Day 2.

It's dawn when you enter the SUV and start driving again toward the club.

When you get there, it's early morning, and the police are already there. You see Gwen and her partner Andy.

"Hello," Gwen greets you. They all greet back, but walk past her, without stopping. You do, though.

"Hi. How's work?" You ask her.

"Same old," she answers. "First day?"

"Yeah. Not exactly the best first day ever," you admit.

"Coming?" Jack calls out. You sigh, and wave Gwen goodbye before following the others into the club.

You follow them to the girls' bathroom and you see a pile of dust on the floor. You remember the guy from the episode. This is all that's left of him. That depressing thought makes you so sad you can't say anything.

"You did say this is all that's left of him," Tosh looks for a confirmation.

"How's that possible?" The owner of the club wonders.

"The question is, how did you know this used to be a body?" Jack questions the man.

You resist the urge to chuckle at the man's embarassed face as he tells the story. "Bit of a shock, I tell you."

"We need to see that CCTV." Jack says. You don't bother saying it's not necessary. You just follow him and the rest of the team into the security room and watch the video with them.

It bugs you that there's a camera in the girls' bathroom, but you don't say anything about that.

"Wow," Jack says when the guy turns into that gold dust that the girl—Carys—absorbs.

"Oh my God! He just…" Tosh didn't finish her sentence.

"Came and went," Jack finished it for her. Owen and you snicker.

"That's the way I'd like to go," Owen says.

"I'm sure we could arrange it." Tosh says. The owner of the club appears upset. Even though you just snickered, you're still sad because of that depressing thought.

"How can that be? It doesn't make any sense. It's not possible." The owner still doesn't believe it. You roll your eyes.

"You don't keep tabs of your clients, I suppose." You ask him, even though you already know the answer.

"Of course not. We get hundreds of people here every weekend." He answers, a bit defensive.

"Thanks for your help. We've got all we needed." Jack thanks the owner. You know that's not true. You don't have a clue, but what good does arguing about that? You follow them out, still sad about the guy.

"We'll need a body from the cryo-chamber, close match to the dead guy's appearance. Disfigure the face, dump it someplace remote, make it look like a suicide attempt." Jack orders and Tosh and Owen move fast to "execute his orders". You don't even react at the "a body from the cryo-chamber" part.

"You know, the fact that you have a stash of bodies is a bit creepy," you remark.

Jack looks at you, but doesn't answer, and heads out with the others. You follow, as usual. Then you remember something.

"Wait! Jack!" You call out. He turns around. "I know what happened. There's a CCTV out in that alley where the alien took Cary's body as host."

"Carys is the girl?" Jack wants confirmation. You nod.

"Yeah. Anyway, I think you want to see that video." You point at the security room where you were a couple of minutes before.

You go back in there, and watch the video you told Jack about. With Carys in the alleyway when the gas possesses her.

"Let's get back to the Hub," Jack finally says.

Back at the Hub, Jack is using a penlight over a map of the universe. This didn't cause any effect on you when you saw the episode, so you forgot what it was. Since you don't want to be in the dark, you decide to ask.

"What does this do again?"

"I'm using satellite-tracking data to determine the inward trajectory of the meteorite." Jack explains.

"Right," you remember now. You also understood what he meant but apparently it doesn't seem that way because Tosh clarifies it for you.

"He means he's trying to find out where it's come from."

"Hey! Sometimes techno babble is good for the soul." Jack protests and you chuckle.

"Not a bad idea," you say. You remember the conversation that followed in the episode. And how, when Gwen asked what they did in to relax, Owen had answered "I torture people in happy relationships". You chuckle to yourself, and when you come back to reality, you find Owen looking at you strangely, Tosh and Jack being too immersed in their work to look at you—if they've heard you that is.

Tosh is at her workstation, playing the video of Carys in the alley.

"Gas traces confirmed as Vorax and Suranium." She says.

"Great, my two favorite gases. Can we do a check, and find out what we know
about them?" Jack asks.

"I'm all over it," Owen answers.

Ianto walks into the Hub carrying a tray with mugs filled with either coffee or tea for everyone. Jack picks up one, then Owen, and finally you and Tosh. You thank Ianto before turning back to Tosh. "What are you doing?"

