"But I've already filed the paperwork and- and-" The young lady stood by the body of Mark Storey trying her best not to give in to the pressure this strange man was putting on her. She knew that her assertiveness was most of the time equal to zero but she had been trying to work on it for a long time. "The bodies are going to cremation this evening! All the necessary information are in the police records!"
"We just want to see them for a short while so we can do our own research," Jack explained friendly. "The police and us - we're looking for quite two completely different things. Please."
A few minutes later Martha was standing in the far corner of the morgue analysing all of the seven bodies - one at a time. Jack was going through the photographs of past victims - Tobey on the other hand was goofing around on one of the body tables, his feet dangling from the side talking to Lois about various Torchwood-un-related things, mainly last night's X-men marathon which they eagerly watched crashing at Lois's place.
"Never took you for a science-fiction-slash-superhero fan," Tobey remarked and smiled as Lois laughed.
"I'd like to turn your attention to our line of work, Tobey," she said.
"Well, yeah... But nobody else is really a sci-fi fan, you know? I mean sure, they all like a good science-fiction movie but I can say for sure that none of the others has such a huge collection of science-fiction DVDs. I'd be surprised if Jack had any he doesn't seem to have any hobbies besides his job so it's hard to tell. And he could tone down with commenting about how everything is untrue..."
"Yeah, it's science-fiction after all," Lois commented.
"Hey, I can hear you down there," Jack interrupted them. "If you have time to idle about like that you could do a bit of work!"
"What work?" Tobey protested. "None of us has any autopsy-expertese and you won't even tell us what it is that you're trying to find in those pictures. And I can't even get any connection in this basement if I wanted to do research. Even my mobile is dead!"
"If you have nothing to do you can get some coffee," Jack said. "The thing we had this morning could hardly qualify as beverage."
"Welcome to the real world, Jack! You spent so much time in the recesses of the Hub with Ianto making you delicious coffee every day that you forgot how horrible it can be on the outside!" Tobey joked. "But sure, I think it's an easy enough job and would save me a bit of waiting. You coming, Lois?"
"Sure!" the girl slid off the table and followed the technician out. They hadn't returned until thirty minutes later but they knew there was no need to hurry. Despite Jack's initial reflex to reprimand them he quickly got bribed by the lunch they brought.
"Jack - chicken and bacon sandwich plus large coffee and Martha - a veggie sandwich with a fruit salad side and a small green tea," Tobey announced passing everybody their respective meals. He himself was happy with a regular white coffee and a large blueberry muffin and Lois picked a croissant for herself and tea with milk.
"How did you know?" Martha asked, seeing how the meal was suspiciously close to what she would've picked for herself.
Tobey smiled mischievously and said nothing. They sat on the tables and enjoyed their meal discussing various reasons why Jack should never have long hair. When the conversation turned to Tobey's forever-curly blond locks the technician quickly changed the subject to something he felt more comfortable in. He found himself faced with two bored people who cared not a single bit about which search engine they used and the third who believed that the Torchwood software was, is and forever would be the best for his personal use. He sighed distorting the awkward silence in which the discussion results. Lois saved him by introducing the ever so safe topic of movies and cinema.
They didn't return to the subject of work until the last drop of coffee (or tea) was sipped and not a single crumb was left.
"Six of the victims are connected to the case and the rest are either coincidences or some idiot copy-cat," Jack said.
"How can you tell?" Lois asked.
"Three of them are aliens, Mark Storey was connected to one of the alien-victims and the other two were obviously killed by the same marksman," Martha explained.
"And there's no doubt he or she is a skilled marksman," Jack added. "The others are just petty imitators."
"See, I wouldn't know that," Tobey commented referring to their previous conversation.
"That's why you're the one bringing coffee and not doing the examination. No offense, Lois."
Tobey sighed but couldn't help feeling quite comfortable. This strange familiarity was what he was lacking when he had joined and now that he was more comfortable around his coworkers such small talk became natural. Even if he was insulted a few times (and he noticed he was most frequently the victim of malicious remarks) he knew these comments were more friendly than hurtful.
"The killer is obviously after anyone alien-related," Jack continued.
"But we knew that already when we headed for London," Tobey remarked. "The three previous murders Lois brought were the reason we came here."
"We can't protect every alien or alien-related person in London!" Lois protested. "If so many were killed so far we can only imagine how many more there must be!"
"That's why we need to get to the source instead of curing the symptoms," Jack said. "We need to find a connection between all these people; one that is not just 'extraterrestrial'. If we let this person continue somebody might notice. And I bet it can link everything back to us, to Torchwood. Especially now that we're investigating this."
