Title: Trading Places
By: ebonyfeather
Fandom: Primeval
Pairings: Connor/Becker, Danny/Gwen, Jack/Ianto, Connor/Becker/Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG-13
Series: A Question of Ownership
Summary: Lester agrees to a personnel exchange between the ARC and Torchwood.
Note: I'm using Torchwood end of series 2
-------------------------------
Chapter 1- The exchange
-------------------------------
“Lester…”
Lester looked up from the report he was reading to see Connor Temple peering around the door to his office, looking nervous. Usually, he just barged in without bothering to wait for an invitation, they all did, so this time he must really want something. He beckoned Connor to come inside. The young man sat in the chair opposite, fidgeting.
“Well? Out with it, I don’t have all day.”
“OK, you know that anomaly in Cardiff? That one that opened near the Torchwood base?” Looking up to make sure Lester did remember, Connor carried on. “Well, Captain Jack called and he invited me to go and visit, you know, to learn more about the rift and the aliens that come through and it’d be really good to find out more about it ‘cos it’s really interesting and-”
Lester sighed. “Connor, stop rambling. Or at least take a breath before you pass out.”
He had already received a call from Jack Harkness about this, a kind of personnel exchange so they could learn about what each other did. It appeared that they were as curious about the ARC as Connor and Abby had been about Torchwood. It had been all he’d heard for days since they returned- rift this, pterodactyl that. He had noticed that a great deal of the stories and speculations seemed to revolve around the aforementioned Captain Jack and one Ianto Jones.
“And what do you propose we do in the meantime?” he asked Connor. “I can’t let half of my team go gallivanting off; what if we have an incident here?”
Connor sat forward in the chair, hope shining in his eyes. “Well there’ll be one of Torchwood’s people here. They’re used to tracking and catching aliens and things that come through the rift so they’ll be here to help.”
“And I assume that you expect to be the one I choose to participate in this exchange?” He almost laughed at the sudden drop in Connor’s enthusiasm. Oh, well, time to put him out of his misery. “For your information, Connor, I have already spoken to Captain Harkness regarding this and you leave on Saturday.” He saw Connor open his mouth to speak and cut in. “Captain Becker will be accompanying you, before you even ask. Someone needs to keep you out of trouble; it’s still me who has to fill out the paperwork should you manage to get yourself injured.”
Connor jumped to his feet, beaming happily. “Thank you! Oh, wow, this is so cool! I’ve got to tell him.”
Lester tapped his pen on the desk pointedly and Connor fell silent. “Whilst I tolerate your relationship with Captain Becker, I know that I don’t need to remind you what will happen should I hear that there was any inappropriate behaviour. You are representing the ARC.”
“I promise I won’t disappoint you,” Connor assured him before bouncing out of the room to find Becker and tell him the news.
-------------------------------
Chapter 2- Gwen Cooper
-------------------------------
Day 1.
Gwen was met at the ARC by Abby, who she remembered meeting in Cardiff, an asian woman and a tall ginger-haired man in a leather motorcycle jacket.
“Danny, Sarah, this is Gwen Cooper from Torchwood,” Abby said, welcoming her with a hug as though they were long lost friends. “Gwen, meet Danny Quinn and Dr Sarah Page.”
Gwen shook hands with them both before Abby hustled her inside, talking nineteen to the dozen about what they had planned.
“I have a spare room at my flat,” she told Gwen. “I thought it would be fun if you stayed with me. You don’t have to, if you don’t want. I won’t be offended.”
Gwen smiled. She liked Abby; whilst in Cardiff, Abby had stayed with her and they’d spent most of the night watching old movies and drinking wine. It had felt as though she’d been friends with the excitable blonde woman forever instead of just a few hours.
“Sounds great.”
Abby smiled. “Cool. Come on, I’ll introduce you to Lester and the others and then I can give you the grand tour.”
A siren sounded and Abby stopped.
“It looks as through the tour is going to have to wait,” Danny said as they all turned to hurry to the detector room.
Gwen didn’t have time to do more than pass her bags off to one of the military personnel who Abby signalled over to them, and follow the others. This was oddly familiar, the alert going out, followed by the hustle to the cars and out to face whatever alien had come through the rift. This time, she reminded herself, they weren’t going to be aliens. From what Abby had told her the last time they’d met, the anomalies opened in time, not space.
Sarah went to the desk in the centre of the room and tapped a few keys on the computer. The screen above it flared to life, showing what looked to her like a radar map with a single red dot pulsing over the map.
“Three miles outside of Kensington,” Sarah told them, tapping a few more keys to get a closer fix. “I’ve transferred everything to the handheld detectors.”
Danny led the way to the garage and they piled into the black four-by-fours, the team in one and the military personnel in the other. The two soldiers who were riding with them were checking their guns and ammunition in the back seat whilst Abby showed Gwen the device she held.
“Handheld locator,” she said. “We all carry one with us, just in case we get a call whilst we’re at home or something. When we’re at the ARC, there’s no point using these when we’ve got the actual detector. It’s got better range that the handhelds, so Sarah transferred the data we needed to these once we had an alert.”
“Actually, it was Connor who built the detector, and the handhelds,” Sarah said, turning in the front seat. “When I joined the ARC, I kind of got railroaded into being his backup.”
Danny, in the driving seat and doing a pretty good impression of Lewis Hamilton as they took another corner on two wheels, grinned. “You love it really.”
Sarah smiled. “Yeah, I do. I mean, I went from seeing history around me, preserved in texts and artefacts, to working with the real thing on a daily basis.”
“I can kind of understand,” Gwen told them. “Before Torchwood, I was in the police. Then, one day, I stumble into the middle of this whole new world of aliens and rifts.”
“Time to go, boys and girls,” Danny quipped, slamming on the brakes and skidding to a stop by the side of the street.
Everyone piled out as the second car pulled up behind them, the soldiers jumping out, guns at the ready. They slowly took positions around the team, ready and waiting for whatever might have come through the anomaly.
Gwen couldn’t help it; she couldn’t stop staring at the anomaly that hung in the air over the childrens’ playpark at the end of the street. It looked as though the air had shattered into thousands of tiny shards, each one glittering and shifting ever so slightly. The nearby swings were straining on their chains, reaching toward the anomaly.
“It’s the magnetic field,” Abby told her, seeing her staring. “The anomalies project a strong magnetic pull that’s sometimes enough to actually drag lighter metal objects through.”
She had stowed the detector in her pocket and now she and the team spread out to search for clues of what, if anything, had come through the anomaly yet. The playpark was just a small part of the larger playing fields and public park that lay beyond the houses. Since the anomaly faced the park, they headed that way, guessing that whatever had come through would head for open space rather than buildings.
“I can close this,” Sarah told them, taking the case that one of the soldiers passed to her from the car. He took another one and they went toward the anomaly, where Sarah crouched down and began taking equipment out.
Gwen would have liked to stay and see how she intended to close the anomaly but Abby was signalling for her to follow. She caught up with her, Danny just to their left. Both of them carried guns.
“They’re tranquilisers,” Abby whispered, in case anything was close by. “There’s enough juice in each of these darts to take down an elephant. The guys have got live ammo as well, just in case.”
Glancing across, Gwen saw that the soldiers had a tranquiliser gun similar to Abby and Danny’s, but also a rather large assault rifle slung over their shoulders on canvas straps. It hadn’t really hit her before, the thought of what they might come across. Judging by the firepower that everyone had, it was reasonable to assume that they expected rather large trouble.
Suddenly, Abby held out a hand, signalling for her to be still, and pointed into the undergrowth at the far side of the park. The bushes were moving, just beyond the goal at the end of the football field, as though something big was in them. They all crept forward, dart guns raised, waiting on baited breath and hoping that whatever it was didn’t get to them first.
The bushes shifted and something came out, and every gun was trained on that exact spot in an instant.
“Shit! Oh my God! Don’t shoot!”
The two boys, probably in their mid teens, looked petrified, their hands raised in surrender.
“We just took a short cut, honest!”
The second boy glanced at his friend. “There was someone following us so we just wanted to get back here quickly. If we were trespassing, we’re sorry, OK?”
Danny sighed and lowered his gun, the soldiers following suit. Abby told the two boys to lower their hands.
“You’re not in any trouble,” she told them. “This may sound weird, but it’s important: Did you see what was following you? A person? An animal?”
The boys looked thoughtful now, although their glances still kept cutting to the soldiers and the guns.
“I don’t know, I mean, we just kept hearing the leaves move behind us and every time we changed direction, so did the noise.”
“Yeah,” his friend added. “We didn’t see anyone but it just gave us the creeps, you know? Like someone watching you.”
Telling the boys to go back to the park and keep away from this area, they continued the search. The bushes blended into trees, a wooded area at the park boundary where it joined to the neighbouring land.
“Over there,” Danny said, indicating with the barrel of his gun.
Abby could see the movement in the trees. “This better not be another false alarm,” she muttered.
At that moment, the creature Danny had spotted noticed them. It let out a screeching cry, showing a mouthful of unpleasant-looking teeth, and rushed them.
Danny and two of the soldiers hit it with pink-tipped tranquiliser darts and the creature dropped after about ten seconds.
“Oh wow.” Gwen stepped forward cautiously, waiting until she was sure that it wasn’t going to have one last burst of energy and surprise her before crouching down next to it. “Is this a dinosaur? I can’t believe I’m actually asking that.”
Abby took her arm and moved her aside as a few of the soldiers loaded the creature onto a makeshift stretcher in order to get it back to the anomaly. It was only about six feet from nose to tail but it still took three of them to lift it safely.
“I looks like a raptor,” Danny said, “or at least the ones I saw on Jurassic Park.”
Gwen had to agree; she had been thinking the same thing.
“Actually, I think you’re right,” Abby told him. “It looks a bit scrawny though. Maybe it’s just a baby one.”
“You don’t actually know what it is?” Gwen asked, surprised.
Danny laughed. “We don’t usually need to. Usually, we have Connor, the human dinosaur encyclopaedia.”
They did a quick sweep of the woods to check for other creatures but it appeared that their raptor had come through alone. Wrapped in a tarpaulin, on the stretcher, it was carried back to the anomaly, where Sarah was waiting. When she saw them coming, she tapped a few keys on the laptop that was balanced on a crate and the anomaly reopened. Once they had put the raptor back through, she closed it again.
“What did you do?” Gwen asked. The anomaly was now a swirling sphere, hanging in the air.
“Connor invented a way to lock them, to prevent anything else coming through,” Sarah explained. “You see the metal posts that are set around the anomaly? Well they emit an electromagnetic field that can neutralise the field that the anomaly projects. I don’t know exactly how it does it- I can work the equipment but that’s about all.”
“So what happens to the anomaly now? Does it just stay there forever?”
Sarah shrugged her shoulders. “Some vanish minutes after they appear where as others never close. We’ve never found a way to close them completely, just seal them shut.”
By the time they reached the ARC once more, it was nearly 5:00pm. There was a debriefing with Lester and then he told them to go home. Gwen reclaimed her luggage and followed Abby out to her car.
“Hell of a first day, huh?” Gwen nodded. “Hey, I almost forgot; how are you with pets?”
“Fine. Why?”
Abby smiled at the suspicion in Gwen’s voice. “It’s OK, Rex is really friendly. And Sid and Nancy are too, just don’t leave your shoes lying about because they’ll eat them. I’m looking after them whilst Connor is away.”
“So what are they, then?” Gwen asked, looking interested. “Dogs? Cats?”
“Not exactly…”
--------
Rex swooped down from his perch atop the kitchen cupboard when Abby came in, making excited chattering noises as he landed on the counter next to her. He tilted his head and eyed Gwen for a moment.
“It’s Ok, Rex, this is Gwen. She’s a friend.”
Gwen watched as Abby picked up the –what? Lizard?- and petted him. He was still watching their visitor with unwavering curiosity. Eventually, he seemed to come to a decision and flapped his wings to be put down again and walked along the counter to where Gwen stood.
“He won’t bite,” Abby told her. “He came through an anomaly years ago, the day we discovered them, in fact. When it closed, he was left behind.”
Gwen put a hand out to Rex, letting him get her scent before she tried to pet him, and he nudged her hand with his head.
“I think he likes me,” she said. A tug at her jeans’ leg made her look down and she found what she assumed to be one of Abby’s other pets looking up at her expectantly.
“That’s Sid,” Abby told her. “Nancy is over there. They’re Connor’s. They’re Diictadons; they got left behind as well.”
“Odd names,” Gwen commented, bending down to the little creatures. Seeing her do so, Nancy came scampering over, jostling with her playmate for Gwen’s attention.
“He named them after Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. You know, from the Sex Pistols? He called them that because they’re always getting into trouble.”
Watching Abby a little later on as she confiscated a newspaper that Nancy was chewing on, she thought that the names fit them quite well.
Looking back on her first day at the ARC, Gwen smiled. She was going to enjoy the next week.
--------------------------------------
Chapter 3- Connor and Becker
--------------------------------------
Day 1
They arrived at the Torchwood building at around noon on Saturday, to be greeted by Jack in the car park. He was still wearing the suit and long army coat over the top and looking as good as Connor remembered. When he saw them get out of the car, he grinned and sauntered over to them.
“Good to see you again,” he said. He looked around thoughtfully. “Where’s the cute little blonde?”
Connor laughed. The last time they had been here, Jack had flirted with Abby, even after she had pointed out that he had no chance. Then again, Jack had flirted with all of them. He felt his face heat up a little as the memory of the result of that flirting came back to him; him, Becker, Jack and Ianto, a hotel room and a rather sleepless night.
Jack caught his eye and his grin widened, and for a moment, Connor imagined Jack could read those thoughts as they flitted through his mind.
“Abby stayed at the ARC,” he told Jack, eager to get his thoughts to change channels. “Lester would only let us two go; he said Abby could show Gwen around.”
“Which means that you two get the pleasure of my company,” Jack said. “And Ianto’s, of course. Speaking of Ianto, you’ll be staying with him. Or I can book you into the Queen’s Hotel- it’s just a few minutes away –if you want.”
Both of them opted for staying with Ianto straight away.
“Well, let’s get you settled and I can show you around all of the cool stuff I didn’t get to show you the last time.”
Jack took them into the Hub via the personnel entrance this time, as opposed to the tourist entrance, as he liked to call it. The tourist entrance was a section of the pavement in the street above the hub that, when stood on and activated, it acted like a lift, taking them down into the Hub. Jack had explained all about the alien technology that had been used to create it, as well as the security field that prevented anyone other than Torchwood staff from walking on it, but it had gone over Connor’s head. It was fun, though, to be able to stand on that particular paving block in the middle of the street and have people simply walk past without seeing you. It was the nearest thing to invisibility he was going to get. Apparently, the security field made people think that there was nothing there, whether it be a person or a gaping hole in the street, and put the thought in their minds that they wanted to walk around that section.
The side entrance led them through a slightly dingy looking office, where Ianto stood behind a counter looking bored yet incredibly dapper in his suit. Once they were all inside, he flipped the notice on the door to ‘closed’ and tapped a code into a pad behind the counter. A door in the wall clicked open. This entrance might not disappear into the ground like the other but it was just as cool, Connor thought, as they stepped out of the security coded lift. A huge circular metal door rolled aside to reveal a long corridor, at the end of which was another rolling door.
