Title: Tears of the Weevil

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Don't own Torchwood, the characters or anything related to the show.

The room fell deadly silent as the fire alarm stopped and Emmerich dropped the gun to the ground.

"Thank you." Gwen choked out as the agent behind her took his last breath and fell from his chair.

"We need to get to the roof. Owen and Lacey are meeting us up there."

"No Emmerich interrupted. "The fire alarm will have the police on the way. They'll send helicopters. The only way out is underground."

Jack looked sceptically at the woman who had caused the deaths, indirectly or otherwise, of half of his team. "Why should we trust you?"

"Because out of the four of you left only one of you can survive being shot." Emmerich stared him down and eventually he relented.

"I'll go get the others. You hurt her and I'll kill you." He scowled before tossing his Webley to her. "I'll be straight back."

He stepped out the elevator on the floor of the lab when he heard the first approaching sirens. Obviously Owen and Lacey had heard them too. They came running out of the ruined lab and crashed in to him. "Looks like we've got to get to the roof-"

"No." Jack interrupted. "New plan." He led them back in to the lift, not telling them what the new plan was.

"I'm sorry." Gwen looked up as Emmerich started talking. "I made a lot of bad choices. I thought I was doing the right thing. Trying to cure those poor people who had been turned." She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "I just caused them more pain. I was so happy to have a cure that I didn't care that some weren't adjusting to their renewed humanity."

"What changed?" Only two hours earlier her attitude towards the survivors had been impassive and uncaring. Gwen looked at the other woman and noticed that in her panic at being called in to the office she had overlooked Emmerich's appearance. She no longer looked like the hot shot confident entrepreneur. Her eyes were red and framed by heavy shadows and she looked burdened.

"When I made detective I was partnered with Mike Gibson. He was a great cop, family man and all that. He was infected when a Weevil attacked me." Gwen had met Gibson before, he was a good officer. She wasn't surprised by his self-sacrifice for his partner. "I became obsessed with trying to help him. That's how I ended up running this place. He was cured three days ago. He killed himself an hour ago, as well as his wife and kids."

"It wasn't your fault." The words left Gwen's mouth, trying to provide the other woman with comfort, but she wasn't even sure she believed them herself. She could understand why Emmerich had become so determined to rid the world of weevils, but she couldn't forget the suffering she had caused. Before either woman could speak again Jack and the others walked through the door.

"I don't trust her." Owen voiced his opinion loudly as usual, but the sirens were growing louder.

"Duly noted. Now follow her."

Emmerich went to her computer and started entering the security code she needed to access the elevator to the basement. "I've brought the lift online, but there's a problem. I can't override the fire alert protocols. It won't come up past the ground floor."

"Which is currently full of weevils and armed police." Jack pointed to one of the security monitors in the corner of the office.

"I can't control the weevils." Owen warned. "They're pissed and they know they're facing extinction."

"The police will shoot anything that moves." Emmerich added. "It's going to be a free for all down there."