A/N. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and put this story on alert, it is much appreciated. Enjoy this chapter and please review. :)
Chapter 2.
When they reached the park, the police were already there. There was a cordon keeping a small crowd away from an area near to the playground. As they got out of the SUV they could just make out a body lying on the ground, and somebody leaning over it. When they reached the cordon, Jack said 'Torchwood' and they were let straight through, although Molly was sure she heard someone making a snide comment. They walked over to the body and the man leaning over, examining it. He stood up when he saw the three of them approaching. Gwen and Molly passed appreciative looks at each other as this guy was cute, tall, blonde and had piercing blue eyes. Jack looked at them and said 'Gwen, you go and speak to the police, see what they have, Molly, go speak to any witnesses.' Both of them turned to go and do what Jack had asked them, but he was sure one, if not both of them had muttered 'not fair.' He smiled and walked over to the blonde guy.
'Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood. You are?'
'Dr West, police medical examiner.'
'So, what can you tell me about what's happened here?'
'Well, my initial findings suggest he was attacked by some kind of wild animal, poor guys been ripped apart. Never seen anything like it though, and I don't think the sort of animal capable of doing this would be found wandering about the park. It's a complete mystery.'
'Before you take the body, I'm going to need blood and tissue samples. Also I will need a full copy of your autopsy report.' Jack said. Now he really was lamenting not having a medic, he knew he had been slow in getting one, but it's not like Torchwood could advertise like conventional workplaces. He was going to have to let the police take this one, and just hope Dr West didn't discover anything too strange, although worse case scenario Jack could retcon him.
'Why do you want samples? I can run any test you want me too.' Dr West said.
'There are some that only we have the equipment for. Just let me know when you have them ready.' Jack then walked away and headed towards where Gwen and Molly were.
'Got anything?'
'A couple of people were around at the time of the incident. They said there was a flash of light, and they heard that guy screaming. No one knows who he is, as he wasn't with any of them, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.'
'Did any of them see what did it?'
'Not exactly, they said they saw four shapes, but they didn't get a good look.'
'Great, so four vicious killers have come through the Rift from God knows where, and we have no idea what they are, not even a description.'
'Just like old times then.' said Gwen.
Just then Dr West came walking over to them. 'Here you are, the samples you wanted.' He passed them to Jack and then turned to the two women. 'Hi, I'm Dr West.'
'Gwen'.
'Molly.'
'Nice to meet you Gwen and Molly. If there's nothing else I'll be taking the body now.'
Jack nodded to him and he turned and walked away. 'You're letting him take the body?' Gwen asked.
'It's pointless us taking it, unless you want to do the autopsy?' Gwen shook her head. 'I have samples that we can run back at the Hub to see if there's any trace of what we are dealing with.'
Without anything else to go on they headed back to the SUV so that they could return to the Hub.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Back at the Hub, Ianto was waiting for the others to return. He sat at one of the computers trying to see if there were anymore reports of something strange that could be connected to what had come through the Rift. He wanted to be out with the others, but he tended to be the one that got left behind, and he got the feeling that Jack was doing it on purpose. He wasn't having any luck with what he was doing so he got up and moved to the kitchen. He wanted to find some aspirin to try and get rid of the headache that was niggling in the back of his head. Ianto knew exactly what caused this, and it was a lack of sleep. He had not slept properly for the last three nights, kept awake by the haunting images he kept seeing when he did drift off to sleep. The problem was the images didn't make any sense to him, they were obviously memories trying to get through. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know what these memories were if he was having such a hard time remembering them. Just as he was walking back into the main part of the Hub, the alarm sounded as the cog door opened, and Jack, Gwen and Molly came back in.
'Did you find anything?' He asked as they came towards him.
'Nothing useful, except some poor guy was torn to shreds.' Molly shuddered at the memory of the guy who was all torn apart. 'We have samples to test though, and I'm going to see if I can locate any residual Rift trace. You never know the autopsy might turn something up.'