"I've taken an image of the girl from the CCTV. This cross-checks her face
with the UK population." She answers. Right. You'd forgotten they had the whole UK population in that program. That's when the computer finishes the scan.

"Ah. A hundred and nineteen suspects. This thing's supposed to give us a single match." Owen says.

"The CCTV was too low res. I've tried magnifying and augmenting but it just breaks up. Which means that the software can't function properly." Tosh informs them.

"It's narrowed the numbers down. I could check through the rest. You know, the old fashioned way—with my eyes." Ianto says, pointing at his eyes.

You chuckle but say, "No need. I know who it is. Her name is Carys Fletcher. If you have every face of every person in the UK in that," you point at the computer, "surely you can find her address."

"I can do that," Tosh nods and looks for Carys Fletcher.

"Good one, newbie! That's a bit more like it!" Owen says.

You and Owen enter the house through the back door, both of you wearing white jumpsuits and masks, guns in hand, aiming at Carys, even though you don't want to shoot.

"What's going on?" The guy asks. You don't know his name, and right now it's not really important.

"Put your trousers on and get out." When the guy doesn't react, Jack yells, "NOW!" The guy does that and leaves almost immediately. "It always breaks my heart to say those words," he says, and you chuckle

"Air quality's okay." Tosh says after having checked the air with some device.

You all remove your masks while Carys seizes the opportunity and runs past you.

"Lucy, look out!" Jack yells at you. You reach out for Carys but she sprints and runs before you can grab her well. Owen, who was standing on the stairs, sees Carys running to the backdoor and throws a shell-shaped object at her feet, which puts Carys in some sort of prison.

"Cool," you can't help but say.

"It's a sort of inflatable cell. Power runs down after an hour. The battery life's bollocks." Owen explains.

"Who said you could use that?" Jack demands.

"Um, I just stopped a prisoner escaping." If Owen thought he'd win some points in his favor, he was wrong.

"You know the rules. None of that stuff leaves the building without my
expressed permission."

"Fine. Don't thank me," Owen grumbles. Jack presses a button on his vortex manipulator and the cell vanishes. You walk up to Carys and grab her arm. "Come with us." You tell her.

Back at the Hub, Jack tells you to get some information from Carys. You put her in a cell and try to figure out how to start with the interrogation.

"Are you MI-5?" She asks, but you don't respond. "Where am I? What do you want?"

You don't know if this is Carys or not. You don't know what to say either, so you settle for what Gwen asked in the episode. "I think you know, Carys."

"How d'you know my name? I've never been in trouble. What do you want from me?" Carys asks.

"Look, I know there's something living inside you and I know what it made you do." You say part of Gwen's dialogue again. I should really start figuring out how to do things by myself, without Gwen's help, you think.

Suddenly, Carys screams and slams her body against the wall. It isn't Carys, but the alien who steps toward the glass separating you. "You broke my ship." It isn't a question, but a statement.

"Sorry." You can't help but apologize. "Why're you here?" You ask. You need to get this on the CCTV, just in case she forgets to mention it. After all, Jack can't read the file until it's all over, and only you can tell him when.

"I just want the energy. The climax. I live off that energy." She answers. Right, you remember.

"You've traveled here to feed off orgasmic energy?"

"There's nothing else out there like it. You taste so good. You're the best hit there is." The alien says. Then she starts screaming again, and starts flying around from wall to wall in her cell. Carys and the alien are fighting. You instinctively wince. That's not good. "Help, please! Get it out of me!" Carys pleads. You want to help, but you know that walking inside is a bad idea. Instead, you force yourself to walk away. You need to talk to the others.

"You know, for a minute I thought you'd go inside and start making out," Owen remarks. You glare at him, but don't say anything. Clearly, he takes that as a petition to continue speaking. "But you didn't help her either. Why? Do you want her to die? Is that it?" You can handle Owen making jokes about two girls making out, but you can't handle him questioning your motives. You want that girl to live. She's an innocent, nice girl. If anything, you want everyone to survive, not just Team Torchwood. You grab him by his shirt and pin him against the railing.

"What are you doing? Get off me!" He exclaims but you ignore him.

