Here's an interlude for coffee. An even shorter chapter, so I'll put up chapter 6 as well. Aren't you lucky!!? Thanks for the reviews.
I decided it was time for coffee, anything to calm my nerves and to keep the peace. The Medical Bay had been suspiciously quiet and I entered with some trepidation; I didn't know what tests Owen would be running but Jack was so unused to needing any kind of medical treatment he got fidgety very quickly. Thinking about it, I'd have been more reassured to have heard shouting. I found Jack seated on the examination couch, his top bare and his feet swinging some way off the ground. He looked pale and vulnerable sitting there as Owen waved some alien scanner across his torso. I hardened my resolve to protect him from Owen's barbed comments or anything else anyone threw his way. Owen turned as a machine spewed out some results and was then quiet. Jack looked up as I descended the steps and smiled at me, a bit grimly, and reached for his mug on my tray.
"What's this?" he asked, looking at the contents in disgust.
"A latte. You can have caffeine but not at the strength you're used to, not until we know more." Owen chuckled in the background as I looked Jack straight in the eye, daring him to protest.
"This or nothing?" he asked. I nodded. He sighed sullenly and sipped the drink.
Owen joined us, still smiling. I think the fact Jack had been bested over the coffee made him feel better – he's a strange man. "Well, it's definitely Jack. Same DNA. Brain scan is identical to the one at his last check-up." He looked at Jack distastefully and shook his head. "He's just a bloody little kid, 10 years old near as I can tell."
I sipped my own drink. He'd only confirmed what I already knew but it had given the situation a kind of ominous feel. Strange what knowledge can do. Jack was scrabbling about putting his clothes back on and I put out a hand to steady his coffee mug which looked precarious balanced next to him. "How do we reverse it?" I asked, mainly of Owen but not excluding Jack.
"Search me. Need to know what caused it first," Owen replied. He moved to put away some of his equipment.
"Better get on with that Weevil autopsy then," ordered Jack, before taking a sip of the coffee.
"Yes, sir," said Owen snidely.
Jack shuffled to the edge of the examination couch and realised it was impossible to get down while still holding his half-full mug of coffee. I reached a hand, as if it was something I always did, like help him on with his coat, and he put the mug in it gratefully. "Is Tosh on her way?" he asked, as we climbed up to the work area.
"Yes. I texted Gwen too, suggested she may like to come in."
He glared at me. "Why don't you invite the rest of Cardiff while you're at it. I'm sure they'd all like a look at the freak!" He stomped into his office and slammed the door. Maybe he wasn't taking this as well as I'd thought.
How will Tosh react?