Dying to Meet My Baby

Fixing my make-up in the mirror, I began to get the butterfly feeling in my stomach, which wasn't surprising really - first day nerves always affected me more than they seemed to affect everyone else I knew. Theoretically it wasn't my first day working for Torchwood as I had already solved the mystery of the weevil that wouldn't kill me - luckily, but technically, today was my first day being a Torchwood employee. The worst part of it all was I couldn't even get a 'good luck' from mum - she wasn't allowed to know any of it.

"Sammy, would you mind giving me a lift into town on your way to work?" mum called up the stairs as I stood in front of my mirror, debating on whether I needed to change my outfit for a third time in the past hour.

"Sure," I shouted back.

I'd opted for black jeans, my pink and white checkered top that Kieran had managed to get back from Isobelle's room and my black leather jacket. I had no idea what to wear - well, I suppose, what was the appropriate outfit for fighting aliens? I couldn't google it because google would pretty much tell me I was insane. I couldn't even casually slip it into a conversation with my friends because they would just say something along the lines of a PVC body suit like Ann Summers sell for Catwoman fancy dress. I couldn't even ask Kieran as being the seven year old he is, the response would probably be underpants and tights.

After finally deciding that I should start to make a move and get my ass into gear for my first day, my phone began to ring on my bed. Reaching over to grab it, I saw the word "work" flashing up on the screen in big letters.

"Sammy, it's Jack. Change of plan - got a call from Cardiff city hospital. We'll pick you up on our way round. Looks like your first day will be full of action after all."

"Rightio," I said, before hanging up.

At least now I didn't have to lie to mum about where I was going - I really was going to work at the hospital; I just wasn't working for the hospital anymore. Picking up my car keys from my bedside table, I ran down the stairs, calling out to mum as I did so.

"Ready," she smiled, walking out of the lounge.

"You can have the car today," I said, handing the keys to her. "Been called into a last minute lecture on brain lesions so some of the other junior doctors said we'll car pool."

"That's fine with me," mum smiled, taking the keys out of my hand. "Means I can finish off watching Gary Barlow's interview on Breakfast before I set off."

No. No. No. That wasn't the plan. Stupid Gary Barlow. The plan was to get her out of the way and on her way to town before the car, or the 'SUV' as I had been told to call it by Jack, had picked me up so mum wouldn't get suspicious as all. The less questions I had to give lies as answers to, the better it was for all of us. I couldn't stand lying but at least I knew I was lying to protect my family.

"Well, mum," I paused, trying to think of a reason why mum had to leave the house straight away as quickly as I possibly could - The Hub was only a ten minute drive away from my house and with Ianto's driving skills, that could easily be taken down to a three minute drive, even during rush hour. "You've already missed a bit of it so why don't I put it on record so you can watch it when you get back from town?"

Mum hesitated for a few moments before she picked her jacket back up from the sofa and flung it on. "I'd better get going then," she smiled. "Have a good day at work. Is it a late one today?"

"All depends on this lecture," I smiled. "But I think after the lecture I'm observing an operation this afternoon so could be a really later one."

"Good luck then," mum said, giving me a kiss on the cheek before she headed out the front door and towards my car.

At least I got a 'good luck' from mum. It wasn't the sort of 'good luck' you're supposed to get on the first day of your new job, but it was something. I quickly pressed the record button on the television remote then stood in the middle of the bay window in the lounge, watching mum as she reversed my car off the drive. After a quickly little wave to me, she was soon driving down the street and out of our estate. Luckily, as I saw mum indicating to turn left at the end of the street in the distance and slowly pulling out to join the main road, the SUV came roaring round the corner and heading straight towards my house. Running towards the front door, I opened it up and jumped outside into the cold morning fresh air, locking the door behind me. As the side door opened, I was met by Toshiko.

"Good morning," she smiled, shuffling across so I could get in.

"Morning," I smiled.

"Tosh, give Sammy her ear piece and PDA," Jack ordered.

"Here's your ear piece," Tosh smiled, handing over a gadget to me that resembled a bluetooth headset. "And your PDA."

"These will be your life lines during this job," Jack added. "Guard them with your life."

I nodded as Tosh fitted my ear piece and hid it with my hair.


