Torchwood's Flower Chapter 7: Greeks Bearing Gifts, a torchwood fanfic

Chapter 7: Greeks Bearing Gifts

It took a while for the team to come back after recuperating from the incident with the cannibals. However, Owen came to the Hub frequently to check up on Iris, considering that she needed to get frequently checked for her continuing migraines.

And of all days, that day, Jack and Owen hovered over Iris, who had almost fainted from the migraine.

"I'm fine.." Iris groaned as she waved Owen's hand away from her head.

"Look, I understand that you think that you don't need all of us to fret over your migraines, but you almost fainted today Iris." Owen argued.

It has been happening a lot recently. Ever since the incident with the cannibals, Iris hid the fact that sometimes, she needed the medication at random times, causing her to almost faint in various places. Her hiding her pain seemed to be a way for her to cope with what was happening around her. As if she wanted people to think that she was alright when she really wasn't. A coping mechanism that Owen knew was not healthy for Iris.

Iris looked at the Torchwood medic and frowned, sighing in resignation.

"I know, it's just that I wish that we understood why I'm having these nasty headaches."

Jack looked at her with a strict look in his eyes as he said,

"Well, I'm not having you faint again. Until we understand what this is, make sure to take care of yourself and to take the medications that Owen gives you."

"Yeah…" Iris groaned out as she rolled her eyes.

"Are we done?" Iris asked Owen carefully.

The medic nodded and helped her back to her room. Even now, Iris was staying at the Torchwood base, unable to find a satisfactory place to stay at. He had offered a spare room at his place, but Iris had complained that she wouldn't want to intrude into Owen's outside life from Torchwood. Knowing Owen, he probably brought a girl every so often, which Iris did not want to listen to.

When Owen came back to the Hub to clean up, he found Jack sitting on the sofa, with his head in his hands. The captain had been keeping a close eye on Iris since the incident with the cannibals, as if waiting for Iris to break down completely and to quit Torchwood at any moment.

"Jack, I think we need to talk." Owen said as he finished cleaning up.

"About what?" Jack said as he looked up at the Torchwood medic.

"About Iris." Owen said as he looked down at his boss, handing him a bottle of beer.

Jack graciously accepted the bottle and took a sip, letting the cool beer slide down his throat.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Yeah, I noticed something about you since Iris joined…" Owen said, as he looked at the Hub almost like he was thinking back on something.

Jack looked at Owen like something had shocked him for a split second.

"What?" He asked, genuinely curious as to what Owen needed to say.

"It's as if you're more sensitive to things when Iris is involved. Lately, you haven't been able to sleep well because you were watching over Iris. Sure, it's my fault to ask you to watch over her since you both live here, but still…The look you had when that guy had threatened to kill Iris, your eyes… well… bloody hell it looked like you wanted to rip that man apart with your own two hands Jack." Owen said

He remembered how Jack looked. It sent shudders down his spine to even remember such hatred and anger emanate from the man. Back then, Owen thought that Jack might have been more horrifying than the cannibals.

Jack looked at Owen and said, "Weren't we all?"

Owen shook his head, and said,

"Look, I'm not the best relationship advice-giver, but that look, I recognize it. It's almost as if you saw someone threaten to kill your lover."

Jack stopped mid-drink and he almost choked. He looked at Owen in surprise. He didn't expect the man to realize what he was trying to exactly prevent from happening. It was true, Jack couldn't deny that there was something within him that felt for Iris. He wasn't sure what it was, but he had been trying to hold it back to the best of his abilities.

"So you knew…" He muttered out as he put his head back into his hands again.

Owen looked at Jack and shook his head.

"Look, I don't know anything, and Iris, she needs all the support she could get. But from what I can see, you have competition." Owen said.

"Do you mean Ianto?" Jack asked.

Owen nodded and said, "Yeah, those two… they went through so much within the past few cases, they grew on each other. Everybody can see that. But I also saw something between you and Iris, Jack. It's not as obvious, but the signs are there when you look for them."

