AN – I own nothing of Torchwood, but these are my words. This is written especially for my friend the Lovely Laura. I hope the Lovely Laura and her fellow Owen fans like it. Owen comes more into his own in chapter 2. All reviews sent happy vibes.

Jack, Owen, Gwen and Tosh sat in the boardroom. Jack put his hands flat on the table and addressed them.

"So what do we know?"

Gwen read from the file in her hands. "Victor Hughs, 64, was found on the Plass at 6.15 this morning."

Owen picked up the story. "He died within a minute of being found." He sighed. "There was nothing I could do for him."

Jack gave him a steady look. "But you tried. And you made sure he wasn't alone at the end." He paused, giving Owen a moment before bringing the doctor back on track. "What did you find out at the autopsy?"

Owen cleared his throat, the mask of detached professionalism taking over once more.

"He had a number of puncture wounds to his torso, but I haven't been able to determine what caused them. As for a cause of death, it appears to be poisoning of some sort. But the tests I've run haven't yet identified what the toxin was. It's not anything known to us already. Which also means that we don't know what sort of antidote we would need if anyone else suffers the same poisoning."

"Do you think the poison was administered through whatever caused the puncture marks?" Gwen questioned.

"I think it's safe to assume, yeah."

"Okay" said Jack, "What else?"

"Well," said Tosh. "There's this." She pressed a button on the computer consol in front of her. A sequence of three numbers, a decimal point, five more numbers and three letters appeared on the screen at the front of the boardroom.

"Just before he died the victim managed to tell us something. He gave us this code. We have no idea what it means. I have started running it through a code breaking programme, but it hasn't come up with anything yet."

As the four people stared at the screen in silence the boardroom door opened and Ianto walked in carrying a tray of coffees. He handed them out to his colleagues and glanced up at the screen.

"One of you actually has a library membership?" he asked.

The rest of the team looked at him confused.

"That number up there." Ianto pointed at the screen. "It's the reference number for a book. Dewey Decimal System? The 57 at the beginning denotes it being biochemistry." He looked embarrassed briefly. "I'm afraid I would have to look up exactly what specific area the other numbers donate, biochemistry was never my thing. But, the fact that there are five digits after the decimal point means that it is quite a specific subject."

Jack gave Ianto one of his best smiles "Nice one Ianto. Remind me to congratulate you properly later."

Ianto blushed. He still didn't really know what was going on with Jack, but he wished he wouldn't be so obvious in front of the others.

Tosh had turned back to the computer, typing the numbers and letters into a library search programme.

"There's only one library in Cardiff that has this book, so I suggest we start there. It's in the archive at Cardiff University."

"Okay" said Jack, "we have somewhere to start. Owen, take the SUV and go and find the book."

Ianto leapt in as Owen stood up. "Jack. Why is Owen going, not me? Archives are my thing."

"Okay then you can go. Both of you."

"No, Jack." Both men said at the same time.

"Don't argue, go." Owen and Ianto glared at each other then at Jack. "Go!" he said again. As the two younger men made to leave Jack took the SUV keys out of his pocket and passed them to Ianto.

With a look of triumph in his eyes Ianto tossed the keys in the air to taunt Owen. The doctor was quick though and plucked the keys out of the air. He gave Ianto a humourless smile and left the board room.

Ianto caught up with him and the pair could be heard bickering as they left the Hub. Jack looked at the two women.

"Does anyone else feel like the mother of small boys with those two sometimes?" he said, making Gwen and Tosh laugh.

"Right. Let's carry on. Tosh, I want you to stay here and get more info about the archive to Owen and Ianto. And see if you can stop them killing each other before they get there. Gwen, you're with me. We're going to hit the street, see if there's any word about this out there."

******

Ianto sat in the SUV sulking and holding the sides of his seat in a death grip as Owen swung the SUV around Cardiff's busy streets. With a quiet beep the comms opened and they could hear Tosh's voice.

"I've got some info for you. The archive is run by Dr Gerry Patterson. I'm going to call him now and have him evacuate the building in case there's anything dangerous there. I'll ask him to meet up with you, then you can get him out of there too."

"Thanks Tosh." Ianto said, just before letting out a loud cry as Owen narrowly missed the car in front of him as they swerved in and out of the traffic.

******

Somehow they arrived at the library in one piece and headed inside. Tosh had done her job well and the place was deserted. They walked to the main counter and saw a pretty blond woman sitting behind it.

"I thought everyone was told to leave?" Owen muttered to Ianto, before addressing the woman. "We're looking for Dr Gerry Patterson."

"That's me." said the woman. Coming out from behind the counter she shook hands with both men. Neither Owen or Ianto were doing very well at disguising their surprise. Far from being the middle aged man, with the middle age spread they had both assumed Gerry Patterson would be, they were facing a woman in her mid-twenties who had all the right curves in all the right places.

"Don't worry, I get it all the time." She smiled, looking at their faces. "My fault really, just hate the name Geraldine, so always go by Gerry. Now how can I help you and why did I have to send all my staff and students home?"

"We're looking for a book." Ianto said. "We have the Dewey code for it and we believe it is in your archive."

"What's the number?" asked Gerry turning to the computer. Ianto told her and her fingers flew quickly over the keyboard as she searched for the book.

"You're right, it is down stairs. Now I see the title, I remember it. Been a bit of interest in this book lately. There was a man in here the last few days looking at this book."

"Really?" said Ianto. "Can you tell us more?"

Owen interrupted him. "To save time Ianto, why don't you go down and find the book, after all achieves are your thing, and I'll stay here and find out what Dr Patterson knows." He smiled at Ianto. The Welshman glared back at him and turning on his heels headed for the stairs. Owen's voice floated behind him.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Dr Owen Harper, and that's my assistant Ianto Jones."

Ianto kept walking, refusing to give Owen the satisfaction of rattling him.

Once down in the archive Ianto discovered that it was well maintained and like any good library things were in perfect order. Ianto felt safe around books and order, this was where he excelled. The Owens of this world could have the action and the fights, just give him a well ordered filing system any day.

Ianto pulled his gun out from his waist band. He still wasn't used to wearing it and found it uncomfortable. He put it down on a nearby desk and started scanning the shelves for the numbers he was looking for.

It didn't take him long to follow the numbers through the library shelves to find the book. He rested it on an empty section of shelf and started flicking quickly through the pages, wondering how obvious whatever they were looking for would be. He touched his hand to his blue tooth ear piece.

"Owen?"

The two way comms opened and Ianto could hear laughing in the background. He scowled to himself.

"Owen. I've found the book."

"Anything special about it?"

"Doesn't look like it. Wait!"

Owen listened as Ianto's voice became more animated. Owen was interested in spite of himself.

"On the back pages, there's something written. A lot of letters and numbers, symbols. Looks like chemical symbols."

"Read them out to me."

Own listened as Ianto read them out. He started to recognise them.

"It's a compound. Sounds like it's the ingredients for something, maybe some sort of drug or…" He paused, ideas coming to him. "Maybe it's the antidote to the poison the old man died from."

"That would make sense" Ianto said. "If I had been poisoned I think my last words might be something to do with…"

Ianto suddenly stopped talking. Through the comms Owen could hear what had made him pause. A sound,, like a thousand hollow twigs quivering together, was getting closer to Ianto. In the library he turned round and his eyes opened wide at the sight in front of him.