Companionship // Elijah Townley

Tapping her fingers across her desk, Demory was anxiously waiting to see who it was she was partnered with. She took a deep breath, looking down at her papers, reading it over and over again. She was finally able to go on missions. Jack finally approved her as an official member. Thank Ressilon, she thought to herself. She was so relieved that she'd be able to get out of this place.

Stepping up from her chair she heard the clock sound to 11:00 AM in the distance and she bolted for the door to go check the papers. They should be up by now and posted. When she made it to the end of the hall, she noticed some other recruits were in the area to check. "Let's see..." she murmured to herself. "Demorytor... Demorytor... aha!" she found her name as a glimmer of excitement came over her.

"Elijah Townley..." she mused upon reading the words. "Why does that sound so familiar...?" she pondered for a moment, stepping away from the photos and looking around the room. For the most part, people knew who she was because she grew up here. Then again, recruits would have no idea about that. She sighed. "I hope he's not as shy as I am."

He was walking down the hall, knowing his new partner would be waiting for him at the end. This morning was particularly strange. Numbers kept flashing in front of his face....the same sequence of numbers..... 3147538......3147538..... He put a hand to his head, groaning a slight bit...he got a headache whenever the numbers flashed in front of him.

He shook his head, waving away the ache, looking down the hall, to see a girl standing there. He searched the pocket of his leather jacket, and pulled out a small slip of paper. "Demorytor Dickenson...." he read to himself. He looked up from the paper at the girl standing there. "You must be the name on this slip..." He said, stifling a chuckle at his terrible joke.

Upon seeing his face, the woman gave a wide smile. "Oh it's you!" she nodded. "You ended up joining Torchwood, huh? Funny how things work out!" she laughed lightly. "How have you been, it's been a long time since I've seen you..." she trailed off for a moment, looking around. She wondered when missions would be posted, although she doubted they'd have missions for everyone right away.

"I feel like Jack planned this," she laughed. "He must have known or something..." she took a deep breath.  Looking around, she noticed an open table and she moved toward it and sat down, gesturing Elijah to follow. "So... you can just call me Demory. Or Demi."

A confused expression formed upon his face. "Have....we met?" He asked. He could've sworn he'd never met this woman before.....it made his head hurt thinking about it. He silently groaned, placing a hand to his head. He shook the pain away, and reopened his eyes.

"Well....Demi... I think it's obvious Jack planned this...he's in charge of the pairings, idn't he?"

Seeing his eyes, it was obviously he was drawing blanks from her. He had no idea was she was and the smile on her face slowly dispersed. "Oh... um, I'm sorry, it was a long time ago..." she looked down quickly, feeling slightly embarrassed as her cheeks went a bit pink. "Uhm... nevermind that then."

She was actually surprised that he had decided to call her Demi. No one really did that, despite that she liked it so much. Everyone just called her Demory. "Well... so what should I call you? Elijah? Or Eli?" she gave a small chuckle.

"Eli is fine." He said to her. Had he seen this woman before? Just who was she....And what did she mean by 'It was a long time ago...'? Thinking about it made his head start hurting again. "Bloody headaches..." He shook his head again, the pain slowly fading. "S-Sorry about that..." He said in case she was confused.

He stretched a tiny bit, shaking his head.

"Alright Eli," she smiled. Suddenly, he looked agitated though and she frowned again, tilting her head slightly in curiosity to find out what was wrong. When he apologized, she shook her head, "No, no, are you all right?" she asked in a worried tone. "Do you need anything?"

Demory always had a bit of a motherly side to her and people always told her she should just be a nurse. That was no fun though, she wanted to go on adventures and help people. That's why she decided to study paleontology and anthropology as well as work as a medic with the Torchwood team.

"I-I'm fine..." he said, putting a hand to his head. This was the last thing he needed, a shy little newbie worrying about him. "I just have recurring headaches....don't know why though...." The pain stopped after a while, and he sighed deeply. "So...." He said, trying to awkwardly start up conversation. "How long have you been apart of Torchwood?"

Thinking about it, it had been a while, hadn't it? Demory came here when she was a wee bairn of five years old, and that was such a long time ago. "Well..." she pursed her lips, seeing how he'd react to this. "About 80 years or so... I was raised here since my planet was destroyed..." she lightly frowned.

She still remembered that moment quite vividly, and she hated thinking about it. Trying to quickly change the subject, she shook her head. "Never mind that though, that's a story for another day. What made you join Torchwood?"

Planet? Was she....from another planet? It was hardly surprising to him though....during his time with Torchwood, he had encountered many different alien species..... "Well..." He began like she did. "About seven years ago....I remember waking up in a bed. The nurse there told me I was lucky to be alive."

He turned away, thinking about it, his hands in his pockets. "She said I had been in a serious accident....I can't remember any of what happened before that......I wanted to join the military, but they rejected me. The nurse said it was because I had to work here. So, I took the job, and here I am."

"Lucky to be alive, huh?" she nodded. Thinking about that, she sort of remembered hearing about how a man whom joined had been recently released from the hospital after a terrible accident. She wondered if that was him or not... and then smiled lightly at him. "Well, Eli, it's wonderful that you're still here."

Looking around the area, she noticed that it had quickly emptied. Wow, people were in such a hurry today, weren't they? She wasn't quite sure what the fuss was about, missions weren't going to be out until the end of the week. Maybe they were off to go philander with their new partners.

"Well....suppose we should get aquainted." He said, trying his best not to be awkward, leaning against the wall. The place was abnormally empty......what could the meaning of this be?

"Acquainted, huh?" she laughed lightly. "Where'd you suppose we should go?" Sure, Demory was awkward, but she was just a free spirit. She was always pretty excitable and her good mood seemed to be contagious to most people. She wondered if she'd be able to pull any emotion out of this guy because he seemed a bit timid at the moment.

He cleared his throat. "Well....I know a diner across the street from here." He looked out a nearby window, taking a few steps away, dusting off his leather jacket. "Suppose we could get lunch and...get to know each other..."

Get to know each other, eh? Demory gave a smile as she nodded, "Sounds wonderful. All right then," she got herself up and waited to see if Eli would follow. As she headed for the door, she made sure that he would take the lead since he knew where this place was. Something intrigued her about him and she wanted to find out more about who he was.

He stepped in front of her to open the door for her. Sure, he had just met her, but it was common courtesy. He held open the door as she strepped out. "After you." He said witrh a smirk. Something seemed....familiar about this woman......thinking about it made his head start hurting again....

After he had opened the door for her, she smiled genuinely at him before stepping outside. When she looked around, she noticed that the diner was about a block away. Oh and it was quite nice out too, so the walk wasn't going to be too bad. She smiled, looking back at him and waited for him to catch up as the two began to walk, but she noticed something was irritating him again. With a frown she put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure you're okay..?"

"I-I'm fine...." He said, blushing a bit when he was her hand was on his shoulder. "It's just another headache......I'll be fine." He didn't want her to worry about him. He shook the ache off, and continued onward.

Demory frowned lightly a bit more as she turned her head, not saying a word, but nodding in recognition to his words. Taking her hand off his shoulder, she headed toward the diner, and when they had finally arrived, she looked around inside. She smiled lightly at the smell of the food that came out. She almost forgot how hungry she was.

Upon entering, the two had sat down at a booth and when their menus were given to them, Demory began looking for something tasty to eat, although she wasn't quite sure what she wanted. Maybe she'd settle for a really nice breakfast. "Hmm..." she looked around. French Toast sounded good.