Rating: T-For some sexual situations and some language
Warnings: Post-series.
Pairings: Suzie/Owen
Spoilers: Right up until 'They Keep Killing Suzie', including a bit of Cyberwoman.
Suzie loved to party.
Sure, pilgrim was great and all for finding an innocent subject to test brainwashing theories on, but a random bar with a random guy was something that freed her from the job.
Never did she kid herself that she would be able to get truly free from Torchwood, or Jack, or sleeping with Owen and ignoring Toshiko's desperate looks. She didn't try to pretend that helping Ianto with his cyber girlfriend and hooking him up with the name of that specialist disappeared once she hit the dance floor. But it faded away to the point that she could shove it into the back of her mind and forget about it for a while. She'd get all dolled up, find an outfit worth of Brittany Spears and head out on the town. She considered this her night off.
And then came the glove. Jack had walked over to her and put a hand on one shoulder, smiling when she whirled around.
"Want to see something neat?" He had asked, and she couldn't help the nod of her head.
They walked to his office, where a large metal box with two glass sides sat innocently on his desk. He walked over to it and unlocked the heavy metal padlock, opening the to reverently.
What he pulled out was a glove from a suit of armour, heavy steel that glittered in the dim light. Suzie felt her eyes widen. For a moment, just a second, she totally forgot about Torchwood. This glove was something big.
Jack was watching her with narrowed eyes, a tiny smile flirting over his face.
"What… What is it?" She wanted to reach out and touch it, but couldn't bring her fingers up. Jack slid the glove over his hand and walked over to the corner, taking out another box that looked like an aquarium. In it laid Scrabby, Owen's experiment rat that had died that morning from unknown causes (unknown meaning Owen didn't want to tell anyone about what he'd been doing). She watched in awe as Jack took his gloved hand and brushed a metal finger against the soft fur.
His eyes drifted closed, his face a mask of seriousness, and seconds later she gave a tiny scream and nearly fell over. Scrabby was sitting up, the metal still touching his plump little white body. He chittered in her direction, cleaning his face with both paws.
Jack grunted, pulled his hand back, and the large rat (That Suzie had always been afraid of) paused in its movement and then pitched over. Jack sighed and looked at the glove, slowly taking it off.
"I never could do it very well." He said quietly, seeming to reflect on something from long ago. He broke out of his memory and grinned at her, holding out the armoured hand. Suzie timidly took it.
"How did it get here?" She whispered, in awe of what she had just seen.
Jack told her.
And she went home, dressed up in her best clothes, straightened her hair and went to her favourite bar. She grabbed a man, sexy but nervous, and tried to forget about Torchwood.
And for the first time in a long time, it didn't work. Torchwood filled her brain, the glove spun around in her thoughts. She grinded against the guy (Matt? Mark?) with increased vitality. The feeling of body against body, of trying so hard to forget. But it wasn't working out too well. Because all she could see was a fat white rat standing up and shaking off death.
The possibilities filled her to the brim. Bringing back the dead, could it really be possible? Could she be the one to cure death? It was crazy, but then again, this was Torchwood.
Torchwood, the place that picked up all the alien crap that floated through the rift, things that didn't matter to their owners anymore or had been stolen. Those negative energy spikes she had been seeing after studying Tosh's rift archives said the rift took things too; but she couldn't find herself caring. Maybe, at that moment, in another time on another planet, there may perhaps be something like her bemoaning that they only got the shit of other galaxies while holding a I-pod Nano with no battery life left.
She came home smelling like sweat, cigarette smoke and sex. She debated calling Owen and telling him about what happened, maybe inviting him over for a drink or two, but ended up just getting undressed and falling into bed.
She didn't sleep. She felt the excitement of a new discovery flooding though her mind. She could be the next great inventor. She could save people the pain and suffering that death caused. She could stop anther little girl from screaming in the school hallway because her mother's been murdered.
Tonight would be her last 'Night off'. From now on she would work on the glove.
She would solve the greatest equation of all.
Suzie Costello-Partying