Chapter 6: Countrycide
Author's Note: Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that I love you all for leaving reviews and giving me love for the writing! I honestly have so much planned for this story and I am excited that this story is gaining so much interest already in its early stages. I just wanted to leave a trigger warning because this has heavy stuff regarding sexual harassment and violence, and self-harm references. I know, that's something dark to put altogether in one chapter, but it was done, and thus I am warning you all before you delve yourself into the chapter. Otherwise, here is another reminder that I don't own Torchwood. I only own my OCs!
Now, enjoy!
Ianto sneaked a worried glance towards Iris. He remembered how pale her complexion was when she first saw the little blip on her computer. When Jack had returned, he was, luckily for the team, not drunk. Though the Tosh, Owen, and Gwen were still unhappy with Jack and Iris, they still listened in on the information and decided to let it go.
Meanwhile, Iris remembered back on her discussion with Jack. Once the team debriefing was over, she and Jack talked separately while the rest of the team packed for the countryside.
"So, I'm guessing that you know what this case is about then." Jack said as he sat down in his chair.
Iris nodded. Jack noticed her fingers fidgeting, a nervous tick of hers that he had found out from the past few small missions that she was not aware of. When they had taken her to her first weevil hunting, she had displayed this habit of hers. But when she remained silent and looked like she was holding back from telling him about the entire case, Jack said,
"How bad?"
"I was terrified by the episode. It… if I…" Iris began to mutter as she looked up at Jack.
He saw the desperation in her eyes, and he shook his head.
"No. We agreed to not change the major plot line Iris." He said.
Iris shed a tear, which shocked Jack. He hadn't seen her cry, and if she cried now because of this case, it must have really terrified her when she watched this as a show. He got up and hugged her to help her calm down. He realized that she was trembling and breathing ragged breaths to stop herself from breaking down. He rubbed her back while trepidation was settling in for him too.
Iris wanted to beg Jack back then to let her tell him the details, that it didn't need to be them to find out about it. That all they needed to do was inform the police that the neighborhood was killing people for cannibalism. But she also knew in one part of her that it would have changed the plot line entirely for the entire team. And as she sat down next to the team who had graciously accepted her as a friend, she felt tremendous guilt for what they would experience in the next 24 hours.
That was when Owen muttered,
"I hate the countryside. It's dirty, it's unhygienic, and what is that smell?"
"That would be grass." Gwen said as she rolled her eyes.
"It's disgusting." He said in pure hatred.
Ianto noticed Iris looked down, as if she wanted to curl up into a ball at that moment. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, trying to help her in whatever way that he could.
They finally stepped out of the Range Rover when the team saw the food truck.
Jack was briefing the team since Iris did not look like she could cope with the case at the moment. He hadn't seen her this shaken before, and it worried him. He couldn't help notice how she looked like she would fall apart at any moment, but he also noticed how close Ianto was to Iris. And he felt conflicted. He wasn't sure what he was feeling, but he ignored it. He needed to get the case done and over with.
"Seventeen disappearances within the last five months. The police are clueless."
Owen then made a snarky comment clearly to insult Gwen,
"Now there's a surprise. No offence, PC Cooper."
The entire team ignored the insult and Jack continued with, "The last known whereabouts of each one is somewhere around here."
"All within a twenty-mile radius." Tosh commented.
"Anything else linking them?" She asked, looking at Iris for answers.
Sure, she wasn't happy about the last case they had, but she was hoping that Iris had some answers or hints. But she couldn't come to ask her directly as the girl looked not only tired, but terrified of something. It hurt her heart that the girl looked so old and tired compared to everybody else despite being the youngest of the team.
Her attention was brought back to the debrief when Jack cleared his throat and said,
"We don't know that much about it to be certain. And it's increasing in activity all the time."
"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 long up here, I'd want to top myself." Owen groaned.
Then his eyes momentarily widened and he glanced at Iris really quickly, but nobody noticed the man panic for a second because Ianto brought the food from the van.
"Here you go. Careful, they're hot. Sure you don't want anything, Tosh? Iris?"