'Yeah and I bet you girls will be fighting over who goes to pick up those results.' Jack grinned as he looked at Gwen and Molly who both blushed slightly. Ianto just looked puzzled.
'Am I missing something?'
'You just missed out on these two acting like schoolgirls when they saw the police ME.'
'He was cute, and don't tell me you never noticed.' Gwen said.
'Nope, can't say i did.' said Jack smiling.
They set to work with what little they had. Jack and Gwen set up the samples so that they could be tested for anything strange, it would take a while though because the technology for this was still a work in progress, nothing like they had before. Ianto and Molly tried tracing residual Rift energy, but there was nothing, it was like whatever had come through just vanished into thin air. It was starting to get late when Jack said, 'We might as well call it a night, there's nothing here at the moment, and I can transfer the Rift alarm to my wrist strap so if anything happens in the night I'll know. Plus I believe we had plans.'
'Are you sure, there's got to be other things we can look at,' Molly said.
'We're at a dead end at the moment, maybe once the autopsy report comes in tomorrow morning we'll have something. Anyway don't you have a hen night to get ready for.' Jack said grinning at her.
'Well if you're sure, I do need to go and change.'
'Of course. What was the theme of this party again?' Jack asked not too subtly.
Molly just smiled, 'You all have a good evening and I'll see you tomorrow.' She then left.
Gwen turned to Jack and Ianto, 'So, are you two coming with me?'
'Gwen, would you mind if I gave it a miss, it's been a long day and I have a headache. Can we reschedule?' Ianto said, he didn't want to be anti social, but he wasn't really in the mood for an evening at Gwen's.
'That's fine,' Gwen said. 'You ok?'
'Yeah, I just need to catch up on my sleep.'
'I take it that you're out too then Jack.' Gwen said turning to him, knowing full well that if Ianto wasn't going to be coming, Jack wouldn't either.
Jack shook his head, 'No I think I better drive Ianto home.'
'You don't have to do that, I told you I'm fine.'
'I want to make sure, there's no ulterior motive. Honestly.' He added when he saw the way the others were looking at him.
'Ok then, see you tomorrow.' Gwen said and then left the Hub. Jack and Ianto followed not long after. They got into the SUV and for once Jack drove at a fairly normal pace, he still broke a few speed limits, but for him it was quite calm. When they got to the flat, Ianto let them both in, and then went to put the coffee machine on. Molly had already gone out.
'So,' Jack started, and Ianto wondered what he was going to say. 'Will you tell me now what this theme is Molly's keeping so secret?'
Ianto smiled, 'Molly's friends work at the hospital, they were going out dressed as nurses.'
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Molly was not exactly thrilled with what she was wearing, although thankfully her dress wasn't as short as some of her friends. She had suggested alternate ideas, but to no avail. She had known Lucy since school and so went along with what she wanted, it was her night after all. Molly headed to the bar to get more drinks, leaving the other girls outside. They were getting pretty drunk, but as Molly was the one getting the drinks, they hadn't noticed she had switched to soft drinks. While she was standing at the bar she heard a familiar sounding voice.
'Is this your night job?'
Molly turned to find herself looking at the doctor from the park this morning.
'What… Oh no, hen party.' She said pointing to the others outside. 'Believe me, I wouldn't dress like this if I didn't have too.'
He smiled at her. 'It was Molly, right.'
'Yeah, Dr West?'
'That's right, but call me Jamie, I'm not working now.'
'Me neither', Molly said laughing.
'Can I get you a drink?' Jamie asked.
'No I'm ok, I have to get theirs too. Thanks though. Are you here with friends?'
'Yeah just a couple of work mates, problem is they can only talk about work, which is a little annoying.'
As Molly went to reply she was interrupted by a scream coming from outside. She turned to look, and saw that everyone who had been drinking and smoking outside, were all now frantically trying to get back inside the bar. For a minute she couldn't understand what was going on, but then her attention was caught by movement on the other side of the road. There were two shapes moving towards the fleeing people like predators with prey in their sights, and they definitely didn't look human.
