Chapter Ten

****August 23rd 2007** afternoon****

We were meeting around Tosh's work station, compiling the information we had obtained so far. From the time I had been here, Tosh's work station was the most commonly used place for information sharing, with the conference room being a close second when everyone had information to share. Owen was nursing a cup of coffee, sitting on the small sofa that was behind the work stations. Ianto had been through and cleaned it up, which had become an easier job since I joined the team because I ensured that some semblance of order and cleanliness was maintained without Ianto there.

"The first time, it happens to Raven. A boy at the railway station." Jack said, frowning with his arms crossed. He wasn't impressed with how this machine was impacting the mental and emotional stability of his team.

"Who is now in his seventies, alive and well, and living in Butetown" Gwen filled in the information that she had gotten earlier that day. "The second time it happens to Owen."

"What was the victim's name?" Jack asked, softening his tone slightly so as to not upset Owen any more than the topic would. Owen had an issue with authority so when he was emotionally compromised it was a bad idea to speak in his normal 'captain tone' that expected obedience and results quickly.

"Lizzie." Owen answered, frowning into his cup. "They were dressed like it was the sixties."

"Toshiko, have you found anything?" Jack asked.

"Elizabeth Lewis. Lizzie. Only child of Mabel Ann Lewis of Hafod Street. Died March 29th, 1963. Raped and murdered on Penfro Street, under the bridge. Seventeen years old." Tosh read from the screen.

"He killed her." Owen muttered horrified. Apparently, he hadn't seen that part.

"No one was brought to trial." Tosh frowned.

Owen went to say something but caught my eye and changed his mind. "What about Ed Morgan? That's what she called him."

"It's kind of a common name." Tosh apologised.

"What's the connection? Where did they come from? It's like being haunted." Gwen demanded to know.

"Quantum transducer! Look!" Jack suddenly exclaimed pulling the device out of the machine it had been in.

"I'd kill to get one of those. Transducers convert energy from one form into another. They're in headphones. They convert electrical signals into sound, and they're in this device too, converting quantum energy and amplifying it." Tosh said excitedly getting up to look at the screen in front of Jack.

"Into ghosts." Gwen muttered.

"Of course. It's emotion." Jack suddenly said, realisation dawning on him as he turned to explain to the rest of the team. "Human emotion is energy. You can't always see it, or hear it, but you can feel it. Ever had deja vu? Felt someone walk over your grave? Ever felt someone behind you in an empty room? Well, there was. There always is." Jack said seriously.

"The emotional imprint of those who had been there before you." I muttered softly recognising what Jack was saying and understanding why I had been overwhelmed by the emotions at the stations. The Doctor had used a similar explanation to explain why the cyber-men had affected me so much, because they were just imprints on the skin of the earth.

"It's getting late. Tomorrow we look for Bernie Harris, and we find out what he knows about this ghost machine. Now, go home. Gwen. With me." Jack ordered, heading to the shooting range.

He had left Gwen's training with a gun for so long because she was still going through the rules, and he needed to be sure he could trust her after the appalling display of safety she showed on her first day.

Tosh and Ianto left quickly, but Owen hesitated looking at the screen.

"Owen?" I asked him hesitantly, wondering if he needed anything.

"I'm alright." He waved me off.

"You're going home to get drunk, aren't you?" I realised. I didn't know for certain why he was looking at the screen, but I knew that look, it was the look of someone who wanted to forgot their pains.

"What off it?" Owen demanded.

"You should go to the gym, or run it off. Something over than trying to forget through drink. It won't help, because you won't forget. It'll take time, but you'll come to terms with what you saw Owen. You just need to remind yourself that it wasn't your fault and there was nothing that could be done. But always remember Lizzie because someone needs to." I told him softly.

Owen stared at me in a confrontational manor for a moment but, when I didn't back down, he deflated with a nod of his head. "I'll try. Thanks." Owen grabbed his jacket and left as quickly as he could, almost as though he feared that I might try and stop him to get him to talk, although I had already made it obvious that I wouldn't make him do anything. The thing about recovering from seeing or experience something traumatic, was it couldn't be forced on you be someone else.

I headed up to Jack's office and worked some more on the essay for Ancient History. I only needed a thousand more words for the cause work, before I could submit it and then apply for the exams. I hadn't looked into getting a flat yet since I was putting the majority of my money that wasn't going to be submitting my cause work and applying for my exams into a savers account. Because of the amount of money that a Torchwood field agent gets, I already had quite a bit put away despite only working at Torchwood for just over a weak. The only money I had already spent, was what Tosh had forced me to spend when she took me out on a shopping trip on my fifth day as an official Torchwood agent. Jack didn't mind me sleeping in the hub – specifically on the coach in his office - and I was starting to suspect that he liked the company since he rarely retired for sleep at night. It seemed he slept even less than I did, and I could function adequately on just two hours of sleep a night for an extended period of time.

