A/N: Hello all! I just wanted to take a minute to say that I really love this episode, mostly because we get to hear Gareth David-Lloyd utter those beautiful words 'risen mitten' and of course not foretting the line 'there's lots of things you can do with a stopwatch'! I was thinking about it the other day, and when watching series one for the first time, I was really quite surprised by this sudden turn of events at the end, but now it all seems to fit. Anyway... back to the story, enjoy! Hannah xxx
I think everything is getting just a little bit better. I managed to get five hours sleep last night, the most I have in almost two months now.
There is still not a day that goes by when I don't think about Lisa, that I don't ache a little bit at the thought of her in so much pain, at how her pain and her eventual death was my fault. But it isn't a constant ache, the constant numbness that it was. Equally, I am still reminded of the awful situation in the Brecon Beacons almost every day, as the team head off to face a fate which could be just as dangerous.
But I'm getting by. I haven't made my mind up yet about what I'm going to do about this whole thing with Jack, his constant flirting is making it impossible to have even half an hour to think about it as I am regularly distracted by him. But even that's ok, he said I could have time, so I'll take it, but I know deep down I've made my decision, I'm simply putting off acting on it.
Sometimes I really get the feeling that Torchwood is the Cardiff Police department's pet hate. I actually can't think of a time that we haven't been mentioned unaccompanied by a groan or an eye roll or a sigh. In all fairness, I can understand why we might not be number one on their Christmas card list, because of the way we skirt around the rule book and keep them out of the loop of things during our investigations.
Today's exchange with the police was no exception, although the circumstances were more than a little odd. After all, it's not every day you are called up by the police to investigate a double homicide, only to find that the killer has written the name of your organisation above their bodies. Tosh told me that it completely freaked her out, that if someone was trying to get our attention then it was an unbelievably sick way of going about it. To add further to our concern, the killer's DNA was shown to contain retcon. Looks like it's bad news for us then.
Jack called me into their meeting this morning, I'm hardly ever called into the meetings, not unless people require coffee that is. I hope this doesn't mean that he wants to try me back out in the field any time soon, I really don't think that fieldwork is ever going to be my forte… I was even more surprised that I was actively engaged in the meeting, even if it was only to be the bearer of bad news at how many people we'd retconed.
My stomach churned when Gwen brought up the glove, I couldn't bear the thought of what it did to Suzie happening to any of the others, she was one of us, our friend who was suddenly drawn into this obsession which lead to such terrible things. It was why Jack had me lock it away, labelled not for use. I still can't believe he gave in to her; then again this is Gwen he always gives in. That sounded way more jealous than it was meant to.
"The Risen Mitten".
Honestly sometimes I wonder where these things come from. Still it's better than the resurrection gauntlet or whatever Tosh had been referring to it as before, and it did encourage an eyebrow raise from Jack that seemed to show amusement at its new name. Well nobody else came up with anything …
We tested out the glove on Alex today; I had my stopwatch at the ready. The mischievous gleam in the Captain's eye when he saw it in my hands was almost enough to make me blush as I recalled our conversation from a few days ago, but I pushed the thought aside and maintained a professional appearance. I think.
Jack couldn't get the glove to work, I knew he was hesitant to use the glove again and it held him back. Gwen on the other hand, well, I wasn't surprised that she could work the glove so well, she was so determined; she had the exact same look about her that Suzie did when she tried it for the first time. I'm so anxious that history will repeat. Speaking of Suzie, after resurrecting Mark Briscoe Jack decided we should go through Suzie's things stored by Torchwood to see if she could be linked to the case in anyway. Mark Briscoe had only given us a few pieces of useful information, something about a support group called Pilgrim and two people who went to it, Max and Suzie. Could it really be our Suzie?
They found a Pilgrim flyer amongst Suzie's things, which gave Jack enough information to give us cause to resurrect her. I don't think any of us anticipated what might happen when we carried out the deed.
At first nothing happened, and then Owen suggested using the knife as it would made from the same metal, Tosh seemed to agree that it would work, just like completing a circuit.
I christened this artefact as well, "The Life Knife" they seemed much more approving of this name.