“It’s like one of those secret underground lairs that the villain in the James Bond movies have,” he said, looking around. “Maybe we could persuade Lester to let us have something like this at the ARC. That’d be cool.”
Hearing a laugh behind him, Connor glanced back to see the three of them smiling.
“Cute, ain’t he?” Jack commented.
Becker nodded; Connor’s enthusiasm was endearing. He and Connor followed as Jack took them around the Hub. Some of this they had seen last time, but only the main offices. This time, Jack took them down toward the basement. Before he unlocked the metal security door, he warned them,
“Try not to make any sudden moves. Also, if they sense fear, they tend to act up.”
Connor wasn’t sure what was behind the door but he made sure that he was behind Becker when they walked through. Seeing what he was doing, Becker rolled his eyes and reached back to take his hand.
Jack led them into a corridor with Perspex-fronted cells along each side.
“Sometimes we have to confine the more troublesome beings who come through the rift,” he explained. “We can’t have them running loose so we have no choice but to keep them here until a proper solution can be found.”
“We have something similar back at the ARC,” Connor said. “They have to stay in the holding pens where the keepers can look after them until another anomaly opens to the right time period.”
“Except those that you and Abby seemed to ‘accidentally’ take home with you,” Becker interjected, before explaining to Jack and Ianto. “Abby has a flying lizard that she calls Rex, and then Connor took home two Diictadons a few months ago. Called them Sid and Nancy.”
Ianto looked thoughtful for a moment. “Sid as in Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols?”
Connor smiled, then smacked Becker on the arm lightly. “You see? Ianto gets it. They aren’t stupid names.”
Ianto indicated to the cell that Jack had stopped in front of and murmured, “And speaking of stupid names…”
Jack either didn’t hear him or ignored the comment, instead indicating to the cell’s occupant.
“This is Janet.”
The creature in the cell was humanoid in shape and build and wearing a blue jumpsuit. Where it differed from human, however, was its head and facial features. It was more animalistic, with dark skin and jet black eyes that were fixed on Jack. Its lips curled back and it uttered a low growl.
“We call them Weevils,” Jack told them. “There’s actually quite a large population of them living down in the sewer systems. Most of the time the public never see them and they keep themselves to themselves. From time to time, someone like Janet here oversteps the line and we have to capture them. She lives here now.”
“She?” Connor asked. “What do the males look like?”
Jack shook his head. “We don’t actually know that she’s female. It just seemed to fit.”
“So for all you know, that could be a male Weevil that you’ve called Janet,” Connor said. “No wonder it looks pissed off.”
Jack laughed as he continued down the row of cells to the next occupied one. “I never really thought about it like that.”
--------
“So what do you do all day?” Becker asked at around 5pm.
Ianto smiled. “Bored already?”
“Not bored, exactly; I’m just not used to all of this waiting around. Back at the ARC, if we’re not dealing with anomalies I’m running drills with my men or we’re performing security checks on the base.”
“You might as well go,” Jack told them a couple of hours later, once Ianto had finished showing Connor the computer system. “Ianto can take you and get you settled. If anything comes up, I’ll call you.”
Ianto nodded, opening the door to the conference room and letting Connor and Becker out. He turned back to Jack.
“Come with us,” he said, picking up Jack’s coat and holding it out to him. “There’s no point in you staying here on your own.”
He thought that Jack was going to object, but then he took the coat from Ianto, following them to the car. Rather than having to tail Ianto home, they had decided to leave Becker’s here, since they didn’t know where Ianto lived. They could ride back to work with him and collect it the next day. As it happened, they didn’t get further than the end of the street before Jack’s phone rang.
“Ianto, turn the car around. It appears that a night guard found something in the mall that the police think belongs to us,” he said. He shook his head. “Honestly, every odd thing that happens, they blame us.”
Ianto agreed, pointing out, “You do have to admit that it usually is related to Torchwood somehow.”
They pulled the car into the car park of the shopping centre, stopping in the ‘no parking’ zone right outside the front doors, next to the police squad car. A PC in a fluorescent jacket nodded at Jack in recognition, not even bothering to check his ID before opening the doors to let him through.
“It’s a sign of how many times we get called out to these things that they all know us by sight now,” Ianto lamented as they all headed to the group of people on the second floor balcony.
There was a section of the balcony, in front of the bakery and sports store, that had been cordoned off with yellow plastic tape. There were a couple of uniformed PC’s just inside the tape, looking to Connor as though they were trying to stand as far away from whatever was on the ground as possible without actually leaving. In the centre of the cordoned area, two paramedics and a white-jump-suited man crouched near to something, medics cases open beside them.
As they approached the cordon, another policeman approached them, lifting the tape for them to go underneath.
“Captain, glad you’re here.”
Jack nodded to him. “So, Andy, what have you got for us?”
Andy glanced back to Ianto, acknowledging him, before frowning at the two he didn’t recognise.
“Connor Temple and Captain Becker,” Jack said, indicating to each man in turn. “Temporarily assigned to Torchwood.”
Andy nodded, shaking their hands, before turning back to Jack. “The victim is over there. Security guard heard a noise and came to investigate.” He paused, glancing over at the grey and blue uniformed guard, sitting a distance away and taking to a police officer. “He was pretty shook up; we got a statement but there’s not much he can tell us.”
Jack was the first to reach the victim and from the look on his face, Connor wasn’t sure he really wanted to see. As soon as he did look, he wished he’d listened to his first instinct and not looked.
“Oh, I really wish I hadn’t seen that,” he said to Becker. The soldier didn’t say anything but the grimace on his face conveyed his agreement.
Lying on the ground, still in her sales assistant uniform, was a blonde woman. Her bag was beside her, her purse still inside, which had allowed the police to rule out a mugging. Well, that and the fact that despite her driving license saying that she was twenty-three, she more resembled an old woman.
“What happened to her?” Ianto asked the paramedics.
“We have no idea. She was dead when we got here.”
She looked like one of the mummies in the old Hammer Horror movies that Connor watched; her skin like wrinkled parchment, yellowed and old as though she were a hundred years old. Even her arms and hands were aged. Her eyes were wide with fear, her mouth still open in an eternal scream.
“Her name is Jessica Atkins,” Andy told them. “We figure she must have been working until closing time- the staff usually leave at around 6:15 after they’ve locked up and the shopping centre is closed –and the guard found her at just after 7:00.”
Jack frowned. “So it took something just forty-five minutes to do this. Can we get the CCTV footage for this area for that time?”
Andy nodded. “I’ve already got someone on it. It might take a while to extract it from the hard drive, though. There are twenty-two cameras recording around this place.”
“You want some help?” Jack glanced at Connor, taking in his pale complexion and wide eyes. “Connor, you’re the tech guy, right? You think you can go help and speed up the process?”
The young man looked relieved to have something to do other than having to look at the body. Ianto, knowing where the security office was, accompanied him down there. As soon as Connor got in front of the computer, he seemed to snap out of it, his focus fixed on the screen. He tapped away on the keyboard, finding his way around, getting used to the system before he found what he was looking for.
“That’s her,” Ianto said, pointing to the screen.
Connor followed her path on the cameras from leaving the shop to the place where she was found, purposely not looking at that section of the footage. He copied the whole thing onto a disc, ejecting it and slipping it into a case.
“Are you alright?” Ianto asked as they left the office again. They reached the stairs and Ianto saw the reluctance to go back up to the others. “Sit down for a minute.”
Connor gratefully perched on one of the lower steps, next to Ianto.
“Do you ever get used to things like that?” he asked.
Ianto shook his head. “No, and I hope I never do. You shouldn’t.”
“I feel so stupid for freezing like that but that wasn’t like anything I’ve ever seen.” Connor tugged his jacket closer around himself, more for comfort than a response to the temperature in the shopping centre. “It’s not like we don’t see death at the ARC, but that…” He looked up at Ianto. “It’s not usually people, you know?”
By the time the scene had been cleared and the body taken back to Torchwood and put into the morgue there, it was after midnight. Jack had instructed Ianto to take Connor and Becker home, that there was nothing more they could do tonight anyway. He took the footage that Connor had retrieved to study and, if he found anything, run it through the computers in the hopes of a match.
“Get some sleep,” he told them both. “It’s going to take a while to run this through the system; by the time Ianto brings you in tomorrow morning, we should know more.”
Ianto drove them home, occasionally casting concerned looks to Connor. The young man had been silent ever since they had left the shopping centre. From their conversation earlier he knew that Connor was more affected by the scene than he was saying. He showed them to the spare room in his flat, making sure they knew where everything was, where the kitchen was, just in case, before going to bed himself.
“Every time I close my eyes I can still see her,” Connor said eventually.
Becker wasn’t sure what to do. He could see that his boyfriend was really freaked by this, more so than he was. As cold as it sounded, he was more disturbed by the condition of the dead girl than by the fact she was dead; he had seen his fair share of death during his time in the military but he knew that Connor hadn’t.
Stripping off his own clothes and dumping them over the back of a chair, he helped Connor out of his and urged him into bed. There was more than enough room in the queen sized bed but they ended up curled up together in a small part of it. Connor pressed himself against Becker, as though the closeness was comforting. Becker didn’t object. Not that he ever would have objected to Connor’s warm body being wrapped around his, he thought, but especially now. Connor seemed to be calming down a little, relaxing.
Connor tilted his face up to meet Becker’s gaze. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me too. Now come on, you need to try and get some sleep,” Becker said, pressing a kiss to Connor’s forehead. “It’ll seem better in the morning. Trust me.”
“I hope so,” Connor murmured, really hoping that it would. He thought he’d been prepared for this, from having worked at the ARC for so long, but seeing that body had made him think that maybe he was in way over his head. Well, he thought, he’d find out tomorrow.
-------------------------------
Chapter 4- Gwen Cooper
-------------------------------
The world’s weirdest zoo
Gwen followed Abby through the rabbit-warren of corridors that made up the ARC, through a short tunnel, where they emerged in what she could only think to describe as a zoo. The entire area was covered with a bio-dome, presumably to keep out prying eyes, with fenced areas of grassland and desert landscapes, along with some smaller pens.
She had already been told that she would be spending today with Abby and the other keepers, helping out where she could and getting to see some of the ARC’s odder inhabitants.
“Sometimes, like with Rex and Sid and Nancy,” Abby explained as they walked, “the anomalies close before we can get the creatures back through. In that case, we have no choice but to keep them here until we find another anomaly back to their time. If we left them loose, they’d not only be a danger to the public but to themselves. There are all kinds of things in this time that they have no immunity to, from animal illnesses to foreign plant life.”
It made sense; in Torchwood they had the cells for those aliens that they had to contain, as well as a larger confinement area at Torchwood One where they could send their prisoners if necessary. Somehow, this place seemed much more fun. Torchwood’s inhabitants were usually murderers and psychopathic aliens, where as this was like a small child’s idea of the perfect petting zoo.
“We have a full time staff of keepers who take care of the creatures, and a couple of Vets on call who area aware of the uniqueness of the creatures here.”
As she paused by the feed-preparation area, Abby passed Gwen a large bucket filled with fruit and took another herself. She grinned back at her guest.
“Come on, you’ll love this.”
Gwen had to admit that she was a little wary about this to begin with. Small creatures such as the ones that Abby and Connor kept as pets were fine, even cute, but the thought of what else could be here made was worrying.
Abby stopped in front of the largest metal gate Gwen had ever seen outside of a King Kong movie and set her bucket down. Once Gwen had done the same, Abby turned to the gate and made a low clicking sound with her tongue. Almost at once, the sound of heavy footsteps from behind the gate could be heard and a huge hairy trunk came out through the bars. At Abby’s insistence, she got a little closer and saw that the trunk belonged to a massive woolly mammoth.
“Meet Manny. One of the keepers named him; I think she’s seen Ice Age one too many times,” Abby said, reaching out to stroke her hand along the mammoth’s trunk. “He’s one of my favourites.”
She held out a chunk of melon on her outstretched hands and the mammoth curled its trunk around the treat and took it from her with unexpected delicacy.
“He’s perfectly friendly,” she told Gwen. “Here, give him this. Just hold your hands out flat and he’ll take it from you.”
Gwen held the piece of fruit and couldn’t stop the smile from forming as the massive creature took it from her carefully, hooking it back through the bars and placing the melon in its mouth. It crunched noisily for a moment and then it was gone, the trunk returning to look for more treats. She looked up into the intelligent black eyes of a creature more than twice her height, hardly able to believe that she had just fed a real live mammoth.
“He’s gorgeous,” she told Abby as they tipped the rest of the fruit into a large trough on the front of the cage. “Where did you find him?”
“On the M25,” Abby replied, regaling Gwen with the story as they watched the mammoth enjoy his lunch. Once finished, the mammoth wandered away again. “The pen opens up into a massive area for him but it’s easier to feed him here,” Abby explained, seeing the disappointment on Gwen’s face as Manny left.
Abby took her around some of the other pens, pointing out her favourite creatures and telling Gwen stories about how the had caught them or the chaos they had managed to cause out in the streets where the anomalies had left them. It was clear that Abby loved her job here, as did the other keepers she was introduced to, Gwen through. Then again, who wouldn’t? Working with these fantastic creatures was on a par with her work at Torchwood; she could still remember the overwhelming wonder she had felt at discovering that aliens not only existed but were on earth and she could actually meet them.
Just the tour around the pens took the best part of the day and it was almost 3pm when they finally returned to the main ARC buildings. They had actually missed lunch and Gwen hadn’t even noticed, her thoughts too taken up with all of the wonderful creatures. They headed for the canteen but just as they were about to go inside, Danny appeared.
“Abby, Lester is looking for you,” he said, then glanced at Gwen. “Go on, I’ll keep Gwen company for a while.”
Abby hurried off toward the offices as Danny escorted Gwen in, carrying her tray to the table for her.
“So how are you doing so far?” he asked. “It’s a lot to take in at first, I know.”
Gwen nodded, picking up her fork and stabbing at a piece of her salad. “Abby took me to see the animals,” she said. “I still can’t actually believe I’ve just seen some of them.”
“They had that effect on me for the first few weeks too,” he confessed, telling her about his first week here. “It was a bit of a change from what I was used to.”
“What did you do before the ARC?”
“I was with the police,” he told her. “That’s how I met this lot; I arrested Connor.”
Gwen laughed, trying to imagine what on earth the innocent-looking kid she’d met at Torchwood a few weeks earlier could possibly have done.
“Really?”
“Look, he was trespassing and he pissed me off,” Danny told her, although he was smiling himself. “It turns out they were tracking something that had come through the anomaly and I had wandered right into the middle of it. A few weeks later, I sort of accidentally-on-purpose found my way to another anomaly site at the airport.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I guess they liked me because Lester hired me not long after.”
And what wasn’t to like, Gwen found herself thinking. The ex-cop was handsome, especially when he smiled and his eyes sparkled, and he was good company. He was easy to talk to.
“You know, before I joined Torchwood I was in the police. Jack hired me, I’m told, for much the same reasons,” she said.
“Well then, I guess we must be doing something right.” Danny paused for a moment before asking, “Gwen, would you like to have a drink with me sometime? Or maybe dinner?”
“That sounds good,” she said.
He grinned. “How about tonight?”
Later that afternoon, as they packed up to leave for the day, Abby called to Gwen.
“I thought we could grab a pizza on the way home, and maybe a couple of DVD’s?”