Cardiff City Hospital

Walking into the hospital's lobby, I felt as if I was some sort of secret agent as all Jack had to do was mention the word 'Torchwood' to the front desk staff and they buzzed us in automatically. An old man met us in the corridor and led us into the lifts in silence. I didn't want to say anything. I didn't know what I would have said if I wanted to say anything in the first place. I couldn't wait to find out what our mission was for today, but at the same time, I wanted to keep it cool and act casual - after all, Torchwood usually got called when shit was going down.

"It's in here," the old man said, opening a door in the corridor that had the sign 'Maternity Ward' written across it.

I followed the rest of the team into the ward and as we paced past all the rooms, we finally came to a delivery room at the far end of the corridor.

"Alright, Gwen," a police officer, who was stood outside the room as if he was guarding it, smiled to Gwen.

"Andy, what's going on here?" Gwen asked - they blatantly knew each other from the way they were on a first name basis.

"Pregnant woman exploded apparently," the police officer, assuming he was called Andy, replied. "Took the phrase 'dying to meet my baby' too literally I suppose." Owen sniggered behind me as he overheard what Andy had just said. I wasn't comfortable with laughing over matters like this yet - after all, I believed in the idea that first impressions count - so I just smiled at Andy instead. "Newbie, I see."

"Yeah, Sammy," Gwen replied. "She's only a young 'un but she's done some good work so far."

"Good point. How old even are you?" Owen asked me.

"Twenty-three."

"Young 'un." Andy confirmed.

Jack led us into the delivery room. I hadn't prepared myself for what I was about to witness but I really wish I had. To be honest though, I don't think anything could have prepared me for what had happened. Gore in movies is one thing. Gore when you're dealing with patients is another thing. But this? This was something else. A woman laid on the delivery bed - her jaw wide open, as if she was screaming in agony without any sound coming out. It was like looking at a birth through a still photo. The only difference between this and the conventional birth was that the woman's stomach had exploded. I had to look away, but even that didn't help - there was bits of flesh scattered all around the room. In the corner laid two bodies - two middle aged women, wearing midwife uniforms that were covered in blood.

"But there's no sign of the baby?" Gwen asked the old man.

"That's to even say that it is a baby," Jack replied.

"Whatever it was wanted everyone who had seen it happen to be dead," the old man added. "Even the CCTV of the corridor had been tampered with so that we couldn't look to see if anything went in, or furthermore, came out of that delivery room before the bodies were discovered."

"These two have been stabbed straight in the heart with what appears to either be a long, sharp object as it goes straight through - in one side and out the other," Owen stated as he examined the bodies of the two midwives. "And whatever happened to the woman, it must have come from inside her due to mess."

"It's disgusting," I said, trying to pull myself together.

"How many exits and entrances do you have all together for this hospital?" Toshiko asked the old man. "I want to see all the CCTV for all possible exits since this woman was brought in."

"What have you told the woman's family?" Jack asked the old man.

"She didn't have any that we know of. She was a known drug addict of cocaine and heroine and from her records, the baby's father was unknown. Do you reckon the drugs had something to do with it?"

"Cocaine and heroine don't make you explode whilst pregnant and stab the midwives to death," I replied.

"Whatever this was, it's out there," Jack concluded.


The Hub

As everyone else was doing their own thing, Gwen was showing me how to run through medical records when Jack walked out of his office. "Another death. Same way. Pregnant woman's abdomen exploded. Baby no where to be seen. Medical team all dead."

"Which hospital?" Gwen asked.

"Guess."

"Cardiff City," I replied.

"I've checked through all the CCTV from the past 24 hours of the hospital and nothing suspicious has left any of the exits," Toshiko commented. "It could have had help getting out."

"Gwen, Ianto, you come with me to the hospital. Owen, you carry on analysing the midwives. Tosh and Sammy, look through the medical records of Amy Wylde," Jack ordered before him, Gwen and Ianto left The Hub.

I walked over to Toshiko's desk, where she sat finishing the final CCTV tape. Flicking through the medical record, I couldn't help but feel sad. This wasn't just a number on a file - this was a girl who had died giving birth. "Amy Wylde, born 4th March 1986 - she was only 21." I took a deep breath before I continued. "Had a history of drug abuse - started from the age of 14. Was in rehab through court order twice; found guilty of theft five times; found guilty of Class A possession three times. Fell pregnant to unknown father in 2006. Baby was supposed to be born tomorrow. So it was premature." Putting her information back into the folder, I noticed there was a little piece of card in the bottom of the folder. Pulling it out, I saw a baby scan - her baby.

