Title: Solstice
Author: ardea_herodias
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG
Summary: A woman in terrible pain with a mysterious medical condition is brought to the Hub. Toshiko brings her the safety she desires, and then becomes part of a miracle.

***

Some time after ten in the morning the door to the visitor's center swung open. Up until that point, it had been unusually quiet, even by non-Torchwood standards. Ianto sat up at the desk, raising an eyebrow. "Hello, what may I do for you?"

Crossing the threshold stood a woman, possibly about 30 years old. She clearly had been exceptionally pretty once, but today she reminded Ianto of a broken crystal wineglass: beauty had been there, but had been shattered beyond repair. Her hair was ratty, her clothing well-made and elegant but obviously thrown on in haste, and her face was pale and terrified. Despite it being late June, and sunny for a change, she wore a heavy coat that didn't seem to fit well across her back and a shabby cap that didn't match the rest of her outfit. Piercing blue eyes pricked with tears looked out of that haggard face. The emotion in them warred between pain, fear, and desperation.

In a small voice, suffused with the pain and fear in her face, she said "I don't know who you are or why I'm here. I just know that something is going to happen, and that whatever is behind that big door is safe."

"I'm afraid I do not know what you are referring to." Ianto watched the woman nearly fall to her knees as she doubled over with a spasm of some sort. "This is a visitor's centre." Her breathing was laboured and her face very white. Abruptly the spasm passed. The woman looked held a hand against the desk to steady herself and raised her head to look once again into his eyes. Ianto found himself squirming at the expression held therein–the pain and fear were still there, but there was something deep in the back of her eyes that he couldn't name. Despite himself and the warm summer day, he shivered. Abruptly she looked down; two tears fell onto the desk.

"I don't know what I am referring to either," she said, "but I know that something is happening to me and I can't stop it and I need to be safe and I don't know what will make me safe but it's behind that door."

Ianto sighed and pushed a button on his headset. "Jack, would you come out here please?"

Jack arrived just as another spasm of pain wracked her body. This one did make her fall to her knees, causing her to hit her head on the edge of the desk and the cap to fall off as she did so. There, in the center of her forehead, an ugly red weal pulsed and throbbed, Ianto imagined, to her heartbeat. The weal looked sick, unnatural, obscene against her pale face. Jack swore. "Ianto, we have to get her back to Owen, right now!"

"Yes, sir." The two men hoisted her up between them, throwing her arms over their shoulders. She caught her breath but got her feet under her without a word. Brave, Jack thought.

***

They hauled her down the stairs and dropped her on the table in the medical bay just as another spasm hit. She promptly doubled over, gripping her knees to her chest and squeezing her eyes shut. Once again, tears leaked out the corners of her eyes. Silver traces, almost iridescent in the pale light, streaked that tortured face.

"Right, what do we have here? What's happened to you sweetheart, that you went and screwed up your head like that?" As always, Owen's bedside manner was impeccable. "Alright, Jack, Ianto, get that coat off her so I can find out what the hell is going on here. Gwen, get her some blankets, she's ice cold! Tosh, here's her ID," he said as he threw the wallet to her station. "Find out what's what, will you?" A series of rapid clicks let the rest of the team know Tosh was hard at work.

"Jesus Christ!" Jack yelled as Ianto made a strange choking noise.

"What?" Gwen hurried in with a pair of blankets.

"Look at her back!"

The four in the medical bay stood around the table with the weeping woman. Under the heavy coat was a torn shirt, torn at the seams, barely obscuring the two huge swollen circles that made the weal on her forehead look like a small scratch. Without a second thought, Owen grabbed scissors and cut her shirt off. He immediately wished he hadn't. Under the fabric, twin mountains of livid red pulsed and–worse–twitched. The woman doubled over in pain once again, and two somethings, pale and horrible and white, writhed just beneath the skin, as if straining for freedom. They all watched in shocked silence, Owen checking different tools to see if she had been affected by any known alien tech. As abruptly as it began, the spasm stopped, but the horrible writhing and twitching continued. Unable to look at the monstrous things again, Owen covered her with one of the blankets.