With that Owen, got up, stretching, and put on his coat, all the while saying,

"If you feel something for her Jack, I advise you to act on it. Because I think that Iris is someone who could easily slip through our fingers… If you know what I mean. We saw it happen today, her fainting like that, those migraines of hers are clearly getting worse. I just don't know how long the medications are going to be actually effective."

Jack looked at Owen and sighed.

Owen gave a sidelong glance at Jack, and said before leaving,

"I'm hoping that you stick with Iris. Sure, Ianto is great, you two, if Iris wasn't here, might have hit it off… who knows? But, from what I can see, I think you and Iris are better together. In my opinion anyway…Well, I'll see you tomorrow Jack. Good night."

"Night…" Jack responded.

After the Torchwood medic left, Jack looked to the direction where there was a hall that led towards the area with the extra room. Iris was staying there as of now, and in the past weeks, Iris seemed to have made a difference in the team. He would notice how she made Owen be a little nicer to everyone around him, Gwen a little less hormonal about everything, Tosh a bit more confident and with Ianto, it was obvious that the Welsh man was much happier than before. Occasionally, Jack found himself smiling warmly while watching Iris' innocent facial expressions. Sometimes, she had the habit of puffing air into her cheeks when she was frustrated, her smile would be radiant. When he noticed himself staring at her for too long, he felt his heart beat a little faster.

But he didn't want to face the pain of losing someone he loved.

With that, Jack stretched a little and headed towards his room to sleep.

In a few days, the team came back to do work. They exited the rover at a building site, with Jack muttering,

"Once, just once, I'd like to walk into one of these tents and find it's a party. You know, food, drink, people dancing, a girl crying in the corner."

The team then gathered around the skeleton and pieces of metal in a small pit. Iris glanced at Tosh with a worried look. She wasn't sure how to handle this one. Tosh would be heartbroken for sure, but everything that mostly took place in this episode was done outside of the Hub, which Iris strictly minimized leaving. Iris wasn't sure, but she didn't feel secure about leaving the Hub at all. Especially since she knew that the Master could be out there somewhere, and she didn't want to face him just yet.

She was brought back to the world when she heard Gwen ask,

"Is it alien?"

Jack added to it with, "And how. I'm picking up traces of ilmenite, pyroxene, and even Dark Matter."

Gwen asked him, "Any idea what it is?"

Jack responded with, "Not a clue. Could be a weapon, or a really big stapler. How's our friend there?"

He was asking Iris and Owen. Ever since she joined, Iris was able to help out Owen using her former skills as a paramedic. The days she once spent as a medical student paid off in assisting the Torchwood medic.

"She's dead." Owen muttered, clearly annoyed to be outside of his home.

Iris glared at him, and the man smirked a little while studying the corpse as Jack said,

"Yeah, thanks, Quincy. She?"

"Judging by the size of her skull." Owen said.

"Really… I think this is a 'he'." Iris countered. She then explained to Owen. Owen listened and thought for a moment and decided to go with what she was saying.

"Never mind, it's a he." Owen said out loud, but only Iris heard him, as everybody was focused on Tosh at the moment as she said,

"From the depth they found them, a 196 years, eleven to eleven and a half months. The earth's been disturbed so I'm afraid I can't be more accurate."

Gwen then asked, "What killed her, the stapler?"

Iris looked up and said, "Really? A stapler? Look at his chest Gwen."

Owen backed her up as he said, "See those shattered ribs? I reckon he was shot."

Gwen rolled her eyes and just helped Owen come out of the pit, trying to hold down a snide remark towards Iris. Ianto was helping her up at the same moment. But nobody noticed how Iris had shaken her head when Owen said that the man had been shot.

Jack then remarked, "Well, let's get him back to the Hub and find out."

Once they were back at the Hub, Tosh came in to find Iris scolding Owen.

"How many times did I tell you that you can't play around here? If you're gonna play, go play somewhere else in the Hub."

"Yes Mum…" Owen muttered as he sauntered off, sulking.

"What did you say?" Iris asked after Owen.

Tosh found it funny how Owen looked back at Iris guiltily and trudged off, putting the football away and going to grab a drink. It seemed that Iris was the only one who was able to successfully scold Owen from time to time. He would then listen and just follow with what she had to say.

