Notes: The final chapter of The Hatchling. Hope you enjoy and thanks again for the reviews. Now I'll be getting started on a fic that focuses on my favorite Welsh tea-boy, Ianto Jones. Thanks again!!
Tamsyn paced around the small, windowless room, boredom and anxiety eating away at her. She'd been stuck there for an entire day after her seemingly miraculous return from the dead. The first thing she wanted to do, aside from getting some clothes, was phone Callum and her father, but Jack wouldn't allow that.
"What are you all saying?" she muttered as she sat down and looked at the image of the Torchwood team going about their daily routine in the hub. Jack and Owen had been nice enough to bring a television for her, and tuned to the right channel, she could pick up the security link to the hub, but not being able to talk to them was driving her mad.
"Room service." Owen called as he walked in, carrying a paper bag, no doubt containing some sort of take out.
"Thanks." Tamsyn replied with a half smile as she started to remove the chinese takeaway from the bag. "So, how is everyone today?" she asked conversationally.
"Fine, I guess." Owen answered. "Tosh is a bit quiet, on account of you being dead and all." he said. "Ianto's a bit snappy and Gwen seems a little apathetic." he added. "Jack's in a pretty good mood, which isn't going down so well with the others."
"I'm dying to hear all about Tosh's date.." she said as she bit into an egg roll. "I don't suppose you could ask her and then report back to me?" she asked hopefully.
"I'm not gonna go up to Tosh and ask her how her date went." Owen refused. "She'd think it was a bit odd you know." he said as he looked at her. "I pick on the Adonis with a badge, then suddenly I want all the juicy details? I think not."
"Adonis with a badge?" she asked with a laugh. "That sounds slightly bitter." she said as she eyed him. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were jealous."
"If you're going to accuse me of such ridiculous things, I'm leaving and you'll have no company for the rest of the day 'til Jack brings you dinner." Owen said, sounding as though he was getting ready to leave in a huff.
"Oh, don't run off." she said with a sigh. "I'm just bored. Pay me no mind." she added as she picked up a carton of noodles.
"OK then." Owen said, feeling as though he'd gotten his way. "So, is there anything you're gonna need for a bit?" he asked as he took an egg roll and started munching.
"Not that I can think of." Tamsyn answered. "I do have one question though."
"Shoot." he encouraged.
"Will what happened, the whole bloody alien popping from my stomach, and that damned dying thing, will that affect whether or not Callum and I can have more kids?" she asked.
"I don't know." Owen answered, feeling a bit uncomfortable, fearing she may start going on about her women's bits and if they'd continue to work. "Jack just wants to keep you another day. Twenty-four short hours. Then you can find some doctor to look you over." he said as he got back to his feet. "I need to get back."
"Twenty-four short hours?" she responded as she dropped the container of noodles onto the small table in front of her. "Short for you because you're not stuck in some horrid little room nobody knows about, watching your friends on a t.v. and they don't know you're even around." she said. "You're not stopped from talking to your family, the people you love the most. Twenty-four short hours, my ass!"
"I'm sorry." he apologized. "But it's for the best. You don't want to put them all through your death twice." he said, "Your vitals are back to normal, and you can eat, sleep, those are all good signs." he reminded her. "I'm sorry." he said again before leaving to join the others again.
"You been able to figure out anything that would explain this?" Jack asked Owen while the other's were off getting lunch themselves.
"No, her blood samples are all normal, nothing odd about heartbeat, heart rate, breathing." Owen shrugged. "When she said something about hatching from an egg..."
"She did." Jack replied.
"I thought maybe being locked up in a morgue drawer just made her go a little funny." Owen said. "So, she's an alien?"
"Yup." Jack nodded. "An alien who looks, talks, walks and feels like a human."
"She just happened to hatch from an egg." Owen said as he made a low whistling sound.
"Glad you're on the same page as us." Jack said as he patted the other man on the shoulder. "I'm gonna go visit our guest."
"I don't suppose you've come to tell me I can go home?" Tamsyn asked hopefully when Jack entered.
"Sorry." Jack said, truly feeling sorry for putting her through this.
"I didn't think you'd say yes, just thought it was worth a try." she said as she sat cross legged on a single bed tucked in the corner. "Can I ask something?"
"As long as it's not what you asked Owen." Jack answered. "Not really my area of expertise."
"It's not." she assured him. "I was wondering, do you know anything about any race of aliens that, you know, hatch?"
"No." he answered.
"Do you know anyone who does?" she asked.
"I know a guy who seems to know just everything about every race of alien there is." he answered. "But, he's really hard to get a hold of, he travels all the times." he said softly when he saw her perk up a bit.
"All the time, you mean." she said, thinking she was correcting him.
