"You know, this is really your fault. I said it would probably be a bad idea to try landing anywhere near the Hub so we could refuel first, considering that it is now a great big hole in the ground."
"Jack never told me how big it was, just said that the Hub had been destroyed. I figured there might have been a safe spot near the water tower where we could land and... top up, so to speak. If anyone - ow - is to blame for this, it's Jack. Do you have to pull quite so much?"
Owen snipped off the bit of extra thread remaining on the needle, then put everything back in the small medical kit he'd set on the edge of the console. Ordinarily, he would have stopped to at least sterilize the needle again before putting it away, but they didn't have time now. Their last landing had set them back in their plan by a couple of hours at least. They'd intended on materializing near the water tower in Roald Dahl Plass, but the Doctor had miscalculated the spread of the wreckage of Torchwood Three's headquarters and that had resulted in the Tardis landing inside the hole and then tipping over on its side as the rubble underneath shifted. The result of that mishap was the cut Owen had just stitched up on the back of the Doctor's head.
"I'm barely tugging at all, but yes, I do have to do it. Unless you'd rather I just left the wound open and at risk of getting some sort of infection which we wouldn't be able to treat because of your allergy to aspirin." Owen paused and dug out a small, pink bandage from the medical kit; he had no idea how these particular bandages had gotten there in the first place and he had the feeling he didn't want to know. "Or I could put this on and then kiss it better. Which would you prefer?"
The Doctor shook his head as he stood up and put on his suit jacket, then headed for the main door. "Alright, so it was necessary, but it still hurt. Now let's see where we landed this time so we can get started on finding Ianto. Did you remember to get that case from the workshop? Without that, we might as well just write this all off as a lost cause."
"It's in my jacket, all ready to go," Owen said, patting the little bulge over the left side of his ribcage. It wouldn't look like much from the outside, which was the whole point, but it was in fact a hard-shelled case the same length as a chequebook and about twice as thick as a DVD case. Inside were four items - a syringe and three vials, each a slightly different shade of green. They'd picked it up on a planet in the Scarlet System after learning on a space station that the Pallushi had been doing research into curing or at least treating various diseases that was much more compassionate than what the Doctor had stopped on New Earth. "Just one thing, though. Why did you say that we need to see where we landed this time? I thought you set specific coordinates when we left that crater in Cardiff."
"Didn't have time and I couldn't reach the controls well enough with the whole thing tipped over on its side. I just told the Tardis to take us to London and that we needed to be somewhere safe so we wouldn't run the risk of walking out the door and right into trouble. Not that I'd be surprised if that's what happened this time," the Doctor added, opening the door and popping his head out to take a look. "Oh, hello!"
Owen had been standing by the railing that circled the console, but when he heard that surprised greeting, he ran for the door, just barely stopping himself from running into the Doctor as they both stepped out into what turned out to be an abandoned warehouse. Well, nearly abandoned. There were a few pieces of furniture set up about 40 meters from the Tardis - a coffee table, couch, a couple of chairs, and a small light rig that looked as though it had been scavenged from a construction site. Standing near all this furniture, looking like a trio of deer staring down a car, were Gwen, Rhys, and Ianto.
They all stood there staring at each other for a moment, not saying anything and not moving, as if waiting to see who would make the first move. Even the Doctor hadn't moved, except to shove his hands into his pockets and glance over his shoulder at Owen. The look on his face clearly said 'You should take over from here. I barely know any of them and you worked with them for quite a long time, Owen.'
Rhys was the first one to break the silence. "Would someone please explain what the bloody hell is going on here? Gwen, you told me Owen was dead; we even visited his grave, for god's sake."
"Well, that's a lovely hello, isn't it? Considering what you're dealing with right now, I would have thought that a former teammate showing up when you thought he was dead would be the least of your worries. What's the date, anyway?" Owen hadn't even bothered to ask the Doctor what day they'd arrived on, something he should have done right off the bat; the Pallushian who'd given him the little hard case had said it was critical that Ianto receive the injections no less than 36 hours before being exposed to whatever virus the 456 were using.