"The amount of coverage on these cases is just amazing," Tobey noticed. "Turn on BBC or Sky news, it's the only thing they're talking about. Front pages, headlines, blogs, it's even trending on twitter. The Deadeye they're calling him, with all the shots being precisely to the middle of the head or forehead."
"But it's a bit too much don't you think?" Lois said. "I mean it's unusual isn't it? This has been going on for at least three weeks now and the killings got more frequent only recently. Even with the break in the second week the news were still going on about this Deadeye. Even the terrorist attack in Marseille got less coverage than this!"
"So news is one thing," Jack said. "We need to find what else connects these cases. Lois, Tobey; I'm putting you on it. I want a connection as soon as possible. Go back to Lois's apartment and get into the background of every single one of the victims. Tell me if they attended the same preschool or go to the same corner shop, even if they all like a single brand of wine - I want to know everything!"
"Sure thing," Tobey said. "What about you?"
"Me and Martha will stay and examine the victims' remains once more and maybe find a connection there. Contact us if you find anything."
Lois and Tobey nodded and in a matter of minutes were on the Tube heading towards Lois's apartment in Putney.
o*o*o
"This is incredible!" Shannon's voice echoed in the vast spaces of the Hub. She gaped at the Torchwood base which she could never imagined to be right under the Roald Dahl Place.
"Maybe we should've covered her eyes with something when bringing her here," Rhys remarked.
Ianto rolled his eyes. "You're one to talk. You think maybe we should've covered your eyes? There's no need for that sort of thing here. You watch too much bad television, Rhys."
Gwen stared astonished at the weird tension between her husband and coworker. She knew Ianto could be very sarcastic but he had never shown his irritation to people he wasn't close to. And Rhys wasn't a person he would normally fight with. No, she realised, but somebody else would.
"Oh my god, Ianto, you're totally acting like Jack aren't you?" she said. "You miss him, don't you?"
The blush contradicted the answer. "Why would I do that? He's- They're only gone for a few days."
Gwen bit her tongue before teasing him any more. She had forgotten Ianto's memory loss for a moment.
"Anyway, Shannon, it's not usually as empty as this," Gwen said changing the subject. "Most of the team is gone but there's somebody here usually."
"How many of you are working here?" the Doctor asked.
"Sort of five and a half," Ianto answered. "Gwen doesn't check in every day due to her duties as a mother."
"Only six? But this place is huge!"
"It's better this way," Gwen said.
"What exactly do you do then? In this Torchwood. I've never heard about it."
"Extraterrestrial phenomena," Gwen answered truthfully but in a roundabout way.
"You mean you're astronomers? You investigate meteors and such?" Shannon asked clearly getting the wrong idea.
"Among other things," Gwen said.
"But I would've expected there to be a telescope," the Doctor remarked.
"There's no need for telescopes here, Shannon," Gwen continued having great fun in keeping the truth from Shannon - at least for now. It had been so long since she could do this.
A screech cut their conversation short and Shannon stared at Ianto terrified.
"What was that?" she asked her voice wavering a little.
"Skippy," the man answered in his usual deadpan manner.
"You have a dog?"
"You could say so," Ianto said coming to the conclusion that explaining how they came to have a pet pterodactyl would be a waste of time at the moment. "Anyway, let's go on a tour of the place, shall we?"
Gwen watched as Ianto took Shannon around the Hub explaining little bits and pieces a tad too enthusiastically. She had of course noticed the weird awkward silence between them and the occasional flirtatious remark on both sides. Yes, there was definitely some chemistry between them but Gwen hadn't yet decided if she approved or disapproved of anything that might come from it. Shannon seemed like a very nice person but Gwen believed Ianto was - for lack of a better word - difficult. Despite his act he was fragile and sensitive. A relationship like this - separate from Torchwood - would either be a blessing or a disaster depending on a lot of factors. For Gwen Rhys had always been an oasis of peace and relaxation but at times it was difficult. Very difficult indeed.
"Aaand this is the autopsy room," Ianto declared once they had reached their final destination.
"The autopsy room," Shannon repeated. "Why is it called the autopsy room?"
"Come on, Shannon," Gwen said approaching. "It's not hard to figure that out."
The doctor was left speechless trying her best not to answer her own question. She was left baffled as to what exactly Torchwood was doing what with the weaponry and computers and everything.
"Anyway, the body scanner is the computer on your right," Ianto said. "All the tools are in the drawer, ultrasound is right underneath."
"OK, Ianto, you're starting to sound like a catalogue there," Gwen joked.
"Well if we you need anything just ask," the man finished. "I'll call Jack and Martha now. They should give us an inside into what could be happening."
The London group answered a few beeps later and Ianto put them on the loudspeakers.
"Jack," Gwen said obviously still cross about the earlier call.
"Gwen! Sorry about earlier, we needed to get on with the case," the Captain explained himself. "Anyways what's going on on your end?"