“Actually, Danny’s taking me out for dinner,” Gwen told her. “You don’t mind, do you?”
Abby shook her head. “Why would I? Go, have fun.” She smirked and then teased, “So, should I expect you home later on or will I see you here tomorrow morning?”
“Abby!” Gwen glanced around to make sure that Danny hadn’t heard that comment. He walked into the locker room and eyed Abby suspiciously when she started to giggle upon seeing him.
“Ready to go?” he asked Gwen.
She nodded and followed him out to his car, trying to ignore Abby’s call across the car park of,
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”
--------
Since Abby had been asleep when Gwen had got back to the flat last night, she had spent the entire journey into work trying to get all of the details she could about the date.
“We had dinner and then went for drinks and he was the perfect gentleman,” Gwen insisted.
Abby frowned. “Oh well, better luck next time.”
“I enjoyed myself,” Gwen protested, before adding smugly. “And we’re going out again tonight.”
“Atta girl!”
She was about to say more when the portable anomaly detector in her bag began to bleep insistently. Instructing Gwen to get it, she checked the location and they turned away from the ARC to head for the anomaly instead. Gwen called in to the ARC to let them know that she and Abby were on their way to the site and would meet them there.
They were the first of the ARC team to arrive at the warehouse where the anomaly had opened up, bit that wasn’t to say that the area was deserted. The workers who had previously been unloading the delivery truck before the anomaly had appeared were now standing at what they obviously considered a safe distance. When Abby and Gwen got out of the car and walked up to it, they tried to warn them away, calling for them to stay clear.
Abby turned to the one who had called out, going over to where he was standing, half behind the truck.
“Were you here when this appeared?” she asked.
The man nodded.
“Did you see if anything came through?”
His eyes flicked curiously over her and Gwen, his expression suspicious now. “Just who are you people? And what the hell is that thing?”
Abby smiled in what she hoped was a harmless, just here to help, way. “It’s OK, we deal with things like this all of the time but I need to know if you saw anything come through.”
“Nothing,” he said.
He looked toward the door as a four by four arrived with Danny, Sarah and two soldiers. They began unloading and setting up the anomaly sealer and the soldiers clearing the public from the building as Danny came across to find out what they knew so far. Unfortunately, that wasn’t much.
“Well, it looks like we’ll just have to go and have a look for ourselves then, doesn’t it?” Danny announced happily, his eyes shining at the thought of going through the anomaly.
Sarah had activated the seals and come across to join the conversation, arriving just as Danny announced his intention. She looked dubious at the prospect of going through.
“We don’t know where it leads,” she pointed out. “We could end up walking into anything.”
“Actually, I might be able to help with that,” Abby said. “Connor once made this little remote control camera to check through anomalies; I’m sure we still have one back at the ARC somewhere.”
She phoned in to the ARC and gave them instructions, and fifteen minutes later another car pulled up in the entrance to the warehouse. Abby took the boxes from the back seat and unpacked what looked like an all-terrain radio controlled car with a micro-camera fixed with a moving bracket to the roof.
“How do we see what the camera sees?” Gwen asked. After all of the hi-tech gadgets and flashy gizmos that they had at the ARC, the ‘remote camera’ looked a bit out of place. “It looks like something from a Scooby Doo cartoon,” she said, noticing that Danny and Sarah looked every bit as amused.
Abby smiled. “It does a bit,” she admitted, “but it works.”
Setting up the monitor, she instructed Sarah to open the anomaly again, before setting the little car on the ground and picking up the handset. It went through smoothly, disappearing from view.
“Have we got a picture?” Sarah asked, not wanting to come and see for herself as it would mean leaving the anomaly sealer. Just in case anything did head this way, she decided she would rather be ready to close it.
The picture was clear and Abby tilted the camera to take a closer look at the area until they were all satisfied that there was no immediate danger outside of the anomaly. Two hours later, after a trip back to the ARC for supplies and getting it cleared with Lester, the team were back in the warehouse.
This time, everyone was armed, even Gwen, and they also had a passenger. Their research with the camera had revealed a familiar sight in the distance; another Dracorex, which also let them know that the anomaly had opened in to the late cretaceous period. Since it was the first time that an anomaly had opened to the correct time, Lester had instructed them to release the creature. It might not be the exact same year, but if the species was still there, and hadn’t gone through any major evolutionary changes, then it was the Dracorex’s best chance at freedom.
Actually, his exact words had been, “Finally. One less of the damn things to feed.”
Heavily sedated and on a massive wheeled stretcher, the Dracorex had no clue that this trip would take it home. Abby checked on it one last time, kind of sorry to see it leave, but this was for the best. This had been their intention all along, to release the creatures once the opportunity arose.
“Get ready to lock the anomaly behind us,” Danny told Sarah. “Open it again in three hours.”
Sarah nodded, going to the laptop and opening the anomaly. One final check and they were ready to go, stepping through. Looking back once they were through, they saw the anomaly seal behind them.
“OK, let’s wake our guest and let him go and then we can explore.”
--------------------------------------
Chapter 5- Connor and Becker
--------------------------------------
Hunting
When Becker awoke and stretched out his arm, he found the other side of the bed empty. Connor must have been gone for a while as the sheets were cool, he thought, getting up and pulling his jeans on. His boyfriend had been really shaken up by the body of that young woman and now Becker was worried. Usually, Connor would at least wake him when he left.
He heard the sounds of hushed voices from the kitchen and walked in to see Connor and Ianto sitting at the counter with coffee and a plate of toast each. When Becker got close enough, Connor leaned back on his stool and tilted his face up for a good-morning kiss.
“Did we wake you?” he asked. “You looked so peaceful I thought I’d let you sleep a bit longer.”
Becker took the seat next to Connor and snagged a piece of toast from his plate. Connor frowned.
“You know, I could make you some,” Ianto offered, but Becker shook his head and smiled.
“That’s OK, if I steal Connor’s then it’s already got jam on,” he replied.
Connor gave a martyred sigh. “See what I have to put up with?” he said to Ianto.
The other man laughed and reached for a mug from the work surface, pouring a coffee for Becker.
“So, how are you feeling this morning?” Becker asked Connor as they headed back to their room after breakfast to get dressed for the day.
“I’m fine. It kind of seems like last night was a movie I watched or something,” he replied.
“Maybe you should stay at the Hub today…”
Connor cornered Becker by the door and leaned in. “You don’t have to worry about me all of the time,” he said. “I’ll be OK.”
Becker shifted their positions so that he had Connor pinned between his body and the wall.
“I only worry because I care,” he told Connor before closing the space between them and closing his lips over Connor’s.
Connor arms snaked around his boyfriend’s neck as he melted into the kiss. It was just a damn shame that they had to work today; he was so tempted to forget all about it and drag Becker back to bed instead. That, however, would piss Lester off. His rules had said ‘no inappropriate behaviour’ and ditching work to get naked with his boyfriend would certainly come under that heading. His life wouldn’t be worth living if Lester found out about that one.
Taking a last few moments to enjoy the feel of Becker’s lips on his, he broke the kiss.
“We should get moving,” he said, seeing his reluctance reflected in Becker’s expression.
---------
“Good morning, boys,” Jack called out chirpily as they came into the Hub. “Everyone sleep well?”
Becker glanced at Ianto. “Is he always this damn cheerful at the crack of dawn?”
“Unfortunately yes; he’s a morning person,” Ianto confirmed.
Jack waved them up to the conference room, indicating to the monitor he had been watching before they had come in.
“There was another attack,” he announced.
“And that’s a reason to be cheerful?”
“Yes, Ianto, it is.” Jack froze the CCTV footage on the image of a young man coming out of a bar, a blonde woman in an extremely short dress hanging onto his arm. The young man’s attention was fully on her, or rather, on her large breasts, squeezed into a low-cut top. “Meet David Bennett. This is the last footage I can find of him, right before he disappeared. They found him two days ago but because they pulled the body from the canal they didn’t automatically associate the skin discolouration and texture with aging as opposed to the fact he had been in the water.”
“Now, look at this,” he said, flipping the footage from the shopping centre the previous night.
The woman that Connor had last seen lying on the ground, aged about a hundred years, was on the screen, leaving the store where she worked. She had just started to walk away when a man called out to her and she turned, looking surprised. Her surprise turned to a huge smile as he began to walk with her.
“That guy there is Lucas Mitchell; he’s the assistant manager,” Jack told them. “Unfortunately, he wasn’t working that day and there are at least three people who can verify that.”
He looked around at his audience. “Look at them. What’s the common factor?”
Connor had the feeling that Jack already knew the answer but was determined to wait until one of them said it also.
“Well, the girl from the nightclub is pretty,” Ianto said. “If she was the lure then that explains how she got him to go with her. And the manager would be someone that Jessica trusted so she wouldn’t be suspicious.”
“Would it help if I told you that the night David disappeared he told the barman at the club that she,” Jack pointed to the screen, at the blonde in the tight dress, “was his dream girl. I’m betting that Jessica’s admiration of her assistant manager went beyond that of an employee.”
“So if we keep with Ianto’s theory of them being lured away,” Becker said, “then they each got what they most wanted or, rather, who they wanted.”
“Exactly. I think what we have here is a shapeshifter, a succubus to be exact. Some succubi take emotions, some take life; I think this one lives from other peoples’ youth.”
Connor frowned. “Do things like that really exist? Like, vampires and stuff?”
“Of course. What, you catch dinosaurs for a living and yet you find this hard to believe?” Jack teased. “The whole vampire thing has been blown way out of proportion, though. I mean, they don’t go around drinking blood and biting people. Well,” he added thoughtfully, smiling, “not through necessity. I knew this guy once whose bite could actually make you-”
“Jack,” Becker interrupted. “Too much information.”
Jack grinned and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “I seem to remember that you don’t mind a little biting,” he said.
How did this conversation manage to get so far off topic? Connor wondered. He glanced at Becker from the corner of his eye and saw that his boyfriend was blushing slightly. That was so adorable, he thought, reaching out under the table to take his hand.
“Whilst I was checking the CCTV footage from the club I got to thinking; we should go out dancing,” Jack announced. “When this is sorted, I mean.”
“Dancing?”
“Yes. And if we should happen to end up in bed again then so be it.”
And there it was. Connor should have known that something as innocent as going dancing would have some kind of ulterior motive when it was being suggested by Jack. Jeez, the man was a flirt and a half! Still, looking surreptitiously around at Ianto and Becker, he saw that neither of them seemed in the least way inclined to reject the idea. Or the thinly disguised proposition.
“Definitely,” he said. “But first, I’m hoping you have a plan for how to catch this shapeshifter thing.”
“Spoil all of my fun, why don’t you?” Jack grumbled good-naturedly. “And I do have a plan, as it happens. Whilst you were all sleeping, I was busy.”
Ianto sighed. “I offered to come back and help but you told me not to,” he pointed out.
“That’s because you needed to get some rest.”
“And you didn’t?”
Jack grinned. “You know I don’t sleep. Anyway, I ran a scan of Jessica’s body and I found something. There are faint traces of a chemical on her skin, more concentrated around her lips; I think it was using some kind of touch-based pheromone to keep its victims’ from realising exactly what it was doing to them.”
“But it was already impersonating exactly the person they wanted to be with,” Becker said. “Why would it need to drug them as well?”
“Because it didn’t need them struggling or fighting back as it was taking what it wanted.”
That made sense, Connor thought, and although it was useful, it still didn’t answer his earlier question.
“So, how exactly are we going to track this thing, or catch it?” he asked.
“I was getting to that,” Jack told him. “It appeared at the same time each night, within a mile of each other, and it always coincided with a minute spike in rift activity. I think it draws power from the rift to enable it to change forms.”
“So we wait for the spike in the rift energy and that tells us where it is,” Ianto summarised. “Then what? It could look like anyone by that point.”
--------
He should have been suspicious when he saw the gleam in Jack’s eye but it didn’t occur to him to be. Which was why, at 10pm that night, Connor found himself standing in the end of a dark side street in the middle of the city. He had been volunteered as bait because his age fit the profile of the people the shapeshifter was targeting. And he hadn’t managed to think of an excuse why it shouldn’t be him quick enough when Jack had suggested it.
He and Becker had been kitted out, Ianto equipping them both tiny in-ear transceivers and pistols that could be easily hidden inside their clothing. Jack had also sprayed Connor with a synthesised pheromone that he said would draw the shapeshifter to them.
“We’ll be close by and ready to move in as soon as it appears,” Jack promised. “All you have to do is hang around and look tasty.”
Connor had also been provided with a small flat disc of metal that was about the size of a mini-disc. On the top were three little blue lights that blinked on and off, positioned around a tiny stone set into the centre.
“This is a portable forcefield,” Jack told him. “We confiscated them a few years back from a visitor. All you have to do is to press the centre stone and slide it under the target. It takes five seconds to activate from the time you press the button so you have to be quick.”
Half an hour later and Connor was convinced that this had been a waste of time. He was bored, cold, and hungry and was completely sick of standing here. And if one more person gave him a funny look he was going to leave. So far, he’d been propositioned twice from people thinking he was working, and not for Torchwood. It appeared that Jack had chosen the local red-light district as the location for their trap.
“Not funny, guys,” he had protested via the transceiver after he had managed to deter the second man. He could hear the laughter in Jack’s voice as he reminded Connor that they were supposed to have radio silence. Oh, yeah, they were probably pissing themselves laughing as they watched from their hiding places.
Just wait until Abby heard about this- no matter how embarrassing it was, he knew he’d still tell her. She was his best friend and, besides, Becker would tell her if he didn’t. He made a mental note to call her and see how things were going with Gwen. He could check up on Sid and Nancy as well; he was beginning to miss his pets.
Connor moved to lean on the wall of the building, so that he could see the main street as well, watching the comings and goings of the various other people out. There were very few clubbers around here, with most of the major nightclubs and pubs a couple of streets away, but there were still a few people on the corner. As he watched them, he found himself wondering if he really looked as though he were touting for business; he wasn’t dressed like they were, or using the same provocative poses. Yet he was still being approached so he figured he must be doing something.
He heard the sound of footsteps coming from the side street and turned to look, half fearing that it would be a mugger. The way his night was going that would be likely. It wasn’t, but he almost wished that it had been instead of being the very creature they had come out hunting for. The most disturbing thing, to him, was the guise it had taken.
“Hello, Connor.”
It even had her voice perfect.
“Abby?”
He knew it wasn’t her, because the real Abby was back home. Still, it was creepy to see the shapeshifter in her form.
“Aren’t you pleased to see me?” she asked. She reached out and stroked a small hand down his chest, looking up at him through kohl-rimmed eyes. She was wearing an outfit he knew well, Abby’s favourite little tartan skirt and black leggings, a large patterned black t-shirt over the top. When she touched him, it was like the version of Abby he knew and the one before him blurred a little. He should be worried about something but he couldn’t quite grasp onto what that was. It felt nice, her touch- No. That was its influence speaking, not Connor. Once that illusion had been broken, he could think clearly again. As fake Abby’s hand teased the back of his neck, trying to draw him down for a kiss, he stepped back, away from her. If he let her kiss him, he got the feeling that he wouldn’t be able to break the illusion.
