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People didn't quite understand him. JC had learned that a long time ago. People never would be able to understand him either. When and where he was from, he had been adored and then reviled. Here, his name was a reason to hate more than to love. He was better off with Torchwood. He had seen that clearly long ago.

It didn't matter anyway. They had reached the children's section indeed, and with the books there were also a variety of toys, some odd and some mundane and boxes upon boxes of neatly labeled files with letter and number designation that Ianto had known by heart without needing a chest sheet.

JC ran his fingers over the books and Mohinder pulled a stuffed pink teddy bear down from the shelf. "Why are there toys?" he asked, turning the bear over to finger the pull string in the back.

"That particular item is a bit too risky to leave out in the open. It's a companion doll that is capable of complex conversation and emotional attachment. I don't recall what century it's from. The AI is pretty advanced."

Gabriel absentmindedly perused the books until he noticed that Mohinder picked something up. He stared at the pink bear as JC explained. "Emotional attachment?" he repeated, looking it over more closely. "Huh." He wondered honestly if the bear was better at it than him. "I can see how that could cause some problems, having technology in a time where people would find it hard to explain. Or a time that people might reverse engineer it. It could change the course of history."

At least that was his guess as to why half this stuff was here, if not all of it. "It's cute," he said, with a tiny smirk. He didn't touch it, though. He didn't need any future memories clogging things up, at least not right now. He did wonder if Mohinder was going to pull the string. He wasn't sure what he'd do, if he was holding it.

If Mohinder left it alone, however, he was going back to looking at the books. Now that he thought about it, anything that was kept here would probably be pretty interesting, children's book or no.

Mohinder couldn't help himself. The man made bad life decisions for a living, and though this was just a toy, meant for children in some distant future, it was not going to have particularly good implications. JC didn't stop him from pulling the cord, however, and had, in fact, wandered off. He was still visible down the hall of long book and knicknack shelves, in ear shot with a shout, but somehow he had moved quickly and silently on the polished floors in just bare feet.

The little pink teddy blinked and yawned, moving it's little arms and mouth. "Oh, good morning! Is it morning?" it asked in a cute, docile voice.

Mohinder was delighted. "I believe it's the afternoon."

"Oh. Well good afternoon then, Mohinder!" Yeah. Creepy toy, knowing the names of the people that pull the string? Well, Mohinder was still amused. "What shall we do today?"

Gabriel didn't find it creepy at all. Of course, Gabriel's sense of 'creepy' had never been quite right. He leaned in, abandoning the books. He found the way the teddy bear moved and talked to be utterly charming. He did wonder how it learned names, though.

"We're exploring today," he said to it in a cheerful voice. He was curious whether it reacted to all outside stimuli or just the person who pulled the string. And if the former, did it recognize their voices.

"That's great!" the bear said, sounding actually excited. "I like exploring. Who is your friend, Mohinder? He sounds nice."

Gabriel grinned. This toy had to be at least a century down the line. But what a great companion for lonely children.

"This is Gabriel," Mohinder said pleasantly.

"Oh what a strange name!" the teddy proclaimed, amusing Mohinder even more. It seemed pretty common in the west but he was still pleased to have a small bit of America-shaming anyway.

He laughed at Gabriel's expense, not unkindly, and agreed. "And what should I call you?"

"I'm your special friend, Mohinder! You can call me by any name you'd like. Do you have one picked out?"

As a matter of fact, Mohinder did. Gabriel would have to forgive him for that, considering it was also the name of a virus that nearly killed him. "Shall I call you Shanti?"

"Yes! That's a great name! What should we explore first?"

Gabriel chuckled in amused surprise as the bear called his name 'strange'. He supposed that in a century or two, it might very well be.

There wasn't any need to forgive the name- Gabriel knew who Shanti was, and what she meant to Mohinder. Actually, did they ever talk about that? No, they had so much going on with the virus and being captured that they both just sort of let it go. That was fine, honestly. Gabriel figured they could just avoid talking about Chandra for the rest of their days.

Regardless, he smiled as Mohinder named the teddy. It was a sweet thought. The newly-named Shanti asked what they were doing first, and Gabriel looked to Mohinder. "We're looking at books. We're trying to find books on time travel."

He'd probably be arguing to bring this bear with them, at least until that pull cord ran out. Maybe it was silly, but Gabriel figured that if it could form emotional attachments, they should let it have that. Of course, he was also interested to see just how advanced it was.

