A/N: Change of plan, 'They Keep Killing Suzie' for dating reasons
(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) 16th Feb (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)
"What do you thinks happened?" Owen asked as they neared the address for a crime scene that they had been called out to.
"I have no idea" Jack replied "She refused to say anything just that it was one of ours."
"Yeah, but what kind of alien attacks happen in suburban Cardiff?" The medic asked. "I mean often they either like the city centre or the middle of fucking nowhere."
"Well we're here." Jack stopped the SUV and they all jumped out. "You can ask her yourself. Usual formation."
"At last." The detective said as someone lifted the 'crime scene' tape for them. "You must be Torchwood, my team bitch about you all the time."
"And you are?"
"Detective Swanson"
"I'm Captain Jack Harkness" Jack said shaking her hand.
"So I've heard. Tell me something are you always this dressy for a murder investigation?"
"What would you rather me naked?" Lucy pulled a face at Tosh who turned away so as not to start giggling.
"God help me, the stories are true."
"So who's the victim?" Gwen asked before Jack could say something even more inappropriate.
"That's victims, plural." Swanson corrected her. "Yesterday a man was murdered at 96 Oakham Street. Alex Arwyn, 28, single, estate agent. Here we go." She pulled out a photo from the file she was holding and showed it to them. "That's from the scene of the crime." Jack looked at it with Gwen and then passed it down to Tosh, Owen and Lucy. It wasn't a pretty sight but there was nothing that stood out as having alien involvement. "Today, in here, we have two more. Mark and Sara Briscoe, both 33, married. He's a surveyor. She works in education."
"What about the smears of blood? Is that writing?" Jack asked.
"Work in progress. Come inside and see the finished thing." She nodded at the house and walked into it, the team following her.
"You know I don't think she likes you Captain." Lucy said with a smirk, "It's almost like you've got a bad reputation."
"Hey I have a great reputation I'll have you know."
"Oh yeah, because the rumours she heard would suggest differently."
"Just because you people feel the need to tie yourself down..." Jack's laughter faded as they saw what was written on the wall. Written in the blood of the dead victims laying underneath was the word 'Torchwood'.
"Looks like somebody wants your attention." Swanson said angrily and Lucy could understand why she wasn't happy and it wasn't just because of the rumours and Jack's behaviour. What had happened here was because of Torchwood, they had led to the deaths of these people, and the worst thing was she knew what was going to happen - which meant there was nothing she could do about it, this wasn't going to be pretty.
"They've got it." Jack said, being serious for the first time since they had jumped in the SUV and had been discussing each nations hopes for the Six Nations and laughing at Jack for living in Cardiff for so long and still not properly understanding the rules of rugby. Jack had responded by saying he was more interested in the players than the game but he would definitely care more if he got a private show later.
"We found a few of the killer's hairs from the first murder." Swanson said once they had all got over the shock. "Lab results should be in soon."
"Good we'll need that. Now if you could just clear the room. Some of this equipment is strictly need-to-know."
"No offence to you and your men detective." Lucy said quickly, seeing Swanson's hackles rise at the idea of being kicked out of her crime scene. "It's simply that the best way to keep a secret is to not tell it to anyone else."
"I can understand that I suppose. But, well... it was only a matter of time."
"What was?"
"Torchwood walks all over this city like you own it. Now these people are paying the price ordinary people ripped apart with your name written in their own blood. From where I'm standing you did this, Captain Jack Harkness. You and the rest of the Torchwood team."
"We're only doing everything we can to keep the city safe. Many people would say the same about the police force, locking up innocent people, getting civilians killed, it's all over the internet and the papers..." Lucy replied her voice was quiet, the kind of quiet that warned you to not say anything stupid because it would not be good for your continual health.
"To the best of my knowledge we've not found a dead body with the word 'police' written above them. And the police are accountable to the law, you just do what the hell you want without fear of consequences, well these people are the consequence." With that the detective left the room and Owen got up to shut the door behind her.
"She's not right Jack. I can't tell you why but I know this and she's not right. There was damn nothing that you could do!" Lucy wanted to kick something but was aware that if she disturbed the crime scene it would cause even more hate from Swanson.
"Ok, I trust you."
