Dipping into the serious for a few chapters, so if you're into the fluff, you may want to skip this for a couple of chapters. I'm not sure about these chapters, so let me know what you think. Hope you like it.
Ianto straightened and filled the pamphlet holders in the tourist office. He hadn't had much time up in the office lately, but the atmosphere was a little too tense. Gwen was trying to stage a mutany, and Jack was dealing with it by becoming autocratic. Owen was taking shots at everyone. Tosh was so quiet she was practically a ghost. Ianto had snuck up stairs to order lunch from their favourite Chinese restaurant in the hopes of calming everyone down. Meanwhile, the office needed a good spring cleaning, and Ianto had
The bell chimed cheerfully from over the door. Ianto turned, and his heart sank. The young tourist, Dani, slipped into the tourist office, and blinked in the dim light. Ianto straightened his shoulders, and put on his polite and helpful face.
"Can I help you?" Ianto quickly plastered polite smile on his face.
"This is going to sound a little strange, but…do I look familiar?" The young woman looked troubled.
"No, should I?" Ianto gave her a curious stare. He hadn't spent so much time learning to disguise his feelings for nothing.
"It's just that…I woke up yesterday morning, but it's wasn't yesterday morning. It was two days later, and it's not the first time. The only thing I have to go on is I had the Tourist Information Office written in my day planner to come here for some background, and interesting places to go."
"I'm sorry, I can't help you—"
"I'm really worried because I can only think of one reason why I would wake up without a memory." The girl was suddenly close to tears. Ianto turned away for a moment to let the young woman get her composure back.
"This time I woke up with this." She lifted her hair to show the cut over her ear, already well healed thanks to Owen. "I went to the hospital, and they said I had a concussion. I wasn't brave enough to ask for an exam." Ianto suddenly stared at the girl. She thought she'd been assaulted? Ianto felt his chest tighten in sympathy for the young woman.
"The head injury could explain the memory loss, couldn't it?" Ianto asked gently.
"Yes, but no one can tell how I ended up in my own hotel room, with a gash on the side of my head, that's been treated, but not at the hospital." Two tears slid down the young woman's face. Ianto pulled the handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to the girl.
Ianto was suddenly angry at his sometimes oblivious boss. Jack really should have realized by now that he needed to step up his game with this girl.
"I'm sure it's nothing serious. It looks like you had a minor accident, some samaritan found you, got you medical treatment, and then made sure you got back to your hotel room."
The tourist looked at him in disbelief. "Are you kidding? You think that's the most likely answer?"
"I think that's the answer that will let you sleep tonight." Ianto replied.
The woman looked at him for a long moment. "Who hurt you?" It was as much a statement as a question.
"I don't know what you mean." Ianto's polite mask was firmly back in place. The young woman accepted the implied rebuff.
"Please feel free to use the washroom to clean up." Ianto took his handkerchief back from the young woman, and gestured to the nondescript door to one side of the counter. The tourist slipped past the counter and into the washroom. She emerged a few minutes later, and twisted a half smile at the Welshman.
"Well, thank you for your time, and I'm sorry to fall apart on you. You've been very kind. Maybe I'll try the police." The young woman smiled with troubled eyes. Ianto watched as, she drifted to the door, and out into the sunlight. He was still staring at the door, when the their lunch arrived
Ianto was quiet as he brought the Chinese food into the Hub.
"Jack, we need to talk."
Jack leered "what about?"
"Our tourist." Tosh looked up from her console.
"What about Dani?" Owen had come up from the autopsy bay, lured by the smell of food. Gwen had moved closer as well.
"She came into the tourist office just now."
"We saw, but you seemed to get rid of her fairly quickly. What'd she want? Directions to Brecon Beacons? I hope you warned her about cannibals." Jack chuckled slightly, but Ianto remained serious.
"She knows that she's lost days, and she's put the worst possible conclusion to it." Ianto frowned in concern.
"Which is?" Gwen asked glancing between Ianto and Jack.
"What would you conclude, if you'd gone out the night before, and woke up in your own room, with no memory of what happened? Especially, if it had happened three times in a week?" Ianto turned to Gwen, and waited.
Gwen's face drained of colour. "Date rape?" .
"What?" Jack lost his good humour. "Where'd she get that idea?"
"Because of rohypnol, you idiot." Gwen was becoming more and more upset as she put herself in the young woman's place. "Women are being warned over and over to watch our drinks, and we hear all the horror stories about what missing days means. Of course, she's going to assume the worst!"
"We can't leave her like that." Tosh chimed in, "She doesn't deserve it."
Even Owen was looking troubled. "That could destroy her, Jack. We don't know what that kind of event could do. We've already wrecked her vacation, but we can't destroy her."
"She's strong. She'll be fine." Jack didn't sound completely convinced.
Ianto just continued to stare at Jack as though waiting for him to make the right decision. The silence lengthened, until finally Jack looked up to glare at his team.
"No! I'm not bringing that girl into the Hub again! She know too much as it is!" Jack grabbed the Chinese food, and headed for the conference room. "I'm setting up the food, anyone who wants some, better move now." The rest of the team turned to look at each other. Ianto finally broke the stillness and headed for the archives. Gwen turned and walked slowly back to her desk. Tosh turned back to her computer. Owen seemed to wrestle with himself for a long second before shrugging and heading for conference room.
He paused by Tosh, as she glared reproachfully. "When have I ever passed up free food?"
