Characters:
Rachel – the idiot Doctor, who's actually an alien, with very good knowledge…But even Time Lord's balls things up from time to time…She's actually 772, but fooled Owen into thinking she was in her late 30's during Medical School, but is now in her early forties. Well, women do like to lie about their age…
Jack – the "Boss man". He can be as much of an idiot as Rachel, but he's also very charming, and a lot of the time, he uses innuendoes, which Rachel has actually banned from the Autopsy Room, because they upset her "cosmic balance of dangerous chemicals."
Owen – Rachel's ex-boyfriend. The sensible, qualified Doctor, unhappy to take risks, until it comes to what he believes to be "Alien Medical Equipment"
Toshiko – Or Tosh. The cute Japanese technician, who Rachel teases at every given opportunity. She's almost as knowledgeable as Rachel, but has a lot to live up to…
Suzie – The one Rachel admires. She's quite clever, and hardly ever objects to Rachel's plans, even if they are destined to go "BANG!"
It's Owen Harper's first day with Torchwood, and they've got two problems.
Problem #1: Rachel, Owens ex-girlfriend, has been a Torchwood employee for a number of years, and she hates his guts, because he went with another woman, who he almost married; but who died because of an alien parasite living on her brain; which is the reason that Owen now works for Torchwood Cardiff, after being taken in by Jack. Which, Rachel isn't too happy with. And she's certainly not amused when Owen, the man who cheated on her, turns up at Torchwood Cardiff, with Jack.
Problem#2: Janet. The female, Weevil. Because, "Barbara" didn't quite have the same ring to it…But that's not the point. It's brutally attacked three Cardiff women, and they're all dead. Even by using the "Resurrection Glove" (or, simply "the Glove") the team aren't getting anywhere fast. It's only when Owen has "accidentally" shot Rachel through the shoulder that Rachel finally decides herself, Suzie and Owen should go out, and try and catch Janet. When they've caught her. It's Rachel's deciscion. Does she stay, and give Owen a second chance, or does she run off to London, and re-join Yvonne as "Second in Command" at Torchwood London, or does she go back to the job she walked out on in the mid-90's, working as UNIT's "Scientific Advisor". Tough changes have to be made, but is it really the end for Owen and Rachel, or is something new about to happen?
Rachel & Owen's flat, London, 11.55am, August 31st, 1999
"I don't care Owen!" Rachel shouted, her voice deep, hoarse and very, very loud. She threw her clothes into a rucksack, and ran from the room, down the stairs, and through the front door. "And bollocks to you too!"
She stood on the path for a moment, waiting for the door to open. And sure enough, as she took her mobile from her pocket, the door opened, and there stood Owen. "Where are you gonna go, eh?" He shouted. "It's the middle of the bloody night, nowhere's open, and everyone's on holiday!"
"I got contacts in Cardiff," she replied, calmly, and a little more quietly, as the door slammed shut behind Owen. "I'm going there for a couple of days. I'll be back in London in a fortnight, but after that, I'll be out of your way forever. It'll be more appropriate. If you think that we can work alongside each other after what you've done to me, Owen Harper, think again!"
He shook his head, speachless. He couldn't quite think why he was in the wrong, when Rachel herself was still legally married.
"I'm getting a transfer to Cardiff University," she told him. "At least I'll be able to get a job that suits me. My boss said I've got a place whenever I need it. Then you," she said, gradually getting louder, and more hoarse, yet high pitched. "Can live the rest of your lously life with her. Go on! See if I care! Cos you know what? He's back! Yeah, the other love of my life. Now stay out of my life forever, you arse!"
Torchwood 3, Cardiff, 4am, September 1st, 1999
It was a while later, having sat in her car, on a car park for an hour, that she fell into the arms of her best friend. "I knew it, Jack. He was seeing her. I'm gonna get a transfer back to Cardiff University. I can't bare to stay in the same room as him. I know I'm married, but I thought Owen was faithful. He cared."
"If I might," Alex said, offering Rachel strong coffee.
"No you may not!" Rachel yelled, sending the coffee flying across the boardroom table. "I bloody hate you too!" She looked at Jack. "I'd better let my sister know I'm back. She's not spoken to me for weeks. Not since...Well, you know."
