Happy Holidays to @dustnox from your Classmate Secret Santa. Your prompt was very intriguing and I hope I did it justice. Ended up being longer and angstier and intended but I hope you like it.
prompt: Tanya finally manages to hack into UNIT and all hell breaks loose.
@classmatesecretsanta
“Turn around and put your hands behind your head,” the UNIT officer commanded. Shaking, Tanya slowly did as she was told and felt the cool metal of handcuffs around her wrists. Her stomach twisted painfully, threatening to bring up the pancakes she’d had for lunch. She focussed on the Christmas tree she’d placed on the windowsill to try to slow down her facing heartbeat.
Beside her, Quill sighed.
“You just had to hack into UNIT, didn’t you?”
ONE WEEK EARLIER.
Tanya stretched out on her new bed in her new room in Quill’s house. The blanket felt scratchy and slightly uncomfortable under her chin, the walls were too dull in colour and the paint faded, and she longed for her room back at her old house. In her old life, where her mother would still be. And her brothers, rather than living with their grandma until Tanya works up the courage to call.
No, she thought shaking her head and furiously blinking the tears away. She would not fall into the trap of letting her thoughts and her grief overcome her. She forced herself to focus on the task at hand and continues tapping away on her keyboard, finding comfort in the rhythmic and sharp taps.
She flew through codes and firewalls reasonably quickly, her effectiveness no doubt affected by the determination to keep…. other topics out of her mind.
It’s 2 am when she finishes. The combination of exhausting weighing her eyes down and the light from her computer screen making her squint is strange, but nothing compares to the feeling of victory flowing all through her body, making her toes curl and her mouth twitch into a smile and her hands clap of their own accord when she finally completes the task she started a year ago.
She’s hacked into UNIT.
Before Tanya can stop herself, a loud yell of “yes” escapes her mouth, followed by a stirring baby and a cranky “oh dear god” from the room beside her.
She smiles behind her hands for the first time in a while.
******
“What exactly,” Quill sighs at breakfast the next morning, baby Katniss on her hip as she prepares her bottle “were you whooping cheering about last night?”
“I hacked into UNIT.” She attempts to sound nonchalant, but she can’t help the proud smile, the wiggle of her shoulders, even flicking her hair back. Charlie’s jaw hits the floor and Matteusz bursts into laughter.
“You did?” Charlie asks, his eyes wide. “For real?”
Tanya can only find it in her to nod. After everything that has happened, after her mum and the fact that Charlie could have stopped it, she finds herself growing farther from the boy she once called a friend. Her closer relationship with Quill doesn’t help that. She knows Charlie sees it, and he tries to bond with her more. She appreciates it, but sometimes wishes he would stop.
“Yeah. I’ve been working on it for months,” she explains, shoving another spoonful of cereal into her mouth. Matteusz is still chuckling, but he nods at her with a proud glint in his eye that reminds her of her brothers. But this time thinking about her brothers doesn’t upset her. Not as much as it used to anyway. Because she has Matteusz looking proudly at her and making her feel intelligent and while it’s not completely the same, its close.
“Tanya that’s brilliant,” Charlie says, still gobsmacked. She offers him another, warmer smile, because he is proud of her and she likes people being proud of her. There’s something there, a fleeting moment of not quite friendship, not like the way they used to be, but it’s a step there.
Quill is equally as proud. Tanya catches her when she thinks she’s not looking, her mouth quirked up in the kind of smile she has only seen once before; when she successfully taught Tanya to fight. It’s gone in a flash.
“Well next time, try to keep your celebrations to a minimum. Gave Kat a right little fright.” Quill turns to the baby, her face softening instantly as she strokes her plump cheek. “Yes, she did, didn’t she? Nasty old Tanya interrupting Kat’s beauty sleep. And mine.” Quill either thinks they aren’t looking at her or has forgotten their existence entirely, because she presses a quick kiss to Katniss’ cheek, smiling when she gurgles happily.
Tanya, Mattuesz and Charlie stifle giggles.
