Chapter Seven

****August 13th 2007****

Once they got back to the hub Jack started plotting a course on the glass map using the data points, I had given him. Owen was looking into the gas traces we had found at the crash site and the night club. Tosh was using the CCTV to try and identify the girl while I was looking into the Torchwood and UNIT databases to see if a similar alien life form had been found before. Gwen was leaning against the doorframe, watching Jack.

"So, what's this supposed to do?" Gwen asked nodding to the map.

"I'm using satellite tracking data to determine the inward trajectory of the meteorite." Jack responded, not looking away from the file Raven had given him with the satellite data and the glass map.

"He means he's trying to find out where it came from." Tosh translated.

"Hey! Sometimes a little technobabble is good for the soul." Jack said pointing his green laser pen at Tosh in an offended manner.

"So, this is a route planner." Gwen said, trying to feel included.

"Not far off." Tosh responded.

"Rhys, my boyfriend, is a transport manager. He does this sort of stuff. On a slightly smaller scale, though." Gwen informed them.

"You have found your soul-mark?" Tosh questioned, making the inference since most people who were dating at Gwen's stage in life were with their soul-mark.

"Yeah. Have you?" Gwen asked looking around the room with a frown.

Normally people would have found their soul-mark by the time they were twenty, twenty-five at the latest. Since Owen, Tosh and Jack were above that boundary they would have normally have found their soul mate. Only Ianto and I were young enough to be classed as normal to have not found ours, although Ianto was getting close to the boundary since he was twenty-three.

"I don't have time with this job." Tosh responded, her eyes briefly flickering to Owen.

"What about you? You seeing anyone?" Gwen turned to Owen.

"You've gotta be joking." Owen said, refusing to look at Tosh. "I can get all the grief I need here."

"Raven what about you?" she asked turning to where I was sat.

"Nope." I answered happily. "Never had a boyfriend before, either. Quite happy not having one until I find my soul-mate." I responded. Considering the fact that my soul mark was in a language not of earth (something I had concluded when I found out aliens were real) there was a very slim chance of me actually finding my soul mark. And if I did, I was likely to only come across them while working with torchwood since humans didn't really interact with aliens on a daily basis otherwise.

"None of you have partners?" Gwen said in disbelief.

"Just you, newbie." Owen responded, looking down at the clipboard he was holding.

"I'm not being rude or anything." Jack finally turned around from his planner so that he could observe Gwen as she continued talking. "Well, maybe I am, but, how do you switch off from all this stuff? What do you do to relax?"

"I torture people in happy relationships." Owen responded to break the tension that had surrounded the group.

"Gas traces confirmed as Vorax and Suranium." Tosh suddenly said, turning to Owen who had started the scan.

"Great. My two favourite gases. Can we do a check and find out what we know about them?" Jack asked.

"I'm all over it." Owen promised moving to his own desk.

"Jack, I've searched all the data bases I could get to. Nothing similar has ever been reported on earth." I told him.

"Right. It was to be expected, we rarely come across something we've seen before outside of Weevils." Jack responded moving to Tosh's work station to see what progress she had made.

"What's this doing?" Gwen asked, also walking over to see what had caught Jack's attention.

"I've taken an image of the girl from the CCTV footage. This cross-checks her face with the UK population." Tosh explained.

"You can't have every face in the UK on there. That would be against civil liberties, data protection, all that stuff." Gwen responded offended.

"Still doing that you instead of we thing." Jack said casually.

"Damn. A hundred and nineteen suspects? This thing's supposed to give us a single clear match." Owen said, whistling as her results came up on screen.

"The CCTV was too low res. I've tried magnifying and augmenting but it just breaks up. Which means, the software can't function properly." Tosh defended her program.

"It's narrowed the numbers down. I could check through the rest. You know, the old-fashioned way. With my eyes." Ianto offered having appeared with coffees for everyone. I laughed lightly and accepted my coffee with a smile of thanks.

"What about the fingerprints I took off the alley wall?" Gwen asked. Tosh typed quickly on her computer, cross-referencing the names she had with the finger prints that had been scanned on her system. It came up with a negative.

"It was a long shot, anyway." Gwen said, trying to hide her disappointment.

"Just a bit." Owen agreed.

"At least I'm trying to do something." Gwen snapped back.

"No, you're trying anything." Owen cut her down.

