Affairs of the Heart.

Chapter 36

"What happened yesterday?" Jack asked as he sat at his desk he turning the camera over in his hand.

"I am not sure," Tosh told him truthfully.

"I need answers," he told her.

"What did you see happen?" she asked him.

"I was watching Ianto," he admitted unashamedly. " I glanced down at the chart, when I looked up he was literally frozen on the spot, after a few moments he staggered , dropped the camera, then he caught his balance," he explained.

"Let me show you the data," she advised as she sat at Ianto's desk and pulled up the programme which showed the energy spike. The screen filled with the representation of the henge the sensors showing the exact epicentre of the energy spike.

"As you can see it's not a general burst, it was very specific to the exact location Ianto was standing," she indicated at the screen.

"So what you are telling me is that while Ianto was standing on that spot, there was, what? " He asked then recalled what she had stated the day before , "a micro burst?"

"It was more than that, it was a single extremely powerful focused micro burst of energy," she advised as she looked at Jack.

"Magnetic energy, right?" Jack stated trying to make sense of the information. "That's what the sensors are designed to pick up," as he spoke he saw Tosh shake her head.

"From what I could discern from my scanner yesterday I would have to say no," she replied

"What! But that's the kind of energy signature the sensors are designed to register," Jack stuttered.

"Absolutely, all I can say is there was energy picked up by the sensors, but it was not magnetic," She replied. 'It has a different signature, like colours; for example red and a variation of red could still be called red. The best I could say is that it's close but not the same, variations on a theme."

"Then what?" he asked baffled.

"Jack I have no idea" she replied honestly. Jack sat back in concern and picked up the camera and held it out to Tosh who walked across and took it from him.

"This camera is ruined , you said yesterday every electrical connection had been disrupted. That sounds like a burst of electromagnetic radiation," Jack commented. "Maybe that's what the UNIT satellite picked up: a low energy EMP event," he added.

"This was not an EMP event," Tosh replied emphatically. "If it had been every electrical device within a wide area would have been disrupted."

"You said it was focused. If it was focused then its effects would be restricted." He saw Tosh shake her head as he spoke.

"The burst was focused ,but extremely powerful. I mean if this had been an EMP as focused as this was, I calculated last night that every electrical device with a two kilometre radius would have been affected, including our watches and the car." Jack looked instinctually at his watch and it was still working.

"Secondly," Tosh continued as she took out her scan . "An EMP leaves no residual energy. It occurs, that's it, and it's over. " She put her scanner over the camera and showed the results to Jack.

"See the energy is still there fading away very gradually," she added as Jack looked at her.

"Not just the camera, Ianto as well," she admitted seeing the look of shock on his face.

"What?", he demanded sitting bolt upright.

"I scanned Ianto on the way back, as he was driving, that burst of energy went through him as well".

"Why didn't you tell me this yesterday?" He demanded,

"Well he stalked off and we were focused on the camera, you went to check on him," she took a breath. "You were not in exactly a communicative mood, during the ride back, neither of you said a word, and as I could see he had come to no obvious harm," she took another quick breath. "In truth, I didn't think of it until we were on the ride back. I got to thinking that as he was holding the camera the pulse might have gone through him so I scanned him."

"And?" Jack asked concerned.

"The same energy signature was there dissipating at the same rate as the camera." she replied.

"You know I don't think this has anything to do with the camera," she said thinking out loud.

Jack blinked "What?" he burst out his thoughts focused on Ianto as he thought he should go and check on him.

"You know, something happened in this office the day before yesterday. At the time, I thought nothing of it." Tosh got up and began to pace in an effort to order her thoughts.

"One of the sensors registered a reading. That's right, it was the one he had turned on ,carried around then put on his desk, at the time I thought it just needed calibrating, but I wonder," she said to herself.

"Explain?" he asked not sure what she was talking about.

"I was showing you both the equipment. I turned on the main data collector, then went back to setting up the laptop, to demonstrate how to download the information, when it showed up on the main system there was a anomaly at the time I thought" she said thinking out loud.