After stretching a bit, Iris turned around to find Tosh.

"Hey Tosh!" Iris said, smiling.

"What happened?" Tosh asked, smiling back.

"Ah, Owen was goofing around this area with that stupid football of his and I didn't want that translation program to go wrong, so I kicked him out from this area."

Tosh was surprised at that and thanked Iris.

"There's nothing to thank me for Tosh. I just did it because I really want that thing working you know? It was hard to code, considering that both you and I worked on it together. I didn't want that bluthering idiot to come in and kick out the plug and ruin everything."

Iris responded as she shrugged it off. Tosh was grateful. Iris had been helping her around, boosting her confidence, and it was helping.

"Drink?" Tosh asked Iris. The girl only shook her head and said,

"I'm sorry. I have a movie marathon with Ianto planned tonight. I finally get to geek out about something again, and I don't want to miss that chance. Unless you want to join?" Iris asked.

Tosh shook her head quickly.

"No, I'm fine. Maybe next time." She responded.

Tosh saw how Ianto had recently been looking and behaving around Iris, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to butt in. Iris was so oblivious to how Ianto was acting around her, that Tosh sometimes wanted to pull her hair out, but she let it be. They were cute together, she had to admit, and she didn't want to ruin a date, even if Iris wasn't aware that Ianto may have been hinting it to be just that.

A couple hours later, Iris stretched out from her bed and yawned. Ianto was taking out the DVD and cleaning up. He looked at Iris with a small smile. At these moments, she seemed so part of this world. It was as if she was always here. Her small height made her that much more adorable and more innocent-like. When at work and in the field however, she seemed to be entirely different; it was as if she fed off the adrenaline and became more confident in what she decided to do.

Iris noticed Ianto just staring at her, and she paused, noticing the look he was giving her. Her heart sped up just a little bit. Nervous, she laughed a little and rubbed her mouth with the back of her hand, asking,

"Is there something on my face?"

Ianto was taken out of his thought at the question and smiled a little wider, a blush working up his face, as he said,

"No. Uh… I was…"

Then Jack burst in, causing Ianto to jump and Iris to stand up suddenly from the sudden noise.

"Guys! I found… What?" Jack asked as he saw Iris and Ianto blush a little.

Ianto coughed a little, and said as left the room, "I will wash this up and head back home. Good night."

Iris replied with a "Goodnight." And suddenly found the floor interesting as she looked down at it.

"What happened?" Jack asked as he closed the door behind him.

"Nothing really. Just watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in one go while eating snacks and that was it." Iris replied.

"Your blushing." Jack countered.

"I'm! Uh…Just feeling warm… that's all." Iris replied, flustered by everything.

Jack let it go, and said, "I only came in to see if you wanted to study the thing we found earlier in the field."

Iris looked up at him and said, "Yeah! Sure! I'd love to. Be there in a minute."

Jack gave her a thumbs up and went back to the Hub. When he finally left Iris's room, he felt a little tingling sensation as if something tickled his pride. Ianto had apparently already left and Jack wasn't sure what he felt. That was when Owen's words from earlier came back to him.

It wasn't long until she came up to help him out with the machine. After about two hours working on the machine that they had found, he saw Iris yawn heavily.

"You tired?" He asked.

Iris shook her head, but he could see how her eyes were drooping down occasionally.

"Go get some sleep." He said, and led her to her room.

"Good night Jack." Iris murmured and he replied with,

"Good night."

He closed the door behind him, still bothered with what he felt when he saw Ianto and Iris blush right in front of him. He didn't know what had happened between the two, but be didn't feel all too happy about it. If anything, he wanted to be able to get some time to rest with Iris, but the only thing he could think of was to drag her to work. He wasn't as close to Iris as Ianto was, and that seemed to stop him from approaching her. She looked fragile, and like Owen said, he thought that Iris was someone who would easily slip through his fingers.

The next morning, Tosh arrived at the Hub and saw everybody working at their respective places as usual. While she thought nobody was looking, she tried to slip it on when Ianto came along. She quickly hid it behind her back, when he said,

"Good morning."

