Buffy was just about to throw the paper airplane she had been crafting for the past hour at Gwen when Tosh called out a weevil sighting. Jack assigned Buffy with Tosh and Owen as her backup. Buffy opened her mouth to protest—she didn't need any backup for just one weevil—but Jack cut her off.

"Orders are orders," he said firmly, as if it would make a difference with her. "You worked in UNIT, so you should be used to them by now."

"In UNIT I gave the orders," she grumbled. Owen smiled as they grabbed their gear and headed out.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

When they got to the warehouse and picked up the weevil's trail, Buffy ran after it without bothering to make sure the others were with her. They could catch-up later. She thought she had it when it suddenly paused, but when it saw her it ran again. She paused only a moment to see what made it stop: there was a dead body on the floor.

"Owen!" she shouted. "We've got a corpse here."

She ran in pursuit of the weevil while Owen and Tosh dealt with the body. She didn't really want them with her when she got the weevil anyways. They'd remind her about the capture half of pursue and capture. Her slayer instincts were all about pursue and kill, and she stuck by her instincts. It was a quick battle before snapping the weevil's neck. As she hauled the carcass onto her back she thought wistfully about the ease of killing vampires. They at least were polite enough to turn to dust and not leave her with any cleanup. She went to rejoin her fellow Torchwoodians.

"You got it?" Owen asked from where he crouched over the body.

"You killed it!" Tosh exclaimed.

"Or did it just break its neck by itself?" Owen added sarcastically.

"I think I hit it too hard," Buffy said with fake contriteness. "Oops."

"Well, we've got to get both of these corpses back to the hub," Owen said.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Once more everyone (excepting Ianto) was gathered around autopsy while Owen did his thing. Buffy sat on the steps while Jack and Tosh leaned on the railings, and Gwen hovered over Owen and the body.

"Documents on the body identify the victim as Meredith Roberts," Jack said.

"I thought Meredith was a girl's name," Buffy said.

"Last I checked, you really aren't one to be an authority on names," Owen said to her playfully. "No obvious signs of trauma."

"My mother gave me my name," Buffy said defensively.

"Joyce was a good woman… taste in names aside," Jack cut in before Owen could insult Buffy's mum.

"Wait," Gwen said. "Are we saying it wasn't the Weevil that killed him?"

"Give me a chance, Miss Cooper," Owen said. "I've only just started."

"It wasn't the Weevil," Buffy said.

"And how do you know that?" Owen argued back.

"He doesn't smell like a weevil. Has no one but me noticed the smell? This guy reeks of dead body and not a sewer."

"Well, give it up for Miss Marple," Owen muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Ianto's voice came from the speakers. "Jack, your VIP visitor is here."

"I didn't realize we were having a visitor," said Gwen.

They all followed Jack to the cog door entrance—Buffy and Owen arguing along the way.

"I am not Miss Marple. She was way old."

"There's not all that many female detectives," Owen said.

"And just what was Nancy Drew?"

He didn't have time to answer as the door rolled opened and Jack was giving some speech about nightingales.

"Martha Jones," he said as he grinned and winked to the woman who walked in.

"Martha!" Buffy squealed in true California girl fashion.

"Buffy? Oh my god!" The two hugged. "I had no idea you'd be in Torchwood now."

"You two know each other?" Jack interrupted. He looked a little peeved that his big moment had just been overshadowed by squeeing girls.

"Briefly," Martha said. "Way back, and yet not so long ago."

"There was a thing," Buffy said evasively.

"How about a hug for me, huh?" Jack pouted.

Martha obliged happily. "Oh, it's good to see you, Jack."

Jack introduced the rest of the team. "Toshiko, Owen, Gwen, Ianto… meet Martha."

"Uh, just a casual visit or… ?" Owen left the question hanging.

Martha picked up her bag. "I'm here to complete your postmortem."

Owen looked confused so Jack explained. "Dr. Jones is from UNIT."

And they were all heading back to the autopsy pit.

"Oh, um, sorry, sorry," Gwen was saying as she ran to catch up. "I get a bit confused. I know Buffy was part of it, but which one's UNIT?"

"Intelligence, military, cute red caps—the acceptable face of intelligence-gathering on aliens. We're more ad hoc. But better looking."

"Eh," Buffy said. In response Jack held out his arms as if to say 'what could be better looking than me.'

Martha ignored them and got straight to business. "I identified a pattern from UNIT's data on sudden deaths. Toxic shock. Nothing to link the victims. Different ages, sexes, ethnic origins, occupations. But there was a statistically significant concentration in South Wales."

"Come on, Martha, be honest," said Jack. "You just came all this way to see me."

"Still struggling to conquer your shyness, Jack?"