"Well if it's someone we pissed off, that narrows it down to, oh, four or five million?" Owen said
"And that's just the humans. Tosh how are we doing?" The technician had gone back to the SUV to use their computer system and had been running the names through to see if they had previously encountered them and if there was any link to Torchwood.
"There's no record of Mr and Mrs Briscoe on our database, nor yesterday's victim and no link between him and the Briscoes. No connection between any of them"
"So these people are completely random?" Gwen asked horrified at the idea that they might be the motive behind three entirely random deaths.
"Well there's nothing that I can see straight away. Lucy?" Lucy sighed and quickly weighed up what she could and couldn't say.
"It's not random and there is a link. Please don't ask me for anything else."
"That's plenty." Jack said, "Now that Gwen knows and it's all out in the open I'll come up with some new rules about how we deal with your 'situation' in these cases and make sure that everyone knows it. You've helped but not actually told us anything so don't worry. Now let's get all the information we need and then get out of here." They finished the rest of their work in silence only speaking when asking someone to pass them something or to say they were done
"Jack, they've got the results on the killers hair." Tosh told them, breaking the silence as they packed up.
"We're leaving now anyway." Jack replied. They walked out the front door and back towards the SUV. Detective Swanson was standing next to a police car holding a file; they walked over to her presuming it was the DNA results that Tosh had told them about.
"Initial findings say Caucasian male, early forties, smoker, drinks tequila. Doesn't match any DNA profiles. Only thing of interest is a compound we've never seen before. Recognise it?"
Owen was reading the file over her shoulder and grabbed it off her to be sure of what he was seeing.
"Uh-oh, we're in trouble."
"What is it?" Gwen asked
"Compound B67." Owen replied, Lucy and Jack both immediately understood what the medic was telling them.
"You're kidding." Jack said and Gwen looked between them.
"Retcon. He's got Retcon in his blood."
"Ahh shitting hell." Lucy said and they all looked at her, including Swanson. "Oh come on, I'm just saying what we're all thinking, even you detective and you don't even know why we're in trouble"
(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)
"B67, a.k.a Retcon," Owen explained back at the hub "a.k.a. the magic ingredient of the amnesia pill"
"And this belongs to us. Whoever this killer is it's somebody we gave the amnesia pill to." Gwen said thinking aloud as Ianto walked in after finishing feeding Myfwany.
"Is he remembering being a serial killer or is he becoming a serial killer because of the Retcon?" Lucy asked. "Are we the cause or the effect?"
"Wait a minute. I've taken Retcon." Gwen said suddenly worried at the idea of the drug turning people into murderers.
"Then better stay away from sharp objects." Jack replied with a small smile. "Ianto, how many people have we given amnesia pills to?"
"Two thousand and eight." He said after a small pause while he thought about it.
"Two thousand and seven." Owen corrected. "Lucy didn't actually drug Carys and they are still in contact."
"What?" Tosh asked as everyone turned to look at Lucy apart from Jack. Lucy just shrugged.
"Forcing the memories deep into her subconscious wasn't going to help her. I wanted to help Carys and so I did. She's doing a fuck lot better, the nightmares stopped a few months ago and she's decided to use that experience to help others as a councillor - she's applied to uni and everything. Listen this really isn't the issue right now, in fact if anything it's a good thing because it means we've got one less potential bomb out there waiting to explode."
"What if they all become psychotic?" Owen asked, a small amount of excitement mixed in with his sarcasm.
"Do you have to sound so happy?" Tosh asked him
"Yeah, I'm just saying. Mean Streets."
"Cardiff becoming the new setting for 28 days later." Lucy said wryly, "Psychotic zombies roaming the streets the only link between all of them being that they having some missing days in their memories. Could almost make a good film."
"Tosh narrow the list from Ianto down to fit Swanson's profile, Lucy you can help her, start checking them out as fast as you can. Gwen, Owen there's a link between the victims. Find the link, find the killer."
"How do we know there's a link?" Ianto asked
"Lucy told us." Tosh said not bothering to glance up from her PDA as she searched for the list of people they had given Retcon to, Ianto nodded in understanding.
"Right, get to work." Jack ordered and they all got up from their seats to do so apart from Gwen.
"Jack if there is a link why don't we just ask the victims ourselves?" She asked causing them to stop in their tracks and look back at her.