Iris nodded, still remaining silent, while Tosh said, "Really sure. A friend of mine caught hepatitis off a burger from one of these places."
Iris grimaced while everybody else paused with the burger already in their mouth. Jack carefully set his burger down while the rest of them warily ate theirs as he said,
"We'll start with the most recent victim, Ellie Johnson. We last have record of her making a phone call. She dropped out of signal mid-call. The coverage map has her placed somewhere about here. Looks as good a place as any to set up camp."
Owen's eyes widened in disbelief as he asked, "Sorry, did you say camp?"
The entire team was setting up camp, while Owen quickly was checking up on Iris's condition. Jack had asked him to check her health really quickly because she didn't look good. While he was checking her temperature, he whispered,
"I'm sorry about the comment earlier, with the uh-, topping myself. I didn't mean it."
Iris looked at him as if asking him what he was talking about.
"I didn't notice that you said that… it's fine." Iris said.
Owen sighed in relief. During Iris' first medical, he found out that Iris had cut herself in the past. It wasn't noticeable, but he saw the scars, and noticed how Iris would sometimes rub her wrists while staring into nothing. He didn't tell anybody else, as Iris asked it to remain a secret, but he took it upon himself to look after her. To him, she felt like a sister. Despite the recent incident with the fairies, he cared for her. She was a victim to the Rift, and yet she hid the fact that she suffered everyday with the knowledge that she couldn't see her family ever again. She would smile, make jokes, and laugh with them, despite everything.
He wanted to help her get adjusted as quickly as possible. But it also didn't help with the fact that her headaches were bothering her still.
"How's your headache?" Owen asked.
"I took the medication you gave me, so I should be good for a while." Iris said.
"Does it hurt a lot?" He asked, making sure she wasn't lying to him.
"Not much." Iris said, as her mind wandered. It honestly concerned Jack and Owen that she was suffering from a headache ever since she fell through the Rift. They wondered if this would last for her entire life, but couldn't find the answer to it.
"Alright, let me know if it spikes and hurts, ok?" Owen said, and Iris nodded. They then proceeded to help set up camp.
Owen returned to his normal, angry self when he asked, "What's the matter with a hotel?"
Jack rolled his eyes as Iris grabbed more things from the rover, and responded, "People are going missing round here. Do you really wanna stay in a place run by strangers?"
"Oh, because sleeping outside is going to be a lot safer." Owen said in response.
"No other race in the universe goes camping. Celebrate your own uniqueness." Jack said.
In the meanwhile, once Iris helped hauling all the stuff from the rover, making sure that nothing was left, so that technological things Tosh would need for later would be available, she sat down and just stared into space. Ever since she came here to this universe, she spaced out a lot, as if she needed it to cool her head.
Jack looked at Iris spacing out, and felt concerned. He was about to go to her when he heard Gwen say,
"Oh, come on. It's just a bit of fun. Who was the last person you snogged?"
Owen muttered, "You even sound like an eight-year-old. Who the hell says snog?"
Gwen ignored that and continued with, "Mine was Rhys." Thinking back with happy thoughts about her boyfriend.
"Yeah, well, there's a surprise." He huffed out.
"Tosh, your go." Gwen said.
The woman blushed slightly as she said, "Owen."
The medic looked in shock at Tosh and said, "What?" the same time Gwen said, "Really?"
Owen then followed it up with, "Tosh, love, in your dreams."
He then felt a hand smack the back of his head, and yelled "Ow! Who-" and turned around to see that Iris came back to the group and was the culprit. He just quieted down and rubbed his head as Iris spoke,
"Rude."
"Sorry." He said to Tosh.
The woman looked up in surprise and nodded.
"So, who was yours?" Tosh asked Owen.
Owen quickly looked at Iris, knowing that she knew. He shuddered at the glare she was giving him, and quickly muttered out, "I don't remember…"
Iris rolled her eyes and the team noticed that she was almost acting like her normal self again.
Gwen anxiously let out a small breath of relief while Owen asked, Jack.
