11.
"Wait, you want to what?" asked Gwen. Owen sniggered into his hand at her reaction.
"We want to draw it out," Jack explained as patiently as he could. He felt like it should be Ianto doing the talking, as it was his idea, but he was sipping a cup of tea with a blanket around his shoulders, looking tired and in pain, and Jack felt so bad for him that he decided he'd be the one to explain. He knew Gwen would have some choice words, after all.
"Why?" asked Gwen. "Isn't it dangerous?"
"Exceptionally," Ianto replied from his place on a chair. They were in the tourist office, hoping that the alien might not be able to affect them if they were far enough away from the cube. Owen had grumbled about having to decontaminate the small office, but the risk seemed worth it, to try and plan with some hope of secrecy.
"So why do we want it out?" asked Gwen. "It attacked Ianto. I thought Tosh was working on a way to stop it from getting out and reading our minds."
"I can't think of anything," Tosh sighed. "Nothing I've tried has had any affect, as far as I can tell."
"I'm afraid not," Jack told them. "We were both attacked with waking dreams again in my room a little while ago. It's escalating, and we need to stop it."
Owen was immediately circling around Ianto, who batted him away with a grumbled, "I'm fine." The doctor looked at Jack with a pointed question in his eyes.
"Nothing so dramatic as the medical bay," he said. "And we're getting better at recognizing it."
"Oh good," the doctor replied sarcastically. "That will help the rest of us."
"It's not after the rest of you," Ianto replied, sounding tired. "It's after Jack."
They looked at him in surprise. "Then why does it keep going after you?" asked Gwen, frowning. "It's been giving you nightmares for days and attacked you in the shower."
"Ianto's right," Jack said, stepping in. "It's after me. It's mad at me for shooting it and sticking it on a shelf in the archives for forty-five years." He left out the part about the Xrillian's mate having died in the second cube the Torchwood team had found in 1963.
"So it went after Ianto?" That was Owen, sounding skeptical as usual. "Why not torture you directly?"
Jack exchanged a long look with Ianto, who appeared both resigned to and annoyed with Gwen and Owen's questions. Jack couldn't blame him, and wanted to tell them to leave it alone, but Tosh spoke first.
"It is torturing Jack," she said softly, watching them both. "It's hurting Jack by hurting Ianto." She paused, trying to catch their eye. "Am I right?"
Jack nodded. "There's a bit more to it, but that's the general idea. Which is why we have to stop it, before it forces one of us to do something we can't come back from." He wasn't sure if that was the Xrillian's endgame, but he knew the others—particularly Gwen-would want an explanation, even if it was obvious.
"So you want to—what?" asked Owen, crossing his arms over his chest. "Sit down for a chat and ask it to kindly leave us alone and find someone else to haunt?"
"Something like that," Ianto murmured. He looked troubled, his usual poker face slipping with the stress, and Gwen picked up on it immediately.
"You mean to kill it!" she exclaimed, jumping up and wagging a finger at them. "You want to lure it out to kill it!"
"We could just blow up the cube for that," Owen pointed out. Tosh shook her head.
"But we wouldn't know if we'd actually killed it," she said. "I can't get any kind of reading on it, so we have no way of knowing if it's even in there."
"So we draw it out and shoot it in the head?" Gwen demanded. "That's wrong, Jack, and you know it!"
"It's attacked us several times, Gwen," Jack said. "We have no reason to assume it won't continue to do so unless we neutralize it."
"Then neutralize it!" she said. "Don't murder it in cold blood."
"I didn't say anything about killing it, did I?" Jack asked, glancing at the others.
"What do you intend to do then?" asked Gwen. "Once it's out of the cube."
"Attempt to negotiate, perhaps," Ianto offered, though Jack heard the skepticism in the Welshman's voice. "Try to understand what it's doing and what we can do to stop it."
"Is there any way we could get it home?" Tosh asked, then shook her head. "Only home is in the future, in the middle of a plague, so I don't know how we'd manage that."
"There's no way to get it home, I'm sorry," said Jack. "So we'll try talking to it first."
Gwen narrowed her eyes at him. "You don't talk to hostile aliens, Jack."
"I don't always shoot first either," Jack retorted.
Owen rolled his eyes. "Just most of the time."
"Owen," Tosh admonished. He shrugged unapologetically.
"Look, Gwen has a point, but so does Jack. We can try talking to it, but we might be looking at another situation like we had with Beth Halloran. If we can't stop it invading our minds, we might have to literally neutralize it. On ice."
"Then make sure the cryo-freeze is ready," Jack said. "But I don't think this thing will cooperate like Beth did, and I'm not sure freezing it will stop it from reaching out with its mind. Be prepared."
"You don't know that," said Gwen.