"Tosh, this is the baby's scan at 21 weeks but it doesn't look abnormal at all. It looks like a healthy baby."

"Well, whatever that thing was - it wanted the mother and midwives dead. There was no way they could have survived that at all - went right through the heart," Owen said as he came back up from the autopsy room, taking off a pair of surgical gloves and chucking them into the bin as he came over to me and Tosh.

"Definitely not human," Toshiko concluded.

"The scans seem normal and there aren't any abnormalities reported for the anomaly scan at 21 weeks so whatever it was must have happened after the 21 weeks," I said, showing the scan to Owen.

"Looks like an alien to me," he said, handing the scan back to me.

"No, it's a baby - look," I laughed, standing up and pointing to the different parts of the baby's body on the scan. "There's its head. And then there's a little arm. And that there - that's its legs."

"Still an alien. All babies are aliens. All they do is cry. They're annoying," Owen replied, clearly showing off his obvious paternal instincts.

"Not the only thing that is annoying," I smiled before turning back to the desk and carrying on flicking through Amy's medical file, trying to find out anything I could that could help solve what happened to her and the baby.


Sat around the table in the conference room, we all watched Jack pace the length of the room in deep thought. "Sammy, any ideas?"

All eyes were now on me thanks to Jack. I looked at the two baby scans that were showing up on the monitor. "This is only a wild idea - but if I reckon, it's some sort of alien inhabiting the pregnant woman after killing off the foetus between the final scan and the birth. It then waits to be born."

"Excellent thinking," Jack smiled.

It still didn't make sense how I could be taken so seriously when thinking that an alien was causing all of this, but to be completely honest, none of this made sense yet. How could I have still be given this job with Torchwood?

"I reckon it's also having help from an inside person as there was no CCTV footage showing anything suspicious leaving the hospital within the last 24 hours."

Flicking through the medical records of Amy Wylde and the second patient, Kimberley Yates, for the second time, I noticed something.

"They have the same doctor."

"What?" Jack asked.

"Look," I said, pulling their records onto the monitor so that everyone around the table could see what I was talking about. "Their doctor. Karash Pytol. They are linked through the doctor. But not only that. From the records, the expectant mothers were either known drug abusers or known alcohol abusers and the babies' fathers weren't known to the mothers. And who better to be able to select the mothers than their doctor, who knew everything about them or was able to access information that told them everything about them."

"I'm trying to log on to get the list of patient's for Karash Pytol but the server keeps saying error," Toshiko said.

"Sammy, fancy going undercover?"

Nothing like throwing yourself into the deep end on the first day at your new job. "Yes."


Outside Cardiff City Hospital

Sitting in the SUV, Toshiko ran through my cover story with me. Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous to go in and act as someone else - finally, a use for my GCSE in Drama!

"Your name is Chelsea Gregson. You're 23 years old and have a history of drug abuse but you're now recovered. You'll find all your medical record information is already uploaded to the system. Here's your birth certificate and passport. You're not sure who the father is and you're five weeks gone," Toshiko began to explain. "Now take this." She handed me a tiny little pill. "This will make your body think you are pregnant - giving you the positive result on a test and it will also come back as pregnant on all the tests that Doctor Pytol might carry out on you."

"Tests?" I asked.

"Blood usually," Toshiko replied. "We'll all be listening in to everything that happens in the office through the ear pieces as long as you leave it switched on and hidden at all times."

"So what do I need to do when I get inside to access all the patient's records?" I asked.

"Use this," Toshiko continued to explain as she handed me a little device that looked like some sort of metal spider's web. "Place it on the computer's monitor for five seconds - no more, no less. It will then scan the entire computer hard drive and allow me to copy it all to my laptop back at The Hub. Okay?"

"Got it."

"Are you sure?" Jack asked.

"You don't have to do it if you don't feel like you'll be convincing enough for it," Gwen smiled.

"But if you don't go in, we can't get the patient's records because, lets face it, Gwen and Toshiko aren't exactly in his age range for victims," Owen cut in.

"I can do it," I confirmed.

"Right, remember, keep your ear piece on at all times."

"And Sammy," Gwen smiled. "As soon as you have got the confirmation from Tosh, get out of there."

I nodded. "Birth certificate. Passport. Scanner. Got it."

