Sorry it's a day late, I will try to be better at getting this up on time for the next chapter and I will also make sure that I definitely update Four Senses tomorrow.
Staying at the hospital overnight may not have been Jack's best idea ever. Not only had he ended up being extremely bored, but extremely lonely having already told his unconscious Dad everything that he knew about Ianto by half past eleven in the evening.
He was picked up by his mum at about half nine and she drove him to the location where she worked.
His Mum parked the car and led him inside of the building. They walked through a basic office before heading down a set of stairs that were behind it. Suddenly Jack realised that this part of the base had to be underground.
When they walked in through the door down at the bottom of the stairs, Jack was treated by lights, computers and noise.
Sat at one of the computers was a girl with brown, tied back hair while wearing a bright pink top; black trousers and trainers.
And at the desk next to her was a guy with a hair colour that was bordering on black; a dark blue top; a lab coat over it; some sand coloured trousers and trainers.
His Mum walked up towards them and Jack followed behind waiting for someone to speak. It was his Mum who spoke first turning to face her son, "Jack meet Greg Thompson, doctor, scientist and wonderful biologist." She told him as she pointed to the guy, who gave him a small smile and a wave of his pen.
Then she turned to face the woman, "Brenda Stewart, technological genius, hacker, tracker and mastermind." Pulling herself away from the computer screen she gave him a proper wave and a big smile.
As she did this another person entered the room. She was about twenty four; five foot ten; brown hair and greeny, blue coloured eyes. She held a try with four cups on it and made her way over to the man that Jack know knew as Greg first.
"Ah yes, coffee at last, I'm dying here." He said as he took one of the cups from her before she made her way over to Brenda, who also took a cup, however her answer was in the form of words.
"Thanks." Brenda took a sip before returning to her work, her fingers moving quickly across the keyboard. The person that Jack didn't have a name for to match to a face yet moved over to them and handed them both a cup of coffee, emptying the tray, before his Mum spoke again.
"And this is Ianthe Lloyd, brilliant at making coffee and getting us places on time, quickly and safely," she took a sip of her coffee and turned to face her son, "Now you know the team that works for me and you're Dad."
That comment managed to turn heads. Jack realised they probably hadn't known that he was her son when she brought him down, maybe they had thought that he was a new team member. The only one who didn't look shocked was Ianthe.
"Now Brenda, Greg, I need the pair of you to take Jack and explain to him what happened to his Dad when you went to the pub."
"Oh what explain about the guy who killed himself?" Greg asked, although he didn't wait for an answer before adding the next part to his sentence, "I just put his body in the morgue this morning."
"Well if Jack wants to see it them I'm sure that one of you can take him down there later." replied, although she didn't look best eased at the thought that her son might want to do that.
"Didn't you explain it to him?" Brenda asked slightly confused that his Mother may not have told his son.
"Yes, but he didn't believe me, because I wasn't there when it happened." Jack looked slightly sheepish as his Mother said that, but he didn't make any move to interrupt the conversation.
"You might want to take a look at this." Ianthe said as she rendered the room. Jack hadn't even notice her departure and from the look on Greg's face, he hadn't either. Ianthe made her way over to Jack's Mother and handed her as set of papers.
"Another murder, same guy, eighth one this week." Ianthe informed them all having already read the papers.
"Eighth?" Jack asked shocked before he asked, "When are you counting the beginning of the week from?"
"From Monday." Ianthe replied as she started to pick up Brenda and Greg's coats.
"This is the fourth day of this week then, so that means that he killed seven people in the past three days." Jack was now wondering why his parents hadn't told him that this was the sort of stuff that they actually did.
"Well then we better go look," as she was passed a set of car keys by Ianthe, who also passed Brenda and Greg their coats, "You too come with me, Ianthe stay here and don't let Jack out of your sight, when we get back Jack, Brenda and Greg can fill you in." And as simply as that, the three of them were gone.
Ianto had been distant from the others for quite a bit of the day, all because of the stupid letter that left him having no idea what to do or not. The way he saw it, he only had a few possible options open to him.
He was sat in English before everyone else as he had been let out of Spanish early and Mr Redford had told him to go in and sit down. The room had been empty as no one has a lesson in their for first lesson of the Thursday morning.