"Why the hell would I want her to die? She's one of the nicest people I've ever known. Don't say I want her dead because that isn't and never will be true." You say.

"All right! Jesus. I'm sorry!" He says, but you wonder if he really is sorry.

"We should be helping her. If she stays that way, she's going to die. She doesn't deserve that, she's an innocent girl—"

Owen cuts you off. "No, she's a murderer. You were the one who wanted her caught. How come suddenly she's your best friend?"

You tighten the grip on the collar of his shirt but Jack steps between you two.

"You know, strictly speaking, throttling the staff is my job," he says. Under other circumstances, this might've been funny, but now you're so pissed at Owen that you just glare at him before letting go.

That's when Ianto appears besides Tosh, carrying a box full of takeouts. He smiles. "So... who's for Chinese?"

Sitting at the conference table, eating dinner and laughing. it's probably one of the best meals you've ever had. You're not even mad at Owen anymore.

"And she said... she said, 'If I'd known that's what he was, I never would have married him!'" Jack's telling a story.

"She knew! She knew all along!" Tosh exclaims.

"She didn't care," Owen noticed.

"Until he started leaving black piles of mucus in the bathtub." Ianto completed.

Jack picks up his glass. " Always the big giveaway. Aliens have no sense of household hygiene." He takes a sip, put it down and stands up. "Which reminds me, gotta pee."

As soon as Jack's out of hearing range, they all turn to you, and you know what they're going to ask. "So what's he told you?" Tosh asks

You know she means "what's he told you about himself", but you decide to play ignorant. "About what?"

"Himself!"

"Not much. Why are you so curious? You've been here longer than I have," you say, even though you know more about Jack than anyone else in this room.

"We were banking on you!" Tosh says.

"Don't you ever ask questions to people about their personal lives?" Owen asks you. I don't need to ask any of you anything about your lives. I know enough, you think.

"Are you telling me you know nothing about your boss?" You raise an eyebrow. You're just pretending, but you can't help it either. If you didn't and told something, Jack would kill you. And if you pretended like you didn't care, it wouldn't be realistic and they'd know you're hiding something.

"Not who he is, not where he's from. Nothing, except him being gay." Owen says and you resist the urge to burst out laughing.

"That's what you think?" You can't help but smile a bit. But hey, it's eitehr that or laughing.

"No. Owen does. I don't." Tosh says.

"And I don't care." Ianto adds in.

"Period military is not the dress code of a straight man." Owen says.

"I don't think he's gay. More like pansexual," you say, then add. "I think it suits him. The military look I mean."

"Exactly! I've watched him in action. He'll shag anything if it's gorgeous enough." Tosh comments.

"See? Pansexual," you use Tosh's statement to prove your point. "At least we know he's American," you say.

"We don't even know that for sure." Owen contradicts you.

"No US citizen by the name of Jack Harkness born in the last fifty years." Tosh informs you.

That's normal considering he was born on the fifty-first century, you think. "Maybe his identity's classified." You pick up a chip and start eating it.

"Used to be something big in the CIA. That's what I reckon." Ianto says.

"I bet he has his reasons to be so secretive." You say.

"Sure he has. Doesn't stop me wanting to know what they are." Owen has a point. You've got to admit that.

"This proves that at least someone in Torchwood 3 knows how to be secretive. I mean, this is a secret organisation, you're not supposed to order pizza under the name of Torchwood," you tell Owen.

Owen sighs, exasperated. "Why won't you lot let this go?" He complains.

That's when you hear it. The crying. You look back at the screen and all the good mood is gone. You look down at your plate, not hungry anymore. But you force yourself to eat anyway. You've been up for more than 24 hours straight, staying up on adrenaline and caffeine. Eating's the least you could do for yourself.

Just as Jack walks back in, you mumble to yourself, "Carys Fletcher, born November 13th, 1987. School reports, personnel files from her temping agency, swimming badges from when she was six, reports of her mother's death in a car crash when she was ten. And last year's emails discussing the merits of Orlando Bloom and Heath Ledger."

"What'd you say?" Jack asks you, bringing you back to reality. You blink away the daze you were in and stare at him in confusion.

"Sorry?"

"You were mumbling something," he says.

"Something about Carys." You answer vaguely. No need to let them think you're a stalker, even if, technically, you are a stalker.

