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Ianto sat morosely staring at the cell wall, wondering how the hell he got here.
He knew he should be helping the team clean up, the hub had been totally destroyed by Lisa's rampage and he knew Owen would be stomping the grating down haphazardly making it harder to fix later.
If there was a later.
Gods, what a mess.
Ianto rose and ran his fingers over the brickwork at the back of the cell, wondering how it would feel to smash his head against them repeatedly. He looked over at Janet who stood watching him silently through the glass wall, her head lowered like she was thinking.
Ianto looked to the doorway at the end of the corridor for about the third time in as many minutes, worried now as time ticked by. Owen had been checking him once an hour for his concussion and it was not like Owen to miss the hour. He might be a bastard of a man but he was a perfectionist when it came to his craft.
Finally Owen appeared, flustered and harried as he bustled to the glass and peered in.
"Still alive?"
"Yes Owen."
"Good" Owen turned to go and Ianto stepped up to the glass.
"What's happening?"
"Don't know" Owen said, then turned to face him, "A meteor shower or something. Like a bloody fireworks display out there, everyone is freaking out but NASA is sure they will not enter out atmosphere."
Ianto frowned, "Have you checked the NSA? They have the unedited reports from NASA."
"What?"
"Open my screen and tap in NSA REPORTS, you will find a small file on the bottom left hand…." Ianto started to explain and Owen grunted, then opened the cell and motioned him out, impatient to move.
They headed up to the Hub and Gwen rose from her Workstation, "Why is he here?"
"Owen?" Jack said as he appeared from his office, "I would like to ask the same thing."
"He started to explain how to do something and I didn't care" Owen answered as Ianto started to unlock his workstation under the stairs. "Oi Tea Boy. I wanna see."
Ianto pointed to the large screen behind the sofa and it flickered to life, the computer screen ghosted on the large one. Icons appeared and the mouse moved quickly as Ianto clicked, entered and flicked through things then clicked another file opening to something that had Jack grunting as he stepped closer to the screen.
Then Ianto opened another server and another box popped up Ianto typing so fast that Tosh was trying to keep up. "Ianto, how do you know that password?"
Then a live feed opened, the man speaking solemn and speaking with the severity of a scientist "…Mister President, I think the time for speculation is over, the first one has entered the atmosphere near Chile…"
"Fuck" Owen said softly and they watched with open mouths as the man told the President of the United States that this storm was gong to hail down on the earth like small bombs.
"The largest one seems to be the size of a toaster, nothing to cause widespread damage, this is a global event but nothing that on its own can cause devastation but the clumping is strange."
"What does he mean?" Gwen asked.
"They seem to be in even numbers, either six or eight" Ianto said softly, zooming in, "See? They are falling in a formation."
"Shit, he's right" Jack said as he looked closer, "How long is this supposed to last?"
"The data says this event will continue for another four hours at least" Ianto frowned, "Weird, it is like they are time release, do you see the spacing between the formations?"
Jack straightened, "I'm going topside to look for myself, I want the rest of you to keep working on it."
"What about him!" Gwen demanded pointing at Ianto and Jack looked at her, then Ianto.
"Ianto stand down" Jack sighed, "Gwen is right. Go home and we will sort this tomorrow."
"Shouldn't he be in the cells still?" Gwen pushed and Jack frowned at her.
"Like you after the sex gas?" Jack asked and she slumped.
"Go home Ianto, I'm going to look at the lights in the sky" Jack raced for the roof, as did Owen and Ianto pulled on his Burberry, heading for his dingy flat. The single malt calling his name and he wondered if drinking an entire bottle could give him alcohol poisoning.
He didn't really care if he didn't wake up tomorrow at all.
He didn't look up at the sky once.
