Chapter Thirteen: Wendy

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Cardiff, Wales (UK):

Bobby stepped quietly back into Ianto's living room and dialled Jack's number. "She's out cold on the bed," he told the Captain in a soft tone, not wanting to wake Wendy up. "But she looks all right." Her breathing was easier and her complexion looked better than it had when she'd left the Hub.

Jack had dropped Wendy off six hours ago, but despite his concerns, he had hesitated calling Ianto's flat because if she was asleep he hadn't wanted to wake her up, just to check in on her. He had told Bobby that she'd started looking better on the drive over.

Bobby couldn't help but admire the Captain for the way he honestly cared about his team, it wasn't the sort of attitude he was used to. Granted, nothing he'd really done when he was with House had put his own life at risk, but there was something innately good about working for someone who cared about the people under him. He smiled to himself at that thought. I'm sure Jack would like more of us 'under him'.

For Bobby, the last six hours had been spent photographing, cataloguing and running tests the specimens from the beach, under the strictest safety protocols possible. So far neither he nor Liz had come up with anything useful.

They already knew that the energy signature wasn't like anything else anyone had seen before. What they couldn't figure out was where it originated, what exactly about the crystals produced it or caused it to discharge.

A preliminary examination of the crystals revealed enough evidence to back up the meteorite theory. They were made up of a number of unknown, definitely extraterritorial elements, some even Jack said he'd never seen before. It also seemed as if the initial theory about the larger the crystal the more energy it was capable of producing was incorrect as several of the smaller stones registered greater energy fields than some of the larger ones they'd pulled from the cave.

When Bobby had left, both Jack and Liz were on the phone making inquiries about anything else that might have crashed to earth around the same time frame, just in case there were more out there. Gwen had gone to help her friend from the police department and Ianto was scouring the internet for related news reports.

Bobby hung up with Jack and slipped back into the bedroom to gather his clothing as quickly and quietly as he could.

Wendy stirred as soon as he opened his suitcase.

"Sorry," he whispered over his shoulder at her, "Didn't mean to wake you."

"No… it wasn't you," she rolled over to look at him, brushing a few strands of hair out of her face. "I wasn't sleeping real well to begin with. Weird dreams," she explained.

He shot an inquisitive look over his shoulder.

She shook her head. "Nothing you'd understand. Probably nothing important, anyway," she smiled a thin, shy little smile and sat up, glancing at the clock. "You guys didn't need to leave me this long."

Bobby shrugged, "It was Jack's call." He shoved the last of his dirty jeans and shirts into his suit case and sat down on the floor facing her. "How's the head?" he asked.

"Better, thanks. I think I just needed a little sleep."

"Well…" he started to get up. "It'll only take me a couple of minutes to get the rest of my stuff together."

"You really don't have to leave."

"Don't worry about it."

"You were here first…".

"And you've known Ianto longer than I have," he cut her off. "That gives you dibs on his place. Besides, I really don't mind moving to the Hub for a couple of weeks."

She gave him a look that clearly indicated she didn't believe him.

"Ok, so it's not the Ritz," Bobby admitted with a grin. "But chances are, I'll be spending most of the next few days there anyway."

"We could both stay here," she suggested. "I'll even take the couch if you like," she added with a smile. A second later it faded. "That is if you're… if you think you'd be comfortable being that close to me…" she faltered, her tone hesitant.

"Why would I mind being close to you?"

Wendy regarded him for a long moment. "You really don't know, do you?"

"I'm guessing you're not human… am I right?"

She nodded, although she was no longer looking directly at him, preferring a spot on the wall just to the left of his head instead.

"So what are you?" he felt a rush of blood in his cheeks. "Erm…Sorry. That really didn't come out right. I'm not usually this…. I don't know, blunt I guess." He wasn't even sure what word he was looking for. "Chalk it up to lack of sleep."

"It's all right. And I guess it isn't a fair all things considered." She swallowed, but he missed the nervous look in her eyes.

"So?" he prompted when he realized she was hesitating.

"Lycanthrope," she said very, very quietly.

Bobby blinked, certain he must have heard that wrong. "You mean like An American Werewolf in London?" he asked in an incredulous, almost jocular tone. He regretted it immediately, wishing he'd had the time to read her file.

Wendy looked away, pulling her knees up under her chin, her arms wrapped around her legs. "Yeah. Just like that." The hurt in her tone was obvious. "I eat people for fun and talk to the rotting corpse of my dead best friend. Oh wait, my best friend is still alive." Her voice took on a sarcastic edge. "Guess that means I'm supposed to kill him in the middle of the night or something. Wonder what Jack will have to say about that."

"Wendy, it was a joke." He really wished he'd had a chance to read her file.

"Well it wasn't funny."