She responded with "Yeah. Hi Ianto."

While she was interacting with Ianto this way, she didn't realize that Iris saw the pendant Tosh was holding. Iris frowned a bit, and sighed as she continued typing away, making sure she wasn't thinking anything related to this universe in fear of having Tosh know anything of her future. She looked through the corner of her eye at what Tosh was doing, and it seemed that she was overwhelmed by what Owen and Gwen were thinking. Iris had recently noticed that the relationship between Owen and Gwen were not great. She knew that in the show, they were having sex together, but when she saw them, they seemed almost antagonistic towards each other. Ever since the incident with the cannibals, Gwen and Owen seemed to snap at each other.

Iris quickly finished the file she was working on and sighed, exhausted, and headed to get some fresh air. She quickly stepped outside, not noticing Tosh look at her with a worried look on her face.

When Iris returned, she noticed that Tosh was looking worn out, and she went up to the Torchwood technician and asked,

"Are you alright? You don't look so good."

Tosh looked up in surprise and looked at her a bit before replying softly,

"I'm fine… Thank you for last time though."

"Huh?" Iris asked, confused about what she was thanking her for.

"The incident with the cannibals. You risked your life with Ianto to help me. And there was the last time to when you covered for me when there was a Weevil incident and I couldn't make it." Tosh replied.

Iris smiled and said, "That's what friends are for, right?"

Tosh looked a little surprised and then finally smiled.

"Yeah, you're right." She said.

Then they both began to do their work again, making sure that they finished the task Jack had assigned them to for the day.

The next day, Iris came to the Hub to find Gwen dancing around the Autopsy room, making fun of Owen.

"Let me guess, Owen made a mistake in his guess about the man getting shot." Iris said as she walked up to Jack.

Gwen laughed her head off and pointed to Owen, while the man rolled his eyes and just swore under his breath. Then Tosh came in, asking,

"What's going on?"

Gwen replied with, "You know the skeleton we found at the site? Well, Amanda Burton here has just completed the post mortem."

Owen spoke up and said, "Okay, I can explain."

But Gwen cut in with, "As you may remember, at the building site Owen said that this man was killed by a single gunshot. Since then, he's had to tweak one of his conclusions. The cause of death. Owen said GSW."

With that, Gwen made a loud noise indicating that Owen was wrong, and continued with, "The correct answer was…"

As she looked at Owen, who replied sulkily, "Unidentified trauma."

"Unidentified trauma?" Tosh asked, seeing Iris trying to hold her laughter in.

"Mmm. You see it in RTAs when something like a steering column or a post goes into a body at great velocity. But the one thing that could be ruled out was?" Gwen said,

"Gunshot wound." Iris said proudly.

Owen glared at her as Gwen continued with,

"Gunshot wound."

Jack chuckled a little bit, as Owen said,

"I at least got that it was a skeleton."

Iris snorted at that and the team separated to do their own jobs. Iris saw Tosh go into Jack's office after a while, noticing that she was about to ask about the name Philoctetes. Then Iris's phone rang and she answered the call, realizing that it was from the police station. During Tosh's lunch break, Iris went to Jack's office.

The 51st century man sighed heavily but looked up when he heard knocking on the door. He smiled when he saw that it was Iris, who held a coffee cup and some paperwork. He motioned her to come in. Iris entered the office and immediately cut to the chase.

"So I got a call from Detective Inspector Henderson, and he wanted to meet up with you Jack."

As she said this, she handed Jack the coffee Ianto made for him.

Jack hummed in delight at the taste of coffee before becoming serious, and asking,

"Do you happen to know what this is about?"

Iris said, "Yes. But I can't do anything really. It's all up to Tosh."

Jack looked at her carefully and then stood up, grabbing his coat, as he said, "I'll be back. Make sure that you finish that analysis with the machine."

"Yeah, yeah." Iris groaned out, clearly bored. She knew what it was and how it worked. She had figured that out a long time ago.

