6.

Martha felt the air in her kitchen change while she was doing the dishes, as if its consistency was different all of a sudden. Anybody else would probably not even have noticed but she knew the feeling all too well. The TARDIS arriving evoked it as well, but there was no tale-telling wooshing of its engine, so it couldn't be the Doctor. It could be somebody dangerous. She grabbed the still dripping pan, acting as if she hadn't felt the slight breeze an opening in space and time evoked. Then she turned around, pan raised.

John Hart smiled at her. "So we meet again, Martha Jones."

She frowned, not letting go of the pan. Sure, John hadn't been treated as an enemy by the team but not as a close friend, either. "Yes," she answered carefully.

"Your patient needs you." His smile fell. "It's Ianto. It's bad. Somebody took over Torchwood."

Martha's eyes widened.

"They took the team prisoner and Ianto got injected with a lethal poison. I guess I don't have to tell you that his baby ..." John paused and swallowed.

Martha let the pan drop into the dishwater and dried her hands. "How bad is it?" She opened a cupboard and got out the medical bag she always had at her home in case she needed it. Travelling with the Doctor and working for UNIT had prepared her to always be ready.

John reached out a hand. "He could lose the baby. He could die."

Martha saw that he was deadly serious. "Right." She took his hand and grabbed her mobile from the kitchen table. She would have a look at Ianto and when she thought she was out of her depth … well, there was someone she could call. "Let's go."

xxx

Rick stared at Jack. "I should've known that he was on your side. Always blinded by love for you, that silly fool."

Kenya looked up from her manipulator and shook her head. "There are bursts from his manipulator but they're too short. He keeps switching the manipulator off. I can't track him."

"Of course not," Rick replied grimly. "John's many things. Stupid's not one of them." He looked at Jack again. "So, your lover's gone, the poison's gone, all the fun spoiled." He pulled his gun from his holster. Jack tensed but he tried not to show it. Even though he knew that Rick knew he was scared. With Ianto gone, Rick still had three alternatives left and all he had to decide now was to guess who meant the most to Jack, not knowing that every loss would hit him with the same intensity. Jack pulled on his chains. There was a distinct possibility that they wouldn't come out of this alive – at least not all of them. Rick grinned at Jack. "The code to your weapon's arsenal, if you please." He cocked the gun and pointed it at Tosh. "Or you'll lose her and this time, John won't be around to save her."

Jack felt unable to answer. For a moment, all there was to hear was the trickling of the water down the sculpture.

Owen's voice cut through the silence. "Don't you dare," he growled, saying the first thing in what seemed like hours. "If you kill her, I'll kill you. I'll tear you limb from limb."

Rick laughed and looked at Jack. "He's adorable. Where did you find him?"

"Shut up!" Owen yelled. Jack caught Gwen's surprised look and sympathized. It wasn't like Owen to get like this in a dangerous situation. Owen pulled on his handcuffs and sneered. "What, can't you get it up? Is that the reason you're being so miserable that you have destroy other peoples' lives?"

Rick's eyes narrowed dangerously and Jack muttered, "Owen." Owen glared at him and Jack shook his head.

Owen just turned back to Rick. "Are you really that stupid?" he asked. "Or are you just pretending to be? He won't give you the fucking codes, you idiot!" Rick's gun moved from Tosh to Owen. Owen looked at Jack. "Don't give him anything."

And suddenly, Jack understood. Owen's eyes told him everything he needed to know. He turned to Rick. "Don't shoot him, please. He's just nervous."

Rick answered, "Seemed pretty calm before and he's getting on my nerves."

"Don't please. Please, he's the best friend I have."

Gwen turned her head in his direction, her eyes wide and surprised.

"Is he now?" Rick asked. "First your lover then your best friend … I think that's good interrogation technique."

"Leave him alone," Jack said. "Please."

Tosh stared at Rick pleadingly. "Please don't hurt him."

Jack suppressed a smile. Tosh was part of the game now. And Gwen, too. He was amazed to see tears sparkle in her eyes when she added, "There's no reason for you to shoot him."

Rick raised his eyebrows. "Then give me the codes."

"Jack, give him the codes," Gwen repeated frantically. "Jack, you have to!"

"Are you crazy?" Jack asked. "He gets nothing from me."

"You already risked Ianto's life and now Owen's, too?" Gwen asked angrily. Jack was surprised by her vehemence, but then again, Gwen was good at acting. She and Tosh knew what Owen was planning, what Jack had sanctioned with his playing along, and he'd never been more proud of his team than right now.

Rick grinned. "Yes, Jack, listen to them."

"You won't get the codes." He sneered. "You won't shoot him. You're too much of a coward."

"I killed your lover."

"He's not dead and it was Kenya who gave him the poison, not you." Jack leaned into the chains to get as close to Rick as possible. "You've always been a coward."

The shot made him flinch, even though he'd expected it. Gwen and Tosh screamed. Jack didn't have to look to see that Owen was lying on the floor, hit. Dead.

Only, he'd already been dead, was probably right this moment planning his next move. And when Lance told Rick that there was no pulse and Rick told Lance to take the body away, Jack knew that they'd won this battle.

The war was far from over, but Rick had just set one of them free without knowing it.

xxx

Martha looked up from Ianto who was sleeping fitfully in the big double bed in Gwen's flat and addressed John and Rhys, who were waiting close by. "I don't know what to do. He's being poisoned, but … I can't do a thing without the antidote."

John looked almost scared. His hands were on his hips and his fingers flexed, digging into the red jacket. "We don't have the antidote."

Rhys swallowed. "Does that mean he's going to die?"