Fake Abby looked confused, a frown creasing her forehead as she watched him and he realised that she was reading his thoughts, trying to work out what was wrong. He felt in his pocket for the disc, feeling across the surface to find the stone in the centre. Trying to keep all thoughts of what he was doing out of his head, he pictured Becker. Remembered last Saturday when they had gone out to dinner and then walked home, just enjoying the night. They had walked hand in hand and kissed under the stars.
In the shadows, he saw movement and knew that it was the others, waiting. At present, the shapeshifter wasn’t a danger to him –it was merely confused- and he could trap it before it realised that it was outnumbered.
Moving quickly he slid the disc across the ground and seconds later there was a flare of purple light.
“Connor?”
Becker came to stand beside him as Jack and Ianto took positions on either side of them.
“You might as well give it up,” Connor told the shapeshifter. “I know you aren’t Abby; we know what you really are.”
“But I can be her,” it said. “Your thoughts were of her, you care for her.”
“Is there something you’d like to tell me, Connor?” Becker asked, amused, as he looked over the fake Abby who was still flirting with Connor even whilst trapped. “After all, it does become the person we most want it to be…”
“No. I don’t know- Oh my God, I was thinking that I was going to phone Abby when I got in tonight and it must have picked up on that.”
Connor could see it trying to work out where it had gone wrong and, in a way, he felt sorry for it. It was like a child trying to understand.
“Take another look,” he told it.
The shapeshifter studied him for a moment and then it changed. It seemed to flicker, like a disrupted television signal, and suddenly Becker was standing in the forcefield. The real Becker shuddered beside him.
“OK, that’s weird, seeing it being me.”
Jack glared at the shapeshifter. “Drop the projection,” he told it, and it did. The next time Connor looked, the fake Becker was gone and in his place stood a humanoid creature that stood at around seven feet tall. Its facial features were androgynous and yet stunningly beautiful in an ethereal kind of way.
“Release me,” it said in a breathy yet commanding tone. It was like the touch, Connor thought, as the notion of going over and deactivating the forcefield flitted briefly through his mind before he remembered he shouldn’t.
“I can’t do that,” Jack told it, seemingly unaffected by its influence. “You killed two people.”
“They were necessary. I needed to live.”
“Well, here you can’t take lives no matter what your reason,” Jack said.
The shapeshifter’s expression turned to a snarl. “I gave them purpose! They had so much energy, so much youth, yet they wasted it pining away for what they could never have. I gave them what they wanted and took what I needed in return. I deserved it more than they did.”
“And what about me?” Connor asked. “You saw into my thoughts, you’ve seen what I do on a daily basis; do you think I wasted my energy and deserved to have that taken from me?”
The creature looked confused again as though not sure what to make of the question. It didn’t seem to comprehend that there were some things that it wasn’t entitled to just take.
-------
By the time they had got the shapeshifter to a holding cell and called for it to be extracted and moved to the main Torchwood detention centre in the morning, it was late.
“I’m not tired,” Connor announced. He glanced around at the others. “But I could do with a drink.”
Jack picked his coat up and put it back on. “Come on then. I know this great little bar, open 24 hours a day…”
-------------------------------
Chapter 6- Gwen Cooper
-------------------------------
Breakfast
“Pass me that syringe,” Abby instructed, crouching down and checking the still-unconscious creature lying on the ground.
Gwen looked in the medical kit next to her and handed Abby what she wanted. The anomaly had opened up into the late cretaceous, around the same time as the Dracorex lying before her had originated from.
“Right, we might want to get out of the way before he comes around,” Abby told them. “This will wake him up pretty fast and he’s going to be a bit cranky when it does.”
Cranky? Gwen watched as the Dracorex regained consciousness about five minutes later and decided that cranky had been an understatement. It looked royally pissed as it stumbled about, trying to get its balance. When one of the soldiers moved nearby, it noticed him and turned, baring its teeth and letting out a menacing growl, stepping in his direction. The man backed up, bringing his gun up to his shoulder.
“He’s just scared,” Abby told them in a low voice, indicating that they should all move further away. “It’s alright, we’re not going to hurt you,” she told the Dracorex in a soothing tone.
There was a growl in the distance, followed by a roar of a different pitch; it sounded as though there was a fight going on beyond the tree-line. The Dracorex’s head snapped around as its eyes searched the horizon for the other creatures. Suddenly, it took off at a run, heading for the trees without a backward glance.
“I feel kind of sorry to see him go,” Abby said sadly. “I’d got used to having him at the ARC. I know, he’s back where he belongs but still...”
After he was out of sight, Abby packed up the kit and passed it over to one of the soldiers. He fastened it back into the backpack he carried.
“Right, we’ve got exactly two and a half hours before Sarah opens the anomaly again,” Danny said. He grinned at Gwen. “Ready to go exploring?”
She nodded; she had been waiting for this. It had been one thing to see the bizarre menagerie back in the holding pens at the ARC but now she would get to see actual dinosaurs in their own surroundings. It was like a prehistoric safari.
“OK, a few ground rules,” Sergeant Andrews told them, looking around them all. “No one goes anywhere alone. You stay together. Now most of these creatures, I’m told, hunt by movement; if they get too close, you keep still. If you feel threatened, you all have weapons. Do you feel confident in using them?” he asked Gwen. He had given them a brief training session before they left but she hadn’t used them before as the others had.
“I’m familiar with the firearms we use at Torchwood,” she said, and he nodded.
“Lastly, remember that I’m the one responsible for you whilst Becker is away, and it’s my head that will roll if anything happens,” he said. “Don’t do anything stupid and, yes, I do mean you, Quinn.”
Danny feigned offence but he couldn’t really protest since he did have to admit that he tended to get distracted a lot. And yes, sometimes, those distractions did accidentally put him in the path of angry creatures of gun-toting maniacs. It wasn’t his fault, really, but he nodded his agreement to Andrews. Turning to Gwen and smiling, he held out his arm.
“My lady, would you care to accompany me on a stroll. he asked in a hammy accent
Gwen laughed as she slipped her hand through his arm. “I would be delighted, sir.”
Abby set off in the opposite direction, accompanied by Andrews and another soldier. One of the men tagged along after Gwen and Danny whilst the other two remained by the anomaly.
“I didn’t expect it to look so…” Gwen paused, and Danny finished,
“Normal?” When she nodded, he said, “I thought the same thing the first time I came through one of these. I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t just a lot of grass and trees and stuff. Still, it’s better than some of the others we’ve been through.”
Gwen noticed the change in his tone. “Like which ones?”
“Future. We don’t actually know how far it is into the future,” he told her. “We’ve been through a couple of times; it’s a horrible place. There’s nothing left but these predators, and damn huge bugs- no people. Everything is abandoned and crumbling away into ruins.”
“Sounds awful.”
Danny nodded. “Believe me, it is. I just hope when the world gets to that stage, that I’m gone.” He let out a brief laugh and glanced down at Gwen, his smile back as he shrugged off the memories. “Enough doom and gloom; let’s explore.”
This era looked remarkably like their own, with a few exceptions. The landscape before them was almost completely dominated by trees, tall forests that echoed with the calls of the animals living in them. Every so often, there would be a clearing, where the trees around the edge would be brightened by a scattering of flowering creepers. Obviously, the flowers couldn’t live in the forest, where most of the light was blocked out in places, but they thrived in the sunlight. From what Sarah had told her before they had left, this period was really the pivotal point between the land being dominated by forests and the evolution of other kinds of plant life. The most significant being flowering plants.
As she went to take a closer look at one of the flowers, Gwen swatted at a large dragonfly-like insect as it buzzed at her before landing in the large white flower on the vine. It was really the first insects she had seen here, as though they all relied on the flowers and so stayed close by.
An hour later, after narrowly escaping being noticed by a group of squabbling juvenile creatures by hiding behind a thick patch of undergrowth for five minutes until they got bored and left, Danny indicated to a small rock outcropping.
“Come on, let’s take a break,” he suggested. “We’ll be able to see out over the valley from there.”
Their guard, Fisher, tagged along without any real enthusiasm, until they reached the rocks. Danny had been right; from here, they had a perfect view out over the valley and the various creatures that were down there. Although at a fair distance, they could watch them interact and hunt, listening to the various roars and growls that made up the prehistoric ‘conversation’.
She marvelled at a peculiar lizard-like creature that flew overhead on leathery wings, heading for one of the nearby trees. It landed gracefully and casually snapped at the insects still buzzing around.
“Having fun?” Danny asked.
“This is wonderful,” Gwen told him. “It’s so different to be able to see them just doing what they do and not in the pens back at the ARC. I am so glad that I came here.”
Danny grinned and slung an arm around her shoulders. “Do I know how to show a girl a good time or what?”
Gwen raised an eyebrow at him as Fisher hastily turned a laugh into a cough. “I hate to break it to you, but if you think this is a date then you don’t get out often enough.”
“Aw, come on, give a guy a break,” he complained, the smile never quite leaving his face. “I bring you to a prehistoric world and show you cool dinosaurs-”
“You were sent here because it’s your job,” she corrected, teasing. “And technically, Abby showed me the cool dinosaurs first.”
“Maybe I should have brought lunch,” Danny mused. “We could have had a picnic.”
“Probably not a good idea. The smell of food would have every creature here heading straight for us.”
“So, no lunch then. OK, how about…” He leaned in to whisper the rest, glancing to Fisher to make sure he wasn’t listening.
Gwen stared at him. “Danny Quinn, just what kind of girl do you think I am?” Fisher looked their way, his curiosity turning to a snort of laughter as Gwen muttered. “’Make me breakfast; I know your game, matey.”
They watched the dinosaurs a little longer before heading back to meet the others at the anomaly and make the brief trip home. As they waited for the anomaly to be reopened, Andrews checking his watch for the pre-arranged time, Danny glanced at Gwen.
“So, you never did answer my question,” he said. “How about it?”
Gwen saw Fisher watching them, listening curiously. She decided to put Danny out of his misery and stop pretending to be offended. She smiled.
“Alright then.”
--------
The debriefing back at the ARC was fairly quick, since no major catastrophes had happened whilst they were through the anomaly. Lester had eyed Danny somewhat nervously when they came in, his suspicion turning to relief when the ex-policeman had apparently behaved himself this time.
Gwen left with Abby not long after, heading home to get tidied up before she was due to meet Danny. Abby had been teasing her for the past half hour, as well as berating Danny for his rather dubious choice of pick-up lines.
“Offering to make her breakfast?” she said. “That’s just terrible.”
Danny smirked. “Worked, didn’t it?”
Abby gave him a slap on the arm as he ducked past her. “There’ll be more where that came from if you upset her.”
“Relax. I like her, OK?” he told her. “I’m making dinner for her- the breakfast thing was a joke.”
Abby relented, smiling. “Well, in that case, she’s partial to Italian food, in case you’re stuck for ideas.”
“Thanks Abbs.”
--------
“Oh, wow; this looks great,” Gwen said as Danny showed her through to his kitchen. He had a dining table set up, covered with a red tablecloth and set with a candle in the centre.
“So do you,” he said, taking her coat. Gwen smiled to herself, pleased, thinking that he’d made an effort himself as well. As he turned away to hang her coat up, she took a moment to admire his backside in his black jeans. Nice.
He served a delicious dinner, entertaining her with stories about the creatures he’d seen since starting at the ARC and about his family, asking all the right questions in return. They took their wine through to the lounge after dinner and before Gwen realised it, the clock had turned 11pm. Not that she wasn’t enjoying herself, but…
“Danny?”
“Yes?”
“Are you going to talk all night?”
It took a moment, but when it dawned on Danny what she meant, he grinned, his cheeks flushing slightly.
“I didn’t want you to think I was serious about that breakfast joke. Abby already told me off for that,” he added.
Gwen rolled her eyes. “Get over here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, inching toward her on the sofa and closing his lips over hers.
The kiss was tentative, a slow exploration. Danny smiled into the kiss as Gwen shifted onto his lap backing off a little way.
“Now, about that breakfast…”
“I thought you said you weren’t that kind of girl?” he teased.
Gwen’s smile faltered. “I don’t want you to think I do this all of the time. I don’t, but I like you,” she said.
“I was just joking. I have this tendency to speak before I think; I didn’t mean to offend you.” He brushed a strand of her dark hair off her cheek. “Just for the record, I don’t do this a lot either. I’m not that kind of guy.”
Gwen laughed, realising how silly it had sounded, and kissed him again.
A few hours later, Danny lay propped on his elbow, smiling at Gwen as she slept beside him. There was a serious danger that he could become very attached to her, even though he knew that she would only be here for another week or so. They were just so alike- she laughed at his jokes and listened to his stories, they could talk about their jobs and previous time with the police. She even understood how life at the ARC could take over sometimes, since he was sure that Torchwood was the same. Someone not associated with that kind of project wouldn’t get it, but Gwen did.
This was ridiculous, he told himself. He’d known her for a couple of days but he hadn’t met anyone he had such an instant connection with in a long time.
Just go to sleep, he thought, and stop acting like some schoolgirl with a crush. It wasn’t as though she had to leave tomorrow so he still had a little more time. It would probably be better to keep this little attack of sentimentality to himself, however.
She rolled over in the bed and curled herself against his chest and he lay back down, slipping an arm over her waist. He could figure this out in the morning.
--------------------------------------
Chapter 7- Connor and Becker
--------------------------------------
Down Time
Becker watched as Connor danced with Jack in the crowded club. Well, he used the word danced very loosely; flirted with, even mated with, would have been a better description. Both Connor and Jack had tried to get him to dance but he was quite content to remain with Ianto. He wasn’t quite the showman that Jack and Connor appeared to be; they were enjoying being the centre of attention. It seemed that Ianto wasn’t either.
“I don’t dance,” the Welshman had said when Jack asked.
Jack had turned to Connor and slipped an arm around his waist, flashing one of his trademark grins.
“Looks like it’s just you and me,” he said, leading Connor out into the mass of dancing people.
Soon, the two of them were pressed together, moving in time to the music, hands all over each other. Connor’s arms were around Jack’s neck, Jack’s on Connor’s waist. Becker took a drink from his beer bottle, his eyes never leaving them.
“If we don’t get them out of here soon,” Ianto commented, “we could be collecting them from the police station.”
Becker nodded in agreement; the risqué show out on the dance floor was beginning to draw attention. He was pretty sure that Jack and Connor knew it too, just as they were completely aware of the effect it was having on Ianto and Becker. Connor caught his eye and whispered to Jack, making him look their way as well. The older man stroked his hands slowly down Connor’s lower back, eventually settling on his arse. When he used this to drag their bodies closer together, Connor rocked his hips against Jack’s.
Jack smiled, leaning in to claim Connor’s mouth in a deep kiss. Becker drew in a breath and shifted in his seat, his jeans getting uncomfortably tight all of a sudden. He glanced at Ianto and saw that he wasn’t the only one looking strained.
“We really should stop them,” Ianto said, somewhat reluctantly, his heated gaze turning to Becker. “Before they get themselves into trouble.”
Becker smiled. “This is why I don’t let Connor drink,” he joked.
Ianto laughed. “I don’t think that excuse holds up for Jack,” he said. “He’s always like this.”
Their respective partners, still dirty-dancing and kissing, cast another ‘you want us to stop, come and get us’ look their way and Becker grinned.
“I wonder if they’d like a taste of their own medicine?”
“Oh, definitely,” Ianto replied, moving around the seat until he could slip a hand around Becker’s neck to pull him down for a kiss.