I got out the SUV and made my way towards the entrance to the hospital, looking around to make sure nobody was watching me. As I got into the hospital, I saw the SUV drive off and turn into a street beyond the hospital so it was out of sight. Taking a deep breath, I walked up to reception, carrying all the documents in my hand as I slipped the scanner into my bag so it was out of sight.

"Hello, how can I help you?" the smiley receptionist asked me.

"Um, I have an appointment with a Doctor Pytol at 2.30pm." I replied back to the receptionist, trying to act anxious - as if I really was a recovering drug addict going to find out if she really was pregnant.

"Chelsea Gregson?" the receptionist asked. I nodded. "Floor 4."

She buzzed me through and pointed to the lifts before dealing with the man behind me.

I walked down the corridor, looking around me to see if any junior doctors were around - making sure I couldn't be recognised. Getting into the lift, I pressed the button for floor 4 and waited. As soon as I got out of the lift, I saw a room in front of me with the name 'Doctor Karash Pytol' written on a plaque beside the door.

"I'm here," I whispered - loud enough so that the ear piece picked it up, allowing everyone back in the SUV to hear what I was saying but quiet enough so nobody around me could hear me talking to myself. Although, since I was posing as a recovering drug addict, it could help a lot with my character.

"Right, Sammy, good luck," I heard Jack say over the ear piece.

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Chelsea?" The peculiar looking doctor asked as he opened the door to greet me.

"Uh, yeah," I replied.

"Come in."

As I sat down on the spare chair in his office, I looked around the room and then back to the doctor. He didn't look like an alien - he didn't resemble what aliens should look like at all. Then again, Jack did say he could be some sort of shape shifting alien that had the ability to change his appearance into anything, including humans.

Handing the documents that Toshiko had prepared for me over to Doctor Pytol, I continued to glance around the office, trying to catch a glimpse of anything that would give us an idea of what was going on and if this guy was even involved in it.

"So you think you're pregnant?" he asked.

"Yeah, the home test kit said positive so yeah, pregnant."

"And I see you used to suffer from a drug addiction?" he asked, seeming more interested in me by the second.

"Yeah. Three years clean, but still not rid of the 'addict' label."

"What do you mean?"

"My family have disowned me. I'm gonna be a single mother. I'm living in a tiny bedsit with a part time job. I ruined my life."

"I see." Doctor Pytol took a pause for a moment before standing up and walking towards his office door. "I'm just gonna go and get the equipment for the test to confirm your pregnancy and then we will take it from there."

He flashed me a sympathetic smile before leaving me in the room by myself. "He's gone," I whispered.

"Sammy, scan the computer then get the hell out of there," Gwen instructed. "We don't know what this guy is capable of."

"Way to make me feel positive about it all," I joked as I got the scanner out of my bag.

"Place it to the screen and I'll do the rest," Toshiko explained.

Following her instructions, I placed the scanner on the computer's screen and waited for confirmation from Toshiko that my job here was done. Looking around, I began to panic as I heard footsteps coming down the corridor as if they were coming towards the office.

Then I heard the word I waited what seemed like forever to hear. "Done."

Putting the scanner back into my bag, I put it over my shoulder, grabbed the forged documents off the desk that Doctor Pytol had carelessly left behind and shoved them in my bag as I made my escape through the door. Running down the corridor, I didn't look back and ran straight into the lift that luckily had just arrived empty to floor 4.

"Sammy, we're coming to the front of the hospital now."


The Hub

After clicking a few buttons and typing in some codes that resembled a child hitting a computer's keyboard repetitively, Toshiko had managed to get a list of patients up on the screen - all 739 of them.

"739?" Ianto asked.

"Yeah, but if we list the patients with similar backgrounds to those of Amy and Kimberley - age, drug or alcohol abuse, father known etc. etc. We'll be able to narrow it down to a hopefully sizeable amount of patients," I suggested.

"Brains and beauty," Owen said as he walked off towards the other work station.

I smiled to myself as Toshiko began to narrow the search down.

"But what happens if all these patients are all of the same background of that of the victims?" Ianto asked.

"Then we're in for an all-nighter," Jack said, winking at Ianto.

"Five patients all have the same background and under the age of thirty," Gwen said, highlighting the selection on her computer. "Father unknown as well as drugs or alcohol problems in past and presently."

"Good job, Gwen."

"But how do we know that this is what is happening to them?" I asked. "How do we stop them?"

"We don't know yet," Gwen said to me. "But we've had a pretty good record with saving the day so far."