"The CCTV must have picked up her arrival at the club. Tosh, can you reformat the image recognition software to trace her journey backwards via street camera network?" Jack asked, cutting the argument off. He was starting to think that Owen and Gwen were worse than Owen and Susie ever were.

"I'll have a go, but it'll take a while to process. Every possible turn on every street corner means hundreds and thousands of probabilities." Tosh responded.

"I'll help. Take half the routes. We could also use it to cross of some of the names by cross-referencing the origin point with their home and work addresses." I said bringing up the face recognition software and a map of Cardiff.

"Take the east rout from the club, I'll take the south." Tosh agreed, pleased that someone could help her.

Between Tosh and me, it had taken thirty minutes to narrow the list of suspects down to Carys. Ianto had given them five names of possible suspects, which helped speed up the process. With that information they confirmed her home address and headed out to get her. As a protective measure they were wearing full body suits and gasmasks.

"What's going on?" The postman Carys had pinned to the sofa demanded.

"Put your trousers on and get out. Now!" Jack ordered. The postman stumbled to his feet and fled the room. "It always breaks my heart to say those words."

"How many times have you actually said those words without being the one to remove the trousers to begin with?" I asked. Jack just smirked over at me. Despite our conversation, neither of us lowered our guns or took the majority of our attention from Carys. What Carys didn't know was that I wasn't a threat because my gun was still on safety (just like Gwen's) since I hadn't had the training yet.

"Air quality's okay." Tosh informed them. With the all clear we pulled off our gas masks. Seeing the opportunity, Carys dodged past Gwen and made a break for the front door.

"Gwen, look out!" Jack called, not wanting to shoot the 'innocent' girl in the back.

Before Carys could make it out of the house a device landed in front of Carys, which activated an energy cylinder, trapping her inside. Jack glared up at Owen who was positioned on the stairs, not pleased that alien technology had been taken out without his permission (especially when he had only reinforced that rule the day before!).

"What's that?" Gwen asked.

"It's a sort of inflatable cell. Power runs down after an hour, though. The battery life's bollocks." Owen responded, avoiding looking to Jack.

"Who said you could use that?" Jack demanded, lifting his arm so that he could type something into his wrist strap.

"Er, I just stopped a prisoner escaping." Owen said, not mentioning why he had taken the cell out.

"You know the rules. None of that stuff leaves the building without my express permission." Jack reminded him, not impressed. He was quite lenient on his rules, but after Susie he wasn't going to allow alien tech out of the hub without his permission.

"Fine. Don't thank me." Owen muttered as Jack deactivated the cell.

"Come with us." Gwen said, grabbing Cary's arm and leading her off to get changed before taking her back to the hub.

"See what you can find out from her." Jack ordered Gwen as they entered the base. The ride back had been silent and uncomfortable as Carys had stared at them in fear.

"But aren't you going to help me? I don't know what I'm doing." Gwen asked.

"Usually better if you don't say that in front of the prisoner." Jack advised. "Raven." He motioned for me to follow him.

He led me down to the firing range. It was a darkened room, about fifty feet long and thirty wide. It was starkly illuminated by strip lights suspended from an arched ceiling of old red brick (much like the walls of the rest of the hub). A flat counter ran across the room at waist height, ten feet from the nearest wall. Partitions divided the bench into sections, which I guessed the Torchwood Team would use for their firearms training. The other side of the room was empty. Two far walls contained a set of Weevil shaped targets, some singed lightly from previous use.

Jack pressed a button on the wall which caused more Weevil targets to appear before he brought me over to the bench which had several different types of guns laid out. I recognised the revolver, pistol and a shotgun. However, there were a couple of other makes I didn't recognise.

"You need to know how to use these. Though I hope you never have to." Jack said solemnly, handing me a pair of glasses and earphones.

"Right." I sighed, putting the protective gear on. "How do I load it?" I asked stepping up to the first gun.

Jack demonstrated how to load the revolver and remove the safety before unloading the gun and handing it to me to try. I was slower than Jack, but I was still able to load the eight rounds relatively quickly and without dropping a single bullet.

"Good." Jack complemented.

"One hand or two?" I asked.

"One." Jack responded, pleased that I knew there was a different grip for each gun. Owen and Tosh hadn't known the difference and it took a while to break them out of the TV induced habits.

