Chapter 4: Toshiko

No-one was prepared for the state of Toshiko when she entered the Hub. She was walking fast with her head down, hair loose and hanging down to hide her face. Gwen looked at Jack and raised her eyebrows questioningly. Jack shrugged, as bewildered as she, and moved from Owen's desk – where he and Gwen had been talking – and stood by Toshiko. She was sitting at her desk, coat still on, with her head down.

"Tosh?" he asked gently, putting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing lightly. He had never seen her like this before. Even in the UNIT detention centre she had been calm and controlled. "What is it?"

She turned towards him and lifted her head showing her tear-streaked face and forlorn expression. "Oh, Jack!" she wailed and flung her arms round him, holding on tightly. Jack held her, giving what comfort he could. Gwen was now standing beside him, a little behind the weeping woman. They again exchanged glances which mirrored their continuing bewilderment.

The door alarm sounded and Owen walked in, looking round him as if searching for something or someone. He spotted Toshiko and climbed the steps two at a time. "Tosh, you ran off. Are you okay?" He hesitated, putting out a hand to touch her.

He was interrupted by Toshiko who pulled away from him violently at the same time as pushing into Jack, who staggered slightly but maintained his footing. "Leave me alone!" she shouted, "Just leave me alone! I never want to talk to you again!"

She was screaming and Jack foresaw hysterics before much longer. He gathered her to him, got her to her feet and, still in a bear hug, walked with her to his office. As he shut the door, he caught Gwen's eye and nodded in Owen's direction. She got the message and turned to face the doctor.

"What the fuck have you done!?" she demanded, slamming down the file she was holding. Her hands went to her hips and she braced herself for a slanging match. Which, much to her surprise, she did not get. Owen looked at her and shrugged. He tried to speak but no words came and he slunk over to the couch and slumped down, head resting in his hands. He looked the picture of dejection. Gwen felt the fight go out of her.

She thought back to earlier in the day, to the meeting in the Boardroom. They had been working for the past few days on finding a collection of alien artefacts that had gone missing from a known dealer. Some of them had come up for sale on e-bay and Toshiko had discovered the address of the seller, a petty thief living in Llandaff. It had been agreed that she and Owen would visit the guy and recover the artefacts. They had left shortly after lunch for what everyone thought would be a simple operation.

Now the two had returned, three hours later. Gwen could not conceive what had happened to reduce Toshiko, the most private and emotionally controlled person she had ever met, to her current state. She looked at Owen and decided it was time to get some answers. She sat on the coffee table, facing him. "What happened, Owen?" she asked, her tone firm but not confrontational. He shook his head, still resting on his hands, but did not speak. "Tell me!" she said more forcefully. "What did you do to Tosh?"

His head came up quickly and he looked mutinous. "Nothing! I didn't do anything. It's just so stupid." He sighed dramatically and pushed his hands through his hair. "I never thought she'd get so upset." He sounded disbelieving, almost incredulous. He looked up at her and sighed again, more softly this time. "It was like this," he began.

In his office, Jack sat in his chair with Toshiko on his knee. He had not intended to end up in this position but she would not let go of him. He held her tight, his mouth close to her ear saying soothing nothings. She had calmed a little but was far from her normal self. He thought back over the nearly four years he had known her and could not think of one occasion when he had seen her so upset. Not when he had despatched Mary, her murderous alien lover, or they had sent Tommy back to 1918.

He realised that her breathing was more regular and that the sobs were becoming intermittent, gradually the sobbing ceased altogether. She sniffed. He reached into his trouser pocket and handed her his handkerchief, luckily still clean. She took it and wiped her eyes before blowing her nose. She made to sit up but he held her against him, lightly so she could have moved if she'd wanted to, but she chose to stayed where she was.

"What's this all about, Tosh?" he asked quietly. "Did the mission go wrong?"

She sniffed again and hiccupped. "Not really," she admitted; her voice was low and she was talking into his chest so he had to strain to hear her. "We got there all right, found the guy. He ran away, down to the basement where he had a storage locker." She paused, and wiped her eyes. "He locked himself in and we had to get him out," she started to cry again. "And he ..."

"... so he was in the locker," continued Owen, "a metal one that he'd rigged so he could lock it from the other side. Only way of opening it was to knock off this plate thing. Well, I couldn't shoot it off, could I? Would have sent ricochets all over the shop. Tosh and I had a bit of a row about how to get him out. I told her to leave it to me but she said no, she could do it ..."

"I tried the artefact that opens locks, you know, the one Suzie found," said Toshiko earnestly. "It didn't work and Owen was laughing at me, said tech was good for nothing. I was so mad that I used the only other thing I had and ... and ... it broke," Toshiko sobbed, her crying controlled but heartbreaking. "It broke into little pieces."

"I didn't know she'd get so bloody upset. Honest, I didn't. I didn't want her to use the bloody laptop to smash the lock," Owen continued. "But it did open the door," he added, admiringly.

Owen was in the Medical Bay, not doing much of anything, just staying out of the way. It was two hours since their dramatic return to the Hub and he just wanted to forget the whole thing.

"Owen?" called Toshiko from the top of the steps. He looked up. She smiled slightly and leant on the railing. "I ... I'm sorry."

"No, Tosh, I'm the one who's sorry." He came forward until he was standing just below her. "I should have found something else, some tools or something."

She shook her hair, "No, I shouldn't have got so angry, I was way over the top. And, it was just a laptop," she said this fast, trying to believe it. "I can get another. In fact, Jack's already said I can buy whatever I want."

"That's good. Can't imagine you without a laptop," he said this light heartedly, trying to cheer her up. "Did you lose any files or anything?"

"No, they were all backed-up." She smiled her usual, diffident smile. "Well, I'd better get back to work."

"Okay." He paused and then added, "Hey, Tosh, can I buy you a drink tonight?"

She nodded and smiled some more, "That'd be nice. Thanks."

In his office, Jack and Gwen were looking out at the Hub and saw Toshiko go back to her desk. "Only Toshiko would use a laptop to open a door and get so upset when it broke," he commented, shaking his head.