Out on the dance floor, Connor looked over in time to see Becker’s hand slide along Ianto’s thigh, lips locked, Ianto’s fingers threading thorough Becker’s hair at the nape of his neck.
“Damn, that’s hot,” Jack said, following Connor’s gaze and knowing that they had been out-manoeuvred.
Not that he minded and, from the look on his face, neither did Connor. This had been a contest from start to finish, of how far they could tease their lovers before they snapped, of what they could get away with. Now it seemed that Becker and Ianto were retaliating.
“Maybe it’s time to go, yeah?”
Jack nodded, pressing one last kiss to Connor’s lips before they began weaving their way through the other dancers to collect their partners.
The short walk to Ianto’s flat seemed to take forever. It didn’t help that they couldn’t keep their hands off each other, making their journey slower. When the door finally closed, however, Ianto backed Jack to the wall, plastering his body against the other man’s and kissing the breath out of him.
“Bloody tease,” he muttered after he finally drew back. “’Should teach you a lesson for tormenting me like that.”
Jack’s eyes shone with interest. “You promise?”
Connor and Becker had already disappeared as soon as they came in, but they followed the sound of voices to find the two of them in their room. Standing in the doorway, Jack watched as Becker slowly stripped Connor of his shirt, hands getting to work on his jeans as they shared a wild, passionate kiss.
“Didn’t anyone ever teach you to share?” he asked.
Becker turned and grinned. “No.”
“Spoilsport,” Jack grumbled, pouting. He leaned back against Ianto, who smiled.
Connor saw the sparkle in Becker’s eyes and held out a hand to the two men in the doorway. He’d never seen Jack move so fast. He ushered them into Ianto’s room and, seconds later, there was a pile of clothes on the floor. When he saw Connor’s expression, Jack glanced behind him and smirked.
“Ianto’s bed is bigger,” he said, and proceeded to demonstrate exactly why that had been important.
--------
Becker awoke pressed between Connor and Ianto, wondering vaguely where he was. Ianto’s room, of course. He heard a rustling sound and raised his head far enough to see over Connor’s sleeping form. Jack was getting dressed as quietly as he could. When he saw Becker, he paused.
“Where are you going?” Becker whispered.
Jack came back to the bed so that he wouldn’t have to speak loudly and wake the others.
“There was a rift spike a little while ago,” he said, indicating to the wristband he wore. There was a tiny light blinking on it. “I thought I’d go and check it out.”
Becker started to get up. “I’ll come with you,” he said, but Jack refused.
“It’s only small, probably just the usual flotsam coming through.” Jack finished fastening his boots. “I’ll call if I need any help.”
Relenting, Becker lay back down, getting comfortable again as Jack left the room, closing the door softly behind him. It was 4am, far too early to be getting up, especially after not getting much sleep the previous night, and he was kind of glad that Jack told him to stay here. Ianto was still curled against his back, breathing softly, sound asleep, as Connor cuddled in closer to his chest. He dragged the covers back over them all and closed his eyes again.
When he woke the next time, it was to the feel of gentle fingers roaming down his torso. He opened his eyes and saw Connor watching him intently, a smile on his lips.
“I thought you’d never wake up,” he said.
“Well it’s hard to sleep when someone is-” Becker’s breath caught as Connor’s hand found its target under the covers, “doing that,” he finished.
Connor grinned. “Yep, that’s what I was hoping for.” His fingers moved to Becker’s sides, tickling him until he squirmed away.
“Right, that’s it.” Becker rolled them so quickly that, before Connor knew what hit him, Becker had him on his back, arms held above his head. He paused suddenly, glancing to either side. “Where’s Ianto?”
“In the shower.”
“Not any longer,” Ianto’s voice announced as he wandered in with a towel around his waist and began getting his clothes out. “Have you seen Jack this morning? I usually find him lounging around on the sofa if he can’t sleep but he’s not there.”
Becker shook his head. “He left at about 4am. Said there had been a rift spike and he was going to investigate.”
They were in the kitchen, waiting for Connor to finish getting dressed, when Ianto’s phone began to ring as he was making coffee. Becker watched the reaction on his face as he listened to the caller, the frown creasing his forehead, before he hung up. Abandoning the coffee, he went and got his coat.
“What’s wrong?”
Ianto just headed to the counter to get his car keys. “I’ll explain on the way, but we have to go. Can you get Connor?”
Five minutes later they were in the car, speeding along the streets. Connor, still putting his boots on, his jacket and bag dumped on the seat beside him, looked over at Ianto.
“Are you going to tell us what’s going on?”
“It’s Jack,” Ianto said. “The call was from the hospital. Jack was mugged earlier, stabbed.”
Becker turned in his seat. “Is he alright?”
Ianto’s gaze stayed on the road. “He was pronounced dead twenty minutes ago, which is why we have to get there quickly.”
“I should have gone with him,” Becker murmured. “He said not to, but I should have insisted. Maybe I could have done something…”
Ianto shook his head. “Don’t feel guilty. He won’t blame you, trust me.”
But Becker couldn’t shake the guilt, the knowledge that had he not been so selfish, wanting to stay in bed, Jack might still be alive. He glanced at Ianto, wondering why the man was so calm. Maybe it hadn’t sunk in yet. If it had been Connor who had been taken from him, he would be in pieces right about now. Ianto, however, seemed completely indifferent.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
Ianto frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be? It’s not like he’ll be gone for long.” At which point it dawned on him that he had forgotten to mention one crucial fact. “No, you don’t understand; he isn’t dead. Well, he is, but only temporarily. He’ll come back, but they don’t know that. We need to get to him before they start autopsies or lock him in a morgue freezer.”
Becker could see his own confusion reflected in Connor’s expression.
“What?”
By this point they were pulling into the hospital car park and Ianto was out of the car before he got an answer. Becker and Connor followed him as he headed for the reception desk.
“I’m Ianto Jones,” he told the young receptionist. “I received a call saying that Jack Harkness had been brought in.”
Her eyes widened as she recognised his name. “I, um, I’m so sorry. If you’d like to take a seat, I’ll just call Dr Malhotra.”
Ianto shook his head. “I already know what happened, I just want to know where he is.”
It took a few minutes- she insisted on calling the doctor who had been on Jack’s case- before they were finally shown through. Jack had already been taken down to the morgue, any belongings he had on him handed over to the police as evidence. He was lying on a table, a green cotton sheet over him. Dr Malhotra reluctantly explained that there would have to be a post-mortem carried out, due to the nature of his death.
“Can I have a few moments with him?” Ianto asked. “He’s, I mean, was, my partner. I’d like to say goodbye.”
As soon as he was out of the room, Ianto heaved a sigh of relief and dragged the cover off him. Jack’s skin was almost white, and despite what Ianto had said, he looked dead to Becker. Connor went forward, hesitantly leaning closer.
“Are you sure-”
Connor jumped back as Jack’s previously-lifeless body suddenly opened its eyes and took a deep, gasping breath. Ianto ignored him, checking Jack over carefully before casting him a relieved smile.
“Bloody hell!” Connor backed into Becker, who was standing behind him. “You were dead. You were! How the hell did you do that?”
Jack sat up on the table, leaning into Ianto’s arms. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell it to you sometime but I think we’d best be getting out of here.” he looked up at Ianto. “I don’t suppose you’ve brought me any clothes?”
Ianto handed him a carrier bag and Jack tossed the sheet aside as he got off the bed. The doctors had handed his clothes over as evidence as well, leaving Jack naked in the cold room.
“I liked that coat,” Jack grumbled.
Ianto sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”
--------
Ianto managed to clear up the mess at the hospital by pulling rank and informing them that Torchwood were taking over the investigation. As far as they were concerned now, they had made a mistake with the identity of the victim, that it wasn’t Jack Harkness but a member of Torchwood staff. The same thing couldn’t work with the police, however, as they already knew who Jack was. Those few officers in the know about Jack’s rejuvenation abilities assisted in removing the paperwork and altering records as though he had never been there.
“Ianto, you are a star!” Jack declared as Ianto handed him the evidence bag with his blue military coat in.
“So what were you doing down town?” Ianto asked. “That’s where the police say you were found.”
Jack dropped into one of the chairs around the conference table in the Hub. “Just as I told Becker earlier. There was a rift alert so I went to check it out.”
“What was it?”
“Trouble,” Jack informed him. “Unfortunately, that damn kid took the artefact I collected when he jumped me.”
Connor frowned. “What was it? The artefact, I mean.”
“A crystal box, about so big,” he said, indicating with his hands the approximate size. “I recognised it as soon as I saw it; it’s a spatial prison.”
“Containing what, exactly?” Ianto wanted to know.
“Death.” He glanced around at the others. “Let me put it this way, the last time one of these beings got loose in this world, it brought with it the Black Death.”
Connor sighed; there were times when he missed the rampaging dinosaurs.
--------------------------------------
Chapter 8- Gwen Cooper
--------------------------------------
School’s Out
The anomaly had opened in the middle of the gymnasium, in the middle of the school day. The chances of keeping witnesses out were zero and it was only through pure dumb luck- and the quick thinking of a couple of the les panic-inclined teachers- that the casualty list wasn’t longer. By the time that the two black four-by-fours arrived and the soldiers and ARC team piled out, there was already a ring of schoolchildren around the gym, their noses pressed to the windows in the hope that they would see something interesting.
“Of all the places,” Abby complained, hoisting the gun over her shoulder, “why did it have to open here?”
The kids had begun to notice their presence by this point and those not still pressed up against the windows were now staring at the team. A low whisper began at one end of the crowd, alerting the kids further down that there were soldiers with guns. One slightly braver girl near the back, close to the team, marched right up to Abby.
“What’s going on? Who are you? Are you going to arrest someone?”
Abby shook her head, assuring the girl that they weren’t, and smiled at the faint disappointment on her face.
“Can you tell me where your teacher is?” she asked and the girl nodded, leading her toward a grey haired man in a tweed suit.
“Mr Duffy? This lady asked to speak to you.”
The man turned, sending the girl back to her classmates, and looked Abby over speculatively. He didn’t look entirely impressed, despite the gun slung over her shoulder.
“Mr Duffy, I’m Abby Maitland. We’re here about the, um, problem in your gym.”
He laughed. “You think that is why we had to evacuate the school?” he asked. “My dear, the problem, as you so tactfully put it, happens to be-”
He paused, glancing back at the children who had, in the hopes of overhearing something interesting, edged closer. At his glare, they backed off again, though not far enough away that they wouldn’t catch the majority of the conversation.
“Perhaps we should talk elsewhere,” he suggested.
Abby led him over to where Danny and Sergeant Andrews were talking whilst Gwen helped Sarah unload the anomaly closing equipment from the back of the car. She introduced them all.
“So, Mr Duffy, what did you mean when you said that the anomaly wasn’t the problem?”
“Anomaly- is that what that thing is in the gymnasium?” He frowned at them. “Just who are you people?”
Danny smiled. “All you need to know is that we do this for a living,” he said. “Now, what we really need is for you to tell us what we’re dealing with.”
“Well, the first thing was that- what did you call it? –anomaly, in the gymnasium. One of the girls went in to collect the netballs for their lesson at around 10:30. She came running out in hysterics, going on about ‘weird things appearing in the air’. We thought she was making it up and so Miss Rashid went back with her to check.” He ran his hand though his hair and let out a sigh. “We closed off the gym and called the police but then we got reports of the children seeing creatures. We had no choice but to evacuate the building; we couldn’t risk any of the children being hurt.”
“You were right to do that,” Abby confirmed. “Tell me, did you see any of these creatures?”
Mr Duffy shook his head. “No, but I know that some of the other staff did. Hold on one moment.” He hurried away toward one of the groups of teachers who were calling around the parents on their mobile phones, making arrangements for the children to be sent home. He returned with a young Indian woman, wearing jogging trousers and a t-shirt.
“This is Miss Rashid. She saw the creatures.”
Abby ran through the introductions again and repeated her earlier question to Mr Duffy.
“At first I though that a bird had got into the building,” she told them. “They do sometimes, the pigeons wander through the doors to pick up bits of food and crisps that the kids drop. It wasn’t a pigeon though. It looked like a cross between a really big bat and a lizard.” She saw the glance that passed between Abby and Danny. “I know how that sounds but that is what it looked like! Its body was shaped like an iguana, only without the tail, but its face and wings were like a bat and it was covered with dark fur like a bat.”
Abby was about to ask more but at that moment, a blonde haired boy came rushing over. He hopped about, trying to get their attention whilst simultaneously trying not to interrupt.
“What’s the matter, Jason?”
“Mr Duffy, they went inside! Everyone was talking about the bat-things and Alex said they were going to see,” the boy informed them. “They told me not to tell anyone but…”
Five minutes later, Abby, Gwen and Sergeant Andrews crept down the corridor towards the Hall while Danny and a couple of the soldiers escorted Sarah to the gym. She needed to get the anomaly locked as soon as possible, to prevent anything else from coming through.
“How many of these things are we actually looking for?” Andrews asked, his eyes scanning the corridor, gun angled to follow his gaze.
Abby shrugged her shoulders. “At least three. They were seen in three places at about the same time, too far apart for it to be the same one.”
“Three? It’s going to take forever,” Gwen complained. “There are five floors and goodness knows how many classrooms! Isn’t there any way we can bait these things into the open?”
“If we can catch one, or even get a good look at one, then I can identify it on Connor’s database. I brought his laptop with me, just in case,” she said, indicating to the backpack she carried.
--------
In the gymnasium, Sarah tried to ignore the hundreds of kids’ faces pressed against the window, the teachers’ efforts to get them to back away falling on deaf ears, and opened the laptop. She had the silver cylinders set up around the anomaly, everything in place, just waiting for the programme to come online. Danny patrolled by the door, finger on the trigger of his gun, itching to be searching for the creatures with the others.
“You know, closing that thing today would be a good idea,” he said dryly.
Sarah glared at him, turning back to the laptop when it was ready and tapping away at the keyboard. When the anomaly pulsed and then compacted into a tight ball of light in the air, she could hear the chatter from the excited audience even through the window. She saw them staring at her and the now-closed anomaly and felt the ridiculous urge to stand up and take a bow. Instead, she set the laptop down on the floor and walked over to Danny.
“This thing is locked down for now,” she told him, “but what are we meant to do if it doesn’t fade? We just can’t leave it, closed or not, in the middle of a school.”
He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “That’s Lester’s problem. He gets paid to sort out things like that.”
They heard the sound of footsteps out in the corridor, running, and then a voice yelling. Danny frowned, going to open the double doors as the soldiers who had accompanied them rushed over. He indicated to Sarah to stand back, being the only one not armed, and cracked the door open. A boy of maybe thirteen or fourteen was sprinting toward the gym, his eyes wide and frantic as he looked back over his shoulder.
“Kid! In here,” Danny called to him, holding the door open. He couldn’t see what the kid was running from but then his attention was occupied by the red bloodstain that was spreading across the sleeve of the boy’s shirt.
The boy came crashing through the door, almost running into Danny. “It’s behind me! It came at me and I couldn’t lose it,” he panted.
