AN: Thanks to Village-Mystic and kelsealynn77 for reviewing our last chapter; it's good to know what people think. This is chapter 2 part 1 of the Torchwood: Alive And Better Than Ever series, and again this is from Morgan's POV and has been written by Morgan. We own no characters apart from: Morgan, Olly, Seth, Grace, Laura, Ella and Anna. Also if you want to follow the story, then add us to the author alert because each chapter is uploaded as a different story.
Summary: When Owen runs out Morgan takes his place for a while. But it doesn't go how she hoped it would. When Owen comes back to the hub later that day, who is the girl he brought with him? What is she doing there? Why is Morgan acting the way she is? Chapter 2 part 1 of the Torchwood: Alive And Better Than Ever series.
Changes and New Beginnings - Chapter 2 Part 1
"Ok, um, Morgan can you fill in for Owen?" dad asked.
"Yay, ok. Maybe I'll be able to go out in the field this time." I replied smiling.
"Yeah, good luck with that." Gwen told me, gesturing to what dad was getting.
"Damn it!" I said.
Dad was getting paper work. Of all things, paper work. He knew I hated paper work, even though I did it extremely well, he knew I hated it. Everyone knew I did.
"Here you go." dad said, handing me a huge stack of files.
I sighed as I took the mountain of work.
"I thought I would at least get to do something fun. Like dissect things or...something." I mumbled as I left to go to my room.
My room was the only place I could to paper work. If I was downstairs I would have too many distractions, like: Seth and Grace running around, dad and Tad messing around with Seth and Grace, Gwen and Tosh talking about baby stuff; and that's only to name a few. The paper work I had to do was the same thing as always. I had to do a full report of the aliens we had, where they came from, blah, blah, blah. Ever since I first had to do paper work I had kept count of how many of what creature we had, and where they came from. It only took me a few minutes to finish it. As I walked down stairs, having put the paper work on dad's desk, everyone was looking at me surprised. I ignored the expressions.
"How?" Tad asked simply.
"If you mean how did I do it so quickly then it's because I'm simply amazing and ever since I first had to do particular piece of paper work I had kept count of what we had, where they came from and all that, so it was pretty simple." I replied.
That just gave me even more surprised looks. The funniest look was from dad. His was a mixture of surprise, proud, amazed and shocked; I tried my best not to laugh.
Filling in for Owen wasn't that fun. I really did hope that I would be able to dissect something or go out in the field and catch something. Olly had already started going out onto the field, and he was getting taught how to us a gun. I walked up to my dad's office.
"Dad," I said after a while. "Can I do something fun while I'm filling in for Owen?"
"What do you mean by fun?" he asked, looking up from his desk.
"Well you know like, cut something open." I replied.
"No."
"Why not?"
That made dad stop. I knew he didn't have an answer, he never did.
"Because I said so." dad told me after a while.
"That's not a good reason." I protested.
"Well it's the only one you're going to get."
"Or it's the only one you can come up with."
"Don't back chat me."
"I'm not; I'm giving you the real reason as to why you came up with such a lame excuse."
"Morgan, go."
"But..."
"Go!"
I turned on my heels and walked away. Even though he was my dad and I loved him, sometimes I really hated him. As I reached the bottom of the steps Myfanwy, the hubs pterodactyl, swooped down and landed next to me. The creature only let two people go near her – well without trying to bite them or anything – and that was Tad and I. No one knew why this was, when dad and Tad told us on how Myfanwy had become the hubs pet – which was also how Tad joined Torchwood and how he and dad met – it turned out that Myfanwy would only let Tad near her, and that when dad tried to get close she started to fly around the room with dad hanging onto her. I couldn't help but laugh at that story. Tad was the only one that could come anywhere near her, but during our trips to Cardiff after I was born; Myfanwy took a liking to me as well. Myfanwy was a wonderful thing. She was the best 'pet' anyone could have. She was one of the reasons that couldn't let my friends know about Torchwood – apart from two because my friend Ella was Gwen's niece; and my friend Katherine was my cousin, from my Tad's brother Kai's side, and she, along with her older brother Dylan, sometimes came round. I reached out a hand and stroked the old girls neck. I smiled.
"Wanna help me find Tad?" I asked her.
Myfanwy screeched.