"Jack?"
The man looked up and smirked, looking at Iris, who quickly blushed bright red and looked down at the ground. "Are we including non-human lifeforms?"
Everybody groaned except for Iris, who glared at him. When would he stop teasing her like this?
"Oh you haven't" Gwen said in disgust while Owen similarly responded with,
"You're a sick man, Harkness. That is disgusting."
"I never know when he is joking." Gwen said, clearly disturbed by Jack's response. All she could picture was him kissing a weevil, and she shuddered.
Ianto remained silent, not wanting to respond or be part of the game. He missed Lisa, but something in him told him to not say it. It didn't seem right to share his misery and pain. Right now, he couldn't really think about anything else except for how tired and exhausted Iris looked.
Gwen then stood up, knowing that Iris and Ianto wouldn't join in on the conversation, while Owen said, "We should get some firewood"
Gwen then volunteered to help, she wanted to get out of the tense atmosphere that seemed to be emanating from Iris.
But it didn't take too long for the team to see Gwen running down with Owen clearly in shock. Iris looked up at them and followed after them. When they arrived back at the corpse, Iris almost gagged from the stench. But she remembered why this corpse was here, and her legs almost gave out. She remained silent again, unable to feel confident or sure about anything anymore. It was one thing to feel terrified while watching a show, but another to actually live it, not know what could potentially change because she was also there.
Owen analyzed the body, and said, "Well, it's not Ellie Johnson, that's for sure. This is a male, late forties, fifties. Wasn't killed here. No blood splatter or signs of a struggle. Must have been brought here after he died."
"Why do that? It's not like they've tried to bury him here." Gwen said.
"Maybe you disturbed them and they ran away." Tosh suggested, but Ianto shook his head and said,
"Maybe it's a warning. Whoever's responsible marking out their territory."
Jack then asked, "cause of death?" and the medic replied with, "Impossible to say. The body's been stripped of the flesh and bodily organs so what is left is a carcass."
Tosh asked, "Could the Weevils have come out this far?"
Iris shook her head and whispered, "guys… we need to go back now.."
They all looked at her when they heard a car engine start.
"Shit!" Owen said as he sprinted forwards, while the team closely followed him.
When they arrived back at the camp site, Owen yelled out a string of curses, and kicked a rock.
"Why what's wrong?" Jack asked. He hadn't seen Owen get so visibly upset. Normally, if he had forgotten something for the team, he just got pissed off and would try to just get it over with.
"I forgot that I had left Iris' medications in there." He said as he looked guilty about it.
Iris looked at him with shock. She didn't expect him to be so apologetic.
"It's fine Owen. I can-"
"What? Bear it? Iris, that headache is not normal! You shouldn't have to bear it just because! You should be mad at me! I was responsible for you!" Owen said as he grabbed her shoulders.
"Owen. The car wasn't stolen. He just stopped it somewhere a bit from here."
"What?" He asked, and looked at Tosh. But Ianto responded with,
"Actually, Iris is right. It's been stationary for the past four minutes. I'd go so far as to say it was parked."
Gwen looked at the map and said,
"There's a small village in that area. Other than that, nothing for thirty miles."
"Call me suspicious, but this has all the hallmarks of a trap." Tosh said.
"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing. Anyone fancy a walk?" Jack asked, as the team headed for the road.
Ianto headed forward when he noticed Iris was trembling. He went back and grabbed her hand and they walked together.
When they finally arrived at the village, Jack ordered,
"Tosh, Ianto. Follow the signal, find the SUV. Owen, Gwen, Iris, let's see if there's any room at the inn."
Iris quickly spoke out loud, sounding sure for the first time the entire day. "Jack, I'm going to go with Ianto and Tosh. That way, we are even in numbers."
Jack looked at her, then nodded as he said, "Be careful. If anything happens, Ianto, call me."
Ianto nodded and Iris left with Ianto and Tosh.
The trio finally arrived at the village, and split up to cover the ground.
"At least we've got all the stuff. Thank goodness Iris took out everything from the SUV." Tosh said, smiling at Iris.
