About an hour later, they'd finally made it back to the Hub. The police hadn't been too happy about their van being commandeered to transport the sled, but the farmer had been extremely pleased to hire out a small livestock trailer for a few hours. The dead elf had been stored in one of the fridges in the autopsy bay, and the survivor was lying on the exam table, which had groaned slightly under his weight as they'd transferred him onto it.
Owen looked up as Jack and Gwen came into the bay.
"He'll live."
"Glad to hear it." Jack stopped at the top rail, leaning his hands against it. "So how is he?"
"Pretty banged up, reckon he hit pretty hard. Leg is definitely broken, but I've set it." he turned and brought up an image on the screen behind him. "Funny thing is, it's healing pretty fast- he seems human, blood work backs that up, but the break is knitting already. Not as quick as you, Jack, but still way faster than it should. Head injury is already nearly gone. Only weird thing is a slight abnormality in his DNA, but I can't see anything that would explain this."
"How long do you think it'll take?" asked Gwen.
"At this rate, his leg should be usable in about 5 hours, and that femur was snapped clean in two."
Jack gave a low whistle, and straightened up, jamming his hands into his pockets. "Okay. Let me know if he wakes up."
Gwen and Jack headed back into the main section, leaving Owen to get on with looking after his patient.
Tosh looked up from her screen as they approached. "The fluctuations have moved here now." She brought up a display. "Centred in two definite locations- the autopsy bay, and the storage area that we put the sled into."
"So the crash is definitely the source," said Jack, frowning.
"Absolutely." Tosh tapped a few more keys. "But it's subsiding, almost down to background levels. I also had a quick look at the sled when you brought it in- it seems to have some sort of antigravity generator built in. I would say that when it's active the field will extend out in front of it a fair way."
"So that's how it flies, huh?" said Jack, leaning over her shoulder to look interestedly at the screen. "What's this?"
"That's the very interesting bit." Tosh was beginning to get animated. "I can't be completely sure, but I think there's some sort of temporal circuit. If I'm right, it creates a kind of time dilation field around the sled, reindeer and occupants."
"Which means?" asked Gwen, looking puzzled.
"It means that time will move differently inside the field," said Jack, nodding as he tapped his wristband. "I detected temporal flux at the scene. So d'you think we can we fix it?"
Tosh nodded. "I think so. It looks like the damage to it is mostly cosmetic, and the systems have simply gone dormant."
Ianto had reappeared with a tray of coffees. "Here we are then."
"Did you get the reindeer settled?" asked Gwen, smiling gratefully as she accepted her steaming mug.
"Oh yes, they're happy as Larry down there. Set up some partitions, lots of nice warm straw, and they've been fed. Even Rudolph is looking a bit better."
Jack chuckled softly under his breath. He didn't know how Ianto did it, but whatever kind of creature turned up, within a couple of hours he'd found food and suitable accommodations.
"I always thought that was a funny name for a girl…." said Tosh, still working on her keyboard.
Gwen, Jack and Ianto turned to stare at her.
"Rudolph isn't a girl," said Ianto.
"They have to be girls," said Tosh. "Both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, but reindeer boys drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually in late November to early December. The girls keep theirs until they've given birth in the spring."
"Where do you find all this stuff?" said Gwen, laughing.
"I read a lot." Tosh shrugged. "Anyway, according to every historical depiction I've seen of Santa's reindeer, none of them could be boys, they've all still got their antlers."
"I knew it!" Gwen grinned broadly, eyes twinkling with mischief as she looked over at the male members of the team. She nudged Tosh. "We should've known... only women would be able to drag a fat-arse man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost."
"On behalf of my gender, oy!" yelled Owen as he emerged from the autopsy bay. "And you get lost all the time."
"Yes, but we're not afraid to ask for directions," Tosh retorted quietly with a small smile pulling at one side of her mouth.
Owen opened his mouth to blast back with what Jack was sure would be a sarcastic response, but the older man headed him off.