Just then, a dark shape came flittering though the open door. It let out a high pitch squealing sound as it swooped low over their heads, leathery wings beating fast. The boy backed off, hiding behind the soldiers. Guns raised, they tried to get a shot but the creature moved too fast for them to hit it safely. They backed themselves towards the entrance, to get outside and put a door between them and it, belatedly realising that Sarah had run in the opposite direction. The creature realised it too, choosing to go after her instead, obviously assuming it had more chance against a lone person than a group.
“Sarah, it’s heading your way!”
She swore and ducked as it flew at her, and made a run for the storage room at the far end of the gym. It didn’t have a door but that she didn’t intend to lock herself in. No, she could see what she wanted on the shelf at the back of the room.
Danny figured his expression must reflect that of the line of children outside the window as he watched Sarah plant her feet firmly and swing the tennis racket as the creature flew at her. As soon as it was close enough, she swung, the racket hitting the creature with enough force to send it careening out of control and into the wall. It hit with a sickening thud and slid to the ground, unconscious.
By the time that Danny reached her, the adrenalin that had been keeping her from panicking had vanished and he reached out to gently take the tennis racket from her shaking hand.
“That was a hell of a swing,” he teased lightly. “You OK?”
Sarah took a deep breath and then nodded. “Fine.”
“Well, I think you’ve earned yourself some fans,” he informed her, indicating to the watching kids. When she turned to look, she saw the excited smiles and heard some of them clapping. She smiled at them, a little embarrassed at the attention.
“I was thinking that maybe we shouldn’t put that thing back through the anomaly just yet,” she said. “It might help if Abby and the others could see exactly what they were looking for.”
“Good idea.” He glanced back to where the soldiers were making sure that he critter was still unconscious before trapping it in a makeshift cage. “Once we’ve made sure the corridor is clear, we can get the kid out of here. In the meantime, I’ll keep him with me-”
“No offence, mate, but I’d rather stay here with her.”
They both turned to look at he boy, whose cheeks flushed slightly as he was caught staring admiringly at Sarah.
Danny rolled his eyes. “They’d always rather hang out with the pretty girl,” he grumbled, not offended in the least if his smile was anything to go by. “Fine, you stay put.”
He took out his mobile phone and called Abby, informing her that they had caught one of the creatures. He frowned and then went over to the cage, took a photo of the bat-thing with his phone, and sent it to her.
“Danny, why don’t you go and help them?” Sarah suggested. “We’ll be fine here; the anomaly is locked and so long as no one lets any more of those things in here, we’re pretty safe.”
She could see that he really wanted to go and help with the hunt, eventually agreeing on the condition that one of the soldiers stayed with them. As he left, Sarah turned to her young charge.
“So, what’s your name? I’m Sarah.”
“Christian.”
Sarah led him to one of the wooden benches that ran along the end of the gym and sat him down.
“OK, I need to have a look at your arm,” she said. “Did it bite you or just scratch?”
As he told her what had happened- the creature had tried to bite but its teeth had just grazed his skin –she cleaned up the wound and dressed it with the medical kit that her military guard had with him. He looked a little shaken up and a bit pale, but he assured her that he felt alright. She was still going to advise the doctors to give him rabies shots and antibiotics, just in case the creature’s bite carried any infection, to be on the safe side. She got his arm cleaned up and it looked as though he’d be fine a bit longer, until they could take him outside without risking either being attacked or the creature escaping when they opened a door.
--------
Danny and Neil, his military escort, jogged quietly along the corridor towards the steps at the end. The teachers had reported seeing one of the flying creatures in the staff room and so that was where he and Neil would start. Abby and her team had taken the far end of the building, where one had been seen in one of the art rooms.
“What are these things?” Neil asked as they scanned the next room before cautiously entering. They were searching systematically, closing off each door as they cleared that room and moving onto the next.
“Haven’t a clue,” Danny replied happily, thoroughly enjoying this. “Identification isn’t exactly my area of expertise. Abby said she’d call when the figured it out- apparently, she brought Connor’s database with her.”
They reached the staff room and immediately both men went into alert mode. The room was a mess of coffee mugs, paperwork, overturned chairs and general mess. There were coffee mugs on the floor, smashed as their owners dropped them in their haste to get out of the room. There was a faint rustling sound from somewhere under one of the tables and Neil pointed. Danny nodded. They each took opposite sides of the room, slowly working their way to the table where the sound was loudest, guns at the ready.
Danny watched as Neil mouthed 3-2-1 and then gave the table a kick to send it sliding aside to reveal one of the creatures munching its way through a dropped sandwich. When it realised its hiding place had gone, it screeched and launched itself into the air with a flap of its wings. Unfortunately, its moment of distraction with the sandwich meant it wasn’t fast enough to avoid the tranquiliser dart that Danny shot into it. Seconds later, the drug took effect and it dropped like a stone.
He pulled his phone out and dialled.
“Abby? One more down.” Slipping the phone back into his pocket, he turned to Neil. “She says there is at least one more, but after that they don’t know.”
Neil glanced at the creature on the floor as he waited for Danny to reload the dart gun. “You reckon we should take that back first?”
Danny shook his head. “That dart could have taken down a hippo,” he said. “It’ll be out for hours. We’ll collect it on the way back.”
--------
Abby informed the others of Danny’s capture, hoping that her guess of another one left to catch was accurate. It didn’t make the search any easier, however; there were a lot of rooms left to search and the creature could be hiding in any one of them.
“I need somewhere to check through Connor’s database,” she said. “I’d really like to know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
They holed up in one of the empty classrooms, after it had been thoroughly checked for lurking critters. Gwen sat down next to Abby, watching with interest as she typed in the parameters of the search and waited for the results.
“So this thing has every known dinosaur and creature on it?” she asked.
Abby smiled. “Not yet, but Connor’s working on it. Every time we come up with something new, he adds it in.”
A few minutes later, she sighed. There was nothing about the bat-things, at least, not that matched the picture that Danny had sent her.
“What about that one?” Gwen said, indicating to a picture on the screen.
Abby squinted at it sceptically. “Well, I suppose this could be a later version,” she mused. “Ours could be a more evolved one; that would explain the differences.”
“Does it happen to say anything about how we catch the damn things?” Andrews asked from his lookout position at the small window in the door.
“No,” Abby admitted.
“I’ve been thinking, and you can tell me that this is a silly idea if you like,” Gwen began, “but I saw this wildlife programme about bats once. These things are kind of like bats, right? Well, anyway, they were recording the sounds that the bats made and playing them back to entice them out of their roost.”
Abby and Andrews shared a look. Andrews nodded.
“What have we got to lose?” he said.
--------------------------------------
Chapter 9- Connor and Becker
--------------------------------------
One fine day
Ianto consulted the tracking device in his hand one more time and turned suddenly around a corner. Jack, Becker and Connor hurried to catch up, Connor almost running into him when he stopped. They were in the industrial downtown of Cardiff, where businesses and warehouses were predominant, interspaced with the odd nightclub or small public park. The street they were on was lined both sides with corrugated iron and concrete buildings, some of the lower windows had been broken and boarded over, the only noise being the gentle cooing from the pigeons nesting on the window ledges.
“You’ve found it?” Jack asked.
Ianto nodded, checking the device once more and then pointing to a run-down warehouse across the street.
“In there, about twenty metres in.”
Jack led the way across the street, heading for the wooden boards that served as a door. Despite the chain that had been threaded through them, and the huge padlock, it was clear that someone had been gaining access that way. As he approached, he pulled a gun from the holster on his hip and clicked off the safety.
“Ready?”
Becker, Connor and Ianto nodded, each drawing the weapons they had been issued before leaving the Hub. Becker edged Connor behind him as they slipped through the gap in the boards. He knew that, of all of them, Connor was the weaker when it came to self-defence and he wanted to make sure that nothing happened to him.
Inside, the warehouse was dull and dusty, the floor-space filled with various remnants that the previous occupant had left behind when they moved out. Boxes and half-dismantled machinery cast eerie shadows in the moonlight that came through the grimy windows. There was evidence that there was someone else using this place now that it had been abandoned; recent food containers littered the floor, a couple of old blankets were draped over a railing. From somewhere deeper in the building there was the sound of voices, putting the four of them on alert.
Ianto indicated to the staircase that led up to the second floor, presumably where the offices were. It was also where the voices were coming from.
“Ianto, take Becker and head up here,” Jack said in a low voice. “Connor, with me.”
Connor followed, reluctant to leave the relative safety that sticking close to Becker usually afforded him, and he had Jack headed to the rear of the building. There was another staircase and the pair of them went up cautiously.
There was a group of five people in the largest office, from late teens to mid-twenties, and they all looked up as Jack spoke.
“You,” he said, pointing his gun at a scruffy blonde haired man, “have something that belongs to me.”
The young man’s eyes went wide as he obviously recognised his victim from the previous night. The look flitted across his face a split second before all five of them bolted for the opposite staircase.
Only to be stopped by Ianto and Becker.
“Are you police?” one of the younger ones asked, seeing that they had no escape route. He and the others backed into the office once more, keeping their attention on the guns trained on them.
Jack shook his head. “We’re not the police; we just need back the items that he took from me last night.”
Becker eased the door closed behind him, effectively penning the group in the office and stopping any thoughts of them making a break for it.
“Just sit down and keep quiet,” Jack told them. “You, kid, come with us.”
The blonde scowled at him but stood anyway in deference to the gun that Jack still held. He allowed himself to be led to the smaller room next door, Connor tagging along and leaving the other two to guard the rest of the kids.
“OK, tell me where they are,” Jack demanded.
“I don’t have your stuff.”
Jack sighed. “Try again. We tracked the signal from my wristband to find you here so I know you have it. Look, stop screwing around; that box you took is dangerous and I need it back.”
The young man frowned. “It was just some stupid box. This guy I know said he could sell it for a few quid. I kept the watch ‘cos it was cool.” He saw the fury on Jack’s face and added, “I can take you to him. ‘You going to call the police?”
“He bloody well should,” Connor snapped. “You stabbed him and left him for dead in the street. It’d serve you right.”
“’Didn’t do that. If I had, he wouldn’t be walking around now would he?”
“What’s your name?”
“Why should I tell you?” The young man looked Connor over, unimpressed, despite the gun and Connor heard him mutter an insult under his breath.
“Look, you little pain in the arse-”
Jack scowled at him. “Connor might not shoot you, but I have no qualms about it.”
“It’s Alex, OK?” the young man relented with a sigh.
“Very well, Alex. First, give me the ‘watch’ you took from me.” Jack strapped the wristband on, ignoring the young man’s protests that it didn’t work anyway. It was just a good thing that the kid never figured out what it really was and how to work it. “OK, let’s go.”
Making no promises of what was going to happen to him, they followed as the young man reluctantly led them back out into the streets. Jack had cuffed his hands behind his back, keeping hold of him It took only a veiled threat to make his friends stay behind and rethink any possible rescue plans they were in the process of coming up with. They merely fled as soon as they could, not looking back.
“Can’t you just call this guy?” Becker asked a short time later. He was sure that the kid was leading them on a wild goose chase, waiting for an opportunity to get away.
Alex cast him a sarcastic look. “You know, we don’t exactly have a lot of cash lying around for stuff like mobile phones,” he said. “We kinda prefer to eat.” His eyes flicked over Connor, then Becker, to the brushing touch on Connor’s hand. He frowned, looking vaguely disgusted. “’You two poofs or what?”
Connor saw Becker’s finger flex on the gun and murmured, “Not worth it, love.” Not that the obnoxious little shit didn’t deserve getting his arse kicked, but he really didn’t want to spend the next fifteen years only seeing his boyfriend on prison visits. He turned to Alex and smiled pleasantly.
“Yeah, you got a problem with that?”
The young man narrowed his eyes at them and spent the rest of the short walk very determinedly ignoring them. Suits me just fine, Connor thought, glad he didn’t have to try and be nice to him any longer.
They ended up at the train station, where Alex directed them to the far end of one of the platforms. There were a group of men gathered at the end, heads together, talking.
“Jez is the guy with the blue hoodie,” he told them. “I gave your stuff to him.”
As they approached, one of the men happened to glance up, seeing the attention directed to their friend. One nudged the man and he glanced up. For a spilt second, he stared at Alex, shot him a look that promised retribution, and took of into the crowd at a fast run.
“Damn, he’s fast,” Jack muttered, as the four of them, dragging Alex along, gave chase. “Look, there. He’s getting on the train.”
The five of them got onto the waiting train moments before the doors closed and it set off. They were two carriages away from where the man, Jez, had boarded and it took them a while to make their way through the commuters. People were still getting sorted for their journey, stowing bags and jackets in the overheads. When eventually they reached the final car, Jack looked through the small window. He could see Jez sitting near to the back, trying to keep his head down and remain unnoticed.
“Connor, Ianto, start getting people out of the carriage,” Jack told them. “I don’t think he saw you two back at the station; with any luck he might not recognise you.”
Connor wasn’t convinced but he still followed Ianto into the carriage and began approaching people. To begin with, they were asking nicely but that approach quickly got abandoned after the third person refused, arguing. After that, Ianto began flashing his Torchwood ID at them, telling them that it was an emergency. From the speed they moved, Connor could only assume that word of the craziness surrounding the day to day activities of Torchwood had reached the people of Cardiff. There were still three people sitting near to Jez but they couldn’t move them without alerting him and risking him running again.
Since they’d had to give up on the low-key approach, Jack and Becker came into the carriage.
“Where’s Alex?” Ianto asked, glancing around curiously.
Becker looked a little too pleased about it when he said, “Jack handcuffed him to a seat back there.”
“He’s fine,” Jack added. “I left him with the ticket inspector.” He saw the Inspector take a radio from his pocket and contact someone. “Ianto, can you go take care of that? Tell him we’ve got it covered. Oh, and if you could get them to stop this train it would useful; we’ll be reaching the next station soon and we’re going to get a whole load more passengers to deal with.”
By now, their suspect had realised that there were only four passengers in the carriage now, apart from the very people who had been chasing him, and was looking suspicious. Jack saw him move and turned to him as Ianto left, taking Connor with him.
“What do you people want?” Jez asked them, standing and squaring up to Jack, glowering menacingly.
Jack sighed. “Drop the attitude,” he said. He aimed the wristband at the man and pressed a button on the top. All at once, a low whirring sounded, growing in intensity as it passed over the man’s backpack. “You can hand over the box in your backpack, too. The one that Alex gave you to sell. It belongs to me.”
Jez hesitated for a moment before reaching into his bag. He withdrew a small box from it, about four inches in diameter and made from finely carved, dark purple crystal. Seeing the possibility of evasion, he raised the box high in his hand.
“You want it,” he said, “then go get it.”
Jack dived to catch the box as Jez threw it hard across the carriage.
He missed.
The box hit the edge of one of the seats and the lid flew open. Jack scrambled up and made a dash for the door, trying to urge Becker, Jez and the remaining passengers through.
“Um, Jack? What the hell is that?”
Jack swore as he shot the panel next to the door with the gun he carried, sending sparks and smoke into the air as the electrics destructed. He couldn’t risk this thing getting loose if it ever figured out how to open the door.
Connor heard the gunshot and raced back to the window in time to see the black shadow appear behind Jack and Becker. It looked human, as though behind cast by one of the people in the carriage, but he knew it wasn’t. No light passed through it at all; it was like looking into a void.
“That’s not good,” Ianto murmured behind him.