Jack interrupted her "In plain English."

"Oh sorry, Ianto was handling one of the sensors and turned it on. When he did it registered the same energy as yesterday. It was at a level the sensor could detect," she said looking at the confused look on Jacks face.

"Has anything strange happened while you've both been at the henge?" she asked him changing the subject.

"Strange in what way?" He asked not sure where she was going with her questions.

"Involving Ianto?" She queried.

"Strange involving Ianto, "he repeated now thoroughly confused. Then he recalled the photographs Ianto had taken on their first visit and how had opened up to him, which considering how reticent he had been up until that point it had been a little unusual.

"Kinda, not really," he struggled to reply. "Nothing I could say for definite".

Tosh raised an eyebrow "Think Jack?" She commanded.

Jack took a breath, "There was a reason why he was taking photographs yesterday , and he was replacing the first set he took on our first visit. He told me he had accidently wiped them and needed to retake them," he explained.

"And that's not true?" Tosh asked as she observed Jack's reluctance in answering her question.

"Not exactly," Jack replied uncomfortably, the photographs were something Ianto would want anyone to know about.

"Anything else?" Tosh asked when she saw Jack was not going to reply.

"He had that accident, and a bad headache the last time," he replied after some thought.

"I wonder if this has happened to him before," Tosh asked thoughtfully as she looked at the concern on Jack face.

"Happened before ," Tosh repeated. "If he has enough residual energy to set off one of the sensors, then maybe I can work backwards using the data from yesterday," he voice trailed off as she stood deep in thought.

Jack watched bemused as she pulled out her lap top and began to do some calculations, about 20 minutes passed as he watched, finally she pulled her computer around.

"Well I've extrapolated backwards using the data from the sensor the day before yesterday and last night and I would say the last time this happened was." She turned the computer screen towards Jack as he took note of the date.

"Was that the date of the visit, when he got the bad headache?" She asked as she saw him nod.

"How bad was it?" she asked him.

"Bad enough he made no protest when I offered to drive him home in his Audi," Jack advised.

"That must have been one hell of a headache." Tosh stated stunned that Ianto had allowed anyone to drive his car.

"Yeah first and last time I'll get to drive it," Jack replied wistfully.

"I think Ianto has been pinged," Tosh stated categorically.

'Pinged." Jack repeated surprised at her statement. "That's not very scientific Tosh."

"Alright then, something, unnamed has directed a powerful extremely, narrow, focused burst of unidentified energy at him," she explained. "As I said pinged and pinged at least twice, maybe every time you visited."

Jack stuttered "Is it dangerous?" He asked as visions of Ianto being hurt came to him.

"I don't think so," Tosh said thoughtfully.

"How can you be sure?" Jack challenged.

"We can't be sure without doing a full work up on him, but if I had to say, I would say no," she postulated.

"Again, how can you be so certain?" he asked.

"Has he come to any harm, as far as you are aware?" Tosh asked. "You spend the most time with him you would know."

"Not on the surface from what I can tell," he added thinking.

"I think it might be a good idea to get Owen up here and check him out just in case," she advised as she saw Jack nod in agreement.

Tosh picked up the camera, " You know the energy disrupted the electrical connections," she said as she saw Jack also making the connection.

"We need to get Owen up here ASAP" Jack stated.

"You know this might not be the first time this has happened" she said quietly thinking.

"You said that he might have been pinged each time we have visited," he said.

"No I meant to others," she said.

"Others, you mean other people who have visited," he said.

"Do you know what I think," Tosh said thinking about the information she had given Ianto when she had visited just after his accident. " I think it's about time we took note of what the local legends and history are around this landmark."

"Do you know what I think?" Jack repeated her statement . "We need to get Ianto in here now."

"Agreed," Tosh replied as she saw Jack pull out his cell phone.

"I need see he's ok and you can also have that word," he indicated to Tosh as he heard Ianto answer his phone.