"Unless we've all lost a day somewhere, it's the 8th of July, 2009. But.... shouldn't you already know that since you've been traveling with the Doctor," Ianto asked, sounding like he was caught between the casual attitude he'd been exhibiting the past few days and the formality he felt a meeting with someone like the Doctor deserved. "I'm sorry, but your ship does travel through time, doesn't it? Jack has told me a few things about the time he spent traveling with you." This last was directed at the Doctor, who had started prodding the light rig to see if he could get it to give off a little more light than it already was.
"It's not one-hundred percent accurate, but yes, I can travel through time. I'm surprised Jack didn't give you and Gwen all the lovely details of what happened last July. Well, there are some details I hope he didn't share. A Time Lord's got to have some privacy. Same goes for the time we ended up on Melatuse, though I think even Jack isn't quite so tactless as to tell you, of all people, about that." The Doctor paused in his rambling speech and took a deep breath, his head turning from side to side as he took in what he could see of the warehouse. "Speaking of, where is Jack? He's not hiding about anywhere, is he?"
"Considering the man ran out on us because he heard the Tardis and didn't even bother to let us know where he was going, I highly doubt he'd be hiding from you, Doctor. Especially after what happened on Melatuse." Owen winked at the Doctor as he crossed to where Ianto stood and put a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "I know this is going to sound just plain weird coming from me, but since Jack isn't here, do you think I could have a chat with you in private? Just right inside the Tardis."
"Why not? What could you possibly have to say that Gwen and Rhys shouldn't hear? If you want to talk, we can do it right here."
Owen was a little shocked by that statement coming from someone like Ianto, but all things considered, it actually seemed appropriate. With the team being reduced to just three people, a lot more responsibility was bound to be heaped onto the young man's shoulders than he was used to. He'd come a long way from being the tea boy Owen had teased and played pranks on during his own time with the Institute. And that left Owen with no idea how to explain just why they needed to have this conversation in private without saying anything he really shouldn't in front of the two people now sitting on the couch having a rather strained conversation with the Doctor.
There was really only one way for him to do this without being downright rude about it. "Because, Ianto, the Doctor and I are already taking a huge risk just by coming here. If certain people heard about why we're here, it could cause a paradox that would rip apart two-thirds of the universe. Now can we please go in the Tardis before Gwen and Rhys start getting suspicious?"
*****
"And that's about it. I didn't even know about it myself until about a month ago and we've spent all that time trying to figure out exactly how to do this without it causing too many problems," Owen sighed, pulling the little metal case out of his jacket and spinning it in his hands as he waited for a response from Ianto. After the initial 'it's bigger on the inside' shock had worn off - Owen suspected that Ianto had not quite believed what he'd been told about the Tardis by both Jack and his former superiors at Torchwood One - they'd sat down on the bench seat in the console room so Owen could explain the entire plan in as much detail as he could. Now it all depended on whether or not Ianto believed him and agreed to go along with it.
From what he could tell just by looking at the younger man's face, Ianto was having a hard time processing the information he'd just received. When he finally did speak, it was in a quiet tone Owen hadn't heard since the aftermath of that incident with the cannibals. "So I either don't go along with your plan and I definitely die tomorrow or I go along with this and risk dying anyway since the Doctor doesn't know exactly what virus is going to be released. At least my options are simple. I just don't know how well I'll be able to keep something like this a secret from Jack."
"Ianto, if you decide to go along with the plan, then you won't have a choice. If Jack found out about it, or if it worked and he found out that you're still alive, he could very well end up not telling the Doctor about what happened this week, which would-"
"Which would cause a paradox and destroy the universe. Owen, I understand why it's dangerous. While you were gone, a lot changed between me and Jack. You haven't seen anything we've been through in the past year. We're not .... perfect, but we've come a long way from that yelling match where I told Jack that having sex with him wasn't in my job description. The only real problem we're having is something I need to deal with on my own; Jack can't make me stop being paranoid that he'll leave me once I start looking older than he does." Ianto turned away from Owen and straightened his tie, a habit he'd had for as long as Owen could remember. Straightening any part of his suit seemed to be Ianto's way of patching any of the cracks in the wall that was always in place between him and the rest of the world.
