Hi! I hope everyone had a wicked Christmas, here we are with chapter one of Countrycide. I've kind of had an idea of how I wanted this episode to go from the beginning in regards to adding Rose and how I was going to change things to incorporate her. I hope you like where it's heading and if you don't please feel free to let me know, I'm always open for suggestions and new ideas. Would like to have this episode completed by New Years and I will try. This story has a few followers now and I would love to hear what you guys think of what I have so far, anything you like/don't like or anything you'd like to see if future chapters would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Chapter 19

Countrycide Part 1

00Having grown up in London, Rose had always loved the countryside. She enjoyed the peace and quiet that couldn't be found in a busy city, and despite her mum never being much of an outdoorsy person, she had humoured Rose on occasion when she was a kid and taken her camping. This trip however didn't bring her the usual joy she got from leaving the city, they were here on official business to investigate a string of disappearances within a short space of time.

Jack parked the suv beside a long stretch of road nearby to where the young woman had gone missing and everybody got out. Ianto was grabbing them all burgers from a food van nearby and Owen was observing their surroundings with distaste whilst the others looked over a map to see how far away they were from the areas in which the victims had last been seen.

"I hate the countryside, it's dirty, it's unhygienic, and what is that smell?" Owen asked with a frown, folding his arms and looking back to the others.

"That would be grass." Rose told him.

"It's disgusting." He replied and she rolled her eyes at his childish demeanour.

"Seventeen disappearances in the last five months, the police are clueless." Jack said looking up from the map.

"Well there's a surprise, no offence PC Cooper." Owen chimed in, holding up his hands in defence as he looked at Gwen with a smirk.

Gwen returned the smirk and then looked back at the map as Jack pointed out the area in which all of the victims had last been seen.

"All within a twenty mile radius." Tosh noted.

"Anything else linking them?" Rose asked and Jack shook his head.

"None of the bodies have ever been found, these people just fell off the radar, no patterns in age, sex or race, one minute they're here and the next they're gone." He explained.

"Could the rift spread out this far?" Gwen asked.

"We don't know enough about it to be certain, it's increasing in activity all the time." He told her with a shrug.

"Oh come on, aliens aren't gonna bother hanging around out here, probably some sort of weird suicide club with people choosing the same spot to end it all, god knows if I had to spend too much time out here I'd wanna top myself." Owen exclaimed, throwing his arms out and gesturing to their surroundings to make a point.

"Laugh a minute you are." Rose told him sarcastically.

Ianto wondered back over from the van with several burgers in hand, he handed one out to everyone apart from Tosh who claimed she wasn't hungry.

"You sure you don't want anything Tosh?" He asked before taking a bite out of his own burger.

"Really sure, a friend of mine caught hepatitis off a burger from one of these places" Tosh explained with a shrug.

Rose looked down at her burger with a frown, she contemplated taking a bite despite what Tosh had told them but decided against it just in case. She sighed and set it aside on the bonnet, next to Jack's discarded burger.

"Lets start with the most recent victim, Ellie Johnson, we last have record of her making a phone call, it dropped out of signal mid call somewhere around here." Jack said, pointing to an area on the map.

"Looks a good a place as any to set up camp." He then added with a shrug.

"Sorry, did you say camp?" Owen called out.

"Lets go." Jack told them, glancing at Owen with a smile before folding up the map and making his way around the vehicle to the drivers side.

Rose grabbed hers and Jack's discarded food and threw it in the trash bin next to the food van before piling into the suv with the others.

They weren't far from the area and once they arrived quick work was made with assembling the tents so they would have a base before it got dark.

"What's wrong with a hotel?" Owen griped as he and Jack carried another bag of tent equipment from the suv.

"People are going missing around here, do you really wanna stay in a place run by strangers?" Jack asked him.

"Because sleeping outside is gonna be a lot safer." He replied sarcastically.

"No other race in the universe goes camping, celebrate your own uniqueness." Jack told him, releasing his grip on his side of the bag before heading back over to the suv to grab more supplies.

Everyone else had assisted in getting their tents up and were setting up the equipment they would need for their stay whilst Owen still struggled with his own tent.

"Pieces are missing!" He called out as he spread out the content of the bag.

"Nope, I checked." Ianto shot back.

Owen continued to make little progress with his tent, spending more time complaining than actually assembling so Gwen decided to try and lighten the mood.

"It's just a bit of fun, who was the last person you snogged?" She asked him.

