Thanks so much to everyone who reads this! I hope you all enjoy it, and if you do, please review to let me know how I'm going :)
I'm sorry for the infrequent updates, I'm at the end of high school where you're actually supposed to put effort in :P Still, I'll try to update as often as I can :) enjoy!
"So, how old are you?" Ianto asked Emily in an attempt to break the ice. They were driving to a nearby shopping centre in Ianto's car.
"In Earthling or Gallifreyan years?" She replied, watching the unfamiliar landscapes streaming past the window.
"Uh... Earth?" Ianto replied, voice full of interest.
"Sixteen." She answered.
Ianto chuckled. "You know, I half expected you to say 150 or something."
Emily smiled. "No, we age similarly to a human. We just regenerate when a body gets too old and worn out. But even then, we're only ever kids once."
Ianto nodded. "But how do you know so much about Earth? Especially if you're only a teenager?"
"Our education in Gallifrey is very fast paced. We can remember things a lot more easily than a human. One of my favourite subjects was Intergalactic Matters, so I know a lot about certain planets and species." Emily explained, just as Ianto was pulling into a car space.
"You'll do well at Torchwood then. We're always finding strange unidentifiable aliens." Ianto told her as he got out of the car. Emily smiled. She had always liked it when her knowledge got put to good use.
Two and a half hours later, Emily and Ianto walked back into the hub, laden with bags of clothes, toiletries and a brand new mobile phone. After packing away all of her new things, Emily got changed into some of the new clothes she bought. "How do these look?" She asked, walking out to show Ianto her choices. She wore skinny denim jeans, a fitted blue camisole, a black leather jacket and dark blue converse shoes.
"Great. You look like a local," Ianto nodded in approval. "I've set your phone up with all of our numbers," he handed her the shiny black phone. "Need me to show you how to use it?"
"Thanks, but I can work it out," she smiled as she took it. "So where has everyone gone this time? Another routine alien artefact retrieval?" She asked, noticing that only Tosh was in the hub.
"I believe so. Well, I have some filing to do. Why don't you go see if Tosh needs help?" He asked her, gesturing over to where Tosh sat at her workstation, looking at her screen very intently.
"Got a visual," Tosh spoke rapidly into her comms, not taking her eyes off the screen. "Suspect's male, wearing a hoodie... Go, Gwen!" Emily looked over at Tosh's screen and watched as CCTV cameras tracked Gwen as she ran in pursuit of a man. "You star, you did it!" Tosh spoke excitedly to Gwen. "No, you got it... I swear whatever it is, you're holding it." There was about thirty seconds of silence on the other end, and then- "Ok, I'll see you then." Tosh appeared to terminate the communication, so Emily figured it was okay to speak.
"Uh, Tosh?" Tosh looked up from her screen and smiled at her. "Is there anything I can help with?" Emily asked tentatively.
"Not at the moment, the others are on their way back with some alien tech, so maybe then." She smiled encouragingly.
"What did they find?" Emily asked curiously.
"Not sure at this point, although Gwen reported seeing some kind of ghost, or a vision from the past." Tosh turned back to her screen, pulling up CCTV footage of the suspect, trying to find a clear face shot.
Moments later, the cog doors rolled apart, revealing Jack, Owen and a disgruntled looking Gwen. "I'm telling you, it was as real as anything, one moment everything was normal, the next there was a ghost standing in front of me!" Gwen insisted, frowning in frustration.
"Alright, alright. We'll check the CCTV footage," Jack replied to her. He looked over to where Emily was standing. "Hey, you," he said by way of greeting, "Ianto took you shopping I see. I like your choices," he said, winking at her.
"Jesus, Jack," Owen grumbled, watching him disapprovingly. "Don't start that again."
Jack held his hands up defensively. "Anyway, Tosh, can you bring up the footage of Gwen with the device? We need to see if anything happened once she caught it."Tosh nodded and walked over to projector, projecting the footage onto the wall above the med bay.
"This is the feed from the station camera," she explained. "Gwen grabs the kid. She's got his jacket, then he just slips out."
Jack appeared next to Gwen with the alien device in his hands. "You okay with this so far?" He asked her. She nodded briefly, not taking her eyes off the screen.
"And then?" She asked Toshiko.
"Jack and Owen arrive," Tosh said, as the team watched Gwen standing still with the device. Seconds later, Jack and Owen ran in. "Then nothing. Sorry." Tosh finished, looking at Gwen apologetically.
"No, wait. It was as real as this. More real. I didn't just see that boy. I could... I could hear what he was thinking, I could feel it. Like I was lost." Gwen explained, waving her hands around to emphasise her point.
Owen scrutinised Gwen. "Intense emotion can be part of a neurological event," he began. "Hallucinations, dementia-"
"I wasn't hallucinating, Owen," Gwen cut him off, glaring at him. "And I'm not bloody senile." Owen narrowed his eyes at her.
"Actually," Emily spoke up, achieving surprised glances from everyone else. "Gwen's experience sounds similar to something we had on Gallifrey. A transducer- it converts one form of energy into another, in this case emotional energy into a form that we can see and feel. They used to be used in court cases and investigations." She finished. There was a long silence. Emily looked around to find the others staring at her, dumbstruck. She was unnerved by their silence. "I mean, it's just an idea, it might not..." She quietened, seeing Jack break into a huge grin. She looked at him, her brows knitting together in confusion.