School is officially over, exams finally finished. Christmas is around the corner, the mid-December air bringing cold and frost but tragically no snow. To stop herself from going mad with boredom and thinking of her family, Tanya quickly texts April and Ram, telling them “they have to see this”.
Before they can come round, Tanya drags herself to Charlie’s room, freezing when she reaches the door. They’ve spent the last few months cautiously avoiding one another, holed up in their respective rooms. She feels a pang of guilt for avoiding him because he has tried. She supposes she’s making up for it now.
She listens for what’s on the other side of the door. In the middle of the night she’d hear him screaming, calling out in Rodian and against all her instincts, she feels pity for him. Matteusz has told her about Charlie’s nightmares since using the Cabinet and the effect it took on him. She doesn’t want to walk in on a panic attack.
But it was quiet. She even heard giggles. So, she tried her luck and knocked the door.
When Charlie opens it, his hair is messed up, his normally neat shirt has a few buttons undone and even if she wasn’t a genius she could work out what they were doing.
“I’ve texted April and Ram,” she starts, wishing to God she had rehearsed this before. “To show them what I did with UNIT.” Charlie nods, looking slightly confused and Tanya wishes to God he could read between lines. “And I was wondering if you two wanted to see it too.”
He smiles, his shoulders relax, and Tanya feels a weight lifted from her chest.
They’re all in her room; Mattuesz leans against her wall with Charlie held close to his chest, Charlie’s hands running up and down his arms, Ram is sat on her floor next to the beanbag April sits on, his hand on her knee and her hand caressing his hair, all the while she sits on her bed.
“What is this thing we’ve got to see?” Ram asks.
“I did it. I hacked UNIT.”
Ram almost doesn’t react while lets out a laugh.
“No way,” she says, beaming at Tanya.
“Yes way.” Tanya motions for them to come closer and they crowd around her on her bed as Tanya reveals various pages of UNIT’s database, from security passwords to alien databases to nuclear warheads.
“Oh, that’s cheerful,” Ram mutters as she shows them the page about the nuclear missiles.
“There’s so much stuff in there,” April comments.
“Well there should be,” Tanya tells her. “It’s UNIT.”
“Go to the page about the past alien sightings,” April says. “Who knows, Charlie might be in there.” Charlie pulls a face at her, but it’s in good humour.
“Cybermen…. Daleks…. Rhino-men,” Tanya mumbled, scrolling through each profile.
“Here go into this tab,” April says, pointing at a tab marked “soldier profiles”. She clicked and was taken to a list of profiles of UNIT officers.
“Hmm…. McAllister, Andrew. Who are you?” Tanya clicked on his name and was taken immediately to the profile of a tall, broad shouldered, dark haired man.
“Oh, he’s nice,” April muttered, prompting a gasp of offence from Ram. “Not like that. He’s just fit is all.”
“Let’s have a look then,” Tanya muttered. “Specialises in hand to hand combat, done three years in UNIT and lives in Dorset…. with his husband.”
“Why is it every boy I like ends up gay?” April sighs.
“Ram isn’t,” Charlie helpfully pointed out.
Ram winked at Charlie, causing April to laughingly hit him with a pillow.
“Go into this one. Part time members.”
None were surprised to see the Doctor on the page. What did surprise them however was the many, many different pictures all captioned “the Doctor”. The ones of a long haired young man in a cricket vest read “Fifth incarnation”. The ones with a leather jacket read “Ninth incarnation”. And then the one they had met read “Twelfth incarnation”.
“What does it mean ‘incarnation’?” Ram asked.
“He’s like a shape-shifter or something?” Tanya suggested. The group turned to Charlie, a question in their eyes.
“Why does everyone think I always know the answer to the alien questions?” Charlie asked. “I mean I don’t assume you all know everything about humans.”
“Well….” Matteusz teased. Tanya rolled her eyes and clicked on a tab reading “known accomplices”.
Nothing could have prepared them for seeing a familiar face on this tap. A carefree smile and wide brown eyes and flowing dark hair, walking like she owned the universe.
