I hope you liked the last chapter please review! (i may slow putting things up as exams in January and well its christmas but I'll do my best.)
"So what's it been like without me?" Ianto was sat on the autopsy table in the Hub, sipping a cup of hot coffee. The Lieutenant was wiring up some monitors.
"I'm afraid I don't really know, I've not been here very long, only a few weeks. I wasn't really aware of what had happened." She fell silent. He looked at her.
"It's aright so you…you're my replacement?" she looked up at him wide eyed, pausing for thought, she shook her head.
"No, I…I just turned up, out of the blue." She turned away from him. "I was dropped here, I'm an uninvited guest," she looked at him, "and I'm causing more trouble than I'm worth." She pulled a stethoscope out of her pocket, Ianto laughed.
"Where ever Jack is there's trouble, it's not you." She raised her eyebrows smiling at his attempt to make her feel better.
"No this time it's down to me!" she walked up to him, "Sorry I just need to examine you." He smiled at her.
"It's alright I know the drill." He unbuttoned his shirt. She placed the small metal disc on his chest. "Oh that's cold!" she laughed with him this time. She moved it over his lung.
"Can you just take a deep breath in for me?" He did. She lent in closer as she moved the stethoscope to his back. "And breathe in again please." As he did his nostrils where filled with a rich intoxicating aroma. It was like amber, a woody smell with a hint of a floral under tone it was incredible. She moved away to the bench where she picked up his blood test. She examined it and then proceeded to check his blood pressure and temperature. All the time he kept breathing in her rich scent. It was comforting, she was comforting. "Well Mr Jones you are fighting fit!" her voice snapped him from his thoughts. He stood up buttoning up his shirt.
"I'm glad to hear it! But how?" she looked at him enquiringly. "Every time someone's been brought back before there have been side effects." The lieutenant thought about that for a minute it didn't make much sense to her.
"Well, you've not really been brought back from the dead but more re-created, pulled back into existence. I think that's the way to explain it!" she took a sip of her milky coffee.
"I'll just nod and pretend I understand that!"
"Probably the best way to be!" she smiled and he laughed. "You make the best coffee! I'm never going to let Jack near a kettle again!"
"He's been making coffee? That must be dire!"
"Yeh tell me about it! Less dire more killer!" they laughed. They moved up into the main body of the Hub.
"It's different," Ianto looked around, "More homely than before, it's the same but different."
He looked around again.
"Jack came back from travelling and it was still a hole, the government had just covered over the hole! He re-built it, obviously with alien tech to help, but he did it. He'd only just finished it when I rocked up! There was just him and Gwen only been set up 2 weeks or so, computers technology; we persuaded him we needed more home comforts!"
"Gwen always could persuade Jack to do anything." He smiled, "so Jack re-built it?"
"Well only the top was blown up. The volt, cells, morgue and anything else below was fine." She led him up another set of stairs to the conference room. It was warmer in there. She sat down on a large sofa, Ianto followed suit. She cupped her coffee cup in her hands. "Are you ok?" she asked concerned. He looked at her.
"Truthfully?" he looked into her eyes, she nodded. "I don't know, Jacks moved on its weird, months are missing, in fact at least a year. I've missed so much; my family think I'm dead."
"Jack hasn't moved on, he feels so guilty about you, Steven about everything. He knows that working for Torchwood means you die young but there is only so much one man can take and he has already had too much death in his life." Ianto was silent for awhile.
"What happened to the 456?"
"Jack killed it; it's gone I don't think it will return. I'm afraid I don't know much about it."
"You know how he did it?"
"I think you should ask Jack that." She didn't want to tell him, it wasn't her story to tell. "As for your family, if you want I can sort that." She thought about what the figure had said to her.
"Shouldn't we talk it through with Jack?" he asked her tentatively.
"It's not Jack's decision and Jack isn't my boss! So what you want is what you get." She winked at him cheekily, "Think it over." She put her empty coffee mug on the table and went down the stairs to the computers, checking over the rift predictor program. She looked over the programming, changing a few things so it would work better, Jack would be cross if he found out but he never noticed. Ianto watched her work from the glass window of the room.
She worked quickly, he couldn't get over her scent that smell was so intoxicating, she couldn't be a human maybe she was from Jack's century maybe they where family, they could be… his thoughts trailed off he didn't want to think about what she could be to Jack.
How could he be back what had happened? Had he come through the rift? His head span with ideas. He sat down, praying they hadn't found another set of gloves or a hat to match the other pair. If Steven had come back then he must have died as well. He stood back up to look down on the hub, the Lieutenant wasn't there. He wondered where she'd gone.
