Chapter 21

Cardiff 2007- The Hub

It had been several days since the emotional break down that Harry and Jack had had in the tent, and the trio had returned to work. However all three of them had tried to forget about the dark cloud that hung over them. They went back to the daily routine of the life in the Hub, but there were some differences. Jack no longer spent nights alone in the Hub in his bunker, but would now come home with Harry and Ianto. They would either go to Ianto's flat, but that was a tight fit as Ianto only had a queen size bed. More often than not they would end up at Harry's tent as there was more than enough room for them. They still hadn't progressed to a physical relationship because Ianto and Harry were still hurt from Jack denial of their bond.

They were going about their usual routine, but there a cheer that hadn't been there since they had discovered that they were soulmates. Harry was busy sorting through the paperwork that was to be filed in the Archive; Ianto was on the line with UNIT organizing the tele-conference that they had planned with Jack about the world security. UNIT would not talk directly to Jack until necessary; Jack was not good at working with other agencies and had the tendency to run rough shot all over them. Jack was on the phone with Torchwood Two talking with Archie about transferring on of the excess Rift Junk to the main Archive that was located under Torchwood Two.

They broke for lunch when they heard Owen come back with lunch, he was loudly complaining about doing what he called 'Tea Boy's job'. They went to the kitchen where Owen was handing out soup and sandwiches that they had ordered.

"Tomato soup and grilled cheese for Gwen, Teaboy, and myself; vegetable soup and turkey for Tosh; French onion soup and tuna fish for our boss with weird tastes; and a double helping of potato soup for the Witch." Owen commented as he handed out lunch.

They all dung into lunch.

"So anything interesting happen today?" Jack asked as they were almost done lunch. He always made a point of asking at lunch so he knew what his team was up to.

"Almost done that Blowfish autopsy." Owen said, "Looks like he died of an overdose of crack, just like the last six that have been on my table."

"It's like they only come to Earth to get high." Tosh observed.

"Anything else?" Jack asked he wasn't surprised at Owen results. Blowfish had been coming to Earth to get high for years.

"Had some crack pot talk to me this morning about finding something alien." Gwen said dismissively.

That caused Jack to sit up and pay attention. Sure most of Cardiff would point to the Plass when asked where Torchwood was, as they were kind of an open secret. However most of the population of Cardiff were happy to ignore them, a side effect of the Rift, there were only a few that paid enough attention to them to know who was a member of Torchwood.

"Anyone we know?" Owen asked.

"Some weird kid, I think that his name was Eugene." Gwen said.

That name caused the rest of the team to perk up; Eugene Jones was known to approach them with Rift junk. He had never shown them anything that was dangerous or that would expose Aliens, he normally found trash, rocks, and random useless baubles.

"Did you at least see what he had?" Ianto asked.

"No, he was just some crank pot kid." Gwen scoffed, giving Ianto a look that said that she thought he was an idiot for even asking.

"Gwen did you even read the file that I have you about people to watch out for." Jack asked angrily.

"I've read everything that you've given me." Gwen said giving Jack big doe eyes that she seemed to think was attractive.

"Well you obviously need to read them again." Jack said angrily. "Tosh I need you to track down Eugene, we need to know what he has."

Tosh got up and went over to her computer. Everyone else broke apart knowing that they would have to canvass the area if Tosh was not able to track him down on CCTV. Jack went to his office to grab his great coat, and Gwen followed him.

"Jack…" Gwen started but Jack cut her off.

"Gwen I don't have time for your lollygagging. We have already lost half a day, and we don't know what Eugene has, it might be nothing or a bomb." Jack said angry and frustrated at Gwen.

"But…" Gwen started again but this time was cut off by Tosh.

"Jack I found it." Tosh yelled.

"Gwen, out." Jack ordered pointing to the door.

Gwen sulked out of the office as Jack followed her.

"Tosh give me what you got." Jack ordered as he came up behind her.

"Eugene posted this on eBay not even 3 hours ago." Tosh said bringing up the web page, "From our records it looks like a Dogon Sixth Eye, but there is not a lot of information about it."

"Well that's a relief. It's mostly harmless but it's more than the useless junk that Eugene normally finds. Tosh can you track him?" Jack asked.

"No. His cell phone is turned off, and he posted the eye on eBay from an internet café. Jack you should know that there is a bidding war going on right now. The bid is up to fourteen thousand pound, and the closing for the bidding is in a couple of hours." Tosh said.

"Who the hell wants to buy useless junk?" Owen asked.