"He's got a high fever," Martha explained. She looked at the mini-scanner that was part of her UNIT medical equipment. "His organs are being attacked by the poison. He's probably in severe pain." She brushed a hand through her hair. "I can't give him anything against the pain, though. The baby ..." She shook her head. "After everything he went through since he learned he was pregnant – this is how it's going to end?"

"He's not going lose the baby, is he?" Rhys asked, worried.

Martha looked up at him. "I don't know." She tried a comforting smile. It was the first time she'd met Rhys and she instantly liked him. His heart seemed to be in the right place and she could see why Gwen loved him so much. "There's only so much I can do."

John exploded. "I thought you were good," he snapped. "Ianto said I could trust you!"

"You can trust me, but I'm not perfect! My resources are limited. If I could get him into a UNIT facility-"

"I don't trust them," John answered. "Jack said they're not to be trusted."

Martha pulled her mobile from her jeanspocket. "And that's why I'm going to call for the Doctor."

John frowned. "I thought you were a doctor."

"I'm talking about the Doctor. A Time Lord."

John's eyes widened while Rhys just seemed clueless. "Time what?"

John echoed, "A Time Lord? I heard about … I thought they were extinct."

"There's one left. And he's definitely alive."

The line clicked and then the Doctor's cheerful voice floated through. "Hello?"

"Doctor, it's Martha. I need you here … it's Ianto."

xxx

Owen waited for several minutes before he opened his eyes carefully. He really was alone, dumped in a storage room just outside the main Hub. He sat up and opened his shirt. There was now a second bullet wound sitting next to the first. He would have to check later if the bullet had left through his back or if he would have to remove it when all this was over. "Great. At this rate, I can start storing things in my chest." He got up and looked around, finding an air vent in the ceiling in a corner. "Just what I need," he muttered. "More dusty tunnels."

xxx

Rhys couldn't quite get over the fact that there was a police box standing in his bedroom. Nor could he quite get over the fact that it had appeared out of thin air or that it was – allegedly – a space ship. Even though the 'appearing out of thin air' part pretty much should convince him of that. Also, the Doctor didn't look very alien. Just very annoyed. He passed a scanner over Ianto. "Telka poison?" he asked.

"Yes," John answered, "it's a creature that lives on-"

"I know who the Telka are!" the Doctor snapped and his dark eyes stared at John indignantly. Ianto let out a small, broken sound as if he was trying to say that they shouldn't fight but was unable to. He turned his head slightly and Rhys saw that his eyes were closed, his face pale and sweaty. He felt inadequate, somehow, just standing here beside John. The Doctor didn't even look at Ianto, just reached out a hand and cradled his cheek. "Sh!" he said and somehow, he managed to calm Ianto down. The Doctor stared at John. "What I was trying to say is: what kind of man injects a pregnant person with Telka poison? Any person, really." He got a vial out of his suit jacket. "It's murder."

Rhys swallowed. "So you can't help him?"

The Doctor ignored him. He waved Martha closer and she handed him a syringe. "I know someone on Telka. I made a detour there before I came here and got the antidote."

"So you can help him?" Rhys asked and felt like the odd one out when everyone continued ignoring him.

The Doctor filled the syringe. His focus, though, was still on John. "You're a Time Agent."

"You noticed my vortex manipulator then," John answered.

"Yes. And I dealt with the mess you lot left behind more than once." He injected Ianto carefully. "Unthinking children, that's what you are."

Rhys saw John's face darken. "We did good work-"

"Did you? Did you really? I knew Jack when he was still trapped in that mentality your agency values so much … he almost killed the entire planet because he acted before thinking. You all do. And then, one day, the Shadow Proclamation has enough and drops you and this is what becomes of you." He got up. "Instead of doing some good, trying to redeem yourself, you do this."

"Don't pin this on me," John said. "I didn't do this." The Doctor walked over to the TARDIS. John asked, "Where are you going?"

"To get something." He pushed a key into the lock and turned it.

"What?" John asked. "You could at least tell us if you're able to fix this. I've always heard that you're such a big, wonderful and enlightened race, so what's the plan?"

The Doctor turned around to them and Rhys was surprised to see tears in his eyes. "The plan is to get a batch of nanogenes from inside my ship and to use them to remove the baby without having to rely on surgery."

The silence that slammed into the room was choking.

Then John said, "No, you're saving that baby."

"I can't."

"There has to be a way!" He stalked towards the Doctor, pushing Martha aside who was stepping into his way. "Fix this!"

The Doctor was clearly getting angry now. "How come you former Time Agents always ask me to fix people? I can't fix everything!"

John grabbed the Doctor's lapels and slammed him against the TARDIS. "You can fix this! All that advanced technology in your ship and you are telling me that you can't save one baby?"

Martha stepped towards them, but the Doctor held her back with a sharp, "Don't." Then he looked at John again, calmly. "I can't resurrect the dead."

Rhys heard Martha gasp and she turned away.

"She is dead. She has been for quite some time. Probably within minutes of the injection." He shook his head. "I'm so sorry."

Rhys swallowed and stepped closer to them, putting a hand on John's shoulder. "Let him go, mate."

John shook him off. "No, no, no … that's a time machine! Go back in time! Come back earlier!" He sobbed. "Please." Rhys saw his fists tighten in the material of the Doctor's jacket. "Fix this."

"I can't. I'm not allowed to ..."

John let go of the Doctor, then he turned away and left the bedroom. Only a second later, the flat door fell shut.

"Where's he going?" Rhys asked.

"A wild guess?" Martha answered. "To take back the Hub."