Jack nodded, and Alex left the boardroom. "So what are you going to do?"
"I'm coming back to Cardiff," she told him, sitting up. "I've spoken to Missus Taylor, she said she'll arrange for me to spend the next few years at the UOC. At least I know people here. Alex said I can have my job back, and I know Romana will appriciate the company, and at least I wont have to put up with naked men." She thought about that for a while, and tried not to laugh. "Unless Alex gets chained up by a rogue alien idiot. Or a drunken idiot. Or Natalia."
A woman popped her head aroud the boardroom door. She spoke with a slight Russian accent. "Are you okay, Rachel?"
"Yeah," Rachel lied. "I'm gonna go home. See the sister, and whatever friends she's got there."
"Drive carefully!" Jack warned her, as Rachel followed Natalia from the room. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Torchwood 3, Cardiff, 12.05pm, August 31st, 2004
"Ba ba ba ba ba ba da da, WOOH!" Rachel sang, although, entirely unsure of what song she was joining in on. "Morning Toshiko! Morning Suzie!"
"Morning Rachel!" Toshiko and Suzie said back.
Rachel really was in a good mood. "You are looking at me, the proud face of a woman who is finally over that idiot from London!"
"You mean you finally-"
"Yeah!" Rachel said, proudly. "I finally did it! You are looking at the woman who told the GMC to get stuffed. I want my job here at Torchwood, and it's where I feel I'm needed. I've worked here for a long time, and if the RCI really want me back, they're gonna have to have a lot more GSW's."
"You mean you technically got struck off the Medical Register?" Suzie asked. "Or did that escape you?"
"No," Rachel replied. "I'm still legally a doctor, I just wont be working with many live bodies anymore. Where's Jack, by the way?"
"It's a very long story," Suzie explained. "But he's probably on his way back from London as we speak. He went out late last night, muttering something about the victim of an alien paracite being burried, and he needed a word with the family."
"More like a punch up," Rachel muttered, so that only she could hear. "Let's just hope he does something useful for a change. I've had enough of his whims. Twelve years I've known Jack, and he's had more bad ideas than me and Yvonne Hartman put together."
"And," Suzie said. "Your exceedingly good mood has nothing to do with a certain ex boyfriend, does it?"
"A little," she admitted. "But the git hasn't bothered me since the Millenium, and I got over him when Alex shot me. It was a fresh beginning for me."
Torchwood 3, Cardiff, 11.45pm, August 31st, 2004
After spending most of the day catagorising alien bits and pieces, Rachel, Suzie and Toshiko were having a friendly drink in the boardroom, after deciding not to leave the Hub until Jack returned.
"...And no one actually noticed she was an alien until she'd left a long trail of white slime behind her," Rachel laughed. "And, she fancied Jack. In more ways than one. We really had to get rid of her. I think I froze her."
"Oooh," Suzie said, looking down across the Hub, notcing Jack, accompanied by a young man in a suit. "Jack's back. And it looks like he's brought Rachel a pretty boy home." She laughed, knocking the glass from Toshiko's hand. "Oh, sorry, Tosh."
"It's okay," Toshiko replied, seeing the man also. "Ooh, he's hot, Rachel."
"RAAAY-CHEL!" Jack shouted, from somewhere around the Autopsy room. "RAAAY-CHEL!"
"Quit your bellyaching!" Rachel said, a few minutes later, stood in Jack's office, which was clear of young men. Pretty, or not. "All I did was tell the head of the GMC where to get. Oh, and I also swore down the phone at Tracy from Canary Wharf, but, she was asking for it."
Jack smiled at Rachel. "Rachel," he said. He looked no different from what he had five years ago, when he had been comforting Rachel. "Young man in your Autopsy room. Take blood for our records. And, you really need to re-do your own. You never changed it after...You know..." He avoided the word 'regenerated' for several reasons.
"Regenerated?" She asked. "Yes, I know, and that was six years ago! I wasn't even a medical student, and I had a fear of needles because of John bloody Hart!"
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Autopsy room. Now!"
