A/N: Sorry this has taken a while but work has been nuts. Hopefully I will be posting the next parts sooner and more frequent. Thanks for keeping with me :D
Many thanks again for most excellent beta from madaboutms from Live Journal it is great to have a sounding board!

Owen Harper

He woke slowly and not very gracefully as his body fought his mind to stay in bed……preferably forever.

Owen Harper had one hell of a night, well from what he could remember of it anyway. The last thought he could definitely recall was being at his local knocking back Tequila shots with some bird called Brandy, or Candy? Not that it really mattered and not that he particularly cared.

Yesterday had settled into his consciousness, lurking like a sinister nightmare ready to strike and render him senseless. The boozy session from the night before did not have the desired effect, he could still remember yesterday. He could still feel the warm sticky wetness of the blood, he could still feel the thin artery weakening with every pulse.

With a groan he rolled out of bed and stumbled into the shower, forcing images of yesterday from his mind he started to form a plan. Shower, shave then he would take it from there. He wasn't due to work for a few hours yet, it was still early but he needed something to distract him. He allowed the water to drum against his skin, dulling his senses in a vain attempt to hold back the world. Soaping his hair he frowned when his hands returned a shade of pinky brown. FUCK! His breath caught as memories of the previous day slammed back before his eyes, hands trembling he swallowed down the oncoming feelings of panic as he placed his head under the water erasing the physical evidence and scrubbing his scalp so hard it tingled and burned. His breathing hitched as he tried to drown away the last 24 hours. His legs started to give way as he slid down the shower wall sobbing as he lost the battle for composure and wept openly in the private of his own shower, the one place he felt safe enough to come undone, a place no-one could watch him unravel.

10 hours previously

"I don't know where the hell they have got to Jack, like I've told four times already, something is interfering with the signal."

Owen could almost feel the frustration in Tosh as she spat the words out again for the Captain. Christ he could be dense sometimes. Keep it up Jack, he thought, a pissed off Tosh could be fun….scary, but fun especially if it wasn't you on the receiving end of it.

"OK….Ok" Jack said, holding up his hands in a placating gesture."The last signal you got was from here, yes?"

Owen watched her nod as she never took her eyes from the PDA she held in her hands. He watched as she worried her bottom lip, Christ it was cute when she did that. They had lost the signal about two miles away from the hot spot it had been indicating since they left Cardiff. There was evidence of Weevils in the area, post rift activity was definitely in the air but a frustrating hours search later had not come up with anything.

"Right," Jack announced, shaking Owen from his thoughts.

He watched Jack turn to the row of abandoned houses where Tosh last had the signal.

Owen knew what was coming next so he decided to pre-empt. "We split up yeah?"

He saw Jack turn and bestow the Harkness grin.

"Took the words out of my mouth, Owen. You and Tosh take the right, Gwen and Ianto the left and I'll take the one in the middle. Everyone keep eyes and coms open."

Owen checked his weapon as he and Tosh made for the furthermost house. He let her take point, she was already pissed off so he figured there would be no point arguing with her.

"So whaddya reckon Tosh? Weevils decided to go domestic on us, you know settle down, have some kids, get a job?" He got nothing from Tosh but pressed on anyway.

"I can just see it, Weevil soccer mom, dad watching the big game from the couch in his tighty whities."

"Huh?" He watched as she finally tore her gaze from the PDA. He felt his chest tighten as she gazed up at him with that look of bemused confusion she often got when she was immersed with some gadget.

Shaking his head a little to clear it he let the smile slide from his face.

"Forget it Tosh, let's check this house out so we can get the hell out of here."

Once again he let her go first, admiring the view from behind as she unholstered her gun.

Wow thought Owen, how come I haven't noticed that wiggle before?

Fuck Owen….focus!

Taking a deep breath he paused on one side of the front door while Tosh checked her weapon. He waited for her signal before he nodded back, letting her know he was ready. Raising her leg she kicked in the door as it swung violently on its hinges, the things she did to him.

He swung into the room, weapon held high as together they swept the room but there was nothing there.

They moved through the house but each room was as empty as the last. They worked methodically through the rooms until they came to the last. The first thing that hit Owen when he threw open the door was the smell. He knew instantaneously what it was but if the smell was bad enough then the sight before him made it all the worse. There was blood everywhere, painted on the walls in some macabre interior decorators nightmare.

"Fuck!"

"Owen? What the hell is this?"

Owen could hear the fear behind Tosh's question but there was nothing he could think of to say to take the fear away, not when it settled in his gut as well. There was so much blood and that smell…….god that smell.

He tapped his coms.

"Jack, Ianto, Gwen, come in."

"What have you got Owen?"

"The house was mainly clear except for the last room. Jack, it's covered in blood and smells like the home of more than a few corpses. "

"Bodies?"

"None that we can find here Jack," Tosh cut in, a look of distress cut across her features.

"Ianto? Gwen?"

Owen noted they had been quiet during the discussion.

"Yes Jack?" Gwen's lilt came over the coms.

"Your house clear?"

"We're about to check the upper levels but the bottom is all clear."

"Good, once you have checked that out head over to Owen and Tosh, we need to run some tests on that room."

"Got it Jack." She signed off.

"Owen?"

"Yep on it Jack, we'll start getting th…"

A shrill scream that sounded to Owen like Gwen's sounded across the coms.

"GWEN!"

"IANTO!"

Owen heard Jack yell at the same time as him. He felt his pulse quicken as the adrenalin flooded into his veins. No longer on the slow release timer it had been before.

Next he heard Ianto over the coms.

"Gwen, RUN!"

"No Ianto, I'm not leaving you…."

"Gwen you gotta go, get her out of here, get her out safe, I'll go after the parents."

Owen heard Gwen make one last plea to stay and help but was cut off by the teaboy.

"Get her out safe Gwen, get the others but get her out safe. NOW RUN!"

Jack yelled over the coms.

"On our way Ianto, hang on!"

Owen looked at Tosh for a brief second before they both launched themselves out of the house, desperate to get to their team mates.

Christ Teaboy, what the fuck have you found?

tbc

Next….Gwen Cooper

Home, no place like it and she had never been so pleased to see it after the events of the day. All she wanted was to find Rhys, curl up in his arms and have him hold her so he could hold back the world until she thought she could face it again.