That was a major understatement, Connor thought, his attention still fixed on the creature that was slowly circling their suspect. Jez was cowering at the far end of the carriage, on the floor with his knees drawn up to his chest. The creature outstretched one perfectly formed hand and touched the panicking man. He screamed in horror, breaking the contact, but it was too late. Beside him, the three female passengers screamed as well, trying to outrun the shadow but it followed their erratic paths in its gliding movements. One by one it reached out, laying a hand on their skin- an arm, a cheek- and watched as they fell.
From what Jack had said, this creature had been seen as the incarnation of death the last time it had appeared and he could see why. It resembled the movie-version of death; all it needed was a silver scythe and a skull for a face. He’d also said that the creature had spread the plague last time, infecting the victims it touched.
“I’ve called the hospital,” Ianto said, obviously thinking along the same lines. “Told them to get the medication in, just in case.”
Nodding, trying not to have a panic attack, Connor could do nothing but watch as the creature then turned on Becker and Jack, stalking towards them. When it reached Jack, it paused, then ignored him and reached out to Becker.
“No! Ianto, we’ve got to do something,” Connor said, desperately trying to get the door open.
There was no way in, however, leaving him helpless but to watch as Becker stumbled, landing heavily in a seat. Behind him, Jez was already white as a ghost, a fine sheen of sweat covering his skin. His hands shook as he reeled to the side, leaning over as he was violently ill. The women were in no better state, one of them unconscious whilst one of the others lay across the seats. The one who Connor could see clearly, laid on the ground, her face turned toward him, was barely breathing. Her face was white, a sharp contrast to the thin trickle of red blood under her nose. Her eyes were bloodshot when she looked up at him pleadingly.
“We’ve got to get them out of there,” Connor said.
“We can’t, it will let that thing loose.”
“I don’t care,” Connor yelled over his shoulder as he turned and ran along the carriages, elbowing his way through the nosy passengers who were trying to see what the fuss was about.
Jack edged toward the crystal box, stooping to pick it up whilst the creature was ignoring him. He felt bad for using the others as a distraction but he knew he wouldn’t have long before the thing came back to him. His abnormally extended life had confused it once but its curiosity would bring it back to him once it ran out of other people to play with.
He had one chance at this, one attempt to get this thing back into its prison.
At the window, Ianto watched the creature turn on Jack, its size almost doubling as it attacked. Jack was calm, however. He stood his ground, holding the box open as his mouth moved. Ianto couldn’t hear what he was saying but it was obvious that the words were hurting the creature. It let out a shriek that he could hear even through the door, the shadow losing form now as it began to swirl like a mist. Jack’s mouth was still moving but he was struggling to hold the box open as the creature fought back. He had the same symptoms as the others now, a thin trail of blood from his nose, skin pale and damp. Ianto could see his hands shaking.
Suddenly, the shadow shrank back to its original size, growing smaller as it was sucked into the box that Jack held.
Jack snapped the lid closed as soon as the last trace of it was inside. His knees gave way and he fell to the floor, the box tightly clutched in his hands.
“Ianto, move!”
Ianto stepped aside a second before a red fire-axe smashed into the window he had been looking through. Connor aimed again and took out the lock in the centre of the doors, hacking away until he could get pry the doors open. Behind him were four paramedics and a couple of police officers.
--------
Connor paced the hospital waiting room impatiently. They had arrived just after the ambulances but the woman on the reception desk wouldn’t give them any information. She just kept telling them that the doctor would come to see them as soon as they had assessed the patients. In the end, Jack had steered Connor away before he leaned over the desk and throttled the poor woman.
It was almost an hour before anyone came to see them. The doctor came into the waiting room and did a quick introduction. When he got to Connor, he smiled.
“So, you’re the young man that everyone is talking about,” he said, smiling. “You may just have saved those people’s lives; any longer and-”
“Look, no offence, mate, but I really don’t give a shit about those other people. I just want to know how Captain Becker is.”
The doctor looked surprised at Connor’s outburst, looking to say something else, but Ianto stepped in whilst Jack tried to calm Connor down.
“Captain Becker is Connor’s partner,” he said. “I’m sure you can understand how distressed he is, considering the circumstances.”
The doctor nodded. “I’m sorry.”
Connor looked across at him, still huddled against Jack. “It’s bad, isn’t it? Just tell me, please.”
“Well, his condition is concerning us somewhat,” the doctor told him, “but having the medication on hand so quickly has helped. He is responding to it, but the next twelve hours are going to be critical. After that point, we will be able to tell if the medication is working.”
He left again, urging Connor to go home and get some rest. At present, Becker was unconscious and would be for a good few hours yet; there was nothing he could do here.
“I’m staying here,” Connor told Jack and Ianto. Ianto nodded, sitting down and encouraging Connor to do the same. Now, they waited.
---------------------------------------
Chapter 10- Gwen Cooper
---------------------------------------
Going Batty
Abby and Gwen followed Andrews through the maze of corridors as they made their way down to the staffroom. Danny and Neil were waiting there with their catch, the bat-thing that Danny had tranquilised earlier. Abby looked through the vet’s pack Andrews had in his backpack, finally coming up with what she needed. They had tranquilised enough creatures at various anomaly sites and then encountered problems when they tried to send them back through the anomalies that she now always carried antidote with her. Some of these animals were big and heavy and their being able to walk back through the anomalies themselves was so much easier.
Now, she crouched over the unconscious creature in the teachers’ staff room, checking it over for injuries.
“How much tranquiliser did you shoot the poor thing with?” she asked Danny.
He frowned. “Just one dart. That one there.”
“For goodness’ sake,” she told him. “For the last time- pink ones for anything smaller than a dog, red ones for anything larger.”
Danny knew she’d told him that before but he found it just slowed him down if he had to keep swapping and changing. If he didn’t know what they were going to find when they went into a place, he pre-loaded the gun for the worst possible eventuality. He figured that, where some of these creatures were concerned, the stronger the tranquiliser the better.
“It did the job, didn’t it?”
Abby just rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the creature. Now that she had one to study closely, she realised that the teacher’s description had been pretty much spot on. It was about a metre in length, from nose to tail, with the little beady eyes and flattened snout of a bat, but its body was elongated. Like a lizard, it had little stumpy legs with sharp claws on the feet and a tail that stretched out behind it about six inches. She ran her hand carefully over the dark fur that covered its body, surprised by how soft it was.
“Funny little thing, isn’t it?” Gwen said, leaning in to get a closer look. She hesitantly stretched out a hand to touch, smiling a little when she stroked its fur. “I was expecting it to be wiry hair but it’s not; it feels like stroking a cat.”
She pulled her hand back suddenly, swatting at something on her skin. “I think it also has fleas,” she said, scratching.
Danny and the soldiers took a step back.
“Men,” Abby muttered. “Such babies. I suppose this means me and Gwen have to do this on our own?”
They had originally thought to record the bat-creature’s call in order to entice the others out of hiding around the school but that idea had quickly been abandoned. They had no recording equipment with them and what the school had was built into the music rooms. Unfortunately, they needed to entice the creatures towards the gym and, more importantly, the anomaly. The next best thing was to take the creature back there. Hopefully the others would come out to the aid of the injured one.
Gwen glanced up at the men and laughed. They were really trying to keep up the tough-guy routine whilst keeping a safe distance from the fleas.
“Come on, Danny,” she said, batting her eyelashes at him. “We need a big strong man to carry this critter for us.”
Danny held out for about twenty seconds until finally giving in to the girls’ pleading gazes.
“Fine,” he grumbled, going to pick the creature up. “But if I catch anything from this little sod, I’m blaming you two.” Noticing Abby putting the syringe back into the vet’s case, he frowned. “Hang on a minute; is this thing going to start waking up while I’m carrying it?”
Abby smiled sweetly and picked up her bag. “Better walk fast, hadn’t you?”
In the gymnasium, Sarah had finished patching up the boy’s arm and was currently trying to distract him from the creature trapped in the cage. He was visibly scared of it, even though he wouldn’t admit it to her. He was also worried about the two other boys he had come inside the building with. They were still missing, presumably holed up somewhere after the creature attacked them and they got separated from Christian.
“So what’s that thingy behind us?” he asked, pointing to the anomaly.
“It’s like a gateway through time,” she said. “We investigate them.”
His eyes sparkled with interest. “You mean like on Stargate? You’re like SG1.”
“Not quite,” Sarah told him. “They travel through space, to different worlds, whereas these anomalies only open in time. Usually backwards by millions of years but there have been a few future ones.”
“Cool. So is that where those bat things came from?”
Sarah nodded, telling him about some of the other weird and wonderful creatures that she had seen in her time at the ARC. When Abby came through the door, holding it open for the others and locking it securely behind them again, Christian jumped to his feet.
His eyes wide, he turned to Sarah. “What’s he brought another one here for?”
She reached out to him, trying to calm him down. “It’s OK,” she said. “We need this one to attract the others, so that we can send them all back home.”
“There’re more of those things?”
“Yes, and as soon as we can get them out of the school and through the anomaly, we can go and look for your friends.”
Ten minutes later, the creature was fully awake and fighting against the cage it was contained in. Well, it wasn’t exactly a cage, it was actually one of the basketball storage baskets that had been upturned to trap it underneath.
“I don’t suppose we could get on with this, could we?” Danny asked, scratching idly at the back of his neck. Then his stomach. “That is the last time I let you talk me into carting some flea-ridden animal around. I need a shower,” he said, adding, “and some insecticide.”
Abby had to agree that it sounded like a great idea, and she could see Gwen scratching as well. Why had she decided to touch the thing? She could have administered the antidote to the tranquiliser without catching anything but no, she had to pet the thing.
“Right then,” Abby began. “Sarah, get ready to unlock the anomaly. Neil, open the doors.”
Sarah looked across at Christian. “Do you want to wait in the locker rooms? If we make sure there aren’t any creatures in there, you can keep the doors locked-”
“No, I’ll stay,” he said, looking determined.
“Well, make sure you keep back and don’t antagonise them,” Abby told him. “Most animals react based on how you act. If you panic, or try to lash out at them, they’ll attack.”
Once everyone was in position, Abby and Andrews dragged the baskets containing the two creatures closer together, so that the conscious one could see the other, moving both baskets closer to the anomaly. Almost instantly, the conscious one let out a high pitched shrieking sound, high enough that everyone in the room cringed. It was something akin to fingernails being scratched down a blackboard but higher in pitch.
“Shut that bloody thing up!”
Abby shook her head. “I can’t. We need it to keep making this noise, remember?”
Standing by the doors, Neil suddenly clicked the safety off his tranquiliser gun, raising it. Gwen moved herself back behind the door as she held it open.
“Incoming!” she yelled.
Sarah quickly unlocked the anomaly, standing back to wait with Christian as one of the bat creatures came flitting through the door. Its darting movements made it hard to keep track of but Abby knew it wouldn’t stray too far from the captured ones. Moments later, a second creature came flying in, skimming so low over Abby and Danny that they had to duck.
One of the creatures misjudged a turn and vanished as it got too close to the anomaly. Its companion seemed even more panicked at the disappearance, its flight-path becoming more erratic.
“I’ve had just about enough of this damn thing,” Danny said, ducking as it tried to fly into his head again. “I say we toss the two we’ve got trapped through the anomaly and hope it follows.”
Abby sighed. “You can’t just throw them through it- that one is injured. It can’t fly.”
“Fine, so give it here. I’ll take it through and leave it there.”
Since the remaining free creature seemed to have no intention of going near the anomaly, especially after seeing its companion vanish into it, they didn’t really have a lot of choice. It didn’t look as though there were any more; the noise that the trapped one was making would certainly have drawn them out if there were. Signalling for Gwen and Neil to close the doors, the others began to get ready to move their captives. It was difficult, what with the flying one dive-bombing them, but eventually they had the unconscious creature in its basket. The other one, still squawking like crazy and fighting against the confines, was in its basket with a piece of net over the top.
“Danny and I will take them,” Andrew said, cutting off any arguments with a glare. “I don’t want any more than necessary going through the anomaly.”
He swore as the airborne creature flew at him again. “If we don’t get rid of that thing soon I’m going to shoot it myself,” he said, earning a disapproving look from Abby.
Danny picked up one of the baskets and followed Andrews to the anomaly, glancing back over his shoulder to check for the third creature. He didn’t see it. They didn’t bother to stay and look around, quickly depositing the creatures on the ground.
On the other side of the anomaly, Abby and Gwen watched as the creature once again avoided the anomaly. Neil was waiting with Sarah and Christian, trying to keep out of its way. They had tried to entice it to the anomaly, even going so far as to stand in front of it and wave their arms about, hoping that it would fly straight at them. However, it didn’t.
“That’s it,” Neil said, raising his gun. “I’m tranquilising it.”
This time, there was no argument from Abby.
Two hours later, after the anomaly had shimmered out, closing itself, Abby finally climbed into the back of one of the four-by-fours. She was glad to be going home at last; she was tired and itchy and in desperate need of a shower. They had found the remaining two boys once the building was creature free, where they had been hiding in a cleaning closet on the second floor. The injured kids, including Christian, had been ferried away to the local hospital, their parents called. No doubt they would be the talk of the school for weeks to come, but that didn’t matter.
“I don’t envy the school for having to explain what happened to the parents,” Danny said from the driver’s seat. “I doubt they’ll believe that prehistoric bats attacked their kids.”
Gwen smiled. “We have the same problem at Torchwood, only there we have to try and explain about aliens.”
“You realise that we still have to put in a report to Lester,” Abby pointed out. “He’ll bitch about it being a ‘public relations nightmare’. Like it’s our fault the thing appeared in a school.”
Danny didn’t even bother going back to the ARC, instead dropping Gwen and Abby off at Abby’s flat.
“We can fill out reports tomorrow,” he said. “I, for one, would rather get home and finally be able to stop scratching.”
Those who had not been in contact with the flea-ridden bat creatures had made a point of keeping a safe distance from the three of them, even going so far as to make them take a separate car home, threatening to get it fumigated afterwards. Though she had wanted to be offended, Abby had agreed with them.
It took two showers before Abby finally felt clean again, leaving her clothing in a plastic bag that was securely tied up to deal with later. Gwen was already getting comfortable on the sofa in her jogging trousers and a t-shirt when she got to the lounge. At her feet, Sid and Nancy jostled for Gwen’s attention as she teased them with a cat toy on a string.
“So, what are we watching?” Abby asked, sitting down beside her. She had made a quick detour to the kitchen and now set a bottle and two glasses down on the table. She figured that after the day they’d had, they deserved a lazy evening in front of the TV with a glass of wine and a movie.
Gwen put the toy away and the two creatures settled down, lying on the floor next to the sofa, curled up together.
“I found the perfect film,” she said with a wicked grin, indicating to the TV guide that was on the coffee table. “Jurassic Park.”
---------------------------------------
Chapter 11- Connor and Becker
---------------------------------------
Waiting
Jack took the box that had caused them so much trouble back to the Hub. Having learned his lesson that it would open if dropped, therefore releasing the creature imprisoned within it, the box was tightly bound with a good few layers of brown sticky tape. He wasn’t taking any chances this time as he let himself into the Torchwood building and went down to the vaults.
He taped the contents report to the outside of it, just in case someone else got their hands on it in the future and decided to investigate. For a moment, he just stared at it. So much trouble and grief from such a small object. Slamming the vault door and keying in the locking code, he went to gather a few things before heading back to the hospital.