Rachel stumbled to the Autopsy room, and down the stairs, pulling on a pair of latex gloves whilst she walked, and tried to remember the correct procedure for taking blood. She'd done it many times before, but somehow, it was always wrong. "Sorry about this," she said, not looking up at the man who sat on a chair beside the Autopsy table. "You've obviously met Jack, he's a pain in the arse. I'm Rachel Jones or doctor Harkness, because doctor Jones never quite sounded right. That's Toshiko Sato, or Tosh," she said, pointing up to her left. "And that's Suzie Costello, or Su," she said, pointing up to her right.
"Just Suzie," Suzie corrected.
"Okay," she said, taking an empty, sterile syringe off the Autopsy table, without looking at the man, whose blood she was about to take. "Hope you're not afraid of needles. I know I am. And blood is all part of becoming a Torchwood opperative. It's always helpful to know what blood types your staff are. Saying that, I don't actually know mine. But, we've definitely got two A negs and a B. I advise you to look away. I've lost count of the amout of people I've had pass out on me."
"Rachel!" Suzie moaned. "Just stick the damn needle in his back elbow, and get it over with!"
"I seriously advise you to look away, though," she said. "Blood. Not everyone's friend." She shook her head. "Sorry."
"RACHEL!" Toshiko, Suzie and Jack said.
Rachel took hold of the mans arm, still not looking at him, concentrating more on the needle, and what exactly she was doing with it. She put the needle in, and drew blood, concentrating on how much blood she'd drawn. "Right," she said, finally looking up. "I think that's us fi- JACK!" She removed the needle, threw it on the Autopsy table and ran up the stairs, across the Hub and into Jack's office. "Owen Harper? OWEN HARPER?"
"What?" Jack said back, not quite understanding.
"Parlez vous Anglais, Harkness?" Rachel shouted. "Five years to the day! You idiot! You know what? I didn't think you could get any more stupid! But no!" She overturned a plant on the desk, and banged her hands down. "OWEN BLOODY HARPER!" She looked angrily at Jack. "If you think I'm gonna work alongside him, you can think again. And no, I wont be sympathetic. I still haven't forgiven either of them. It will take hell of a lot of talking to get over it, because I'd just put it to the back of my mind, and I've been getting on with my life for the last five years, and today was the first time that he hadn't been the first thing on my mind. I've got much better things to worry about."
"Like?"
"Like why I've just told the head of the GMC, and I quote, to 'buggar off'." She frowned. "I'll never ever get offered a senior position in a hospital, and I've gotta work with Owen Harper for the forseeable, because there is no way I'm going moaning to Yvonne or Alastair. Absolutely no way."
Rachel's house, 1.3oam, September 1st, 2004
"Aw, you're home early for a weekend," Rachel younger sister, Romana, said, as Rachel threw herself down on the settee. "I thought you'd be out til all hours. It's only half one. Are you gonna tell me where it all went wrong?"
"I've got two words for you, Romana," Suzie said, following Rachel into the house. "Owen Harper."
"Ah," Romana replied. "What's he doing in Cardiff?"
"You should ask Jack," Rachel said, as Suzie sat next to her. "He brought him back. I'm personally surprised I didn't stab him in the eye with the syringe."
Suzie clicked her earpiece, and spoke. "Jack. This better be good."
It was five minutes until any of them spoke again.
"Jack," Suzie said, standing up. "Needs us to be at the RCI, there's been a major thing, and it needs Torchwood assistance to identify bite marks and weapons."
Royal Cardiff Infermary, 2.10am, September 1st, 2004
"I'm telling you, Suzie," Rachel said, identifying the bite marks on the corpse of a young woman. "That isn't by anything from Earth. And it's not come from the sewers either."
"Sewers?" Owen asked. "What's that mean?"
Rachel tried not to raise her voice, but spoke through gritted teeth. "Weevils. They're this kind of...Alien, I suppose. Only, we don't exactly know where they come from, or, in most cases, what they're actually for. I seem to think there's some sort chemical they produce, but getting up close to a live one without it biting me is impossible. They have a taste for foreign meat. And Jack refuses to let me shoot them on purpose."
"Rachel!" Suzie warned, as Rachel began to ramble.
"Sorry," Rachel appologised. "I've still gotta learn not to do that." She shook her head. "Can we get this body back to base. I can't stand the smell of the labs here." She smiled at Suzie. "At least ours smell of lemons."
