11.
From her seat on the couch, Gwen watched with amusement as Owen sat cross-legged on the floor next to the Weevil baby, offering a bottle of baby food. It only responded half-heartedly to the offer, as if it was still full from its last meal, but Owen grinned in relief.
"Finally."
Tosh looked up from her screens and over to him, then turned her chair in Gwen's direction and raised an eyebrow. Gwen laughed and Tosh joined in.
Owen looked up at them. "What?" he asked. "What's so funny?"
Gwen shook her head. "Nothing." When Owen just threw her a questioning look, she explained, "It's just weird to see you like that."
Tosh leaned back in her chair and took off her glasses. "Does it have a name?"
Owen shook his head. "It's a boy and he has no name."
Gwen thought about it for a moment. "What about James?" she asked.
Owen grimaced.
Tosh was chewing on her the arm of her glasses and suggested, "Harry."
Owen shook his head. Gwen watched as Myfanwy flew around the water tower and had an idea. "Hywel."
Owen snorted. "I don't even know how to spell that."
"We have Myfanwy," Gwen said with a nod to her nest. "A name from a Welsh song. And Hywel was Myfanwy's lover."
"How romantic," Owen said mockingly.
"I like the name," Gwen replied and Tosh nodded.
Owen sighed and gave up. "Hywel ... I guess that means that you're officially adopted." The Weevil baby turned away from the bottle and Owen sat in his chair. "He could have taken more but it's a start," he said.
Gwen looked up at Jack's office. "They're so quiet." Unfortunately, the blinds were closed, so that they couldn't see what was going on. After they'd left the boardroom, Jack had wasted no time and ordered Ianto to his office. That had been almost ten minutes ago but there was just silence on the other side of the door.
"Maybe he killed Ianto and is now looking for a way to hide the body," Owen replied. Tosh grimaced.
"Seriously," Gwen said. "I expected a loud argument. Or at least Jack yelling."
"Didn't you know yet? Ianto's got the bed bonus."
"The bed bonus?"
"Jack and him are shagging."
Gwen rolled her eyes and picked up a magazine that was lying on the coffee table. "I doubt that Jack can be influenced by something like that." She brushed her hair behind her ears. "He may have seen reason and realized that we needed to know about Torchwood Four."
"Jack?" Owen asked. "Sees reason?"
"He's not that bad," Gwen answered. She looked towards the office again.
xxx
Ianto remained standing in front of Jack's desk with his hands clasped on his back while Jack pulled the blinds and let himself drop into his chair. He leaned his elbow on the armrest and pinched his lower lip between his thumb and forefinger. The desk lamp was the only light source and cast menacing shadows in the corners of the large room from which Jack claimed only a small part for himself. Jack's face was hard to read. But Ianto could imagine what he was thinking. "I know what you're going to say."
"Not just an empath but also a telepath, are you?" Jack asked.
"I don't need telepathy for that."
"It was right to tell them."
Surprised, Ianto stared at Jack. "I'm definitely not a telepath."
Jack smiled a little, then he became serious again. "Over the years, Torchwood Four became kind of a scary myth. There were rumors about it. When it disappeared, we gave an official reason: they lost control over their own experiments. Nobody asked questions because everyone knew that things went wrong at the branch and everyone feared them." He sighed. "I always thought I was over it, but in the last few days I realized that I'm still scared of their potential. Even the thought that they might be back ..."
Ianto sat down and folded his hands on the desk. "It's just a bigger reason to tell them."
"I feel the need to justify myself for what we did to Torchwood Four. And Jasmine ... sometimes I think they see me as a kind of ... unfeeling monster."
"Do you see yourself that way?"
Jack ran a hand through his dark hair. "Sometimes, I look back on my decisions and wonder if I did the right things."
Ianto looked at him seriously. "Doesn't sound like a monster to me."
Jack leaned forward and folded his hands on the desk. "You should know best."
Ianto swallowed. He thought of Lisa and shook his head. "Not a monster. Human." Jack's eyes were staring at him intently. Too intently. He felt uncomfortable and quickly changed the subject. "So I did some research on Bleddyn."
Jack nodded, accepting the change of subject.
"His Flat Holm file also contains the report of the institute you found him in."
"I know the file."
