AN: Sorry for the delay, computer issues like you wouldn't belive

Helen was woken by sound of the door opening and looked up to see Ashley had entered carrying a tray, "Morning mom."

"Morning?" Helen questioned.

"Yeah." Ashley told her, "You slept right through the rest of the day and all night. I brought you breakfast." She placed the tray on the table and helped her mom rearrange the pillow behind her so that she could sit up comfortably. Then she placed the tray on her lap.

Helen was pleased to see that someone had prepared her a continental breakfast rather then the cereal that the younger Sanctuary staff enjoyed so much. Taking a sip of her tea she was also pleased to find that it was Earl Gray. "I can't remember the last time I slept that long."

"You must have needed it." Ashley commented as she sat on the edge of the bed, she saw her mother glance over to where her father was still sleeping so she added. "Don't worry, Owen's been keeping an eye on him. He slept straight through as well. Owen took some scans and found that there was some damage to his heart but it's healing very quickly."

"A side effect of my blood in him and all of The Five had increased healing." Helen explained, taking a bite of her croissant. "So, how is everything in the Sanctuary?"

Ashley smiled, her mother could have lost limbs and her first question would always be about the Sanctuary. "Everything is fine." She assured her mother "We've had a report from the Mumbai Sanctuary that the empaths have settled well after everything that happened. The containment unit is functioning perfectly, according to Henry. The Torchwood team are still here." Ashley said ticking points off on her fingers, "Tosh is hanging around with Henry, Owen's been covering for you as doctor, Gwen's helping with general running. Jack and Will have reported events to the other Heads of House and Ianto handled all your paperwork, he didn't trust Uncle Jack."

"With good reason." Helen told her.

"Oh and Kate's in a bad mood." Ashley finished.

"Why?" Helen asked, wondering what could have annoyed the young woman.

"Well while we were in Cairo we played Poker with a friend of Jack's." She saw the look her mother gave her, "Don't look so worried, Martha was great and she's a doctor with UNIT."

That reassured Helen, she might have trusted Jack completely but some of his friends and acquaintances were debatable, still if this Martha was a doctor and working for UNIT then she should be good. "So what annoyed Kate?"

"Well Martha handed our asses to us." Ashley said matter-of-factly, "So after I brought dad and Jack back here, Kate and Ianto decided to wait at the UNIT base because she wanted a rematch."

"And I assumed she lost again?" Helen guessed.

Ashley laughed, "They both did. If they'd been playing for cash Ianto would have made a fortune."

Helen laughed, "Oh she must be in a fine rage." They had regular poker nights at the Sanctuary, Helen allowed it provided that they didn't play for money, but they'd found that sweets made a very good substitute though they could sometimes result in a hyperactive staff or residents. They could also result in bad moods if someone lost spectacularly, and it was never fun when that person was Kate, or Ashley herself for that matter.

"Did no one teach you uproarious ladies to remain quite around the sleeping or sick?" John was awake and looking over at the two of them.

"You're not sleeping anymore." Ashley pointed out, "Or sick."

"No thanks to you." John said, carefully pushing himself into a sitting position but avoiding entangling himself in the wires that still connected him to the monitors. "And if I weren't sick then it would not feel as if there is a small army marching in my skull."

"You have a head ache?" Helen asked, suddenly concerned. He hadn't had one the first time the creature was removed.

"Owen said he might." Ashley put in, both her parents turned to look at her, "He said it was a side effect of the sedative."

"I would kill the good doctor where he not already dead." John complained, "No Helen stay and finish your breakfast." He added when he noticed that she was about to get out of bed to check on him, "It isn't any worse then one of the hangovers I got at Oxford."

"Oh I remember those." Helen said, "I particularly liked meeting the four of you before our lectures the next morning, when you would all beg me to speak very quietly."

"And you would usually contrive to drop something and make a tremendous din."

Ashley giggled but tried to muffle it out of respect for John's headache, "I should fetch Owen, he wanted to know when you were awake."

"Breakfast would also be appreciated." John called after her as she left, leaving him once again alone with Helen.

She took another sip of her tea, "How are you feeling John?"

