Hi again, sorry it has taken awhile but this bit didn't want to come out - the next bit is already writing itself!!
Thanks for reading more!.
Jack holstered the gun and turned away, his face set so no one could tell how he felt, though that told his team everything. He pushed past Gwen,
"Go home Gwen, I think you have done enough here today" he snapped as she stepped backwards out of his way.
Ianto went to put a hand on his shoulder, but he twisted away, anyone looking closely enough might just have caught a tear in the corner of his eye, or it might just have been the air conditioning. Jack stalked away and didn't look back. Ianto hurried after him, he felt someone should but this was one of the few times recently he was just doing it to clean up, take it on the chin for the team. Everything was falling apart and he didn't know why.
"You know you really could go home Gwen." Said Owen quietly "I'm going to have to stay all night and I'll need someone to babysit in the morning, I'm hoping Tosh will take a shift too."
Gwen nodded, she wanted to get to the bottom of this now but emotions were running too high. Rhys was out there waiting for her, dependable, lovely Rhys. How many times had she betrayed him to sort out problems at Torchwood, no sort out problems for Jack. Yes all she needed now was a cuddle on the sofa and a glass of wine, a big glass of wine.
"I'll try and be back for 6 then, you know what the traffic can be like even at that time on a morning. Give me a call if you need me"
"You're on speed dial right now."
Owen reflected on what had just happened as Gwen left, a year ago that conversation wouldn't have happened, they would have been like two tigers circling each other to try and prove their dominance. Death had mellowed him though, after those first few days when he really didn't take in the extraordinary gift he had been given it had changed him. He took care not to get into something that would break him and just like any living person he tried not to do the really stupid things that would get him sent back to that darkness. He had tried discussing it with his notoriously taciturn leader but he had one thing that Jack didn't, Owen had uncertainty he never knew when the energy might run out. Jack had started to pour out the pain of knowing whatever happened he was there to pick up the pieces till the end of the universe and then stopped, looked at Owen and shook his head.
"At least when it finally gets too much I can just take a little Retcon and forget the worst of a day."
Owen stood and wondered how many times Jack had given them all a little Retcon? He looked back at the woman, the Retcon certainly hadn't worked for that memory then.
He had done as much as he could for the woman at this moment, but he had a feeling there was more to come and he had other things to deal with. He wrote a few notes on the computer and called out for Tosh, the uber clever voice recognition software throwing his voice through the speaker system in the hub so it sounded like she was stood behind him.
"Tosh, you got any clues who she is yet?" he asked
"I've never seen anything like it." She replied softly "I have hundreds of returns."
Owen wasn't really listening, she was about to launch off into techno babble and his brain didn't have the capacity at the moment.
"Look as a humble suggestion if she was with TW1 try the X-files." The team always had a chuckle about that one, long before some daft American came along and created a frankly preposterous team of alien hunters Torchwood had designated it's personnel files with an X.
"I need a name for that really" she said "the photos weren't stored electronically at first."
"Whatever Tosh, look can you do that from this station? I need to talk to Jack and he's stomped off in a strop but I don't want to leave her alone."
There was a short silence, Tosh didn't like working from different stations, she liked the screen at this angle and all her little settings on the keyboard, Owen had to wonder how close to OCD she was at times.
"Gwen told me what happened." She said quietly
A few minutes later Tosh quietly let her self back into the medical room the only sound coming from the heels of her shoes. She carried an armful of files and set them down on the desk next to Owen, some of the photographs were on top and Owen took more than a cursory glance at the photo of the casualty clearing station.
"You do wonder what he has seen sometimes" said Owen in an uncharacteristically altruistic manner before throwing his chair back and wheeling half way across the room.
"Normal baby sitting duties, I won't be too far away if you just shout." He said rifling through the drug cabinet. "I've given her enough sedative to knock out your average horse, though there is nothing average about her." He rattled two bottles experimentally and opened them tipping out some of the contents into a small plastic cup.
"I'm going to try the X-files like you suggested." Said Tosh smiling quickly at Owen, "Gwen had sifted out some of the more official files so I am going to start looking for each of the names." She pushed her glasses up her nose and looked down in the mousey way she often did when she was embarrassed, rattling papers she started tapping on the computer. Owen paused as he left the room, he wished he could think of the right thing to say at the moment but as always he was so tongue tied he just hunched his shoulders and left.