"Time travel! Well why didn't you say so!" The bear sort of laughed and wriggled in Mohinder's hand until the Indian put him down. At eight inches of pink fluff, it toddled off down the rows of shelves and right on out of the children's section.

The Archive managed to still be dark in places, the spaces between light sources somewhat hard to determine until you saw a well of darkness ahead. Mohinder blinked at the bear as it started to pick up speed and he shrugged at Gabriel and picked up his own pace until he was outright running after the thing.

"Shanti! Slow down!"

The bear didn't listen. "This way, we're so close!"

Hmmm. This was probably fine, but it was putting Gabriel on high alert. Sudden running tended to do that, and it was even more curious from a children's toy. He could use telekinesis to stop it, but he didn't want to risk breaking the thing.

So instead he ran with Mohinder, thinking that they were going to have to have a talk with this bear afterwards about proper speeds in poorly lit places.

Gabriel had longer legs but Mohinder was more athletic and so they kept a pretty even pace right up until the bear stopped and fell over, having run out of juice it seemed. Mohinder skidded to a stop almost cartoonishly and looked at the little thing before his eyes were drawn upwards to books in languages that were made of strange circles. At least, Mohinder assumed it was a language because why else would it cover the spines of all of the books?

It was beautiful, really, and though he did bend down to scoop up Shanti, his eyes were drawn to the silver lettering.

"If these are about Time Travel, I'm not sure we can read them," Mohinder said, gazing up at Gabriel with a grin. "Do you want a turn with our little Gingerbread Bear?"

Ah, it was running out of time. Suddenly the running made more sense. That pull-cord didn't seem to last long, did it? Gabriel stared at the bear for a few moments before looking up at what they'd stopped in front of.

At first glance, he thought it was unlabeled diagrams of watch parts and gears, put together in a particularly confusing (and yet structured) manner. Realizing that this was in fact the text, his eyes widened. Okay, so if it was read counterclockwise- a circle wouldn't be a letter, would it? Not with this complexity. It'd make more sense to make it a whole word...

"This is a clockwork language," he said, stating the obvious, but still somewhat amazed. "If I had enough time, I might be able to decipher it." His fingers traced over the lines clockwise- wait. His head tilted as he stared at the overlap of the shapes, and then they moved counterclockwise over each circle.

After a few long moments of contemplation, he realized with a start that Mohinder had asked him about the bear. "Oh, me?" he asked, with feigned surprise and a smile. He reached out to take the bear, then glanced up to Mohinder. "We can get in a lot of trouble here," he mused. Because now he also wanted to take these books back to wherever they were going to be staying. The comment was not a warning, though- if anything, it was an endorsement to how interesting it was.

He thought about what to do with the bear for a second, then pulled the string. Of course he did. He and Mohinder were of similar minds on this. The bear moved like he was stretching, then said, "Good afternoon, Gabriel! Is it still the afternoon?"

"It is," he said, smiling despite himself. "Good afternoon, Shanti. We're still here by the time travel books you showed us. They're very pretty. Do you know the language?" Yes, he is going to have a serious conversation with this teddy bear. What.

"Oh these? Silly, these are Gallifreyan books! Of course they're on time travel. Time Lords write all about time travel! They just love it. They named themselves after it didn't they?"

Time Lords? Mohinder wasn't sure if that was a species of people, a race, or just some sort of high school band. One couldn't tell these things so easy, not when dealing with other life forms, other cultures. Mohinder didn't want to be too rude. "Shanti, we have never heard about Time Lords," Mohinder informed the bear, who first scoffed and then extended a wriggling pink arm towards a book that she (it?) wanted him to take.

"Time Lords control time and space. There use to be many. Now there's just one. See? Read this to me, Gabriel!"

Somehow, Gabriel figured Shanti wasn't including the guy who ran him through with a sword when talking about Time Lords. Whoever this group was, they were very focused. And their language was beautiful.

He picked up the book that Shanti indicated and she reached for the cover, opening it up. "I'm sorry, Shanti," he said, patting the bear on the head. "I can't read Gallifreyan yet. Can you read it to me?"

If there was only one Time Lord left, he wondered if anyone else could read it. Or maybe it ends up being a common language in the future, where more people can time travel. They really knew so little about this, it was making Gabriel more intent than ever on finding out as much as he could.

"I'm not a Time Lord! I'm not a bear that studies other languages either. Do you know what those people are called, Gabriel?"

"A linguist," Mohinder said, answering. So it was an educational toy too? Shanti gripped the book in Gabriel's hand with both stuffed paws and threw it at Mohinder. It fell just short of him.