"You even sound like an eight year old, who the hell says snog?" He replied with an eye roll.

"Mine was Rhys." She continued with a smile.

"There's a surprise." Rose chimed in with a breath of a laugh.

"Your go Tosh." Gwen told her friend.

"It's easy for you." Tosh replied, slightly embarrassed.

"Come on, spill the beans." Gwen pressed.

"Owen." She said after a moment.

Rose looked at Tosh in surprise before glancing over at Owen who seemed equally as shocked by her answer.

"In your dreams Tosh." Owen told her, sitting down on a stack of empty crates.

"Three am, Christmas Eve in front of the Millennium Centre, waiting for a cab, I had mistletoe." She explained with a small smile.

"You haven't had a snog since Christmas?" He asked with a frown and she shook her head.

"Well, lucky me." He added.

"Who was yours?" Tosh asked him.

Owen smirked at the question, glancing over at Rose it took her a moment to catch his gaze and her face fell as she realised what he was about to reveal to the others.

"Rose." He told them.

"When was this?" Tosh asked in surprise, a hint of jealousy unmissable in her tone.

"It's complicated." Rose said quietly, she knew her actions would come back to haunt her eventually and she wanted nothing more than for the ground to swallow her so she didn't have to deal with it right now.

"So, was it just a kiss or?" Tosh continued and Rose sighed, glancing back at Owen she met his shit eating grin with a glare.

"Just leave it Tosh." She told her, looking at her colleague with a tight smile.

"Jack?" Owen called out as he came to sit beside them.

"Are we including non human life forms?" He asked with a smirk.

"You're a sick man Harkness, that's disgusting." Owen told him with a frown.

"I never know when he's joking." Gwen thought allowed and Jack only chuckled in response.

"My turn is it?" Ianto called out after a moment.

"It was Lisa." He continued.

An awkward silence took over for a few moments, no one could meet Ianto's eye and they didn't know what they could say in order to relieve the sudden tension.

"Ianto I'm sorry." Gwen said, breaking the silence and looking over at him apologetically.

"Sorry you mentioned it or sorry she's dead?" He asked her, his question only making things more tense within the group.

Rose couldn't imagine how he must be feeling but she did know how the others had all felt after being put through the ordeal involving his girlfriend because of him. He had been lucky to have been kept around after what he had done and she refused to continue to feel guilty for the actions they had been forced to take.

"We should get some firewood." Rose announced.

"I'll give you a hand." Jack told her and she nodded.

The pair stood and headed off into the woods nearby, Rose knew something was coming so she remained silent as they wondered through the wooded area and waited.

"So, you and Owen.." Jack said casually.

There it was.

Rose sighed, she knew that she didn't really owe anyone an explanation as to what she and Owen did or didn't do and she made a mental note to rip the arrogant prick a new one when they got back for making people assume there was anything going on in the first place. Despite that however, she didn't want Jack of all people thinking she had a thing going with anyone, whether that be Owen or anybody else.

"There's no me and Owen." She told him bluntly.

"Sure about that?" He asked her, an eyebrow raised curiously.

Jack had been surprised when Owen had revealed he and Rose had shared a kiss, but he was even more surprised by how much it bothered him. He and Rose were close and had even shared a few kisses of their own back in the day but they had never been anything official. He was being selfish, he of all people had no right to question Rose's choices considering his reputation.

"Why? Are you jealous?" Rose shot back, looking at him with an amused smile. She had a feeling he was only trying to get a rise out of her with his questioning, and if that was the case then she'd give back as good as he gave.

"Should I be?" He asked, a smirk crossing his lips as he awaited her answer.

She considered her response for a few moments, the kiss she shared with Owen had happened because he thought they were about to die and up until that day they hadn't even spoken about it nor felt the need to do it again. Although it'd been a long time since she and Jack had been anything other than friends she couldn't deny that the thought had crossed her mind on more than one occasion since she had returned and she often found herself wondering if he still harboured any of the feelings he had for her back then too.

"He's not you." She told him.

Neither was sure who made the first move but they weren't about to complain, Jack had one hand in Rose's hair and the other around her waist whilst both of hers were gripping the lapels on his coat as they shared a kiss that they both felt was way overdue. Rose smirked against his lips as her back hit a nearby tree, her hands slipped beneath his coat and gripped his waist attempting to pull him even closer if it were possible.

The snapping of a branch nearby caused them to part, Rose looked past Jack in the direction it had come from and saw a hooded figure watching them a short distance away.