"You're right." He got up and crossed the distance between them. "It wasn't. I'm sorry."

She pulled further into herself. "Forget it. I'll stay at the Hub for a while."

"Wendy…"

"This whole thing was probably a bad idea anyway. People… you… humans... You can't help the way you feel about us." She turned to face him, but still didn't meet his gaze. "It's in your nature to fear what you don't understand and hate what you fear."

"I don't hate you and I'm not afraid of you," he said, although he supposed that maybe he should be afraid, assuming that when she said lycanthrope she really did mean something like An American Werewolf in London. He took a seat on the end of the bed anyway. A week ago, he realized, he wouldn't even have believed her.

But a week ago, my days didn't include Jack's pet pterodactyl, Weevils, spontaneous human combustion and giant alien bugs, he reminded himself.

"I know I'm an idiot with a big mouth, but I'll make you a deal. You keep the bedroom, I'll take the couch. All right?"

She gave him a long, penetrating look. Bobby had no idea what she was searching for, but he sat there and let her look at him without trying to force a smile or anything else.

"I really didn't mean to be a jerk," he said at length.

"I know."

"So… ? Does that mean the apology's accepted?" he asked tentatively. When she didn't answer right away, he held out his hand, "What do you say? Flatmates?"

"You don't have anything to prove to me," she told him.

"Yes I do. We're on the same side and I was a jerk. I am sorry," he told her again.

"I don't eat people." Her tone sounded defensive.

He just nodded. "I kinda figured that."

"You wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night with some slathering monster in your face."

"Jack trusts you. That's good enough for me."

"It's not like in the movies. I was born this way. I'm not… not some kind of… of animal."

"I would never have thought that," he promised her. "You're beautiful."

She looked away.

"What did I say wrong this time?"

She answered in a soft tone, "You've only seen half of me. It's the other skin humans fear. Hate. I know what men think of the way I look in this skin, but believe me when I say this is not the real me. Neither is the other, it's… it's all me. All of it put together. You can't separate the two or have one without the other."

"So show me the other half," he suggested.

"I don't … it's not a game, Bobby. This isn't like show and tell at school." Her tone was scathing.

"I'm not suggesting that it is," he told her honestly. "Look, if you want to get technical as soon as you signed on with Torchwood I became your doctor. It's important for a doctor to understand his patients."

"The only person you have to worry less about than me is Jack. As long as the bullets aren't made of silver, I recover pretty quickly."

"That's good to know. But I'll bet there are a hundred alien neurotoxins that affect you the same way they affect the rest of us. Energy discharge weapons, that Atmos gas," he suggested. "Assuming you're as mortal as the rest of us, you're not invulnerable."

"No. I'm not invulnerable," she conceded. After another long moment, she told him to stand back.

As soon as he stood up, she slid out of the bed and pulled off her T-shirt.

He averted his eyes immediately.

"I thought you said you were a doctor."

"That doesn't mean I'm used to patients stripping right in front of me." He realized that he was sounding defensive.

"Would you pull the drapes?"

"You should have thought of that before you started stripping," he muttered, although he walked over to the window and pulled the heavy curtains tight.

"This isn't the sort of thing…" she hesitated. "I'm only doing this to prove to you that this is something I control, it doesn't control me." It sounded like she was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince him. "I'm fully aware of everything that goes on around me, I remember everything. It's not like in books or movies," she repeated. "I'm still me. Only my body changes."

"All right," he nodded, taking a seat on the bed. He made a special point of looking at her face, because letting his gaze fall to any other part of her body was sure to garner a very unprofessional physical reaction. "You want me to trust you, so trust me."

"It's just, this isn't a show, it's not something to show off," she hesitated. "It's… it's not something for outsiders, people who don't understand. People who can't understand."

"Look, I'm not going to freak out on you, all right?"

Her gaze fell from his eyes to a spot on the floor between them. "You can't know that," she told him quietly.

"Jack and the others know all about this, right?" he asked, even though he knew the answer already. Jack had mentioned to him that Wendy was 'different' and that he needed to read her file and then come back to Jack's office if he had a problem with her, or the Captain's decision to hire her. Jack hadn't given him the impression that his decision was up for debate. In fact, Bobby got was the impression that if he did have a problem with Wendy, he had better get over quickly it if he wanted to keep his own job.

"They know," Wendy told him. "Ianto… He didn't always, but... but yes, they all know." Her tone was laden with emotion; Bobby couldn't name them all, but her uncertainty was obvious enough.

"They trust you," he reminded her. He knew by Jack's little speech that that was true. "And you must trust them. So why not give trusting me a shot?"

"It's not easy for us – me – to trust humans."

"I'm getting the impression we haven't given you much reason to."

She shrugged, "I can never go back to my kind. I don't have a choice but to learn to trust you."

