A/N. Hi, i'm back. I think i mentioned at the start that my postings will be a bit erractic but even i didn't anticipate such a long gap! Sorry for the delay. I'm on holiday at the moment so hopefully chapters will be a little more regular. This was a hard chapter to write because there is quite a lot over explanation in it. I hope it is okay, and that it makes sense. You get to learn about what happened to Lexie in the past. Enjoy the chapter and please review, they always help to inspire me. Kat :)

Chapter 4.

'No way' replied Jack with such vehemence that he took the team by surprise.

'Come on Jack it's the only way they are gonna get the answers they want.'

'I don't care; you do not need to be put through seeing that on top of everything that's happened today.'

Lexie gave Jack a sad smile, 'I appreciate the concern Jack, but I lived through it. I still get the occasional nightmare to prove that. Look I admit that video clip isn't exactly high on my to watch list, but you want me to trust your team right?' Jack nodded. 'The only way I can even begin to do that is for them to know why I dislike this place so much, get everything out in the open from the start. That clip explains it better than either of us could in words. I realise it's not easy for you to watch either.'

Jack sighed, he knew she was right but he still didn't want to show that clip. He looked at Lexie, 'Are you sure?'

'I'm sure.'

Jack turned to address his team, 'what I'm about to show is not easy to view, so I'm warning you now. It's a video clip from the medical bay in '94 on the day we found Lexie. After we found Lexie, her mother and those soldiers we brought them back here. I had a feeling that Lexie had empathic abilities before she told me, there was just something about the way she reacted to people, especially when we got back here.' He turned back to look at Lexie, 'I'll never forget the way you reacted to Dr Taylor.'

'Yeah well that's because he scared the crap out of me, I could feel real darkness coming from him, even though he had this caring façade.' Lexie shuddered at the memory. 'The problem was someone obviously heard me talking to Jack about what I could do and passed it on Taylor. He came over and told Jack that he wanted to check me out to make sure I was okay, but I could tell it was more than that. I was so frightened.'

Jack continued, 'I refused to let him look at Lexie while she was obviously so terrified, but he wouldn't give up, kept going on about how Torchwood had rights over anything alien that came through the Rift to Earth. Next thing I know I feel something hard hit me from behind and Lexie screaming before it all went dark as I hit the floor.' There was a collective intake of breath around the boardroom as Jack said this.

'They then hauled me down to the medical bay.' Lexie said. 'The video clip will show you what happened next.

The other four watched as Jack bought up Lexie's file on screen and clicked on the video clip, entering the password that Tosh had been unable to break earlier, all of them nervous as to what they were going to see. On the screen came the medical bay, looking much like it did today, there was a man on one of the beds that was dressed liked a soldier, obviously one of the ones that had fallen through the Rift with Lexie. A man in his fifties then came on to the screen, 'This is Dr Taylor preparing for a test on a female with empathic abilities. This is the first test of this kind and I am intent on finding out how far the limits of these abilities can be pushed.' Taylor then moved away from the screen and out of the medical bay, a moment later raised voices could be heard, obviously this was where Jack and Taylor had argued, then came a scream and Taylor appeared back on the screen, followed by another man in a white coat who was carrying a small girl who looked terrified. Once the other man sat the girl down, it was obvious it was Lexie, she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly all the while looking at the two men with tear filled eyes. Taylor picked up what looked like a stun gun and handed it to the other man who went and stood next to the soldier. Taylor then attached a monitor lead to Lexie's arm that took in all her vital signs. At this point she looked too terrified to even move. Taylor nodded at the other man and he then proceeded to shock the soldier with the stun gun, he cried out in pain and so did Lexie. 'Turn up the voltage,' said Taylor. The other man did as he was told and then stunned the soldier again causing him to pass out. Lexie on the other hand screamed in pain and was seen to curl in on herself, saying 'stop' over and over again. Her vital signs were going wild, but Taylor just laughed which made Lexie cry even harder.

At this point Jack stopped the video and looked back round at his team. Gwen and Tosh both had tears in their eyes and Owen and Ianto just looked horror struck. Lexie was looking at the floor.

'Shit', cursed Owen breaking the silence. 'Those sadistic bastards had the audacity to call themselves Doctors.' He shook his head unable to comprehend what he had just seen.

'So they hurt the soldier to see how much that would hurt you because of your ability?' asked Tosh.

'It would have been worse than that though, wouldn't it?' interjected Ianto. 'Not only would you have felt his pain, but you would have felt Dr Taylor's glee at what he was doing.'

'Yep that was exactly it. It was so confusing being able to feel that soldiers pain and Taylor's joy at the same time. I swear that guy had no soul.'

'What happened to them?' asked Gwen.

'Once I regained consciousness I went down into the medical bay and stopped them. I took the stun gun off Taylor's assistant and turned it on him and Taylor. I then put them in the cells until Alex got back. Once I told him what had happened we retconned them back so far they couldn't even remember their own names. I believe they ended up in a psychiatric facility. After that things started to change around here and we started moving away from the way Torchwood 1 worked.'

'It certainly explains why you don't like doctors,' said Owen. 'I hope you come to realise that not all Torchwood doctors are like that.'

Lexie looked up hesitantly at him and replied, 'give me some time.'

Jack smiled; this was actually going better than he thought. 'Right now all that's out in the open I hope we can move on. Ianto, Owen, Tosh and Gwen, you now know all about Lexie and how she came to be here so I'd appreciate you not asking her anymore questions,' Jack was mainly focused on Gwen as he said this, 'and Lexie, I want you to give them a chance.' They all nodded.

'Okay, so back to today. Tosh and Gwen I need you to go over to the Sanders house and see if you can pick up anything unusual. Owen I want you to go down to the M.E and see what you can find out from him and do your own checks too.' Jack didn't want to say the word test in front of Lexie, but he knew Owen would know what he wanted. 'Ianto I have some research I need you to do.'

Owen, Tosh and Gwen got up and left picking up their equipment on the way before heading off to their destinations.

'I really need to clean up and change; you said something about showers on the way here?' Lexie said to Jack.

'Yes, if you go back down into the main area of the Hub and down the corridor immediately opposite the sofa, you'll see the shower room.'

'Thanks' Lexie stood up and walked out of the boardroom, smiling at the two men as she left.

As soon as she was out of the room Jack got up out of his chair and stood in front of Ianto. 'You're not too mad at me are you?'

Ianto looked up at him confused, 'why would I be mad?'

'For not telling you about Lexie before now. I hate to think what you thought when I rushed out of here earlier.'

Ianto smiled slightly and took Jack's hand in his own. 'I won't lie, I was confused, and maybe a little hurt. I also realised that you must have had a good reason not to have told anyone about Lexie, which you obviously did.'

'You may not believe this but I was going to tell you about her. After the last time I saw her I resolved that I would introduce the two of you. I know she has her issues about Torchwood and people who work here, but I knew she'd be okay with you. I just never knew how to tell you about her.'

'Don't worry about it, you can find some way to make it up to me after we've worked out what happened at the Sanders today.'

'I'm sure I can think of a few ways,' replied Jack leaning in closer to Ianto so that his hands were braced on the chair.

'I'm sure you can,' said Ianto.

'How about a little preview,' said Jack as he closed the distance between them bringing their lips together in a passionate kiss.

X

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