"Hey, what are you still doing up?" Jack asked when he entered his office nearly two hours after everyone had left the hub.

"Finishing of my ancient history work." I responded, hitting save and closing the laptop down. "How was Gwen's shooting practice?" I asked curiously.

"Well…" Jack smiled, joining me on the sofa. "She tried shooting both me and the ceiling. And she's spent too much of her time watching action TV."

"I'm sure she'll get better with practise." I told him with a laugh. Jack had told me during my own shooting practise that he was surprised someone of my age didn't default to the standard TV stance like everyone else he had ever taught how to hold a gun had.

"I hope so, or I might have to ban her from the field. We've gotten away with it so far, but I don't want to risk having a field agent who can't use a gun." Jack agreed, turning serious after he smiled in remembrance.

"She'll get better, I mean I did." I reminded him, noting the seriousness. Jack took his responsibility as head of Torchwood very serious, and he felt like it was his job that his agent's stayed alive and relatively unharmed to the best of his abilities and that meant not needlessly endangering them by not giving them the training and protection they need while out in the field.

"Yeah, but you could actually hit the targets without any practise." Jack reminded me.

"You're trying to make me blush." I accused him.

"Drat. You've caught on to my cunning plan." Jack said dramatically, clicking his fingers, dropping the serious air and falling back to his normal flirty self.

"Jack, could you tell me about some of the aliens you've met?" I asked him after a moment of comfortable silence.

"Okay." Jack leaned back into the sofa. It was nice being able to tell his stories to someone who was interested and would believe what he was saying. He couldn't tell the rest of the team because they wouldn't believe him without knowing about his immortality and the Doctor. Gwen knew about the immortality, but she didn't know about the Doctor, and he wasn't planning on telling her. But Raven knew about both, and she calmly accepted everything that was thrown her way, even showing excitement at the idea of travelling through space and time.

"As you know I was born in the 52nd century. My place of birth was a small peninsula, most of the people living there were humans – American colonists – but we always got visitors. The first alien I ever talked with was a Daxzian. Now the Daxzians were well known thieves, you have to be careful of your pockets when around them. I was nine, looking through the market for parts for the K-9 we owned…"

I sat and just listened to Jack talk about some of the aliens that he had met. I ended up leaning on his shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around me. After a while Jack fell silent, and we sat in silence. Neither of us sleeping, just enjoying the piece and quite before a new day started.

****August 24th 2007****

Owen was the one to call us into work early the next morning. He had found Burnie and was waiting for them at a pub in Splott.

"Well, this is cosy. I hope he brought you flowers." Jack said as they entered the bar.

"If this is about the dodgy fags, I don't know what happened to 'em, all right?" Bernie said panicking since he was surrounded by intimidating people. In response Jack put the alien device on the table and Bernie looked down ashamed.

"Well. It's worth knowing we're probably the only people you can tell." Jack said, leaning back with his arms crossed.

"Me and a mate was using this lock up down on Moira Street. Used to belong to this old guy. Soft in the head, he was. Still loads of his stuff in there but we chucked most of it. There was this old biscuit tin full of foreign coins, weird bits of rock, and that. Thought it might be worth something. We might take it down the Antiques Roadshow or something." Bernie explained after looking up at Jack's expressionless face.

"Yeah." Owen muttered sarcastically.

"Well, you don't know, do you? Cash In The Attic and all that." Bernie defended. "So I takes the tin home with me and that thing starts switching itself on. It makes you see things. Real things. Real people. I was down the Old Wharf in the bay. I saw this woman, with a bundle, something wrapped up. It was night time, and she was putting it into the water all secret like. It was weird cos it was like I was her, somehow. She was scared, because she knew what she was doing was wrong. I knew, without seeing, it was her baby wrapped up, dead. She hadn't told anyone. Then she just ran away. And I realised, I knew her. She's old now, but she lives up by the Catholic Church in Splott. So I goes up to see her, told her what I'd seen, and she give me money not to tell anyone else."

"You blackmailed her." Owen said disgusted.

"She offered." Bernie said defensively in response to Owen's clear accusation. "Look, I've seen things you wouldn't believe. There's the old bridge on Penfro Street. I saw a man and a girl from ages ago. He was following her back from a dance along the canal…"

"Yeah, I know. I saw it. He doesn't know anything, does he?" Owen turned to Jack not wanting to think about it.

"Bernie, it's been fascinating meeting you." Jack said sarcastically as he picked up the alien device.

"Hang on, where you going? That's mine, that is. You can't walk off. I've got rights. So, you don't want the other half, then?" he asked as we were practically out the door.

"The other half." Jack said, picking it up out of the biscuit tin.

