I've gotten rid of the Prologue because it was a bit piffly. Anyway, please enjoy and reviews would receive virtual hugs.
Chapter 1: Meteor
Toshiko Sato was sat at her computer, typing away as the machine decoded some alien message that had appeared when a UFO had briefly entered the atmosphere. Behind her, Owen Harper was sewing his slit hand for the dozenth time.
"Do you want some help with that Owen?" she asked, looking away and smiling at him.
"No thank you Tosh. I am a doctor after all." Owen returned the gesture, a thing that had become more frequent since he had started to open up to her about how he felt.
Captain Jack Harkness suddenly jogged in.
"Everyone brace yourselves; the bride is returning from her honeymoon," he said. "Ianto, have you got the party poppers?"
Ianto Jones was on the landing above them and he produced a bag full of the things.
"Is this really necessary?" Owen asked, looking from Ianto to Jack.
"I've got a banner as well," Ianto said, ignoring Owen's comment.
"Great," Owen muttered.
"I'll come and help you put it up," Jack said and ran up the stairs.
"Does it say 'welcome back, P.S. I am shagging the boss'?" Owen asked.
"Funny Owen," Ianto said, though he couldn't help but smile slightly.
Owen rolled his eyes and continued to stitch his hand. Both he and Tosh listened to the two putting up the banner, laughing all the while.
"Did you have to tease him?" Tosh asked.
"It was just a joke and he knows it."
"I know it was Owen, but I think they're quite serious. It's not just shagging."
"And you would know this how?"
"Oh please, the number of times they've gone off before even you leave. I once saw them going into the cinema together."
"Well bully for the pair of them."
"I think it's good that Ianto's sort of found someone after..." Tosh trailed off but she didn't have to finish the sentence. Owen knew what she meant.
"Lisa. Alright, I see you're point."
"Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we hadn't killed her?"
"Amongst other things that are slightly more worthy of my time, including many ifs and maybes. I once imagined that she got Ianto onto the conversion unit and-"
"Okay, maybe something less...improbable. Ianto would never have got onto the unit and you know it."
"Of course I do, but I just...you know, imagined it. So go on then, what have you imagined about that?"
"I always thought that we could just destroy the machine."
"She was a Cyberman, she could have built another."
"Yeah, but I...imagined that Ianto could help her...talk to her...make her see how to be human again."
"You've got a point Tosh, but what's done is done."
The sirens went off and the door opened and Gwen walked in.
"Hi you lot," she greeted.
"Hello there Mrs. Williams," Owen called, finishing with the stitches and walking over to her. "Are we still allowed to hug you without Rhys socking us?"
"Oh shut up, Owen," Gwen said, hugging him and smiling. She let go and turned to Tosh.
"Hi Gwen," Tosh said, smiling.
"Alright?" Gwen asked, hugging her.
"I'm fine thanks."
Jack ran back down the stairs followed by Ianto.
"How was the honeymoon?" Jack asked.
"It was great. Rhys discovered that he likes jellied eels."
"Nice," Owen muttered.
Gwen rolled her eyes but, apart from that, ignored him and hugged Jack. She then turned to Ianto.
"Nice to have you back," Ianto said, hugging her.
"Have you boys been behaving?" Gwen asked. Ianto shrugged his shoulders.
"Depends what you see as behaving."
Everyone laughed.
"So have there been any aliens whilst I've been away?" Gwen asked, looking around and spotting the banner. "Oh no, you didn't."
From behind her, Jack and Ianto pulled out a couple of party poppers and let them off.
"Whose idea was this?" Gwen asked.
"Jack's," Owen said.
"Actually you were the one who said 'let's throw her a party when she gets back'," Jack argued.
"I didn't really mean it."
"Well thank you for the thought," Gwen said. "Rhys says hello by the way."
"Anyone for sausage rolls?" Ianto asked, pointing at a table by Tosh.