"Not the right time for a séance" Jack replied
"The first time I met Torchwood, you had that glove."
"No way." Jack laughed.
"Not after what it did to Suzie." Owen agreed.
"It brings people back to life." She continued to argue. "Just for two minutes we could question the murder victims."
"That's exactly what she said." Owen spat. "She was one of us, we trusted her, and now she's dead, 'cause of that thing."
"The glove stays in the safe, where it belongs."
"These murders are happening because of Torchwood." Gwen said standing up and starting to get angry that no one was taking her idea seriously. "So Torchwood has got to do something."
"And we are." Lucy pointed out. "We're using our data banks to cut down the list of possible suspects, something no one else could possibly do. We'll get there it just won't be as quick"
"That's not good enough." Gwen snapped. "How many more people have got to die before we use everything at our disposal to catch them?"
"Fine." Jack said, unhappily. "I'll get it out of the safe."
They stood in Jack's office and watched as he typed in the relevant password and pulled out a box with the glove inside.
"It fell through the rift about 40 years ago." He said. "Lay at the bottom of the bay till we dredged it up." Jack was starting to undo the extra bindings on it. "I always figure this wasn't just lost. Whoever made it, wanted rid of it." He lifted the metal glove out and they all stared at it, remembering what had happened the last they had used it, the friend they had lost because of it.
"You know we never gave it a cool name." Owen's voice was almost mournful, almost.
"I thought we called it the Resurrection Gauntlet." Tosh said
"Cool name"
"What about the Risen Mitten?" Ianto said, the words rolling off his tongue sounding even better with his strong welsh accent.
"The Welsh accent is beautiful you know that?" Lucy said, not really thinking. For the third time that day everyone looked at her in shock and amusement. "Oh come on!" She said defensively. "Risen Mitten, sounds nowhere near as gorgeous and sexy in my Southern accent, not that... I didn't mean." She blushed and started playing with her hair. "I just meant it sounds good in Ianto's accent, that's all, it would sound just as nice if any other Welshmen said it."
"Well you're in the right country to hear the Welsh accent." Jack joked.
"Yeah, watch out Tea-boy, if you actually speak any Welsh she might jump your bones."
"Oh piss off Owen!"
They all stood in the medbay around the dead body of one of the victims apart from Tosh who stayed at her workstation so she could monitor everything
"Jack are you ok?" Gwen asked, but the Captain didn't reply he just threw Ianto the stopwatch and picked up the glove.
"Don't forget the maximum resurrection time was two minutes. That's only because Suzie had practice, the most we're likely to get is 30seconds, okay? Lucy you're our resident ghost whisperer still, so I want you ready to calm them down if needed. Tosh are you ready?"
"Ready." She replied "and recording. This man was victim number one, name - Alex Arwyn."
Jack stretched and put his gloved hand on Alex's head, there was the a buzzing sound and Jack shut his eyes, trying to find and pull out the dead consciousness.
"Come on Alex. Come back."
"How does it work?" Gwen asked
"You just sort of feel like reaching into the dark, finding the dead." He said straining. "I can't... I... I don't... Damn!" He pulled the glove away and his hand out of it as he got an electrical shock. "Nothing. Sorry, never was very good with this thing." He offered it to the medic. "Owen?"
"No, I tried last time. Everyone apart from Lucy had a go, it only responded to Suzie."
"I was cleared on medical grounds." Lucy said quickly. "Coming from a different universe and having a different genetic make-up meant Owen didn't want to risk it."
"I still don't." Owen agreed, "We have no idea what it could do to you making that form of contact or mental link."
"Well, I never had a go." Gwen pointed out, Jack looked around them and gave a small nod as he passed the metal glove over and Gwen pulled it on, moving so she was at the head of the table standing behind the victim, the same position Suzie always took so her victims could never see her face. "It's cold" She hissed
"It warms up" Jack promised. "The glove relies on some sort of empathy, maybe compassion and... just be yourself."
"The human heart of Torchwood." Lucy muttered
"Not now" Jack said and Lucy was apologetic.
"Sorry." She said looking up at Gwen, "meant to only say that in my head."