Lifting the gun I pointed it down the range, it was awkward in my hands but Jack nodded in approval at my grip so I assumed that I was doing something right.

"Turn sideways to the target. Looking along your shoulder, down your arm, straight line to the targets." Jack said stepping forward and physically adjusting my stances. I stiffened at how close he was, but I forcible relaxed slightly since tensing could cause damage from the recall (basic physics). "Hold it firmly. Don't grip it. Breathe in. Focus. Breathe out. Squeeze gently."

Following Jack's instructions, I breathed out as I squeezed the trigger. Since Jack's hand was supporting my hand, my aim was steady and I hit the Weevil shaped target were the heart would be (assuming the Weevil physiology was similar to a humans).

"That was…" I trailed off as Jack stepped back. For some reason without his closeness I almost felt empty.

"That was a joint effort." Jack said with a smirk. "Try it again. This time on your own, and remember, breathe in, fire while breathing out."

"Right." I said, relaxing my stances before firing. Without Jack's supporting hand, my aim wasn't as good but I still managed to hit it on the shoulder.

"Very impressive." Jack complemented before going on to show me how to use a range of weapons.

They spent about half an hour down in the firing range before Jack called me to a stop. "Although I hope you don't have to use these, I want you down here once a week with me until your aim improves."

"Okay. Do you do hand-to-hand?" I asked him as we started on our way back to the main part of the base.

"I know how. I don't make it mandatory for the team to know." Jack responded, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Could we practise some time? I don't want to get out of shape." I asked him.

"Sure. When we have some down time. I could do with some practise." Jack smiled pleased. He had noticed how his youngest team member would shy away from touch – no matter how innocent. When he had pressed himself against her down in the firing range, to adjust her stance, she had tensed and been very uncomfortable. He was hoping that in time she would come to trust him (and the rest of the team) to allow minimal contact. Sparing regularly would help with that, since she could get to know him in a way that only fighting another person would allow.

"Oi, you lot." Owen shouted from his work station. "Treat." He pointed at his screen where CCTV footage showed Gwen making out with Crays.

"Whoa." Tosh muttered.

"Wow." Jack agreed, raising his eyebrow at the screen.

"I thought she said she had found her soul-mark." Owen questioned.

"You people and your quaint little categories." Jack shook his head. Although soul-marks still existed in his time, they weren't as common. He had been the first 'human' in his colony to have a soul-mark in nearly five generations.

"We should really get her out of there." Tosh commented.

"Yeah." Jack agreed before realising what he had said. "I mean, yeah. Come on." He ran from the room, me and Tosh following.

We followed Jack down into the cells. But as we got to the corridor were Gwen was, we found her outside the cell, talking on her phone. Gwen gave them thumbs up to show that she was okay.

When Gwen returned to the main part of the hub, Owen clapped sarcastically. "Way to go, newbie. That is what I call a methodical investigation. I can't wait to see you take down her particulars."

Gwen, pissed off with Owen, pinned him to the wall with her elbow.

"What are you doing? Get off me." Owen tried pushing back, but Gwen wasn't letting up. I motioned to Jack, who was in his office having gotten a phone call the moment they returned to the main base. I doubted he would like Gwen strangling Owen.

"That girl's body is being overrun by I don't know what, and you think it's a joke?" Gwen demanded.

"All right. Jesus. I'm sorry." Owen said, still trying to get out of her hold.

"We should be helping her. She's not some lab rat." Gwen spat.

"No, she's a murderer," Owen snapped back, annoyed with his current position. "And you were the one who wanted her caught. How come suddenly she's your best friend?"

"You know, strictly speaking, throttling the staff is my job." Jack interrupted Gwen before she could respond.

"So, who's for Chinese?" Ianto asked, making me and Tosh smile as he effortlessly broke the tension.

We were all sat up in the conference room, eating the Chinese. At the minute we couldn't do anything more since the computers were running several scans and until we get results, we couldn't proceed. I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about eating with a group of people since I hadn't done so since my last care home – it was weird – but I was sure after a while I would come to appreciate these moments of normality and humanity in their packed, alien filled, lives.

"And she said, if I'd known what he was, I never would have married him." Jack was telling one of his jokes to the team. According to Ianto this happened most lunch/dinner/breakfast times in which they were allowed to sit together and eat. Never had Jack repeated a joke in the three months Ianto had been working for the team.