"What about her?" Jack's pushing you.

"She's losing. If we don't help her now, she'll die."

"Any suggestions?"

You stay quiet. You know exactly what to do, but you've got to mentally prepare yourself first. And get the cell from Jack, or tell him your plan.

"Well, I've got work to do so," Owen says, standing up, "later."

"Me too," Tosh hurries behind him.

"I'll put these away," Ianto stands up too and starts picking up the remains of the takeaway. You sigh, also standing up and walk over to Suzie's old workstation that you guess is now yours. You search in your pocket for you keys, and get them. You've got an USB drive in your key chain, but you start working on the transcript again, you slip into Jack's office, and find the cell thing Owen had taken earlier. You slip it into your pocket, before going back to your workstation to work on your "side-project". You're almost done when Tosh calls out for Jack, and you decide to see what's going on too.

"This is the normal chemical composition of the air in that cell. And these... are the readings from the last hour. The alien's secreting an ultra-powerful blend of airborne pheromones." Jack stares at her, not understanding what she means, but you do because you've seen the episode already. "Sex pheromones. A thousand times more potent than anything we'd normally experience."

"She's a walking aphrodisiac!" Jack remarks. You replay the rest of the conversation in your mind, and your eyes widen.

"Owen!" You exclaim, and run toward the cells, Tosh following close behind.

You find Owen naked in a cell. Tosh speaks over to Jack with the comm. "Jack, Carys is out of her cell."

"Cheeky bitch took my swipe card!" Owen curses.

You hear Jack's voice by the comm. "I'll deal with it. And tell Owen he needs to work on those abs a bit harder."

You open the cell door and Owen steps out. "I was taking some readings, you know, keeping an eye on her, and bang."

"You got away lightly. Be thankful she was only interested in your swipe card." Tosh says.

When you walk back up, there's no one in the Hub, so you go to the reception, to find Ianto standing there, and Jack kneeling on the ground, with the Doctor's hand in his hands.

"I remember that episode," you say low enough so that only Jack hears you. "It shocked me. Then it regenerated and the Doctor was pissed. Trust me, there's nothing scarier than an angry Doctor."

"So, you're not going to lecture be about how Cary's life is more important than the Doctor's hand?" Jack asks you. You shake your head.

"I know how important finding the Doctor is to you." You can't stop looking at the hand, back in its jar filled with blue liquid.

"Oi! You'd better get in here!" Owen calls out. He goes back to the cold storage while the rest of you are at the top of the stairs. "So I'm trying to interpret the results of the bio-scan. Yeah, but it's just a mess, like there's no definitive readings. Because everything in her body keeps changing, nothing stays constant. So, as soon as you think you've got something clear, the metabolic rate, the blood pressure all goes wild again." Owen explains.

"She's fighting the alien for control of her own body." Jack remarks.

"You just figured that out?" You mumble, and roll your eyes. Jack ignores you.

"Yeah. So anyway, I decided to do a comparative diagnostic. Uh, recreate the circumstances, accelerate the process a little, see what's gonna happen to Carys." Owen keeps going on with his explanation. "I infected the rat with a combination of the Vorax and Suranium gas traces we found down at the crash site and at the nightclub."

"Looks fine so far," Tosh remarks.

"Once the gases start to flow round the body, the party really starts." Owen walks partially up the stairs to where some screens are, and checks the scans and readings of the rat. "The heart rate triples. The brain swells, pressing against the skull. And as that keep going, then the lungs began to shrink, making it impossible to breathe. The pressure increases on all the internal organs until..." He points at the rat, who abruptly explodes. "Rat jam!"

"That's what's gonna happen to Carys?" Jack asks.

"She did say she was losing," you point out.

"Right now, it's a struggle between where Carys ends and the alien begins." Owen says.

"Okay, we don't have much time, do you know where she is?" Jack asks you. You nod.

"Went to see her boyfriend or whatever he is to her. I don't know where his place is, but we can figure that out, right?" You point at the computers and Tosh rushes to her workstation and starts typing.

When you reach Eddie's place it's already nighttime, and you're running solely on adrenaline. Jack kicks the front door open, but when you get there, you only see a pile of dust over the bed.

