A/N. Thank you for all the reviews and to those who have favourited the story. :) I did have slight writers block on this chapter, so i apologise if its not my best. Cookies to reviewers. :)
Chapter 15.
After the unexpected day off the team members had, things soon got back to normal. They had not all been in the Hub long on Friday when the Rift predictor programme started to beep. Molly bought the information up onto her screen, while the others gathered round.
'Something is going to come through in 30 minutes, half a mile from the hospital..hang on..' Molly trailed off and started typing quickly on her keyboard.
'Is there a problem?' asked Jack.
'Yeah, there's another spike. Something's also going to come through on Hope Street.'
'When?'
'At the same time.' said Molly.
'Are you sure?'
Molly turned to look at Jack and fixed him with a stare, 'I may have had problems at first with the when, but I've never had a problem with the where. In half an hour something or some things are coming through the Rift at two separate locations.'
'Great,' said Jack running his hands through his hair. 'Right Ianto and Jamie take the one near the hospital, Gwen and I will take the other one. Molly stay here and monitor the activity and any CCTV you can get hold of for those areas.'
They went to their different work areas to pack up their stuff so that they were ready to go. On his way back up from the medical bay, Jamie stopped by Mollys desk, placing his hand on top of hers. 'Hey, if this doesn't turn into something that takes all night, do you want to do something?'
Molly turned to look at him properly. 'I thought this was your weekend with Jess and that you were picking her up tonight.'
'It was, but it's been changed to next week. One of her friend's Lucy, is having a birthday party tomorrow so she's spending most of the day with her. It would have been pointless her coming over as I wouldn't have seen her much.'
'All day party, wow. What are they doing?'
'They are spending the day at the zoo, then going to the cinema in the evening. Lucy's parents are fairly well off.'
'Sounds cool, I may think about gate crashing considering what we will probably be doing here.' Molly said smiling. 'It would be good to go out though, if we have chance.'
They were interrupted by Ianto coming back over. 'Ready to go.' he said to Jamie. 'Jack and Gwen have already gone.'
'Ok, I assume we will take my car.'
'Of course, there was no way I was getting the keys to the SUV.' said Ianto smiling. 'Let us know if you see anything.' he said to Molly.
'Sure, be careful.' she said, aiming the sentiment at both of them.
They went down to the car park and got into Jamies car, then drove towards the hospital. As they got to the spot where Molly had directed them too, they got out of the car and waited, if the programme was right something should appear in about 5 minutes. Thankfully the area they were in was quiet.
'I hope this is something simple.' said Jamie.
'Could that be because you have a date tonight,' said Ianto.
'Maybe. You know I never thought about what it would be like to see someone you work with, everyone knows everything.' Jamie said thinking about how after he had told Molly about Jess he had had to tell the others too.
Ianto laughed, 'Tell me about it. I think you're good for her though. Molly seems happier than I've seen her in a long while.'
'Is this where you tell me not to screw it up, because I'm aware you look out for her.'
'I don't need to tell you that.' said Ianto.
'Gwen's already suggested some kind of triple date.' said Jamie.
Ianto groaned slightly, 'God don't let her suggest that to Jack, because I'm pretty sure he will picture something entirely different to what she means.'
They were interrupted then when they heard a low rumbling noise that sounded a lot like thunder and a small flash of light. Ianto and Jamie both withdrew their weapons and looked around. There was a flash of movement just ahead of them and they quickly moved after it. They heard Molly over the comms.
'Can you see anything?'
'Not yet, but there was movement, we'll get back to you.'
They saw something move again down an alley, there was a large shadow about half way down and they moved slowly towards it, but it suddenly ducked down behind some bins. Ianto stood by the side of the bin and gestured for Jamie to go around the other side. They took hold of the bin and pulled it forward. There was a rustling and then Jamie jumped back in shock as a cat leapt at him and then ran off down the alley. Ianto couldn't help but laugh slightly at the look on Jamies face.
'That was not funny.' said Jamie.
'It was a little funny.' said Ianto still smiling. 'Thing is we still don't know what came through the Rift.' Ianto pulled out his PDA and started to scan the area. 'Whatever it was definitely stopped behind these bins though.'
'Maybe it was an alien cat?' suggested Jamie. Ianto just rolled his eyes.
'We should go back and see if Jack and Gwen had more luck.'
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An hour later and all five of the team were gathered in the boardroom.
'Two things definitely came through the Rift, there were energy traces at both locations, the only problem is none of us actually saw what it was.' said Jack.
'I looked at all the CCTV coverage I could find in the areas, but I never saw anything out of the ordinary.' said Molly.
'Yeah the only thing we found was a cat.' said Ianto.
'I would take a cat over that crazy dog that kept barking at us.' said Gwen.
As she said this Jack looked at them all, a sudden realisation dawning on him. 'That's it, it was staring us in the face the whole time.'
'Would you care to enlighten us', said Ianto who was just as puzzled as the rest of them.
'It was the animals.' Jack said as if this explained everything.
The other four continued to stare at Jack, trying to understand what he was saying.
'Are you saying a dog and a cat came through the Rift?' asked Gwen.
'See I wasn't so far off with my alien animal theory.' said Jamie pointedly looking at Ianto.
'No they wouldn't have come through like that.' said Jack. 'Ianto said before they saw the cat, they saw a shadow, so did we. There are some entities that can change their form so that they look like animals, less obvious.'
'You mean like a shape shifter?' said Gwen, shuddering at the memory of the last shape shifter they met.
'Kind of, but they don't take on a human form. There are a number of things that can do this. The only problem is most are vicious and you can only kill them in their true form.'
'Well how do you get them to go into their true form?' asked Molly.
'As a general rule these things only revert to form when they attack, or when they eat.'
'I wish i hadn't asked.' said Molly.
'What we need to do is monitor reports of any animal attacks, they probably won't stick to one form and if they do attack, most people will notice the animal rather than anything else. Molly if you can do that, the rest of us can go out and see if we can see any unusual activity. It's going to be a long night.' said Jack.
'Ok, I'm going to try and see if I can narrow down the search field using the trace signals you picked up earlier.'
They then got up and started to go their separate ways again, Gwen calling Rhys to tell him she was going to be late. Jamie caught up with Molly and said 'Maybe tomorrow night instead?' and she nodded in agreement.
Molly sighed as everyone left the Hub, she poured herself some coffee, and then went and settled herself at her computer. Jack was right, it was going to be a long night.
