So here it is! At long last. Chapter 23. I am so sorry its taken so long, I hope I still have some readers left. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I can write a bit more regularly now... I can but hope :) If you've got this far, its lovely to see you. If you're reading this then I would like to take this moment to thank my beta Kejfe Blintz, who at the time of press has help me sort out chapters 1 and 2, with time we will conquer them all!
"A Weevil," Jack began as the SUV swept the wrong way down a one way street, "is quite a simple operation really, sort of thing we at Torchwood call normal."
"Jack." Martha said dramatically, "we have heard about the Weevils before. You know, we've done our far share of chasing aliens."
"I know but there are things about Weevils that are useful to know before one of them is trying to tear your flesh off."
"Nice." said Mickey sarcastically.
"Which presumably is what these are for?" Martha said shaking a stun gun around. "But these only stun Jack, why don't you kill them?"
"They're not that much of a threat, they live here, they're more of an inconvenience than anything else. But most of the time they keep themselves to themselves so we don't harm them unneccessarily."
"Try telling that to someone who's just lost a leg." Mickey remarked.
"We're usually on top of them pretty quick." Jack said defensively.
"Story of your life." Martha said.
Jack smiled at her. "Ah, missed you Miss Jones." He slammed on the breaks and the SUV came to an ubrupt halt. "All out, take a stun gun, stay behind me, and when we've got it cornered I'll gve the shout and we stun. The Weevil, not each other." he clarified.
The shopping centre was only just open, there were a few shoppers milling around, but mainly they had the place to themselves.
"Whew, wouldn't want to cross the wrong side of that Janitor." Mickey remarked looking a hunched over blue boiler suit, lumbering down the hall.
"That's because that, Mickey, is our target."
"It looks almost human." Mickey replied in horror.
"Yeah wait till it shows you its teeth, definitely not human then."
"Right." Said Mickey apprehensively, "I get the picture, so we ambush."
"Slowly, carefully," Jack said "no sudden movements, they're easily startled."
The weevil, meandered into the gents. Jack flew across the hall and flattened himself against the wall on one side of the door, gesturing for the other to follow suit on the other side.
"Ready?" he asked.
They both nodded. They parted the door and slid through, the weevil appeared to be making faces at its' self in the mirror, trying to reach out and touch its reflection. Mickey snorted, Jack and Martha shot him a warning glance and at that moment the Weevil noticed it had company. It spun round lunging towards them, teeth on display.
"Ooo, wow." Mickey said backing into the tiled wall, "that's an impressive set of teeth you got there."
The weevil wasn't amused, or distracted it swayed a little eye-ing Mickey up and then jumped in for the kill. Mickey closed his eyes as the large head came towards him at alarming speed, he wished the wall would swallow him now. It didn't. But then he heard shouts and a roar and on opening his eyes realised he was still stood against the wall perfectly intact, not a scratch on him. At the other end of the room Jack appeared to be making a lot of noise, shouting all sorts of obscenities at the Weevil; discussing the weather, complaining about the state of the bogs, he didn't however appear to have his stun gun in his hand. The weevil clambered towards him and went to grab him, Jack ducked, but the weevil got a good hold on his coat and shirt and lifted him off his feet dangling him in midair. It sniffed around his face, one ear, then the other and then it threw its' head back, bared its' teeth and collapsed on top of him.
Jack let out an almighty scream as the sharp points of two Weevil teeth scraped down his neck and across his collar bone. Mickey stood frozen to the spot as he watched Martha stun the weevil, he screwed up his face with pain as Jack's screamed filled the bathroom and echoed off the walls. Martha detonated the stun gun and watched as the weevil went limp, Jack's screams nearly defended her as went running to his side. He was bleeding badly.
"Jack." she shouted over the din, "Jack." She repeated checking his pulse.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" was the only reply she got.
Mickey charged over and hauled the Weevil off Jack and laid it out of the floor.
"Is he ok?" He asked.
Martha had inspected they wounds, they were fairly superficial just skin and a couple of nicks into the muscle, but no major vessels. Ideally she'd like to get them flushed and protected, and she had no idea what sort of bugs might be present on weevil teeth but she suspected they weren't sterile at any rate. First things first though, she needed to stop the bleeding.
"Pass me a wedge of those handtowels." She instructed pointing over at the dispenser.
Mickey grabbed as many as he could fit his hands around and dashed back. "Here you go."
"Thanks." Martha said as she placed then across the wounds and applied pressure. "Jack? I know it hurts, I need you to focus on me, where are we?" She asked.
"We're in the gents, Martha, I'm not about to pass out, I'm just in agony." Jack retorted shooting her a glare.
Martha rolled her eyes. "For goodness sake Jack, pull you're self together, you've suffered much worse that this."
"It's never hurt this much before, has it healed yet?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"You have two gashes the length of a biro pen." She stated. "No of course its not healed yet."
"Hmph." Jack said, "suppose it was too much to ask to be mortal but still rapid self healing."
Martha just looked at him.
"Ianto's gonna kill me." he moaned.
"Come on, keep your hand on there and apply as much pressure as you can, if you don't you'll bleed out and then he won't have to bother. Can you stand?" Martha asked placing an arm around his waist, and drapping his nearest arm across her shoulder.
Mickey slipped in the other side and together they hoisted him off the floor. "What about that?" he asked inclining his head to the weevil.
Martha stopped and looked at the body on the floor, and then at Jack.
"You get that we'll take it back to the cells until it recovers." He looked at them, neither moved from his side. "I can manage." he said exasperated, and disentangled himself from their arms.
"You feel faint, you tell us." Martha ordered.
"Yes ma'am." Jack saluted as she and Mickey gathered up the weevil and followed him out the SUV.