"Too late," you remark.

"Where's she going next?" Jack asks you.

"I know," you close your eyes, trying to remember the name of the place. "Conway clinic. She's a recepcionist there. It's a fertility clinic. Sperm donors. An unlimited supply of orgasmic energy without all the build-up."

"Perfect hit," Jack says and you two stare at each other before running back down the stairs and into the SUV, telling Owen where to drive to next.

Jack gives you a gun, and you stare at it, in your hands. It's so weird, having a gun with you. Jack tells you he'll make sure you don't have to use it, since he probably knows you've never used a gun in your life, but with the gun in your hands, a wave of security and even more adrenaline crashes over your body.

"What's the plan?" Owen asks.

"We have to isolate the gas from Cary's body. If it's out there, exposed to our atmosphere, it'll die." You say immediately. No one contradicts you. Owen suddenly stops the car and Jack's the first one out.

"Come on!"

When you're at the clinic, you split up, Owen and Tosh going together while you're paired up with Jack. You open a door and find a room full of blokes. "Out! Now! Get as far away as you can!" Jack yells, and it has effect on them. They scramble to their feet and run out of the room. You two keep searching around, trying to find Carys.

After checking a couple of rooms more, you hear Owen calling out, "In here!" You and Jack don't even have to look at each other to agree on your next move. You run to where Owen's voice was coming from. Owen has his gun pointed at Carys. Jack's the first one to enter the room.

"Nowhere to run," Jack says. Carys turns around to look at you three as you and Tosh enter the room. She's surrounded. You're the only one who doesn't have a gun pointed at her.

"All this sex. All we see, all we think. So much beauty... and so much fear. We want it but we're so afraid of it..." A wave of pain hits her. "Ah!" She falls to the floor and you reach out for her.

"The strain on her body's too much. Any second now, she's rat jam." Owen informs.

"One more and I'll be strong. Each time, it works less. Each time, the feeling's weaker. One more. Make me feel alive. Make me feel human." Cary pleads, but you shake your head.

"Sorry, I can't."

Carys puts her head down.

"I can," Jack says. He kneels besides her. "You really want to feel something?" You don't protest. You know he won't die, so you let him kiss her. When he does, she starts glowing.

"What's he doing?" Owen asks. Tosh shakes her head. Carys stops glowing when the kiss ends.

"That was just the kiss. Imagine the buzz you get from the rest." Jack tells her, and you roll your eyes. Typical Jack. Carys smiles, then faints. "It wasn't exactly the reaction I anticipated." Again, you roll your eyes.

"Her body won't last much longer." Owen informs. This is it. You take a deep breath, and slip your hand inside your pocket, your hand curling over the cell thing.

"Use me. Leave Carys. Take my body as host. And just let her live." You ask, appearing to be brave when your heart is beating really, really fast, and you just want to run away, as far from her as possible. But you force yourself to stay, and do what Gwen did.

"Lucy…" Jack grabs your arm.

"I know what I'm doing," you tell him.

"You sure?" He asks you.

No. "Yes." Not at all. "One hundred percent sure." Not sure if I'll ever be, but it's now or never.

"Okay," Jack agrees and stands up.

"Jack! You can't let her!" Tosh protests.

"Like she said," he glances at you, "she's responsible for this."

"Come on, then. Do it. Leave her." You step back, and force yourself not to run away. Owen and Tosh still have their guns pointed at Carys. You grip the object tight, and as you hear your own accelerated heartbeat, you wait for the gas to come out of Carys's body.

Carys's mouth opens and she gasps. The same purple and pink smoke you freed pours out of her mouth and revolves around Carys, before slowly towering towards you. You force yourself to wait until it's close enough. Closer. Closer.

Then finally, you drop the object you had in your hand to the ground, right underneath the gas, trapping it into a cell.

"How long can it survive in there?" Owen asks.

"It was pretty weak. Why?" Tosh answers.

"Bit worried how long that battery'll last for."

The cloud of smoke is getting smaller and smaller. "Look. It's dying," Tosh says.

Slowly, the cloud turns into dust, just when the cell collapses. Jack reaches out for the pink dust, picking up some in his hand. " You travel halfway across the universe for the greatest sex. You still end up dying alone."