Iris tried smiling back, which Tosh noticed, but couldn't manage to actually smile. Tosh looked worried, but then they all heard a vixen bark.
"What was that?" Tosh asked.
Iris' face paled a ghostly white, and Ianto quickly grabbed her hand. He noticed that it was so cold, that it felt like he was grabbing a corpse.
"Perhaps it's just a fox. I'll check round the back." He said, and quickly went to check.
Tosh headed another way, while Iris took her gun out immediately and followed Ianto. But as she was rounding around a corner, she heard a twig snap behind her. She quickly turned around and ducked, managing to avoid the man swinging a big object that would have knocked her out if she didn't respond so quickly. She then ran and aimed to shoot, but the man quickly knocked her over. Her body landed against the grass with a thud, and the next thing she saw was the man raise the club and bring it down. The world turned black quickly.
Ianto noticed that Iris was wasn't behind him when he heard Iris groan in pain and a thud of a body falling.
"Iris!" he yelled and quickly ran back the direction he came from, but when he saw Iris' limp body on the floor, something hit the back of his head hard and the world turned black.
When the world came to, Ianto jumped up in shock, and found Iris looking down at him with worry.
"Are you ok?" He asked, and Iris nodded. She pointed to Tosh, telling him that she was there too. Ianto turned back to Iris though, and said,
"Do you know about this? What might happen? Was that why?"
Iris nodded quietly and said,
"I'm so sorry… I wanted to prevent this from happening. But… I… I don't know what would happen if I changed the timelines and all that…."
And for the first time, Ianto saw her cry. He quickly hugged her as she cried in despair and guilt. Ianto wasn't sure how Iris was able to remain so quiet about the events. If it was him, he probably would have spilled it by now, considering what was happening.
Iris had woken up first, and an hour had passed before Ianto woke up. In her own stupid curiosity, she had opened the fridge. She immediately regretted it. She knew what was inside, but she ended up seeing the contents of the fridge in person. The fear was so overwhelming that she thought that she almost had a panic attack. But Ianto groaned at that moment, and she had quickly went by to his side.
While crying in Ianto's arm, Tosh woke up, and looked for her gun.
Ianto then whispered, "You know, I never liked camping. Don't bother. They took the guns."
Tosh then picked up a metal hook, and asked, "Is Iris alright?"
Iris then sniffed and said, "I'm so sorry. I could have stopped this-"
Tosh then realized why Iris had been so quiet and terrified and had followed after them. She quickly hugged Iris and said, "I understand. I regretted leaving you behind after the last case. It's fine. Just tell me that by the end of this, we all are alive."
Iris said, "We all are alive at the end. It's just…"
Tosh shook her head and silenced Iris. She met eye contact with Ianto, and decided to protect her as much as they could.
"Well, charming place they got." Tosh commented, trying to lighten Iris's mood a little bit.
"Chances of rescue?" Ianto asked, leaving out the bad parts.
"We won't need rescuing. I haven't met a cell yet I couldn't get out of." Tosh said confidently.
"What were they?" Ianto asked.
"I don't know It happened too quickly. Are you worried?" Tosh responded.
Then Iris stood up and brushed off the dust off her pants, determined to live through this, and said with growing anger,
"This is strictly human."
Ianto and Tosh looked at Iris with shock.
"What?" Tosh asked.
Iris looked at both of them and said, "It's not alien."
Ianto then looked around and whispered in genuine curiosity.
"Don't you ever wonder how long we can survive before we go mad, or get killed, or lose a loved one?"
Iris looked up at Ianto, while Tosh responded,
"I guess this job is worth the risk to protect people." And as she walked around, she stilled as she asked,
"Is that a shoe?"
Iris looked up, and realized where Tosh was headed and before Tosh could open up the fridge, she blocked Tosh's hand and stood in front of the fridge.
"You don't want to look at what's inside." Iris said with determination.
Ianto and Tosh looked at her in shock. "Iris, what is it? What's in there? Tell us." Ianto said.