"Yeah, that's what I meant." he said with a bark of laughter that rather worried her. "I'm sorry. He comes to Cardiff once in a great while, I could always keep an eye out for him."
"I'd like that, thank you." she said with a smile, much warmer than she'd shown since she'd woken up. "I just want to know about where I came from, who I came from."
"I know the feeling." Jack said. "Gang's back from lunch." he said, looking at the monitor. "I'd better be getting back." he said. "People are starting to think Owen and I are up to something."
"You are." she reminded him.
"Well, when he and I disappear at the same time to come see you," he said as he leaned forward "They're thinking some rather dirty things I'm afraid." he added quietly.
"You had to get 'round to Owen sooner or later, didn't you?" Tamsyn laughed. "I figure, by year's end you will have had them all."
"I'll keep that in mind." he said with a sly smile. "See ya later."
"Ciao." she said as she lay down, feeling a bit sleepy.
"Today's the day." Jack said as Owen hung up his coat.
"How are we gonna do this?" Owen asked as he yawned.
"I've got Callum and Henry coming in at eleven." Jack answered. "They think they're coming to drop off clothes and to make some arrangements for a funeral home to pick her up."
"Oh come on, that's what you came up with?" Owen said. "They're getting ready to make funeral arrangements and we'll just bring her out and say "No need, boys, our little eggy friend healed herself and here she is. Sorry, we had to keep her from you a couple of days to make sure she didn't keel over." I can see that going real well, Jack."
"Do you have a more gentle way of telling them she's been alive for the last two days, but that we've kept her from them?" Jack asked, feeling a little annoyed, partly because he knew his ruse was rubbish and partly because Owen had pointed it out so rudely.
"No." Owen said sheepishly.
"I didn't think so." Jack replied looking at his watch. "The others should be in soon."
"What are you gonna do about them?" Owen asked.
"What do you mean?" Jack asked.
"What are you gonna do when the rest of the team are pissed at you for not telling them that one of their friends is alive and we didn't bother to let them in on our little secret?"
"What little secret?" Ianto asked as he walked in, taking off his coat, followed closely by Tosh and Gwen.
"You're not going to like it." Jack warned them.
"What secret?" Gwen asked, feeling nervous.
"It's about Tamsyn." Jack said.
"What about her?" Tosh asked.
"She's alive." Jack blurted out.
"What?" all three asked.
"She's alive." Jack repeated, "She somehow regenerated, healed and she's back."
"She came back from the dead?" Gwen asked.
"Where is she?" Tosh asked, eager to see the friend she thought lost.
"How long ago?" Ianto asked.
"We'll bring her out for you, she's dying to get out of that room." Jack answered Ianto first. "We've been keeping an eye on her for the last forty-eight hours."
"Two days?" Tosh asked. "She's been alive, here in the hub, for two days and you never bothered to say anything?" she asked, finding herself relieved, but at the same time furious. "You knew about this?" she asked Owen.
"Jack called me to look her over." he explained.
"You could tell Owen, but not us?" Ianto asked.
"Do Callum and her father know?" Gwen asked.
"Owen is the doctor, I needed him to look her over." Jack explained. "Callum and Henry are on their way over, and neither of them knows." he added, the feeling he was going to have a very angry team on his hands for a while growing. "We didn't want to let too many people know, in case her regeneration didn't last."
"I'm gonna go get her." Owen said, not wanting to be ripped apart for his part in the whole thing.
"How did she...regenerate?" Tosh asked. "Human's can't simply come back from the dead."
"She's not human then is she." Ianto said as he crossed his arms, staring at Jack.
"No." Jack answered. "We don't know what she is."
"Tamsyn!" Tosh cried as she saw her friend follow Owen up from the direction of the cells. "You didn't keep her down with Janet, did you?" she asked him accusingly.
"No, we kept her in some little room I didn't even know exsisted 'til Jack said something." Owen replied.
"I'm so glad to see you." Tosh said, crying as she hugged Tamsyn.
"Oh you don't know how good it is to be out of that room." Tamsyn said as she returned the hug. "Where's Callum?" she asked. "And my dad?"
"They'll be here soon." Jack answered.
"It's good to see you... alive." Gwen said, at a loss for words, as she too hugged Tamsyn.
"Thanks." she replied. "Ianto, don't I get a hug at least?" she asked, as she took the tissue Tosh offered.
"Of course." the Welshman answered as he moved over and got his turn to hug the small woman. "It's really good to have you back." he said as he squeezed her.
"Thank you." she gasped. "You're hurting me, though, Ianto."
"Sorry." he said as he released her. "Breakfast?" he offered.
"Please." she smiled. "Just nothing with eggs." she added.
"Not a problem." he laughed as he headed for the small kitchen.
"So, what do we do 'til my dad and Callum get here?" Tamsyn asked.