"Your name isn't Gabriel and I was asking Gabriel!" the toy insisted, making Mohinder blink.

"My apologies," he remarked, not sure if he should laugh or not. He did bend to pick the book up and hand it back to Gabriel.

Shanti at least seemed ready and willing to accept that apology. She even giggled as if to say it was no hard feelings. "Try to read this Gabriel! I know you can do it! You can understand anything!"

Gabriel's eyebrows rose when Shanti threw the book. He took it back, and then Shanti was praising him. It was as if someone had transplanted his mother's personality into a pink stuffed bear. This was fascinating.

"All right, I'll try it, Shanti. But I'm not a Time Lord, either. And I've never seen it before. So it might take me awhile to learn. But if I do learn it, I'll read some of this to you, okay?"

He patted the top of her head, scritching behind the plush ears, and she nodded. "Okay," she said. "But read me the whole thing!"

"We'll see," Gabriel said warmly. He was going to get to the books, but not immediately. He wanted to test something. "And I have something to ask you, Shanti, before I try to read. Can I ask you to do something for me?"

"Yes!" said the bear, who turned her face from the book to him. "I'll do it if I can. What is it?"

Gabriel smiled, glad to have her attention. "I want you to promise me that you won't hurt Mohinder in the future. You are my friend and so is he, and friends shouldn't fight or be mean to each other. We can all play together, can't we?" This sounded rather hypocritical coming from him, but that's why he was asking it, honestly.

The tiny toy bear huffed and puffed far too cutely for words. "I have to protect you, Gabriel!" she pouted (or at least made a pouty sound since her face wasn't made to be expressive. "But I will do my best. No more throwing."

So promised the squishy pink toy. Evidently, she bonded with the person that pulled her tab. Her little disparaging remark of Gabriel's name might shed light on that when the two would think back on it later.

"Oh! Gabriel! Take all the books! But not that one. That one is about cheese I think. Boring!"

"Thank you," Gabriel said, a pleased little smile on his face. He could see why this bear was in the Archives, that it might become dangerous given enough incentive. He wondered if it was mass manufactured, and if so, just how poorly that went. Or perhaps she was a prototype that was a little too smart for her own good.

Shanti singled out one book to not take, and he chuckled. "How do you know it's about cheese? You're right, though, cheese is boring." He raised his hand palm up, and all the books except for that one rose in the air. Having settled them there for the moment, he let his hand fall. "We'll see if we're allowed to cart them around. If not, I'll just have to read them here."

Shanti yawned over the end of that sentence- or at least, it sounded like she was yawning. "Tired?" Gabriel asked.

"Yes, I am," Shanti replied. "I need a nap. Gabriel, you'll wake me again, won't you?"

Gabriel leaned his head on the bear, the best way he could think of to give it a hug while already holding it. "I will," he promised. "Sleep well, Shanti."

He watched as the bear closed its eyes. "Doesn't last long, does she?" he asked, looking up to Mohinder.

"Probably lucky for the parents of the child," Mohinder said, taking the bear from Gabriel. He wasn't going to pull the string again, he just wanted to look her over, closely. There was nothing mechanical about her. She was soft through and through. Mohinder found that pretty amazing, really, and tucked her under an arm. "Imagine if your son or daughter was through playing with her and the bear was still off running around at all hours of the day and night!"

Mohinder plucked the supposed book about cheese off of the shelf because at least it clued them in that some part of the design on the spine had to do with cheese and it might help Gabriel learn to translate the rest.

He was about to say something else when JC popped up out of no where. In the darkness, he almost seemed to shine...or reflect the light from the nearest fixture. It was very odd.

Mohinder blinked but still smiled. "I see you've found the time travel section," JC said. "The Captain will be back in seven minutes or so. We probably ought to leave."

"All right," Gabriel replied, with a smile. He'd figured JC might suddenly appear again, and that was how it went. It seemed to be how the man traveled. He hadn't expected JC to shine in the darkness, but maybe he should've. "Thank you for showing us this place."

He floated the books on top of each other, into a stack, and then floated them over to carry them properly. "Can anyone here read these? The bear said this was Gallifreyan. I was going to try and decipher them, but if someone knows the language, then I can-" Don't say 'pick their brains', his mind warned him at the last moment. "-pester them about it."

He started walking back the way they came with his stack of books, figuring JC would tell them if they weren't allowed to take them out. He wasn't planning on leaving the Hub with them, anyway.

