Oh god.

That's the only thing I can think to say. I can't believe I haven't worked on this story in almost two years! HOLY CRAP! But it feels good to be writing it again!

Will everyone consent to a healthy bout of make-up sex? I think that's better than profuse apologies. I'll leave my number at the front desk, and make sure you don't call me before noon, because I have other clients I have to see to.

You may need to re-read the whole story to figure out what's going on. I certainly had to (you know it's bad when you don't even recognize your own character). I also had to go watch two Saw movies and rewatch the first season of Torchwood to get in place with the loverly characters of Torchwood.

Onwards and upwards!


It had only been a few hours since they had brought Toshiko back to the Hub, but she showed a great deal of improvement. Improvement meaning she acted differently. Different in a way that was still rather disturbing. She beat and banged on the walls of her cell. She hurled the water cups at the door and refused to touch the grapes Owen placed inside. She screamed obscenities, cursed all of them — Jack, mostly — and swore half in Japanese, half in English.

Jack and Owen stood watching this on the monitors. Gwen was sprawled on half the couch, the kid sleeping on her torso. Every time her head nodded, about to fall asleep, she snapped it back up and blinked, hard, trying to get the sleep out of her eyes. Ianto was making another batch of coffee.

Ianto hobbled past them, almost tripping when one of his crutches caught on the corner of a workstation. Jack caught him by the arm.

"You'll have to get it yourself," Ianto said apologetically, and then went to sit next to Gwen.

Owen peeled himself away from the screen and trotted for his coffee. He downed it in three sips, poured himself another cup. He sipped this one more slowly and went back to stand next to Jack, bringing the captain's drink. Jack took it without looking away from the screen.

"How was her brain activity?"

Owen swallowed. "Higher than normal. There were parts of her cerebral cortex that are super-active, that should be barely active in the first place. Made her hyperaware and paranoid. Her tox screen showed a foreign unidentifiable substance. It's probably what she was being controlled with." He took another swig of coffee. "If we keep cycling in seventy per cent O2 she should be okay by tomorrow evening."

Jack nodded. Turned away from the monitor, sighed. Walked back to his office and disappeared in the floor. Owen gave a lingering glance at Tosh, miniature on the screen, and returned to the med bay.

From the couch, Gwen yawned. Ianto looked at her sideways. "You should go home."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Don't know how much good it would do." She breathed deeply and allowed her eyes to close. "I feel like I should stay here."

Ianto smiled, weary. "You really don't need to. I'll ring you when Tosh gets better." He gave her a serious look. "I may not be able to do it, but Jack will send you home."

Gwen gave a slight smile. Then it left her lips as a thought occurred to her.

"Ianto, Tosh couldn't have dragged Jack out of here by herself. And . . ." she glanced at Jack, "who or whatever was controlling her is still out there. It got me once, it can do it again." She glanced at the boy in her lap. "I'm not sure it would be safe."

Ianto looked down and sat on the couch. "I'm so tired it never occurred to me." He passed a hand over his face, suppressing a yawn.

"Maybe we should see about those cots."

Ianto gave her a look that absolutely said "you expect me to do what, exactly?" Gwen laughed a little. "Well, maybe not."

Jack came out of his office. "It occurred to me that we forgot a little something." He nodded at the kid. "How to get that little something home."

"Where to exactly, Jack?" It came out more tired than annoyed, but Gwen didn't care enough to try pissing him off with a tetchy response.

He paused, frowned. Held up a finger. "Let me get back to you on that," and went back in to his office. Gwen sighed and looked at Ianto.

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Well, can't you. . . do something?" she finished lamely.

Ianto snorted. "I've shagged him, I don't have him on a leash."

"Not yet!" Jack shouted without looking up from something in his hand.


An hour later a soft hand on her shoulder woke Gwen. Ianto wasn't on the couch and the kid lay in his place, his blonde head pillowed against Gwen's thigh. She followed the hand up the arm, to the shoulder, along the neck, and to the face. Detachedly she noted a cramp in her side and lower back, and at the base of her neck. Jack smiled down at her.

"Bring him in my office for a little bit. I need to check something."

