AN: Yep I know it's been a while, but sometimes you just have to wait until the muse hits you...very hard in this case!

HUNTER KILLER PART FIVE

The team sat in stunned silence as the CCTV footage played and when Tosh pressed the stop button, they were literally speechless. It was Ianto who spoke up first, wiping sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

"There was nothing there, what the hell did that?"

Jack was shaking his head. "The only thing I can think of is that whatever did it was wearing some form of chameleonic armour or maybe a defractor shield."

"In English Harkness." Owen was getting irritable.

"He means a cloaking device of some kind. There was some distortion which I thought was poor quality footage, but I shall run it through some software and see if I can find anything that we are clearly not seeing with our eyes." Tosh flicked back a strand of hair as she tapped at the keypad in front of her. "It may take some time, sorry."

"Ok, Ianto is there anything else in the archive related to this?"

"Only what you see here, but I shall run a more detailed keyword search and see if anything comes up." He got to his feet. "I need to work on some cover stories for the deaths Jack, I take it the police are keeping the press out of this?"

Gwen was nodding. "Yes, I spoke to Swanson, there's been a complete blackout as far as the news is concerned, but she re-emphasised that she wanted to be kept in the loop."

Ianto nodded. "Do you want me to handle it?"

Jack smiled up at him. "Sort the cover story, Gwen advise the police what we are going to do and get the details off Ianto when he's done."

"Right, will do."

The meeting broke up and Ianto left the boardroom to get a drink of water, the afternoon heat was beginning to filter down into the Hub. Myfanwy cawed over head and glided about the rafters, her great wings having little effect on the quality of the air as she flapped them. Ianto watched as she soared down and settled herself on the upper gantry and tucked her leathery wings into her sides and rested her whole body down on the cool metal of the walkway. Ianto smiled and decided she was probably too hot as well. He made a sudden decision and went up to the green house to get one of the pump sprays, he filled it with water and wandered over to where the dinosaur lay. He pointed the nozzle of the spray up in to the air and pressed the release. Myfanwy squawked and lifted her head and stretched her neck into the falling water drops and Ianto was startled to hear what sounded like a deep rumbling purr. He chuckled and soaked her some more. Unbeknown to him the rest of the team had come out of the boardroom and were watching with huge smiles on their faces. Tosh went to her desk and grabbed her little camera and took a photo, Jack snapped one with his mobile phone, delighted to see such a contented smile on Ianto's sun kissed face.

The day progressed quietly, with each team member getting on with their task. With Myfanwy suitably cooled down Ianto went around with a drinks tray and then back to his computer in the tourist office to get on with his work.

Jack was in the board room studying the strange lightweight weapon that Ianto had brought up from the archive. There was little to no useful information in the file that had come with it and Jack suspected that it had come into Torchwood One hands under very dubious circumstances... nothing new there. He hefted the weapon from one hand to the other, it was really was quite a remarkable thing and weighed far less than it should. He swung it about, testing the feel and completely underestimated its cutting power as it sliced through the back of one of the chairs with a gentle thunk... Ianto would not be pleased. Jack immediately put it back down and went to his office. He was disturbed a couple of hours later when Ianto popped his head through the door.

"I'm about to go and get dinner, what did you want?"

Jack looked up from his paperwork and took a glance at his watch. "Jeez, that time already?"

Ianto nodded. "Yep."

"Right. Look I shall send the others home, it's our turn for the graveyard shift anyway."

"Ok, Chinese?"

Jack smiled. "Sounds good."

"I'll be back in twenty minutes then."

Jack nodded as Ianto turned away and wondered why he wasn't ordering the take out.

Gwen was very pleased to be going home the air in the Hub had become stifling and vaguely smelly and she was delighted to get out and have an evening at home with Rhys. Though there was part of her that quietly regretted the decision she made not to Retcon the man she was going to marry. Ever since Jack had returned from his time away she had hoped, somewhat childishly she realised, that Jack would sweep her off her feet and ride off with her into the sunset. It was a nice fantasy, becoming more far reaching when Owen had told her that Jack had been 'shagging' Ianto since before the whole nonsense with Lisa. Jack, of course, had been shagging a lot of people, she had argued back. Owen put her straight, not since 'Tea Boy' apparently. Gwen didn't believe it, didn't want to believe it anyway. It was clear to her that Jack wanted her, he was certainly not showing any overt sign of being interested in Ianto, so it was likely Owen was making it all up. Gwen fingered her engagement ring. It had cost Rhys a small fortune and it was a lovely ring, just typical of Rhys, trying to be all romantic. It made her smile for a brief moment. Jack would never do romance, would never leave Torchwood, would never just grow old and die.

"Oh shit." She mumbled to herself. She knew she would ask and expect too much of him and maybe Ianto wouldn't. It was always the quiet ones. She paused fumbling around in her bag for her mobile phone. She dialled Jack's number.