"Toshiko, you stay here and call each patient to make sure they know we're coming round. Ianto, you drive. Owen, scan each patient to make sure the alien is already implanted. Gwen, you can do the talking. Sammy, watch and learn," Jack instructed.

"And what about you?" Gwen asked. "What will you do?"

"Stop the aliens."

Jack walked over to his office, leaving me sat by the workstations, wondering what he was planning. I never knew work could be so exciting. This definitely beat sitting in a lecture room and then watching an operation - I was in on the action.


First patient's house

Walking through the council estate, I tried my hardest to avoid stepping on litter but it was almost an impossibility; the whole place was scattered with litter. A children's play area left abandoned and vandalised. A burnt out car was a new attraction for all the pigeons that roamed around the courtyard. Following the team down the path, I looked up at all the flats.

We reached the first flat - belonging to a Scarlet Smith. Jack knocked on the door. "Hello, I'm.."

Before Jack had a chance to introduce himself, the woman cut him off. "Yeah, yeah, what do you want?"

"Scarlet Smith, am I right?" Gwen asked. She didn't really need to ask for her to confirm her identity as the bulging baby bump kind of gave it away - unless there was more than one pregnant woman living in this one bedroom council flat.

The woman nodded as she blew the smoke from her cigarette in our faces. "What's you want?"

"We're here to inspect your boiler."

I looked at Jack in confusion. Scarlet looked at Jack in confusion too.

"What? All of you?" Scarlet asked.

"Trainee engineers," Jack added, gesturing to me, Gwen and Owen as we stood behind him.

"Come in," Scarlet said.

"I'd like to ask you some questions about your boiler, if that's okay?" Gwen asked.

Making my way into the flat, I was overcome with the stench of weed and cigarette smoke. Holding my breath to avoid a coughing fit, I followed Jack into the hallway, past all the junk that seemed to have collected at the side of the hallway. Owen got the scanner out from his pocket and began to aim at Scarlet as she stood with her back to us in an area I could only presume was a lounge going by the tatty tartan sofa that stood unloved in the corner.

"Yeah, alien."

Jack gave a nod to Gwen before walking into the kitchen in search of the "boiler" we were going to "inspect". Gwen walked into the kitchen after a few moments.

"Done."

Following them out, I saw Scarlet lying asleep on the sofa. "What did you do?" I asked.

"Injected her with this," Gwen said, showing me an empty syringe.

"What's that?" I asked. I hated to ask all these questions but I would never learn without asking them. The world of Torchwood was a confusing place.

"It's a mixture of methyoxythide and rhoghanioxide," Owen explained. "Kills the alien without harming her."

"So she will miscarry?" I asked as we walked back towards the SUV.

"Essentially, yes," Gwen said.

"We just murdered her baby?" I asked, trying to understand what kind of mess I had got myself into.

"No, Sammy," Jack said, turning around. "We didn't murder her baby. The aliens murdered her baby."

I couldn't believe what they were doing.

"Sammy," Gwen said, taking hold of my arm and stopping me before I got into the SUV. "I was the new girl before you and some of the things that they were doing were horrible - but you have to think of it this way. We just killed that alien and yes, she might think that it was her baby that died, but it wasn't. Her baby died long ago. You saw what it did to that poor woman in the hospital - two of them in fact. And if we don't stop the aliens before the women go into labour, they will have the same fate. So don't you see? We're saving the women at the cost of their pregnancy."

I nodded. I suppose Gwen had a point. I still didn't agree with it, but who was I to argue? These were the professionals and I had to learn from the best.


Cardiff City Hospital

Walking through reception in a rushed pace, I caught sight of Doctor Pytol as he made his way into the lift, surrounded by some other Doctors. As soon as he latched eyes on me, his whole facial expressions changed - he knew who I was. His hand kept hitting the floor number on the lift as quickly as he possibly could, attempting to get away from us by the time we managed to get through reception.

"He's in the lift," I shouted before running towards the stairs.

Running up four floors didn't seem too bad - at least I wouldn't have to make time to go to the gym tonight. Floor one. I turned around to see Jack, Owen, Gwen and Ianto running behind me. Floor two. I felt as if I was Usain Bolt in the Olympic's 100m sprint final. Floor three. Running up the final flight of stairs, I prayed we were gonna get to his office before he did. Floor four. Grinding to a halt in the middle of the fourth floor corridor, I looked down each end of the corridor to find the ward busy with people, but the entire place was quiet. There wasn't a single sound to be heard in the ward, not even a newborn baby's cry could be heard. It was like I had lost my hearing.

