Jack's back in Torchwood and someone gets a surprise.

Chapter 10

Jack closed his phone. 'Sorry about that,' he said. Tosh and Owen were grinning at each other.

'What?' Jack asked. 'Oh, I see my reputation has gone before me has it? Well, as you can see I can do dates and he is very handsome. I hope he looks as good in a suit as he does in jeans and he looks spectacular in them! Right, where were we? Oh yeah, we were trying to discover who was interrogating who?'

Tosh laughed. 'Yeah and I'm not sure either of us is getting very far!'

'Well, I know who you are and that you're together and may I say you make a lovely couple. You, Toshiko are a computer genius. I've checked your work on that rift activity predictor and it's fantastic. I wish we'd had one; it would have made our lives so much easier. So what I don't know is why you ended up in a UNIT cell, even if only for a short time.'

'I stole something because my mother had been kidnapped by a gang. I was caught and UNIT locked me up. When they realised I had potential they released me on licence. Owen here examined me to make sure I wasn't mad, bad or dangerous. So they've him to blame.'

'And,' Jack continued, 'how does a doctor working in a general hospital end up working for UNIT; they usually train their own unless you're someone really special.' He could see Owen's pained expression. 'It's okay; you don't have to tell me if you don't want to.'

'No,' Owen said, 'UNIT recruited me after my fiancée, Katie was killed by an alien which had lodged in her brain. The whole team operating on her was killed. At first I really didn't want to believe what they were telling me but the proof was there in front of me. After that I was ready to test, experiment on or kill any alien put in front of me. It took Tosh to show me the error of my ways. We found out about this place and asked if we could keep it going and so here we are. But now, what about you, Captain? If what we've found is to be believed you've an interesting history. So is it true? Can you really not die, because otherwise there are some very convincing faked photographs and documents in the archives?'

Jack didn't know how much to admit but there was no point in lying about being immortal. 'Yeah, it's true I can't die or I can't stay dead.'

'How does it feel?' Owen asked. 'Do you feel every death and what it's like to come back? If you get injured do you just heal?'

'Owen!' Tosh said. 'Jack may not want to talk about that.'

'Once a doctor always a doctor,' Jack said. 'You wouldn't be the first medic to ask me those questions or to want to get their hands on me, for a variety of reasons.' Jack gave them his trade mark smile. 'Okay, yes I feel every death and when I come back its like every part of me is dragged over shards of glass. Injuries vary. When I do come back it's with the original factory setting. Injuries repair but it's not always instant; it depends on the injury. Don't ask me to explain how this happened. The Doctor did try to explain but it was just an accident that was never meant to happen.'

'What's he like really?' Tosh asked. 'I did meet him briefly in London once. He changes doesn't he?'

'Yes he regenerates. This is his tenth regeneration. I think you'd have met my first Doctor. The new one is a bit less grumpy and he has a better coat and better hair; in fact he has great hair!'

'It sounds like you're close,' Tosh said.

'We were for a while but, well, it's complicated. I still see him regularly but we don't travel together anymore. So Torchwood, you two just keep it ticking over then and warn UNIT about anything that comes through.'

'Yeah, basically Tosh does all the monitoring and has begun to go through the mess that is the archives and I do the medical and botanical research. There's stuff we don't understand in this place and there's a locked area. Even UNIT has left it alone, just in case. Do you know what's in there, Jack?'

'Yes I know what the things in there do but you're wise to leave it shut. Some things are too dangerous to play with.'

'We could really use your help, Jack. If you came back you could run Torchwood properly. It's been eight years now,' Owen said. 'What d'you think? Could you come back?'

Jack sat quietly for a moment. 'The honest answer is I don't know. Part of me wants to come back and to be truthful having you two on my team would be great, but its not that simple. There are other things going on. I'd like to keep in touch with you but I could do with UNIT being kept in the dark.'

There was a sudden beeping form Tosh's computer. 'Weevil alert,' Tosh said. 'If we get there first we can try to get it alive. Owen wants to study their behaviour. We have a male downstairs called Brad. Perhaps this will be Janet. Fancy coming, Jack. I'd be good to get your experience.'

'Okay it's been a while. I'll come along for the ride. What do you use these days? Still the SUV?'

'Yeah it's parked in the garage,' Owen said.

Driving to the scene Jack asked a lot of questions. It seemed that the weevils had been restless of late and more aggressive resulting in UNIT killing them not returning them to the sewers they usually occupied.

'So how do you run this?' Jack asked. 'Do you have a specific police liaison officer? That usually makes it easier.'

'Yes we do. He'll probably be at the site sorting out just in case we need to do any damage limitation. We also have some retcon we can use.'

At their destination they got out of the car. Jack hung back a bit as Tosh and Owen walked over to the group of police officers, some uniformed and some not. Jack leaned against the other side of the car not wanting to advertise his presence. Then he heard Tosh's voice.

'Jack I thought I'd introduce you to our police liaison officer. He decides if weevils are involved. Jack came out from the back of the SUV and came face to face with someone familiar.

'Captain Jack Harkness this is DC Andy Davidson. He helps on these occasions and keeps us informed. Only Chief Super Swanson knows what he really does.'

'So, Andy, you're a police officer. Funny you didn't mention that on Saturday night!' Tosh and Owen looked at each other. Andy had to think quickly. 'No I don't advertise it as people can get a little funny about it and being a gay police officer can cramp my style. So I say I work in an office and keep it simple.'

'And is Ianto an officer too?' Jack asked, just to twist in the knife.

'No!' Andy said. 'We were just old school friends out for a drink.' Jack saw Owen touch Tosh's arm when she was obviously about to speak.

'So where's this weevil then?' he asked.

'Oh yeah, it's over there. It hasn't attacked anyone so just deal with it would you?' Andy said. It was clear that he wanted to get away.

'Jack let's go,' Owen said. 'We'll show you the new spray I've developed and you can help us get it back to the Hub. Okay Andy, we'll sort it from here.'

They were walking away when Jack turned and said, 'oh yeah tell Ianto to wear a suit for our date and I'm really looking forward to it.' Jack winked and turned around as Andy was left standing there.