"What would you have us do then?" Jack asked, exasperated once again by her stubborn insistence to do what she felt was the right thing, rather than take in the information, advice, and experience of the rest of the team. "It's an unknown alien entity that's trespassing on Torchwood property and attacking Torchwood operatives."
"I don't know!" she said, throwing up her hands. "Maybe it's just scared, lonely. There must be something we can do to help it without killing it."
"Gwen." Ianto spoke softly, but with conviction. "This thing has been in my head all week. It stabbed me. It forced Jack to shoot himself. As far as I'm concerned, even giving it the chance to talk is more than it deserves."
"Ianto," she began, and to everyone's surprise it was Tosh who stopped her.
"Leave it alone, Gwen," she snapped. "If we can't stop it, do you really want to take the chance that it might end up in your head, giving you nightmares? Or that it might attack you in the Hub, when you're least expecting it?"
"Tosh, I'm sure you can come up with a way to stop it," she said. "You've never let something like this beat you before." Tosh was gob smacked; Owen frowned and opened his mouth to reply, but Jack stepped in first.
"That's enough," he growled, literally pulling Gwen away from the others. "We don't go after each other like that, understand? And next time you question the competence of this team, I will pull up each and every example of your own mistakes and Retcon you out of service before I'm done reading them out loud, understood?"
For the first time since he'd returned, Gwen was speechless. He felt the others staring at him, and took a deep breath to calm himself before turning back. There was a little voice in his head that was laughing, telling him that at least he hadn't shot Gwen this time, like he had in Hell. It was the same kind of behavior, but he did not feel the pull of the matchbox, pushing him to shoot. And yet even thinking about it brought a flare of panic, that Ianto might start acting like he had in Hell, sneering and laughing about using him, punishing him—
"Jack!" Ianto called softly. "Stay with us."
"Sorry," Jack replied, shaking his head. "Not the alien, just my own demons." Ianto frowned, and Jack resolved to tell him about Gwen's death in Hell. He'd often suspected his relationship with the former copper was a point of discomfort with Ianto; perhaps confessing some of his other feelings about Gwen would help set the Welshman's mind at ease.
"Tosh," said Ianto, still keeping a close eye on Jack. "We think the Riftquakes have been triggering the cube. I know you were planning on studying some of the data from the quakes. Could you somehow replicate the effect with our own equipment?
"Wait, you want her to cause a Riftquake?" asked Owen. "That sounds remarkably insane, even for us."
"No, only the energy of it," Tosh answered, nodding slowly. "I think so, yes. And if it's strong enough and I direct it right at the cube, then hopefully it will force the Xrillian out into the open."
"Exactly," said Jack as Ianto smiled at her. "Owen, help her. Gwen, I want you keeping an eye on everything else. Ianto, you rest."
"I can help," Ianto protested, but Owen cut him off.
"Like hell you will," he said. "You've been moving around too much already. Crash on the sofa if you need to know what's going on, but I want you off your feet. Do you need anything for the pain?"
Ianto nodded reluctantly. "Then let's head back downstairs and get started," said the doctor. He turned to leave, and Ianto stood to follow him.
"Wait, what about the alien?" asked Gwen. "Couldn't it still get in our heads downstairs while we're working?"
"There's nothing we can do about it at this point," Jack told her. "We can't all work from up here. We take our chances."
"We should probably make sure there's someone with both of us at all times," Ianto offered. "To snap us out of any waking dreams."
"How?" asked Tosh. Jack smirked and Ianto blushed.
"Seriously?" asked Owen, pretending to gag. "I'm not snogging either one of you, I don't care what's messing with your brain."
"I appreciate the peace of mind," Ianto drawled in response. "I would suggest something else suitably distracting, and be ready with the sedative if it's bad enough."
"What about the rest of us?" asked Gwen.
"We already said it's not after you," said Jack.
"How do you know?"
"Because I know," Jack replied firmly.
"How do you know for sure?" she pressed. "If we're going to talk to it, we need to know everything, Jack, and you're not telling us everything."
"There's nothing else to know, Gwen," Jack replied wearily. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Owen and Ianto standing by the hidden doorway, watching. Ianto appeared exasperated and ready to explode. "We have a plan, now let's get to work."
"Jack, you—" she started in that familiar tone of voice that signaled another confrontation, and Ianto stepped forward, his face contorted in anger.
"For god's sake, Gwen," he hissed. "Would you leave well enough alone? Did it ever occur to you that what's going on here might be intensely personal for both of us? Or are you so concerned with knowing everything about Jack that you don't care if you run roughshod over his—or my own—feelings?"
Owen swore under his breath. Jack had to give Gwen credit, because she tried to reply. "Ianto, I'm sorry, I'm only trying to—"
"To what? To help? Who are you trying to help, Gwen? The alien or us?"