"Sound barrier," Jack paused. "He's good."

"It's this way," I said, before running towards the lift and barging open the first office - the office I was in only four hours previously.

Swinging open Doctor Pytol's office door, I found myself being hit in the face with a large object. My lip throbbing with pain. I put my finger to it and found that blood was pouring from it. Spotting a lamp lying on the floor by my feet, I looked back up to see Doctor Pytol, backing into the corner of the office, holding a waste paper bin in front of him, as if to protect him.

"We know what you're doing," Jack said as he walked towards the squeamish Doctor. "And we're stopping it right now."

"P-p-please," Doctor Pytol stuttered as he tried to back further away from us. "I didn't want to do it. I was made to do it."

"By who?" I asked.

"By-by-by-by them. They made, they made me do it."

"Who is them?" Jack demanded.

Instead of receiving a verbal answer back, Doctor Pytol pointed to a metal filing cabinet beside where Jack was standing. A filing cabinet made him plant aliens into his patients' bodies so they could make the woman explode as she gave birth to aliens, not to mention the murder of all the medical teams involved with the women's labours? This Doctor really was deluded.

Jack tried to open the filing cabinet, only to find out it was locked.

"Let me," Owen said, hustling Jack to the side as he reached into the pocket of the inside of his jacket.

Not before long, the top drawer to the filing cabinet sprung open, revealing a fluorescent purple glow emitting from it. We all peered over the top to see two little fluffy guinea pigs curled up in a ball, looking up at us. They were pretty adorable to be honest. Each alien possessed four big black eyes that resembled the eyes a puppy gives you when you don't let them have a treat.

"That's why Tosh said there wasn't any CCTV for the exits showing anything getting out," I realised. "How can it show something getting out of the hospital when its been staying in the hospital for the whole time?"

All of a sudden, a giant bat-like creature appeared above Doctor Pytol. Its wings were spread wide as if it was about to swoop down and catch its prey - us. At the end of its scrawny wings were two immeasurable talons that were sharp as a razor blade - at least that explained how the medical teams had met their unfortunate and grisly ends. "You deny me of my children. You murdered my children," I scowled in a husky voice as it continued to tower above us.

"You murdered those women's children," Jack shouted back, pushing me behind him.

Gwen grabbed hold of me and began to drag me to the door - Owen following behind her.

"You murdered my children. I murder you."

"Get out of here," Doctor Pytol screamed as he looked at us with a helpless look in his eyes.

"You murdered my children. I murder you."

"You have to get out of here," Doctor Pytol pleaded.

I looked over at him and couldn't help but realise how fearful this poor man was of the creature that was hovering over him, watching our every move.

"You murdered my children. Now," the creature paused. "Now, I murder you."

Jack looked back over his shoulder at us and mouthed one word to us - 'run'. As I began running, I stopped just as we reached the stairwell. "What about the people on the ward?" I panicked. "We need to get them out. We need to evacuate the building."

"The sound barrier," Jack paused, as if he was having a moment of realisation.

Jack still wasn't making any sense but we didn't have enough time. I tried to break off from the rest of the group and ran towards the ward, but Owen grabbed hold of my arm and dragged me into the stairwell, nearly yanking my arm out of its socket.

"What?" Gwen asked as we all ran down the stairs.

"The sound barrier. Doctor Pytol put in the sound barrier as he knew that whatever that thing is would react in this sort of way."

"The sound barrier acts as a defence shield as well," Jack began to explain as we continued to run down the stairs. "Doctor Pytol must have activated one over the entire hospital apart from his office."

"Then why are we running?" Gwen asked, coming to a sudden stop.

"Life is so much more exciting when you have to run from things," Jack winked, before we all continued to run down the stairs.

Running out of the hospital, there was a large 'boom' heard behind us, shaking the whole hospital as the office exploded. As I leant against a street light, catching my breath back on the pavement beside the hospital, everyone in the hospital began to look around in confusion. Within seconds, the SUV came screeching round the corner, breaking just in front of us. As soon as we had all clambered in and shut the doors behind us, Ianto began to drive off again towards The Hub.

"So what will happen to the alien now?" I asked. "Has it gone?"

"It's dead. They are what we call a mother alien. They only survive as long as their children survive. Since no more aliens of theirs will be born and the explosion killed their surviving offspring, the alien will die out too," Jack began to explain.