"Please, I'm starving," Gwen said. Everyone went to the table apart from Owen. Being the undead meant that he couldn't eat, drink or have sex- the three things he had enjoyed most about life. Ianto noticed Owen standing there.
"Oh God, sorry Owen," he said, looking embarrassed with himself.
"No problem; it's not as if you can't eat. I'm used to being dead now."
Ianto was still looking apologetic.
"Eat your sausage rolls, Ianto, before I stuff them in your face," Owen said. Gwen snorted into a beer.
The team's little party lasted for a couple of hours. Owen had even popped out to fetch his iPod and speakers and they had all danced, or at least tried to. Gwen was quick to tease Jack. Even though he was about a hundred years old but still had the body of a young person, he couldn't do any modern day dancing.
Ianto was now clearing up the rubbish, Jack was in his office, Tosh and Owen were talking in the autopsy room and Gwen was sitting on the sofa. Ianto stopped when he noticed her vacant expression.
"Are you alright Gwen?"
Gwen came back to earth and smiled.
"Yes I'm fine. Sorry, I was in a world of my own."
"Gwen, I can tell that something's wrong. You do that smile that never reaches your eyes. You can tell me, or do you want to talk to Jack?"
"Oh no, it's nothing to worry Jack."
"Well...do you want to talk about it?"
Gwen sighed and Ianto sat down next to her.
"When we were in Italy, Rhys sort of mentioned...starting a family. It just caught me off guard and I can't stop thinking about it. I mean, how can I have kids with the job I do?"
"Gwen, if anyone can manage having kids and working here, it's you. If you've got the chance to raise a family, do it. I would if I could. You have a life outside all of this, so you need to... I don't know... balance it out."
"You sound like Jack."
"Well, there's no harm in seconding an opinion."
Gwen chuckled. "Thanks Ianto."
"No problem."
An alarm suddenly went off and they both looked up. Ianto ran to the computer and was typing something into the keyboard when Tosh turned up.
"It's some sort of meteorite," the Welshman explained, stepping out of the way. "Crash course."
Owen had followed Tosh out of the autopsy room and Jack had run out of his office. Gwen had walked over from the sofa.
Tosh tapped away at the keyboard, cross referencing a number of things.
"It's some sort of material. Non-organic but... hang on, let me just run a few more checks. It's moving too fast for the satellite scanner."
"You do that," Jack said, "Ianto and Owen with me. We'll intercept it but when you find out what the hell we're dealing with, let us know; it could be dangerous."
"Can't I come?" Gwen asked.
"No, stay here with Tosh. I don't think Rhys'd be happy if you were hurt on your first day back at work."
Gwen muttered something under her breath but didn't say anything else on the matter. Jack nodded and the three men ran out. Ianto went ahead to get the SUV.
Once Ianto had pulled up outside the Millennium Centre, Jack and Owen jumped in and they set off. Owen was in the back looking at the SUV's computers.
"Tosh, any luck with those checks?" Jack asked.
"I'm sending you the results now."
A few seconds later, Owen was tapping away.
"Okay," he muttered. "We have seriously high levels of nitrate that isn't from the atmosphere for some strange reason and traces of aluminium and lead. On second thought, make that a lot of lead. There's also some unidentified substance on the outside. It's also hollow and two and a half to three metres in diameter."
"Can you scan what's inside?" Jack asked.
"No, there's some sort of field inbuilt into the lead. It's as if someone's sending it here for a purpose."
"Tosh, where is it going to crash?" Ianto asked into his com-speaker.
"Two miles north of the city," Tosh replied. "Impact in ten minutes."
"Well let's hope we get there before the army does," Owen mumbled. Jack cracked a grin.
"Do you want me to drive or do you think you are up to getting there in ten minutes?" he asked Ianto.
The Welshman's mouth widened into a smile. "I bet I can make that in five."
In the back, Owen rolled his eyes.
The three stared up at the sky as a bright orange light descended from the pale blue sky, leaving a trail of smoke behind it. The roaring was phenomenal as it soared over the earth and plummeted to the ground.
