Someone was watching. A man who has been around as long as I have and done the kind of things I've done develops certain instincts about when he's getting too much attention. The wrong kind of attention, that is. Of other kinds there was never really too much. Except maybe when I'm working, and even then…anyway the vibe I was sensing now was nothing like those kind of vibes. Someone was interested alright, but not in me. In Torchwood.
A brief sweep of the crowd told me what I need to know. Among the hoard of spectators watching with varying expression of shock, fear, and morbid fascination I found the one I was looking for. A policewoman with dark brown hair, staring right me. Figures. Torchwood never has been very popular with the local authorities. They seem to think we invade their turf, break protocol, all of the petty little things they hold so near and dear. I usually don't concern myself with their bruised egos, but today one of their numbers might be looking to make herself my problem.
I glance at my team, but they're too focused on their work to have noticed anything odd. Susie seemly particularity excited, on account of the glove being her baby. Personally I don't understand her attachment. The thing makes me damn uneasy. Not that I'd share this with the team. What would they do if the knew the reason behind my belief that the dead should stay dead? Pointless to even thinking about. Just as pointless as my discomfort about the gauntlet. Who knew how it could help us in the coming war? If someone hands Torchwood a weapon, any weapon, the human race's survival depends on us using it. I know that better than anybody. Better to keep my focus on something else. Like the odd taste of the rain for example. Or the fact I could sense the woman was no longer standing behind me.
"Estrogen. Definitely Estrogen." She was still nearby, still watching. "You take the pill, flush it away, it enters the water supply, effeminizes the fish." She must have moved to get a better vantage point. If it was me… "Goes all the way into the sky," I raise my head just enough to surreptitiously check the buildings on either side of the alley. The parking garage. Got to be. "then falls all the way back down to me. Contraceptives in the rain. I love this planet." Curious and clever. Not bad traits, just a bit inconvenient. Nothing really to do about it at point. And besides, the woman's earned herself a bit of a show. "Still at least I won't get pregnant. Never doing that again." Wonder what she made of that comment. Alright enough fun, back to work.
"How's it going?" Susie had taken up her position behind the victim's head.
"Nothing yet. I'm trying to connect. I just can't feel it."
"Then hurry up and feel it. I'm freezing my ass of out here."
"It's not like flicking on a switch. It's more like access, it grants me access."
"Whatever that means." Owen and Susie squabbling, there's a shocker. Well I'm glad we're showing our audience what a team of real professionals looks like. You'd have thought those two would have been able to work out some of that tension in bed, but in the five months they had been going at it, they'd fought more, not less. Then again it probably kept the sex hotter- Susie's finally got something.
"Positions." Everyone obeys, but of course Owen feels the need to complain a bit more.
"Just concentrate. Susie." As she makes the connection the rain stops and the surrounding lights glow brighter as a result of the radiating energy. All the better for our police friend to see by. As the boy's head jerked up, shocked back into life, I listened for a reaction from the woman perched above us. I didn't hear a scream or even a gasp. Odd. Most people would have a stronger reaction to watching the dead come back to life. Without my sixth sense, I doubted I would have known she was even there.
The kid was panicking. Tosh's comforting wasn't helping matters much, but of the four of us she was the best suited for the task. Owen holds the dead in contempt, Susie needs to focus on glove while she works, and I don't trust myself to question when there are so many things I want to know…the temptation would be too great. Poor kid. No one wants to be dead. Except me.
Like before, the victim couldn't tell us anything valuable about his murderer. In theory the glove could solve every homicide, but in practice the thing seemed to be pretty useless. Maybe we just needed to give it more time. We'd only used the glove a dozen or so times. Violent death doesn't occur regularly enough in Cardiff for us to get a sufficient amount of practice. In a way this new string of murders was a good thing for Torchwood. It's allowed Susie to get more control and she's getting better with it all the time. Looking at the scared boy on the pavement, I'm ashamed of thinking that way. He was so young, so like the soldiers I once lead. So like the soldiers I watched die.
"What's your name?"
"John. John Tucker."
"OK John. Not long now." I used the same smile and calming words I've used with dozens of others I'd been with as they died. Easing this boy's fear seemed the least I could do.
"Who are you?" No matter how many times I'm asked the question, no matter who asks I always answer the same way. The others think I do it to be enigmatic. They're wrong. I do it because it is the best answer I have to who I am. It's name of the man who changed from con man to hero. The man I was proud to be. Feeling the seconds slip by I was compelled to ask the question, "Tell me, what was it like when you died. What did you see? John, tell me what you saw." There's no harm in asking now, we already gotten everything we were going to get. Why shouldn't I ask?
"Ten seconds." Susie's warning made me lean in even closer. I waited as the kid struggled to remember.
"Nothing, I saw nothing. Oh my God there's nothing!" And he was gone. I felt cheated somehow. You would think I'd know more about death than anyone else, but there is no one who is less of an authority than me. Everyone else will know someday. I never will. Forever knowing the pain of dying and coming back, and never knowing the rest.
The team was fighting about the glove again. I feel like a school teacher, calling his pupils to order.
"We told the last corpse he was injured and he wasted the whole two minutes screaming for an ambulance. Maybe there's no right way to do it. What do you think?!" I caught a glimpse of wide frightened eyes before the woman instinctively ducked out of view. As I suspected my friend upstairs hadn't realized she had been noticed. The observer turned to the observed. That's what comes of listening at keyholes. The others were looking at me curiously.
"Pack it up fast, we've got a spectator." They all grumbled, especially Owen but within twenty seconds we were back in the car and headed back toward the Hub. I tuned out the comments of the team as I drove, thinking instead of the wide brown eyes I'd glimpsed. Would she run home and try to forget? Would she try to find us? My curiosity was pointless. How ever she reacted it would end the same. One Retcon pill and a safe return to her normal world. Still, I did wonder.