Title: Tears of the Weevil
Summary: Back in 2007 Jack begins to understand what's going on.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Don't own Torchwood, the characters or anything related to the show.
"How are you holding up?" Jack sat beside Owen watching the water trickle down in to the basin.
"She's gone." He sulked. "I locked her in a cage with a weevil, Jack. It had something in its pocket. I put it there. It was small and a shiny metallic green…" He trailed off as he realised Jack wasn't listening.
"I've got something to do." He left Owen by the basin and headed off in to the bowls of Torchwood. "Ianto!" He dragged the bemused man from the archive tunnel he was in and down in to a smaller storage room, a grin on his face. "Small, green, metallic sphere-"
"Box thirty-two C, fifth shelf, third on the left."
Jack's grin became impossibly wide. Pulling Ianto in close he smacked the lips on him. The younger man pulled away, straightening his tie.
"Anything else sir?"
"Maybe later." He winked, his mood restored. "You can't tell the others…but Gwen's safe." Ianto looked confused by his statement.
The older man pulled the right box from the shelf and took out a small metallic sphere. "This is a crude version of my vortex manipulator. Owen gave it to the weevil. It knew how to use it. Which means I must have shown it how."
"You're suggesting a weevil was intelligent enough to work a device that travels through time? And you must have sent it to kidnap Gwen?"
Jack nodded. "Exactly. Weevils aren't all dumb, slobbering primitives you know. C'mon I'll show you." He once again dragged the younger man out of the room and towards the SUV. They drove in relative silence until they reached a small bar tucked away in one of the back streets of Cardiff.
"Hey Davis." Jack took a seat on one of the stools at the bar, his greatcoat hanging down behind him. Ianto took a seat beside him, carefully surveying the quiet bar. It was dimly lit and empty, being only ten in the morning. Davis, the bartender and owner, was a greying man in his late forties. He set a bottle of American beer down in front of Jack and another in front of Ianto.
"What can I do for you Jack?"
"I want you to show my friend here what you can do." Davis looked apprehensively around the bar before sighing.
Ianto watched as the man's teeth and fingers grew in to fangs and claws. The youngest man fell from his stool as he watched the man turn in to a weevil right in front of him.
"H-how?"
"Two percent of weevils retain their humanity."
"Retain?" Ianto quizzed as he got back to his feet.
"Davis fell through the rift, all the weevils have. In two thousand and eight a virus spreads throughout humanity, it causes seventy percent of the British population to become infected. Only two percent turn out like Davis."
"Jack explained it all to me in two thousand ten." Davis explained. "Been living here since ninety-eight."
Ianto's eyes widened as he realised what the bartender was saying. "You've known about this for almost a decade and you never even mentioned it?" Jack shrugged, taking a swig from his beer bottle.
"I told you. The twenty-first century is when it all changes."
"Owen." Owen looked up from his laptop to find Toshiko standing in his lab. "I can't find Lacey." She still looked quite dazed but at least she remembered Lacey.
"She's with Gwen. They'll be in soon."
"Oh, ok. Where's Ianto?" Owen sighed, running a hand through his overgrown hair.
"Ianto's gone Tosh. You know that."
"Gone where?" She didn't grasp the euphemism and Owen didn't feel like explaining Ianto's death for the third time since it had happened.
"He's out Tosh." Why don't you go have a nap? Lacey's gonna be here real soon. Toshiko left, mumbling to herself. Jack scowled at the frustrated doctor.
"You're not the only one who lost someone Jack!"
"No but you're the only one who's getting a second chance! Ianto's dead and Tosh is a few cents short of a dollar. You've got Gwen back and you have a beautiful, healthy baby girl-"
"I don't deserve them."
"It wasn't your fault Owen."