Title: Tears of the Weevil

Summary: Owen finds out the cure was under his nose all along

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Don't own Torchwood, the characters or anything related to the show.

"Owen!" Lacey shouted as she stormed in to the hub, followed closely by Gwen. "Owen get your ass out here now!" Jack frowned as he walked out of his office.

"Language kid." Lacey glared angrily at him, taking Jack by surprise.

"I'm twenty-one years old. I'm a not a kid Jack." He was about to respond when Owen rushed in to the room, tearing his shirt off the blonde.

"Oh my god. Where are you hurt?" She pushed him away with enough force to make him lose his footing and fall to the floor.

"It's not my blood." He let out the breath he'd been holding since first seeing the blood stained shirt and shook his head.

"You shout for a doctor while you're covered in blood! What the hell was I supposed to think Lacey? I was bloody terrified."

"Maybe for once you could realise I'm capable of looking after myself. I'm stronger than any weevil."

"Weevil or human, we all bleed. We all die." Lacey rolled her eyes at Jack's philosophical interruption and picked up the torn shirt.

"Three guys came to the apartment for Gwen. One might be dead." Ignoring the look of disbelief on Gwen's face she took off to find Toshiko.

"She's had a rough week." Jack reminded him as Owen scowled at her retreating form.

"Yeah well, she's not the only one."

Owen returned to his apartment to find the three agents gone and his place cleaner than it had been in months. Emmerich stood outside waiting for him. "I'm here to make a deal with you." She informed him as he stood glaring at her.

" No thanks. Already got double glazing."

"There is a cure." He fell silent as her words sunk in. "My scientists believe that given a large enough DNA sample they could have an immunization in a few weeks and a cure in a month."

Owen shook his head. "Gwen's not the cure. Her blood's different because this Gwen was never bitten." He tried to slam the door shut but her foot stopped it from closing.

"We don't want Gwen. It's the youngest member of your team we're interested in." She gasped as he roughly shoved her against the wall outside his apartment, his teeth threateningly exposed. "Leave Lacey the hell alone!" He growled, the weevil inside him threatening to break out. Emmerich struggled beneath him, pinned by his weight.

"Temper temper Doctor Harper. Don't you want to be cured? Don't you want to be happy? Live your life with Gwen… and your daughter? Think of what's best for her."

"I am!" He snarled. "There is no way I'd hand Lacey over to you lot. I'd rather spend the rest of my life as a weevil." He slammed her against the wall before releasing her; just to make sure she got the message.

She left clutching her bruised shoulder and leaving Owen to his own thoughts. He'd tested Lacey's blood a long time ago, when she'd first joined Torchwood, but nothing irregular had turned up. She was no ordinary human, but she wasn't a weevil either. She was something else entirely. He wondered how Emmerich had obtained a sample of Lacey's DNA. In the end it didn't matter he just needed a sample for himself.

"No way!" Lacey objected, her eyes staring at the needle in Owen's hands. "That thing is not coming any where near me! I'm not the cure, you already tested my blood."

Owen rolled his eyes. He'd been trying to get through to her for an hour. "Emmerich's sure you are and we tested it before you'd really developed. Maybe it's changed."
"DNA doesn't just change Owen. I'm sorry but I'm not doing this!"

"Come on! It's one little prick!" Lacey smirked.

"Sentences like that are the reason I have a girlfriend." Owen laughed, putting the needle down on his desk.

"I'm going for some air." He ruffled her hair before leaving the lab, passing Toshiko on the way out.

"Hey sweetie." She was back to her lucid self. "What's wrong? Owen seemed pretty stressed."

"He thinks my DNA may be the cure. I'm not so sure-" Toshiko kissed her, silencing her doubts. The younger girl grinned, pushing her backwards on to Owen's desk. "I think we should forget about weevils and cures just for today. Go back to the apartment and forget the rest of the world." Toshiko moaned as the younger girl teasingly nipped at her neck. "Sounds great, but first-"

"Hey!" Lacey growled as the needle Owen had left on his desk sunk in to her thigh. Toshiko removed it once she had enough blood. The blonde pouted.

"Owen put you up to this didn't he?" The other woman nodded but grinned.
"Now he has his sample Owen will leave you alone…with me all day." Lacey smiled overdramatically.

"I guess I could forgive you then…as long as you make it up to me." Toshiko smirked as she wrapped her arms around the blonde's waist, pulling her in close.

"Oh I think I can manage that."

Owen grunted, frustrated by the analysis of his daughter's blood. She showed signs of the weevil virus, even if they were dormant. She'd grow up and develop in to a weevil hybrid; but the virus was still dormant, so her blood wouldn't give him any indication of how Gwen's genes would affect her part weevil biology.

It could take years for the weevil in her to emerge. They didn't have time to wait. Taking Lacey's blood sample from the fridge he preyed Emmerich had been right. They couldn't go back and stop him being infected, but he could cure his daughter. Give her a chance at a normal life.

Several hours later Owen excitedly ran to Tosh and Lacey's apartment, pounding on the door. "Lacey! Open up! I've got good news." She opened the door, wrapped in a bed sheet and scowling.

"I've got news for you. I'm naked. Can't this wait?"

"I've done it!"

"Good for you; now go away and let me do it." Owen shook his head.

"I've found the cure!" The blonde's eyes lit up. "It was in your DNA all along, it must have just been dormant before."

"Fantastic. Give me half an hour and you can tell me all about it." She shooed him out of the apartment, still clutching to the sheet wrapped around her. When Tosh and Lacey finally arrived in the boardroom, giggling like teenagers, Jack smirked.

"Good of the two of you to finally show up." Gwen sat beside Owen looking over his shoulder at his notes, an absent smile on her face. Everyone was happy. "Over to you Owen."

The young doctor cleared his throat before addressing the team. "Alright. There is a cure. It's in Lacey's DNA. We could have an immunization made within months and a cure before the end of the year. We could completely eradicate the weevil virus."

"Ma'am, what are we going to do about the Torchwood girl?" Emmerich looked up from her laptop at one of the agents that had been attacked in Owen's apartment. His arm had been broken in three different places.

"Miss Cassidy is far too dangerous to try and apprehend out right. We'll need to make her turn herself in." She explained as though she were talking to a child, although considering the agent's concussion it was probably for the best anyway. "We take something precious to her. Something she'd give up everything for. Something like Toshiko Sato."