Once again Owen came and sat down next to him, avoiding Toshiko as much as he could, although Ianto was convinced that they would be friends again soon - or at least they hopefully would be.
This morning had seen Owen do the same thing that he had done yesterday, walking down to Ianto's and waiting with him for Tosh, Gwen and Rhys to turn up.
That lesson they watched the first part of the mice and men film and then read the next part of the book, stopping to write down a description of the new ranch. Ianto ended up helping Owen with most of his as he couldn't be bothered to do it on his own.
Break time soon became one of the most boring that Ianto had ever had and he just couldn't wait for Jack to get back or for the boring school week to end.
A beeping noise came from Jack's jacket pocket and he fished out his phone to see its battery sign flashing red. He looked around and his eyes finally set on Ianthe who was just making her way up the stairs.
"Ianthe," She raised her head, "Do you have a phone charger that I could borrow?" He asked hoping that she had, because otherwise he wouldn't be able to text Ianto later.
"What phone do you have?"
"IPhone four." Jack replied simply as he stood up to follow Ianthe in the direction that she was heading – towards his Mum and Dad's office. Once inside she placed the file that she had been carrying on the desk and moved to one of the numerous filing cabinets.
After she had picked out numerous different black and white leads before pulling out one that fitted the right description for Jack's phone before she turned back round to face him and handed him the charger.
"Thanks. Why do you seem to have so many?"
"They aren't mine," Ianthe started, "We have to keep them in case our own phones ever need charging or the phone of someone that we catch that way we can still use whatever evidence could be on the phone, even if it had originally run out of battery."
"Clever." Jack replied as she made her way past him. Having found it quiet without anyone to talk to, Jack was glad was she remained up here using one of the computers, so he made his way over to where she was stood.
"You're Welsh right?" He asked, "I recognise the accent, because I live in Cardiff and some of my friends are Welsh too."
"Yeah I am and I already knew that," Jack's face must have showed his confusion as Ianthe carried on, "Your Mum and Dad told us."
"Why come to Scotland then? I mean wouldn't you have preferred a job in Cardiff?"
"My Mum moved to Scotland when I was sixteen and I just ended up moving up here with her. But I don't mind, I like my job. It allows us to help keep people safe." She gave him a light smile before turning back to the computer screen and began typing again.
"Why did my Mum not tell me what she actually did?" Jack asked wondering whether Ianthe knew or not.
"What did she tell you that she did?"
"She said that she and Dad worked in a Harkness family business that had been going since eighteen seventy nine."
"Well this is. Your family have run it for ages, starting here in Scotland." She informed him and Jack wondered why he couldn't have been told when Ianthe could.
"Anything else you can tell me?" He asked as he sat down with a tone that he hoped had come across with more interest than annoyance laced in it. Ianthe sat down as well turning to Brenda's laptop and placing it in front of Jack before bringing up a screen with a spinning logo on and what looked to be a very good data bank.
"There were originally five of them. Starting here with a second in London, third in Cardiff, Fourth in Delhi, India and the fifth – well the fifth isn't really known – it's missing, but your parents always say that they will find it somewhere on day."
Jack nodded for her to continue, so she did.
"They were numbered for simplicity. You have one which is London, two which is us, three which is Cardiff, four which is missing and five which is India. The one in India was closed in nineteen twenty four." Ianthe pressed a few keys before a picture of the location appeared.
When she presses a few more the image changed to the one in Scotland before pressing a few more which brought up a picture of a very recognisable location for Jack. A tall, modern skyscraper took up most of the picture with the sky and the ground taking up the rest. There were a few people on the ground of the picture, but not one of them went near the building.
"You recognise it?"
"Yeah it was in the news wasn't it? About three years ago, I'm sure they had a story about something to do with that building being destroyed."
"It was completely destroyed, but it took a lot of damage," Another click and a different image was displayed and in this one the modern building was a lot harder to notice and for anyone's guess it could have been completely old, "So that was the end of the one in London."