When Tosh came back, she headed to the Autopsy room to hand Owen his coffee. She noticed that the man was still focused on the corpse and said,

"You're not still worrying about that, are you?"

Owen responded with, "Okay, so I'm thinking that if it isn't a gunshot or a musket shot, or whatever they had then, maybe it was some kind of ritual."

He stopped as he sipped the coffee and said, "You are gorgeous, Thanks Tosh. But anyway, I started looking into devil worship and stuff from that era, see if there's anything about plucking out hearts, and would you believe it? There's nothing. They ate eyeballs, they drank blood, they had sex with animals, but they did not pluck out each other's hearts. Cos obviously, that would have been weird."

Tosh responded with, "Why are you so bothered? Whoever did this is hardly a threat to society anymore."

Iris grimaced a little upon hearing that, but quickly recovered from it.

"Yeah, I know. It's just, there's something. Does that remind you of anything?" Owen asked.

"Er, that bit in Alien where that thing bursts out of John Hurt?" Tosh responded.

Iris wasn't sure if Tosh was trying to lighten the mood or if she was being serious. But then again, Iris was never one to understand a joke when someone said it in a serious tone.

Owen just looked at Tosh, not sure if she was joking either, and then said,

"Right. Er, just… let's get back to work…"

Then as Tosh was going up the stairs, she saw Iris and then asked both Owen and her,

"Has Jack said anything to you guys about the hardware we found with the skeleton?"

"No, why?" Owen asked at the same time Iris said,

"Yeah, we were working on it together since we found it."

Tosh then asked, "Oh, just curious because I wanted to take a look at it."

When it seemed that Iris and Owen were not paying attention to her for a second, she slipped the pendant on. She tried to hear Iris, but was unsuccessful about finding out about the machine. Rather, she heard Owen's thoughts as he was looking at the body.

Then Gwen entered, saying hello almost nonchalantly and immediately headed for her desk. Tosh saw Iris frown a little bit at the former PC's behavior, but wasn't able to get anything but overwhelming sense of confusion and exhaustion.

She slightly sauntered off until she froze, hearing one specific thought that stuck out from Iris's normally silent mind.

I should stop looking at the knife. It's not going to do me any good at this universe… but I'm so tired….

Then she quickly turned around and headed to her desk again when Iris looked up to see Tosh. What Tosh didn't realize was that Iris felt something prick her mind for a second, almost as if someone was trying to get in. She then saw Tosh and Jack interact for a while later in the day before heading out. Jack looked up at her with a questioning look, signaling her to get into his office.

When she closed Jack's office door behind her, she heard him ask,

"This is an episode isn't it. And something is affecting Tosh personally."

Iris turned around and nodded.

"How did you know?" She asked.

"Tosh is acting strangely. Also, you have this distant look in your eyes, as if you're measuring what is the same and what is different from what you already know. I recognize that look from a certain man." Jack responded.

Iris looked at Jack, confused. Jack sighed and said,

"The Doctor. He has that same look on him when we traveled together."

"Oh…" Iris said quietly.

"Should I be wary of Tosh and what's affecting her?" Jack asked.

Iris nodded and Jack gathered the team together while Tosh wasn't there. They were planning for saving Tosh. Iris had to tell Owen what the unidentified trauma was on the corpse that they had found. Owen looked sick and began to ask questions regarding Tosh's safety. Iris's inner fangirl almost screamed in joy that the man was genuinely caring for Tosh, but she held it back, knowing that this was serious. Her changing the events from what she knew should happen could alter what Mary did.

Iris was ordered to hide with Owen. Originally, she had volunteered to stay with Ianto, but Jack ordered her to be with the Torchwood medic. Unable to figure out why he seemed so upset about her partnering up with Ianto, she just agreed. While they were waiting, they finally heard the alarms for the Hub blare as Tosh came in with Mary.

Mary spoke out loud,

"In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree, where Alph the sacred river ran through caverns measureless to man, down to a sunless sea."

After a pause, Mary asked Tosh,

"So where is it, lover?"

Owen's jaw clenched a little and Iris held him back so that he wouldn't run out and ruin the plan.