"Gwen's baby is six months older than it should be," Ianto explained.
"I thought it was unusually big when I last saw it but I attributed most of that to Rhys's genes."
"Thanks, Jack," Rhys said deadpan.
"Oh, sorry Rhys didn't know you were there," Jack said but the tone of his voice was a bit too lighthearted to be counted as a proper apology.
"Gwen's been to the doctor's and apparently Alex is like an eight month old child," Ianto continued choosing to ignore the little row.
"It's not just the size of the child but the development suggests he's more than half a year old, most probably eight months," Shannon cut in.
"Who was that?" Jack asked.
"Oh, sorry, My name is Doctor Shannon Wilkins I was put in charge of Alex Williams today when Mrs Cooper came to my clinic."
"Please call me Gwen," the senior Torchwood operative whispered quietly to the Doctor. "Well, Jack, any ideas?"
"If you're asking me if I came across something like this then no," Jack answered. "But I think that you should take into consideration one thing Gwen. That the baby may not be yours."
"Don't you dare, Jack!" Rhys said. "It's my baby you're talking about! There's no way somebody could just replaced our child with somebody else's"
"We have to take every possibility into consideration," Jack said.
"I can make DNA tests if you'd like," Shannon joined the discussion.
"Shannon, dear, you're not helping right now," Gwen said sweetly.
"Jack might be right you know?" Ianto said in a calming tone. "You should just let Doctor Wilkins take all the tests she thinks necessary and see what the outcome is. If you don't accept any possibility you will never find out what's wrong."
There was silence for a moment when both Gwen and Rhys were considering Ianto's words. He seemed like the only voice of reason right now. Within minutes they were both waiting on the couch watching from afar as Shannon took care of their baby with a comm attached to her head constantly communicating with Martha about the procedures or results. Ianto on the other hand seemed to take no interest in what was happening to Alex absorbed in what his computer was showing him.
Finally, when Gwen had already started pacing back and forth around the Hub anxious about not being able to help, Shannon walked up to them and asked them to look at the screen. Her face was pale and she her posture indicated something grave.
She turned on the screen showing an image of the boy's chest's scan. Gwen and Rhys saw nothing unusual but Shannon indicated a black spot near the heart. "I don't know what that is but it shouldn't be there. During the scans it moved."
"So it could be alive?" Gwen asked to Shannon's surprise.
"Well, parasites usually live in the digestive system, very rarely anywhere else. Especially the heart."
"One thing, Shannon. Before you continue please take this into consideration: don't judge anything that happens according to your human knowledge. Take everything into consideration."
"OK... Well, I also took blood samples. The good news is that this is definitely your child and the bad news is that there is some kind of substance in the bloodstream that I think may be affecting Alex's growth and development. It doesn't seem to damage the organism or the mind but only time can tell what the exact effect of this substance is."
"Do you know how it got there?" Gwen kept her head clear not allowing personal feelings to overcome her. She found it difficult but experience told her that it was better to distance herself than to let emotions control her reason.
"I found a faint scar on the chest when I looked closely," the Doctor explained. "It's definitely a scar but it's barely visible. But this type of clean cut indicates one thing - a surgery."
"Which begs the question when could have somebody operated on Alex," Ianto said. "From what I've seen in the medical records the only time Alex has been in a hospital or clinic was when he was born, on the first check up and for the injections. Out of the three you could've left the child for long enough to have a surgery only after birth and it's quite possible the operation took place in the hospital itself."
"You think it's an alien, honey?" Rhys asked his wife.
"Could be anything really..." Gwen said equally worried. She knew it was all Torchwood's fault but decided to hold her tongue in check when Ianto was around. She knew he would take it personally.
"Well, Jack would probably know what it is..." Ianto uttered, his mind obviously somewhere in the clouds.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand," Shannon cut in. "What is this alien talk and why would your boss know something like that! I think I deserve to know!"
Gwen glanced at Ianto knowing that the question required his answer.
"I can't really tell you, Doctor Wilkins," the man said his voice deadpan and his face emotionless. "Rules and regulations."
The silence that followed was awkward for everybody.
"Okay, so I guess we'll have to find out who conducted the surgery, first," Gwen said. "Are there any files on the hospital server, Ianto?"
Ianto moved to his desk and quickly checked the network. "No, the logs are not on the server so you will have to access the hospital computers."
"'You'? What you're not coming with us?" Gwen asked.
"I have to do something first," Ianto said standing up. "I'm sure you and Doctor Wilkins will figure this out."
Like that he left the Hub, his feet taking him to the garage in a hurry.
Gwen looked after him feeling just slightly betrayed. She took Alex in her hands and turned to Shannon.
"How do you feel like acting a little?"