"Lemons?" Suzie laughed.
"Yeah. I think it's something to do with when I spilt that stuff. I had to clean it with bleach. I got an air freshener to get rid of the smell, but now I can't get rid of the lemony fresh fragrance-"
"Rachel!"
"Sorry," she appologised again. "Tosh, tell Jack we're on our way."
Torchwood 3, Cardiff, 2.55am, September 1st, 2004
"Right," Rachel said to Owen and the team, calmly, and less gritty. "I've done this a million times before, there's no reason why I should fuck it up this time."
They - Rachel, Owen, Suzie and Toshiko - were in the boardroom, as Rachel prepared what she had discovered from the examination of the woman, after completing a postmortem at the hospital, not being able to take the body to Torchwood.
"Are Rachel's PM's always that dodgy, incoherant and filled with blood?" Owen asked.
Suzie answered him. "When you work for Torchwood, you have to expect the unexpected. Rachel, you've still got blood on your nose."
"Right," Rachel said, wiping her nose. "Owen, believe me, I'm still getting used to this medical stuff, and I've been doing it for a lot longer than you can imagine. So," she said, looking at the screen behind her, which displayed an image of the female victims leg, covered in teeth marks and blood. "If we're doing this by the book, for the benefit of Owen, can we say our names, and what our job is, please. Toshiko."
"Toshiko Sato. Technician."
"Suzie Costello. I'm good with people, and I'm the only member of Torchwood Cardiff that knows the City like the back of my hand, unlike some people I care to mention. Rachel."
"Rachel Jones. The first fully qualified doctor that Torchwood Cardiff has seen since 1987. And the only member of staff to cause three lockdowns in her first week. Anyone know where Jack is?"
"Complaining to the RCI, probably," Suzie said. "And trying to find your medical kit."
Rachel nodded. "And, for Owen's purpose, that's Jack Harkness, he's the boss man," she said, as Jack walked in the room, holding up a stethoscope, scalpel and a pair of callipers. "Although he could try and act like it sometimes."
Jack sat down next to Toshiko. "And you could act like...Well, you know how. I found these," he said, indicating what he was holding. "Down the back of Toshiko's desk. Any reason?"
"I was drunk," she said flatly, as Jack put Rachel's medical equipment on the table. "Right. Back to the matter in hand. If you'd all care to look at the screen. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."
"Are you any closer to figuring out what species the bite marks are from?" Suzie asked.
"Yes," Rachel said, looking at the screen behind her. "I've narrowed it down to the species we know nothing about, and I also haven't ruled out a Terosian shape shifter, which, would explain the dark blue blood. If that is the case, we have no idea what we're looking for. Toshiko, can you-"
"Run a scan on alien technology and activity in the city?" Toshiko asked. "Done it. Unfortunately, with you being all over the place tonight, I'm picking up wrong signals."
"So that's why my earpiece keeps vibrating?" Rachel pondered. "I thought I was gaining use of my left ear again."
"You wear your earpiece in the ear you can't hear in?!" Toshiko laughed.
"Well why do you think I never answer my phone?!" She shook her head, and looked at Suzie. "Do you think you could-"
"Get us into the hospital with the glove? Certainly."
"Right," she said, once again. "I'm driving."
Suzie wanted to drive, because Rachel was awful at it. "But-"
"Steering wheel, rear-view mirror, crotch, have you forgotten I'm six foot two, Suzie?" Rachel said, nodding. "No. You can't."
Royal Cardiff Infermary, 3.40am, September 1st, 2004
"If that thing electrocutes me again," Rachel warned, taking the metal glove from Suzie, and putting it on her left hand. "I swear I am never touching anything electrical again."
"You say that..." Suzie said. "But you always go back and crash the system."
"So what does this thing do?" Owen asked, as Rachel looked at her gloved hand.
"Brings people back to life for about a minute," Suzie explained. "And electronically shocks Rachel, making her jump several feet backwards. I'd stand well clear if I were you. You really don't want to be the victim in this. Just let Rachel work her magic, as it were. Or not..."
"Bollocks!" Rachel shouted, which echoed around the hospital's Autopsy room. "And it really helps if the person using the glove isn't activated by very small electrical impulses."