They then heard Tosh respond with, "Stay here, Jack, my boss, has got it."

Mary then spoke,

"Be quick. I've a long journey ahead of me. I might need something to eat before I go."

They waited for Jack to make his entrance.

"This what you're looking for?" Jack asked from his spot.

Tosh looked up and gasped, only able to utter out his name.

"Jack…"

Jack continued to speak, ignoring Tosh for a moment, his entire focus on Mary, making sure she wasn't going to do anything stupid.

"Friend of mine. Let's call him Vincent, that was his name after all. Regular guy, girlfriend, likes his sport, likes a beer. He starts acting a little strange, a little distracted. Suddenly he disappears for a couple of months. He comes back, and we've got to start calling him Vanessa. Since then I've always been a little nervous when a friend behaves out of character. I'm sorry, we haven't been introduced. Jack Harkness."

Iris winced a little when Jack spoke in the Southern American accent that she always cringed at.

"My guess is you're not from around these parts."

The 51st century man returned to his regular American accent as he continued.

"Now this? This is incredible You know what it is?"

Tosh replied instead of Mary, noticing that the team was cautiously coming out from their hiding spot.

"It's a transporter. Mary was a political prisoner. She was exiled here. Look, Jack-"

Jack cut her off sharply as he said,

"You've got half of it right. Mary, it is Mary, isn't it? You want to tell her the really interesting bit? No? Chatty, isn't she? I don't know how you got a word in edgeways, Tosh. It's a two-man transporter. Or whatever you people may be. You might be squids, for all I know. A two-squid transporter. Room for one prisoner and one guard. You want to tell us what happened to the guard, Mary?"

Mary looked at Jack and replied, "I killed him. But I was disturbed. Then another came, A soldier. He tried to shoot me. So I plunged my new human hand into his chest and plucked out his heart."

Owen spoke up in disgust, "And that's what you have been doing ever since."

Mary smirked as she walked closer to Iris and Owen, saying "This form needs to be fed."

Owen then backed up a little in shock, glancing towards Tosh, worried, as he murmured, "All the punctures were all about the size of a fist. My God, all those people. You killed all those people."

Tosh looked at Owen, meeting his eyes, and pausing. He seemed genuinely worried about her, not listening to Mary anymore as she was becoming more aware of how horrified Owen looked.

"I fled before any more soldiers came. I had so much to explore. And how I loved this body. So soft, so wicked. The power such a body has in this world. Within a few years the forest had gone, transporter was safely buried under the spread of the city. I didn't care, I wasn't exactly in a hurry to get home."

Iris then picked up from there, taking Jack's sentence right from his mouth, "And you've been killing ever since."

Mary glanced at Iris, her interest piqued at the girl as she replied, "I knew there might come a time when my situation here became complicated, but I was safe as long as I knew where the transporter was."

Iris saw Tosh put on her pendant, and quickly tried to make sure that Tosh didn't see what the plan was. They all saw Tosh look at Gwen, reading her thoughts, as Jack spoke.

"And then the machine was uncovered."

Mary replied, coming near Tosh.

"As soon as the air touched its surface, I could feel it."

Tosh quickly looked at Owen, who was looking more and more sick by what Mary was saying. Then, panic rose in Tosh, as she shouted,

"Owen, no!"

In a blur of movement, Mary had grabbed hold of Tosh and put a knife to her throat. Iris walked closer to the two little by little, nervous about what Mary would really do. She just kept repeating in her mind,

"Save Tosh. Take her place. Save Tosh. Take her place…"

Jack shouted, "Let her go, Mary. Let her go!"

Mary whispered into Tosh's ear, "Toshiko, tell them to give me the transporter."

Tosh trembled in fear and sadness as she said, "I can't Mary."

Tosh then, somehow heard Iris's voice louder than anybody else's and focused on the girl's voice.

"Save Tosh. Take her place. Save Tosh. Take her place…"

Iris felt something prick her mind again and nodded to Tosh. Tosh then heard Mary say,

"You, how's this? I'll exchange Toshiko for that one. Your choice."