"She knew. She knew all along." Tosh accused.

"And she didn't care." Owen said with a smirk.

"Until he started leaving black piles of mucus in the bathtub." Ianto inputted.

"Always the big giveaway." Jack agreed. "Aliens have no sense of household hygiene. Which reminds me." he finished the rest of his drink. "Gotta pee."

The moment he left the room, Tosh, Owen and Ianto turned to me and Gwen.

"So, what's he told you?" Owen started the questioning.

"What about?" Gwen responded

I just sat back, not wanting to get involved. Jack probably had a very good reason for not telling the team about his inability to die and his connection with Torchwoods 'enemy number one', and I wasn't going to be the one to break his trust and tell the rest of the team. He had taken me in, given me a job, and for the first time in a long time I was starting to trust someone. I could feel that Torchwood would be good for me and the demons I locked away; I wasn't going to jeopardise that by upsetting the person who had given me the opportunity.

"Himself." Tosh clarified.

"You've been here longer than I have." Gwen said, trying to avoid the question.

"We were banking on you, both of you." Tosh said, looking at me to let me know she was including me in the questioning.

"You're a copper." Owen said looking to Gwen. "You're trained to ask questions."

"And you're a teenager, Raven. You're allowed to get away with inane questions." Ianto added with a smirk. I rolled my eyes at him.

"You don't know anything?" Gwen asked in disbelief.

"Not who he is, not where he's from. Nothing. Except him being gay." Owen said.

"No, he's not. Really, do you think?" Gwen asked shocked.

"Owen does. I don't." Tosh confessed.

"And I don't care." Ianto inputted.

"Period military is not the dress code of a straight man." Owen said in defence.

"I think it suits him. Sort of classic." Gwen said with a smile.

"I think the coat just makes him more impressive." I told them with a smile. The coat made Jack stand out, and I couldn't imagine him in anything else. He was Captain Jack Harkness and without the coat that image just wasn't complete.

Ianto nodded his agreement but didn't voice his thoughts. He had already had Jack's coat mended five times in the time he had been on the team, he knew how much the man loved that thing. It was his signature piece of clothing.

"Exactly. I've watched him in action. He'll shag anything if it's gorgeous enough." Tosh said with a smile.

"We know he's from America, right?" Gwen said bringing the topic away from Jack's sexuality.

"We don't even know that for sure." Owen shook his head.

"No US citizen by the name of Jack Harkness born in the last fifty years." Tosh confirmed.

"Maybe his identity's classified." Gwen suggested.

"Used to be something big in the CIA. That's what I reckon." Ianto inserted into the conversation.

"He must have his reasons for wanting to keep things secret." Gwen insisted.

"Sure he has. Doesn't stop me wanting to know what they are." Owen said, agreeing.

The conference room fell silent and the sound of crying could be heard through the speakers, cutting the rest of the conversation off as Gwen started getting on her moral high horse.

"What's that sound?" Gwen asked pulling the keyboard towards her and bringing up the last screen to show Carys in her cell, sobbing.

"What are we doing having Chinese while a girl fights for her life?" Gwen asked horrified.

"Actually, while we've been eating, the computers have been running a full bio-scan on Carys, profiling her blood, metabolism, organs, skin, - the works." Jack made a vague gesture with his hand as he entered the room and retook his seat. "So, we can see what effect the alien's having on her. We've also been taking samples of the air in the cell so we can analyse any changes in the environment around her."

"And by eating we're all getting the energy we need to help her. You may have gone out to dinner with your soul-mark but none of the rest of us have eaten since lunch time yesterday. The fact that no one actually got any sleep last night only emphasises the fact that we needed to take a break to eat something." I added to Jack's monologue.

"Now, is that enough? Do you want more? Cos it gets kinda boring." Jack questioned arrogantly.

He was glad that there was someone else on the team who took note of when they needed to stop and eat/rest, because him, Owen and Tosh were all known for being stubborn and pig-headed when they are on the chase and that wasn't good for the team's health. They had improved with the introduction of Ianto to the team, but with Raven helping as well Ianto would have a better understanding of when they could take a break, as well of when they needed to take a break.

"You've been hidden down here too long." Gwen said with a cynical smile. "Spending so much time with the alien stuff, you've lost what it means to be human."