"As I said, I would be much better if that army would stop marching." He smiled, "Thank you Helen, I know this was your doing."

"Actually Ashley owns as much of the thanks as I do." Helen admitted, "She's the one who brought Jack and his team here. They helped to come up with the plan."

John interrupted, "But it was you who never gave up Helen. Even when I did, you didn't loose faith that I could be saved."

"I lost you once before John, I wasn't going to again. Especially when I knew it wasn't your fault."

Before John could say anything in response the door was opened and Ashley came back in followed by Owen and Jack. "Look who's finally awake." Owen said, "How are you feeling?"

"Apart from the pounding head ache?" John asked sarcastically, Owen didn't look at all repentant or sorry. "My body aches but not too bad, my chest is worst."

"You're lucky your heart is even beating after been stopped and restarted twice in as many weeks." Owen muttered as he scanned the read outs on the monitors and made a few notes on the clipboard he was carrying. "Everything's okay here." He took John's wrist and checked his pulse manually while muttering about unreliable machines and who they'd blamed if he keeled over. "Pulse is regular but still a little on the weak side. Rest for another twenty-four hours, nothing strenuous including teleporting."

"Understood doctor."

"Breakfast would be a good idea but no coffee." Owen continued, "You body needs time to adjust to not having that creature in it. It's used to the additional strain of supporting a parasite so you might feel physically better than usual but don't push yourself, we're trying to get you body to adjust back to normal metabolic levels rather than keep at such high levels." He shook his head, "Some of your metabolic reading were off the scale, how the hell you were still alive is a mystery to me."

"The Source Blood." Helen suggested.

"Possibly." Owen agreed, "It seems to do everything else. Well all your scans check out, as near as I can tell you're normal again. There's some variation between your brain scans and a normal persons but I'm guessing that's a result of your abnormality. There's just one thing that I can't account for, your muscle density is far greater than it should be."

Helen and John shared a knowing look and he nodded to her so she explained, "Doctor Harper you have just stumbled upon the greatest secret of The Five. John was an abnormal even before the Source Blood." Everyone stared at her and then John in shock. "If you take a closer look at the brain scan you will see a denser than usual concentration of neurons in the area's of the brain responsible for the senses, primarily hearing and sight."

"I told Helen about myself the year after we met." John explained, "My senses started heightening when I was in my teenage years, as did my speed and strength. Helen helped me to understand myself and showed me that I was not a freak."

"Wait a minute." Ashley butted in, "The same thing happened to me in my teens but mom didn't need to help me control it."

"Because I'd begun teaching you from birth Ashley." Helen explained, "I always knew that you might have one or more of your father's gifts but when you showed no evidence of teleporting I correctly assumed that it would be his speed and senses you'd inherited. So I started to instruct and prepare you in small ways, like warning you to always mind you strength and speed when you were playing."

"And you were raised in a home that valued and appreciated difference, something my childhood home did not." John reminded her, "My parents would have been very disapproving if I had shown any indication that I was anything other than a perfectly normal son."

"And were you guys planning on telling me all this?" Ashley snapped, "Or are secrets the only thing this family is good at?" She stormed out the room.

Ianto stepped through the door before it had a chance to full close, "She's not happy." He commented then set the tray he was carrying in front of John, "You're lucky Gwen talked Ashley into a quick shopping trip to the UK, otherwise a full English breakfast would have been impossible." Gwen had had a real craving for a bacon butty but one look at what the Americans called bacon and she had been begging Ashley for a quick trip back to the UK for decent bacon and a few other essentials like digestive biscuits.

"Thank you." John said.

Meanwhile Helen finished her tea, "I should go and talk to Ashley."

Jack shook his head, "No let me go, right now she's mad at the both of you, all that will happen if you go is icy glares or a screaming match."

Helen nodded and Jack left, Ianto following him out. "Do you mind if I have a look over you notes Owen?" Helen asked.

"Sure." Owen said holding them out,"If you hold still while I run some scans."