"What about Cardiff?" Jack looked at the laptop's screen (which was now back on the logo screensaver as Ianthe had closed the pictures.) Jack put a finger on the trap pad and moved the mouse to the same thing that he had seen her click before hand and did the same. Inside the folder gave him the choice of the five places.
He clicked on the Cardiff branch and opened the file. He was surprised to see that it still existed to the present day. Jack looked up at her before he spoke.
"Does anyone run it anymore, because according to this it still exists?" Jack asked before turning his head back to face the Laptop screen before realising that he recognised the location that it was apparently located at.
The Roald Dahl Plass. Jack had walked past there with Owen, Tosh, Ianto, Gwen and Rhys before, however apart from the Millennium centre he didn't really see where it could be unless it was underground like this one.
"No it's not actually run by anyone and it doesn't really do anything anymore." She replied while writing something down into the file that she had been holding off of a file that was displayed on one of the main computer screens.
"Why not?" Jack asked
"After the events that happened in London and all of the trouble that it caused as well as all of the public interest, they just made the decision that it was time to shut it down and just have Scotland as the only one left since no one really knew anything about this one."
"But is the actual structure still there? You know the base and the actual workspace like you have here?"
"I believe so, I don't think they ever destroyed the actual thing as that would have attracted too much more attention than just simply shutting it down, however I believe that we still own the building that originally fronted it." Ianthe stood up with the folder and shut down the laptop before she stood up.
"What do you know about someone called Gray Harkness, Ianthe?"
"The name is overly familiar to me. He's your younger brother is that right?"
"Yeah he is," She went to leave, "Do you ever get the feeling that someone knows something important, but chooses not to tell you?"
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"Because I think my Mum's hiding something to do with Gray from me."
"I wouldn't know if she was or wasn't," Ianthe replied, "Now I was going to double check on Cardiff for you, I might as well look at Gray as well," and that time she actually did walk away.
Jack sighed at being left alone again, but it didn't last for too long as Ianthe spoke again and Jack found that she hadn't even left.
"Are you coming with me or not?" Jack jumped up and made his way over to where she was stood before following her down through a series of tunnels and stairs which eventually lead to an opening which made its way into a very big space full of more filing cabinets. Ianthe moved over to a section marked A and opened the draw on the bottom and slipped the file in to the AP section of the filling.
She stood up and turned to him before hinting for him to follow her further down. She only stopped when she reached the section marked H. She looked between a few of the cabinets before opening one and pulling out a different file from the Ha section.
Ianthe looked at him with a slight sadness, she took a deep sigh and bit her lip before extending her arm and held out the folder for him to take if he wanted to. Something about the way she was acting now told Jack that she shouldn't be doing this.
"You can take it if you want to. I can copy it no one will ever know that you have it, but you don't have to read. However I completely respect that you will probably want to since he was- well I don't have to tell you what he is to you."
Jack reached out and took the folder, "You won't get in trouble for this?"
"If you don't say anything it will never be brought up." Ianthe told him, "I'm the only one who ever comes down here usually. I mean the others make their way down once in a while, but they never check stuff, that's my job."
Jack opened the folder and recognised instantly the face that was on the file, Ianthe turned away from him and walked off down another one of the pathways, however Jack made no move to follow her as he read over the file.
Gray Harkness, was written at the top of the page along with a ton of other personal information and every detail of how he had disappeared. He read further down the page and found the details of someone that he hadn't heard the name of before. Ianthe chose that moment to return with yet another file in her hand which she handed to him.
Jack looked at her in confusion before she spoke, "Dan Wilshire. He's the guy that killed himself in the pub, the one that your Dad was chasing. It might be helpful."
"How much do you know?" Jack was now even more annoyed at his parents, "How much have they told you? All of you, you, Greg and Brenda? Tell me?" Ianthe bit her lip again and didn't reply or say anything for a moment.
"You really need to improve your manners," Jack thought for a moment that she was going to just walk away and that she wasn't going to say any more than that, but he was soon proved wrong, "Everything. We know everything."
"Do you know anything that I don't?" Ianthe didn't get to answer as her Bluetooth comms unit interrupted with Jack's Mum's voice speaking to her from wherever they were now.
Ianto and Tosh were sat in maths with five minutes left of the lesson, both of them having already finished the work that was set for them. So Ianto turned to Tosh.