I suppressed a snarl at that accusation and swiftly left the room before I attacked Gwen. I had spent so much of my youth looking after my mother and my sisters. When I was in care homes and foster homes, I made it my job to look after any of the younger children that may have been in the house and helped with the keep of the house to take some pressure off the adults who had decided to take me in. Even when I was on the streets, I did what I could to help other homeless people who weren't as fortunate as me.

"You okay?" Jack asked, walking into his office a few minutes later to find me leaning on his desk and staring into space.

For some reason, Jack's office was the only part of the hub I had come across so far that made me feel safe and comfortable. Every time I entered a new environment or home that I would be spending a lot of time in, I found a place that I could retreat too when the world and people became too much. Unless I stumbled across another area of the hub that gave a similar feeling, Jack's office was looking to become that place in the hub – I mentally noted to warn Jack at some point that he might find me in here crying.

"Not really." I responded softly, adverting my eyes to the floor so I didn't have to look at him.

"What was it about Gwen's statement that made you so angry?" Jack asked, coming to stand in front of me so I was staring at his shoes. I stiffened out how close he had gotten, but didn't make a move to put some distance between them again.

"She said we weren't caring." I told him, pulling on my courage and stubbornness to look Jack in the eye. "You care, you care far too much sometimes despite the fact that you know the people you surround yourself with will die before you. You care for Cardiff and the world, otherwise you wouldn't be running Torchwood. Owen cares, he hides it under cynicism and sarcasm, but he cares about everyone on this team, and the innocents we're protecting. Tosh, she hides behind her computers to protect herself, because she cares as well and just doesn't want to let others know encase it backfires on her. I haven't interacted with Ianto very much, but the pain in his eyes. It says he cared for so much and so many and it has been ripped from him. Yet he's here, looking after us. You all have your hearts, and you all protect it in different ways. Gwen doesn't have the authority to accuse you of not caring."

"What about you?" Jack asked softly, knowing a distraction technique when he sees one. He was shocked that she knew them all so well after only being on the team for two days, but he knew that there were people out there with latent empathic abilities who could read people if they spent enough time around them and Raven had barely left his or the team's side since she had joined.

"I care too much sometimes." I admitted, not able to look away from Jack's piercing blue eyes. Needing him to understand this part of me. I didn't know why it was so important for Jack to know and understand me, but it was. "My mom was ill, and my dad away at work. It fell to me too look after her and my two younger sisters. After a while, looking after people just became something that I just did."

"Is that why you learnt so much about the team?" Jack asked softly, not wanting to dig too much into the wounds of her past since Owen had given him a basic run-down of her medical history because it effected Raven's working relationship.

"I learnt to read people. So, I could tell whether the home I was in was safe or not. And so I could help people." I confessed.

"I've scanned your file; you've been in thirty-six care homes. How many were bad ones?" Jack continued to speak in a soft tone.

I closed my eyes, not able to look at Jack. Sensing the problem Jack pulled me into a tight hug so he couldn't see my face, but I was still encircled in his comforting arms. I remained stiff at first, almost like my rigid posture would act as a barrier to the touch, but after a moment the comfort and safety that Jack just screamed to my senses helped me relax, and I leaned my weight slightly against him.

"Twenty-six. I never stayed more than two months at those homes. The longer I stayed, the more evidence I had, and so the easier it was to convict the guardian and get the other kids out safe." I explained quietly.

"The last one you were in, only lasted two days." Jack said softly, pulling back slightly so he could see my face. "And there wasn't an arrest on recorded but he is being investigated and his right to foster children has been suspended."

"Physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. I could cope." I explained quietly. "But, sexual abuse…" I trailed off.

Jack's eyes darkened in anger when he realised what I was saying. "He touched you. How far…?" Jack asked concerned.

"All the way." I answered, barely above a whisper.

Jack pulled me back into a comforting hug. If he had been anyone else, I would have refused the comfort, tried to back free. But this was Jack, and he made me feel safe and comfortable. Like while he was holding me, nothing could ever hurt me; because he wouldn't let it.

"If you ever need to talk." Jack offered.

"Thanks." I muttered, blinking back tears. I wasn't a child, and I wasn't going to cry.

"Come on. Gwen wants to prove her bleeding heart." Jack offered once he felt it was safe enough to let me go.