"Whatever you want." Jack answered, as he tried to ignore the glares from Tosh and Gwen.
"Harkness?" Callum called as he forced himself to walk into the hub.
"Coming." Jack called as he went to meet the other man. "How are you holding up?" he asked as he shook both Callum's and Henry's hands.
"As well as could be expected." Henry said. "Can we do this quickly?" he asked. "This isn't my favorite place to be, for obvious reasons."
"Actually, there's something I need to tell you." Jack said rather uneasily.
"What?" Callum asked.
"Come up to the confrence room and have a seat." Jack said, leading the way.
"What's going on?" Henry asked as he sat down.
"You said we could take her, to make the arrangements." Callum said.
"That's what I need to talk to you about." Jack began. "You're going to be both estatic and royally pissed at the same time."
"Why?" Henry asked. "What have you done?"
"I've kept Tamsyn from you the last two days." Jack answered.
"Owen was cleaning her up, we knew that." Callum answered. "It probably would have been the same at a hospital."
"At the hospital, it would have been much more interesting." Jack said.
"What the hell are you on about, Jack?" Henry snapped.
"Tamsyn is alive." Jack said after taking a deep breath.
"Alive?" Callum asked.
"I saw... I saw her...die." Henry mumbled.
"Apparently, her unique make up gave her some regenerative powers." Jack said.
"What?" Callum asked, completely lost.
"She came back from the dead, essentially." Jack answered. "She's not strictly human, that's the only thing I can think of that can explain it." he looked to Callum. "You knew that right?"
"She said something on the phone, that's why I was on my way back." he nodded as he stood up. "So, my wife's been alive the last two days and you're just now getting 'round to telling us?" he asked.
"We didn't have much of a..." was all Jack was able to get out before feeling a large fist in his face, and falling to the ground. "Ok, I deserved that." he said as he stood up.
"You deserve a hell of a lot more than that!" Callum said, his face red with anger. "My wife, I thought she was dead, I've been crying since that night, I've been sitting in our house holding her bloody nightgown, just so I could smell her!" he screamed. "You have some nerve."
"Where is she?" Henry asked.
"Callum?" they heard a voice call, one they knew only too well, one they thought they'd never hear again. "Dad?"
"Syn!" Callum said as he turned to see his wife running in, right to him. "Oh god." he said as he picked her up and squeezed as hard as he could, lifting her from the ground. "I thought I'd lost you." said, tears freely streaming down his face.
"I'm all right though." she said, her voice muffled by his shoulder.
"Oh I missed you." he said as he put her down. "I love you, Syn." he said as he kissed her.
"Get away." Henry said, not being able to stop the tears himself. "She's my daughter you know."
"Dad." Tamsyn cried as she hugged her father.
"My baby." Henry cried.
"Come on, Syn." Callum said when Henry finally let her go.
"I need to say a quick goodbye." she answered.
"Ok. Take your time." Callum said, walking over to Jack he leaned in and whispered. "Stay the hell away from us, I mean it."
Tamsyn was just getting done hugging Ianto when she went over to Jack.
"I'm still mad at you for sticking me in that room." she said with a tearful laugh.
"You're free to seek revenge." he joked. "I hope you'll come by and see us, whenever you want." he said, completely serious. "We liked having you around to help us."
"I'm sorry, Jack." she shook her head. "I just can't. I want to just go home and spend as much time as possible with Callum and my dad. Maybe go back to work at the station." she smiled. "But, that doesn't mean we can't all hang out now and then." she added.
"Somehow I don't think I'm going to be at the top of your husband's guest list." Jack said as he looked over to see Callum glaring at him.
"He'll calm down." Tamsyn said. "I'll talk to him and get him to understand."
"I hope so." Jack said as he hugged her. "Good luck."
Tamsyn took a coat her father offered her and was hugging Tosh again.
"You, Nick, Callum and I are going to have to do a double date soon." she said.
"Most definitely." Tosh agreed as she kissed Tamsyn's cheek and moved away.
"Here." Owen said as he handed Tamsyn a scrap of paper.
"What's this?" she asked.
"It's a name of a top-notch doctor I know." he said. "I'm sure you've got one, but I know him pretty well, we go way back. If you want to know if you and Callum can have more kids, he'll be a great help."
"Thank you." she said as she stood on tiptoe to give him a quick peck on the cheek. "And no matter what you say, you're jealous." she teased before going to join her husband and father.With one more quick wave to the Torchwood team, she smiled, took her husband's hand, and left.
Jack and Owen watched, both smiling before looking back to see Ianto, Gwen and Tosh staring at them.
"I had to keep it quiet!" he pleaded again as he watched them all walk off, seemingly ignoring what he was saying. Not a good sign of the time to come.
THE END
Jack