Chapter Text
“Ma’am” the Colonel held the door open as Kate strode into the Tower early the next morning.
“Briefing in ten minutes?” she confirmed with him and headed to her office to check her messages.
“Thank you” Osgood smiled at the older man as he continued to hold the door for her. “Did you have a nice weekend?” she asked as he fell into step beside her.
“I was on duty but it was quiet apart from the Naples thing” he followed her into the lab. “I wanted a word before the briefing” he explained his slightly strange behaviour.
“Yes?” she asked as she dumped her bag on the desk and hung her coat up.
“We have a slight issue with the paperwork for your trip” he almost seemed nervous, which was worrying considering his lack of nerves when faced with the worst that the universe had thrown at them so far.
“We can’t fly out today?” Osgood was relieved, she had hoped to pack her bags the previous evening before Kate had put forward some very clear arguments why they really needed to stay in bed.
“You’re both booked on the 15.20 from Gatwick” he handed over a package of documents. “The new documents department pulled these together at short notice” he swallowed and left her to figure out what had been messed up.
Osgood frowned and wrinkled her nose, waiting for him to give her more information. When he didn’t say anything else she pushed her glasses back up her nose and glanced through the documents. “Jane Smith and Carol Brown” she tutted “Not very imaginative”
“Not where the problem lies” he crossed his arms, glancing at his watch.
Osgood took the hint and returned to scanning the documents. “Travel journalist and assistant working for an obscure trade magazine doing a feature on a boutique hotel chain” Osgood muttered as she shuffled through background details, nothing leaping out at her that would cause the concerns the Colonel obviously had. Finally the only thing left to check was the passports and she quickly flipped them both open to the photograph pages.
The Colonel watched as the young woman double checked the passports before dropping them on the desk and returning to the background covers written up for both of them. He saw the moment that she realised what had happened. “There isn’t time to change the passports”
“Have they never met us?” Osgood asked in surprise. “I mean how could anyone get this so wrong?” she walked round the desk and sank into her chair. “We’ll need to change the flights to tomorrow and get new passports”
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Kate sat at the head of the conference table, reading through emails on her laptop as the senior staff arrived in ones and twos. Osgood and Colonel Shindi were the last to arrive and she watched as they appeared to argue over a folder before the Colonel shook his head and moved to sit on Kate’s right. “Vikram?” she asked quietly as everyone else shuffled papers and sorted out coffee or tea.
“Let’s get started” he replied equally as quietly and avoided meeting her gaze. She turned to watch Osgood finally settling into the chair on her left. “Everything alright?”
“Ma’am” Osgood nodded but also kept her eyes on the table in front of her.
Ten minutes later the plan for initial reconnaissance was agreed and Kate was staring at the passport she held in her hand. “You have got to be kidding me” she turned to Osgood and saw her pinched lips. “We’ll change the flights, leave tomorrow instead”
“We can’t do that ma’am” Shindi braced himself for the raised eyebrow he knew was coming. “The site is due to be completely excavated by Thursday, we only have two days to gather as much information as we can before someone starts to notice that they aren’t human remains”
“Can we do this?” Kate didn’t bother arguing with the Colonel, turning instead to give all of her attention to Osgood.
“You want me to order you about as my lackey for two days?” Osgood pretended not to hear the chuckles from around the table. “Only if I get to still be the bossy one when we get back and talk to whoever messed this up”
Kate picked up the passport in front of her again “Carol Brown” she tapped the edge of the passport before blowing out a deep breath. “We’ll be fine” she threw the passport down on the table. “And let’s make sure this is the last cock-up on this operation”
Shindi waited for everyone else to leave before he turned to Kate. “I’m sorry Kate” he said quietly. “It’s only for a couple of days and I’ll keep trying to get us official access from the local government”
“It’s fine, I’m sure I can pretend to be a gopher for a couple of days” she waved her hand. “It’s not the first time we’ve been undercover and at least it’s not a tropical rainforest infested with evolving Daleks this time”
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Osgood double checked the laptop bag, making sure that the hidden compartments were living up to their name. “Come in!” she shouted at the tap on her office door, annoyed at the interruption.