"So it's ok to mock me as long as you don't say it out loud?!" Lucy only shrugged in response and Gwen put her gloved hand on Alex's head, there was the buzz of electricity and Gwen threw her head back in shock. Ianto pressed the button on the clock. Alex was alive and his body jolted forward as he took his first breath.
"Somebody help me!" He said as Jack held him down "Oh god, help me, help me!"
"Alex I need you to listen to me."
"Somebody help! Help me!"
"Lucy!"
"I'm on it, Alex we need you to calm down, we're going to help you but you need to calm down."
"HELP ME!"
"We are. You were attacked Alex, do you know who it was? Any idea who attacked you."
"I need a hospital."
"We'll get you to safety I promise but we need to know who hurt you so we can get them too, we don't want them to have a head start."
"Who are you?"
"Lucy."
"Where am I?"
"Fifteen seconds." Owen called over.
"You're safe enough for now." Lucy said quickly, trying to speed this conversation up so she could get an answer. "We just need to know if you knew who they were, yes or no. Quickly!"
"I want my mum." Alex said the seriousness of the situation hitting home.
"Yes or no Alex please." She begged
"Yes. Please let me see my -" He choked on the last word as the glove stopped working, the heart monitor flat-lined and he died again.
"He's gone." Owen said
"Let me keep trying." Gwen said
"He's dead."
"But I can bring him back."
"The glove only works once." Jack told Gwen trying to keep her calm.
"But I can do it. Just let me try!"
"Gwen!" Jack snapped, "look at me. He's gone." She pulled her hand away with a surge of electricity.
"Amazing. She's a natural. Twenty four seconds." Ianto said looking up from the stopwatch
"Give Ianto a stopwatch and he's happy." Owen muttered
"It's the button on the top." Ianto replied dryly.
"You mean I didn't need to get you that new coffee maker for your birthday along with the expensive coffee, I could have just found a stopwatch?"
"You bought that for yourself just as much as me." Ianto pointed as he returned the watch to his pocket.
"It is not my fault that you have made me addicted to your ambrosia, I hardly ever drank the stuff before I landed here."
"Gwen?" Jack asked stopping the conversation between Lucy, Ianto and Owen, "What do you want to do? Are you ok to continue?"
"Yeah." Gwen nodded taking a deep breath. "Yeah I think I am."
"Right, Ianto and I will get the next victim, Owen keep her calm and relaxed, Lucy go get her a drink."
"I don't need..."
"This thing uses your energy as its focus, you need a drink in fact Lucy get whatever biscuits we've currently got as well and we go again in 5 minutes."
"Recording, victim number two, Mark Briscoe."
"Oh, God, I can feel him. It's like a rope from my heart to the glove." Gwen said as Lucy positioned herself ready to calm the man down straight away. "It's so warm" There was a surge of electricity and Mark Briscoe took a deep breath and stared at them
"Hi," Lucy said keeping her voice quiet and calm with a small smile. "Look at me Mr Briscoe, just at me."
"Where am I?"
"You're were hurt, someone came into your house and attacked you, we don't have long. We just need to know who it was, anything you can remember will help."
"Is my wife alright?"
"We're looking after her in the next room and will speak to her after we've finished with you, don't worry. But we need to know Mr Briscoe, who was it?"
"It was that man. He belonged to Pilgrim. He went to Pilgrim."
"Which man? What's Pilgrim?"
"Oh my God. He had a knife."
"You're safe Mark, stay with me, don't panic. What was his name?"
"Thirty five seconds." Ianto said but Lucy ignored him, keeping herself focussed on Mark and stopping him from panicking at the same time as trying to find out the killers name and get that all important vital link to their former colleague.
"Max"
"Well done, Mark, that's really good. Now can you tell us anything else about Max, his surname, what he looked like. Anything that's going to help us track him down."
"I never knew his surname. My wife..."
"Your wife is fine Mark. She's sleeping in the next room. I need to know about Max so we can find him and make sure he doesn't go after anyone else."
"Trying Pilgrim and Max." Tosh called over to make sure that they knew and it was picked up in the recording.
"He's going." Owen warned them, and Lucy felt the pressure on her grow she had to get more information from the man, specifically something that would lead them to their old colleague.
"Anything else you can tell us about him, anyone you know who can help us find him."
