Title: Quarantine
Author: Outside Edge
Pairing: gen
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters merely borrow them from time to time.
Summary: After a night out on the Town Jack is missing. Can the team find him and more importantly whats wrong with him?

***

Morning at the Torchwood Hub.

Tosh was already at her desk working when Owen finally arrived at the Torchwood Hub.
"And what time do you call this?" she asked brightly.
Owen groaned.
"What gives you the right to be so damn chirpy at this time of the morning" he grumbled.
"Because I didn't get involved in drinking our boss under the table last night" Tosh countered. "Lucky for you, he's not in yet."
"Who's not?" Gwen asked, coming through the door.
"Jack, he and Owen had a little drinking competition last night."
Gwen looked over at Owen who was sitting at his desk holding his head in his hands as if he was afraid it would fall off if he let it go.
"Well if he feels as rat-arsed as I do it'll serve him right" Owen muttered.
"So where did you two end up?" Gwen asked, when they had left the pub at closing time, Jack had made some comment of adjourning to another place he knew.
"I dunno, some club" Owen replied, looking up gratefully as Ianto put a cup of coffee and some aspirin in front of him.
"Gay or straight?" Tosh asked.
"Does it matter?"
"To some of us yes." Tosh replied with a grin.
"Straight, I think, it was dark."
"What time did you leave?"
"What is this twenty questions?" Owen demanded "I dunno, two, three, Jack bundled me into a cab."
"And where did he go?"
"Home I think, wherever that might be" Owen replied.
"Then he's here somewhere." Gwen said.
The rest of the team looked at her as if she were mad.
"Here?" Ianto asked, "No I would have seen him when I unlocked this morning."
"Look, crazy though this might sound, Jack lives here at the Hub. He told me."
"So that's why he's always here when I get here in the morning," Ianto said.
"And always the last to leave at night." Tosh mused.
"This is all too much for me," Owen groaned, "I'm taking this hangover to the couch. Don't call me, I'll call you"
He stumbled off to the rest area.

"I could check the hub CCTV" Ianto suggested.
"Don't tell me you have CCTV in the bogs, cause I bet that's where he'll be, with his head down the pan." Owen said.
"No I checked and we don't have CCTV in the toilets" Ianto replied.
"Thank God for that. Still up for that shag Gwen?" Owen asked with a leer.
"Stop it Owen" Tosh warned as Gwen went crimson. "Aren't you supposed to be dying or something?"
"Yes, still dying" Owen replied.
"Then do it quietly."
Tosh cross to the computer station and tapped at the keyboard.
"What time did you say Jack poured you into that cab?" she asked.
"I dunno, 2, 3 owww," Owen groaned, as he got up off of the coach and joined them around the computer screens.
"Right. This is the footage from 2am onwards," Tosh said. "I'll fast forward it."
"There!" Gwen said, a few moments later "There's Jack".
The timestamp said 3.45am as the tall figure of Captain Jack Harkness could be discerned entering the Hub.
"Looks a little worse for wear" Ianto commented.
"You didn't see the drinking contest he and Owen got into with the guys from the rugby club." Tosh commented, "What was that drink you and Jack invented?"
"A shrek." Owen groaned.
"Which is?" Ianto asked.
"Blue WKD and Orange Reef — turns green."
Ianto grimaced "Turns me green, just thinking about it."
"Concentrate you guys," Tosh said, "So Jack comes in, sits at his desk for a while and then — goes down to the holding cells."
"Perhaps the weevil is ill or something?" Gwen suggested.
Tosh switched to the real time display for the holding cells and focused in on the weevil, which was sitting quietly in its cell.
"When did Jack come back up?" Gwen asked.
Tosh switched back to the archive tape and fast-forwarded.
"He didn’t," she said, flatly.
"He must have done" Gwen said.
"No. I've fast forwarded until Ianto came in at 8.30."
"Then where the hell is he?" Owen asked.
"Still down there?" Tosh suggested, flicking back to real time.
"Wait a minute" Ianto said, grabbing her arm. "Tosh zoom in on the cells."
Tosh did as he asked.
"Not the weevil, the one next door." He said. "Look!"
The four of them stared at the screen, a not was stuck to the Plexiglas door of the second holding cell.
"Can you zoom in further?" Gwen asked. "What does it say?"
The four of them stared in horror at the screen.

Quarantine
Unknown pathogen detected.
Stay out
J

***

"Oh my God!" Gwen cried, as she made to leave the central hub area.
"Gwen wait, you can't go down there," Owen shouted.
Ianto grabbed her by the arm.
"He's right," he said, quietly.
"Ianto, bring the biohazard suits up from the stores" Owen continued.
"Biohazard" Tosh repeated.
"If Jack had got some alien bug then we need to be protected" Owen said.
"So why is the Weevil okay?" Gwen asked.
"Alien life form" Owen shrugged, "Constitution of an elephant. Has to living in Cardiff's sewers."

