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There was a rumour amongst the people of Cardiff bay regarding Torchwood. This by itself was definitely not unusual. By this point Torchwood had racked up so many rumours all over Cardiff that even the most avid listeners couldn’t keep track. Only a handful were true, everyone agreed on that, but nobody could figure out which ones those were. This particular rumour, however, hadn’t spread beyond those near the bay having been deemed “too ridiculous” even by Torchwood's standards.
It was Old Ted from number 16 who had started it, or so they said. According to him, he had been strolling along the bay, minding his own business, when a pterodactyl flew right over his head. When he had turned around to see where it had gone he swore he had seen one of “that Torchwood lot” with it and was “feeding it bloody chocolate!” Most people had dismissed it seeing as pterodactyl’s had become extinct thousands of years ago and even Torchwood, mad as they seemed to be, wouldn’t have resurrected one. But then again, most people weren’t Geraint Evans of number 13.
Having never bothered much with the rumours before, Geraint quickly became obsessed with this one. Geraint was, to put it lightly, the dinosaur kid. Everything in his life revolved around the creatures and he somehow managed to bring them into almost every conversation, even ones as simple as “Do you want to meet up tomorrow?”. This obsession had been going strong ever since he was a young kid and even after fifteen years it didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.
So, hearing that Torchwood might possibly have a living breathing pterosaur (not a dinosaur as he had spent half an hour explaining to the poor person who had told him Ted’s story) was a dream come true for him. All he had to do was wait and he would be able to see for himself, he was sure of it.
On this unsurprisingly rainy day in Wales, Geraint was sitting out on the Roald Dahl pass, definitely not minding his own business. In fact, he was doing the exact opposite, watching the water tower with laser focus.
Everyone knew, or at least heavily suspected, that this was the entrance to Torchwood although they argued how one would enter through it. Some said the whole tower could lift up to reveal the entrance like some kind of sci-fi movie. Others said all the person had to do was run into the tower fast enough and they would be teleported inside, although that one had been debunked after Jimmy Davies had broken his nose trying. Some people even said it wasn’t the water tower at all, but was in fact the tourist office that was the real entrance. Most people didn't care how it worked, just that it stayed away from them.
It only took half an hour of waiting before something happened. Geraint was still watching nothing and then a man in a suit appeared, or maybe he had always been there? Geraint didn’t dwell on it. Like an excited puppy, he perked up when he saw him. This had been the man Old Ted had seen, he was sure of it. This was the man with the pterodactyl.
He stayed where he was, watching. If he walked right up to the man and asked if he could ‘see the pterodactyl for a little bit pretty please’ he knew he’d get turned away in an instant.
The Man didn’t do anything particularly interesting. He just headed for a shop over the road and disappeared inside for a good few minutes before appearing again with a handful of bags now in his hands.
Geraint deflated a little when the man rushed through the rain to the old tourist office and disappeared again. Well, at least that solved one mystery, they really did use the tourist office as an entrance.
_____
Geraint didn’t give up. If anything, he got more persistent. He returned the next day, having spent the last night thinking of plans to sneak into the Torchwood base and see the pterosaur. Today was plan A.
Once he got to the Roald Dahl pass he didn’t stop like yesterday. Instead, he carried on confidently until he reached the small tourist office by the dock. All he had to do was be subtle and he knew he would find Torchwood. He knocked keenly on the door and after a second a voice called out “come in!”
Inside, the office looked completely ordinary. He had no idea what he had been expecting but a completely ordinary Tourist Information Centre was not it. The only interesting thing in the room was the small room off to the side with its doorway covered by beads but even that didn’t look big enough to fit a dinosaur in.
“Hello. How can I help?” The man behind the counter asked, the same man he had seen yesterday.
“Err, do you know a Torchwood?” Geraint asked. So much for being subtle.
“A what?”
“Torchwood. They’re kind of a big thing here?” the ‘kind of’ was doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. Barely anyone in Cardiff cared about Torchwood. They knew who they were, sure, but as long as Torchwood kept away from them, they kept away from Torchwood.
“Never heard of them,” the man said quickly, “Anything else?”
“But- but you have to have heard of them!” Geraint said indignantly, “Everybody has!” He decided not to mention the fact this man worked for Torchwood. It wouldn’t help him get into Torchwood. Not yet anyway.
“Well I haven't. If there’s anything else I can help you with I’d be happy to do so, if not I must ask you to leave,”
_____
Day 3. Today was his day, he could feel it. The sun was out for the first time that year which just had to mean something. So the Tourist office didn’t work. No problem. He could always use the water tower entrance.