The kid, knowing — as all napping children seem to be half aware of when they sleep — that he was being talked about, lifted his head and blinked at Gwen in a way that made her even more sorry he had seen so much, made her wish just one thing in the plethora of alien artefacts in the Hub could make him feel better and forget. Then she remembered retcon, and it soured the small sweet glint the kid's cuteness lit in her chest. She scooped him against her, setting him on her hip.

Jack told Gwen to sit in his chair, and sit the kid facing forward in her lap. He held something that looked muck like an iPod, only thicker and slightly asymmetrical. It had something like a screen, but there was something off about it that Gwen couldn't quite place or care about. Maybe it was like a cross between an Etch-a-Sketch and a plasma television?

Jack stood before her. "This part," he pointed at the screen, "goes on his forehead. This," he pulled a cord from the side, "goes in his ear." Jack stared at the child for a quite minute, calculating something. "He's probably tired enough that it won't bother him, but I've never used this on a kid before—"

"It better not hurt."

Jack shrugged. "It didn't seem to bother the last guy I used it on. Then again, he was blind and I, well I," Jack laughed and shook his head. "Never mind what I was doing. This won't take long."

He stuck the rounded end of the cord in the kid's ear and held the screen against his forehead. The kid blinked up at him, his mouth opening getting ready to parrot some other insulting nonsense—

"You should never, never doubt what nobody is sure about."

Gwen wasn't sure if he meant it for her or Jack. She glanced at Jack but he only shook his head. The kid snorted and looked ready to fuss, but Jack must have gotten what he needed because he pulled the device away and let the cord snap home to its hidden compartment.

"What does it do?"

Jack already had the thing stowed in a drawer. He bent down and took the kid from Gwen, to her surprise. "Jack, what are you—"

"I'm going to give him back to his parents."

Gwen frowned and followed him as he headed for the stone lift. "How? Who are they? What — Jack, what did that thing do?"

He grinned. "It called them. I'll be right back."

Gwen hopped on the stone next to him. The kid reached out his arms for Gwen, but Jack held him tight to his chest. "Hey little guy, you're gonna stay with me for a bit."

Jack didn't move to activate the lift. "Well, are we going up or not?"

Jack's smiled left. That underlying vein of merriment and kidding around that always seemed to tinge his face left, sunk beneath the surface so far Gwen failed to find it at all. "Say goodbye now, Gwen. You won't be seeing him again."

Gwen swallowed her reply, instead kissing the little boy on the back of the head. She hugged him against Jack's chest and whispered in his ear. "You won't remember it, sweetie. The monsters go away."

He smiled and pinched her nose. Gwen smiled and playfully swatted his hand away. "You behave now. Don't go teleporting away from your mum and dad again."

He waved to her as the lift rose up and out of sight. Gwen sighed and returned to the couch. She sat there for a bit before sighing again, standing, and going to her desk. The computer screens were all cracked and dead. She rolled her chair over to the working monitors and ignored the video feed of Toshiko and pulled up an internet page. The computer clock read 0:36. Gwen looked around and wondered where Ianto had gotten to.

"'e's in the kitchen," Owen said from behind her. Gwen gave a little start and he chuckled. "You've been out for a few hours. Where's Jack?"

Gwen hiccupped and realized tears were stinging her eyes and prickling the back of her throat. "He took the kid home."

Owen seemed surprised. "Found his parents?"

Gwen let out a long, loud breath. "Yeah."

Both turned their heads to look at Jack as the lift descended into the Hub. He looked even more sullen than when Gwen had first seen him two days ago. God, had it only been two days?

"Are we rid of The Rude One's presence?"

Jack only nodded. He sat on the couch and took his coat off. Owen waited a few seconds before wandering back to his autopsy theatre. Jack scanned the Hub, then abruptly shot off the couch. "Where's Ianto?"

Gwen looked around knowing she wouldn't spot the Welshman in the Hub if Jack hadn't managed to, then felt compelled to look back at the monitor displaying Toshiko's cell. She sighed and smiled in relief. "Relax, Jack, he's just down to see Tosh."

Jack came over and glanced at the screen before dashing for the stairs.

"Jack! She's locked up, what can she do?"

He stopped to look up at her from the first step. "I don't know, but I don't want to take any chances."

Gwen growled in frustration. "Owen, come on."

"What do you need me for?!"

She poked her head over the railing. "Because I said so."