“Is that…. Miss Oswald?” Matteusz asked. His voice was thick, and he had seemingly subconsciously reached for Charlie. Miss Oswald had always been Matteusz’s favourite teacher. She was practically everyone’s favourite teacher. Her death had devastated the students.
“Yeah,” Tanya whispered as she clicked on her profile. “Clara Oswald.”
“So that’s what the C was for,” Ram muttered. The group laughed, even if it was half hearted.
It seemed they weren’t the only ones in Coal Hill with secrets.
******
Tanya would say the rest of the week passed normally but that wasn’t totally true. I mean she spent most of it in her room, on her laptop, eating chocolate, which was a normal teenage thing to do. But, she was snooping on private files of a top-secret government facility. Which was. just outside the standards of normal.
She’s doing just that when Quill comes into her room without knocking or invitation and Tanya almost spills her Coke when she jumps.
“Don’t Quill knock?” she asked with mild annoyance.
“Sorry,” Quill sighs. Tanya can see the dark shadows under her eyes and wonders how much sleep she has had since the baby. “This Christmas holiday, it involves the exchanging of gifts?”
“Yes.” Tanya wanted to slap herself. In the concentration of hacking UNIT, Christmas had managed to slip her mind. Perhaps it was a subconscious trick to supressing the grief for her family. “Why?”
“And it involves this gentleman in red, this Santa figure, to give the presents to the children, yes?”
“Yes….” Please God don’t make me have to tell Quill Santa isn’t real.
“Well, I get that it’s really the parents, but the children don’t know that, correct?”
“Yes….”
“So, the parents go out, buy the presents, hide them, give them to their children and say a made-up person got them instead?”
“Yes….”
Quill stopped for a moment, going over the whole thought in her mind.
“Why are you asking me this?” Tanya asked. Quill’s hands clenched into fists and she visibly bit back a scream.
“Because…. I understand that I should do this for Katniss…. You people find it morally acceptable to lie to one’s own kin?”
“Yes. Well it’s for their own happiness and it only lasts about 10 or 11 years.” Quill groaned and sank into one of Tanya’s beanbags. “You could always just not do Christmas.”
“No,” Quill sighed, shaking her head. “No, no I will. Just checking I have this inane custom correct.” She paused, frowning. “What do you buy for a baby?”
“Well,” Tanya sniggered, closing her laptop. “Toys. Soft toys. Books?”
“She can’t read,” Quill pointed out, her head in her hands.
“You read it to her. Dolls. Clothes.” Quill paled at the thought of it. “Well, why don’t we go into town together and pick out some things for her?” She raised her head, eyebrows furrowed.
“You want to take me shopping for Santa presents for my baby?” Quill asked.
“Yeah,” Tanya shrugged. She went on to try to organise their trip, but a thudding knock at the door made them jump. Tanya strained to hear and managed to make out the door creaking open and her name- “Tanya Adeola?”- before whoever it was stormed up the steps.
Before either her or Quill could formulate a plan, a tall and broad-shouldered woman appeared in her doorway in a military uniform.
“Tanya Adeola?” she asked.
“Yes.” Tanya’s mouth ran dry and her stomach twisted, and she prayed she wouldn’t vomit.
“Stand up.” Tanya obeyed fearfully while Quill watched, her hand poised, her knees slightly bent.
Behind the army woman, Charlie and Matteusz came, faces red and fearful.
“She just came in, we couldn’t stop her, she wanted to see you,” Charlie explained quickly.
“Who are you? Why are you in my house?” Quill asked.
“I am Officer Melissa Woods of UNIT.”
Oh God.
Oh crap.
What had she done? What was she thinking?
“Miss Adeola you have been charged with breaking into UNIT and looking through confidential information.”
Tanya couldn’t even answer. The officer’s words were disjointed in her ears, as if she was plunged underwater. She looked to Quill in desperation, only to find her biting her lip so hard Tanya feared she’d draw blood.
“Let’s work this out,” she said. “She didn’t mean any harm.”
