Chapter Two
Toshiko didn't really know what to do with herself. She decided to go and get a coffee while she thought about things.
"That'll be 4 euros 20" the cashier said
"Euros?" Toshiko said looking at the handful of pounds she had "When did Wales go over to Euros?"
"Two years ago" she said as if Toshiko had just dropped from another planet.
The Queue behind her was muttering and getting agitated.
"I'll get it" a voice said from behind her.
Owen appeared next to her and paid for her coffee, as well as getting his own.
"Was it something I said?" He asked.
"Pardon?"
"Your disappearance"
They took their drinks and sat down.
"Sorry I needed to get away"
"You're not a wanted woman are you?"
"Not these days"
"Suppose you were frightened we'd put you on the nut ward"
Toshiko said nothing and just drank her coffee.
"It's been doing my head in" Owen continued "How do you know me?"
"I was mistaken, sorry"
"No you weren't, you know my name. You didn't called me Fred, John or Bert. You called me Owen"
"Maybe our paths have crossed before"
"No, I'm pretty certain they haven't"
"You must known hundreds of women in Cardiff"
"What are you saying? That I jump from one woman to the next?"
"Don't you?"
"You've got me down as a right womaniser, is it because I bought you that drink? You think I'm a charmer with all the ladies"
"No, it's just…"
"I don't say I haven't had my share of relationships. What man of my age hasn't? Some of them were going somewhere. I really wanted to settle down"
Toshiko choked on her coffee. "I really was mistaken I don't know you"
"Are you married? I know I was calling you Miss earlier, I hadn't spotted a ring"
Toshiko gave an ironic laugh "No I'm not married"
"So is there anyone on the horizon?"
"There is one man" Toshiko said not looking up from her cup.
"And?"
"He doesn't really notice me, well not like that"
"Well he must be blind"
This was insane Toshiko thought to herself. Talking to Owen about, well Owen. But this one was different less screwed up emotionally than the one she new. He wasn't her Owen, if only the normal one was her Owen.
"So have you ever got close to settling down?" Toshiko asked
"No not really, they all turned sour after a while" he paused in thought for a moment "There was this woman I really liked, I thought she was the one. Second date in I was late, my car broken down. But was ok my mate was there to keep her company. Trouble is they got on too well, I was surplus to requirements. They were going to get married, even asked me to be their best man, the cheek of it"
"Did they get married?"
"No"
"Why not?"
"She died"
"Oh my God I'm sorry"
"It was a brain tumour, they couldn't do anything it was inoperable. He was never the same again"
"That's terrible"
"I know its not nice, but I feel I had a lucky escape"
"No, I know what you mean"
Suddenly the puzzle slowly started to come together. Some how when she had been checking out the unusual reading in the street, when time had stood still instead of returning to where she had started she had started she had crossed into a different universe, almost identical to her own, but where Jack had a scar, Wales and presumably Britain had started to use the euro and most importantly when Owen Harper had never joined Torchwood. Toshiko remembered when Owen had joined, Jack warned them that Owen had suffered a bereavement, he didn't elaborate but Toshiko was fairly certain it involved a young woman who had an alien hatching in her brain. It sounded like this Owen had missed that in this life and because of it Jack hadn't recruited him and Owen's attitude to woman was somewhat different. She surmised that his love them and leave them attitude had come from the loss of his sweet heart.
"Hello, are you alright?" Owen asked waving a hand in front of her face.
"Sorry"
"Actually, I should have asked you earlier, if you were alright. Some bloody Doctor I am"
"I'm fine just a bit achy"
"How about getting a bit of exercise, fancy a walk?"
"Shouldn't you be…"
"Saving lives, I've done enough of that for today. They actually let me leave the hospital. That doesn't happen very often" he joked.
"And you've got nothing else you should be doing?"
"Well I was supposed to have a date"
"Oh"
"She blew me out for a surgeon, can you believe it. So this walk"
"Ok"
"For medical reasons of course" he smiled.
A grainy CCTV image was playing on the screen. There was a petite Japanese woman exiting a coffee shop with a taller Caucasian brunette man.
"Are you sure he's the man she mentioned earlier?" Jack asked.
"Certain. He's Owen Harper, he's a doctor in the local casualty department" Gwen said showing Jack his picture.
