Title: Rescued
Fandom: Doctor Who / Torchwood
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Eleventh Doctor, Jack, Ianto, Nosy, Penny Lewis, OC.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1573
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: On a world devastated by famine, the Doctor discovers a stranded alien and takes it to Torchwood.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 336: Feast Or Famine.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.




The Doctor had found the poor creature, alone and afraid, on a remote, barren planet, in a distant star cluster, where it most definitely didn’t belong. In all likelihood, it had been plucked from its homeworld by one of the wandering Rifts in space and time that cropped up occasionally. Some lasted for only a few hours or a few days, while others, like the one anchored in Cardiff, were active for hundreds or even thousands of years before losing cohesion and vanishing.

He knelt down in order to look less threatening. “Well, hello there. You’re a long way from home, aren’t you?”

Startlingly blue eyes goggled uncertainly at him. The poor alien was so thin, half starved thanks to the almost complete lack of vegetation available. For weeks it must have been subsisting on the few ragged weeds the Doctor could see scattered about. Its fur was tattered and dusty, a drab greyish brown that blended with its surroundings. If not for its eyes, the Doctor might not have noticed it at all.

“If you come with me, I can take you somewhere much nicer than this.”

The Doctor might have been tempted to keep the alien himself since he was currently travelling alone in the TARDIS, but it was going to need a lot of attention and care to get it back to full health, and it could do with a good wash as well. Better that he should take it somewhere he knew stray aliens could count on being looked after. Besides, it would fit right in at Torchwood, where it would have the company of its own kind, as well as humans. The team all had many years of experience by now. Surely they’d have room for one more.

Reassured by the Doctor’s kindness, the alien willingly followed him into the TARDIS, where he gave it a dish of water. He offered it a banana, but despite being hungry, it wrinkled its snout and shuddered.

“Bananas are good for you. Excellent source of potassium. No? Ah well, more for me then. I’ll fetch you something from the garden. You shouldn’t have too much to eat just yet. Little and often, that would be best.” The Doctor left his guest in the console room and fetched some dandelion leaves from the garden. He liked dandelions; they were bright and cheerful, and the seed heads were fun to blow.

Leaving the alien munching the first good food it had eaten in almost longer than it could remember, the Doctor set the TARDIS on course for Cardiff. Jack and Ianto were going to be very surprised indeed.

When the TARDIS materialised in its usual parking space within the New Hub, Jack was indeed surprised, hurrying over to greet his old friend. Ianto, of course, appeared almost magically, bearing a steaming cup of tea.

“Not that we aren’t happy to see you again, Doctor, but it’s only been a couple of weeks. What brings you back here so soon?” Jack asked as the Doctor accepted his tea from Ianto.

“I should probably apologise in advance for dumping more work on you, but I just found someone stranded on a very inhospitable planet and I thought it would be much better off with you.” He stuck his head back inside the TARDIS. “It’ll alright, no need to be nervous, the people here won’t hurt you. They’ll take much better care of you than I can.”

A dusty head poked cautiously out of the TARDIS. “Hum?” it asked in a small, faint voice.

“A Fluff! Oh, you poor thing!” Penny Lewis had only been with Torchwood a month, but she’d taken to the Hub’s Fluffs like a duck to water. She loved them all, and they loved her, but she knew it would be a long time before she was granted one of her own, if she was ever that lucky. Here though was a sad, neglected, very needy young Fluff with no human family to call its own, and her tender heart went out to it. She hadn’t meant to usurp the usual channels, but as she looked into the bright blue eyes of the lonely alien, just like that, they bonded. The Fluff had made its choice.

“Looks like you’re going to be busy taking care of your new friend for a while,” Ianto said, smiling as the young Fluff slithered over to Penny, humming excitedly. It already looked better than it had.

“Ianto’s right, I think we’ll have to pause your fieldwork training for a month or two while you get your Fluff back to full health.” Jack agreed.

