Chapter 10
John smiled to himself as he stood up slowly, turning to face Tosh who, despite her petite frame, projected an aura of fury that hinted at murderous intent. Behind her Owen was looking seriously pissed off and quite capable of shooting first and asking questions later. They'd apparently entered the Hub through a different entrance than the one that he'd used, one that didn't set the alarms off. Both of them had their handguns pointing in his direction and the looks on their faces left no doubt in his mind that they were more than ready to fill him with bullets. Although he was almost tempted to laugh at them, it did occur to John that after his last encounter with them, they had good cause to want to either maim him or kill him. Neither option appealed to him so he bit back the sarcasm as best he could.
"Took you bloody time, didn't you, team Torchwood?"
"He's set the rift to open!" Jack called out, relieved to see Tosh and Owen. "You need to undo whatever he's done!"
Tosh scrambled to her desk while Owen kept his weapon pointing at John. She was beyond angry that her computer had been hacked into and its programs corrupted. But she didn't let her disgust slow her down as she reversed the command sequences fed in by John Hart cursing him with every key that she pressed. She took the precaution of changing the passwords and codes rapidly before exiting the rift manipulation program.
"Done. Owen, why don't you help Jack. I'll keep an eye on Hart."
As Tosh focussed on John, Owen moved rapidly to Jack who had remained silent as Tosh had saved the city from devastation. Owen busied himself unfastening the manacles that held Jack in position, helplessly dangling against the tiled wall. He noted the blood stains, bullet holes and cuts in Jack's shirt, indications of at least one painful death. That explained to him the weariness in Jack's eyes and his lack of responsiveness.
"Get down on your knees." Tosh's command to John was snapped out fiercely and reinforced with a look that could kill.
"Honestly, it's just sex, sex, sex with you people!" John drawled as he nonchalantly dropped to one knee and then slowly knelt down in front of Tosh.
"Now! Hands behind your head! I'm going to need a really good reason not to shoot you within the next twenty seconds."
"Would it help if I told you that only I know how to find Gwen and Eye Candy?"
"What have you done with them?" Tosh moved closer and planting a stilettoed heel in John's groin she twisted her foot downwards quickly before kicking him in the chest to knock him onto his back.
"You bitch, that hurt!" John rolled onto his side. "It wasn't me, why is it that I always get blamed?"
"Because you're a lying, two-faced arsehole?" Owen called out as he supported Jack, rubbing his arms to get the blood circulating again.
"Listen to me. You have to believe me," John begged desperately. "It's Gray, Jack's brother, he's behind all of this."
"You're lying." Tosh frowned, aiming another kick at John's prone body. "He is, isn't he Jack?"
"Unfortunately no, it's the truth." Jack's voice was quiet and he looked grim leaning on Owen, his arm draped around the doctor's shoulders. "Gray took them."
"What the fuck's going on, Jack? Why should we believe that he'd let anyone make him do anything he didn't want to?" Owen stabbed a finger in the direction of John.
"He stuck a bomb on me, molecularly bonded the detonator to my skin." John held out his arm as if that exonerated him from all that had happened. "I had to do what he wanted."
Tosh didn't care what he said about having been forced to do whatever it was he had done, he'd caused Jack pain and he'd probably hurt Gwen and Ianto as well. That was unforgivable. He'd have to do a hell of a lot to redeem himself in her eyes.
"Who the fuck is Gray? You've never mentioned any family." Owen challenged Jack. "How come Captain Smartarse here knows all about him?"
"Like I told you all before, we go back." Jack walked slowly towards the bench where his Webley pistol had been set aside and tucked it back into its holster on his belt. "But I still don't know how the hell he found Gray after all this time."
"I thought I'd explained this once - after you were separated as children, Gray was abducted. When I found him he was chained to the ruins of a city on the Bedlam Outlands... surrounded by corpses. He was the only one left. The creatures had long since gone. Dunno how long he'd been there." The sincerity with which John spoke drew them all in. Tosh looked horrified and Owen perplexed. "He thought I was the rescuing hero… but he'd learned terrible things watching those creatures."
"You thought that he'd be your ticket back into my bed, yeah?" Jack nodded, knowing exactly what had been in his previous partner's mind, and it had nothing to do with selfless gestures. It was similar to many a scam they had set up in the past – reuniting separated loved ones or family members for a fee.
"Something like that, you can't blame me for trying. We were good together, you and me! Anyway, he scrubbed up pretty good, especially once he'd had a few decent meals. We had some fun for a while. I was his first – how sweet is that?" The broad grin on John's face slipped away as Jack advanced on him. "Oh, you're not so happy – well tough shit, Jack, you weren't there. Anyway, more fool me, I made the mistake of trusting him – never again, I'm telling you. How was I to know that he'd gone so fucking mad that he wanted to destroy you?"