"Well, let's go then." I told her.
Myfanwy and I walked around the hub, looking for places where Tad might be. Nothing.
"He might be in the archives." I said.
As we reached the door to the archives Myfanwy flew back up to her nest.
"Thanks girl." I called up to her.
Tad was down in the archives, like I said. He was putting something away.
"What's that?" I asked.
Tad jumped, obviously not realising that I had joined him. He dropped the gadget that he was holding. I reached out and caught it right before it hit the ground. Handing it back to him I smiled apologetically.
"It's just something we found last week. We don't know what it is or what it does yet." Tad replied, putting the small triangular thing in a box.
The triangular gadget had a smaller triangle near enough in the middle of it, I felt like I'd seen it before.
"Why haven't you tested it?" I asked.
Tad smiled.
"We don't know what it does, so it could, potentially, do some damage," Tad said. "Anyway, even though it's nice, why are you down here?"
"Well I went and talked to dad, and after a while he got a bit snippy and told me to go. So I went." I told him.
"What were you talking to him about?" Tad asked gently.
I told him the conversation that dad and I had.
"I think what your dad was trying to say is, you're too young to do that kind of stuff." Tad told me.
"Too young? But I've helped Owen dissect things hundreds of times." I said.
Tad was shocked. I forgot that no one else knew about that.
"What?" Tad said raising his voice a little.
My eyes widened. I had never heard Tad raise his voice, not the slightest.
"Bye." I said.
I ran out of the archives. Owen was going to be in deep shit for letting me help him. As I ran into the main part of the hub, Olly stopped me.
"Whoa, M. Hold your horses. Why are you running?" Olly asked.
"Olly, I swear to God, if you don't get of my way I will hurt you." I told him.
I heard Tad's footsteps behind me. I tried to go around my annoying older brother, but he blocked me.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." I said.
I punched Olly in the face. I heard a crunch. As he cupped his broken nose, I made a mad dash for it. For some reason I ran to my room. I don't know why I always run or go there, I guess it's because I can be me in there, the real me.
"MORGAN!" I heard dad and Tad shout, after a few minutes of me being in my room.
Instinctively, I locked my door. I waited. They must have been sorting Olly out, since it took them a while to come to my door. They tried to open it.
"Morgan, open this door right now!" dad yelled.
"No!" I replied.
"Excuse me!" he said.
"I said no." I replied calmly.
"Open this door NOW!" dad screamed.
"No. You told me to go so I went, that obviously meant you didn't want me around you, so why should I let you into MY room." I told them.
Silence. When dad was silent you better be scared, because that was when he was deadliest. I wasn't scared of dad; to be honest he was a softy.
"Morgan Louise Harkness-Jones, open this door now!" Tad told me.
"No." I replied gently.
"And why not?" Tad started getting angry now, and that really wasn't like him.
"Well for one you'll have a go at me because I've helped Owen without you knowing, when really you should have a go at Owen for that one. And two, you'll yell at me for punching Olly , even though I warned him by telling him to get out of my way or I'll hurt him." I replied calmly.
I heard someone take a deep breath, obviously trying not to explode – which meant it was dad.
"Ask Olly, he'll tell you." I told them.
There was a pause. After a couple of seconds I heard one set of footsteps walking away. There was nothing said between me and whichever one of my dad's were waiting outside of my room.
"Ok, so you did warn Olly." Tad said after a while.
I grinned.
"Told you." I said. "Also you can't get mad at me for assisting Owen since he let me and he told me not to tell you guys."
I heard hushed whispers. I didn't know what they were saying.
"Ok, fine. We can't get mad at you." dad told me after a while. "Now will you please open the door."
Slowly I walked over, undid the lock, pushed down the handle, and pulled the door towards me.
"Nice hit by the way M." Olly said, as I came back down stairs.
"I know." I replied.
"Remind me never to cross you, again." Olly laughed.
"Aww, but that's no fun." I replied smiling.
As I looked around, I saw that Gwen was missing. Normally when she was missing it was because something happened with Anwen, Rhys needed help or she went to get Ella and bring her here. I was hoping it she went to get Ella. After a while Gwen walked into the hub, her niece by her side.
"Hey Ella." I called to my friend.
"Hey." she replied walking over to where I was.