"It looks like someone from America." Tosh answered.

"Yanks are weird." Owen said while looking at Jack.

Jack shrugged, "It's most likely a collector, there are several big ones in the States. Still we do have to track down Eugene."

"Well bullocks, I guess we have to canvass his neighbourhood." Owen groaned.

"Well it could be worse." Harry said looking on the positive side.

"What could be worse than interacting with the unwashed masses and having to talk to people?" Owen asked in horror.

"We could be on a Weevil hunt through the sewers." Harry said think back to her solo mission a couple of weeks ago; she didn't want to see another sewer for a long time.

"Cannibal hicks." Ianto stated simply, causing a shutter to go through the whole team.

"Enough lollygagging, its forecast to rain in a couple of hours and I don't know about you but I don't want to do this in the rain." Jack said, moving towards the garage.

The team followed Jack into the garage to where now two identical black SUVs sat. Jack had purchased a second vehicle after the events of Brecon Beacons. The team was now at six, and with all the equipment in the vehicle there just wasn't enough room for all of them.

Gwen quickly scurried over to the SUV that Jack preferred and sat down in the passage seat; Tosh followed her as the original SUV because there was a better computer system build into the vehicle. Owen went over to the second SUV and got into the driver seat, as the second SUV had more medical equipment then the other that only had the basics. Ianto slid into the passenger seat and Harry slid into the back.

They drove to the area that Eugene lived in and split up into pairs to canvas the area for him. Jack was the one decided the teams; he didn't want Gwen and Owen going off somewhere. Jack took Gwen, as he was the only one that she would listen to; Ianto was paired with Tosh, and Harry was paired up with Owen.

They spent the next two going from store to pubs to cafes, anywhere that Eugene could be hanging out. Owen spent the majority of the time bitching about having to do leg work. They had just finished in a pub, when they heard someone yell.

"Hey! Stop!" they heard Gwen yell.

"No Gwen don't!" they heard Jack yell.

Owen and Harry looked at each other for a second, before they took off running towards where Gwen's voice had come from. They turned the corner in time to see Gwen chase Eugene on to the road where he was hit by a passing lorry.

Owen rushed forwards towards where Eugene's body a flown and immediately tried to him. Gwen was off to the side crying and holding her arm that looked like it was broken as she was clipped by the lorry. Jack was to the side of Gwen with a stony look on his face, not making any move to help the injured Gwen standing by him.

It only took minutes for the ambulance to arrive, they tried to resuscitate Eugene but it was already too late, he had been killed on impact. Gwen was taken by ambulance because her hand and arm had been broken by the lorry. Tosh and Ianto showed up on the scene soon after the ambulance took Gwen away; drawn over by the commotion.

"What happened here?" Tosh asked, watching as police showed up as a sheet was place over Eugene's body.

"We'll talk about it back at the Hub. Ianto talk to the constabulary, this is a Torchwood case until we find the eye. Owen head over to the hospital and bring Gwen back to the Hub once they are done fixing her up." Jack ordered. "Tosh contact the coroner and let them know that we'll need to take possession of the body. Harry, you're with me we are going to interview the friends that Eugene was with before he bolted."

They all spilt off to their assigned tasks.

Jack and Harry walked over to the dinner that Eugene had run out of. It wasn't hard to find Eugene's friends as they quite upset after watching their friend be hit by a lorry. It doesn't take much to get the two talking. It turns out they had bid on the Eye because they felt bad for Eugene, however once the collector from the Unite States bit £15,000 got the Eye, they realised that it was actually worth something. They came up with a plan to over bid the collector, even if they had no way of paying for the Eye, they then lured Eugene to the dinner where they were planning on taking the Eye and selling it themselves. As soon as Eugene had seen them he realised what had happened and had run out of the dinner, when Gwen spotted him and began to chase him.

It took two hours for team to all arrive back at the Hub, plus the body of Eugene. Gwen's arm was in a cast that she would have to where for the next 6 weeks. They were all in the conference room, as Jack wanted to do an after action briefing on what happened. It was common that a civilian to fall victim to the Rift, but it was not common for a member of the team to be the direct reason that s civilian died.

"Okay, let's go over what happened today. Gwen you start." Jack ordered.

"Well as Jack and I made it to the dinner, Eugene came out of the dinner and almost hit me. I chased after him, and saw him take something out of his pocket, I think that is was the eye, and he ate it. He ran out into the road as I tried to grab him before he was hit with the lorry." Gwen explained.