"Is he awake yet?"
"What? Oh, yeah. Woke up a couple of minutes ago. He's got a bit of a headache, but seems lucid enough." His expression was strangely unsettled.
"What's wrong?" asked Gwen.
"Well….. he knew my name." He grimaced. "AND he said that I'd been a very naughty boy this year…"
Gwen stifled a laugh behind her hand, and a broad grin spread across Jack's face. Ianto smiled and even Tosh was smirking.
"Oh come on! He must have been able to hear us when I thought he was unconscious!"
"I'm sure that was it… but none of us mentioned your name." said Gwen, immensely enjoying Owen's discomfiture.
"Must have been written down somewhere… anyway, you want to talk to him or not?"
"Hate to think what he's going to say to you, Jack." said Gwen, eyes twinkling.
"Well, when I'm good, I'm really good, but when I'm bad, I'm amazing," he said, winking at her.
"Can't argue with that….." muttered Ianto.
Jack gave him an amused look, and then headed towards the autopsy bay, the rest of the team following.
******
The old man looked up as they entered. Even though he had to be in pain, there was still a glimmer of merriment in his eyes as he waved a hand at them.
"Here you all are! I must thank you for picking me up, that was the strangest thing!" he paused, looking slightly worried. "Are the reindeer alright? Quite the landing, as I recall."
"They're fine," Ianto assured him.
"Good, good. Thank you Ianto, you've always tried to be a good boy. Well, most of the time. Unlike some I could mention." He directed a significant look from under his white, bushy eyebrows at Owen, who glared back. "Now then, if you can just send in Ingner, he can help me up and we'll be on our way. Lots to do tonight, you know, no time to waste."
"See?" said Owen, digging Ianto in the ribs.
"That's somewhat disconcerting, yes."
Gwen had gone down into the bay, and took the old mans hand. "Ingner, was that the friend you had with you?"
"Why yes Gwen, Ingner Torkut, he's my chief elf…. helps me navigate, looks after the list, that sort of thing…" He trailed off as he saw the sympathetic look in Gwen's eyes. "Something awful has happened, hasn't it?" he said, his long, luxuriant white beard quivering slightly.
"I'm sorry, but he was gone when we reached you." Gwen patted his hand. "There was nothing we could do."
"Oh, this is terrible!" Two huge tears welled up in his eyes. "Twenty years he's been with me, boy and elf! His father before him too… Disaster! How am I going to finish tonight without him?"
Reaching into the pocket of his red velvet trousers, he pulled out an enormous red handkerchief with white spots, scrunched it up, and blew his nose loudly. There were, Gwen noticed, little silver bells attached to each corner that jingled gently as they moved.
Gwen glanced over Santa's head at Jack, and was surprised to see a stony expression there. Jack hadn't noticed Gwen's look; his attention was firmly fixed on Santa. Also, she realised, Jack had been careful to stay out of the injured man's line of sight, and was staying quiet, simply observing and listening to what he had to say, letting the others do all the interacting.
Gwen squeezed the old mans hand supportively. "We're going to do everything we can to help."
Santa sniffled a little more. "Thank you Gwen, you've always been a good girl… Well, there was that little episode earlier in the year, but you've done better since then…"
Owen's scowl deepened, and Ianto quickly moved to cover his smile with his hand.
"Okay, I've heard enough. Everybody out." Jack said, finally moving to where Santa could see him.
"Oh ho," said Santa, seeing Jack for the first time. "You on the other hand, have been a very, very naughty boy indeed! And what are you calling yourself this week?"
"Captain Jack Harkness." Jack smiled, a slightly toothy grin which had absolutely nothing to do with humour. "And as for naughty? Yeah, maybe, but I've sure had fun doing it." He glanced at the others, the smile vanishing. "I said out."
The rest trooped back up the stairs, and Jack waited, arms folded, for them to get out of earshot.