"That's not fair," she said, shaking her head and settling in for it. "I'm trying to help both sides, to find a way to end this without murder. I need to know what's going on if I'm going to do that."
Ianto laughed bitterly and pointed his finger in her face. "You're not the only one dealing with this, Gwen. And you're not the boss."
"I'm the one trying to make sure we do the right thing."
Jack blew out a frustrated breath. Gwen's words were once again insulting. She'd been with Torchwood for over a year and still failed to see the bigger picture; more importantly, she still saw herself as better than the rest of them, as the one who cared, the one who always tried to do the right thing. It had been that way since her first case, when she'd railed at them for their lack of humanity in dealing with a young woman possessed by an alien. And it hadn't let up, from her determination to have answers to blind faith in her own beliefs. It had pissed off her teammates more than once, and had almost got her killed several times. He thought about ending it there, but sensed that Ianto had more to say; maybe it would have more of an effect coming from the normally mild-mannered Welshman.
Ianto's face hardened. "Gwen, the best thing you can do right now is mind your own damn business and follow orders. I know that's hard for you, but this is not something you can coo over and fix with a plaster and a cup of tea. This thing tried to kill me. It did kill Jack. We have to stop it."
"And that means killing it?" she demanded. "Or freezing it without giving it a chance to defend itself? It's an alien being stranded on another world, another time. Maybe we should help it, not destroy it."
"Dammit, Gwen!" he shouted, stepping closer. "It's been in my head all week, feeding me dreams and visions of being killed by someone I care about. Do you have any idea what that's like? Can you imagine going to sleep every night and dreaming about Rhys strangling you in bed? Shooting you in the heart?"
Gwen, mercifully, was silent, her eyes wide with shock. Tosh and Owen avoided looking directly at anyone. Jack tried to catch Ianto's eye, but the Welshman was not to be stopped.
"What if it started messing with Rhys? What if he started having nightmares about you? About you betraying him, leaving him? What would you do, Gwen? Would you sit down and try to talk to it? Or would you do anything to stop it from hurting someone you—care about?" He stumbled over the end; Jack's breath caught in his throat.
"Ianto," he started, but Ianto turned his fury on Jack.
"No, don't defend her. I knew she wouldn't like it, but this is ridiculous." He turned back to Gwen. "You are such a good agent, Gwen, but you never know when to stop pushing. Well, I'm pushing back. I will give it a chance, but I will also do whatever it takes to stop this thing, including killing it. So don't get in my way." With one last glare he turned and stormed into the tunnel, leaving everyone speechless. Jack wanted to go after him, but Owen held up a hand.
"Let me check on him, make sure he hasn't hurt himself, okay? You can talk to him when he's not about to deck anyone."
"Be careful, Owen," Tosh said quietly. Owen grinned.
"He's already shot me once, what else can he do?"
He turned and left them in the tourist office, an uncomfortable silence filling the air. Tosh spoke first.
"I'll go get started on replicating the Riftquake energy," she said softly. She smiled at Jack. "I'm sorry this is happening. I wish I could stop it somehow."
Jack took three steps and enveloped her in a hug. "It's not your fault, Tosh. It never is. Thank you for all you've done to try and figure this out."
She returned the embrace, then nodded and left without a look back. Jack stood awkwardly with Gwen.
"Jack?" she asked quietly, staring at the door where the others had left. "What aren't you telling us about this? Why is it really after you and Ianto?"
He wanted to get angry, to yell and shout like Ianto had done, but he found instead that he was simply too tired: tired of the pushing and the arguing, of never feeling like he had done the right thing, that he was never good enough. He brought the latter down on himself whenever he thought about his relationship with Ianto; Gwen reinforced his self-doubt every time she questioned his actions. Taking a deep breath, he turned toward her and let her absorb the pain and heartache in his eyes.
"I'd send you home if we weren't under quarantine," he told her. "Stay up here. Work from Ianto's station, keep an eye on the news and all of our other programs. And think about how you can be a part of this team without constantly questioning it and putting it down. Because we need your trust and your strength, Gwen, not your petty self-indulgences and stubborn arrogance."
He turned his back on her and hurried down the corridor back to the Hub. He was worried about Ianto and how the tense situation might have affected his health. And he was extremely concerned that the alien might try to use the confrontation with Gwen against them. They needed to find it and destroy it—he'd never had any doubt they'd have to kill it—before it had a chance to destroy them all, possibly from the inside.
Author's Note:
Not the chapter I was expecting—honestly, I thought it would be over by now and I'd be writing an epilogue—but as usual, things did not go as planned. I'm working quickly so I can finish this story before I listen to the new BF audio play (hopefully next week!) so look for another short update soon to get us to the endgame! Thanks for reading!
