Thank you for your patience. here it is, with next chapter to follow more swiftly. (No promises for the one after that though.)
Ianto
Ianto sat quietly reviewing the details on the scanner. He became absorbed in the data, unaware of his surroundings. Gradually though he grew cold and his bum numb from the hard wood he was sat on. Finally he ran his hand over his face, yawned and stretched. It was twilight, in more romantic times this would have been called the gloaming.
As he came back to himself he realised he was not alone. In a semi circle at his feet were about five of the little blue men. They all stared solemnly at him, legs crossed and arms wrapped around their knees. Not really knowing what to say, Ianto stared back.
A movement from the Oak tree made him look up. The wizened old man walked towards the group.
He stopped at the back of the five blue men and sighed. "I'm sorry Ianto, about your friend, about the confusion. I thought you remembered more than you do."
Ianto swallowed, "I know nothing. Not about you, or what I am, what happened to Susie"
All the blue men changed position at once, kneeling up and tilting their heads to the right, as though listening. The wizened man spoke again. "She is just waking up. She will be well. We intended to scare her, but did not take account of her congenital heart problem. However it is now taken care of."
"How do you know she is alright?"
The blue men positively smirked. "We know!" They chorused. It was highly creepy.
"She is involved in research that has serious consequences for mankind, energies that should be left alone. She thinks that you may be a channel for those energies and has been directing her own energy towards finding out about you," said Wizened man. Ianto thought he must find out his name soon.
"All of Torchwood has been directing their energy to finding out about me, including me." Ianto was not sure he sounded very coherent.
The wizened man nodded. "Yes, but of these energies we know. Jack of the endless energy, who matches you, Owen of the healing energy that enhances, Toshiko of cerebral energy that understands and Ianto of the humankind, who balances. Susie lacks energy and is the seeker. She needs direction to find her way, or she will dissipate and be lost."
"You know that makes no sense whatsoever" said Ianto
The blue men sank down on their heels and looked down at the ground. "Oh."
Wizened man looked thoughtful. "It is enough to know that you need to keep an eye on her. The rest you will figure out on your own I think. How are you and Jack getting along?"
Ianto thought he saw a twinkle in the man's eye. "We were doing OK until Susie, now he wants nothing to do with me."
"Yes he always is a bit impetuous, that's why he matches you."
Ianto felt exasperated. "For goodness sake, could you stop talking in riddles and give me a direct answer please!"
The blue men stood up, crossing their hands in front of their crotches, for all the world like the defence in a soccer team waiting for a free kick. They walked backwards, and the group slowly dissipated, leaving Ianto alone in the clearing.
Ianto stood in frustration and swore. A distant voice chided him for his language.
TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWT
Jack returned to the hospital first thing in the morning to find Susie sat up in bed eating a rather sorry looking cooked breakfast, on the locker next to her was a small cup of tea. The woman in the bed next to her was calling continuously in a childish tone for "Brenda". Her tray was out of reach and the tea had spilt down her nightie.
"Jack! Thank God, could you get me out of here? They say I have to wait for the medics to give me the all clear, but that woman is driving us all nuts! She hit one of the nurses earlier and she's been screaming all bloody night!"
Jack opened his mouth, but nothing really came out. He was a little shocked by Susie's attitude, but gave her the benefit of the doubt; after all she had a really close call yesterday and was probably still a little the worse for it. "Right I'll just check with the nurses." He did so, but also checked on the status of the woman in the next bed, turned out she had Alzheimer's and had been admitted with an acute delirium due to dehydration and renal failure. Medication might calm her down, but might also bring on a stroke, at the least take her off her feet so all they could do was manage her symptoms, and wait. No one had the least idea who Brenda was. Jack longed for the genetic changes that would eliminate dementia for good.
As Susie got dressed Jack sat with the woman, holding her hand and encouraging her to drink. He had told the nurses who Brenda was. Jack had recognised Nancy from many years before. Brenda had been her partner, but Nancy's family refused to acknowledge the relationship and prevented Brenda from visiting. Jack resolved to try and fix the situation.
TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWT
Ianto pocketed the PDA and ran back up to the entrance to the nature reserve. The air forcing its way into his lungs felt good, the slight muscle burn reminding him that he was still alive, and as he ran the scent of the woodland lifted his spirits. Even if Jack rejected him he felt sure that a new door would open for him somewhere.
As he reached the edge of the nature reserve a small red sports car drove up in a spurt of gravel and Owen got out and leant against the bonnet to wait for Ianto to come up to him.
"Nice wheels" remarked Ianto with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, well, I thought you might need a lift back, seeing as how Jack was a bit of a prat yesterday."
"Yesterday? I've been out here all night?" Ianto walked around to the passenger side of the Austin Healey Sprite.
"Uh huh. You want to know how Susie is?" Owen got back in the car.
"According to the occupants of the woodland she's fine. Is it true?"
Owen looked sideways at Ianto as he turned the ignition key. He nodded slowly. "Yep, Jack's picking her up as we speak. Your playmates tell you anything else useful?"
"Mostly a load of enigmatic crap, they were out to scare Susie, but didn't mean to hurt her. They reckon she's doing some dangerous research and wants to involve me in it. They appear to have downloaded a lot of data onto the PDA. You can take it into the Hub and look at it." Ianto pulled the PDA out of his pocket and held it on his lap.
An hour later they arrived back at the Hub. The cog door rolled back to a fanfare of klaxons, and Jack looked up from where he was leant over Toshiko's shoulder. He lifted his chin at Ianto, and returned to his perusal of the monitor in front of him. Ianto decided that this meant he could stay and he followed Owen over to his work station. They downloaded the data from the PDA and Ianto went to make coffee. As he returned he found Jack now leaning over Owen's shoulder, looking at the information Ianto had been given in the nature reserve. He was giving Owen about the same amount of personal space as he had given Toshiko. That is to say, none at all. Toshiko was settling in on the other side of Owen. Ianto cleared his throat and the three of them looked at him. Toshiko smiled warmly and took her bone china mug; Owen nodded and accepted his Simpson's alien mug, whilst Jack leered his thanks for the blue and white striped pint mug.
"How's Susie? Ianto asked warily. Jack looked over at him. "Fine, back home getting some sleep. Seems she had a congenital defect that could have killed her any time. In fact it seems your playmates actually saved her life. I guess we were lucky it happened where it did." He turned back to the monitor, "Tosh, what's this algorithm here? It doesn't seem to fit with any of the other data."
Owen spoke, "bloody hell, none of it makes sense to me. I think I'll leave you two to it." Owen backed out from under Jack's pointing arm. He winked at Ianto and headed to the medical bay. Ianto moved in next to Jack, who immediately pushed him down onto Owen's vacated seat and leant in over his shoulder. Ianto realised why Owen had moved, it was hard to think with Jack so close, and he smelt just gorgeous. Never the less he found his voice and told Jack and Toshiko what he had been told by the Wizended Man. Ianto realised he was giving his name capital letters.
"Ah, yes, that makes sense." Toshiko spoke quietly and tapped a few keys, "these are describing differing types of energy. I need to do a bit more work, but I think I can make them mean something." She became absorbed in the data. Jack tapped Ianto on the arm and tilted his head to indicate they should leave her to it. "We need to get you sorted with a workstation and equipment. I think we could set you up something over here." He walked over to a dingy but empty corner of the hub, the noise from the fountain was audible, but Ianto was grateful to note the corner was dry. As they were hauling a spare desk into place an alarm went off. Jack looked over to Toshiko's desk to see the signal designating a weevil above ground and in a public car park. He grinned at Ianto "So, how about a Baptism of fire? Just you me and an evil weevil?"
Ianto nodded once. This was something real, something he understood, and could get his teeth into.
If I had been a boy I was going to be called Austin Healey. I was given Scottish names instead, despite being born in the capital of England, to Londoners. Parent's are great aren't they?