"There was a woman, she knew him better. They were... always talking."
"Brilliant, we'll find her. What was her name Mark?"
"Where's my wife, why isn't she here?"
"Her name, Mark and then you can go to your wife I promise. Just tell me her name."
"Suzie."
Everyone apart from Lucy was in shock and the connection between Gwen and Mark Briscoe that was already failing, died.
"One minute, five seconds." Ianto informed them.
"Jack, did I hear that right?" Tosh called over.
"Could be anyone." Owen said shaking his head. "Must be lots of women called Suzie."
"Not connected to this case." Jack pointed out. "We've been talking to the wrong corpse. Tosh find out everything you can about this Pilgrim group that they all belonged too. Meeting in the board room in an hour. Until then everyone else can... just do your own thing. Gwen you need to eat something." With that Jack left the medbay and walked up to his office.
(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)
Tosh was the last to walk into the board room, she had a file under her arm and placed some papers on the table. The meeting was a couple of hours later than planned as Tosh had struggled to find anything on the group originally and had ended up going back to the Briscoe's house to see if there were any clues held there. The police hadn't been happy about it but as they didn't really have a choice they let her in after a lot of complaining about how Torchwood had caused the couple's deaths and how they were always taking over crime scenes.
"Pilgrim. A religious support group, more like a debating society. Meaning of life, does God exist, all that stuff. The point is, it was tiny, more like a hobby, ran by Mark Briscoe's wife, Sara. She had all that stashed in her wardrobe. Handwritten and photocopied. That's why we couldn't find any records. She isn't even online."
"No mention of Suzie or Max?" Jack asked
"Not a word. She didn't even keep a register."
"It wouldn't be our Suzie, though." Owen said. "She wouldn't go to that support-group bollocks."
"How would you know? I mean were you friends? Any of you?" Gwen asked putting down the piece of paper she was looking at and looking at them instead, silently judging them. "Who was her best friend in this place?"
"She sort of kept herself to herself." Owen replied.
"She had already started getting obsessed by the glove when I joined." Lucy shrugged. "Besides I'm not sure she approved of Jack letting me stay in Torchwood let alone with all of my memories intact. Suzie was a quiet and brooding type, didn't often come out with us and I gave up asking."
"Well if she needed to talk, maybe that's exactly where she'd go. A group of complete strangers." Gwen offered
"Could be." Jack agreed. "You've got a point Gwen. Time we got to know our deceased colleague a little better. Let's go a on a field trip to find out what we can."
They climbed out of the SUV in the pouring rain.
"Have I got this right?" Gwen asked. "When I die you get to keep all my possessions. My whole life's gonna get stashed in a locker?"
"Rules and regulations." Jack replied as he punched in the code for the garage door.
"What if I leave my stuff to Rhys?"
"We'll stash him away too."
"I'm not happy about it either Gwen." Lucy said. "But now's not the time to complain about it."
The garage door lifted and they stared at the piles of boxes inside, this was one job that Jack refused any help for. He was the boss and it was up to him to deal with it, so although they all had previously known about it in theory; actually seeing Suzie's life in boxes was different.
"Tread carefully people, with respect. This is the life of Suzie Costello." Jack said and walked in, the others following him a second later. They walked into different areas pulling down random boxes to try and find any link between Suzie and Pilgrim.
"That's all we are in the end." Tosh said sadly. "A pile of boxes."
"Is her father still alive?" Gwen asked as she looked at some photos.
"Dunno."
"But you must've looked him up to tell him his daughter was dead."
"When Suzie left Torchwood, she was on the run. She wiped all her records. I couldn't retrieve her files. She was good at computers. She was good at everything."
"She was good at murder, too." Owen said. "Laugh a minute that was Suzie."
"What's that?" Gwen asked Jack.
"A book." Lucy replied glancing over, "what does it look like."
"It's Emily Dickinson" Jack said "Poet."
"Jack." Tosh walked over and handed Jack a flyer for Pilgrim. There was no denying it now, Suzie was the link in this case between the small religious group and murders with Torchwood's name painted in blood on the wall. "Pilgrim. She's part of it."
"That proves it then. No choice. It's time Suzie came back."
They quickly left the garage and locked up in silence, remembering Suzie and the feelings of disbelief and horror when they had found out what she had been doing under their noses.
