Kayla hadn't felt this level of anxiety for Martha since she was on the Valiant. At least this time there wasn't a psychotic Time Lord giving her updates on Martha, but somehow, knowing what Martha was doing was worse than the Master's gloating.

Still, Kayla continued to watch the video feed of Martha. The rest of Torchwood was watching as well, but Kayla didn't pay attention to them until they started to type messages to Martha about how she couldn't lose the guy and she needed to convince them that she was a good fit.

Of course, Martha took that to mean she had to lie, and even though she had to know the lie would be found out, she still told them that she had contracted hepatitis. They jumped to it, offering her a position right away. While the Torchwood team seemed pleased with the results, Kayla couldn't help the concern that coiled in her gut. They had to have known Martha was lying, she was horrible at it, but why did they let her through?

What had they found that Kayla had missed?

Much later that night, Kayla found herself watching the screen with Jack, Owen, and Tosh. Martha had left her room and was wondering through the Pharm; her contact lenses showing them her entire journey from her room to the Administrator's door, which was locked and had a keypad panel.

"Tosh, can you get us past this?" Owen asked.

Tosh rolled her eyes at the suggestion that she couldn't do something as simple as getting past a lock, "Easy peasy. She just needs to get the lenses to within the EPR field," she explained as she typed the same message to Martha. Within seconds, Tosh cracked the lock and typed in the five-digit code.

They watched as Martha quickly slipped into the familiar office. It was creepier at night, though, and the way Martha seemed to shy away from the darker corners told Kayla that she probably felt the same foreboding sense.

Or Martha was just staying from the shadows so that they could see everything.

Tosh got Martha into the computer after a tense moment of deciding whether they had the time – Kayla and Jack firmly said they didn't, but Tosh and Owen seemed to think they did – for Martha to access the computer system. Oddly enough, the debate ended up pointless as there was no login needed.

Inside the system, data after data sprung up on screen. Martha quickly clicked through the information until she paused and clicked on one data point. The one that detailed what the mysterious parasite was.

They had called it the Mayfly, and though they hadn't felt the need to explain the reason for the name, they had explained a lot more. It was lethal, both to its host and to others if it somehow survived past the host – which the notes clearly showed that it had failed to do so.

Gwen called the Mayfly beautiful when she first saw it, and while Kayla somewhat agreed, she also thought that there were more pressing matters than its beauty or lack of it, such as, "Why would anyone need it?"

Nodding at the question, Jack leaned down and typed a quick message to Martha, narrating it as he did so, "Martha, now we've got control, we can download all of this and go through it here. Get out of there pronto."

The screen's view went up and down as Martha nodded and snuck out of the office and back to the hallway. The screen paused, and Kayla cursed under her breath as Martha took in guards running down and clearly giving orders to each other. They would see her if she went up the stairs, so Martha went to the nearest window and climbed out.

Kayla supposed she was lucky that she didn't suffer motion sickness, because watching the camera in Martha's contact lenses was hard enough when she was running without the risk of the Time Lady puking on the keyboard. She turned away to grab a mug of coffee from Ianto before he left with Gwen to get one of the test subjects before she was killed, only to spin around as Owen snapped, "What the hell is she doing?"

Instead of running away from the facility, Martha was following the guards as they were spreading out, as if they were hunting something.

Kayla wished that she was shocked at Martha's behavior, but she couldn't be. A near year of traveling as the Doctor's companion had taught Martha to run headlong into danger if it meant that she could fix a wrong. All Martha knew was that there was something she could do to help, and that was enough for a companion of the Doctor to decide to get involved.

Kayla cursed, far louder this time, as the contact lenses died, showing only static to the very worried Time Lady, Jack, Owen, and Tosh.

"What was that?" Jack asked; the question, though far more vulgar and full of blame, was about to burst out of Kayla as an echo, but she quickly bit her lip as she took in Tosh's determined expression to fix things. Kayla was aware Tosh thought that Martha wanted to be with Owen, but she also knew that Tosh would never put a team member in danger even if she was angry at them.

She couldn't help but feel guilty for suspecting her of anything, and that guilt made her bite her tongue and wait.

"I can't get her back," Tosh finally said with a frustrated huff and a roll away from the keyboard.

Owen turned to Jack, "We have to get her out of there."

"That place is swamped in security. If we try and steam in, we'll be putting her at risk," Tosh pointed out.

Owen shook his head, "We can't just leave her there," he paused as he waited for Jack to answer, but when he didn't, Owen added, "can we?"

In the silence that followed, Tosh suggested slowly, "If I can't get her signal back in thirty minutes, then we think of alternatives."

"Anything could be happening to her in there."