"Can you forgive Owen?"
"Not until he apologizes for what he said."
"Tosh, he's really sorry please just forgive him, he didn't know what the words meant, but he thought he could impress you with them."
"Well he did," Toshiko replied, her tone expressing everything that she felt, "And just when I thought that he actually liked me."
"He does." Ianto insisted trying to push that fact into Tosh's head. Toshiko leaned back in her chair and looked down.
"Well if he does it doesn't make a difference to his actions."
"He's Owen, he'll always be like that."
"I know that and I hate it," Ianto knew what Toshiko meant, "So then why do I keep trying?" She asked. Ianto didn't answer able to tell that her question was intended to be a rhetorical one.
At the end of maths, Ianto's mood hadn't improved at all and on top of that he felt so ill and hungry, but to force himself to eat something would probably just make him sick anyway. He saw Owen on his way to Geography as Tosh left with Gwen to go to their PE lesson.
He sat down in the filling up class room and checked his phone quickly before their teacher came in, only becoming even sadder when he saw that there was no text or missed call from Jack.
Ianto sighed and shoved his bag down onto the floor next to his crutches and leaned his head into his hand and rested his elbow against the table. He watched the board without any real intention of actually paying much attention.
Everything seemed to move past him in such a blur that he was barely aware of it until he heard the bell go and packed away to make his way to the netball courts to meet Owen, Tosh, Gwen and Rhys for lunch.
Jack was sat in the black SUV with Ianthe who was – as his Mum had told him - driving quickly, but safely unlike how his Dad would drive along these roads and Jack was sure that one day he would drive the exact same way.
"You know you remind me of my friend, Ianto," Jack said trying to create a conversation, "He's Welsh too you know."
"What's he like?" Ianthe asked, although she was obviously focussing on her driving as she asked a question that would allow her (for a minute at least) to do barely any of the talking.
"He's nice and organised and probably one of the best people that I've met and he's always fussing about his coffee-" Ianthe laughed slightly at that, "I really want to get to know him better you know as a bit more of a friend."
"So why are you telling me all of this?" She asked as she turned a corner, "If you feel that way you should talk to him."
"I just can't manage to say any of it, I'm not very good telling people how I feel, I usually mess it up and get a door slammed in my face."
"Then don't say it from the other side of a door, it's never really the best way. Sit down, face to face and then say it."
"But I just feel that there's so much that he doesn't tell me, or anyone for that matter."
"Then encourage him to tell you and don't do what I did."
"Why what did you do?" Jack asked, that last statement having caught his interest. He felt the SUV slow to a stop as Ianthe undid her seatbelt.
"I'll tell you another time." She told him as she swiftly moved out of the car before turning back to face him, "Are you coming with me or staying here? I'd advise that you stay here as you'd be safer, but something tells me that you aren't going to do that."
"Let's see, Mum tells me to stay at the base and you're trying to catch a murderer – I think I'll go for the non-boring, but dangerous option." Ianthe sighed and rolled her eyes as she shut the door. Jack clambered out and shut the passenger door behind him.
The extra weight of the gun that he was carrying in his hand was not usual for him, but yet he found himself finding it relatively simple to keep up with the events without a single faltering step.
They left the SUV outside of the Bishopton Parish Church and made their way down the side of the road. They were just coming up to a big wood when they saw a man run across the road, forcing a car to stop before it ran him over as he ran into the first part of the wood.
That was when they heard Jack's Mothers voice again telling them to go after the guy and that they would be there to help them with the chase soon. So Ianthe and Jack ran into the entrance of the wood and followed the guy.
Jack followed along carefully minding where he stepped, following where Ianthe stepped.
"You know this wasn't how I planned to spend the time that I had in Scotland. I was only here to be visiting my Dad." Jack informed her, his tone a whisper as they made their way along still, quietly chasing the man.
"When are you going back then?" Ianthe asked.
"Saturday morning about six o clock then I'll be back by two o clock, I can sleep of the travel sickness and go to Rhys's birthday party as I promised Ianto," Jack paused and then added, "I still need to text him as well."