"Weird bits of rock. Foreign money." Gwen said picking through the tin.

"Alien rock. Alien money." Jack corrected, passing the second half of the device to Tosh. "Driftwood, washing in through the Rift. So, Bernie, was this thing in two halves when you found it?"

"I've got it. Like clicking Lego together." Tosh said excitedly, holding it up to show everyone.

"You split this into two pieces, didn't you?" Gwen said, taking the device from Tosh and turning to Burnie.

"Come on, you lot." Owen said leaving the room.

"We'll take these too, if you don't mind." Tosh said picking up the tin and following Owen out.

"Come on." Owen shouted back impatiently.

I rolled my eyes and followed him out of the small flat with Tosh and Jack. In a similar manner to her first day, Gwen ended up lagging behind. Jack rolled his eyes in agreement with my look, and called back for her to hurry up.

They were just about to reach the SUV when Gwen came out of the block of flats calling for Jack. Turning around they saw that she had stopped and was holding the complete device up to eye level.

"GWEN, NO!" Jack shouted, running back to her. "Christ, Gwen, what were you thinking?" Jack demanded taking the device back off her.

When we got back to base, Jack spent some time in his office comforting Gwen over what she had seen. Tosh and Owen had gone out for a drink. Ianto was working down in the archives, so I went to go and help him.

The Archives covered almost the entire subfloor of the base, above the cells but below the main storage floors. Everything was stored into multiple rooms, and Ianto started with the rooms closest to the main hub, and working backwards, but he would sometimes find a mention of an artefact or file that he would then have to go rummaging through other files and storage boxes for.

Of all the team, beside Jack, only Ianto knew the layout of this floor. Although I was getting better at understanding the layout, and there were some areas of the basement I did know, I wasn't confident enough to go down without first finding out exactly where Ianto was.

"You don't have to help me you know." Ianto said frowning when I arrived in storage fifteen, and immediately picked a stack of paperwork and started ordering it using Ianto's labels that he had ready and waiting.

"The archives are very big. You're brilliant at your job Ianto, but sometimes I think you need some help otherwise you're going to drown in work." I told him with a smile.

"Thanks." Ianto said after a moment. This wasn't the first time I had come down to help him, and he had already learnt that arguing with me was pointless, especially since I didn't have an area of expertise (beyond language), I was more someone who would help everyone. I was also planning on increasing the defences in each individual storage area, and then in the basement as a whole. That way if the upper level (or the main base) was ever compromised the archives and cells would remain intact. However, I needed to learn the layout of the area first and helping Ianto sort through nearly sixty years of unorganised chaos was killing two birds with one stone.

"Have you thought about getting together with Tosh, and building a proper database for everything down here?" I asked curiously.

"The last nine storage rooms are just for the things from Torchwood 3. There are also the artefacts collected from Torchwood 1 to go through, which are currently being stored in the next five rooms. I also need to go back even further to look through the storage rooms starting from 1945 to make sure that their filing system matches my own. I won't have time to sort everything, making sure the artefacts are safe and secure, and make a data-base." Ianto responded.

"Well, you have to go through all the files, reading them to make sure it's intact right?" I asked him.

"Yes."

"And identify and label anything not already classified?"

"Yes."

"Well, if you get Tosh to sort the data-base how she wants it, and you short the archives how you want it – roughly speaking – then you can slowly add things to it as you come across information. It also means you can see if there is already a digital copy of some hard file and if not create one so information wouldn't be lost if something down here gets damaged." I explained.

"It's… it's a good idea." Ianto frowned. "I'll have to speak with Tosh and Jack about it though. It will take me longer than the estimated eight more months to finish sorting out Torchwood 3 artefacts if I have to create a database."

"I'm sure Jack won't mind. And I can help Tosh go through the database, which means it won't cut into her own projects too much. I'm sure she won't mind in that case because it will make everyone's life easier in the long run."

"I'll right up an initial draft, and suggestion for the layout of the database so that it matches what I'm doing. Then I'll bring it to Jack." Ianto promised.

While I went through the paper files, making sure that the content was readable and putting them into the piles Ianto had labelled for me, he was beginning the report I had suggested. From the amount of detail, and the slight smile on his face, he was rather enjoying his new task. Eventually our silence was broken by Ianto's alarm informing him it was eight o'clock and time he headed home.

While he headed out, I went up to Jack's office pleased with how the day had ended. I had noticed that Ianto was over looked by a lot of the team – even by Tosh and Jack who made some attempt to include him in group meals and such.

"Have fun in the archives?" Jack asked looking up from his paperwork.

"Yeah." I responded, pulling the chair around Jack's desk so I could sit next to him. I then took half his paperwork and started going through it, summarising the report on a post-tic which went on top of the file so Jack didn't have to read through it all. Instead he could just sign off on it.