The woman spoke. "I started feeling unwell about Christmas, maybe a few days before." Her voice was weak and defeated. "The thing on my head started first, like a pale line and got worse. I don't know quite when my back turned how it did. I just need to be safe. It's close, I know whatever is safe is close, but I can't find it." She looked up at Jack with those shatteringly clear blue eyes. "Please!"

Jack, Ianto, Owen, and Gwen exchanged glances. Clearly none of them had any idea what was going on. Absently Gwen wandered over to the table and placed her hand on the woman's shoulder. "Owen?" Jack asked.

"I've never seen anything like it. It's not any alien tech I've ever seen, but no human disease I've ever seen either." The clock struck 11.

"So we have a strange woman who's acting like her body has been taken over and is about to die of parasitic growths on her back and head?" Jack's voice was incredulous.

"Looks that way. Christ, I hope this isn't messy."

Tosh came clattering down the stairs. In a hushed tone of voice she reported what she had found. "Her name is Sarah Henderson. She lives in Portsmouth–no idea why she came here–and works as a freelance journalist, mostly for travel magazines. Occasionally she will sing at open mike night at the local jazz club. Was found abandoned at a hospital as an infant, no known family." She turned at looked at the woman for the first time. Two sets of eyes, one brown and one blue, met. A shock seemed to course through both of them. Without knowing why, she asked "Owen, can we move this bed?"

"WHAT? Are you out of your mind?"

"Maybe, but can we move this bed?"

"Tell me why you want to move it," Owen snarled, "and I'll tell you whether we can or not."

Tosh bit her upper lip and looked at the stricken woman, mutely sobbing her way through yet another spasm, then looked at the tower. Myfanwy's window was open, letting a stray beam of sunlight dance on the floor. "I think she'll be more comfortable in the sun."

***

Eventually, after much badgering on Tosh and Gwen's parts and muttering on Owen's part, Jack finally told Ianto and Owen to carry her upstairs to the shaft of light. He carried the mattress, and Tosh grabbed the second blanket. Jack arranged the mattress right in the sunbeam. Tosh sat down on the mattress and took Sarah's hand. "Are you alright?"

The woman looked up at Tosh, the constant pain and terror still etched on her pinched and pale face. Suddenly, however, her eyes grew wider and the fear vanished. "I'm here, I'm safe," she whispered Burying her head under her arms, tears flowed freely as she continued to say, "I'm safe, I'm safe, I'm safe." Another spasm rocked her body. They're coming more often now, Tosh thought. And they're worse. Tosh suddenly realized what was happening, if not the end result. The slash on Sarah's head seemed larger, like it had grown taller and longer in the time Sarah had been in the Hub. Although the horrible things on her back were covered by the two blankets, Tosh could still sense them writhing in their prisons of flesh. They sat quietly for some time, Tosh stroking Sarah's hand, the other four lingering just far enough away that they couldn't touch either woman.

Owen, meanwhile, was predicting dire ends for the whole team. "Jack, we don't know what's wrong with her, it could be something contagious. If those things on her back break loose, there's going to be blood and nasty stuff all over the place. Tea-boy here won't be able to keep it all tidy, and I don't want to deal with that." Ianto shot Owen an ugly look; Owen ignored him. "She should be in next to the Weevils, at least that's easy to keep her mess contained."

Finally Gwen couldn't stand it anymore and said, "Owen, that's enough. Tosh was right, she may be dying, but she does look more comfortable in the sun." Ianto nodded.

Tosh stopped stroking Sarah's hand. "Jack, she's not dying." Surprised, Jack turned to look at Tosh, who nodded at Sarah's face. He looked into Sarah's eyes, and staggered back to see that they were not piercing blue terror-stricken anymore but bright, glowing, gold. The colour of ancient coins or the souls of angels. The colour of life itself. Jack felt his mouth go dry.