"Yeah well it will have to wait, because one we're chasing a murderer and two you forgot to charge your phone earlier." Ianthe reminded him
"What?" Jack asked before fishing round in his pocket to grab his phone before trying to turn it on, only to find the battery completely dead, "Oh that is just-"
He didn't get to finish as something went straight through his arm, he heard a voice (that sounded like his Mother's) shout his name, before something knocked him out.
Owen had been right and Ianto had been set the same homework that he had to chase family routes. Ianto walked home as quickly as he could manage with the crutches, opened the door and went up to his bedroom.
He pulled out the open letter and decided that it was actually time to make his mind up. The letter was from the prison in Knox Road, Cardiff, CF twenty four zero UG. There was a letter that had been written to him from Richard Booty, the Governor of the prison.
Ianto had already read through both of the letters. The second letter was written to him directly from a certain person. A person who he hadn't expected to see again.
His Uncle.
The letter that had been written to him read:
Dear Ianto.
I know that you probably dislike me, because of past events that I (in my knowledge) was not involved in, but according to certain others, I was. I would be in complete understanding if you didn't write back or call the prison or come and visit, but I would like you know that I would love it if you could visit.
I wouldn't – if I was you – mention this letter to your Father, but if you have to maybe a trusted friend or a girlfriend would be best.
I hope to see you soon Ianto, also I have a small favour that I would like to ask of you as well. I hope that you are alright and that I will see you.
Ianto didn't quite know whether he wanted to see his Uncle again or not. Although he had never blamed him for Rhiannon and Johnny's death as he knew that it was his Dad who had killed them.
After some serious time considering the matter, Ianto turned to the official letter and looked at the phone number before picking up his mobile and typed it in then pressing call, placing the device to his ear as it started to ring.
Jack heard beeping as he opened his eyes. He sat up and found Brenda and Greg sat one on either side of him.
"What happened?" He asked as he sat up.
"You got shot in the arm," Greg answered, "Then hit over the head with a gun. Lucky thing that the hospital is just back down the road."
"I want to see my Dad." Jack demanded.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, because-" Brenda didn't get to finish her sentence.
"I've only been shot in the arm, I can walk down to where he is." Neither of them looked completely sure on it, but in the end they both agreed and took him down to see his Dad.
"Go on then. Mum said you'd tell me what happened."
"Basically we chased the guy out of the pub while he was throwing punches at us and glass e.c.t. and then he just jumped over the bar, ran out the back and the moment we got out there and told him that we were taking him in – he stabbed himself." Brenda told him.
"And then he shot himself in the same place," Greg added, "I tried to save him, but I couldn't Jack there was just too much blood and it was two direct hits to the heart, there wasn't much I could do in a back lane, when all I had was a jacket and a small first aid kit."
Jack sat down next his Dad in one of the chairs from the room that he had pulled over to the bedside. He sat in silence.
"Ianthe gave us this," Brenda handed Jack his mobile, "We charged it for you by the way." Jack took it with a light thanks and began to compose a message to send to Ianto.
"Where is she? And my Mum, where are they both?" He asked not seeing them anywhere.
"They are still chasing the guy." Brenda told him.
"Only good thing is," Greg started, "Ianthe thinks she knows who he is now by an actual name that we can trace."
"So why aren't you?"
"Because you're Mum told us to stay with you!" Brenda shouted, "You weren't even meant to come with us!"
Jack stood up, "He's killed eight people-"
"Nine." Greg interrupted.
"Nine? When did that happen?"
"Ianthe texted it to me." He held up his mobile.
"Okay well that is even worse, he has killed nine people in four days you have to go and bloody catch him!"
"It's not that simple, Jack."
"Well I think that it's easier to catch someone with four against one, rather than two against one." Brenda and Greg shared a look before walking out of the room. Jack sighed and sat back down, taking his Dad's hand.
He fell asleep again about ten minutes later, so he completely missed the spiked line turn to a flat one.
Okay my next update will be Saturday and I will update Four Senses tomorrow (it would have been earlier, but I left the document on my cousins computer and she went away for the past few days, so I couldn't get it), I'm sorry for being so slow to update that one. Thanks for reading, reviewing, favouriting and alerting.