Helen sighed but didn't argue as Owen moved the scanner over her body. The medical notes she was reading were far more interesting. She'd never been able to obtain scans of John when he wasn't infected, the closest she could come was comparing scans of him and Ashley. Now that she could she could see clear differences that the parasite had caused in him. Sections of his brain that were responsible for emotion and impulse control had been compromised by the creature, Helen had originally taken the dark patches as brain damage. Now they were normal again, still a little darker than they should be, showing that the creature had in fact caused some minor brain damage but according the the scans that Owen had run twelve hours apart that damage was healing slowly on its own. Otherwise there was some damage to his heart but that was also healing.

In short he was the John she had first known once again and soon he would be fully well.

"You're healthy." Owen pronounced, "But don't push yourself that hard again or you're going to end up doing permanent damage."

"You remind me of James." Helen said with a smile, "He was always reminding me that I was still only human. Am I fit to return to work?"

"Just don't push yourself." Owen ordered, knowing that he really didn't have a hope of keeping her in bed without restraints. And as much as he thought it might do her some good, she had far to many friends willing to let her right back out of those restraints if she asked nicely.

"And me doctor?" John asked, he'd already cleared his plate and was sipping his tea.

Owen threw his hands up, "Whatever, but if either of you collapse don't come crying to me. Tosh wants to see you at some point to run some very in depth scans to see if we can find a way to detect the parasite before the host starts to present clinical symptoms."

John was very grateful for the many pleasant afternoons passed at Oxford and later when they debated the latest scientific theories and ideas. It meant that he understood most of the things the doctor said. Even so he was going to have to get his hands on some up to date text books if he wanted to be of any use to Helen. And it was his wish that she would allow him to stay in her House and help her in her work.

"Your clothes are still in your room if you'd like to change." Helen offered.

"That sounds very appealing." John agreed, he was still in the clothes he had been wearing in Egypt and since that was a desert country it meant he had sand in a variety of places, a few of which he hadn't known it was actually possible to get sand in. He put his tray to one side and threw back the covers on his bed, he stood and kept his hand on the bed for a moment to make sure he wasn't going to faint but everything seemed alright, even his headache was easing somewhat. "I will see you later." he told Helen then turned to Owen, "If you could inform Miss Sato that I will see her once I have cleaned up so she can perform her scans."

"Sure." Owen agreed, after John had left he turned to Helen, "You might want to get cleaned up as well." He suggested since she was still wearing the clothes she had been the previous day.

"You're right." Helen told him, "I'll need to review his scans after Toshiko has run them."

"I've already taken a look at the pre-removal ones." Owen told her as they walked through the corridors towards Helen's rooms. "They're fascinating."

"I imagine they are." Helen agreed, "I could never get John to submit for scans."

"The data is all in the system" Owen informed her. "I hadn't got anything to compare them to but his amygdala showed up far darker then it should be."

"That would usually indicate brain damage," Helen said, "But if his latest scan indicate nothing out of the ordinary then we can conclude that the darkened area was caused by the parasite."

Owen agreed, "From the look of his scan his entire limbic system is compromised, which would make emotional control difficult to say the least. On top of that there was decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex, which would mean that he'd find it harder to control violent impulses. The two combined." Owen shook his head.

"Would be catastrophic." Helen filled in, "Fortunately none of Ashley's scans have ever even hinted at that sort of thing so it seems fairly certain that it was caused by the parasite. The only abnormalities in her scans are increased neuron density in the parts if the brain dealing with sight, hearing and motor control. When we got her back from the Cabal I also found new tissue growth that bridged between hippocampus, cerebellum and connected up to the pre-motor and motor cortex."

"I saw the same in Druitt's scans." Owen confirmed.

"That's the problem in my line of work, Dr Harper." Helen said as they reached her door, "With so many abnormalities been represented by only one individual you never know for certain what deviations from standard are due to the abnormality and what are irrelevant by-product."

"Yeah, cos I'm always certain that the alien on my table is a one hundred percent typical and normal example of the species."

"You're right of course." Helen allowed, after all if there were abnormal on Earth then it stood to reason that there were abnormals amongst the other species in the galaxy. "Will you join me in going over the scans in my office?"