“So, you admit she did it?” Woods looked to Tanya. “Did you do it?”
She only managed a weak nod.
“Turn around and put your hands behind your head,” the UNIT officer commanded. Shaking, Tanya slowly did as she was told and felt the cool metal of handcuffs around her wrists. Her stomach twisted painfully, threatening to bring up the pancakes she’d had for lunch. She focussed on the Christmas tree she’d placed on the windowsill to try to slow down her facing heartbeat.
Beside her, Quill sighed.
“You just had to hack into UNIT, didn’t you?”
Woods secured the handcuffs around her wrists and moved Tanya downstairs, which was easy given Tanya’s lack of resistance. Woods was being gentle when she held her and when Tanya looked at her, she looked guilty. She was just doing her job.
“Wait,” Quill called, racing to the stairs. “You have to take me too.”
“Why?” Woods asked.
“Because I am her legal guardian and she is underage.” Woods paused before nodding.
“All right. Come with me Miss…”
“Quill,” she finished. “Just give me a minute.” Quill half jogged towards Charlie and Matteusz. “Look after Kat. She’s asleep but if she wakes check her nappy and keep her amused. If anything happens….” From her place on the stairs, Tanya saw Quill pass something to Charlie. “You know what to do.”
*****
Tanya hadn’t paid attention to the journey there. The next thing she knows she is being sat at a metal table and handcuffed to a bar to prevent escape.
Handcuffed. Like a common criminal. She was a criminal now. She’d face jail time for this. What would her mother say about that? Or her father?
The thought of her parents rolling in their graves at the sight of their daughter- the threat to national security- was enough to cause sobs to tear through her.
Woods offered her a handkerchief and a sympathetic look before disappearing out of the room, leaving her and Quill.
“I’ll go to jail, won’t I?” she asked. “Or worse. I’ll go to-to solitary confinement. Or be deported as a security risk.”
“No one is being deported,” Quill said. While she tried, she couldn’t keep her tone neutral and her hand started comfortingly stroking Tanya’s back. “It’ll be okay.”
A tall thin blonde woman stepped in, followed by Woods. She wasn’t what Tanya expected. She wore pink eyeshadow and her hair had highlights and she even had a sprig of holly on her jacket lapel.
“Tanya Adeola, you have been charged with hacking into UNIT and reading confidential information. Do you know what kind of damage you could have caused?”
Guilt hit Tanya in the stomach, guilt at her own stupid pride and recklessness and she sobbed harder.
“God’s sake you’re upsetting her!” Quill snapped. “She didn’t mean any harm.”
“Ma’am her intentions are irrelevant,” she replied calmly. “Miss Adeola put the security of UNIT at risk. If your computer fell into the wrong hands….”
“Oh, who’s going to steal a 14-year old’s computer with My Little Pony stickers on it and a Little Harmony background picture?” Quill sighed. “Just let her go.”
“I want to,” she said. “Believe me but I can’t. I can’t go against protocol. I could-”
The woman was cut off by the door to the room opening and a young man taking a small step inside.
“Captain Morrison, someone is here to see you,” he said.
“Tell them to wait, I’m in the middle of an interrogation, Michaels!”
“Ma’am, I am afraid he is being quite insistent.”
Michaels was shoved aside like a curtain and the visitor stepped in.
Tanya wasn’t sure if this was a blessing or a curse. The Doctor strolled in, the same Doctor who had come to their prom, looking rather unimpressed by the room.
“Sir.” Woods and Morrison both stood straight and saluted, to which the Doctor waved his hand dismissively.
“No, no saluting, how many times,” he sighed. “I am simply here to oversee the release of Miss Tanya Adeola and subsequently Miss Andrea Quill and seeing she is fully pardoned of her crimes and given an escort home. One of your Jeeps, that’d be fun wouldn’t it, Tanya? Or a helicopter? A limousine. I request this girl be taken home in a limousine.”
“Doctor,” Morrison said. “Sir with all due respect, we cannot simple pardon her of hacking our defence systems.”