"But-"
"Don't start with all your medical technobollocks, doctor Harper," Rachel said, gritting her teeth again. "You still like to think you know it all then?"
Owen shook his head.
"Suzie, will you?" Rachel asked, removing the glove, and handing it to Suzie.
"Sure," Suzie replied, taking the glove and putting in on her left hand.
Rachel identified the woman on the Autopsy table, whose head Suzie was holding with her gloved hand. "You," she said, looking at Owen. "Might wanna watch this. And you," she told Suzie. "Be careful. We've not got the proper equipment, and we normally cause freak weather conditions. We might have a flood indoors."
"Yeah," Rachel said, and Suzie whistled and shrugged. "The sprinklers in this place..."
"How many times have you set them off?" Suzie asked, as the corpse opened it's eyes, and Rachel stood by Suzie, with Owen watching.
"Six," Rachel said. "And can you tell me your name?"
"It's dark," the corpse that had been identified as 'Georgia White' told Rachel. "So very dark."
"Who attacked you?"
"I...Can't...See..."
"Suzie!" Rachel demanded, knowing that time was running out. "A little help!"
"Did you see your attacker?"
"I didn't see anything." And with that, she closed her eyes, and Suzie dragged the glove away, and pulled it off her hand.
"Well that was helpful!" Rachel said sarcastically. "Tosh," she said, clicking her earpiece on. "Tell Jack we're on our way. And find that file on that Weevil we've been chasing for the last four months. I think I have an idea."
"Okay," Toshiko said. "And don't bring anything else back."
Torchwood 3, Cardiff, 4.10am, September 1st, 2004
"At least we didn't set the sprinklers off again," Rachel said, rubbing at her hair with a white towel. "But we did get caught in the rain when someone," she said, with emphasis on the 'someone' whilst looking at Suzie. "Couldn't find the car keys!"
"I've said I'm sorry!" Suzie told her, sitting down at the desk next to a sleepy Toshiko.
"Toshiko," Rachel said, standing behind Toshiko, with Owen stood next to Suzie, and Jack sat in the office. "Have you got that file?"
"Only just," Toshiko yawned, passing Rachel a paper file. She shook her head. "It was under the boardroom table. Along with your white coat."
"Ooooh!" Rachel said. "So that's why I couldn't find it downstairs. Riiiight..." She opened the paper file, and looked at the first sheet of paper, headed, in Rachel's scruffy 'spider dipped in ink and dragged across the page' handwriting, with the words 'Cardiff Weevil Problem/Crisis. Torchwood Cardiff 2004'. "Ah. I think I know who the culprit is. Suzie," she said. "Do you remember Jack getting bit by that female Weevil sometime in the summer of 2002?"
"Yeah," Suzie remembered. "The teeth marks were different than normal, and we never caught the Weevil."
Rachel nodded, then spoke. "Boardroom. NOW!"
"Infront of you, is a crime scene photograph of Keeley Smith," Rachel explained, putting on her glasses, and holding up the "TORCHWOOD" watermarked photograph. "This particular incident happened in August 2002. At one point we passed it off as a raving loony with a dog-"
"Well," Owen pointed out. "They do look like teeth marks from the Pit Bull."
Toshiko smiled sleepily. "At last!" She said. "I thought I was mad last time we saw this. She uses the same example everytime we try and catch this apprently female Weevil."
"Anyway," Rachel said. "Comparing this with the CSP on the right," she said, holding up another photograph. "Which is a CSP of Georgia White, you notice that the bite marks are the same, but deeper. Which means...Anyone?"
"That it can't be a pit bull?" Toshiko and Owen laughed.
"Exactly!" Rachel said, putting the photographs on the boardroom table, and taking off her glasses. "Now. I need an hour before we can do anything, by which time it's gonna be getting light. Which means?"
"Sewers?"
Rachel nodded to her left. "Yeah. Right. Suzie, can you come and assist me in the shooting range, please?"
"Shooting range?" Owen said warily.
"If you're gonna work for Torchwood," Rachel said, holding up a small hand gun, which Toshiko correctly identified as a Glock; Rachel's favourite weapon, second only to a laser pen, which she used in emergancies. "You're gonna need to know how to use one of these. I just hope you will never have to use it."