"You are just like him," he chuckled. "You are brilliant," Emily smiled back nervously.
"So you think I might be right?" She asked, still confused.
"Oh, I think you're spot on," he was still smiling, apparently suitably impressed. "Gwen and Owen, see if you can find the boy Gwen saw- you said you saw a name, Gwen?"
"Flanagan, Tom Erasmus Flanagan." Gwen seemed pleased that everyone was accepting her story.
"Unusual name, that'll help. Run a full check. Births, marriages, deaths, criminal records, passports. However long it takes, wherever he is, we'll find him." Jack called out.
"Found him," Owen called back. Everyone spun to face him as he read from a thick book. "Flanagan, Thomas Erasmus. 74 Brynaeron Terrace, Butetown," Owen snapped the book shut and held it up. "He was in the phone book." He said dryly. Jack looked amused.
"Right, so Gwen and Owen, pay him a visit. Tosh and Emily, see if you can find out more about the transducer, and the guy that we caught it off." Jack finished calling out orders. Emily, glad to have been given a job, followed Tosh over to her computer. As Gwen and Owen were heading to the door, Owen picked the transducer up from the small table Jack had left it on.
"Hang on, Gwen- it's buzzing and flashing now!" Owen held up the device, which was still in his hand. Owen moved his fingers over the singular button on the device.
"Owen, no, don't!" Gwen yelled out and reached out to grab it, but Owen had already pressed the button. He went silent for a moment, and Gwen sucked in a nervous breath. Owen turned to face her with a look of mock horror on his face.
"I saw..." He began, speaking in a dazed tone. Gwen looked at him anxiously. "A ghost..." He finished, before his features melted into a huge grin. Gwen frowned at him and slapped his shoulder disapprovingly.
"You can be a real ass sometimes!" She said as she stalked over towards the exit, Owen's laughter following her out.
"So, are you a techie too?" Jack asked Emily as he watched her and Tosh scrutinising the transducer.
"Sorry?" She asked, looking up at Jack.
"Toshiko is our resident tech genius," he replied. "Perhaps you two have that in common?"
"Oh. I don't think so, I just have a basic understanding with these sorts of things." She smiled shyly.
Jack frowned at her. "Come on, don't be modest-"
"I've got it!" Tosh exclaimed excitedly. She was looking through files on her computer. "A quantum transducer- it uses nanotechnology to convert the quantum traces of emotional events so that we can see and feel it."
"Great. So... Is this timelord technology?" Jack asked Emily.
"No. We had something similar in function, but I'd definitely recognise it if it were," Emily picked up the device and spun it around in her hands. "This doesn't look complete... Was there another part that came with this?" She asked, holding it up.
"No- what makes you think there's another part?" Jack asked.
"I see what you mean," Tosh began. "There's little hooks on the end- it looks almost like a piece of a jigsaw."
"Well, the only way to find out is by finding the guy we caught it off. Did we have a name for him?" Jack asked, looking to Tosh.
"Yes, I was able to match up his face from the CCTV... Sean Harris, known to friends as Bernie..." Tosh was interrupted by the sound of the cog doors rolling apart, as Gwen and Owen returned.
"Anything?" Jack called over to them.
"Don't ask me. Gwen had me trapped with a bloody motormouth making tea," Owen grumbled as he tossed his jacket over his desk chair. Jack looked over to Gwen expectantly.
"Well, that was him. He recalled being lost in the station, feeling exactly as I felt, lonely and scared." Gwen said as she walked over to her desk and picked up a stack of papers.
"So," Jack said, clapping his hands together. "Our friend with the alien machine in his pocket is Sean Harris, aka Bernie."
"And what he's doing with an alien machine is anyone's guess," Gwen said as she pinned up a picture of Bernie on the notice board. "Nineteen years old. String of convictions- burglary, shoplifting, credit cards."
"Do warn me if he's dropping in," Ianto said as he walked around handing coffees out.
"The theft conviction - he was stealing tires off a car when the owner turns up, gives him so much grief, he apologises. Starts putting them back on again which is when the police show up! And here - shoplifting conviction. Bottle of vodka and three pot noodles..." Tosh spoke, reading from a file she held in her hands.
"Wow. We're dealing with a criminal mastermind," Owen mumbled sarcastically. "DAMN!" He yelled, dropping some sort of controller on the bench. Emily looked over to him, startled, to see him playing some sort of old-fashioned arcade game on his computer.
"Owen," Jack said in a warning tone. "We have work to do."
"Alright, alright. What's our next order of business then?" He asked, closing the game and looking up at Jack expectantly. Jack wheeled around to face Tosh, who was still leafing through the files in her hands.
"This kid, Bernie," he began. "Where does he live?"
"Splott." She replied.
Owen sniggered. "Splott?" He repeated with a mocking tone.
"I believe estate agents pronounce it 'Sploe'," Ianto chimed in, causing Owen to roll his eyes and Jack to chuckle.
Jack grabbed his military coat off his desk chair and headed for the door. "Right, so we'll split up, ask around if anyone knows where he his." The others began moving towards the exit. Emily stood awkwardly, unsure of whether she was supposed to follow. "Emily, you can stick with me." He said, beckoning her out after the others.