Jack walked back into the waiting room at the hospital but before he spoke, Ianto held up a finger to shush him. He was sitting in one of the chairs lined along the wall. Beside him, Connor lay along three of them, knees curled up to his chest, his head resting on Ianto’s lap. His eyes were still red from crying.
“He’s exhausted,” Ianto whispered as Jack quietly closed the door and came to sit opposite him. “He fell asleep about an hour ago; I don’t want to disturb him yet. He needs the rest.”
“So do you,” Jack pointed out. “You look tired.”
Ianto stroked a strand of hair back from Connor’s forehead and the young man twitched in his sleep. He shrugged his shoulders.
“I’ll be fine.”
Jack dug through the bag he had brought with him and pulled out a flask and a plastic cup. “I thought you’d appreciate this more than the coffee in the vending machines here.”
“Jack, you’re a lifesaver,” Ianto told him, accepting the cup and taking a sip. “You could strip paint with the stuff they give you here.”
“So, any news?”
Ianto shook his head. “We haven’t seen anyone since the Doctor came to speak to us when we first came in.”
It was three hours later when Connor suddenly bolted awake, almost falling off he chairs as he sat up. Ianto grabbed him to steady him.
“Connor, calm down.”
Connor rubbed his eyes and looked around at the clock. “How long was I asleep?”
“Nearly four hours,” Ianto told him. “Relax; I would have woken you if we’d heard anything new.”
Jack persuaded him to have something to eat, trying to reassure him. The doctor had said that they wouldn’t know much for the next ten or twelve hours so the wait didn’t necessarily mean that something was wrong.
“I just wish I knew,” Connor said. “I wish they’d let me see him. Can’t you do something?” he asked Jack. “Go and flash a badge at them and make them let me see him.”
Jack shook his head. “They know what they’re doing, Connor. Let them do their jobs.”
By the time that the door to the waiting room opened and a harried-looking female doctor came in, Connor was ready to storm the hospital, gun blazing, and demand answers. He was on his feet before she had even got through the door.
“Is he OK? What’s happening? Where is he? Can I see him?”
Ianto gently took Connor’s arm and made him back off the doctor. She smiled.
“I presume that you are Connor?” she asked. “He asked for you-”
Connor heaved a sigh of relief. “That means he’s OK, right?”
“Connor, let her talk.”
The doctor cast Ianto a grateful look and continued. “Mr Becker is responding well to the drugs we’ve been giving him and his body is fighting the infection. That doesn’t mean that he’s completely out of the woods yet, however. With Pneumonic Plague- and I really would like to speak to you more about this,” she said. “Typically, the symptoms take up to seven days to appear but from all accounts, Mr Becker’s took mere minutes.”
Connor sighed loudly, bringing her attention back. “The disease affects the lungs, causing a build up in them which then makes it difficult for the patient to breathe properly. Now, as I said, Mr Becker is responding well but the nature of this disease means that it will take a while for his lungs to clear completely. I understand that he is with the military?”
Jack nodded. “He is, although his posting is classified.”
The doctor nodded, not asking any more. “He will have to remain off active service, at least until he is fully healed.”
“Can I go and see him?” Connor asked, begged almost.
The doctor smiled. “I’ll get the nurse to take you through.”
She summoned the young nurse who had come with her and was now waiting outside the door and told her that Connor could go through. Ianto stood up as well; Connor still looked completely terrified and he didn’t want him to go alone. As soon as they were out of the room, Jack turned back to the doctor.
“So, what weren’t you telling us?” he asked. Seeing the guarded look on her face, he smiled. “I know that you were giving Connor the version reserved for family, but we need to know.”
She sighed and closed the door, sitting down again. “Two of the others from the train carriage didn’t make it. The disease simply took hold too fast for us to be able to combat it.”
“Becker was one of the last to be infected,” Jack said.
“Well, those few minutes probably saved his life. For a short time, it looked as though the drugs weren’t working; he had to be resuscitated once, shortly after he came in.” Pausing, she studied Jack. “You were in the carriage with them yet you emerged unharmed. How is that? And how did they contract this in the first place? From the speed it took hold and its progression rate… I’ve never seen, or even heard of, anything like this before.”
Jack smiled. “Unfortunately, I can’t explain how I came out uninfected any more than I can tell you how it began,” he told her. “What I can do is assure you that it will never happen again. I’ve seen to that.”
“I’d feel better if you could at least tell me who you all are,” she said. “When we pulled Mr Becker’s medical records, they came back as classified, with the same kind of block we usually find on government documents.”
Jack showed her his ID, since most of Cardiff already knew about them anyway. “Ianto and I are Torchwood,” he said. “Connor and Becker are kind of on loan to us from elsewhere.”
---------
Connor found himself almost tiptoeing to the hospital room that the nurse had shown him to. It was just so silent, except for the odd beeping of a machine in the rooms they passed, or the low murmur of voices from nurses’ station down the hall.
“Do you want me to come in with you?” Ianto asked.
“I need to do this on my own.”
Ianto nodded, understanding. “Go on. I’ll wait here for you, OK?”
Connor’s chest tightened as he caught sight of Becker lying in the hospital bed. His skin was pale and damp, his dark hair plastered to his forehead. For a while, Connor thought that he was still asleep but then his boyfriend’s eyes opened.
“Conn?”
It was all that Connor needed, that one whispered word, and it hit home that Becker really was OK. He was at the bed and reaching out for Becker before he stopped himself, not knowing whether or not it would hurt him in any way. Eventually, he settled on a light hug, just wanting to touch, no matter how briefly. He stood up again and looked down at Becker.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again!” he said, his voice quivering. He felt tears in his eyes and brushed them away. “Do you have any idea how scared I was?”
Then he leaned down to hug Becker again.
Becker swallowed hard. “Water?”
There was a cup on the cabinet beside the bed, a water jug beside it, as well as a cup of ice chips in case Becker’s stomach couldn’t take the water. When he offered the ice chips, however, Becker shook his head and so he took the cup. Putting a straw into it and holding it to his mouth, Connor set it back down when Becker indicated he’d had enough.
“Better. Sorry I scared you.”
Connor shook his head. “It’s not your fault; I shouldn’t have said that.” He sat down on the edge of the bed, leaning over to press his lips to Becker’s forehead. “You’re alright and that’s all that matters.”
“You’re stuck with me a bit longer,” Becker said, his lips curving into a smile. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
When the nurse returned and sent Connor out again, he was feeling much happier about the whole situation. He was told that Becker needed to rest and that he could come back later. Ianto was still outside, leaned against the wall and looking embarrassed as a young female orderly flirted with him. As soon as he saw Connor, he straightened up.
“How is he?”
Connor smiled for what felt like the first time in ages. “He’s awake and he talked to me.”
The nurse who had sent Connor out came over to join them. “He’s sleeping quite a lot at the moment; the drugs we’re giving him will mean that he’ll sleep for at least the next eight hours,” she informed them. She looked pointedly at Connor. “He’s not the only one who needs some rest. I’m assuming that you haven’t been home since he was brought in and so I’m telling you to go home and sleep.”
“But-”
“I will make sure that we call you should there be any change in Mr Becker’s condition,” she promised. “Now go home for a while, rest.”
From the look on her face, there was no arguing with her and Connor heaved a defeated sigh. Even if he did stay, as he wanted to, he knew that she wouldn’t let him back in. She would just keep at him to go home for a while.
“Come on, Connor,” Ianto said. He handed the nurse a card with the Torchwood emergency numbers on as well as Connor’s mobile number. “We can come back when he’s awake again. He’ll be fine; the doctor said that he was past the worst of it now.”
Reluctantly, Connor allowed Jack to drive them back to Ianto’s house. He could see that the two of them were almost asleep on their feet and he realised that he was as well. When he got to bed, however, he just couldn’t sleep. The empty space on the other side of the bed reminded him that Becker wasn’t here.
“Jack? Ianto?” he pushed open Ianto’s bedroom door hesitantly. “Can I sleep in here? It feels weird on my own in there.”
Jack smiled, nodding as he pushed the covers back for Connor to get in. They moved him between them and dragged the covers back up. Surprisingly, Connor fell asleep relatively quickly after that. The short nap he’d had at the hospital hadn’t been long enough and now the exhaustion claimed him.
--------
Three days later, the doctors were pleased enough with Becker’s progress to allow him to come home. It was, of course, on the condition that he not exert himself, which meant no activity beyond sitting on the sofa watching TV. He had a stack of tablets and a list of when to take them as well, but that didn’t matter. He was home, that was all Connor cared about.
He had called Abby the day before, not wanting to call until he knew what was happening. Even talking to her now, knowing that Becker was alright, had brought a lump to his throat. He knew if he’d spoken to her earlier, that he wouldn’t have been able to keep it together.
Abby had insisted that she was coming to see them, but he’d managed to stop her. They were due to return home tomorrow anyway, the ARC/Torchwood exchange over.
“She’s just concerned,” Becker told her when he hung up the phone and came back to the sofa. “She’s a good friend.”
Connor nodded. “I know.” Abby had been his best friend since he’d started on the ARC project, even sharing her home with him when he needed somewhere. “She says that the guys at work send their regards; Lester said he has all of the incident report forms waiting for you when we get back home. She thinks he was joking,” he said.
“He probably wasn’t,” Becker said wryly, getting himself comfortable again, resting against Connor’s side.
They had the place to themselves at the moment, enjoying the calm after all of the chaos. Jack and Ianto had gone out on a call, another glitch in the rift’s output. He had the feeling that the ‘problem’ was largely made up, Jack’s not-so-subtle effort at giving them some alone time, and he was glad of it. The past few days had been the longest of his life and it was good to finally relax.
Connor heard Jack and Ianto come back in at around midnight. Curious as he was, he could find out what the rift had thrown out in the morning.
---------------
Chapter 12
---------------
The start of things to come
Gwen collected the last of her belongings up from Abby’s spare room and packed them back into her bag. She would be sorry to leave this place; two weeks was nowhere near enough time to fully experience it. Before arriving here, she had expectations of what it would be like. There was no way it could compare to Torchwood, she’d thought. Well, a mere couple of weeks had changed all of that; she had seen things here she never thought she would and she had a new best friend in Abby. Given the chance, she would come back here in a heartbeat. She would have liked to stay for a while longer but at the moment that wasn’t possible. Connor and Becker needed to come home, which meant that she needed to get back to Torchwood.
“So, all packed?” Danny asked.
She turned; he was leaning in the doorway, one shoulder resting against the doorframe. OK, so maybe the creatures and the friends she’d made here wouldn’t be the only thing she’d miss. Danny smiled and strolled into the room, gathering her up into his arms and pressing a kiss to her lips.
“You know, it’s only a few hours’ drive from here to Cardiff,” he said.
Gwen smiled back at him. “So it is. Does that mean that we’ll be seeing each other again soon?”
“Oh, definitely. I am just dying to see this underground base you guys have and the aliens and stuff,” he told her. At her offended glare, he laughed. “Of course, the best thing about it will be my tour guide.”
“Good answer,” she said.
Gwen said her goodbyes and promised to keep in touch with Abby before getting into her car to set off on the drive home.
--------
Abby was waiting anxiously at Becker’s flat when their car pulled up at the kerb. She had been sitting there for the past half hour, ever since Connor had called to say that they had reached the city limits. When the door opened and Connor got out, she was on her feet, going to give him a tight hug. She glanced across at Becker as he got out of the passenger side and went to give him the same greeting.
“How are you feeling?”
Becker smiled. “I was fine this morning but after a few hours of Connor’s driving…”
“I’m a perfectly good driver!”
“Yeah, I’ll remind you of that the next time you take a corner on two wheels,” he said.
Abby laughed. “I am so glad to have you two back.”
She hung around for a while, wanting to hear all about Torchwood and what they’d been up to. Just as the two men had been doing, she very purposefully avoided mentioning Becker’s illness. Connor had already told Lester that he wouldn’t be back until the morning and Abby was going to bring the pets over then as well.
Becker had insisted on celebrating their homecoming by going out to Connor’s favourite Chinese restaurant. Although Connor had argued that he should still be taking it easy.
“I’m not going to run a marathon,” he said, “just go out to eat.”
Connor had to agree, secretly glad that Becker seemed more like his old self again. He had been slightly withdrawn since his release from the hospital but tonight he was all smiles and energy.
They got a table and ordered, although Becker had to forgo anything alcoholic due to the medication he was still taking. Connor kept glancing up as he ate, seeing a thoughtful look on his boyfriend’s face. Something was on his mind but whatever it was, Becker didn’t look as though it was anything bad, just distracting.
“OK, what’s the matter?” he finally asked as they finished their meal and the waitress arrived to take away their plates. “Something’s bugging you, I can see it.”
Becker fiddled with the napkin in his hands for a moment before looking up to meet Connor’s eyes.
“I’ve been thinking,” he began. “Don’t go back to Lester’s place tomorrow. Stay with me.”
Connor’s eyes widened. “Are you asking me to move in with you?” he asked in disbelief.
“See, I knew it was a stupid idea,” Becker said quietly, his gaze falling to the table again. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“I’d love to.” He reached out to Becker, grasping his hand on the table. “I was surprised, but it was good surprise, not bad surprise.”
Connor waited until they were out of the restaurant before grabbing Becker and kissing him hard. He just couldn’t stop smiling; Becker actually wanted him to move in. They walked back to the taxi rank nearby hand in hand, Connor still having to convince himself that he had heard correctly.
“You promise not to go off me if I leave stuff in the wrong places?” he asked. “Lester always yells at me for being messy."
Becker grinned. “I promise.”
“And you’re not going to get mad at Sid and Nancy? They’re really sweet most of the time.”
“Connor, I knew that you were a slob with two uncontrollable creatures as pets before I asked you to move in,” Becker said with a sigh. “Nothing they, or you, can do is going to make me love you any less.”
They got into a taxi and gave the driver directions back to Becker’s home. Once they were indoors, Becker handed Connor a phone.
“Go on, call her,” he said. “I can see that you want to.”
He was right. Connor wanted to tell Abby his news, excited and wanting to tell everyone, but Abby first. He dialled her number.
“Hi Abbs, it’s me. No, everything’s fine.” He paused, before telling her, “You know when you drop off Sid and Nancy tomorrow? Well, can you bring them to Becker’s flat instead of Lester’s…”
Sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter, near to where Connor leaned, Becker could hear Abby’s squeal of delight even from five feet away. He wondered briefly what he was letting himself in for, what with Connor’s pets, the expected constant visits and calls from Abby, the reaction from his soldiers and the anomaly team, not to mention Connor’s self-confessed bad habits. The conclusion he came to was that he didn’t care.
The past week had made him see that he had to go for what he wanted and not wait around, and what he wanted was Connor to be there beside him when he woke up every morning. Connor hung up the phone and turned to flash him a huge grin, before coming closer to give him a kiss.
No, life didn’t get much better than this.
---------
The End
- Main Torchwood slash page
- New stories page
- Jack/Ianto stories
- Ianto/Owen stories
- Other pairings stories - ie threesomes
- F/F stories
- Gen stories
- Amazon.com - Torchwood: Children of Earth
- Amazon.co.uk - Torchwood - Children of Earth [DVD] [2009]
- Amazon.ca link - Torchwood - The Complete First Season (7DVD)
