Chapter Fifty-Six
I went to see My Sister's Keeper today at the cinema. Not as good as the book, but still awesome and had me in floods of tears. :'-(
Okay, still very few reviews. *pouts* Ah well. I was hoping to get to 700 reviews by the end, but I don't know... Anyway, on with the story! :-D
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood. No, really – I don't.
Like millions of slimy serpents, the shadow-creates pulled and tugged at the Doctor's hair and clothes. The Doctor recoiled, swatting at them with hands miraculously freed, to no avail. He could hear the cries and shrieks of the other prisoners in the barn, as they too fought the clutching, grasping creatures.
The Doctor finally pulled one away from over his mouth, the gag also vanished, he managed to gasp out, "Everybody to the door! Now!"
-T-
"What's that?" Jack asked, racing down the stairs, a wild expression on his face. "Gwen, status report!"
Owen caught Gwen's eye and shook his head minutely. They couldn't tell Jack yet, not until the tests came up with some answer.
"Probably just Donna meeting Janet," Gwen shouted up at him, flashing him a quick reassuring smile as she headed for the doors to the vaults. "I'll go and check that she's okay."
Owen followed her, readjusting his grip on his gun – just in case.
They hurried through the corridors, breaking into a run every so often, until the door to the cells swung open and they found Martha in the Doctor's cell, her hands flying over his face as she checked him.
"He just sat up and ... screamed," she said, her voice failing to mask her anxiety. "There was a flare in brain activity at the same time, but I can't for the life of me find out why—"
"Jack and Ianto are back," Gwen interrupted. "They can't find out about the Doctor – we can't tell them, anyway."
"What if he asks?" Martha pointed out. "I don't want to lie to him."
"If he asks, we tell him," Gwen replied. "I don't want to lie to him either. But we need more facts before we can really do anything."
"Right," Owen said decisively. "As it is, I'll stay down her whilst you convince Jack that it was just 'Donna meeting Janet', as you said."
"'Donna meeting Janet'?" Martha asked, raising a carefully-shaped eyebrow.
Gwen shrugged. "It was the best I could come up with at the time," she said. "Remember – we need those tests before we can say anything!"
-T-
Jack paused by Toshiko's desk, laying a hand on a stack of papers and fixing her with a look. "Hey , I've been meaning to ask - where's the Doctor?"
Toshiko didn't look around from her computer screens. Her back tense, her fingers paused in their dance on the keyboard and she pulled off her glasses. She looked down, still unable to meet Jack's eyes. "I ... I think it would be better if you asked Gwen or Owen about that," she said, trying to keep her voice steady.
"Tosh. Tell me." Jack's voice was steely, and when Tosh risked a glance up at his face she saw that his eyes were like chips of ice.
"I can't," she whispered, defeated. Her shoulders slumped involuntarily
"Why not?"
"I promised."
"Promised who?"
"Ask Gwen or Owen," Toshiko repeated, turning her back on Jack and shakily picking up a sheaf of reports and flicking through them under the pretence of checking that they were in order.
"Maybe I will do," Jack said slowly, straightening up and frowning at her. "You might want to get those filed before Ianto starts nagging."
"What?"
Jack nodded at the papers she held in a vice-grip. "The reports."
"Oh. Yes. Of course." Toshiko ducked her head and scurried away, heading for the Archives.
-T-
"Gwen."
"Yes, Jack?" Gwen looked up from her OK! magazine and smiled brightly at him. She was relaxed on the sofa, a half-drunk cappuccino on the table in front of her.
Jack hesitated, momentarily distracted by a scantily-dressed female celebrity leering at him from the pages. He shook himself. "I was wondering why I haven't seen the Doctor around yet."
Gwen's eyes widened slightly, and her cheeks coloured slightly. "He's an alien threat," she said quickly. "What did you expect me to do?"
"Where is he?"
"Where do you think, Jack?" Gwen fixed him with a desperate look, her soft eyes pleading for him to understand.
Jack didn't see them. He was too busy trying to understand what she had just told him. "You locked the Doctor in the vaults?"
"Of course I did!" Gwen retorted. "I could hardly let him wander around, could I?"
"Why ever not?"
"Didn't you hear any of what I told you on the phone, Jack?" Gwen asked. "The Doctor killed Ianto. He allied himself with the aliens, and didn't tell us about them."
"You still didn't need to lock him up!"
"The others agreed – he was too much of a threat to just let him wander around our base. Who knows what he might have come up with?" Gwen gestured at the workstations, expression upset. "What if he had started fiddling around with the computers ... or got into the Archives?"
"The Doctor wouldn't do that," Jack said quietly, forcefully, almost through clenched teeth. "The Doctor's a good person. He saves people, not kills them."
"Then why didn't he tell us about the aliens?" Gwen demanded. "Why did he 'forget to mention' that he sort of helped build their base and gave them the technology that enabled them to kill?"
"I don't know," Jack said softly. "Though what I do know is that the Doctor always has a good reason. He always looks to the greater good."
Gwen sighed, casting her magazine aside and standing up so that she was face-to-face with Jack. "Do those actions honestly sound like somebody with the 'greater good' in mind?" She shook her head, her dark hair cascading around her face like the shaggy mane of a Shetland pony. "Hasn't the Doctor done bad things before, Jack? Didn't he leave you behind for no reason, and then run when he saw you again?"
Jack didn't say anything. He looked down, biting his lip and staring at the diagonal yellow lines on the floor.
Gwen reached out and touched his shoulder, feeling her heart break a little for her best friend. "Jack ... you can't blame yourself for not seeing this before."
"What, that the person who I always looked up to as a hero actually killed my lover and—"Jack broke off, turning away from her so that she couldn't see him crumble. "I think I need a coffee."
Gwen knew him well enough by now to know that that was code for 'I'm going to go and find Ianto now and break in private'. Despite her curiosity, she didn't push it. "I think Ianto's by the machine still," she said, instead.
-T-
Ianto smiled slightly as he felt warm arms slip around his waist, although he instantly chided himself for the happy feeling. He busied himself with the mugs. "Coffee's just coming up," he said briskly. "Thought you could do with some chocolate sprinkles."
"Could do with some of you," Jack murmured against his neck, nosing at Ianto's earlobe.
Ianto fought down the frisson of excitement that ran through him at that. "Not during working hours," he reminded Jack, pulling free of Jack's arms so that he could pick up the coffee tray.
"It's been weeks," Jack said, clearly trying to mask some sort of emotional upset.
Ianto frowned, putting down the tray again and leaning back against the counter, folding his arms and fixing Jack with a look that he hoped said 'Tell me what's wrong right now'.
Jack sighed. "The Doctor's in the vaults. Owen and Martha are running some tests on him."
Ianto stiffened. No wonder Jack's upset. "That's not right," he said instantly. "Just because he's an alien doesn't mean—"
"He knew about the aliens, Ianto," Jack interrupted. "He gave them the technology to ... hurt you. Helped them build their base. And he didn't tell us."
Ianto raised a careful eyebrow. "That doesn't sound like the Doctor. Maybe you'd better let him out for a bit, let him explain. Second chances, remember?" Suddenly he had an armful of Jack, who was clutching him so tightly that Ianto suspected he'd have bruises later. He drew back slightly, worried. "Jack?"
Jack didn't respond, instead burying his face in Ianto's shoulder and clinging on even tighter. Ianto pursed his lips thoughtfully and brought a hand up to Jack's hair, stroking through it and waiting for Jack to calm down.
Children of Earth tomorrow! Whoo!!! I'm so excited!!!! XD
Reviews, please? *makes a pleading face*