"Guys, don't." Iris said,
But Ianto gently pushed Iris out of the way, and Tosh opened the fridge. Both Torchwood agents gasped in horror as they saw what was inside and slammed the door shut.
"That's why there was nothing left on the body. They need to eat. We're food. But why-" Tosh said, when everything clicked in Ianto's head.
"You said this was strictly human." He said in trepidation.
Iris looked at them with guilt, and muttered, "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. If I only was able to stop this from happening…"
Tosh hugged Iris and said, "No. Don't say that. We'll figure something out. Don't worry. You said we live through this, so we will. We can think about what to do. So stop blaming yourself."
Ianto hugged Iris too, and said, "This is never your fault. Even if you weren't here, this would have most likely happened. So don't blame yourself."
Iris nodded and then gathered up whatever scrap of courage was left in her body for the impending terror.
With that, Iris told them what she knew might happen. She figured that since they knew enough now, that it wouldn't hurt as long as they kept most of the details similar to the episode. Ianto and Tosh were initially horrified to know that the entire village was committing these crimes, but quickly stepped into action as they planned on what they would do. They all agreed to have Tosh run away, while Ianto and Iris distracted the people.
That was when the woman came in and Ianto grabbed her.
"Get off. Look at me, you idiot. I'm not gonna hurt you." She said.
Iris felt sick when she saw the woman attempt to look terrified. Instead of fear, anger was starting to boil in, and she no longer shook from fear. It was pure anger. Tosh noticed and quickly interjected with, "Okay, okay, give her some space."
For a moment, Tosh thought Iris would murder the woman in pure anger, and decided to stop her from ruining the timelines.
"Thank you. Were you injured when they took you? Can I see? I'm a nurse. Okay. Okay Does anyone else know you're here? Have you managed to call for help?"
"Nobody know we're here. And as for calling, they took our phones." Iris said, calming down a little bit. She needed to stay focused.
"I can't help you. I'm sorry." The woman said, and Ianto stepped up for his part, saying,
"What d'you mean?"
"I've been sent to collect you. I've got to take you to them." She said.
The tree Torchwood members shared a look, and then Tosh asked,
"Then tell us what's going on. We can help."
The lady shook her had violently and said, "No one's safe? Every ten years, it takes us again."
Iris asked, "What takes you? What is it?" acting as if she didn't know.
"The Harvest. No, please you have to come with me." The woman said.
And with that, they warily went towards the slaughterhouse with the shotgun pointing at each of them in turn as the woman rotated between them.
"In there, please." She said, still keeping up with the act.
The three people remained silent and listened.
"Oh God, that stench." Tosh whispered out.
Ianto gulped in panic and Iris lost all strength in her legs and fell at the sight of the bodies wrapped in plastic wraps, hanging from the hooks.
Ianto quickly helped her up and Tosh looked at the woman warily.
"Tell us what these creatures are. Do they look like us?" She asked.
Then the man called Evan came out and said, "How else are we gonna look?"
Tosh, Ianto, and Iris tensed at his arrival and looked at each other again, making sure the plan was still in motion while Evan and his wife kissed.
"How are they?" Evan asked his wife.
"They're in a good state. I think they're the best we've ever had." Helen, the wife, said.
"Yeah? Oh, I forgot to tell you, we caught the boy. Finally. Come on. Come on." He said, as if he was coaxing the boy, and dragged him near Iris.
"I won't tell anyone" The boy cried out, begging Evan to let him go.
Tosh knelt beside the boy and asked, "Who is he?"
Evan sneered at all of them and said, "He's meat. I'm afraid we're all just meat."
Ianto then knelt beside Tosh, and helped her up, quickly whispering into her ear, "Get ready to run." And separated from her quickly to stand by Iris again.
Iris then commented, "What're you going to do, put us on meat hooks?"
This grabbed Evan's attention away from Ianto and Tosh, who looked at her, worried. Evan then smirked and fetched his baseball bat, quickly returning to cup Iris's cheek with one hand before sliding his fingers down to her breast and grabbing it, while saying,
"No, not yet. You see, meat has to be tenderized first."