"Of course." Owen told her with a smirk, "It's nice to have some else to discuss the medical stuff with, someone who doesn't go green."

"You should have seen Will at first." Helen commented as she opened her door and went into her room.

"Ashley wait!" Jack called out for the third time. She still didn't listen and Jack didn't want to press her too hard in case she decided to teleport to avoid him, instead he just followed her, knowing she'd stop and talk when she was ready. Or too exhausted to keep going but he really hoped it was the former.

Eventually the ended up on top of the North Tower, a place Jack had found was a favoured haunt of the Magnus women when they wanted to think. "You ready to talk yet?" He asked as Ashley stood right on the very edge of one of the raised sections, wasn't overly concerned Ashley had always had a head for heights and excellent balance. Plus if she fell she could teleport herself to safety.

"Do I get a choice?" She asked.

"Not really." Jack admitted as he climbed up as well so they were both looking out over the city.

They stood in silence for several more minutes, just looking out over the Sanctuary and the city beyond. Finally Ashley decided to talk. "Would it kill them to tell me the truth just once?"

"I don't think they deliberately kept this from you Ashley. You've always known you were an abnormal." Jack pointed out.

"No I always knew my mom was an abnormal and I had abnormal DNA, I never knew I was one." Ashley growled, "It wouldn't have taken one of them ten seconds to mention it."

"Okay stop for a second and think about it." Jack insisted, "We'll start with your father who is, ironically, the most innocent in this. How was he supposed to know that Helen hadn't already told you?" Jack asked, "And then after they got you back he was too busy teaching you to control your new gift to think that you might not know about one that, as far as he could tell, you'd had under control for years. Plus that creature wasn't helping matters, he was already battling for control when we found you, that's why he came to me and asked me to kill him when the time came."

"Doesn't excuse mom." Ashley pointed out.

"She was trying to protect you Ashley." Jack reminded her, "She swore James and I to secrecy, no one else knew who your father was. She believed he was gone forever but can you imagine what it would have done to you to be told when you started developing your speed, strength and senses?"

"She didn't have to tell me who my father was, just that he was an abnormal." Ashley insisted.

"And you wouldn't have pushed further? You wouldn't have pestered her until she told you everything? You wouldn't have come to me or James with your questions?" Ashley stayed quiet, they both knew that was exactly what she would have done, and probably in that order too. "And what would it have done to you if one of us had let slip about Jack the Ripper? If you found out that you shared your gifts with an infamous serial killer?"

"It was hard enough finding out I shared DNA with him." Ashley admitted, "If I'd known sooner then I would have been terrified of my gifts, I'd have been scared to pick up a gun or knife in case I went crazy."

"Your father didn't know and your mother only wanted to protect you."

Ashley nodded, "You're right Uncle Jack." She agreed, "But someone should have told me."

"I thought you already knew." Jack admitted.

"We need to work on communication in this family." Ashley said, "That and not killing each other."

"It'll be better now." Jack told her, "You and John are both free." He put his arm around her shoulders, mindful of the gap between them. What he didn't tell her was the trouble brewing in the Network. That some of the other Heads of House were beginning to question Helen's judgement. It had been very evident when he and Will were briefing them while Helen slept. One of the men, an abnormal named Terence, had openly questioned Helen's decision to allow John his freedom now the creature had been removed. He wanted him confined indefinitely for study. The fact that John would probably choose to stay at Helen's Sanctuary hadn't featured in his reasoning.

Terence also wasn't happy about Ashley's freedom and would probably have liked to see her confined right next to her father but he knew better then to say anything during the conference. Ashley had too many friends amongst the other Heads of House, most had seen her grow up. They had read Helen's report on the Cabal control and were perfectly happy to allow Ashley to regain her place in the main Sanctuary and the Global Network since they understood that she had been nothing more than an pawn, a mindless puppet for the Cabal to play with, to use and abuse as they saw fit.

In Jack's opinion Terence had been on an ego trip every since Helen made him a Head of House and fairly soon things were going to come to a head, Jack just hoped that there were no casualties other than the man's ego but that didn't seem likely.

Please R&R