Rachel tempted fate, and completely obliterated a cardboard Weevil with the aid of a laser, disguised as a pen.
Protective clothing on - ear protectors & goggles - Suzie and Owen stood behind a screen, as Rachel checked all the weapons on the table infront of her were safe. "The Trin 365 needs reloading, but that can wait. It's not the best gun in the Universe. Plus, I'm a standing danger reloading guns. I'm a walking danger walking in a place all guns blazing. I have been known to shoot the wrong person."
"That," Suzie said, for the benefit of Owen. "Includes herself. She's got seventeen GSWs from the last three years."
Torchwood 3, Cardiff, 4.30am, September 1st, 2004
"How many times is that now?" Toshiko asked, as Rachel pressed at her shoulder with a cotton pad. "Seventeen?"
"Eighteen, actually," Suzie counted.
"I don't get it though," Owen said, as Rachel sat on the bottom step into the Autopsy room, and passed him the bloody cotton pad. "How do you shoot yourself in the shoulder? And," he added, and Rachel prodded her shoulder with a syringe of something to numb her shoulder. "How on earth does a junior doctor manage to remove a bullet from their own shoulder?"
"Rachel's been at this medical stuff a lot longer than you, Owen," Jack told him, as he passed the Autopsy room. "She only went to University because Torchwood Cardiff hadn't seen a fully qualified doctor since 1987."
"Well," Owen laughed. "Now you've got two. Considering that Rachel actually graduated..."
Rachel screamed. "OWEN!" She shouted, taking a pair of tweezers, and pulling at the bullet stuck in her shoulder. Upon pulling it out, she swore loudly, causing Owen and Toshiko to cover their ears, and Suzie to swear equally as loud. She held up the bullet between the tweezers, and showed it to Owen. "You," she said calmly. "Never did that." She shook her head, disposing of the bullet in the waste bin at the foot of the stairs. "As I once said to my ex, lucky you've got a crap aim!"
"You did that," Owen reminded her, as she stuck a cotton pad to her shoulder, with sticky plasters. "Or, at least, you brought it on yourself. OI!" He finished, commenting on Rachel's last comment. "That was me!"
Rachel stood up, and regained her balence. It wasn't losing blood that bothered her, because it never really affected her, it was more having to drive around Cardiff when it was still dark, with her shoulder bandaged, and a left ear that couldn't actually hear, because of a shamefully embarressing incident, in which Rachel had been stood too close to something loud.
"Rachel!" Toshiko shouted, from her base by the computers. "I think I've found your Weevil!"
Rachel skidded over to Toshiko, and looked at the screen, still cursing Owen under her breath, and holding her shoulder. "Is it? Or is that Hoix that we don't seem to be able to catch? Which, would explain the teeth marks on its victims, but wouldn't explain the fact that the Weevil repelant works." She shook her head, and ordered everyone to listen. "Right!" She said, loudly. "Suzie, Owen and me are going to take the SUV into the city. We're going to try and catch Janet before she does any more harm. Jack, you're gonna make sure we don't get stopped by the police. And Tosh, you're gonna prepare that solution I showed you. We might need it. I can't let Owen do, because last time, he really fucked it up. Plus, he needs to see what we're about. But this," she said, looking at Owen. "Does not mean that I've forgiven you in the slightest."
Cardiff Outskirts, In the SUV, 5.10am, September 1st, 2004
"Suzie, quit it!" Rachel said, as Suzie complained about Rachel's driving. "I'm trying to concentrate!" She said, as she took the SUV around a corner, mounting the pavement in the process. "Jack!" She said, pressing her earpiece. "Hello. We're on Queen Street, and there's no sign of life in any form. There's a drunk in the pub doorway, but that's it. Is Toshiko availible?"
"Yeah," Jack said. "TOSH!" He shouted across the Hub.
"Rachel?" Toshiko said, taking over from Jack. "You need to abandon the car, and get into the alleyway at that links with Church Road," she said. "There was some rift action a few minutes ago, and whatever came through is leaving a trail of risidual energy behind it. I'll have to go, because that thing's bubbling over. Suzie should have the portable Rift tracker. Bye."