(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)
The all stood in the med bay again, only this time it was more awkward. This time they only Jack and Gwen were actually looking at the body. The others were doing their best to not look at the woman who had once been their friend.
"Do we all get frozen?" Gwen asked, she had been surprised when the only bit of effort needed to get Suzie's body was to go further into the hub and pull it out of storage.
"Rules and regulations." Jack replied
"How long for?"
"Forever."
"Recording." Tosh said
"Have you got your stopwatch?" Owen asked
"Always." Ianto responded pulling it out of his pocket.
"I'll record from my station." Tosh said uncomfortably. "I'm sorry but I don't want to look her in the eye. Sorry." With that she quickly disappeared from the medbay to the safety of her computers and her desk, away from Suzie.
"Anyone else?" Jack asked, and noticed Lucy looking uncomfortable too. "Lucy?"
"No, I mean I'll stay but you don't actually need me here do you? Plus it won't take long for Suzie to realise that I knew about her death, I can't imagine she'll be very happy with me. So, um... I'll just stay at the back with Owen and Ianto looking at the medical equipment." She looked over at Owen who shrugged.
"As long as she doesn't break anything I don't care."
"Ok." Jack agreed.
"Any advice?" Gwen asked as she put the glove on. "Yeah I know. Empathy. Even though she did try to kill me."
"You and me both."
Gwen put her hand to Suzie's forehead, the energy surged and she gasped. Lucy turned away to look at the screen pretending as though she understood what it was telling her.
"Ok we're getting a reading." Owen told the others. "No, it's gone."
Gwen pulled her hand away from Suzie and took some deep breaths.
"Just memories." Gwen said, still out of breath and trying to focus on the real world and not where she had been trying to pull Suzie out of. "Nothing else, she's too far gone."
"What do we do now?" Tosh asked
"Nothing we can do." Jack replied. "That's it, we're out of options."
"There's always the knife." Owen offered. "When she killed all those people she always used the knife. It's made out of the same metal as the glove"
"We've seen it before." Tosh said. "Metallic resonance. Like the glove works better if the knife's part of the process, like closing a circuit."
"Then let's use it." Gwen said stubbornly, determined not to give up on the idea of finding out the information from Suzie herself instead of going the longer way round.
"Minor detail, Suzie's already dead. Does that mean we get to kill her again?" Lucy asked
They all stood in Jack's office in silence a he pulled out the three pronged knife that Suzie had used to kill people with. There was still traces of blood on it.
"Ianto?" Owen asked, looking to see if the archivist could come up with another cool name. There was a short pause while Ianto thought about it before speaking.
"The life knife."
Everyone nodded their approval and then looked at Lucy.
"What! It's a good name..."
"Yeah but last time he came up with a good name you said it sounded sexy." Owen joked back, trying to keep the mood light - it wasn't working.
"No I said his accent was sexy. Ah shitting fucking hell. Can we just go and kill Suzie again and get this over with so I can curl up into a ball and hide until you forget that please!"
"Seeing as none of us are never going to forget what you said, hiding's not an option. But yes, let's get this over and done with." Jack said as he walked out from behind his desk and led them back into the med bay.
Lucy stood at the back with Owen and Ianto again, while Jack stood next to Suzie holding the knife and Gwen stood at her head with the glove on and resting on her forehead. Jack sliced Suzie's arm with the knife, although Suzie had been dead for over 6 months Lucy had still expected to see blood for some reason. It was weird seeing the skin pierced and no red liquid pouring out of it.
"Anything?" He asked Gwen
"No, there was just a sort of spark and then it was gone. I'm sorry, Jack. You're gonna have to do it properly."
Jack looked over at the three of them who all nodded their agreement.
"What the hell." Jack said has he positioned the knife over Suzie's stomach and stabbed down. The effect was instantaneous. Both Gwen and Suzie took a deep breath and Ianto pressed the little button on top of the stop watch.
"Suzie, listen it's me." Jack said as he tried to hold Suzie's body down.
"I've gotta go. I've gotta go." Suzie said panicking
"Just look around you. Look at where you are."
"Can't stay. They know. I've gotta go!"
"Think, try to remember. Suzie! Suzie, look at me!"