Mary had indicated to Ianto about Iris. Ianto looked panicked, but nodded carefully. The team had agreed that if someone was to switch places with Tosh, they would immediately consent in their minds.

Mary paused in shock. That wasn't what she intended, but she carefully let go of Tosh. Jack then said,

"You want the transporter, I'll give you the transporter myself."

Mary leaned into Jack and sniffed a little, smiling in confusion, "You smell different to them."

Jack looked at Mary and joked, "That's nothing. It's when you compare teeth with a British guy, that's when it's really scary."

Mary replied with, "What are you?"

Jack for once, looked at her seriously with his reply, "I don't know."

Iris looked at Jack a little with sadness. All those things that would happen to him, all that pain, and he would continue to move on. Just like another man with a blue box.

Mary then asked, "And you would have put in a cage?"

But then the machine whirred to life and surprised, Mary asked,

"What's happening?"

Jack then shoved his hands into his pockets as he replied with,

"Oh, that. Iris and I reprogrammed it for you. It's set to enable."

Tosh looked at Iris in surprise. But she heard Iris think,

"I'm so sorry Tosh."

Confused, Tosh looked back at Mary to see her fly out of Torchwood.

The team were quiet when Tosh finally asked, "What did she? Has she gone home?"

The team looked away guiltily when Jack responded with,

"I reset the coordinates."

Tosh was beginning to piece the puzzles together and she cautiously asked,

"Where to?"

Jack responded with, "To the center of the sun. It shouldn't be too hot. I mean, we sent her there at night and everything."

Tosh then felt tears stream down her face, as she spit out, "You killed her."

Jack looked at her coldly and said, "Yes."

Owen stepped up to comfort Tosh, but he saw the woman storm out of the Hub with tears flowing freely.

"Couldn't you have been a bit nicer? She's going through a lot." Owen said to Jack.

Jack just looked at his team, when Iris spoke up.

"Go after her Jack. She needs time and you should clear up things with her."

Jack nodded. He grabbed his coat and went after Tosh.

With that, everyone quietly got ready to go get a drink. They needed the drink to help with the events that happened.

Up on Roald Dahl Plass, Tosh and Jack were sitting together, talking calmly as they saw the people walk by.

"It's funny. Such a small thing. It could be the most powerful piece of technology we've ever found. It could tear down governments, wipe out armies. What do we do with it?"

Tosh said as she looked at the pendant that led her to this entire incident.

"Your call." Jack said, looking at the Torchwood Technician.

After some deliberation, Tosh muttered, "It's a curse."

With that, she dropped the pendant to the ground and broke it with her heel.

Tosh then looked at Jack, and asked with curiosity,

"Why couldn't I read your mind?"

Jack looked at her, and then honestly replied, "I don't know. Though I could feel you scrabbling around in there."

"I got nothing. It's like you were, I don't know, dead." Tosh said as she looked in front of her, not noticing Jack's smile disappear a little. He quickly regained his smile and said,

"I want that list for UNIT on my desk tomorrow, or I'll… What do bosses do in situations like these? You know, regular bosses. Can I get to beat people?"

Tosh finally smiled as she replied, "We've got rules for that."

"Argh… red tape." Jack said, acting as if he was disappointed at that jokingly.

Tosh giggled a little and said wistfully,

"Jack. Something Mary said. Probably the only honest thing she ever did say. I asked her why she gave it to me, and she said, after a while, it gets to you. It changes how you see people. How can I live with it?"

Jack looked at her carefully and said, "There are some things we're not supposed to know. You got a snapshot, nothing more."

Tosh then said, "I don't mean about Iris or the rest of the team… I mean the whole world… but Jack, I think we need to help Iris out…"

Jack looked at her, wondering what she was talking about.

"I read her mind by accident, and then… it seemed… it's not really my secret to tell, but I think she need someone to talk about things." Tosh said, not really telling her boss anything.

Jack took that in his mind, and smiled warmly at Tosh. He got up and walked back towards the Hub, when Tosh got a text message from Iris.

"Drink and karaoke with team?" It said.

Smiling, Tosh replied and headed to the bar that the team were at.