"Hey Gwen, what's up?"

She stopped on the pavement and sighed. "Nothing, I just wondered if you wanted some company at the Hub?"

There was a long pause and what sounded like Jack talking to someone else with his hand over the receiver.

"No Gwen, go home. Ianto's here we've got things under control, get some rest have a nice night in with Rhys, tomorrow's gonna be a busy day."

Gwen swallowed. "Right, ok. Say good night to Ianto for me."

"I will, good night Gwen."

"Night Jack." She hung up feeling rather stupid.

Rhys would be home with a salad and freshly made pizza waiting for her. Gwen stuffed her mobile into her bag and marched home feeling thoroughly pissed off with herself.

The thunderstorm broke at 2am with a spectacular display of forked lightening that actually made Ianto jump as the thunder broke in the sky right above his head. He involuntarily cowered down for the briefest of moments and then cursed when the deluge of warm rain began to pelt down like a monsoon. He was soaked within seconds and Jack who was stood beside him merely tipped his face upwards and spent a moment enjoying the water that washed down over his face. Ianto froze and watched his lover under the light of an orange streetlamp and smiled at the look of bliss on Jack's face. It was short lived as the rain suddenly stopped and the thunder cracked over their heads, with brilliant light splitting the night. The humidity seemed to increase tenfold and despite being wet Ianto could feel himself sweating. He had never known weather like it.

"Jack you don't suppose all this heat has something to do with the Mara, do you?"

Jack shrugged as they returned to their gruesome task of bagging up another weevil with its chest ripped open.

"I don't think so. It doesn't seem like their style, they prefer the wind and that is one thing we don't have, anyway there hasn't been a rose petal in sight and they would have no reason to do this to the weevils. No I think we are dealing with something far more aggressive, though perhaps less intelligent."

Between them they manouvered the corpse into the body bag. "What makes you say that?"

"Dunno. Most creatures kill for food, whatever did this and killed those people was clearly not interested in eating them."

Ianto wasn't certain he liked that. "You think it kills for sport?"

"Maybe. I just wish we had a means to track it."

"Hopefully Tosh's software will find something on the CCTV footage, the program was almost finished when we left the Hub."

They hoisted the body into the back of the SUV and Ianto stepped back wiping his face down with his hand.

"God I must stink."

Jack slammed down the tailgate and stepped up beside him and promptly licked his cheek. Ianto grimaced.

"Ugh... Jack!"

"Tastes pretty good actually. Maybe we should head back so I can lick the rest of you."

Ianto rolled his eyes. "You have to be kidding me?"

Jack shook his head. "You people always hiding yourselves behind perfumes and sprays... you have no idea how beautiful you actually smell naturally."

Ianto wasn't convinced.

They got into the SUV, Ianto making certain he got to the driver's side before Jack did. He keyed the ignition.

"What do I taste like then?" He asked, not entirely certain he wanted know.

Jack just grinned at him. "Salt, honey, something slightly bitter which is probably coffee, it's quite a heady mixture actually."

Ianto could feel himself blush under Jack's gaze but kept he eyes forwards as the rain began lash down again. Lightening flickered and the cracking of overhead thunder could be heard over the sound of the engine and Jack's laughter.

The remains of the weevil was taken straight down to the morgue and put in cold storage for Owen to examine in the morning. Ianto filled out the paperwork and Jack wandered off to get out of his wet clothes. He returned sometime later in a T-shirt and boxers and waved a dry set of under clothes at Ianto.

"Come on I don't want you getting sick, out of those wet things."

Ianto merely arched an eyebrow. "I'm going for a shower first." He really wanted to just cool himself off. Jack's grin widened considerably. "Mind if I join you?"

"Well you did mention something about licking the rest of me...I suppose you'd better finish off what you started."

"I like the way you think, Jones Ianto Jones."

Ianto finished what he was doing somewhat hurriedly. "It was your idea."

"Uhm... so it was."

The shower, while being a great source of entertainment, had achieved nothing in terms of cooling him down and Ianto tossed and turned on Jack's bunk and finally launched himself up at 5am cursing the loss sleep and the lack of fresh clothes. He ended borrowing one of Jack's T-shirts and a pair of chinos, which were only held up by virtue of the belt. Ianto had even gone so far as to roll up the legs and he cursed further when he checked the thermometer in the autopsy bay. The Hub was 22 degrees Celsius already. Ianto sighed and went to the fridge to discover that there was no milk and no Jack. He found the note stuck to the door of the fridge before he opened it.

'Gone shopping' in Jack's elegant scrawl. Ianto almost slapped his forehead with his hand, wondering what havoc Jack would reek in Tesco on the early shift. He sympathised with them and headed toward Tosh's terminal. Her filter program had completed its cycle through the CCTV footage.