"You're not the only one who's ever felt that way," Owen muttered, turning his attention to the little case in his hands. Of all the people currently in this building, Ianto was the one he least wanted to have this conversation with. As far as he was concerned, it was over, done with, and certainly wouldn't be happening again, so there was no point in dwelling on it. "Not to change the subject too quickly, but what do you think? Do you want to go with what I've got in this box and at least have a chance at breaking the Torchwood Curse?"
He didn't have to wait long for an answer. Ianto took a deep breath and nodded, his posture and the expression on his face giving off a sense of determination that Owen thought might be a little forced. "I've got to try it at least. If it means possibly saving my life, then it's worth the risk. Just what is this plan anyway, and how are you going to keep Jack from finding out and destroying the universe?"
"There's a race called the Pallushi - halfway across the universe from here and when I met them, it was about 300 years ahead of where we are right now. When they realized that a lot of the species visiting their home star system were bringing in diseases they'd never even heard of, they had to figure out a way of curing anyone who was infected without completely cutting themselves off from the rest of the universe." As Owen spoke, he started drawing up a little of each vial's contents into the syringe. "We don't know exactly what you're going to be exposed to, so there's not a lot can be done. With help from the Pallushi, though, we've got something that just might work. The first vial is a vaccine against most of the major diseases that existed at the time, specially formulated for you based on what I was able to tell them about the chemical make-up of the human body. If all goes well, you'll find out what the other two vials do tomorrow."
*****
Owen turned away from the door, kicking it shut as he went, and started pacing the control room again, hands tapping against his thighs. Because of the high alert everyone in the city was on at the moment, they'd decided against parking the Tardis near Thames House so they could watch how everything played out from there. Instead, they'd hidden it just across the river, in a small car park between the headquarters for the London Fire Brigade and the International Maritime Organization. Their position and a large cluster of trees in front of Thames House didn't allow them to get a view of the front doors so they could tell exactly when Jack and Ianto arrived, but according to the Doctor, that didn't matter.
He'd spent most of the previous night holed up in his workshop trying to fix something he hadn't let Owen see. The following morning, he'd presented Owen with a pentagonal box that had a small radar screen on the top and several buttons around the outer edges. It was a tracking device that had been part of the standard equipment for all Type 40 Tardises, but not for the kind of circumstances they were dealing with. The tracker chip that went with the main device was now stowed away in Ianto's suit, stuck to the back of a waistcoat button; now that the Doctor had repaired and adjusted the main device, they would be able to track Ianto's movements as long as he stayed within a six kilometer radius of the Tardis.
"You might as well sit down and try to relax, Owen. They're inside the building, but getting past all the security and up to floor thirteen is going to take some time," the Doctor said, eyes fixed on the tracking device's radar screen. He'd been trying to adjust the settings again to zoom in and see exactly where Ianto was standing, but either it had stopped working or Ianto hadn't really moved at all in the last five minutes. "And if you can't relax, then try to focus on what we'll have to do just to get in there without running into any trouble."
Owen stopped pacing and leaned forward with his hands on the railing around the console. "What do you mean? Can't we just land the Tardis inside and then use that psychic paper thing of yours to get us access to wherever we'll need to go?"
Carefully, the Doctor set the tracking device down next to him on the bench seat so he could gesture with his hands as he spoke. "I wish we could, but that won't work. For a few reasons, actually. One, the UNIT soldiers posted there right now to help with security are likely to recognize me and they'll ask too many questions that I can't answer. Two, the perception filter won't work when everyone is on high alert. Three, with everything that's been happening, how do you think people will react to seeing an alien craft appear out of nowhere, especially one that is carrying a person who they probably think should have been helping out when all of this first started? If you're still sure about this plan, then you'll be on your own."
There was a brief moment of silence where Owen was tempted to let the snarky bastard side of his personality show, but the tracking device sitting next to the Doctor cut that thought short by letting out a high-pitched series of beeps. The noise only lasted for a few seconds, but it was enough to bring the focus back to the purpose of this rescue mission. "I take it that means something just happened to Ianto?"