JC wasn't in the business of telling anyone what to do...which sort of was his whole problem. All the more reason to work with Torchwood. His job was done otherwise. And it was all very complicated. He didn't quite think about it much any more.

"I can not read them. You can ask the Captain. I do not believe we are in possession of a universal translator. Pity, those are quite useful." Mohinder reached up to grab some of the books from Gabriel's stack but his back thought better of it and he winced in apology. It wasn't as if his boyfriend wasn't capable. "But even if I could, the concepts might be a little too much for me anyway and that would make translation difficult. Right and then a left, there you are."

Gabriel would not have let Mohinder take any more books, anyway. Besides, he was cheating with the telekinesis, just a little bit.

It didn't take them long to get back to the entrance of the Archive, and they walked back to the Hub proper. "I saw a number of desks around here- is there one that no one's using?" he asked JC. "I'd like to look through these until Jack gets back."

It was less difficult to treat JC normally than he'd expected. But that was probably just due to compartmentalization. He'd let himself think about all that later. For now, he was happy to leave it. They had enough to think about right now. Like- should he have mentioned more to Jack about Peter's predicament? He hoped that was going okay.

JC was accomodating and though it took them four minutes to clear the Archive and he was rather certain the Captain would be waiting for them by the time Gabriel cracked his first book, JC offered him the use of one of the research rooms and left him alone with Mohinder and their toy.

As he knew already, Jack had returned to the Hub, looking a little worse for wear. He'd gotten into it with Peter, who had lost his temper, pulled a little Sylar trick on him, and then blinked out of Cardiff. Jack hadn't seen that coming but something like that always happened to Peter.

He was a sponge, as Mohinder had once called him, and therefore unstable when he absorbed too much. There was little he could do for his nephew. He spoke briefly with JC before he went to see how the other two were fairing.

He was surprised that they had already cracked to the Gallifreyan.

A research room was even better. Gabriel had thanked JC for the help, had the books open, and was trying to find patterns between the different symbols before they'd even been there five minutes. He was fairly certain that each circle was its own word, and the symbols inside of it represented sounds or letters. Of course, this was somewhat wishful thinking- each circle with each set of symbols could have its own meaning entirely, and one just had to memorize it. But who would do that with clockwork, really? It was all about parts fitting into one whole mechanism that worked together with precision.

He pointed most of this out to Mohinder, speaking most of his thoughts on the matter immediately. He was so engrossed in it that he didn't hear Jack's approach, and continued to babble on with his boyfriend in a manner he never would with anyone else. "So I'm looking for a number system, because it will help us move on from there and I'd bet that numbers are going to be heavily used in most of these books. It might be the notches here, these parts that jut outside the circles? ...that has to be part of it, at least. Eugh, I'm not sure. I need to find more examples."

Mohinder noticed him first, his bruised-purple face still somehow lovely despite the cuts and lumps he suffered. Jack smiled at him, but it was not Mohinder he was interested in. Mohinder was linked now inextricably with Gabriel, and Gabriel was the true gem here. Jack was not and would never say such a thing, he wasn't an idiot.

"How do you like the place?" No, Gabriel, carry on with your reading. Gallifreyan was a dead language, or nearly dead with only one Time Lord left sailing around the universe being utterly selfish in his old age. If anyone could figure out the texts, Gabriel could. "It's not much, I know. It works, though. What have you seen so I don't duplicate it on the tour?"

Jack pulled up a chair and drew up across from the pair.

When Gabriel looked up, the relaxed, pleased expression on his face dropped to one of concern. Jack's state of appearance meant that something had gone wrong with Peter. "What happened?" he asked. Then he added a question, even though he had a strong feeling about the answer. "Where's Peter? I should've stayed with you, I told him I'd help him..."

The texts are forgotten for the moment.

It was a good thing his head had gone back together. And a better thing that Jack had nothing Peter could have anyway. The Captain sighed a bit sadly. "He needs to learn to control himself. And he should be headed there." Lie? Partial lie? Could Jack even know that?

It was difficult to know, really, but he'd not steered them wrong yet, right?

Mohinder did look concerned. "Gabriel's successfully overcome it. Peter likely needs his brother--"

But Jack interrupted him. "He does. But Gabriel has only just become his brother. He needs the one he's known his whole life. Nathan makes very difficult decisions sometimes and I keep hoping that one day, they won't be so selfish."

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<3

<333

Re: &lt;333

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OKAY.

:)

Fell off the face of the planet there. :(

You weren't gone long. :3 But welcome back!

Thank you for being patient anyhow!!

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Re: <333