"Spying on me?" she walked through a door behind Ianto he jumped. She laughed. "Sorry, I shouldn't sneak up on people, it has bad consequences!"
"No it's ok; I shouldn't have been so nosy."
"I'm only messing. Jack's called he's on his way back, he'll be in by 7am so we have a whole day well you and he have a full day. I'll stay out your way."
"No don't…I mean" he said quickly. He paused "Sorry what I meant was don't feel you have to leave." He was really interested, she was different and he wanted to know everything about her. He had a funny feeling that she knew why he'd just tried to stop her leaving.
"I have a few things to do and I think Jack needs some re-adjustment time! You will have plenty of time to find out everything you want to know about me!" he opened his mouth to protest. "Also you can just look me up on the archive files!" she smiled at him. "Not that you'll find much but I dare say enough to put your mind at ease!"
"Right, how come you're on file?"
"Jack felt it appropriate, the Doctor has one so he felt I should have one! As I think he couldn't keep all the information about me in his head in order!"
"What does he know about you?" He knew it was a long shot but it was worth it. She smiled and he knew his attempt was in vain.
"Not nearly enough." She walked out the room again, this time he followed.
"Look I need to know, how did I get back here? Why was Jack so cross with you?" the Lieutenant thought over his questions. Ianto watched her intently; she didn't give anything away in her face. He waited patiently.
"He was cross because he thought I was somehow making him hallucinate, he thought I was trying to unhinge him to take over Torchwood."
"So you brought me back?" she looked at him, she didn't understand herself yet, how could she explain it to this sweet man who was clearly trying to justify his own existence.
"How you came back isn't important, the fact that you are back is however and we need to concentrate on that, we need to create some kind of story or someway of convincing people you never really died or you stay dead. That if you don't mind me saying is the highly boring option!" Ianto could see she had the same skill as Jack for avoiding answering questions. "And more importantly we have to deal with Gwen!" the Lieutenant opened up Ianto's file.
"I'm surprised that's still there!" she looked at him sadly.
"I don't think Jack could bring himself to delete it." Ianto thought this over; maybe Jack had needed him more than he had let on. The large metal door rolled over as Jack entered.
"Alright Team!" he ran up the stairs, stopping abruptly. "We have lots work to do!"
"I've checked the rift activity from last night and there was nothing, I've checked everything we are all up to date, I've hacked into the government files and the births and deaths register and changed what needed to be changed." Jack looked at her, she was very efficient. He like'd the way she took charge when he was gone and she was damn good with paperwork. Maybe he was too hard on her. He looked over at Ianto. A flood of emotion and memories swept over him. "so if it's ok, I'd like to get out of this hole in the ground for the day, I have a few things I want to do and I can leave you two too it." Jack was jolted out of his thoughts.
"Yeh sure you've done enough." She didn't quite believe it.
"You're allowing me out on my own?"
"Yes now scoot before I change my mind!" she grabbed her coat, and headed for the lift. "Lieutenant," Jack called after her, she froze, turning slowly, "Don't stay out to late! I want you home by seven, for dinner!" she laughed.
"Yes Dad!" she stood on the lift and up she went heading for the surface to the centre of Cardiff city. Before stepping off the lift she checked her watch. 7.10am plenty of time to look around, she pulled her wallet out her pocket, opening it and pulling out her Gallifreyan security card, she got her sonic screwdriver and ran it along its micro chip, turning it into a magnetic strip. She walked off towards the main street of Cardiff, she had no idea of places or street names she just knew she was living by the Cardiff Millennium centre, and the hub was built under the oval basin in the Bute docks, she was sure it was bigger but hadn't got round to investigating it further.
Now Jack was going to be more distracted, what with Ianto being back she knew she'd be able to get out and around more often. The streets where dead no one was really up yet cars moved along the road people heading to work on a clear Friday morning looking forward to the weekend. She walked up to a bank; she knew the basics of the earth, what there was and what there definitely wasn't. She walked over inserting the card into the machine, she typed in a 4 digit pin and her account opened, she checked around her, no one was around.
She quickly pulled out her screwdriver again, running it over the machine; it tapped into her Gallifreyan account. There were of course conversion rates but she didn't care, she just withdrew money and made a note of her human account she knew she would have to get a job, not knowing how long she would be on earth. She would trawl the archives later to get all the information she needed. In the mean time she removed her card and walked away towards the bay.
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