The call ended, and Rachel stopped the car abruptly, sending the PDA that sat on the dashboard, flying along, and falling on Owen's knee.
The three of them jumped out of the car, Rachel checking she had appropriate weaponry, which, Owen thought, was rather ironic.
"Right," Rachel said, holding up her version of Jack's Webley Revolver, mark IV. "I just hope Jack doesn't kill me when he realises his gun's missing."
Suzie shook her head, taking out an aerosol, which Rachel identified as being a spray to repel Weevils. "Come on," she said, pointing. "This way."
Cardiff Outskirts, Alley between Queen Street & Church Road, 5.20am, September 1st, 2004
Owen jumped about a foot in the air, as a cat brushed past him, and over a wall, into someones garden.
"Owen!" Rachel was quick to say, not noticing they were being approached, by a humanoid figure, in dark clothes.
"I never did understand the whole boiler suit thing..." Suzie mused.
"What?" Rachel said, shaking her head.
"Rachel," Suzie said, making Rachel turn around. "It's Janet."
"Well that was easier than expected..." She said, taking it in to account that the Weevil's last three victims hadn't been so fortunate. "I think now would be a good time to, you know, RUUUUN!"
They ran about fifty yards, before stopping, and looking back.
"Since when," Rachel thought. "Did Weevils stop and look?"
"Would now be a good time to say 'I don't think that's a Weevil'?"
"Yeah," Rachel decided, watching the Weevil (or whatever it happened to be). She walked back, and inspected what Suzie didn't believe was a Weevil. "I see what Suzie means. I suppose you thought it was cleva? What are you then?" She thought for a minute, deciding whether she should run again or not. "Eternal?" She thought about shapeshifters for a moment. "Plasmavore...No, they're internal shapeshifters. You can't be something we know too much about, because we'd have caught you before, so you must be..." She said, turning to see Suzie and Owen. "TEROSIAN!" She jumped in the air, as the apparent shapeshifter turned around, and ran.
Suzie and Owen ran ahead of Rachel, as she prepared her Glock, which she had also been carrying along with the Webley revolver.
She held the gun infront of her, abover Owen's shoulder height, or so it seemed. She pulled back the trigger and hoped for the best.
Owen's head turned in shock, as two bullets went flying past his left ear, and hit the alien in the back of the head.
"Right," Rachel said, coming to a stop just before the end of the alleyway, where the dead alien lay. "You two, grab a body-bag from the SUV, and help me get this thing back to base. We need to update our species databanks, and listen to Jack lecture me about safety of Torchwood Employees. And how not to fire guns."
Torchwood 3, Cardiff, 6am, September 1st, 2004
Rachel and Owen yawned, as they spoke to Jack about their future with Torchwood Cardiff.
"I can only work here if we're gonna get along," Rachel said. And with regret, she placed the Webley mark IV on the desk infront of Jack. "It's safe, and I'm sorry."
"The decision of course," Jack said, sounding like an old English gentleman. "Lies with Owen." He looked at Owen. "Do you feel you can work with Rachel, even though sympathy isn't he strong point?"
"Look," Owen said, shaking his head. "I studdied with Rachel years ago, and sympathy was never her strong point then, either."
Rachel smiled cheekily. "It's not my fault if I can't do a simple task like break bad news to people. Rule one of being a surgeon, which, is why I never made it onto the Orthopaedics rotation. I couldn't work in a theatre, and lose a patient, with the prospect of breaking the bad news. I laughed when Alex shot himself."
"Rachel!" Jack put a stop to her rambling on. "Owen, can you work with Rachel, even though she promises to laugh when she's trying to be sympathetic?"
"If Rachel wants to work with me then fine," Owen said. He wasn't bothered if Rachel was nasty to him, because he wanted something that he was used to.
"Rachel?"
"I suppose..." She agreed. "It's either run away to London, and re-join a git on the top floor of Canary Wharf Tower, which would be fine, apart from my irrational fear of heights, or I could go back to Alastair, and re-take my job as Scientific Advisor, I mean, I only walked out, I never officially resigned. But, I can stay here, as long as Owen realises, I don't have it in me to be very sympathetic." She smiled. "There's also the fact that it may only be weeks until we're... Well, banging each other senseless again..."