Ianto stepped up, anger rising in his eyes as he saw Evan continuously grope Iris's breast while the girl winced, clearly wanting to cry in disgust at the sensation.
Evan looked up at Ianto, and then moved towards him. Ianto quickly smiled and head-butted him while Iris quickly dashed over and knocked Helen over as they both yelled,
"Go! Get the others!"
Tosh bolted out the doors as the two struggled against their captors. Evan quickly knocked Ianto out and Helen was struggling with Iris, the shotgun out of range as Iris had kicked out from her hands. Then Evan pulled Iris off his wife and shoved Iris to the ground. Helen quickly got her shotgun and pointed it at Ianto, stopping Iris from doing anything further. Evan quickly got his machete and went to catch Tosh.
All Iris hoped for was that Tosh get safely out of the woods.
But not long enough, Helen put a rag over Ianto's head and laughed at how miserable Iris looked. She put a gag over Iris's mouth, preventing her from talking too. Iris glared at the woman with all her strength. But at this point, it had been hours since Iris had taken her medication for her headache, and the pain in her head was returning. And the exhaustion was not helping her at all. Her skull felt like something hard was hitting at her skull from the inside. And soon enough, she began sweating in pain.
But as she struggled through her pain, villagers began to file in one-by-one. One man came up to her and looked her up and down, stopping occasionally at the lower part of her body. She grimaced and tried to scoot away from the man, but he lifted her up by her neck, and asked Helen,
"I think I might enjoy myself a bit. Will Evan be ok with that?"
Helen looked at Iris, seeing the pure terror in her eyes, and smirked.
"Go ahead. It seems like Evan will enjoy himself just by catching the other one anyway."
"Excellent" the man said, and dragged Iris to another room. He shoved her to the ground, and straddled on top of her.
Iris tried to scream through her gag and struggled against the man as best as she could. The man quickly slapped her face and said,
"Stay still! Or I will eat your friend over there first!"
Tears freely flowed down from Iris as she stilled at that comment. She closed her eyes and silently cried as she felt the man feeling her all over. She wanted this to end, when she finally heard Gwen's voice.
"Who are these people?"
Helen responded with, "This is our village."
Gwen glared at the woman and said, "The villagers are dead!"
Tosh shook her head and whispered, "They're all involved. They've all been doing it."
Upon hearing their voice, Iris opened her eyes, only to see that the man who had already had his hands inside her shirt and pants, breathe heavily and his eyes darken. She wanted to scream as she realized what he began to do. As the man was taking his belt off, she screamed.
"What the hell was that? Wait, where's Iris?! What the hell are you doing to her?!" Iris heard Owen yell at the villagers.
"A friend is having fun with her." Helen said nonchalantly.
"Only in the countryside, you sick fuckers!" Owen spat out as he struggled to get out of his captor's grasp.
Tosh then proceeded with, "Where's Ianto? What have you done with him?"
Iris struggled further, screaming again, when the man decided that it was enough and punched her in the stomach.
Iris coughed in shock and tried to breathe, as she cried, but the world turned blurry from her tears. And she could no longer focus on what was happening as her headache worsened. She thought she was seeing black spots as she felt the man unbutton her jeans.
Then they heard Evan yell,
"What now? What the fuck?!" and a big crash. The man on top of her immediately stood up and cracked the door open a bit to check the situation out. He cursed out loud, and then forced Iris to stand. Iris felt weak and felt like throwing up and screaming all at the same time, but struggled to stay awake.
Gunshots were heard, and Iris wanted to run, but the man held a knife to her neck before kicking the door open and creeping out.
"Iris!" Tosh called out when she saw the girl.
Panic rose in all the Torchwood member's minds as they saw how horrible Iris looked.
"Let me go. If you don't I will kill her!" The man said.