"Brace yourselves!" Jack shouted. At his words, Ianto slammed his foot on the brakes as he tried to bring the SUV screeching to a halt just as the earthquake began.
The initial impact was more than they could have guessed. Within seconds, the SUV was shaking and practically jumping on the road and then, before any of them knew it, it had flipped onto its front and rolled down the roof. By the time it had crashed down, the earthquake had finished. All was silent as steam began to rise from the SUV.
Owen shook his head as he tried to process what had happened. They were currently upside down and Owen was apparently the only one who had remained conscious. Both Jack and Ianto's arms were falling down towards the roof of the damaged SUV.
"Jack?" he heard Gwen ask. "Ianto? Owen?"
"I'm here," Owen replied. "I'm not sure about the other two though."
"What happened?" Tosh asked. "We felt the earth tremor. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine; we got flipped onto the roof and I think the front took most of the impact. Lucky otherwise I'd be even deader than I am already. We're all currently upside down. Wait a minute."
Careful not to land on the pile of glass directly beneath him, Owen angled himself so that he fell down right behind Jack. Reaching out, he shook Jack and when the captain was unresponsive. Feeling for a pulse, the doctor found that there wasn't any, which was when he saw Jack's face gradually healing from where it had been torn open by glass.
"Jack's dead... again." Owen knew that this was an almost everything day for Jack but...
"Owen... is Ianto alright?" Gwen asked meekly through the com, voicing the question that was in Owen's mind.
Owen slowly lifted his hand to the hopefully just unconscious Ianto's neck and waited. He was rewarded with the pulsing sensation throbbing against his fingertips. "He's alive."
The words were barely audible but the two women understood. In the Hub, they both sighed.
"I'm on my way," Gwen said, grabbing her coat and rushing for the door. "Tosh, could you keep an eye on that meteor, please?" Tosh nodded and turned back to the screen.
There was a sudden gasp next to Owen and he look around to see Jack some to, blinking back blood as the cuts continued to heal. Jack saw Owen kneeling next to Ianto and his face became panicked.
"We need to get him out before I can see what else is wrong with him," Owen said.
"You get him out of that seat belt and I'll deal with the door," Jack said, nodding, undoing his own and kicking the passenger door open, nearly forcing it off of its hinges. Rolling out and groaning, Jack ran around the car and tugged at the driver's door. It fell away from the body of the car with a loud clang. Not worrying himself about the fact that the vehicle was now a ruin, Jack eased Ianto out of the SUV and laid him on the hard road, allowing Owen to crawl out afterwards, carrying his large first-aid kit.
Jack gulped as he saw two long gashes across Ianto head, both stretching across from his temple. Blood dribbled down the side of the pale face and onto the gravel underneath him. His lips also bore a single cut and they could both see the blood trickling down his throat and across his chin.
"Hold him," Owen whispered. Jack complied and leant Ianto against his chest as Owen entered his zone.
The doctor lifted Ianto's eyelids up and was glad to see that nothing out of the ordinary there. He then listened to the Welshman's breathing pattern and brought out the stethoscope to check his heartbeat.
"He'll be okay, hopefully," he told Jack and the women through the coms as he began to apply bandages to Ianto's head. "His breathing and heart haven't been affected so he probably won't suffer from trauma. But I can't tell if he's got a concussion until we either do an x-ray or he wakes up."
"Thank God," Jack muttered as he shifted Ianto into a more comfortable position.
"Tosh, how far is the meteor from where they are?" Gwen asked as she drove along in her car.
"It's only about half a kilometre," Tosh replied.
"Yeah, we can see the smoke," Owen said, looking around. "But at this rate, the army'll get there before us. We can't carry Ianto to the crash site."
"I'm almost there," Gwen told them. Sure enough, a few minutes later they heard the sound of a solitary vehicle and she soon drew to a halt next to them. Her eyes widened as she saw Ianto, still being cradled in Jack's arms.