Ianto returned with the biohazard suits.
"Okay. Ianto with me. Tosh, you and Gwen stay here. If something goes wrong you need to evacuate and initiate lock down procedures."
Tosh nodded, wide-eyed in terror.
"But." Gwen started.
"Gwen, I'm medically trained, you're not. Trust me." Owen said, patiently, as he stepped into the bio suit.

The holding cell area was dimly lit.
Ianto and Owen paused as they entered the door, both expecting something to jump out at them.
"Owen are you alright?" Gwen's voice came over the intercom.
"Yeah, fine" Owen replied.

They crossed to the holding cell next to the one holding the Weevil. It appeared to by empty except for a pile of blankets in the corner.
"False alarm people." Owen said, "The place is empty."
Ianto gripped his arm.
"No it's not," he said, urgently."I swear that pile of stuff moved."
Cautiously, the two men entered the cell.
Owen kicked the pile of blankets and jumped back in alarm as a groan came from them.
Ianto knelt down and started to pull away the blankets. As he peeled away the last blanket, he uncovered a blue greatcoat.
"It's Jack," he said, with a tremor in his voice.
"Turn him over" Owen said, bracing himself for what he might see next.

"Is he alive?" Gwen asked over the intercom.
Ianto nodded to Owen, as he crouched down beside Jack.
"Owen, is Jack alive?" Gwen asked again, an authoritative tone to her voice.
Owen winced as her voice cut through his hangover.
"Yeah, yeah give me a minute woman."

Jacks face was deathly pale; he had dark rings under both eyes.
"Bloody suit" Owen cursed, as he realised that the biohazard suit restricted what assessments he could make of Jacks condition.
He reached into his doctor's bag and pulled out a strip thermometer, which he laid on Jack forehead.
"106" he muttered. Jack was running a high fever and Owen needed to know why. He took out a syringe and pulled up Jack's sleeve ready to get a blood sample for analysis.

Jack was floating in a twilight world. An intermingling of dreams and real events. His whole body ached, right down to the very roots of his teeth and he was cold so cold.
He felt someone grab his arm. He forced his eyes open to see a strangely suited figure kneeling over him with a syringe in his hand.
Fear gripped him and he tore loose from the figures grasp. They weren't going to get him this time. He furiously tried to get away, but found himself securely pinned by strong arms.

"Hold him Ianto." Owen ordered as he prepared to take the blood sample again. "Or he'll rip his bloody arm open."

"No!!!!!" Jack screamed as the needle entered his arm.
Then all went black.

***

Owen slammed his fist on the desk in frustration.
"Oh I can't be arsed with this!" he exclaimed.
"Owen!" Tosh admonished.
"Sorry mother." Owen muttered. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath; he hated mysteries, especially when he had the hangover from hell.
"Owen what's wrong?" Gwen asked, handing him a cup of coffee.
"Nothing." he said, glumly
"No, with Jack, what's wrong with Jack." Gwen persisted.
"What I just bloody well said Gwen, nothing!" Owen exploded. He span round on his chair and punched up the displays around his computer terminal.
"I have run every bloody toxin, DNA and every other test on Jack's blood. The whole lot. Squit, nada, zippo. There's nothing apart from a high alcohol level."
Gwen smiled
"Which has nothing to do with the number of drinks you two had last night, what were they called again?" she asked.
"Shreks" Owen rubbed the back of his neck ruefully. "But they're harmless" he groaned, "Mostly."
"So these tests.." Tosh tried to steer the conversation back to the matter in hand.
"I have done every sodding test known to man, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, septicemic plague, bird flu, malaria, rabies, anthrax, septicaemia, meningitis, you name it I've done it"
"Pregnancy?" Ianto suggested.
"Strangely yes and no he's not" Owen replied.
"What's that?" Gwen asked, pointing to a spike on one of the test results.
"Flu jab. You remember, the one Jack insisted we all have a few weeks ago."
"Yes, Owen I remember" Tosh said, rubbing her arm ruefully. "You said it wouldn't hurt."
"Just a little prick?" Gwen giggled. Owen shot her a look.
"You shouldn't have flinched Tosh" Owen replied.
"You took me by surprise that's all" Tosh said, defensively.
"I don't think the vampire fangs helped either" Gwen added.
"I was just trying to inject a little humour into our dull, work obsessed lives." Owen huffed.
"Jack is belonephobic" Ianto cut in, seriously.
Owen looked up sharply "Say that again."
"Belonephobia, fear of needles," Ianto explained. "He didn't have the jab."
Owen tried to recall the day, but it was all hazy, what with Tosh going ballistic when the needle broke in her arm.
"You sure?" he asked.
Ianto nodded.
"So why is it showing up in his blood?" Gwen asked.
Owen grinned
"It isn't." he said, triumphantly.
"What's this, Scotch Mist?" Gwen demanded, jabbing the screen.
"That my dear Gwen is the real flu — our dear belonephobic Captain has got the flu, pure and simple common-or-garden flu."

FIN

***