Jack pointed his gun at the man, clearly angry at the situation that was unfolding before his eyes. He looked at Iris, and noticed that she looked sick, most likely her headache acting up again. But he noticed the bruises on her neck and how she had a split lip. His hands shook as he desperately wanted to shoot the man. But because the man was so focused on Jack, he didn't notice Owen creep up behind him before knocking the man over and grabbing Iris away from him.
Jack quickly shot the man in the leg, and helped Owen with his bonds. The medic then proceeded to help Iris, Tosh, Ianto, and Gwen. And as Jack was about to kill the man who had held Iris, Gwen yelled,
"No! Jack. Don't do it."
"These people don't deserve warnings." Jack spat out.
"Let me question him. I have to understand. I want to know why. Otherwise, this, this is too much." Gwen said, clearly shaken from the entire event.
Tosh helped Ianto stand up after freeing the young boy, and said darkly, "They're injured. They need to get to the hospital."
Gwen looked at Owen and said, "Owen, you control the bleeding and then phone the police. Jack, please give me an hour with him. Don't tell me you don't want to know too."
Owen looked at Iris, who just looked almost dead inside, and went to stop the others' bleeding.
Ianto reached out to help Iris, but she flinched away reflexively. Ianto stopped his hand that had been reaching for her, and brought it back down, clenching it into a fist as he resisted the urge to pummel the man who had traumatized Iris. Meanwhile, Tosh called the police.
Once they all went back to the Hub, Iris immediately went to wash up. While in the shower, she furiously washed her skin to the point that her skin turned red. She wanted to erase all evidence of the incident, but she couldn't help but remember how the man had touched her. She couldn't bear to look in the mirror and see herself anymore.
She broke down and cried. Locking herself in the room in pure despair and self-hatred.
Owen waited by the door to Iris's room in the base. He was worried about Iris taking extreme measures, but didn't want to push her by talking about it. Earlier on the way, Gwen had yelled at Iris in the hospital when Iris followed everybody else to check in on her.
"You knew." Gwen spat at Iris.
Iris froze and looked at Gwen with guilt. She bowed her head and remained silent.
"Gwen…" Jack said, but Gwen glared at him and quickly yelled at Iris.
"You bloody knew about all this and didn't say one word. You could have stopped this. You could have stopped this thing before it turned out like this, but no, you had to make us all traumatized, didn't you?! What are you even good for Iris, when you won't use that knowledge to save anyone from things like this?!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH GWEN!" Jack yelled to the woman.
He quickly suspended Gwen for a week from work, and they all left Gwen's hospital room. After a while, Tosh and Ianto came down with Iris's medications and headed them to Owen. Owen knocked carefully and was surprised that Iris opened the door. He thought that she would scream or tell them to go away, but she just opened the door.
"We… uh.. brought your medicine for you." Owen said.
Iris looked at them and said, "Thank you."
She took the medicine and then proceeded to take it. She set down the water cup after she finished onto her table and then looked at her team members. She gave them a small smile, which broke all their hearts at once.
"I will be fine. Just… just give me a few days…"
They then heard Jack's voice, as he said, "Take as long as you need. And we're sorry about Gwen."
Iris looked up at him, and paused momentarily in shock. His eyes were filled with sorrow and she wasn't sure if she saw something. But she shook her head slightly and said,
"I understand why she said those things. She has every right to say that considering that she got hurt I guess. It just, surprised me back then, that's all."
Owen spoke up then.
"That doesn't give her any reason to be such an arse to you Iris. You need to speak up for yourself. If anything, we are supposed to help you through this. It hasn't been that long since you came through the Rift and yet you try to act strong. That's bullshit. You need to depend on us more Iris. We're here for you."
Iris looked at the people in front of her and she felt something warm in her heart. She felt her heart beat in joy, something that she hadn't truly experienced in years. Despite her building walls for herself earlier and avoiding all human contact, she rushed over to Owen and hugged him tightly.
She then hugged Ianto, Tosh, and Jack. When she reached Jack, she heard him say,
"It's ok to cry. It's ok to lean on us when you need it the most. That's why we're here, just like Owen said."
With that, she finally broke down and cried out loud, something she had not done in the past 13 years.