He laughed. When Martha and Owen started talking about needles, Buffy left. Part of her hospital fear was a fear of needles. Needles, scalpels, and hospital beds. The morgue, of course, wasn't exactly pleasant either, but she was rather immune to dead bodies coming back to life suddenly. Dead bodies that stayed dead were creepy though.

They all gathered around Tosh's station to discover that this dead guy's medical records were nonexistent. Jack let Tosh work her hacking magic. He gestured for Martha to go into his office, but she shook her head, held up a hand, and tilted her head towards Buffy. He nodded and went into his office. Martha joined Buffy.

"So Torchwood?" she asked. "When did that happen?"

"Just after you got back from your adventure on Messaline—according to Donna. And a few days after I met you for lunch in London."

"Wow, that soon."

"Well it was a few years later for me."

"But how did you decide to come here? Did Jack ask because you were with the Doctor?"

"No, I haven't exactly gotten around to telling him about that. I needed a change of scene and here I am."

"He doesn't know?"

"Not yet. I'll tell him… eventually."

When Martha went into Jack's office, Owen came over to Buffy.

"All right, how do you really know Martha? You don't expect me to believe 'a thing a while back,' do you?"

"A UNIT thing. You don't have the clearance to hear about it."

"Really?" He still sounded as if he didn't believe her.

"Yes, a classified UNIT thing… and we kind of have the same doctor, so we crossed paths. Don't you have work to be doing right now?"

Buffy pretended to be busy herself.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

When Martha, Jack and Gwen came back from The Tour, Owen started showing off his "singularity scalpel." Buffy got a seat out of danger on the couch and enjoyed watching Ianto duck and scream. But even that couldn't faze the Welshman for more than a moment. He took a breath and reported the next victim was found alive and was now in the hospital. Everyone automatically took off. Buffy stayed behind with Tosh.

When they came back Owen and Martha got to work analyzing their samples, and then everyone got together for the briefing. Buffy kept out of the way enough to be overlooked for any assignment. This whole thing with death by needles and hospitals wasn't her thing. Jack seemed to notice. He pulled her aside when everyone dispersed.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I stand against the darkest, ugliest, most terrifying monsters without any sign of shaking in my boots. But this case… has me a little wigged. It's not exactly my territory."

"You need to stand down?"

"Am I needed?"

"Not at the moment. You're right; this is Martha and Owen's field more than yours. Take the rest of the day off."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy did a quick sweep around the university again, but feeling restless she decided to return to the Hub to see how things were going.

When she came into the Hub Owen and Tosh were having an intense discussion with Jack watching—if it were any tenser it would have been a full out argument.

"We have to get her out of there," Owen was saying.

"That place is swamped in security," Tosh said. "If we try and steam in, we'll be putting her at risk!"

"We can't leave her there can we?" Owen protested.

"If I can't get her signal back in thirty minutes, then we think of alternatives."

"Anything could be happening to her in there."

"Martha can handle herself," Jack interjected. "She's been in worse situations than this."

"Sure about that?" Owen asked.

"If he's not, I am," Buffy said as she joined them. "At least I'm assuming so because the whole planet isn't about to be destroyed while she's been kidnapped and replaced by an evil twin. Right? It's not that bad?"

Jack shrugged and Owen looked even more frustrated and nervous. Buffy just watched without knowing what had happened while she was gone—no one looked in a sharing mood just then. It wasn't long after that Ianto said he had someone who would be able to get them in to save Martha. Minutes later they brought the guy in and down to the cells for interrogation.

Jack didn't even wait to see what Buffy had to say. "We're just going to frighten him a little. Won't lay a hand on him."

"I wasn't going to say you couldn't do that," Buffy muttered as he left. After all, she'd roughed up Willie the Snitch a number of times for information.

She watched with Tosh on the monitors as Ianto led in a Weevil while Jack and Owen watched and questioned the guy.

"Why didn't I think of doing that more?" Buffy asked herself aloud.

"Use a Weevil for intimidation?"

"You gotta admit it works nicely."

Tosh only smiled in response. Then she frowned as she looked at the screens. "What the…"

Buffy winced as she watched the blood spurt from the man's mouth. Owen tried to save him, but the man was dead and there was a giant dragonfly in the cell.

"Okay, I've missed some things," Buffy said. "Where'd the alien come from?"

"The testing facility we've lost Martha in has been using this alien to create a drug that can cure anything. Unfortunately it also incubates these aliens that then explode from the body and kill the host."

"Eugh," Buffy said with a shudder. "It's like one of Xander's favourite movies. And Jack wanted to use this now dead guy to get us in and save Martha? I think we have a problem with that."

