Both Jack and Ianto stopped breathing when the possible implications of Lisa's words really hit them. Neither of them wanted to admit it, but it could potentially be very, very bad news.
That one single word, 'emotionless', could send a shiver right down both of their spines. Memories of the cold, ruthless logic employed by the Cybermen flooded their brains; memories of their lack of reason and single-minded pursuit of their task.
Ianto was momentarily transported back to the horror that had been the battle at Canary Wharf, even before he'd discovered Lisa's condition.
If what they suspected was true… Ianto didn't even want to think about what that meant. Not yet.
It had always been a possibility. But after the initial scan months before had shown no effects, and Lisa had steadfastly remained Lisa, he'd allowed himself to think they were in the clear.
"Why… Why didn't you say anything before?" he asked tentatively, remembering Lisa's fear and panic from a few minutes before; knowing that it she had probably had more or less the same reaction when it had happened before. He didn't like to think of Lisa being that scared and alone, with no one to talk to about it.
"The first few times…" Her face scrunched a little. "The first times, you were still in the hospital."
She turned her head to look at Jack. "I know I could have told you but… I don't know. I couldn't. And we were both a little pre-occupied with worrying about Ianto. It didn't really seem important."
"Nothing is ever unimportant when it comes to you, Lisa," Ianto said fiercely. "Nothing. You are important, which means what you're going through is important too."
Lisa turned back to him and matched his fierceness with her own. "So are you, Ianto Jones, and don't you forget it. Perhaps I should have said something. But at the time, what was happening to you seemed more important."
"You're both important," Jack said firmly. "And whether Lisa said something before or not isn't what matters. What matters is that we know now, and we need to figure out where to go from here."
"We need to know if it really is…" Ianto trailed off, unwilling to put the terrible suspicions into words.
"It could be the cyber-programming, couldn't it?" Lisa said quietly, saying what neither Ianto nor Jack had been able to. Her eyes flickered between them.
Jack nodded silently. "It's possible that something we did - or didn't do - has caused another part of the intrusive system to activate, but we don't know that for sure. Let's not jump to conclusions. There could be another completely different explanation." Although he couldn't think of any right at that moment.
"There's only one way to find out," Ianto said softly. "I know that I, for one, would rather know - one way or the other - as soon as possible." He looked questioningly at Lisa.
She nodded. "Me too."
"Then we have to talk to Tosh. Get her to do another scan."
All it took was a short exchange of glances to confirm that they were all in agreement.
***
If coming to terms with it in his own mind had been difficult, explaining the situation to Tosh, Owen and Suzie was nigh on impossible. Ianto had stayed with Lisa, doing his best to keep them both calm, and leaving Jack to make the uncomfortable communication to the rest of the team.
The shock and dismay on their faces when he finished matched what he was sure was still evident in his own expression.
"Do you want me to repeat the scan I did before we brought her to the Hub?" Tosh asked when he told them that they needed to know exactly what was going on.
Jack nodded. "It's the only way we can be sure."
Owen stood up as Tosh disappeared to get the scanner. "I'm going to head down too, give her a check over."
Jack opened his mouth to say something but Owen cut him off when he continued. "I know I've been checking in on her every afternoon, but for the most part that's just been monitoring her vitals, checking that nothing has become infected. If this has changed, I should check that nothing else has started to change unexpectedly."
He shook his head. "We don't understand this technology properly; we can't say anything about it with complete certainty."
In the end, the whole team ended up crammed into Lisa's room as Owen took new blood samples and discussed the possibility of a new complete body scan with her and Ianto. Tosh stood slightly apart from them as she ran through the brain activity scan.
The machine beeped to indicate the end of the scan, but Tosh's deep breath alone would have been enough to draw everyone's eyes to her as they awaited her verdict.