Ch7: Trusted Judgement

The next few days felt particularly entertaining for the Torchwood team, if it so happens that the word 'entertaining' in your dictionary is synonymous to trouble. While Jack and Rhys went out to catch an Ood that wandered from the other side of the rift on a Friday morning, UNIT called up and sparked the start of their troubles.

Brigadier Masterson on the other line reported (or rather complained) about two civilians that disappeared over the past week under unusual circumstances.

"We received reports on a particular library just outside Cardiff. Two people had gone missing over the past week. Both of them were last seen entering the restricted area; picked up and read a particular book and somewhere halfway through, they just vanished. No traces of anything. It is getting out of hand, Mr Jones… We understand that Torchwood doesn't want to take part in police investigations, but we don't know who else to call." Said Brigadier Masterson, who was on speakerphone.

"Sounds fishy enough." Janto approved. "Continue."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say someone messed up with the camera and placed a poorly-made camera effect. So I called, thinking you lot could be of use."

Janto looked onto Gwen's eyes, hoping for an answer. Gwen merely shrugged, which is the gesture closest to agreement that Janto's going to get from any of them; what with after what UNIT and the Cardiff Police Department had done to his parents…

This is, after all, the police. Having Torchwood as a speed-dial contact and entrusting them with their lives is the last thing on the UNIT's to-do list, but maybe they're just plain tired of covering up freak deaths and disappearances – the kinds of stuff Torchwood never gets tired of, what with their full stock of body banks.

Yes, you read it right, body banks.

"We'll try our best to look into it. Thanks for the tip, Brigadier." Janto said, while Owen mouthed "What?!" to him, his face marred with utter anger and disbelief.

"Thank you, Mr Jones." There was a click on the other side and the call ended. There was a split second of silence before Owen's voice rocketed onto their ears and hit them like a bullet train. Tosh winced.

"What the hell was that?" Owen raged, pointing his index finger nowhere, jabbing in the air. "That! 'We'll try our best to look into it', that's crap!" He mimicked Janto mockingly. "We all bloody know that's never going to happen! Helping them after what the police and UNIT did to Jack and Ianto – your parents, Janto! Have some bleeding brain!"

Just on cue yet again, Jack and Rhys stepped from the rotating door with a calm-looking Ood in tow. All pairs of eyes looked at him cautiously like waiting for him to badger them with myriads of questions.

Jack looked back at them, they looked back at him, and clearly they were having a battle of eyebrow-raising. Janto and Owen continued staring at each other heatedly, like some electric spark was flowing from one pair of eyes to the other, while Gwen and Tosh continued to stare at Jack like they were facing the Grim Reaper – of course that isn't possible, yeah. Even the Ood appears to feel the tension, as the tentacles on his (her?) face started to squiggle and the folds of his (her?) forehead seemed higher than usual.

"Um, something wrong? Have I got a smudge on my handsome face? What?" Jack asked.

"Nothing, nothing." Gwen lied deliberately, avoiding Jack's eyes as he traipsed down the stairs toward the vaults to lock the captured Ood. "Rhys, we just got a call from Brigadier Masterson. Two people disappeared from the library this week. No sign of them leaving the area, they say we'd better look at it…"

Making sure Jack is out of earshot, Rhys answered back.

"Gwen, after what happened with us and UNIT, they wanted us to liaise with them that easily? Fifteen years, Gwen; the UNIT and them – they left our hands full and we lost Jack and Ianto. Why help them now?"

"It's because Jack wouldn't have wanted more disappearances, and Ianto would've gone straight away to that bloody library to investigate. We've been ignoring UNIT and the police for a long time now. A parallel-universe Jack is here and Ianto will soon wake up. Torchwood's rising again; we must take action and bite the bullet as well instead of sitting here procrastinating and worrying about what will happen tomorrow!" Gwen bit back icily.

The mention of Jack and Ianto silenced everyone. They never had talked about them in almost fifteen years, and yet here they are, making their decision once more with the two lovers on their minds…

"We built the New Torchwood - with all outside connections severed - in hope that one day, the Captain will return and my dad, Ianto Jones, will be awakened. We lived in the shadow long enough and we are trotting on a trial-and-error basis for far too long, so why not make ourselves useful to them for once, to make them to feel guilty of what they had done? You have to trust me on this one." stated Janto calmly. He stared at each of them carefully in the eyes, stating his authority over them.

"Just this once, Janto Jones." Owen said threateningly and walked out of the hub without another word.