Owen jogged up the stairs into the main hall of the hub, it was eerie seeing the computers flashing away by themselves. So Gwen had gone, Tosh was downstairs and he knew where the other two would be, he looked up so see the wildly moving shadows in Jacks office. Owen was never sure what went on in that office these days, but Owen being Owen he really didn't care what he walked in, so with a swift knock on the glass he swept into the room. Luckily everyone was clothed but there was some serious body language issues going on here, Jack was hunched over his desk his head in his hands while Ianto had his palms flat on the other side of the desk. Both of them looked directly at him as he bounced into the room, he liked to be the opposite of everyone else just for the drama value.
"Can I help?" Asked Jack sardonically.
"My preliminary report." Said Owen. "I'll save you the trouble of reading it because there is nothing more remarkable than I have already told you about, apart from a new bruise that seems to be forming on her left hip, but judging by the recovery rate on that shoulder wound by the time you get down there you won't even know."
Jack opened the top page of the report and then closed it again putting his head back in his hands.
"I want her restrained until I can question her tomorrow morning." Said Jack wearily, "Cuff her to the bed frame and make sure there is nothing sharp within reach, something that can regenerate that fast might just cut off a hand to escape."
"Christ Jack but you really need a crash course in positive thinking." Snapped Owen
"All the same unfortunately he is right, until we know what we are dealing with caution is the name of the game." Said Ianto in his normal sage way. "For comfort sake should I break out the furry cuffs?" he raised an eyebrow.
Owen suppressed a smile, you never knew what was going on behind that expressionless gaze.
"Just do it." Growled Jack, sinking a few inches closer to the desk.
Ianto snapped a mock salute, but his face dropped when Jack narrowed his eyes at him and he turned and started trying to find the keys to the armoury in his pocket. Owen folded his arms across his chest and stood staring at Jack.
"Can I help?" Asked Jack without looking up.
"More what I can do for you?" he replied, holding out his open palm and showing Jack three tablets, one white and two orange and cream capsules.
"No" said Jack forcefully.
"Look stop with the macho shit Jack, you took me on to be the medic for this sorry outfit and it does not need six years at medical school to tell you are in pain. Regenerate, immortal whatever you still feel pain, mental and physical and frankly only a complete wanker would refuse help."
"Finished?" Asked Jack throwing himself back in his chair, Owen just raised an eyebrow and held out his open hand again.
"Well if drugs don't work would you like to talk about it?" asked Owen looking round for a chair which he finally found hidden in the corner, and sat in it throwing his feet on the desk.
"That would be rude in about twenty different earth cultures and you don't want to know how many alien ones." Said Jack with a realisation that his 'My door is always open' policy was about to backfire. Owen just sat there, waiting knowing that Jack hated silence more than anything and would fill it if he was left long enough.
Outside Myfanwy screeched, Ianto must have taken the opportunity to feed her on the way to the armoury. Owen wanted to look round and watch her wheeling round the Hub, it was calming watching her glide round the obelisk but he was trying to out stare Jack. They sat in an uncomfortable silence for what seemed like hours, till Jack started leafing through the file, trying his hardest to ignore Owen.
"Are you going to sit there all night?" asked Jack
"No where else to go." He hardly paused for breath before launching into his hardly thought out plan, "So is this Gerald, it was Gerald wasn't it, some long lost brother or just a doppelganger you forgot to mention?"
Owen knew he had made a mistake and quickly took his feet off the desk and got himself into a position where he could run if he needed to, Jack wasn't a violent man in the main but he could shout with the best of them.
"None of your business Owen." He looked at him through hooded lids "The past stays where it belongs."
"Which is why you are so bothered about these files?" Sod it he thought, can't kill me twice. "Jack you know me, I don't do therapy, if the drugs don't work drink until they do, but you really look like a man who needs to get some history of his chest."
"You don't have long enough." Said Jack fingering a copy of the picture that had caught everyones attention.
"Well give me an edited highlights then."
"Remind me Owen, which is which?" said Jack pointing at the three coloured pills on the tables.
Owen sighed, he would never break through that impenetrable cloak,
"White should take away the pain, orange will do the same and might help you sleep." He stood up and moved towards the door. "I'll be on the sofa if you change your mind and want to finish the tale." He slammed the door.
"I never started" said Jack under his breath.
He picked up the orange tablets and grabbed a dusty bottle out of his desk drawer, he took a swig and then leaned back in his chair, it would all still be here tomorrow.