"Someone's watching us, through the trees, fifty yards north." She whispered, panic in her tone as she glanced over again to find the figure still looking over at them.

"You got your gun?" He asked in a whispered tone and she nodded.

"You go to the left, I'll go right." He told her.

"Three, two, one."

He counted them down and they quickly parted, heading off in separate directions with their guns drawn. Rose scanned the area that she had originally seen the figure but could no longer see them and there was no way of knowing which direction they had taken. She whipped around at the sound of someone approaching from behind and was met with Jack, they both lowered their guns as they realised whoever had been lurking had since left.

"Damnit." Jack muttered as he holstered his pistol.

Rose was about to put her own gun away when she caught sight of something behind Jack, there was a mound being covered by some sort of sheet a short distance away. She instinctively raised her gun and Jack did the same once he saw the look on her face, turning to see what it was she was looking at he frowned and slowly made his way over.

She kept her gun drawn as Jack kneeled down beside the sheet covered mound, standing behind him she watched as he grabbed a nearby stick and carefully moved the sheet to reveal what was underneath.

They both stumbled back in shock as they were met with a body completely stripped of flesh, Rose covered her mouth with her hand and turned away from the body whilst Jack used his earpiece to get in touch with the others.

"It's not Ellie Johnson that's for sure." Owen told them, looking up from where he was crouched next to the remains.

"This is a male in his late forties, early fifties, wasn't killed here either, no blood spatter or signs of a struggle, must have been brought here after he died" He continued.

"Why do that? It's not like they tried to bury him." Rose said with a sigh, she had seen a lot of things in her time but the image of the body would be burned into her memory for a long time.

"Maybe you disturbed them and they ran away?" Tosh suggested and Rose wasn't sure if she was imagining the slight edge in her tone as she spoke.

"Maybe it was a warning, whoever was responsible marking their territory." Ianto chimed in next whilst cordoning off the area with police tape.

"Do we have a cause of death?" Jack asked, kneeling down beside the body and opposite Owen who was examining what was left of it.

"Impossible to say, bodies been stripped of the flesh and organs so all we have left in the carcass." Owen explained.

"Could the weevils make it out this far?" Tosh wondered allowed and Jack shook his head.

"Weevils don't finish off their victims like this." He told her.

They were all silent for a moment, trying to understand what creature could have done this much damage to a person. The silence was broken by the sound of an engine being started up, a sound they all recognised.

"Is that ours?" Gwen asked suddenly.

"Yep." Jack told her, standing quickly and taking off back to where they had left the suv.

The others followed after Jack and made it back to their camping area in time to find someone driving their suv through their makeshift camp, destroying their tents and equipment before taking off at speed.

"What genius left the keys inside?" Rose asked, glancing at each of the others in turn and being hardly surprised when Owen looked back at her sheepishly.

"Seriously Owen!" She shouted over to him as she and the others began assessing the damage caused to their tents.

"Look I'm sorry." He told her and she rolled her eyes.

"Basic security protocols Owen." Tosh chimed in as she began gathering the pieces left behind.

"Get off your high horse Tosh, I was carrying that stupid gear." He shot back.

"The entire time?" Rose added.

"And then I was trying to put that stupid tent up, and then, yeah ok I sort of forgot I left the keys in there." He admitted.

"I'm sorry, I'm human, I ballsed up." He continued, holding his hands up in defence.

"Looks like that body wasn't a warning, more of a decoy." Jack told them.

"But that would mean we've been watched since we arrived." Rose concluded, a hint of panic in her tone.

"Tosh, can you get a tracking signal?" Jack asked but Ianto held up a device in response which stopped Tosh in her tracks.

"Already done, I took the liberty, it's currently three point four miles west from here." Ianto told his boss.

"Gunning at ninety no doubt, you steal a piece of equipment like that, you drive straight on until morning." Owen guessed, making his way over to them as he spoke.

"Actually no, it's been stationary for the past four minutes, I would go as far as to say it was parked." Ianto explained.

Rose picked up a map that had been luckily left behind and tried to pinpoint the location the suv had been taken.

"There's a small village in that area, other than that, nothing for thirty miles." She explained, running a hand through her hair as the wind began to pick up.

"Call me suspicious, but this has all the hallmarks of a trap." Tosh chimed in and Jack nodded.

"I was just thinking the same thing, anyone fancy a walk?" He asked them with a smile.

He began walking west and after a moment of hesitation the others followed after him.