As Gwen and Tosh launched into baby conversation and dad and Tad were talking about whatever they talk about – knowing dad he was probably throwing in some euphemisms – Olly, Ella and I started talking about school and all that.
A few hours later, Owen walked into base. He wasn't alone though. There was a young girl, probably mine and Ella's age. She had long brown hair and brown eyes. She looked amazed as well as a little shocked.
"Yeah, it has that effect on most people the first time." Owen told the girl.
"Yeah, I remember when Ella first came in. It was so funny." I laughed.
Ella glared at me.
"Oh come on Ella, you have to admit it was slightly funny." I said.
The girl next to Owen looked over at Ella and I.
"It wasn't that funny." Ella muttered.
"Oh believe me, it so was." I replied.
"Um question. Who the hell is this?" dad asked walking over to Owen.
"Oh, yeah right. Everyone this is Laura, my niece. Laura this is the team." Owen said.
"Captain Jack Harkness-Jones." dad said holding his hand out.
Laura shook it.
"Oh God dad!" Olly and I said.
"What?" he asked.
"You don't always have to add the Captain part." Olly and I replied.
Tad stepped up next to dad.
"Ianto Harkness-Jones. It's nice to meet you." Tad said.
"See, why couldn't you be more like Tad, when introducing yourself?" Olly and I asked.
Dad childishly stuck his tongue out at us. Dad's arm slipped around Tad's waist. Olly and I rolled our eyes simultaneously. The team laughed. Laura didn't seem fazed by my dad's gesture.
"I'm Gwen." Gwen said.
"Hi, I'm Tosh." Tosh said, standing up.
"Tosh and I are together." Owen explained, as Tosh stood next to him.
Laura noticed Tosh's baby bump. She looked from the bump to Owen. Owen nodded, Laura smiled. Laura looked back to all of us. Out of us kids, Grace and Seth were first to introduce themselves, considering they came running into the main hub calling for dad and Tad.
"I'm Ella, Gwen's niece." Ella told Laura.
"Olly, as you probably know I'm the Captain and his husband's son. I'm the oldest." Olly said.
Laura looked at me.
"Morgan." I said.
"Morgan is our second oldest, before Seth and after Olly." Tad explained.
"Technically I'm the third oldest, well if you count Alice." I said.
"Alice is my oldest daughter, she's forty two, from a previous relationship around fifty years ago." dad explained.
Myfanwy screeched. Laura looked up startled, seeing the prehistoric animal.
"I think I'm going to faint." Laura breathed.
"Remember, she's more scared of you, then you are of her...ish...maybe...maybe not." I told Laura with a sly smile.
Dad and Tad looked over at me with a harsh look. I replied with a completely sweet and innocent look.
"What? I'm only being honest." I told them.
Laura was wary of Myfanwy, making sure she didn't go anywhere near her.
"Laura, why don't I show you around?" Owen suggested.
"Ok, sure." Laura replied, keeping her eyes on the pterodactyl.
Owen started leading Laura to the archives.
"Don't worry the hub is huge you're most likely to get lost then run into Myfanwy. Anyway, she lets her prey come to her." I called after her.
"Morgan, was that necessary?" Tad asked, when Owen and Laura had disappeared.
"Yeah it was." I replied.
"How?" dad asked.
"I was seeing if she can handle all of this, I mean we may have to retcon her if she can't." I replied.
They couldn't deny the fact that I had a point. If Laura couldn't handle it then for her safety we would have to retcon her. I didn't know what to make of her. She seemed a bit weak stomached for this kind of thing. She seemed a bit too normal – well normal being the fact that she couldn't handle knowing about aliens and blahdy, blahdy, blah. We all went back to our conversations.
At points Owen would walk through with Laura. My words must have had a real impact on her, since that she seemed really uncomfortable with being here and being around Myfanwy. At one point when Owen and Laura were walking through, I called Myfanwy down. As the pterodactyl swooped down, Laura hid behind Owen. I had to try hard not to laugh. Myfanwy landed next to me. Owen and Laura walked around the perimeter of the hub to get to where Tosh, Gwen, dad and Tad were. I couldn't help but smile. After a few minutes Ella had to go home.
"Right I'm going to make some coffee. Laura would you like some?" Tad asked.
"Yes please." Laura replied.