“Well why not?” he asked. “Is she a risk to national security. Is she? I mean look at that face. I have never seen a terrorist in a snowman jumper, I can tell you that much.”
“She hacked our systems!” Morrison repeated. The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes.
“So, give her a job. Summer job, isn’t that what kids are always looking for? You get her skills, she gets a bit of pocket money to spend on sweets and spinning tops and newspapers, everyone is happy.”
“Doctor,” Morrison began, but was cut off by him placing his finger on her lips.
“Captain Morrison, you are one of the best Captains in UNIT, so I am willing to give you a few more minutes to decide to give this girl a limo ride back to her house and consider hiring her. Or I can always tell your superiors how you refused to give me, the Doctor, the President of the Earth, what he wanted and imprisoned an innocent girl.” The Doctor stood behind Tanya, arms folded like a man who knew he had won. “So, what’ll it be?”
“Officer Woods,” Morrison said, her voice tight. “Get this girl a limousine.”
“Captain we don’t have limousines,” Woods whispered, her expression still shocked and more than slightly afraid.
“Then find one,” Morrison hissed.
*****
“How did you know to come?” Tanya asked the Doctor as they rode the limo UNIT managed to find back to her house. The Doctor wasted no time in taking advantage of the free sweets offered.
“I got a call,” he replied, handing her a packet of Maltesers. “I have a dreadful sweet tooth. It’s a nasty habit, I’ve been trying for over 400 years to break it.”
“A call?” Tanya asked, just before it clicked into place. She turned to Quill, who had not-so-discreetly shoved several packets of sweets and a bottle of wine into her coat. “You told Charlie to call him.”
“I am amazed he worked it out, given the lack of brain cells,” she said.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to.”
“Yes, I did,” Quill said. “You are living under my roof. That means you are under my protection.” Before she could stop herself, Tanya squeezed Quill’s hand. “And I need your help with Kat’s Christmas presents.”
“Speaking of that….” The Doctor handed Quill over a credit card.
“You gave us one,” she said, frowning in confusion.
“I know, but this one has a higher limit. What with this new baby and her first Christmas I expect you might need a few extra pennies here and there.”
“I don’t take charity,” Quill said.
“It’s not charity. It’s me being kind,” he insisted. Quill eyed the card wearily.
“Whose account does the money come from?”
“Royal family.”
“Deal.” Quill took the card out of his hand. “Those twits earn more than me by just sitting on their asses.”
“And you, Miss Adeola,” the Doctor said. “I need hardly tell you, no more hacking into secure government bodies?”
“I know, I know,” she sighed. “I was stupid and reckless and didn’t think of the consequences.”
“Reckless maybe but not stupid. You’d need to be a genius to hack UNIT the way you did.”
Tanya smiled. She was a genius. A reckless genius but a damn good genius.
The limo pulled up outside her house and they climbed out. The Doctor’s police box stood outside their house.
“Is this the last we see of you?” Tanya asked. The Doctor shook his head.
“I sincerely hope not,” he said warmly. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Doctor,” she said. Right then, she felt more at peace than she had in a while.
“Best of luck with the baby, what did you call it by the way?” he asked. “I do think Doctor is a good name.”
“She’s called Katniss,” Quill replied, rolling her eyes.
“Katniss Quill. Good name.”
And then the Doctor was gone. Back into space and time.
*****
Together, Tanya and Quill had picked out a huge teddy bear, a rainbow coloured ball, a fluffy blanket, a tiny plastic pram with a doll to help for learning to walk, a wooden caterpillar with “KAT” engraved on its colourful blocks and a green baby swing with monkeys hanging over her. And Katniss loved each and every one.
All through Christmas day, Tanya couldn’t keep a smile off her face.
******
On Boxing Day, she calls her brothers. They talk for hours and hours and arrange to meet in January. She doesn’t know what she will tell them, but she can work that out later. For now, hearing their voices was enough.
*****
Of course, it only got better in early January, when an e-mail from UNIT came asking if she was interested in a summer job.
