found the Doctor once again seated and hunched over a microscope.

"Ah, brilliant. Thank you Brigadier," he replied absent-mindedly.