Before he could say anything, she started changing and he found himself too awed to form words.

It was more elegant than anything Hollywood had ever conceived of. There was no splitting of skin or contorting of muscles, just a smooth transition from human into something truly extraordinary. He couldn't help the feeling of a shiver of fear at the sight of her standing there, seven feet of muscle and fur with sharp looking teeth and claws.

"Wow. You really weren't kidding." He wasn't aware he'd spoken until he heard the sound of his own voice. "Not that I didn't really believe you but… wow!" It wasn't his most eloquent moment.

Bobby forced his gaze up to her face again. When she met his gaze, he saw the same uncertain expression in her eyes and it struck him as ironic that she could probably rip him in half, but she was really afraid…

He remembered some of the cases he'd had over the years, people who were different in some way. It might be in the extreme, but this wasn't much different. Except this isn't some birth defect, this is just who and what she is.

She leant forward onto all fours and he realized she'd changed again, becoming quadruped, and looking a little too much like the creature from the John Landis movie he'd referenced earlier. Just bigger.

Only she still wasn't a 'slathering monster.'

"Your eyes are the same," Bobby observed at length. He noticed her blink and wondered if his observation surprised her.

"And I'll be honest," he admitted to her as well as himself, "if I didn't know you and I met you looking like this in a dark alley – or out on the moors," he hoped the joke would be appreciated the second time around, "I would probably shit myself."

He had no doubt that she could rip a man's throat out without effort and he couldn't help the way his heart jumped when she took a step closer. She stopped.

"Sorry. Natural reaction," he apologized, presuming she could sense his fear because even if she wasn't an animal her senses had to be keener than any human's right now. Or maybe his expression was just giving him away.

"But I'm not freaking out," he promised. He wasn't sure which one of them he was trying to convince. "Wendy, I know you're still you. You're the shy, beautiful woman – or maybe person is a better word, I'm not sure – but whatever, you're someone Jack and the others trust. That really is good enough for me. I'm sorry I was an idiot earlier, but I'm hoping you cut me just a little slack here, because even if we did have a training manual, I doubt it would cover this," he tried for another joke, still not sure how it was going over.

Her expression was impossible to read, except for the continued look of uncertainty in her brown eyes.

He got up and took a few steps closer to her, as much to prove to her that he could do it as to prove it to himself. "I hope you'll take it the right way when I say I'm kinda glad you're on our side," he said with a smile.

He really hoped that the way her lip curled up just then was a smile in return not a grimace.

A moment later she looked human again. "Even in this skin, I'm stronger than you are," she told him in a soft tone. She took the T-shirt from his hands and slipped it back on over her head. "My senses are keener and please don't ever make the mistake of thinking I'm anything like you."

"All right." He shot her another smile, "But the next time I have to open a pickle jar, I'll know who to ask."

She laughed, despite the obvious trepidation she still seemed to be feeling.

"Come on, we should get back in before the rest of them start to wonder what's taking so long."

"I just need a few minutes to get dressed. And… thanks."

"You have nothing to thank me for."

"I'm not used to humans being so…willing to accept something so different."

"We have to be able trust each other because out there," he shrugged, gesturing towards the window and the city beyond. "Out there we're all we've really got."

"I can see why Jack likes you."

He gave her a quizzical look.

"He told me I could trust you. I wasn't sure I believed him."

………………………………………………………………..

"I was starting to get worried about you kids," Jack greeted them with a wry smile as the cog door rolled aside. "When you left I could have sworn I told you not to do anything I wouldn't do," he winked at Bobby.

"There's the problem," Bobby returned his wink with a smile. "There isn't anything you wouldn't do."

The Captain chuckled. "Have a nice nap?" he asked Wendy. She seemed more relaxed around Bobby than she'd been earlier in the afternoon. Hopefully that meant they'd had a chance to talk.

"I feel better, thanks. I really…" she blinked a moment, seeming off balance.

Bobby reached out a hand to steady her, "Are you all right?"

Ianto looked up from his station, "Wendy?" he asked.

"I'm fine… I just…" She frowned. "I think the headache is coming back is all."

"Come on," Bobby took her by the waist, "Let's get you into the medical bay and have a look at you."

"I'm sure it's nothing."

Jack gave her a look. "Do I have to make everything an order with you?"

Wendy submitted to being led down to the medical area. All three of them accompanied her.

"What's going on?" Liz looked up from her computer as they came down the steps.

"Her headache's back," Bobby explained to Liz.

"It's not as bad as it was before," she told them. "I'm really sure it's nothing… Jack?" She turned to look at him. "What's that sound?"

"What sound?" Ianto was the first to ask her.

"It's… high pitched… Maybe it's out of your range… But it can't be by much. It's… " her eyes fluttered back in their sockets and her knees gave way…

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