Still not answering, Jack glanced at Kayla, for what the Time Lady didn't know. Both sides of the argument had substance to them, but either way, Martha Jones was in danger. Danger, a snide voice reminded her, that was nothing compared to the Master and the Toclafane hunting her for a year.

"Martha can handle herself. She's been in worse situations than this," Jack said firmly.

Owen stared at Jack and then at Kayla, but when none of them said what they wanted to do, he finally snapped, "You sure about that?" When no one continued to reply, he stormed off to the autopsy area; close enough so that he could still hear them, but far away enough for his action to take hold.

No one went after him, not even Tosh, who instead turned back to her computer and continued to work through the information they had pulled. Jack and Kayla stayed at the dark computer monitor, as if the contact lenses would suddenly reconnect. They only left when Gwen and Ianto dragged in a man Ianto identified as Billy. He was the assassin for the Pharm.

Ianto was set to go down with Jack to interrogate the man, but Kayla quickly offered to do it instead. No one argued with her, and while Kayla may have written off this decision due to the incident with Beth, everyone else was quick to cite the glare she was giving Billy as something they did not want to get in between.

For someone who was usually quiet and quick to draw attention to someone else, Kayla was easily able to demand something and get it. There was just something about her that made the Torchwood team instinctively give her what she wanted.

And what she wanted was to make Billy give up the information so that Kayla could help Martha.

Jack was the one to hold Janet the Weevil. It wasn't a decision he had made vocally, and in all honesty not one he would have made ever, but it went without question that Kayla would interrogate Billy.

So far, it wasn't going too well for the assassin. For someone whose job was to kill people without anyone know they had died of anything but natural causes, Billy was not smart. At all. Any wise man would have confessed when Kayla had shoved him to the ground and then had bent over, still maintaining a position of power while also making sure Billy could see her face.

"Tell me."

Instead of answering, Billy spat in her face, "Get stuffed."

Without speaking, Kayla forcibly sat Billy into a chair and moved to the side. She nodded to Jack, who, at the signal, yanked on Janet's chain to push the Weevil out so that she could run at Billy. Like anyone who had experienced this treatment before, Billy was far too focused on the claws and teeth and snarling to notice that the chain Jack was holding prevented the Weevil from actually clawing him to death.

"Merciful Christ! What the?"

"Have anything to say?"

For a moment it seemed as if Billy hadn't heard Kayla, but then he started to whimper and plead that he would tell them everything. Jack glanced over at Kayla and received a nod in answer. He pulled Janet back and dragged her to her cell while Kayla went back in front of Billy to ask, "Why have you been killing people?"

"I work for the Pharm. They'd been giving people this Reset drug, but there were these side effects. Parasites or something. They were gonna die anyway, so I had to get rid of them before any weird symptoms showed up in public."

Suddenly, Billy groaned and doubled over in his chair, "My stomach."

"What's wrong with it?" Kayla asked. When he didn't answer, Kayla sighed, "If you're not going to tell us then I guess we're just going to go the Pharm with you fronting for us."

"Yeah, yeah. But my stomach! My stomach!"

Very suddenly, and violently, Billy started to shake in his chair and blood started to come from his mouth. Kayla immediately took a step back, but made no move to look away in either disgust or horror. She couldn't help but tilt her head and cross her arms, studying Billy even as Owen sprinted in and started to hastily examine the man.

According to Owen, there was a Mayfly inside of Billy. The Torchwood medic was planning on trying to get it out of him with some sort of alien technology the team had salvaged from the Rift, but Owen's calibrations were a bit off.

"Christ Owen!" Kayla exclaimed in a rare form of shock as Billy's stomach burst apart and the Mayfly fell to the cement floor with a sick splat.

"Oh, my God. Owen, deal with it," Jack ordered with a very large step away from the dead Billy and dead Mayfly, "Still sure you had those calibrations right?"

"I'm sorry, all right?" Owen snapped. With oversized forceps, he carefully picked up the Mayfly, "He must have breathed in larvae when one of his victims died. This could have been me, or Martha."

They were still able to use Billy as a way to get into the Pharm, and while many would object to using a man's corpse as a semi-puppet, Kayla would argue that Billy was an organ donor, so this purpose was somewhat similar. Besides, Tosh of all the employees, had been the one to come up with this idea, so it wasn't like Kayla was to blame.

As soon as they were passed security and in their checkpoint, Jack quickly ordered Tosh, Gwen, and Ianto to check out Zone A while he, Owen, and Kayla went to go save Martha.

The task of saving Martha turned out to be easy thanks to the lack of guards they needed to hide from. Really, all they had to do was take their guns out, kick down the door to the examination room, and shout, "Hands above your head!"