The Doctor nodded. "Yeah. When I fixed this thing, I put something in that would alert us if Ianto's heart stopped beating. Morbid, I know, but it's the easiest way for us to tell what's going on without getting too close to Jack or Gwen and risking either of them figuring out what's going on. You might want to go ahead and walk over there now. When you get out of there with Ianto, or if you have to get out of there and forget about rescuing him, go down to the end of Millbank Tower. It's just a couple of blocks, so you won't have to go far. Oh, and one more thing, Owen. Be careful, and good luck."
*****
It must have taken him longer to make his way across the river than he had originally thought it would because, by the time Owen stopped in front of Thames House, the area was starting to remind him of the suicide bombings back in 2005. He'd been in London helping Jack with a mission that day and they'd only just managed to avoid getting caught in any of the explosions. There hadn't been any actual explosions this time around, but the emotions were just as high. He had no way of knowing how many people had actually been here when the virus was first released, but enough could see the dead bodies pressing against the glass doors of the building that panic was probably just around the corner. Well, more panic than had already been felt over the last few days. At least UNIT seemed to making an attempt at controlling the situation.
A large black truck had pulled up and, judging by what was being taken out, the soldiers were working on setting up a barrier that would prevent the voyeuristic crowd from taking pictures of the tragic scene. While that was going on, one soldier had climbed up on the roof of a police car with a megaphone and started talking through it in a tone that clearly said there was no point in arguing with what was about to be done.
"If I could have everyone's attention over here for a moment. Thank you. As I'm sure some of you are already aware from having seen what is behind that barrier, the aliens inside that building launched a biological attack. UNIT has already received word that the attack was isolated to this building and that there is very little to no chance of the virus getting out into the streets, but to be safe, one of our staff doctors will be scanning each of you in turn." The soldier with the megaphone gestured to a man in a white lab coat who was holding up something that looked like a Bekaran deep-tissue scanner had been crossed with one of those hand-held vacuum cleaners. "The scan will take less than a minute and it is completely painless. It may detect other illnesses that you already have, but Doctor Taylor is only interested in finding traces of this alien virus. Once you have been scanned, we would ask that you please clear the area."
That announcement nearly had Owen giving up on rescuing Ianto in favor of running for the Tardis and saving his own ass. He didn't remember ever hearing about a Doctor Taylor working for UNIT, but there was still the possibility that this man would recognize Owen or, with the help of that scanner, would be able to find the case he still had tucked into his jacket. Finding that would mean a lot of questions he wasn't prepared to answer without doing a hell of a lot of bullshitting - something they'd be able to see right through with little effort, no doubt. Of course, if it came down to being interrogated and possibly imprisoned, he could always mention the Doctor's name to see if that had any sort of positive effect.
He was shaken from his thoughts by a tap on his shoulder - turned out it was his turn to be scanned already. "Need me to hold my arms out or anything," he asked, hoping that the scanner would just do its job quickly so Doctor Taylor could move on to his next 'patient'.
"No, that's alright, sir. I just need to pass the scanner over you the way they do at airports and it should tell me what I need to know," Doctor Taylor said, poking at a few buttons as if he had only just started using the piece of equipment today. Something on the screen must not have shown up the way it should because he scanned Owen a second time and still didn't look satisfied with the results. "Well, this is the strangest thing I've seen come up on the scanner. It doesn't look right at all."
"What did you find," Owen asked, as afraid of knowing the problem as he was curious about it.
Doctor Taylor shook his head. "I'm not a medical doctor, so I can't be too sure, but you're perfectly healthy except for one thing. I thought it was just a glitch in the scanner's software or interference from someone else, but it came up on the second go as well, so I'm not sure what to make of it. Just wait right there. Captain Magambo, I think I've found something." This last was directed over his shoulder at the soldier who had stood on top of the car. It appeared she'd been trying to give out some orders, but apparently, whatever Doctor Taylor might have found took precedence.