Unfortunately, the Life Knife worked all too well. Gwen brought her back, and not just for a couple of minutes, perhaps for good – who knows? Jack and Gwen have her down in interrogation at the moment, I'm keeping myself busy with paperwork down in the archives, I really don't want to get too involved in this one, the thought of her in there… I'm not sure if I am freaked out more by the fact the fact that she is sort of back from the dead, or the fact that we have a killer in the hub. Perhaps both are equal.
Apparently Suzie has overdosed this Max from Pilgrim with retcon. One pill a week for two years. She said she needed someone to talk to. I wonder if everyone at Torchwood feels this alone. I know I did before I spoke to Jack about it all. Talking helps, it's such a shame nobody realised how Suzie felt before it was all too late.
I couldn't help laughing when I saw the footage from the team's trip to the Wolf Bar to look for Lucky McKenzie. 'That old classic, stun gun' I appreciated that a lot.
Owen had noticed something strange about Gwen's resurrection of Suzie when he ran the footage through the Philemon filter, so he called me in to have a look at them with him.
Actually what he said was: "Oi, Teaboy come in here and tell me I'm not a genius".
He hadn't used that nickname in a while. Whilst I hate to admit it, it was clever of him to notice that the link between Gwen and Suzie, the reason that Suzie was brought back to life, never broke. And furthermore, that as Suzie was gaining strength, Gwen was simultaneously growing weaker. Hopefully it's not too late for us to reverse it.
For goodness sake, if I wasn't so relieved that Gwen was alive and safe right now, then one could get angry quite easily at the way her compassion can strike her so. She only went and took Suzie to see her Father after Jack had expressly said it was a bad idea, and it was before we managed to warn her about what was happening between Suzie and her.
Immediately after discovering that the two of them had escaped, the hub went into lock down. I really felt quite embarrassed that I couldn't reverse it, this was usually one of my specialties unlocking the unlock-able, but it was at 100%. Somehow Suzie had set up a vocal command back before she died, triggered by our lovely guest Max. I hope I made it up to the Captain slightly when I managed to relay the mobile phone signal through the water tower, he seemed suitably impressed.
Detective Swanson was contrastingly unimpressed at our call out to her, requesting assistance in the form of poetry. I was starting to think we really would be there all night until Tosh cracked it, that we needed to use the ISBN. Owen and Jack went after Gwen and Suzie; we'd tracked them to the hospital in which Suzie's Father was staying. All I can say is that Suzie's Father really must have done something terrible, for her to plan all of this, us to come back and kill him. Clearly none of us knew her as well as we thought. I am so glad that Owen and Jack caught up with her in the end, I am constantly warning Jack about reckless driving, but I was glad of it today. In the end the only way for this all to end was to destroy the glove, killing Suzie once and for all.
Everyone was so exhausted after the last 48 hours, but no one could bear to go home. Instead everybody stayed around to finish off the necessary paperwork, I headed down to the vaults to fill in the details of Suzie's second (or was it more than that?) death, and place her back in the vaults. I knew that Jack wouldn't want to do it himself; he looked so drained, so sad and so tired. I'd never seen something hit him so hard. I knew he'd never ask me to do it, so I thought it best to just go ahead with it.
The Captain came down to meet me and seemed glad that I had done it on his behalf, but still there was such solemnness in his eyes, I hated to see him like that. It was Seeing him like that, combined with how I felt for him then, that prompted me to realise that now was the time, for me to make the leap of faith, take the risk for what I wanted. Jack. I hoped it would make him happy and somehow the idea of making him happier gave me a little courage. I was still at a loss as to how to propose what I wanted, so I thought subtlety would be best. I brought up stopwatches, hoping to trigger remembrance of his earlier suggestions. But the blank look on his face was enough for all the blood to drain out of my cheeks. Bugger. He'd forgotten, and I'd just made a fool of myself, or worse still it really had been a game all along. I really didn't know what to do, but I was stood with one foot in the water as it were and had nothing to lose.
"Well, think about it Sir, there are lots of things you can do with a stopwatch." I expanded, trying to remain cool and casual throughout.
As soon as that wicked Harkness grin appeared on his face, I breathed a sigh of relief. He did remember, he did want this to happen, everything was fine.
"Meet me in my office in ten minutes" He commanded.
I don't want to go against bosses orders! So I'm here at my desk, writing away with about 2 minutes 40 left to go until I head on up to the office, and I'm terrified. Absolutely over the moon and beside myself with joy, but terrified none the less.