"Oh, Jack, please don't tell me that it's not just a psychotic ex, but an estranged brother with a vendetta against you as well?" Owen scowled as he ran his hand through his hair in despair. "If this tosser thinks he's mad, we're in for a shitload of trouble aren't we?"
"Not now, Owen." Despite the realisation that Owen's accusations were a fair summary of the situation, Jack was anxious to get answers. "Later with the recriminations, for now we need to find him."
"Where is he? Where is Jack's brother now?" Tosh walked across towards John, her heels clicking on the metallic flooring ominously.
"Where did he go?" Jack crouched down next to John and grabbed hold of a handful of his hair, tugging it to pull the other man to his knees once more.
"He went after Eye Candy and Gwen."
"Yeah – I know that much, but you must know when and where!"
"Get this fucking thing off me and then we'll talk." John made a fist and shoved his arm in Jack's face. "If he comes back before it's disarmed he'll kill all of us."
"On one condition – you take me to them." Jack could see that John was agitated and if it wasn't for the fact that the detonation of the bomb would probably kill Tosh as well as John he'd be tempted to leave it in place until John gave him the answers he needed.
"Yes – whatever you want, just get this bloody thing off of me before that bastard comes back!"
Jack opened his own wrist strap and concentrated for a while until he worked out what Gray had done. Luckily for John the molecular bonding mechanism could be overridden more easily than he'd been led to believe. Jack shook his head as he recalled how he'd always been the one with the brains in their partnership. With a final punching in of a string of concise commands there was a slight bleeping sound from John's wrist strap and then nothing.
John bent double for a moment as pain shot through his wrist, before cautiously pulling the strap away from his arm, taking a few layers of skin with it, leaving behind sore, open wounds as he peeled the leather strap away.
"Gotta get rid of it– stop it being set off," John muttered to himself anxiously.
"What?"
Before they could stop him, John had tapped in a set of co-ordinates and flung the wrist strap away from him. It disappeared in a swirl of shimmering light.
In the ensuing confusion, Jack wrestled him to the ground and twisted his arms behind his back.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Jack hissed at John, whose face was pressed into the metal grid work on the floor.
"To stop Gray from blowing us up! Thought you'd be grateful."
"And just how the hell are we going to find Ianto and Gwen now?"
"We'll use yours. I'll just enter the co-ordinates and – what is it Jack?" John could feel the tensing up in the other man's muscles, a faint tremble in the hands that forced his arms back. "What-?"
Before John had the chance to finish his question, Jack spun him around and hauled him to his feet. Staggering to keep his balance, John was taken aback as Jack grabbed hold of his jacket, holding him firm as he slammed a fist into his face, propelling him into the watery basin.
"Mine doesn't work." Jack's voice was verging on hysterical.
"What do you mean? I just saw you –" John rubbed his jaw as he got up soaking wet and confused.
"Teleporting and time travel functions were disabled." Not for the first time did Jack curse the Doctor for doing that to him.
"What? You useless wanker – why the fuck didn't you tell me?"
Their argument was brought to a sudden halt as a single gun shot echoed through the Hub, followed by the complaints of the screeching pteranodon.
"Shut up both of you!" Tosh yelled. "For god's sake stop arguing and explain to us what the hell is going on."
"John and Gray dumped Ianto and Gwen in the past." Jack informed her. He swallowed hard as he saw the reactions of his remaining team members, "Two thousand years in the past."
"You did what?" demanded Tosh. She recalled how awful it had been when she had been transported into the 1940's with no return in sight and could only imagine how much worse it would be to be that far back in time.
"I didn't have a choice!" protested John.
"There's always a choice," growled Owen, equally appalled at the fate of their friends. If either Gwen or Ianto had needed medical care they would be in serious trouble. He recalled the bloodstains in the rubble after the explosions and wracked his brain to think if that much blood could have been lost from wounds that didn't require stitches and then his mind started to catalogue infection control procedures. Maybe they'd be alright if they could get to them soon. His hopes were to be short lived.
"It's worse than that. Without a functioning wrist strap there's no way of rescuing them." Jack spat out as he advanced on John once more. "They're stranded there. I can't get them back."
"Oh shit."
"Come on, you'll think of something. We'll find them together, yeah?" John began to shuffle back into the cold, dank water, anywhere rather than face the storm that he saw gathering on Jack's brow.
"We'd better – because if we don't find them, I'll kill you." Jack spoke quietly, dangerously and with absolute conviction. "Very slowly."