Captain Magambo barely even looked at Owen when she walked over, her full attention focusing on the scanner and its so far mysterious results. "Is it the virus? If this got out and contaminated this man, we should isolate him immediately. We can't risk anyone else catching and spreading it."
"It's not that, Captain. According to the scanner, he's a perfectly healthy Welshman. But look at what it did find." Doctor Taylor handed Captain Magambo the scanner, pointing out something that Owen couldn't see no matter how he strained his neck. "You see? I've scanned him twice and it came up the same both times."
The captain nodded and handed the scanner back; whatever the results had been, it was clearly serious because, to Owen, it looked like she couldn't decide between excitement, shock, and anger. "Continue scanning the crowd, then get inside and have Thompson call the Prime Minister to report the results." As soon as Doctor Taylor was gone, Captain Magambo turned to face Owen, her hand lifting partway into a salute and then dropping again quickly. "If you don't mind me saying, Doctor, we could have used your help a lot sooner than this."
*****
It had taken nearly half an hour for Owen to convince the soldiers who had gathered inside the truck - it was actually a mobile headquarters - that while he was a fully qualified medical doctor, he wasn't the Doctor they were looking for. Apparently, the scanner had decided to malfunction and, even after a third and fourth go, was still saying that Owen had two hearts. That alone had been enough for everyone on site to freeze up; from looking through certain UNIT files, Owen knew that they had all learned about the Doctor while going through training and that even now, the Doctor was still listed in their personnel files as a scientific advisor. With all the questions he'd had to answer, Owen was getting a first-hand taste of what the Doctor had been trying to avoid.
"Look, I'm sorry that he wasn't able to come and help you out, but the way he explained it to me was that the human race have got to start standing on their own feet and defending themselves. It's not that he didn't want to help then or that he still doesn't. He just thinks that, if he always shows up to save the day, you lot will never be able to evolve properly. You'll always be counting on someone else to do the dirty work," Owen said, standing up from his chair and pulling the case from his jacket. "It's true that I used to work for Torchwood and that I died. It's also true that if any of you so much as whisper about this to anyone outside this room, it could destroy most of the universe. This case here is part of the reason we came here. I wish I could tell you more about what I'm here to do, but I can't. All I can do is ask that you stop fucking about and help me. The target of my mission is a life or death situation that .... " He paused to check his watch and ended up quickly stuffing the case back in one of his pockets. "Well it's going to reach the critical point in less than ten minutes. Now, if the numbers I've gotten from the Doctor are true, then none of you are keen on having more deaths on your hands. Of course, this is UNIT we're talking about, so I could be wrong. Jack's told me how much you like rushing in and waving your guns about for no reason. So, can any of you honestly say you don't mind having the blood of one more person on your hands?"
Owen looked around the now-silent room, trying to make eye contact with everyone and failing rather miserably. Whenever he thought he had caught someone's eye, they looked away and forced themselves to focus on something else. It seemed none of them wanted to acknowledge the darker parts of their organization's past; even as recently as five years ago, they'd been known to be a little heavy-handed when it came to dealing with prisoners. When, after a little while, no one responded to the question, Owen turned and started heading for the door at the back of the truck. "Right then. Who wants to show me the way up to wherever you're keeping the dead right now?"
A young private that had been standing at the back of the group cleared his throat then and stood forward, looking almost embarrassed as he spoke to Owen. "Actually, we were all so excited at the thought that you were the Doctor that, uh.... Well, let me just say that you wouldn't have any problems getting through security on your own."
"Well I'm not the Doctor and I sure as hell don't have two hearts. Whoever made that scanner thing of yours doesn't seem to know what they're doing because it's broken. But thank you, Private...... Weston," Owen said, glancing at the private's uniform. "It's good to know that I won't have to worry about anyone stopping me again. I hate when that happens. Especially when they talk too damn much." Saluting the group as best he could, Owen turned and ran out of the truck. He hadn't been lying or even bending the truth when he'd said that his mission would go critical soon. If he didn't administer the contents of that third vial soon, then Ianto would be dead permanently.
