Darkness. The Darkness was coming, there was something moving in the Darkness. A figure shrunk into a corner of nothingness, begging to wake up.
"WAKE UP!"
Eyes jerked open as a young woman took a deep raspy breath. The freezing, rank air rushed into her lungs and made her chest feel like it was on fire. Coughing and exhaling, her lungs ached, heart pounding in her ears.
She started to move around and went to sit up, only to slam her head with a loud thump on the ceiling. Metal thudded and rang dull into her ears.
Fear. She tentatively felt to her sides and realized that there were two walls on either side. She felt around and could feel that she was in a thick rubber bag.
"Oh my god." She thought. "Body Bag. It's a body bag."
Tears began to roll down her face as she tried to push her arms over her head as hard as she could. She screamed so loud that the vibrations of her voice rang hard in her ears. She kicked the sides with her feet as hard as she could.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The air was getting still and she was getting colder by the minute. But, she kept kicking and slapping the sides of the walls with her bare hands; through the bag. Her brain didn't really register that a loud crank could be heard in the compartment next to her. Her kicking began to slow as she started to gasp for air. In one more surge of strength, she punched above her head as hard as she could. She cried out "NO!" Coughed "No!" and screamed "NO!"
The door flung open and she slid out of the locker. The bag was unzipped to reveal her savior bathed in lights. She breathed in so hard that her lungs ached.
"Well now PC Cooper, you are full of surprises." He said as he pulled her out of the body bag. She looked up at him with a dazed look and promptly fainted. "But that, I expected."
Jack Harkness shook his head, picked her up and kicked the locker door shut. He walked to his office to find her a blanket.
Two days ago
Rain, rain and more rain. That's all it ever seemed to do in Cardiff. Such a dreary place Cardiff was, and the life of PC Gwen Cooper was but a stepping-stone in the world around her. The same old day, she would work another crime.
Let's face it. She was bored. There had to be more then this, there just had to be.
All in a matter of minutes, a matter of chance encounters, and some serious investigation; she found that she was right. There was more then just this. There was another world to learn about, to live in.
Aliens. There was an organization that studied alien technology. An organization outside the law, unable to be stopped, she met the crew of Torchwood. All of them greeted her with broad smiles. Smiles that she could tell never fully reached their eyes. She felt cold in the "Hub". It was a feeling of dread that didn't seem to wear off after she left.
Torchwood.
Led by Captain Jack Harkness. The only one to exist on the earth, who happened to be the same one that disappeared 50 years ago, a very handsome man with deep blue eyes and a charming smile.
Jack led her to a nearby pub where he continued to talk about the organization. She remembered the PC that died earlier that day in the station. She sat in front of a glass room and stared at the alien that killed him.
It seemed cold, what they did. They didn't care about anyone other then studying and acquiring new technology. What about the people that were harmed? Their families, would their loved ones just be lost forever? She pleaded with Jack to let her be a liaison with the department. She could help them; at least to provide closure to the victims.
And then there was nothing. No Torchwood, No Jack, No aliens, just nothing. It was like someone erased the most important day of her life. It wasn't until work that she realized that something was off.
There has been a spree of murders in Cardiff. All from knife wounds from behind. When she walked into the station she saw a picture of a drawing of the murder weapon. It was so familiar yet not familiar. In her dreams that night she saw the same knife, only behinds sparks and glass. She fixed herself a cup of tea that night and looked at the pamphlet next to her computer. One little word written in a sharpie marker, one word that made her get dressed and come to the pavilion in the middle of the night.
"Remember"
She walked around the pavilion, trying to recall what it was that she was trying to remember. She didn't even notice the woman with curly hair standing before her.
Gwen listens as "Suzie" talks about the knife and the murders. It is almost as if she is talking to herself. The pieces start to fall into place when Suzie pulls the knife out of her bag to show Gwen.
"I'm placing you under arrest." Gwen said to her, as she watched her carefully.
"You see, I can't let that happen. Jack said you were a smart one. I knew that I would have trouble with you the moment we met."
Suzie put the knife back in her bag and brought out a gun and pointed in directly at Gwen. Gwen noticed her eyes shift to the left, flinching at the fountain.
"You were right Jack, she is a smart one. And so pretty too."
Gwen held her hands up and looked to her right. There was no one standing there.
"Why don't you put the gun down and come with me? I can help you." Gwen pleaded.
Suzie looked back at Gwen with a sad look and she lowered the gun a little. "No one can help me."