Nosy appeared out of nowhere, which should not have been so easy for a fully grown Fluff over five metres in length, but that was Torchwood’s top Fluff for you. Sniffing the newcomer from end to end, Nosy hummed a friendly greeting then hurried to the kitchen, where it fetched a small bunch of grapes for the newcomer, a light and easily digestible snack. To the new Fluff, it must have looked like a feast. Nibbling the grapes slowly, one at a time, it hummed its appreciation at their sweet juiciness.

By now, the rest of the team had gathered round as well. Owen, armed with his scanners, set to work examining the new arrival and the Fluff, sensing no danger through its bond with Penny, lay quietly while he scanned it.

“It’s badly undernourished, not much more than skin and fur. I’ll make up a feeding plan for it, give you a printout of what it should be fed, when, and how much,” he told Penny. “It’s suffering from severe vitamin and mineral deficiencies, but a healthy diet will fix that.” He turned to the Doctor. “Where did you find it?”

“A dead world out in the Tarvus Cluster, approximately a thousand years into the future. It was a colony planet at one time, although not a human one. A blight killed their crops, leading to famine, and within a couple of years the entire colony was wiped out.”

“Didn’t anyone try to save them?”

“It’s a very remote area, supply ships only visited every five years. By the time the next one got there, everybody was dead, and had been for over a year.”

“And this poor Fluff somehow wound up there,” Ianto said sadly. “Of all the places to be stranded…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “I should make coffee. I’ll water a drop down for our new team member. That should be okay, shouldn’t it?”

Owen shrugged. “Fluffs thrive on coffee. As long as it’s not too strong it’ll probably do Scruffy good.”

“Don’t tall it that!” Penny protested. “It can’t help looking the way it does! Once it’s had some coffee, I’ll groom it and take it downstairs for a dust bath.”

Jack frowned. “Can’t see that helping much; what it really needs is a good wash.”

“Right now, getting it soaking wet wouldn’t be a good idea,” Owen said. “We don’t want it getting chilled. Penny has the right idea. In a couple of weeks, maybe she can wash it, but for now dust baths and plenty of grooming would be best.”

“Fine, you’re the doctor.”

“I thought I was the Doctor!”

They’d all been so engrossed in the new Fluff that they’d almost forgotten the Doctor was still there.

“You are,” Jack agreed. “But Owen’s our medical professional; he has final say on anything related to the health and wellbeing of our team, and that includes all resident aliens.”

“Fair enough. Right, you seem to have everything well in hand, so I’ll leave you to it.” The Doctor addressed the Fluff. “You’ll be fine here. I’ll drop by in a few weeks to see how you’re getting along.”

“Hummm,” the Fluff said.

“You’re very welcome. Glad I could help. Ianto, thank you for the tea. Excellent, as always. Jack, I’ll see you again soon.” Waving goodbye to everyone, the Doctor went back into his TARDIS and within a few minutes it had faded out of sight.

Ianto set his tray of coffee mugs on a nearby desk for the various team members to take their own mugs, then placed a shallow dish of weak coffee in front of the new Fluff.

“There you go, see how you like that. It’s not too hot for you.”

The Fluff sniffed at it, slurped a little, and hummed appreciatively before burying its snout in its drink. What a wonderful place the nice person had brought it to. So many kind people, and another Fluff! In fact it had detected the individual scents belonging to several of its kind, although it had only seen the big green one.

“The making of another coffee addict,” Jack joked.

Ianto merely rolled his eyes; Torchwood was made up of coffee addicts; why would the new Fluff be any different?

“So,” he said to Penny. “What are you going to name your new friend?”

Already, under Penny’s gently stroking hands, the Fluff was starting to lose its dull, dusty colour, changing to a soft, hazy blue with slightly darker streaks.

“I think I’ll call it Skye,” she said.

“Humm,” the Fluff approved, eyes half closed in sheer pleasure. It had been lonely and starving for such a long time, but here it had found not only a host of new friends, but also all the food it could possibly need. It was home.


The End