"Morgan, why don't you take Laura to the 'hang out room', and you know, hang out." dad said.
The 'hang out' room, was a room filled with game consoles, games, two sofas, etc. It's where we went to talk/play/hang out.
"Aw, do I have to?" I moaned.
"YES!" Tad and dad told me.
I sighed.
"Come on scaredy cat." I said to Laura.
She seemed offended, I didn't care much. I lead her upstairs. The 'hang out' room, was the furthest room from the stairs. I opened the door and went to sit on the sofa furthest from the door. Laura sat on the other one. I stared at her.
"What?" Laura asked after a while.
"You're a wuss." I replied.
"How am I?" she asked offended.
"You're scared of a bird...and a building!" I told her.
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are!"
"Not!"
"Are!"
"Not!"
"Are!"
"Not!"
"Are!"
"Not!"
"Are!"
The door opened, and Tad walked in with Laura's coffee.
"Here you go Laura." Tad said, handing the girl the cup. "Morgan, can you go get the triangular gadget, you know, the thing you saw earlier, from the archives please?" Tad asked.
"Why do I have to get it?" I asked.
"Because Owen doesn't want Tosh going down to the archives in her condition, I won't allow Owen or you're dad down there without my supervision, I'm still making coffee, Olly's putting up a fight about it and Seth and Grace are too young to go down there." Tad explained.
"What about Gwen?" I asked.
"She's helping Owen bring Tosh up here, to the conference room." Tad said.
"For God's sake!" I breathed.
I walked out the room, Tad and Laura following me.
"Thank you." Tad called after me.
I walked into the archives, still a little frustrated about everything that had gone on that day. I went over to the box that I saw Tad put it in, opened the box and took the gadget out. I made my way to the conference room. When I walked in Tosh was sitting down dad standing by her. I walked over so I was on the other side of Tosh and set the gadget beside her. After a while Gwen came up to us, next was Owen and Laura and lastly Tad came in with a tray of coffee, and a coke for me. Olly must have stayed down stairs, watching Seth and Grace.
"Hey, mum and I have one of those back at the hotel!" Laura announced, after taking a few gulps of her coffee.
We looked at her.
"There's another one?" Owen said, eyes going wide.
"Oh God, it's the risen mitten all over again!" dad whined.
"Not exactly." I chimed in.
They looked at me.
"Explain." Gwen said.
"Well for one the 'risen mitten' was a glove. Given the fact that there's two of these I'd say it would make a diamond, also if you look and the markings down the longer side you can see that is where the other piece fits." I explained, gesturing towards the gadget.
"How do you know this?" Tosh asked.
I smiled.
"I know everything." I replied, glancing up at Laura giving her a knowing smile
"Wow, um, ok. Laura can you bring your half in tomorrow, it could really help us out?" Tosh asked.
"Uh...I can try, but I don't know if mum will let me." Laura said, glancing at Owen.
"I'll bring her round to giving it to us; I have a power for getting my little sister to give me stuff." Owen told us smiling.
Tad, dad and I rolled our eyes. Even though it was Seth who inherited Tad's famous eye roll, I could pull it off quite well. Soon we went back down to the main hub.
"Ok, so Laura, better be getting you home soon." Owen said after a while.
"Oh come on Owen, we're just getting to know the girl. Give it another twenty or thirty minutes." dad said smiling at Laura.
Dad, Tad and Tosh were asking Laura a lot of questions. I just blocked their conversation out.
"Right I really need to take Laura back now, otherwise Anna will kill me. Literally." Owen announced after, about, twenty minutes.
Dad and Tad glanced at each other.
"Ok, go on then. But Owen, I expect you to be in on time tomorrow." dad told him.
"Alright Jack, don't get your cock up your arse, that's Ianto's job." Owen replied.
I was in hysterics. Tad blushed and dad went all quiet.
"Owen, thank you. That comment has made my day." I told him, between laughs.
Owen and I high fived.
"Come on Laura." Owen chuckled.
Owen started leading her out. She stopped, suddenly and turned around.
"Oh, by the way, I'm not stupid...retcon won't work on me." she said, directing her comment at dad and Tad.
Laura and Owen walked out.
"Oh snap! You two just got owned by the wuss. Think I'm starting to like this girl." I said.
Dad and Tad ignored my comment.
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