"Why did you chase him?" Jack asked.

"He was running from us, he could have gotten away." Gwen explained.

"Did you think that he was running from you because you were chasing him?" Harry asked, like the majority of the room not understanding Gwen's rational.

"He must have seen us from the dinner, and did a runner." Gwen said, perpetually annoyed that people were questioning her.

"Yeah, but why did you chase him. It's not like Eugene had the resources to get far, and he was harmless. Even the Eye is pretty harmless according to records. It's not like he was out killing people." Tosh said.

"That's enough we can all question Gwen until the end of time, but it doesn't change the fact that a civilian died." Jack said.

Gwen got this smug look on her face as she thought that Jack was taking her side, but it quickly slid off when Jack continued.

"Gwen, you're suspended for the next six weeks." Jack said his voice firm.

"That's not fair!" Gwen exclaimed, jumping up and slamming her hands to the table, before whimpering in pain as she forgot that her arm was broken.

"Gwen, that's enough. Your actions led to the death of a civilian and one of our community contacts. Also you are a field agent; with that broken arm you are going to be useless. So take this time to be with Rhys who you are always complaining that you don't get time to spend with." Jack said.

"But…" Gwen started.

"No Gwen, after this meeting I don't want to see you until your arm has healed and the cast is off." Jack cut her off. "Continuing on, does anyone else have any useful information?" Jack asked.

"Ianto and I spoke to Eugene's mother." Tosh said, "She showed us his room, it was mostly filled with Rift junk. The only thing that she could really tell us was that Eugene was excited about something, but she thought he had found someone online with all the time he spent on the computer."

"Owen and I didn't come across anything." Harry said, "Most people thought that Eugene was an odd guy who might have been a bit cracked with his going on about aliens."

"Yeah." Owen agreed. "Other than his penchant for going on about aliens and collection Rift junk, he seemed to be an everyday normal bloke."

"Owen I want you to look into what Eugene swallowed; it's most likely the Eye as we haven't been able to find it." Jack ordered, "I want to be able to release the body back to that family tomorrow morning if possible, make sure that you do a full autopsy, I don't want anything to get into the general public."

"Yeah, yeah I know the drill." Owen grumbled over in the corner.

"Everyone else finish up your reports then head home, we are done for today." Jack said.

Everyone with the exception of Gwen filed out of the room as they went to finish up for the day. It was always hard on the team on the days that civilians didn't make it, even if they had become slightly numb to it.

"Gwen what do you want?" Jack asked after everyone else had left the room and they were alone.

"It's not fair that I'm being suspended for that idiot's mistake of running into traffic." Gwen said harshly.

"His name was Eugene. It doesn't matter that he ran into traffic, what matters is that you continued to chase him after I told you to stop. You disobeyed an order and it led to a civilian's death and your injuries." Jack stated coldly. He was concerned at her lack of empath for Eugene, she hadn't been at Torchwood long enough to build up that level of apathy. She hadn't even been in the police force long enough for that level of apathy; she had only been a constable for a little less than a year.

"I wasn't suspended after Carys died." Gwen said petulantly.

Jack's eyebrows rose in disbelieve, before a chill came over him. He had to nip this in the bud before the blatant disregard for life got worse.

"That was an accident on your first day; I didn't hold it against you as you had been thrown into a completely unorthodox job." Jack said.

Gwen had a slight smile on her face as she thought that Jack was seeing it her way and she would be forgive again. However it quickly fell from her face as Jack continued to speak, he voice was ice cold.

"However you have now been here several months and have time to acquaint yourself with the rule and regulations of this job. You blatantly disregarded my orders in the field; as your team leader that type of action not only puts yourself but the whole team in danger. This time there was only one death and yourself was injured, but image that was a dangerous alien that you were chasing, it could have not only killed you but the team and countless civilians. You are a field agent, it is your job to protect your team and civilians and you failed today. Is that understood?"

"But…" Gwen stated.

"Is that understood!?" Jack barked.

"Yes," Gwen answered in a quiet voice.

Jack soften a little, he still had a soft spot for Gwen.

"Gwen, think of this suspension as medical leave. You will be useless in the field with a broken arm. Go home and be with Rhys." Jack said.

Gwen nodded, looking dejected has she tried to pull of the kicked puppy look but didn't quite manage it. Gwen slunk out of the room towards her desk to collect her things before heading out the door.

Jack could only hope that after Gwen's suspension and her time away from Torchwood would help her get back the perspective and innocence that she had had when he hired her.