Here's the next update (slightly late) as promised. I'm already working on the next part, so hopefully chapter 13 shouldn't take too long! Glad you're all still following :) Enjoyy!
Chapter 12
Jack sat back in his chair with a sigh, rubbing his eyes with his hands. He had a huge pile of folders on the table in front of him, and no idea where to start. The looks of the other members of the team had been getting too much for him, and he could no longer bare to look at Gwens empty stare as she looked at her unconscious fiancé.
One other thing was bothering him though: why had these things not attacked him? Each of the other members of the team had come into contact with at least one of them, except for him. Not that he wanted to be attacked, but it was making studying them very difficult. Or were they even a they? For all he knew the torchwood team could be dealing with different forms of the same creature or many different ones all working towards the same goal...which was what exactly? So far all it had done was scare them before it went after Rhys. That had been a brake in the pattern. Unless it was its/their way of scaring Gwen; taking the fight out of her.
He stood up and walked over to the window of his office, looking down into the Hub at the other members of his team. Owen and Tosh were standing together near to the steps down to the lab, where he could vaguely see the outline of Gwen sitting next to the table where Rhys lay. He looked away from them, unable to watch for long. He felt guilty at being unable to protect them, when he had sworn to do just that. He instead looked back at Owen and Toshiko. The brief glimmer of a smile danced across his face as he watched them. It was obvious to all bar seemingly the two of them how they felt about each other. Owen was much harder to read than Toshiko, but Jack had spent a long time reading and was fairly sure by now. Looking around, he finally spotted Ianto sitting at his computer desk, watching the flickering screen. Jacks expression softened for a moment as his gaze lingered for a moment.
Stepping back towards the desk, he let out a long sigh again. He had looked through all of the files before, knew half of them back to front, and knew he would find nothing helpful. Except...Sitting back down, he looked thoughtful for a moment, before digging through the mountain of papers and folders.
Ianto sat at his desk, staring unseeing at the computer screen in front of him. Images were still flashing up from the research he had set going earlier, but he couldn't concentrate. Anyway, the computer programme would pick up on anything important, his watching it was just as a precaution. He could hear Tosh and Owen talking quietly over by the stairs as they gave Gwen some space and time with Rhys.
Jack had disappeared up into his office area to look at the old reports, though Ianto knew he really needed space himself, from the team and their frightened looks at him to tell them all it would be ok, that he could get them out of it as usual. He felt bad for him, but there was nothing he could say to make it easier. Jack was the leader of the team, and took his duties as a leader very seriously.
He felt strangely isolated sitting at the desk. He didn't want to disturb Jack, and he always felt slightly distanced from the others, especially Owen. He still seemed to think of Ianto as their servant rather than a member of the team, which usually made him feel awkward. And he had no idea what to say to Gwen.
He shivered slightly, suddenly, as if a cold breeze had suddenly rushed through the hub, though the air was still. He looked around, but none of the others seemed to have noticed. Looking up, he saw the shadow of Jack moving away from the window of his office. Clearly he had been looking down at the hub, keeping an eye on his team.
Ianto suddenly felt really out of place just sitting there by the computer desks in the middle of the room. Standing up, he decided to make everyone a drink. It usually made them all feel much more normal when they had a mug of steaming coffee in their hands, especially when they were on an extra weird job. None of the others looked around as he walked quietly across the room and into the small kitchen area where the coffee machine was. Instantly he felt more comfortable. He knew what he was doing here. This was something that he understood, whereas the majority of the rest of the team had no clue where to start with their old and weird coffee machine. Opening the cupboard, he began to pull out mugs and coffee grounds. Behind him, the door swung shut silently.