"What the hell have you done to her?" Kayla shouted as she stormed over to Martha. Her former companion was strapped to the bed with her eyes closed, but any illusion of sleep or peacefulness was lost in the sweat that was coating her skin and the way her skin bubbled from the inside.

"Tell me that's not Reset."

"She's survived the larval stage. The only subject ever to do so. It's fascinating. Turns out these bugs practice sibling cannibalism. Only the strongest individual is left now. God knows what happens next," Copley said; the awe in his voice made Kayla feel sick.

"Stop this, or you die," Kayla snapped as she whirled away from Martha and pointed her gun at the man.

"I can't. I don't know how."

Glaring at the man, Kayla made to click off the safety, but then Jack snapped, "We can still use him."

Growling, Kayla kicked Copley instead of killing him and turned back to Martha. She placed a hand on the woman's forehead and winced at the heat that was radiating from her. She didn't need Owen's fearful remark to know that Martha was going to die.

She also didn't need Ianto's remark through the comms. to know the Pharm was a glorified torture facility. If they were willing to kill humans, then of course they would be willing to kill the aliens they saw as less than their own species.

Looking away from Martha, Kayla glanced to Owen to see him struggling with – "Owen! Are you insane?"

From where he had been taunting Copley with the shutdown of his facility, Jack whirled to see the same sight Kayla had – Owen was struggling to set up the alien machine from earlier with the clear intention to use it on Martha.

Before Jack could come up with a suitable protest, Owen started to instruct him and Kayla, "You go there, and you go there."

Exchanging looks of concern, the two still went to opposite sides of Martha and held her still as Owen started to line up the machine.

"What the hell are you doing to her?" Kayla hissed.

"This is the only way we'll save Martha. I think I understand how it works."

"You'd better be sure because it's never worked before," Jack snapped, "Owen, are you sure it's safe?"

"Okay, Jack!"

Glaring at Owen, Kayla moved away from Martha so that she was right next to the medic, "If you kill her, then you're next," she threatened.

Swallowing hard, Owen nodded rapidly and started to work. He paled, even more so when Martha's heart rate started to speed up more and more and Jack shouted, "We're losing her!

But then, just as Owen stepped back to show that he was done, the unnatural pushing from Martha's stomach stopped. Quite suddenly, Martha sat up, breaking the restraints as she did so. As soon as she was fully up, though, she was falling back in a unconscious heap and the heart rate monitor she was connected to started to play the horrible one note.

"Martha!"

Kayla was cupping her face in an instant, hardly aware of her own anguished cry and the tears that were falling down her face. She stared down at her former companion's face urging her to get up, but when she didn't all the Time Lady could do was turn and glare at Owen, "What did you do?!"

The only thing that stopped her from killing Owen was the sound of Martha coughing and the monitor's beeping. Kayla turned away from Owen so she could take Martha's hand and squeezed it.

It was a testimony to how resilient Martha was that she was walking, with the aid of Kayla and Owen, out of the Pharm. Despite her heart stopping a mere thirty minutes or so ago, Martha was still determined to get back on her feet; literally, in this case.

"I am prescribing rest and recuperation for you, madam. And a few days in bed, preferably under my supervision," Owen lightly ordered.

"Owen, I don't know how to break this to you. I've got a fiance."

"Yeah, but has he saved your life like I did?"

"Er, yes, actually."

"I was there," Kayla added, her tone as light as it could be when referring to the events that put Martha's life in danger in the first place.

They were about halfway to the SUV when everything went south. Later, Kayla would admit to hearing a noise behind them, but she had never expected it to be Copley, so she didn't turn around until the man was shouting at them, "Did you really think I was going to let you just walk away? You've ruined everything I've worked for."

It all happened fast, too fast for Kayla to even think about doing something. She saw Copley's gun pointed at Martha, and while she was already moving herself and Martha out of the way, Owen was trying to get Copley to put the gun down.

In a sick way, Copley did put the gun down, but that was only after he had shot Owen in the chest and was about to shoot Martha. By the time Kayla was turning away from the man's body, she knew it would be too late. The shot he had hit Owen with was fatal, and by the time he was on the ground, he was dead.

But Martha's horse, "He's dead," still hit Kayla like a brick.

And now we have the age of Zombie Owen! I really loved this three part saga. It elevated Torchwood from Series 1 and from the first bit of Series 2 as well. Without it, I don't think we would've gotten Children of Earth.

I really love writing Kayla with Martha as well. Honestly, I just really loved this chapter. Everything has really clicked with Kayla in this regeneration at this point. Especially in the stuff I've written for later on. I'm planning on finishing this book over the three day weekend, which is completely insane when I think about it.

And now...review time!

NicoleR85: Thank you so much!

See y'all next week!