"Unless…" Tosh trailed off in thought and starting typing away on her computer. Ianto came in and Tosh turned to him. "Ianto, what have you done with Billy Davis' body?"

"Um, I was just about to dispose of it. Why?"

"I've thought of a way we can use him to get us into the Pharm." Both Ianto and Buffy looked over her shoulder at what she pulled up. "Clever, huh?"

"I like it," Buffy said.

"Oh, you are warped on the inside. How do you think of these things?"

"I'll take that as a compliment."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

The team all piled into the back of a jeep. Buffy was squished between Jack and Ianto across from the others while Tosh controlled the car from her laptop. When they made it through and got out, Buffy followed Jack and Owen.

When they burst into the room with Martha tied to the table, tubes in her arm, Buffy froze. Her head swam with images of her cousin dying in the hospital, her mom's stay there, her mom in the morgue. Jack was arguing with the doctor in the room, but Buffy didn't register what they were saying.

"Buffy." Owen's voice broke through her haze. "Help me with this, would you?"

She focused on the tasks he set her and pushed through her fear. She had to help save Martha now. Martha's stomach was moving from the alien inside it—the thing that was killing her. She held Martha while Owen pulled out the singularity scalpel and started tweaking the dials. Then Buffy heard Jack and the other man arguing.

"You abused the Mayflies, you turned them into parasites!" Jack said.

"We didn't understand how the Mayflies reproduced. We tried to limit the damage."

"What, by murdering people?"

"They were going to die anyway. We're on the edge of the greatest discovery in history. It's gotta be worth a few sacrifices! You must understand that, Jack; you're involved in alien research."

"Not like this. I'm closing this place down." Inwardly Buffy was cheering for her father.

"In your dreams. This is a state of the art, official facility."

"Oh, I'm not going to do it by sending a memo. We're in control of your IT systems. As we speak, we're crashing your data banks, wiping your records."

"That's cyber terrorism!"

"And that's just for starters. We're going to trip the systems of your fire, radiation and biohazard safety networks. The power will cut, sprinklers will be activated, and a large part of this facility will be sealed and flooded with inert gases."

"The aliens will die."

"They're already dying. This way they'll be put out of their misery."

"For God's sake, we're on the same side!"

"No. Combating hostile aliens is one thing, but this is slavery, exploitation, a war crime!" Under different circumstances, Buffy would have been very glad that Jack could see that difference.

"Jack," Owen shouted. He was getting ready to use the scalpel because Martha was dangerously close to dying.

"What the hell are you doing to her?" In the distraction, the doctor disappeared from the room.

"This is the only way we'll save Martha," Owen argued. "I think I understand how it works."

"You'd better be sure because it's never worked before. Owen, are you sure it's safe?"

"Okay, Buffy pull back!"

Owen ignored Jack's question, but Jack wasn't giving up. "Owen, tell me you're sure! You could kill her with that thing. We're losing her!"

Martha bolted upright and then fell back again. Everything was still while the monitor buzzed. After a moment it started beating again and Martha coughed.

"Oh, bloody hell, it worked. Thank God for that," Owen said.

"Let's get her out of here," Jack said to Buffy while Owen gathered up his things.

Buffy helped Owen support Martha while Jack led the way out of the building. Just to show everything was fine, Owen was flirting again. "I am prescribing rest and recuperation for you, madam, and a few days in bed, preferably under my supervision."

"Owen, I don't know how to break this to you—I've got a fiancé."

"Yeah, but has he saved your life like I did?"

They were outside and Martha stood on her own power. "Um, yes, actually."

Owen's face fell. "Oh."

Buffy laughed and joined up with Jack. He was giving Tosh the order to shut the place down.

"Well?" he asked Buffy as she looked at him.

"We did good," she said.

"Did you really think I was going to let you just walk away?" The crazy doctor was back and he held a gun pointed towards them. Owen was moving in front of Martha, so Buffy crept just behind him. "You've ruined everything I've worked for."

"Now, let's not be stupid. Okay?" Owen said.

Why does everyone try to reason with the crazy guy with the gun? Buffy thought. At least Gwen had the right idea to pull out her gun. Buffy moved closer to Owen, but kept the man still in sight. She pulled the knife from out of her boot and gripped it.

"We're both rational men, scientists." Owen slowly moved towards the crazy doctor. "I know you don't want to shoot."

It all happened in slow motion. She saw him pull the trigger. With one hand she pulled Owen to the ground while the other shot the knife straight into the man's chest. But the bullet had escaped the barrel of the gun and hit her in the chest. The force of it pushed her to the ground. She couldn't breathe and everything was fading into black.

Why did this keep happening to her?

And the secret's out! Also, Owen. Not remotely dead. My story, my way, things are gonna be different from here on.