He scowled. Gwen noticed he hadn't been playing with one of the morgue bodies like she had expected. A half-set-up game of solitaire waited to be finished on one of the stainless steel trays.


Ianto looked up at Jack when he came in. Tosh sat in the farthest corner from them, her back against the wall and her face hidden in her knees. Jack, not wanting to be cruel, had tossed in a few pillows and a better-than-standard-issue blanket. The blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders, but the pillows still sat on the floor where he dumped them.

"I thought she was dead."

Jack stood with his shoulder touching Ianto's. Ianto leaned against him, grateful to take the weight off his elbows and leg.

"I thought maybe you'd been snatched again."

Ianto snorted and a tiny smile lifted his lips. "Bit jumpy, sir?"

Gwen and Owen came in. Owen cross, Gwen somewhere between confused and disappointed. "We all right then?"

Jack nodded and returned his eyes to Toshiko. If she heard them at all, she didn't seem to notice or want to talk back.

"Owen, what were the last readings?" Jack said without looking away.

"'Bout halfway normal. Do you want me to keep her under light sedation, or taper it off?"

"I'd say taper it off, but you did that already."

Owen crooked a smile. "Well, based on the progress of her detox, and the inverse relationship between neurotransmitter capacity and sedative ratio—"

Jack laughed. "You've been working here too long, Owen."

Owen rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it."

Toshiko's head snapped up and the blanket fell from her shoulders. Suddenly she stood at the glass, her hands up on either side of the air holes. She moved so fast Gwen barely saw it. Without realising it, Gwen had backed into the wall. They all had, except Jack. He stepped towards the glass.

"Toshiko? Tosh, do you know where you are?"

"In the cells," she said without inflection or expression. She stared ahead, not quite at any of them, not quite at the wall or anything beyond it. Gwen glanced at Owen, but he shook his head, eyes wide. She looked to Ianto, but his wide eyes flicked between Jack and Tosh. Gwen saw his braced leg tremble.

"Ianto, maybe you should sit down," Gwen whispered out the side of her mouth, not wanting to draw Tosh's attention. Ianto shook his head once and then looked at Jack.

Jack looked at them over his shoulder.

Tosh threw her head back and laughed shrieked. Gwen's hands flew to cover her ears; she imagined this is what a dying banshee must sound like. Owen and Ianto did the same. Jack's head jerked from side to side as if he had just finished a particularly strong drink.

Her mouth snapped shut and her head rocked forward. Her chin hit her chest.

Owen lowered his hands from his ears. "Jack?"

Jack shook his head. Didn't say anything. Kept looking at Tosh. Threw a brief look at the three of them. Tosh banged on the glass, once, with two fists, made them all jump and stand a little closer together.

"Owen, is this because you stopped the sedative?"

Owen vigorously shook his head. "No. No, it was just a mild sedative. The effects wouldn't be this violent."

Her fists hit the glass again. Her eyes rolled upwards, all whites. Jack reached to draw his gun and then remembered he took it off hours ago. He dropped his hands to the sides and backed up to stand against the wall with the three saner members of his team. The lights flickered and Gwen flinched. Jack put an arm around her shoulder and held a finger up to his mouth. Above, distant, Myfanwy cawed, not in alarm but in a way that said she wanted some attention. Poor thing probably hadn't been let out in a few days, needed to stretch her wings.

Tosh hadn't made any noise, but her eyes were still rolled up. The lights cut out and Gwen screamed, but they came on a second later.

"Bloody fucking hell—" Owen began, but stopped and pointed at the cell, his mouth hanging open. He didn't point at Tosh, though. He pointed at Janet. The weevil lay curled in on itself in the middle of the concrete floor, moaning. None of them moved. No one felt compelled to do anything except stand there like scared deer, trying to avoid some more inexplicable shit happening that shattered their feeling of invincibility, that they were untouchable, that this wasn't supposed to happen to them.

Tosh hit the glass once. Her eyes had returned to their original position. The strange blank look from before left her face to be replaced by a dry hybrid of anger and confusion.

"Could you let me out now?"


I'm afraid it's a bit on the short side for now, but it's Easter, so plot bunnies are in great abundance!

P.s. I finished this at 1am and was getting close to falling asleep in my keyboard. I apologize for typos.