Unfortunately, the building itself wasn't helping any. The elevators had been disabled during the lockdown and so far, no one could get them to work again, which, for Owen, meant running up two flights of stairs that he'd nearly slipped on as he navigated them two and three steps at a time. He was out of breath by the time he reached the right room and he forced himself to pause for a moment to catch his breath. It wouldn't do either himself or Ianto any good if he passed out now. "Alright, Ianto, where are they hiding you," Owen muttered to himself, looking down the rows of red sheet-covered bodies and wishing suddenly that he'd thought to ask what number Ianto's body had been given. He was about to start looking for a manifest of some kind when an empty spot near the middle of the room caught his eye. The plastic sheet was still there, but it had been bundled up as if the occupant of the space had decided to get up and take a stroll. "That would be Jack, then. Going by that, you must be...."
Owen trailed off as he walked over and pulled back the sheet from a body to the empty space's left. There he was - Ianto Jones, Torchwood teaboy and .... Owen frowned as he pulled the metal case out of his pocket for the last time; he didn't really know much at all about Ianto, did he? The young man was so quiet and he'd never joined the team on one of those few nights they'd gone for drinks. "You must have had something worth hiding to keep it from everyone. Maybe the Doctor will be able to get some of that mystery out of you," he said, his tone almost as casual with Ianto as it had been with every body he did an autopsy on. At least, the autopsies no one was around to see.
Carefully, Owen drew up a measure of the liquid from the third vial, then lifted up one of Ianto's arms and shoved the sleeve up to expose the crook of his elbow. With a precision he hadn't used for this sort of work in a long time, Owen felt for a vein - it wasn't easy without a tourniquet of some sort - and gave the needed injection. Now it was all up to whatever technology was built into the liquid to propel it through a dead body. He'd had the Pallushian scientists explain it to him several times, but it was so far over his head that the only way Owen could make any sense out of it was by telling himself it was like chemically inducing the mental triggers that allowed a person to wake up after being under a general anesthesia.
As it turned out, the reaction Ianto appeared to be having wasn't that far off from Owen's explanation of the Pallushian science. The only noticeable difference being that the process was quite a bit faster. "Jack.... where are we?" Ianto's voice sounded a little rough and he was mumbling a bit, but it wasn't bad enough to keep Owen from being able to understand him.
"It worked. Bloody hell, those aliens were right. Ianto, I'm sorry, but where you are right now shouldn't even be an issue," Owen said, helping Ianto into a sitting position. "You've just done something that I thought was impossible. Jack can do it, we know that, and I've done it, but it's still fucking impossible."
Ianto shook his head, still feeling a bit drugged. As far as he knew, he was not only dead, but stuck in what looked like a gymnasium with a surprisingly cheerful version of Owen Harper. Perhaps this was what Hell would be like? "Owen, or whatever you are that's pretending to be Owen, you're not making any sense at all. I'm dead. How is that so impossible? Ow! What did you do that for?" He glared down at his arm, where Owen had just pinched him.
Owen just smiled and stood up, dragging Ianto with him and holding him steady. "To prove something to you. You know, you claim to know everything, but you can be really thick sometimes. Ianto, I just saved your life. Remember when I showed up in that warehouse with the Doctor yesterday? I gave you those two injections and wouldn't tell you what they were for." He smiled as a look of recognition finally started to cross Ianto's face. "Much better. Look, as much as I'd love to stay here and chat, we've got to get out of this building before anyone decides to see what I'm up to. I'll explain everything when we get to the Tardis; I promise. Think you'll be able to walk?"
Ianto nodded slowly, then took a couple of tentative steps forward. It felt like pins and needles running through his entire body, but he could push through that well enough. He'd had to do it often enough after some of the things he and Jack got up to. "I think so. Just .... don't try to make me run anytime soon. I don't think I could manage that yet."
"Might not have a choice, depending on where we'll be going from here," Owen said, putting a supportive arm around Ianto's shoulders and leading the younger man out of the room. He'd done it. It didn't quite make up for some of the deaths he'd been unable to prevent during his time with Torchwood, but it was a start. He only hoped that Ianto would forgive him once he realized just how long he'd be traveling in the Tardis.