"Keep your eye on them"
"Do you think Tosh is coming back?" Owen said in another Torchwood.
Jack's perfect face crumpled into a frown "She has been gone an awful long time"
Jack tried to ring her "It's no good it says her phones out of range"
"Where the hells she gone?"
"I'll have a look on the system, seen when she went out of range" Gwen said going over to Toshiko's work station.
"Does she do that to all of us?" Owen asked.
"Just in case of such emergencies" Gwen said tapping the keys "That's odd"
"What is?" Jack said moving closer.
"Well it looks like she went out of signal in the middle of the city"
"Could she have just turned her phone off?" Owen offered.
"Not Tosh" Jack said with certainty "She's too professional"
"Battery ran out?"
"No, that might be something you would do, but not Tosh. Something is up; she wouldn't have kept out of communication this long. I knew I should have gone with her" Jack said with noticeable anger in his voice, but the anger was at himself.
"It didn't seem anything of consequence" Gwen said.
"That's exactly when you should be on your guard"
"Surely she would have called for back up if something was up"
"Not if she didn't have time" Owen said not lightening the mood any.
"We need to get out there, Ianto get the car ready"
Toshiko looked out across the bay, the lights shining in the dark water. She turned to Owen who was standing next to her.
"Why are you talking to me?"
"Well it would be rude not to"
"No I mean at all, I was making not sense in the hospital"
"You intrigued me. It's odd even though I'm certain I've never met you before, you feel familiar"
"Maybe you do know me in another universe" Toshiko said trying to sound like she was joking.
Owen looked at her in thought for a moment.
"But that would be mad" Toshiko finished.
"It would" Owen agreed although he still looked deep in thought, if she was from another universe it would explain how she knew him and why she had a pocket of out of date coins, but how could she be that was mental. He felt uneasy as if it was true but how could it be it was ridiculous.
Toshiko knew that her Owen could have taken the news 'what's it today? Parallel Universe, bring it on'. But this Owen was different, he didn't know half of what happened in Cardiff, he'd never experienced Torchwood. But maybe…
"It's true" she said "I don't belong here. This isn't my universe"
Owen looked at her in shock, he couldn't believe what she had just said.
"You know what, I was wrong you are a nutter" Owen said walking off.
"Well that went well" Toshiko said to herself.
It wasn't really what she said so much that had rattled him, but what the implications were. Things weren't as they appeared if a person could fall from one universe to another and even that meant there was more than one universe, more than the universe he knew, and there were other versions of him out there. He didn't want to believe it was true and yet what if it was? There was some evidence. Even though he had just called her a nutter he was still intrigued and decided to follow her at a safe distance. He tried to convince himself that it was for her own safety rather than his curiosity.
"Still keeping track of Tosh?" Jack asked Gwen, the half light making his scar look worse.
"Yeah" Gwen replied "And I've found some information on his Harper bloke"
Jack read Owen's file "Sounds an interesting chap. I think I'll keep an eye on him myself"
"Jack"
"I mean a professional eye"
Toshiko neared the point to where it had all started. She shouldn't have left it so long, but she had been kept away by talking to this universes Owen. But now he thought she was a nutter, an even lower opinion then Owen from her own universe. She suddenly missed him; he hadn't been so mean to her since he'd dead, death had mellowed him.
Toshiko stood on the same spot she had done earlier that day, but it was perfectly normal, nothing out of the ordinary. She checked the device in her hand, but there was definitely nothing there. Perhaps it had closed when she had come through. She moved about but still nothing happened. She was stuck in this strange world; she sat down on the pavement in dejection.
The SUV pulled up, had they been in the same world they would have run Toshiko over. It was the only vehicle on the street, the blue light on the windscreen casting eerie shadows.
"Is that it?" Ianto asked "We could have walked that distance"
"Tosh did her car's still at the hub"
"We could have walked. That is if you fancied carrying all the equipment that's in the SUV"
"Good point" Ianto said.
The boot was packed with anything thing and everything. It didn't help that they didn't know what they were dealing with so they had to bring everything.
"Tosh, Toshiko!" They shouted their voices echoing off the seemingly empty houses.
Somewhere else Toshiko sat in silence, tears welling in her eyes.