Sarah threw back her head with a scream that pierced the souls of all in the room. The scream faded into a choke, a gurgle for breath, a gasp, another scream. The livid red line on her head flashed, split, and thrust upward into a shimmering golden line. The sunlight from Myfanwy's window grew brighter, more intense, harsh. Grabbing her head in her hands, Sarah thrashed back and forth on the mattress. The golden line grew, then grew some more, and expanded before opening into a tall, shimmering, wondrous swept-back crest. Streaks of blood and clods of hair fell to the floor.

With her eyes full of as much compassion and kindness as any of them had ever seen, underscored with an expression of complete and utter awe, Tosh held Sarah's face in her hands. Although Tosh said something to Sarah, and Sarah nodded, none of the rest of them heard. Ever so gently, Tosh helped Sarah undress under the blanket, wordlessly folding her clothes and putting them in a pile off to the side. She moved Sarah to a kneeling position, face down, hands in front of her, that magnificent golden crest flashing above her head as Sarah lay in the ray of sunshine. After pushing the blanket down to her hips, exposing the misshapen back, Tosh knelt in front of her and clasped both hands.

"Owen, Jack, all of you, this isn't a death." She paused, stroked Sarah's hair back from the still-white face, then looked all of them in the face. Then she said gently, "It's a birth."

***

The clock struck noon.

Sarah let out another heart-shattering scream. "Oh please, oh please, help me through this, please!" she begged, then screamed again. Sweating, shaking, panting, heaving. Tosh held her hands as tightly as she could. The horrible under-skin writhing things seemed to heave and twist, then as Sarah bucked and lurched they broke free. Blood and chunks of flesh flew all over the Hub, showering Tosh with gore. Something huge and silver flashed once, twice, three times in the sunlight. Sarah gasped and shuddered, then unfurled a pair of radiant 12-foot-long featherless wings.

"Bloody hell!" Ianto gasped.

Owen keeled over in a dead faint.

"Come, Sarah, this is almost over. Do you know what you have to do?" The now-gold eyes fixed on Tosh's face, Sarah nodded. The pain was still there, but the terror had utterly vanished.

Gwen was kneeling on the floor holding a revived Owen. Jack and Ianto had instinctively stepped close to one another, both fumbling desperately for the other's hand.

"Are you ready?"

Sarah nodded again. Atop her head the golden crest was glowing, a bright beacon of energy and life.

"Let's go." Tosh dropped her hands and stepped back.

Once more, Sarah threw her head back and screamed as the last, greatest spasm overtook her. The scream went on and on, desperate and tearing, so piercing that even the Weevils began to moan. Gwen began to sob; Owen began to swear. Tears streamed down Ianto's face and his knuckles turned snow white as he clenched Jack's hand. Jack trembled where he stood. Tosh stood in front of Sarah, still covered in Sarah's blood, still with that same calm, awestruck expression.

Then the scream changed, from a piercing wail of pain and agony to a sound resembling the peal of bells. Bells morphed to a deep, complex chord, full of life and energy and joy and good fortune and love and above all, heaven. The song grew louder and louder, brighter, more joyous, until the music seemed to morph into sunlight itself and flood the Hub with radiance. Sarah's remaining hair shimmered from plain brown to a deep gold. Her neck, arms, legs and body stretched out, lengthening and broadening until the base of those wings came up to Tosh's waist. The creature stood on all fours. Twisting in and out of sight was her naked front, first human, then not, then covered in shimmering indigo-blue scales each the size of a raindrop. The neck curved and arched, golden mane growing to run the length of it; fingers and toes fusing into cloven silver hooves. Long golden hair below the knees and hocks, iridescent blue-black scales with gold tips above and over her back, a long golden horse-tail. Gold and red flames burst forth from the creature, wrapping around its body in a lover's caress. Her golden ears grew large and pointed and black-tipped. Tosh reached for the creature's shadow-of-a-dragon face, feeling it grow under her hands, long tendrils sprouting from its chin, teeth turning to fangs, mouth still open, still singing.