"You don't have to help me you know." Jack said, accidently mirroring Ianto from earlier which had me fighting a laugh.

"I have less paperwork than anyone else except Gwen. I only do after action reports. Least I can do is help with your mountain. Especially the section related to government groups such as UNIT and the police since you hate dealing with them." I smiled over at him.

"Fair enough," Jack shrugged.

He wasn't going to argue with Raven about his hate of dealing with UNIT and the Police. He was starting to think about making her his official liaison with all other agencies since she was already practically doing the job and she had already come up with some good ideas that where making their lives easier (such as having an alert on the police radio that goes off every time a Weevil or other abnormality was mentioned so they could respond immediately and to everything they could instead of the occasional case being taken).

The silence was interrupted by Jack. "Somethings not right." He muttered.

"Jack?" I asked him curiously since we hadn't been talking and he wasn't looking over the file in his hand. He had obviously been thinking about something else, and that was what had caused him to drift from the paperwork.

"Bernie, I think… I think he was blackmailing Ed Morgan." He explained. At that moment Owen and Tosh entered the room. Owen quickly explained that he had gone to see Ed Morgan, and what Morgan had said, confirming Jack's theory.

"Gwen?" Jack asked, calling her mobile since she was off duty. "Ed Morgan. Owen went freelance earlier and decided to pay him a visit. Wanted to frighten him. Sounds like he succeeded. I think Bernie Harris got there first. Tried to blackmail him." Jack explained quickly.

"Looks that way. Ed thought Owen was part of the same outfit. Are you home yet?" he demanded to know. Whatever she said in response obviously annoyed Jack as he straightened in his chair and frowned at the wall.

"We're heading over, stay right there. Owen, Raven, with me. Tosh keep an eye on CCTV in case Bernie makes a run for it." Jack ordered, hanging up and running for the SUV.

"Diagnosed with severe depression. Agoraphobic. No. I don't believe this. Jack, I'm on CCTV and I'm looking at Ed Morgan." Tosh said over the coms.

"What? Where is he?" he asked sharing a worried look with Owen who was driving.

"Coming onto Evelyn Street." Tosh answered.

"That's Bernie's street. He's heading for Bernie's flat." Jack realised.

"I'm phoning Gwen." I told him.

"Raven? Yeah, what the hell is going on?"

"We're on our way. Are you okay?" I asked her while Owen sped up.

"Yeah, I would be, if someone would just tell me…" Gwen trailed off.

"Gwen? Gwen." I demanded, but she had hung up on me.

"Dame." Owen swore.

Owen pulled up to Bernie's street and we all jumped out of the SUV and approached Ed from behind.

"I know. That's why I came. It's what you want, isn't it?" Ed was saying as Jack and Owen grabbed Ed's arms. While Owen took the knife, Jack locked Ed's arms behind his back and Gwen pushed Bernie to the ground.

"I've got the knife. I've got it." Owen said as though he was in a trace.

"Are we okay? Are we okay?" Jack asked looking to Gwen.

"Yeah, yeah, we're okay." Gwen said getting to her feet.

"I've got the knife. I've got the knife, Edwin. You were so close. You were going for her, weren't you? Just like with Lizzie. I've got the knife, Edwin. You were so close. As close as I am now." Owen muttered, looking down at the knife he was holding.

"Owen." I spoke sharply, stepping up to him. Owen looked at me with dark eyes. "Owen, he's not worth it." I told him softening my tone so as to not startle him or make myself sound confrontational which would spur him on. Slowly I held out a hand for the knife. "Let him live with his guilt and pain. Killing him will just end his suffering."

Owen let out a deep breath, his shoulder's dropping as he handed the knife over to me. I took it, holding the handle in a way that the blade rested against my forearm to ensure that no one else could get hurt with it. I offered Owen a slight smile in comfort and pride about being able to restrain himself.

"Go and deal with Bernie." Jack ordered Owen, hoping to distract him from the hail storm of emotions that Owen liked to pretend he didn't feel.

"It didn't happen. No one died. You stopped it from happening. You got here in time." Gwen muttered, looking to Jack shocked.

Ed Morgan was handed over to the police for attempted murder, and since he kept taking about what happened, he was also arrested for the murder and rape of Elizabeth Lewis.

Gwen went home to her boyfriend after Jack furiously told her that she promised she wouldn't let the job consume her. That she would hold onto her personal life, and going to a kid's flat to talk with them when he had sent her home, ending her shift, wasn't conductive to that.

Jack locked the machine away in the secure achieves were only he had access. That device had mentally and emotionally damaged three members of his team, and nearly led to the death of a teenager. The device was probably harmless for the race who originally built it, but for humans it was too much of a temptation. No one needed to see the traumas of the past, it was best that the transducer was left locked away until someone more capable of understanding it came along.