"I thought about where he came from. He was in Torchwood One, so there are only two possibilities: He worked there or he was a prisoner. So I went through personnel and prisoner files-"
"Ianto," Jack interrupted him, surprised. "More than 800 files?"
"I was able to limit the criteria. Male, the approximate age, hair color, eye color ..."
"Okay." Jack leaned back in his chair. "Employee or prisoner?"
"Neither. He wasn't employed by Torchwood One and he wasn't a prisoner."
"But he was in the battle."
Ianto nodded.
"A civilian?"
Ianto shook his head. "Everybody wanted to leave the tower, no one could have tried to enter it. Moreover, even in the chaos, automatic safeguards kept civilians outside."
"Where does he come from then?" Jack asked.
"There is only one possibility. Wherever the Cybermen came from – Bleddyn came from there as well." Jack looked at Ianto and seemed to mull that over. Ianto already had a plan. "I want to return to Flat Holm. I want to try and talk to Bleddyn-"
"No," Jack interrupted him immediately. "You're not going to go see him."
"But, Jack-"
"We have enough on our plate with the Apollyon case, Ianto. And I don't want you to go near him. It's too dangerous." He sighed. "Let's just wait to be done with Apollyon and then ... then we'll talk about it again. In the meantime, Flat Holm has got him under control. He has an isolated cell and seems to behave himself. After Apollyon, he'll become our priority. He was there for months ... he can wait a few more days."
Ianto stared at Jack but he wore a determined expression with which there was no arguing. "Fine," he finally replied.
xxx
Gwen looked nervously at Tosh and took a deep breath, then knocked on the door of the church. Rain was drumming on the umbrella the two women shared. Their headsets had already disappeared into the handbags and Gwen felt a little vulnerable without Jack's calm instructions in her ear. Jessica opened with a big smile.
"Hi," Gwen said.
"Good to see that you've come back," Jessica said and let them in. Like the night before, a few members of the group were already there and had gathered sitting on the floor of the room.
Gwen put down the umbrella and made sure the little camera in her cardigan didn't slip while she took off her coat. "Yes," she replied. "Thanks for inviting us."
Jessica nodded and started to turn away, but Tosh quickly said, "Jessica, we have a question."
Jessica smiled. "Whatever you want to know."
Gwen and Tosh looked at each other, then Tosh said softly, "Yesterday, we talked to a few members ... and we wonder whether this community is kind of a support group."
Jessica frowned. "No. Why would you ask that?"
"Well, the three people we talked to mentioned amnesia. Carys had the same problem. A few days of her memories were just gone one day."
Gwen nodded, leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, "And her ex-boyfriend is also gone. Without a trace. Neighbors say they heard an argument between him and Carys ... and there are rumors."
Jessica laughed. "Well, our faith seems to be the perfect comfort for people with certain experiences."
"How do you find members? There's no hint of this group existing anywhere."
"Oh ..." Jessica seemed to hesitate. "Well, sometimes I get names and addresses from Apollyon and I contact the new members."
Tosh asked, "How?"
"An e-mail or a letter, whatever is more appropriate."
Gwen frowned. "What's in it?"
Jessica shrugged. "Just one word. Torchwood. It attracts people." Gwen and Tosh looked at each other. Jessica smiled. "I found my way here the same way. I'm missing a lot of memories of my life. In fact, I can remember nothing before the 13th June of 2000. The word Torchwood, though ... it touched something in me. I can't tell you what ... we were only a very small community when I joined and Noah held the meetings back then."
"Where is he now?" Gwen asked.
"He killed himself. That was ... half a year ago. This group exists a year now." She checked her watch. "We should get started." She left them.
Gwen looked at Tosh and whispered, "I don't want to be here."
"Me neither," Tosh replied. They joined the group. Like the night before, the lights were switched off, leaving only the candles to light the room. Tosh nudged Gwen and nodded to the man in the hoodie who she'd already noticed the evening before. Gwen tried to see his face but it was in the shadows.
Jessica stood before the group. "Today is a special day because one of our members will finally be fully integrated into our group. Sean, would you come to me, please?"
The man in the hoodie rose and Gwen tensed up. He walked up to Jessica and then turned around with a shy smile. Tosh gasped in surprise and Gwen opened her mouth. She leaned to Tosh. "Looks like we're not the only ones sneaking in here."
Tosh nodded. "Ben Bryan."