"Jack? Oh my god?!" Suzie calmed down enough to realise that she was in the medbay of the hub. "There's a knife in my chest. Did you kill me?"
"You killed yourself, remember?"
"But... oh my God. I shot myself."
"We gotta ask you about Pilgrim."
"No, wait a minute didn't I kill you?"
"Never mind that. We need names and details" Jack replied, he and Gwen were so focuses on Suzie that they didn't notice Ianto, Owen and Lucy all looking up at each other, none of them missing the importance of Suzie remembering that she had shot Jack. Because she hadn't socialised as much with them no one was certain about how much Suzie knew about Jack and his inability to stay dead.
"Whose using the glove?"
"I'm sorry." Gwen replied
"Wouldn't you know it? Gwen bloody Cooper."
Lucy was desperate to point out that Torchwood wouldn't have had a vacancy for Gwen if Suzie hadn't gone on a murder spree and ended up killing herself, but she didn't want the attention to be turned on her.
"Thirty seconds." Ianto warned them
"When you were in Pilgrim, you gave the amnesia pill to a man - Max. Do you remember?"
"What? You brought me all the way back just for Max?" Lucy had to admit Suzie was a good actor, less than a minute after she had been brought back from the dead and she was still able to not give anything away that might implicate herself as being the mastermind behind this.
"We need to find him. Who is he? What's his surname?"
"He was just.. some loser..." Suzie was struggling to stay conscious and they could see the effort it was taking from Gwen to keep her in the same plane of existence as them as well.
"We're losing her." Owen called over.
"Stay here damn you!" Gwen said through gritted teeth.
"Don't force it Gwen." Jack ordered
"She's not getting away this time. Stay here! No!" There was a surge of energy and Gwen fell backwards, her legs no longer able to properly support her, Jack and Owen ran to her side. Whilst Lucy and Ianto stayed where they were keeping an eye on the equipment.
"I told you to stop."
"It's all right, it's all right. I've got her. I've got her. Right. Here we go. Hold on." Owen said as he gave Gwen a quick once over. "Ok, pulse. Yeah, she's all right, we need to get her out of here. Can you come and give me a hand?"
"It's the glove. I told you, they get hooked." Jack said holding the glove angrily, it had already taken away one member of his team and he didn't want it to steal another.
"All right, don't make a fuss. It's over now."
"Um Ianto, I'm not an expert." Lucy whispered to the Welshman. "But these readings mean Suzie isn't dead don't they?"
Ianto took a proper look at the display and nodded, confusion showing over his face before it went back to its normal calm and composed look.
"Excuse me." Ianto said loud enough that Owen and Jack could hear him and not just Lucy. "I'm still counting."
"There's not much point. Suzie's dead." Owen said scathingly only briefly looking up before returning his eyes to Gwen.
"No, according to your equipment, she's just unconscious"
"What the hell's going on?" Jack asked. Owen jumped up from the floor and over the cables to look at the readings himself before acknowledging that Lucy and Ianto weren't reading it incorrectly
"Oh my God. He's right. She's alive. Suzie's still alive. Look at her. She's bloody breathing."
"She can't be." Jack pulled the knife out but it made no change to the readings from the instruments. Suzie Costello was still alive.
"One minute thirty and counting." Ianto said looking at the stop watch.
"Um, her eyes are fluttering and she looks like she could be waking up." Lucy said having a proper look at Suzie before looking back at Owen. "Is it worth giving her something so we have time to work out what the hell to do next. I mean we've accidentally resurrected our ex-colleague, and she was hardly a bundle of laughs when she was alive the first time."
"Good idea. Owen make sure she stays out cold for a while. We need to talk about what to do next." Jack ordered.
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A/N: So we're killing Suzie in two parts and I'll see you for part two next week. Sorry to everyone cause I know I promised you guys that you would find out about Lucy's past this week. I honestly did intend for that to happen then I looked at the dates I had stuck onto each episode and it made more sense for Suzie's ep to happen here cause of the length of time between this part and next weeks one.
But to make up for it next week I'll put up part 2 of this as well as Greeks Baring Gifts. Yup next week will be a two parter because I love you and it's my way of celebrating Valentines day with all of my lovely readers/reviewers
Please review
Rea