The Hub

"Sit down there," Owen directed as he pushed me down on a stool in the autopsy room as he grabbed a cotton bud from the equipment tray and ran it under the tap.

"My lip?" I asked, putting my finger over the wound. "It's fine."

"No arguing. Shut your mouth so I can sort it out."

Taking a stool from beside the autopsy table and placing it in front of me, Owen looked at me. I reluctantly put my lips together so Owen could clean it up. As he gently wiped the cotton bud over the cut, I whimpered slightly at the sting. To say I was a junior doctor myself, I was such a baby when it came to getting hurt myself. Watching him as he concentrated on my lip, I couldn't help but wonder why he was so mysterious. He probably could be a really fun guy to work with if he let go of all his mystery. The job was mysterious itself without having the people I worked with being a mystery too. It was there that I decided what I was going to it. That was it. My new mission was to get rid of Owen's mysterious side.

"Why are you all mysterious?" I asked him as he finished with cleaning my lip up.

"Mysterious?" he questioned, looking back at me in confusion with the same mysterious look that he had on his face since the moment I met him.

"Yeah." Instead of getting a reply, all I got was a shoulder shrug before Owen disappeared up the steps, leaving me in the autopsy room by myself. "Thanks for sorting my lip out anyway," I called after him.


Home

Walking up the path towards my front door, I sighed to myself. The hour was fast approaching and I knew mum would be pacing the floor until I got back in, worried about why I was home so late. Even though I was twenty-three years of age, it didn't stop her worrying about me every second of the day. I mean, I was still living at home and hadn't even had a place to call my own yet. All my other friends had their own houses or flats whilst I was stuck in a four bedroom house with my mum, step-dad and their kids. Don't get me wrong - I loved being part of my family and wouldn't change a single one of them for anything else in the world, but I did want my own independence. I suppose now I was working at Torchwood, I could start to think about getting my own place, although I wasn't sure how my mum would react with me moving out. Since moving out of my dad's house in London and back in with my mum here in Cardiff, I'd grown so much more closer to my mum and it killed me that I couldn't share Torchwood with her as it was obvious that Torchwood would now become a huge part of my life.

Putting my key into the front door, I found it to already be unlocked. As soon as I walked in through the door, mum flew out of the lounge and stood in front of me with a look of worry on her face. "Why haven't you called me?" she asked, panicking. "Why didn't you answer your phone? Have you been at the hospital today? Why is your phone switched off? Have you seen the news?"

"What's with the twenty questions?" I laughed, putting my bag down on the floor in front of the stairs and sitting down on the bottom step to take off my shoes. "My phone ran dead this lunchtime and I didn't have my charger with me so I couldn't charge it up. I was in Newport today. Why? What's happened?"

I knew exactly what had happened - I was there, but I couldn't let mum know that. All she would do was worry even more about me than she already does - if that's even entirely possible.

"Big explosion of Cardiff City Hospital," she paused, grabbing my arm and dragging me into the lounge where the ten o'clock news was showing footage of the chaos at the hospital. "It only affected one office apparently but I thought you were hurt - I thought you were dead." Mum looked at me and caught sight of my lip. "What happened to your lip? How did you cut it open?"

I froze for a moment before covering my lip with my hand. "Oh, it's nothing," I laughed. "One of the other junior doctors opened the car door earlier and it hit my chin and I bit my lip. At least we had experience with dealing with minor injuries."

"You have to be more careful," mum said, examining my lip closer. "Now, would you like a cup of tea? Kettle has just boiled."

I nodded. As mum disappeared into the kitchen, I sat down on the sofa and turned the volume on the television up slightly.

"We're out of Typhoo so it'll have to be PG Tips," mum called from the kitchen as I tried to concentrate on what the news reporters were saying about the blast.

"Yeah, that's fine mum," I replied, turning the television set up a bit more.

"It's a miracle nobody else got hurt, or even worse. We aren't treating the explosion to be suspicious and usual business will resume tomorrow for Cardiff City Hospital," the spokesperson for the hospital said, talking into the camera outside the hospital.

I took a sigh of relief as I sank back into the sofa and closed my eyes after what had been a hectic, yet amazing, first day at Torchwood. We didn't manage to save the world - but we managed to defeat one alien and stop a whole load of murders. I think it's safe to say that that was a successful first day done.