Excerpt: Republic of Gilead

(This really has nothing to do with the overall story, but it's my favorite bit so far. Jack saves a random girl from a weevil and then flirts with her.)

Four time zones and an ocean away, in Cardiff, a confrontation was taking place in an alley.

Kairy Weste stood backed into a dark corner by the most hideous creature she had ever seen. Sure, having lived in the capital city of Wales for all of her nineteen years, she had seen strange things before, but nothing could compare to this. The thing was about her height, stocky, ugly, wearing some kind of blue work suit, and snarling at her with teeth dripping foul saliva.

Kairy couldn’t even scream for help, she was so terrified. The loudest noise she could make as she shrunk back closer against the cold brick wall at her back was a soft whimper. The creature reared, and Kairy looked away, not wanting to see her death coming.

There was a roar from the monster, then another sound - a human shout. “Hey, ugly!” a man called, and Kairy looked up.

The monster was looking away from her now, distracted. At the other end of the alley stood a tall man in a long coat. She couldn’t see much more of him in the dark.

“Evenin’, ma’am,” he said cheerfully. “I’m sorry this brute is bothering you. Just let me take care of him.”

Kairy watched speechlessly as the man strode confidently toward her attacker. The animal lunged at him, but the man dodged expertly, produced some sort of bottle from his pocket and held it to the creatures face. There was a fft sound, a gurgle from the creature, then it slumped to the ground.

The man toed the thing, being sure it was down, then approached Kairy. She shrank back into the corner again, grateful that the creature had been incapacitated unsure what to make of the guy who had done it.

He stopped a half dozen feet in front of her, frowning slightly. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said gently. Then a grin flared onto his face, and Kairy’s heart fluttered a bit. Boy, was he handsome. “I just saved your pretty face didn’t I?”

The girl blushed and stammered, “T-thank you, sir.”

If possible, the man’s grin widened. “Captain Jack Harkness,” he said, holding out his hand.

She hesitantly shook it, not saying anything.

Captain Harkness raised an eyebrow. “And you are…?”

Not supposed to talk to strangers, even if they are the knight in shining armor type like you. “Kairy.”

“Kairy. That’s a pretty name.”

She blushed. “Thank you.”

“Well, Kairy, so we took care of the weevil. Are you hurt at all?”

“Weevil?” she couldn’t keep the question from popping out of her mouth. “That doesn’t look like any weevil I’ve ever seen!”

The Captain turned to give the thing an appraising look, then said thoughtfully, “No, I suppose not. Anyway, you didn’t answer my question. Are you all right?”

Kairy took a moment to appraise herself. “Yeah, I’m fine. He just scared a bit, that’s all.”

“Actually, it’s a female.”

The girl stared at him. Did that really matter? It had almost killed her!

He seemed to realize this and grinned at her again. “Not important. Anyway, would you like me to give you a lift home?”

Kairy shook her head quickly. “No, I think I can manage. It’s just over there.” She nodded in the direction of her house.

“All right, run along then. You’ll want to stay away from dark alleys if you don’t want to be making friends like these.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you.” She hesitated for a minute, fought off the urge to ask more questions, and took off for home.