Chapter 13
Owen sat down beside Tosh, he beckoned Nathan to join them and with a little hesitation he eventually walked over and sat beside Owen.
"You know you've done pretty well… most people would have freaked by now, I did, I think we all did 'part from maybe Jack and Tegana, she grew up with it." Owen praised Nathan.
"What about Jack?" Nathan asked, his voice sounding weary. Owen frowned not following.
"What did he do when he found out?"
"Oh, not sure, wasn't there. He's complicated anyway." Owen dismissed the thought before he ended up having to explain everything.
"Yeah complicated!" Tosh echoed. She shifted her position so she could see Nathan.
"Just to let you know, you're not the only one who's going to be a little confused in the next few minutes." Tosh said, glancing at Jack.
He was twitching, Jack was twitching. Nathan stared. How was this possible?
Gasping Jack sat straight up, taking a moment to breathe before he turned to his friends.
Owen laughed as he watched Nathan as his eyes widen at the sight of the miracle.
"Where's Tegana? Where's Ianto and Gwen?" Jack asked getting himself up.
"They went that way!" Owen pointed to the door.
"Right come on!" Jack announced, helping Tosh up. Owen was quickly up and at Jack's side, Nathan was too shocked to move.
Jack paused in front of Nathan.
"Look I know it's a bit of a shock, but there's no time to explain." Jack told him, offering his hand to help him up.
Nathan accepted with the vain hope that everything would eventually be explained to him.
There was a moment of awkward silence, the tension building as everyone waited to see what Arikahs would chose.
Arikahs took a deep breath, closing his eyes; he pressed the button, then sank to the floor. Head in hands, he became overwhelmed with emotions he never knew he could feel.
Tegana having succeeded in her mission began to break. Letting the tears, that had been welling up inside her, fall as she found refuge in Ianto's arms.
Ianto let her come to him, and put his arms around her, embracing her as she cried onto his shirt. He contemplated telling her but he thought it would be best that she found out for herself. For now he just waited for her to stop.
Gwen, having checked that Arikahs wasn't likely to do anything dangerous, began walking over to Ianto and Tegana, she wanted to comfort Tegana, tell her that it was going to be alright. When the door burst open and the very person she had been thinking about walked through the door.
Jack was followed by Owen and Tosh and tagging along behind them was Nathan. Jack smiled at Gwen as he came in, he then turned his attention to Ianto and Tegana, taking a moment to make eye contact with Ianto and thank him silently before preparing to face Tegana's questions.
"What's going on here then?" Jack asked.
Tegana lifted her head, the voice sounded like Jack, but it couldn't be surely? She turned around, her mouth dropping open and staring at Jack.
"But you were dead!" Tegana uttered not believing her eyes. Jack nodded.
"Yeah I was."
"But you weren't showing any signs of life, you weren't breathing, you heart had stopped, I checked." Tegana said, still not believing that Jack was in front of her.
"Yeah, I know." Jack replied, grinning at her.
"Dad, what's going on?"
"Was going to ask the same question, I thought I heard the bomb alert go off." Jack said looking around the room. He noticed Arikahs on the floor and came to a roundabout conclusion.
Without warning Tegana threw her arms around her father, hugging him close. Jack hugged her back, understanding how confused she must be. When they parted Jack turned his attention to the alien.
"Arikahs," he said gently. Arikahs began to unfold out of his crumpled position and stand up to face Jack.
"I think it's time you left." He said simply.
Arikahs agreed. Although where he would go he wasn't sure. He couldn't go back to Arika, how would he live with the shame of not completing his mission? He would have to go somewhere else.
He reached to the computer and clicked a few buttons. The floor started to vibrate making Gwen lose her footing.
"What the whole underground lair is the ship?" Gwen exclaimed picking herself up.
"How did you get here without been noticed?" Tosh asked curious at how a big structure like this hadn't caused a palaver with the public.
"It was a much smaller structure when I arrived." Arikahs explained.
"And I'm guessing it's about to do the reverse, so I think it's time we all left." Jack announced, urging his team out of the room.
The vibration from the floor caused them to fall and stumble as they attempted to escape the underground ship, before it shrunk with them inside and took off. Gwen was struggling the most; Nathan was almost on equal terms. Jack, Ianto and Tegana were managing to walk as though nothing was wrong, although they were going a little slower than their usual pace. Tosh and Owen were using each other for support; their team effort seemed to be paying off as neither had fallen.
Outside was cold. Compared to the warmth of the underground it was freezing. Ianto had been the first one on the ground and he had helped everyone else out. They all thanked him apart from Jack, who took it for granted that he would help him.
"Where next? Hotel?" Owen asked.
"Hotel." Jack confirmed, he noticed that Nathan was still with them and then reconsidered.
"Or do you want to go home, we don't mind if you tag along."
Nathan considered it for a minute, he needed to calm down before he went home and had to explain to his mother what had happened. She would be worried and at the moment his head was in a daze, he hope that maybe sticking with them for a little while longer would allow him to catch up and understand what had happened.
"I'll tag along," Nathan decided.
"Right, let's go!" Owen said, about to head off in the vague direction of the hotel.
"Don't you want to see this?" Tosh asked grabbing Owen's arm stopping he from going anywhere.
"See what?" Owen queried.
"The ship, take off." Tosh explained.
"Oh right, yeah sure." Owen turned himself back around and readied himself for the spectacle.
The 'spectacle' was merely a bright ray of light beaming up into the sky. They felt no difference, nothing had been disturbed.
"Was that it?" Gwen asked.
"Well, he did say that he had to shrink the ship." Jack contradicted.
"But that tiny?" Gwen said gesturing to the open air where as she was indicating there was no sign of the ship, or anything else.
"it' called been inconspicuous, Gwen!" Jack teased. Gwen pulled a face at him and then laughed.
"Can we go now?" Owen piped up. Everyone turned their heads towards him and for a moment he wished the ground would swallow him up and save him from the embarrassment.
"Yeah I suppose." Jack replied, frowning. The team were all thinking the same, what had got into Owen?
"Impatient for something?" Tosh asked trying to get to the bottom of Owen's sudden disregard for anything interesting.
"Nah, just want to get back in time to watch Casualty!" Owen joked, everyone knew he hated Casualty; it was his worst nightmare, it reminded him of his worst few years spent being a trainee doctor in a hospital in Kent, they were the most hectic, boring years of his life.
"Surely it's Not Going Out you're missing!" Tegana said remembering Owen's favourite show only because she too enjoyed it, although Jack wasn't all that happy with her watching it.
"Yeah, want a race to see who can get there first? First one there gets the control of the remote!" Owen proposed.
Tegana giggled, Owen could be very childish when he wanted to be.
"No, you don't know where you're going this isn't Cardiff you know!" Jack suppressed their fun. Owen sulked, Tegana wasn't too bothered. They began to walk as a group along the road. There was no one around so they could afford to walk in the middle of the road without any fear of being run over.
They were all glad that it was all over, there was no immediate danger in sight and they could now all relax.
the action maybe coming to a close but I think I have some extra things can bump the chapters up! that's providing you review of course!