The moment Tosh took her hands down and stepped away, the singing stopped. And Torchwood Three beheld the Kirin.

***

Tosh stepped back to join the rest of the team, then fell to her knees and bowed her head. Ianto regarded her with a strange expression, then joined her, tugging Jack down by the hand he still held. Ianto reached for Tosh with his other hand. Owen and Gwen, who had been on the floor the whole time, scooted up and joined them to Jack's left.

Ever so gently, the Kirin paced towards them. It stood over them, wings wide, shimmering, unbelievable, a creature of legend and dreams made flesh. The flames licking over its body combined with the sunlight cast an ethereal glow over the five kneeling humans. It took a deep breath, then swung its fantastic head over each one, breathing out air that smelled like luck and life and sunlight on to each one in turn. It paused over Jack, lowering the massive head to look into his eyes, then exhaling somewhat harder into his face. When it finally came to Tosh, it reached for her hand with one of its facial tendrils. Tosh proffered the hand, palm up, was given an unmistakable kiss by the creature, was released and had that breath of life blown onto her, a silent benediction for the aid Tosh gave it. Then it turned around, spread its silver wings, and flew up and out of Myfanwy's window.

Nobody spoke for the rest of the day.

----------

The next morning, all five team members had arrived and were sitting around the table in the kitchenette. Still no words had been uttered regarding the previous day. Finally, Gwen succumbed to her need to understand the inexplicable.

"Tosh?"

"Yes, Gwen?"

"How did you know what was happening?"

"It was the spasms. They were coming and going like labour pains. When the Kirin's crest broke free, that was like the first push, and all she needed was somebody to hold her hand--or something--until the birth was complete."

Ianto looked up from his coffee. "Did you know what she would become?"

"No."

Gwen leaned forward. "How did you know what she meant when she said she needed to be safe? You were the only one who saw it."

Tosh sighed. Tilted her head up and looked at the lights. "It was the light, Gwen, and being in a safe haven. Think about it, where else would she go? That people wouldn't run in fear from her, or who would automatically know that a creature such as she would become could exist? That's why she came here from Portsmouth; Canary Wharf is gone and Glasgow was too far away. And then she needed the light to complete her transformation. I didn't really think about that yesterday while it was happening, I don't know how I knew to move her. But I had plenty of time to think about it overnight.

"And you know what?" continued Tosh. "It was such a relief to see a birth, or something of life, for once. We see so much death, it was so beautiful to see life."

The five of them stared at their coffees. Owen tapped his hand restlessly on the table; Gwen reached over and covered it with hers.

"Tosh," Jack offered, tentatively, "why did it breathe on our faces like that?"

"It's what they do," interjected Ianto before Tosh could speak. "It's apparently a combination of a blessing and a good luck token. According to old Chinese legends, the Kirin only enter the houses of people of great honour, and to breathe the breath of a Kirin means you will have luck beyond measure." He paused. "Jack, I don't know why it paused over you, perhaps it thought you needed more luck than the rest of us?" Jack smiled.

"Did she leave any sign, or any trace behind?" Gwen looked both nervous and grateful at once. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted one, but again, she just had to know.

Tosh held up her right hand. In the center of her palm, right where the Kirin had kissed her, was nothing more than smooth skin. Once again, Jack's mouth went dry as he realized all four of them had a subtle golden aura, even in the harsh fluorescent light. He wondered if he were the only one to see it, and if it encompassed him. Tosh leaned across the table. "Gwen, I've only ever seen one miracle in my life" she nodded at Jack "before yesterday. Look in the mirror this evening, and look at Rhys, and let me know if you find anything."

***

Next story in series - The Simplest Answer.