"Oh God," she muttered. "Are you sure he's going to be alright, Owen?"
"I hope so."
"Well, bring him in here or he'll freeze to death. He looks like a ghost."
Jack immediately lifted Ianto off of the cold road and almost dove into the back of the car. Owen jogged around to the other side of the car and flung himself into the passenger seat. Looking behind him, he saw that Jack had laid Ianto along the entire of the backseat with his head resting on the other man's lap.
By the time they had arrived, the air was thick was smoke and all they could see was an orange blaze.
"Who'd have thought a meteorite that small could have caused so much damage," Owen said, gazing around at the chaos. "Tosh, how far away is it?"
"About thirty metres," Tosh said, typing away at her computer. "How's Ianto?"
Owen paused to look back at the Welshman before answering. "Still unconscious."
On the other side of the com, Tosh let out a small breath. At least he wasn't dead.
"Jack, you go with Owen and I'll stay with him," Gwen whispered softly.
Jack's teeth gritted together but he gave a curt nod and gently lifted Ianto's head off of his lap and leapt out of the car. Owen followed suit, leaving Gwen to watch their colleague. She soon gave up craning her neck; she got out of the passenger's seat and opened the door so that she could crouch next to Ianto's head. The air stank of smoke but the slight breeze meant that it was fresher than the stuffiness inside the car and she thought that it might help.
Owen and Jack now bore gas-masks over their mouths and noses as they crept towards the meteor, pistols at the ready. When they came open a gaping hole in the forest ground, they had to squint to see it.
"Is that it?" Owen exclaimed, incredulously. "That can't be more than thirty centimetres in diameter. Tosh, I think you're measurements were wrong."
"No," Tosh argued, "I'm sure that it was that big when it entered the atmosphere."
"Well it would explain the wreckage it's left," Jack muttered. "It must have been covered in some sort of rock that came off because of the heat. Oh well."
Without warning, Jack jumped down into the crater and stared at the meteor in surprise.
"Okay, I'm not getting any warmth from this thing, considering it's just been in the equivalent of an inferno."
"Well, what does it look like?" Owen called down.
"It's a spaceship alright and a small one at that. I don't even think an Adipose would be able to fit into this thing."
"A what?" he heard three voices say down the com-speaker.
"Bodies grown from living fat."
"That is sick," Owen said, his tone one of disgust. "Anyway, I'm not sure what it is. At least we know we can get this back to the Hub without much of a problem. Is there anything on the scans?"
"Not as far as I can tell. It's picking up the lead, aluminium and the material that I don't recognise. The nitrate's burnt itself out. No radiation of any sorts either."
"You're kidding."
"I know what you mean. After floating in space it should be surrounded by cosmic radiation but it isn't. I can't tell if there's anything inside either so we'll have to try to crack it open back at the Hub."
"So there's nothing that should be harmful?"
"As far as I can see, there isn't. You should be fine to pick it right up."
Jack snapped a pair of plastic gloves on and staggered as he only just managed to lift the ship off of the ground and passed it up to Owen.
"Jeez, this thing ways a tonne," Owen complained.
"It's a spaceship, what did you expect, Owen?" Gwen said. She then gasped. "Jack, Ianto's waking up."
Jack heaved himself out of the crater and jogged back to the SUV.
"Oh great! Thanks!" Owen called. "I'm meant to be the doctor."
Gwen only gave Jack a brief glance as Ianto moaned again and his eyelids eased open.
"Ianto?" Jack whispered.
But their relief was short-lived as Ianto's eyes closed and his head lolled to the side.
Owen, who had, by now, returned with the meteor and placed in the boot of Gwen's car, inspected the Welshman again.
"Is he alright?" Gwen asked, anxiously. "Why did he just fall unconscious again?"
"I don't know. I need to do some x-rays; he could have internal bleeding."
Jack stiffened at this and Gwen gulped and rubbed her neck.
"Let's just get out of here before the army turn up," Gwen muttered. "I don't think we can afford to get caught up with them."