She pulled the trigger.
Gwen felt the impact in her chest, her heart felt like it was on fire. She looked up at Suzie and fell to her knees. As her breathing slowed she vaguely heard another shot to her right and something hit the ground. She turned her head to see the body of a man, shot in the head to her right. Losing the battle, she fell to her right and began to stop breathing.
The beating in her ears slowed, her eyes began to darken. Then there was Darkness.
Suzie began to walk towards Gwen, after looking at Jack. She put the gun back in her bag.
"No." A voice from behind her, which made her turn around. A small clink sound was made as a bullet dropped to the ground.
She looked up to see Jack, the bullet hole closing as he stood in front of her. She had never seen him so angry. But Jack wasn't looking at her; he was looking over her shoulder. Suzie looked over at Gwen and sighed.
Jack didn't even stop her when she put the gun under her chin and pulled the trigger. He just stood there and watched. Her body hit the ground with a thud. Jack looked up at the sky and closed his eyes.
He grabbed Suzie by her jacket and pulled her onto the lift. He looked over at Gwen and began to walk towards her. Silently hoping, he touched the vein on the side of her neck.
Nothing.
Jack leaned down and slid his arms under her knees and back. He stood and picked her up. Jack walked over to the lift and took the two women into the hub.
So here he was, standing in front of the two newest additions to the Torchwood morgue. In one locker, was Suzie, his second in command. In the other locker, PC Gwen Cooper, she was right when she told him that they held too much power and not enough accountability.
He looked at her once more before zipping the body bag up and pushing her in the vault. Jack walked to his office, alone with only the dead keeping him company.
Jack was in his office when the banging started. The banging led to going to the vault, which led to opening the two newly occupied lockers. Which led to a young woman sitting on his couch, dressed in his clothes and sipping hot cocoa.
"How are you feeling?" he asked her.
She shook her head slightly, trying to diffuse the fog in her mind. After a moment, she looked up at him with so many emotions behind her eyes. It almost made him dizzy. "Fine, fine. I'm," She said before trailing off and trying to search for what had vanished from her mind before.
"Fine?" Jack finished for her. She nodded her head and looked down into her mug. "That's Good."
Later that night, Owen and Tosh brought back the alien technology; while Ianto locked away the knife and glove in Jack's safe. Gwen watched the whole thing from the couch in Jack's office.
After everyone left, the Hub was quiet again.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Gwen was startled to see Jack stand up in front of her. She watched as he walked over to his coat stand and put on his long coat. He came to stand in front of her and put his hand in front of her to take.
"Let's get you some air." Jack said to her with a smile.
The two stood on the roof as the sun began to rise. Gwen clutched the blanket to her chest tighter as a harsh wind blew by them.
"It's another day Gwen Cooper. How do you feel?"
Gwen looked out at the city and shrugged. "As good as can be expected. It's not every day that you wake up in the morgue, in a body bag." That fuzzy feeling filled her mind again, just beyond reach, vanishing when she tried to focus on it. She looked up at him, "How long was I out?"
Jack looked down at her and then looked up into the sunset. It was at that moment that Jack did the hardest thing he would ever have to do. "Just over 3 minutes."
Gwen nodded and looked back at the sunrise. She didn't notice Jack watching her.
As Jack averted his eyes for a moment, another secret to be hidden away until its relevancy was necessary. No need to frighten her further.
"So, what now? Are you going to wipe my memory again?"
"Now, that would be a shame. You just woke up in a body bag in the morgue, you can't go back to be a pc after that." He grinned at her. Gwen watched as he stood in front of her with a serious look on his face. "Torchwood has a vacancy. Are you up for it?"
"What could I do for the agency that can do anything?" Gwen laughed, as she turned from him.
"You can stop us." Jack said, looking out at the sunset once more.
Gwen turned to look at him and then turned to the sunset. "Yeah," she said softly. "Yes, I'll do it."
Authors Note: I don't own Torchwood.
Well here it is, Chapter 1. Let me know how you like it or don't like it. One of the things you will notice is that I do not have Rhys in this story. I think he's a weak character personally and I don't care for him much. So he's not in the story.
I will warn the readers that I don't want to post something with errors or that sounds stupid. So that will equal slower posts of new chapters. I'm sorry if that annoys but I promise I will not quite on the story and that I won't post a chapter until I have at least half the other chapter written or planned – Jeers! Jennie