Disclaimer: I do not in any way own Torchwood or it's characters

Note : I favour Captain Jack Harkness out of all of the characters in Torchwood


Chapter 7 – Hunting for Clues

It had become dark outside, and Claudia was still sat on the park bench where she had been with Jack, looking down at her boots. A street lamp flicked on over her head, the orange light bathing her and giving her a holy look. The odd jogger or dog walker would go by without a care in the world. No one stopping to ask why she was sat on her own, or if she needed any help. Not that she wanted anyone to stop for her, she was happy by herself.

How long had it been since Jack had left her, she did not know. The hours had just slowly ticked away as she had stayed in the same place. People going about their normal lives, dogs running up to smell her feet, children pointing at her and asking why she looked so sad, mothers hushing them and pushing them slowly along in hope of getting out of the sun and into the shade.

Jack had just left her, telling her she was not allowed to help. She wanted to get revenge for what had happened with her family and yet she was being denied that now. But normally she never let anyone give her orders, so why had she taken Jack's. She had not followed or even tried to find where he had gone, she had just walked back to the bench and set herself down, hands in her pockets. Finger tips pressing against the plastic back of her phone. No one called her all afternoon and now it was close to 10 at night when at last her phone went off.

She had turned it onto silent and so it vibrated but the ring tone did not go. Pulling it out, she flipped the phone up and placed it carefully to her ear, listening to the sound of fingers hitting a keyboard in a quick hurry.

"Claudia, I'm not getting any readings from the Hub, so I took it on myself to try and find where they all were." He stopped, wanting to hear if she was going to react. When Claudia made a small sound, he felt it was safe to carry on talking. "And I went over everything I could find and about 4 hours ago I saw them heading into this building. But the thing is, they have not come out again." Claudia looked up, worry filled her as she looked around.

"Four hours, that's too long for comfort." He said from the other end of the line. Raising up from the bench, she looked around herself, not sure what she was going to do next. She started walking in the direction that Jack had gone earlier, hoping that she could be of some use if they were in trouble. Getting to the edge of the park, she looked up and down the path.

"What building did they go into then?" She asked, her voice filled with panic. The street lamps were brighter then in the park and not a orange, so she was able to see better down the road.

"Claudia, they went to St. Mark Shipping." His voice trailed off, knowing how she was going to react to that. She stood, staring up the road for a moment, before cutting off the call by closing her phone. It was slipped into her pocket before she cracked her fingers in a small stretch. She did the school like warming up stretching that she used to do before a lesson of P.E.

"Thank you. Now it's time for me to find you Jack." She said under her breath. She smiled lightly, before she set off at a ran down the street. Her feet pounded the pavement as she went, arms swinging so she could go faster. She turned left, right and then right again before pelting down a side road to come out onto the street where St. Mark Shipping was. She slid to a stop close by, but did not dare go to the main doors of the building itself. Instead she headed down an alleyway which ran down the left hand side of the building.

There was no light down the alleyway, and so she had to pick her way carefully until her came to a fire door. It was slightly ajar, 'Handy' was the thought to cross her mind. Pulling the door open, she peeked inside before she herself went in. The door lead to a set of fire stairs, which went up the whole building. Starting up the stairs, she was not sure what she would meet once she had got upstairs, but she was preparing herself for whatever could come.

Getting onto the first floor, she pulled open the door which led out onto the floor and she called out into the room. "Hello, anyone in here?" When no reply came, she called again. "I'm here to help, anyone at all?" Once again there was no reply and so she went back out onto the stairs and started to climb up to the second floor.

On the second and third floor there was no reply to her calling, which was causing her heart to sink, thinking that she would not be able to help anyone if they were there. But on the fourth floor, there was someone calling back to her. She had poked her head around the door, and was looking out into the darkness of an open office space, desks littered the place, each with a computer on top. It looked like it had not been used in a while as there was a thick layer of dust to all of the surfaces.

Stepping fully into the room, Claudia cupped her hands at her mouth and called. "Hello, anybody out there?" She felt like she was calling to a lost person at sea or in the middle of the forest. She got nothing from her first call and so shouted again. "Can you hear me? Make a sound or something if anyone is there?" She stood for a moment and turned to go, when a faint voice came from somewhere far in the room.

"Gwen? Jack? Help me." The voice called, weak at first before it became stronger. Claudia knew the voice too well, having heard it a number of times before.

"Ianto? Ianto Jones? Is that you?" She was walking slowly around the office, peering under desks and into storage cupboards. "Ianto, I'm here to help you. Call out so that I can find you." Her voice was strong in the silence, whereas his was weak. She picked her way across the room until the voice of Ianto was strong enough to lead her to him.

Ianto was slumped under a desk, his hand gripping at his own thigh as the strong scent of blood filled the air around him. He looked pale in the darkness of the room, eyes barely seeming to be open as Claudia crouched down beside him. A soft gasp left her, before she shook herself slightly in an effort to regain focus on what had to be done. The man was clearly in a great deal of pain and just staring at him was not going to help.

"Ianto Jones. I never thought I would get to meet you. I'm Claudia." She said all of this while pulling the man's fingers away from his thigh to try and see how badly hurt he was. The blood appeared to have stopped and the wound itself looked clean, but Claudia didn't have a clue about first aid.

Taking a look around the room, the girl worked out quickly that there wasn't going to be anything of help for her, and so returned her eyes to Ianto.

"Where are the others Ianto?" Her voice was stern as she looked deeply into Ianto's eyes. "Tell me what happened." For a moment, the man didn't look like he was able to speak, turning his face down to the floor. But then a voice came from him.

"I don't know... All I remember is red eyes. Bright. Bold. Red. Ey-"

A scream shook the room and Claudia's natural reaction was to look around. It sounded like the scream had come from the floor above where she and Ianto were sat. Folding her legs under herself, Claudia sat in front of the injured man, just listening. Foot steps faintly echoed ahead before any pain-filled cry rang around the building. It sounded like a woman, but the girl couldn't be sure without proof.

"What is happening Ianto? What is attacking people? You can't keep me out of this, I know what is going on. Don't push me away, I can help. Whatever this thing is, it took my parents. And I won't stop until I know why or... Until it gets me." The tone of Claudia's voice was dark as she removed herself from the floor and stood over Ianto with her hand reaching out to him.

For a second the man looked confused, before at last Ianto slapped his hand down into Claudia's and allowed her to heave him up onto his one good leg. Using her as a leaning post, Ianto and Claudia slowly made their way back towards the fire door.

"Claudia?"

"Yes Ianto?" The girl looked up at the Torchwood employee and saw a smile spread across his face.

"Ever heard of a 3-headed dog?"

OOC: Continued