Now by the tower, he could see the spot where the suited man had appeared the other day but had no idea how he had done it. He tried walking along the edge of the stones, jumping on each one three times, and other increasingly desperate methods.
Eventually, he tired himself out and made his way down to the dock. He was stewing in thought when he heard a sound from the tourist office. Going over to see what it was, he found the door was ajar and a look through the crack showed him the man inside reach for something under the desk and walk off to the right. He couldn’t see what exactly it was but Geraint knew a secret door when he saw one.
Once he could be sure the man had gone he pushed the door open wide enough to slip inside. Sure enough, the man was gone, but so was any trace of the secret door he’d gone through. Before he could think about what he was doing, Geraint was around the desk, crouched down to find the button or lever that opened the door. He smiled when he saw the big red button.
Pressing it and standing up quickly he was greeted with the sight of the wall moving away to reveal a secret passageway. This had to be it. He hurried quickly down the corridor, not wanting to waste any potential pterodactyl-seeing time.
Inside the hub it was quiet. Ianto and Jack had left to go on a “weevil hunt” together which Gwen heavily doubted was the truth. If it was, that would be the fifth one this week and she didn’t think the weevils could be that active. Owen was god-know-where, leaving Gwen and Tosh to hold down the fort at the hub. Gwen had taken up residence on the sofa and Tosh had left to go and check something from the archives.
It was peaceful, no rift alarms going off and none of the usual noise that accompanied Jack and Owen. In fact, Gwen was half asleep on the sofa when the alarms of the cog-door opening blared.
She sat up quickly, one hand going for her gun but stopped when she saw what it was. A kid? Well, he looked to be late teens-early 20’s, with curly dark brown hair stuffed under a cap with a dinosaur embroidered on the front and a dark backpack on his back. He was looking around the hub in amazement.
“Hey!” She called and he swivelled around to face her, “What’re you doing here?”
“I heard you have a Pterodactyl. Is it true?”
Gwen sighed. Jack was the one who had let Myfanwy “stretch her wings a little” and ever since then there’d been more people interested in them than usual. How Torchwood was classed as a secret organisation was anyone’s guess.
“Yes. Yes we do. Do you want to see her?” She might as well stall him until Jack and Ianto get back from their definitely-weevil-hunting. Jack was better than her at retconning people. That was definitely the only reason she was leaving it to him.
As she led Geraint, he’d said his name was, to meet Myfanwy she texted Jack to get his arse over here and at least pretend to be a secret organisation.
____
Geraint spent half an hour with Myfanwy before he was told he had to leave. Thirty unbelievable minutes with the last remaining pterosaur in existence. The first thing he noticed upon seeing her however was that Old Ted had been wrong. She wasn't a pterodactyl. She was a pteranodon which, given how many lectures on dinosaurs he had given everyone by now, Old Ted should have known. Nevertheless, she was still a pterosaur and a beautiful one at that.
She was also much tamer than he’d been expecting and apparently had a diet of dark chocolate (which couldn't have been good for her) and fish. Half his time there was spent telling Gwen all the facts about pteranodons that he knew and the other half was spent marvelling over Myfanwy.
Eventually though, he did have to leave. He said goodbye to Myfanwy and she screeched back in what he assumed was a goodbye. Almost as soon as he was back outside the tourist office, Geraint broke into a sprint home, buzzing with excitement. There was no way he was ever going to shut up about this!
On his way back however, he managed to run straight into somebody, falling to the floor and the contents of his backpack spilling on the floor. He apologised hastily but the stranger didn’t seem to mind, helping him pick up his items and finally helping him to his feet. He handed him back his water bottle once Geraint had dusted himself off. The man had a striking appearance, his old navy coat standing out amongst the crowd of people.
“Thank you,” Geraint said,
“No problem,” the man smiled, his American accent surprising Geraint slightly, “Just be more careful in the future okay? And drink some of that water, it’ll do you good,”
He nodded and the American grinned at him before walking off with a dramatic swish of his coat. Geraint took a drink of the water and headed off in the opposite direction.
By the time he was home and through the door Geraint was exhausted. The details of that day were foggy and he wanted nothing more than to sleep. He didn’t even say hello to his housemate Cassie before heading upstairs and collapsing onto his bed, falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.
When he woke up the next day Geraint would remember that day as nothing more than a dream. In fact, the whole past week would be blurry to him. He would forget about the rumours, and even if they were brought up again, who could bring any kind of pre-historic animal to life? That was just ridiculous wasn’t it? The world would carry on and the rumour of Torchwood’s mysterious pterodactyl would remain just that, a rumour.