“And here I was worried you wouldn’t feel comfortable shouting at me” Kate stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. “If you don’t want to go we can scrap the op, the aliens have been down there for just under two thousand years so far and we can find a way to make them disappear from the lab”
“Sorry ma’am” Osgood blushed. “I’m fine” she assured her boss and finished closing up the bag.
“Os” Kate leaned against the filing cabinet “Tell me what’s wrong, switching the photographs in the fake passports is an inconvenience at worst”
“You’ll think I’m being ridiculous” Osgood bit her lower lip.
“Tell me anyway” Kate said quietly.
“Have you spoken to Munroe yet?” Osgood asked instead of answering her.
“He’s in my pile of messages I need to return, why?” Kate wondered what their newly created in-house costume department could have to do with Osgood’s concerning behaviour.
“Clearly the backgrounds were created by someone who has watched The Devil Wears Prada one too many times” Osgood slumped into her chair, dropping her glasses on the desk as she rubbed her hands across her face. “Apparently Jane Smith loves her power suits and designer outfits while Carol Brown is happiest in jeans and converse”
Kate scowled and blew out a breath. “I don’t own converse” she stated flatly, as if that was their biggest problem.
“And I have loads of heels in my wardrobe?” she asked before realising that it was perhaps a little snippier than she really had meant it to sound. “Sorry, I hate undercover work at the best of times and this is going to be much worse than usual” She finally looked up at Kate “if it was someone else on the team would you let them get away with postponing because of this?”
“I think Josh or Sam would object to wearing heels almost as much as you” Kate smiled slowly. “But I take your point, I can’t object to being forced to wear jeans and keep my head down for a few days and I wouldn’t let anyone else out of bossing me around”
“I’ll go home and pack some underwear and night stuff for both of us” Osgood sighed, pushing herself up from her chair. “And I’ll find a couple of pairs of gardening jeans and sweaters for you”
“I’ll have a word with Munroe” Kate nodded and opened the office door. “I’ll pop over and introduce myself to the new team”
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“Hello, can I help you?” a young woman asked as she looked up to see who had walked into the small closet they laughingly called their department. “Oh hi, you’re Osgood” she stood up and held out her hand. “I recognise you from your picture”
“You really don’t” Kate shook her hand and smiled at the young woman. “I’m Kate Stewart” she waited for the confused look to settle in properly. “And you can see our problem” she looked around the tiny space.
“I am so sorry, I did the work last night since it was a rush job” she admitted and ran her hand through her hair.
“No real harm done, I didn’t catch your name?” Kate managed to find a surface to lean against that wasn’t covered in blank forms and piles of paper.
“Lianne Randall” she swallowed. “Please tell me I won’t get the firing squad for this?”
“We usually reserve that for mistakes during your second month in post” Kate smiled, she’d been told on more than one occasion that her dry wit would often be missed by people who were genuinely scared of her. “I just dropped by to say that the passports and driving licences were very well done, particularly in such a short space of time”
“I worked at the DVLA for a while” Lianne wasn’t sure what to do with her hands, deciding eventually to clasp them behind her back to stop the nervous fluttering. “Do you need me to make them again for you and Ms Osgood?”
“No time I’m afraid, and it’s just Osgood” Kate looked around the small office again. “Is this your office?” she finally gave in to her curiosity.
“Yes, well it’s mine and Simon’s but he’s gone to get your cosplay sorted out” Lianne bit her lip, why on earth had she said that out loud!
“Ah, Munroe of that ilk” Kate nodded, not understanding what Lianne had said but recognising the name of the other new employee. “So you share this space which is barely big enough to swing a cat?”
“We manage, luckily we hit it off on our first day” Lianne didn’t want to moan about how they’d both struggled to get the basics done since they’d been forced to share everything from one filing cabinet to a kettle.
“Still, let me have a word and get you some more space” Kate glanced at her watch. “Could you ask Mr Munroe to come and find me when he gets back?” she waited for the nervous nod of agreement. “Oh and for future reference, for both of you, Osgood likes converse and I prefer something a little more flamboyant” she looked down at her leopard print low heels, rocking back and forward a couple of times before looking back up.
“I’ll make sure he gets the memo” Lianne was smiling now, the shoes convincing her that this woman wasn’t the gun-toting tyrant that she’d been warned about.