Dark storm clouds rolled inexorably over Cardiff, street lights slowly triggered into life, casting a dull unenthusiastic light down onto the rapidly darkening streets. The few remaining shoppers rushed for cover as thunder rumbled overhead.

Far beneath their feet, Toshiko finally leaned back in her chair, heaved a sigh of relief and took off her glasses. Rubbing her eyes she closed them for a moment, then shook her head and stood up. She didn't have time for all this,.

Jack still wasn't back and they were working short handed, she believed that he would come back and she knew the others did too, even Owen, who was the only one who wouldn't openly admit to the fact that he missed Jack being around as much as the rest.

Walking away from her desk she stretched and glanced across the hub. Puzzled, she stopped and changed direction, moving to stand on the walkway that ran towards the armoury.

Maybe it was just because her eyes were tired, but she could have sworn that there was something shining or reflecting that wasn't usually there!

Maybe she had just imagined it? Just a trick of the light... except that there wasn't any white light around and this had definitely been a white light. Shaking her head she turned away, she needed rest- it had been a long day!

As she turned something caught her attention, something off to the side. She looked over towards the tanks of water that were set into the floor, expecting to see something. Again there was nothing there.

A faint voice called her name. Thinking Ianto had been in all along and she hadn't realised, she looked towards the sound of the voice. "Ianto?" she peered into the shadows, wondering why he hadn't said anything.

A gently insistent voice murmured in her ear, calling her name, telling her to come. She felt puzzled for a moment, it seemed to be coming from one of the storage tanks, she could see the moon reflected in the water, but that couldn't be, it was impossible for it to be reflecting down here.

Suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling that she was floating up from the floor, almost as if she was being carried, for a split second she panicked, then relaxed, why should she worry? I wasn't as if there was anything to worry about, was there?

How long she floated, looking down on the Hub she didn't know, but the voices suddenly changed, became more insistent, they wanted her to go down into the autopsy room there was something she needed to find.

She wasn't floating any more now, her shoulders felt stiff and awkward is if she was carrying something heavy across them, she told herself it was nothing that she was just tired. But still she walked.

She struggled down the steps and stood beside the autopsy table, everything looked blurred she felt as if she was looking through someone else's eyes, when she moved her head it was is if she was encased inside something, but she knew that she couldn't be. She wanted to touch her head, so she could prove to herself that everything was normal but she couldn't raise her arms.

Instead her body was walking towards Owen's fridge, taking out some of his test slides. He wouldn't like that why was she doing that? She tried to look down tilting her head as best she could, she looked at the slides they were in her hand but she couldn't feel them, she didn't want them there.

A voice called to her, a familiar voice but it sounded as if it was miles away, she tried to concentrate on it, make her mind up who it belonged to but it was impossible. She felt her body lurching around her arms were swinging aggressively but she didn't know why, then she saw Owen lying on the ground, not moving, blood across his face.

Had she done that ? No! No, not to him, her mind seemed to be screaming, desperate to make sense of what was happening.

She was moving again, she didn't want to, she wanted to help him, but she was already halfway up the steps, she wanted to look back at him, but it took all of her willpower to just lift her hand a fraction of an inch, she couldn't turn her head. She began to sob, but she knew there were no tears, no sound.

Then Ianto was there, he was talking to her, but his voice made no sense, she tried to call out to him, tell him to be careful, keep his distance, but it was too late. She saw him fall, the slash marks clearly visible across his face before he went below her field of vision. She was moving towards the guard rail, why was she doing that? She was touching the metal now, leaning over, she could see Owen still on the floor, and below her Ianto, she must have pushed him through the railings he had fallen partly over the autopsy table.

They were dead, she'd killed them, she tried to scream, to cry, anything to convince herself that she could make her body do something she wanted it to. What if Gwen came back? Thoughts seemed to echo around in her head, mixed with her sobs, but she wasn't crying, there were no tears, she knew that, her face felt dry.

She could see her desk now she seemed to be moving towards it, she felt so weary, each step took so much effort. She stopped, it felt as if she was swaying, as if she was going to faint, but she knew that was wrong. The floor was coming closer, rushing towards her face. She wanted to put out her hands to break her fall but her arms were frozen, immovable.

When she hit the floor she felt no pain. A high pitched scream echoed inside her head and then a constant humming that seemed to be getting louder and then finally stopped just before everything went black.

* * *

Time seemed to be passing in a fog of lost moments and fragmented images, at the end of it all she wasn't sure which parts she remembered and which she had been told. She was aware of Owen but mostly Gwen, she thought the days must be passing but she wasn't sure. She wondered if she would ever be sure of anything again.

Owen's voice kept telling her to stop complaining, but she couldn't remember complaining about anything, why would she want to complain?

Ianto kept talking about a beast that had rampaged through the Hub and attacked them until Owen had managed to sedate it. He looked at her hopefully sometimes, as if he expected her to say something about it, but she didn't understand why, she hadn't seen any beast, in fact she hadn't seen anything odd at all. The only odd thing had been how she'd felt!

Gwen kept patting her hand and telling her she'd be fine in a couple of days and not to worry. Not to worry! Work was piling up and no one would let her have her laptop. She knew that was Owen's fault, he was the one denying her that. She'd heard him arguing with Ianto about it- Owen had a very colourful turn of phrase sometimes, although she wasn't altogether sure if what he was threatening Ianto with was anatomically possible!

All she wanted was her laptop and to go back to work she thought, as her eyelids closed. Images of a moonlit Hub lulled her to sleep, reflections in the water tanks shimmered and a quiet seductive voice called out her name.

It was such a lovely peaceful voice, it made her feel so relaxed! She smiled contentedly and felt herself floating away.

The End