A/N: Bit longer this chapter. Let me know what you think.
Years of working for Torchwood meant that the team knew with absolute certainty that the universe had it in for them.
But on those rare occasions when the tides turned, the team wouldn't be considered as it's playthings and they would get a lucky day. So lucky in fact, that there would be artist who could depict a clear picture of the alien they were desperate to find. Ianto scanned it into the computer searching every database and CCTV recording for the creature.
"What if this thing can make itself look human?" asked Gwen.
"Give up now?" grinned Ianto.
They were tucking into a another takeaway, enjoying the greasy food fill their empty stomachs. Torchwood and takeaways went hand in hand, as well as danger, innuendos and the occasion threat to humanity. Tonight was Ianto's choice, so they were eating pizza.
Not only were the computers scanning for the alien's image, it was also tracking the energy signature that alien gave off every time it teleported. Mercifully enough, it hadn't moved from Broadchuch, which was both a good thing and bad thing. The good thing was that the alien would be easier to find, but the bad thing was that this meant that the alien had chosen Broadchurch for a very specific reason. Their job was to find out why.
"How did Jack sound on the phone?" Gwen asked, grabbing the last slice of garlic bread.
"Good." Ianto replied, wiping his fingers on napkin . "I think he just wants to come home."
"Scared of getting sun burnt, is he? Might ruin his perfection complexion?" Gwen giggled, as the image of a lobster red Jack entered her mind.
Ianto shook his head. "He thinks he let me down, I can hear it in his voice."
Gwen swallowed the last of her food and glanced up at him, meeting his warm eyes. "He's just worried."
"He blames himself."
"Jack's in charge—"
"Doesn't make it his fault."
"He feels like he should have done more." Gwen explained.
Ianto sighed. "Gwen..." he started. "Remember you said how good it would be to see the look on Jack's face…will you help me learn how to walk again?"
"Of course I will." she said, smiling. "We'll have you back on your feet in no time."
Gwen marched over to her brave friend and wrapped her arms around his waist. He hugged her back, but quickly withdrew as the computer began to beep. Images loaded, causing both of them to widen their eyes, gobsmacked.
"Is that-?"
"We need to call Jack. Now." Gwen said, already ahead of him.
When Rose arrived back at the cottage, she was uneasy. The last thing she expected was to bump into Alec, and she certainly didn't count on warming to him so quick, considering his icy behaviour the last time they met.
Rose pulled out her phone and checked the clock. 11.58pm. She pocketed it and made her way to the living room, feeling welcome urge to sleep.
Another day…
She rubbed her eyes, dumping her bag on the table with a quiet thud. When she opened them, she saw a wide awake Jack sitting on the sofa with his phone in his hands and her note in the other.
His lips curved into a wicked grin.
"What?" Rose asked.
Jack had placed the phone in the middle of the table, setting it to speakerphone. Gwen and Ianto repeated the information for Rose, but she was baffled and put it down to her current sleepiness.
"Run that by me again." Rose mumbled.
"The alien was spotted in a park twelve hours before he killed Stewart Hallway near the club." Gwen repeated.
Before Jack could ask anything else, Ianto's voice came on as well as the sound of a keyboard being tapped furiously. "The park was located around the corner from a nursery. On Forrester Lane."
"Okay, how is that a good thing and why is he grinning like a Cheshire cat?" Rose mumbled, pointing at her boss.
"It's another piece of the puzzle." said Jack. "According to the footage Ianto found, the alien was sighted at a park, but it didn't attack the children, it just watched them play."
He lifted up the laptop and clicked a button. The CCTV footage loaded showing Rose a park full of young, bouncy children playing on swings, enjoying the warm weather. The camera turned, revealing a hooded figure sitting on a bench under the cover of trees. It seemed like the creature's focus was solely on the children, not the parents.
Rose arched an eyebrow, unsure of what she was seeing, when the creature stood up. Jack watched her reaction carefully, as the camera zoomed in showing the creature's true face. The alien smiled, but it wasn't the killer Rose expected to see, it was kind smile, almost loving. She leaned closer to the screen, convinced she had imagined it. It couldn't be? Rose stabbed the replay button.
She studied it as the alien rose from its seat, tears leaked from its hollow eyes, showing a sadness that the team had never thought possible from such a vicious executioner.
"What does it want with the children?" Rose said, scared to ask.
"Nothing, the creature left the park a few minutes after. Never touched them." Jack informed her. "If this thing wanted to take them, nothing could have stopped it. They would have been gone in a puff of smoke."
"If I didn't know any better I say, it was in awe." Ianto declared.
"This alien has a shred of decency?" Rose pondered, hardly believing the images in front of her eyes. "Children are a no – no? But this thing isn't just killing adults though, it's killing sheep. When I was in the Three Saliors pub – the one Billy was in before he was killed – a farmer said that ten of his sheep were stripped clean."
"Bit of a small meal." Gwen muttered. "It's been attacking humans, why eat something so little? I mean a sheep is like a snack to this thing."
"Let's focus on the facts." Jack stated. "What do we know on the energy signature?"
Ianto typed on the keyboard and within a few seconds there was a bleep – bleep sound from the laptop, loading the same information that the hub had. "The scans show that the older the signature, the weaker it becomes."
"It's teleported a couple of times since you've been there, but it's still within town's limits." Gwen interjected.
"The problem is that we need more information. Shame you can't talk to the police up there, they know the area better." Ianto said, running his hands through his hair.
"Well, actually," Rose breathed. "I saw Alec an hour ago. He wants to work together again."
Jack arched an eyebrow, hiding a mischievous grin. He knew Alec's little secret and he could make a bet that Rose had no idea. It was a similar situation with her and John. Friends in love, holding hands, yet never taking the next step. Jack decided enough was enough and gave them that gentle nudge in the right direction… well it was more like a push, but it did the job.
"When did you see, DI Grumpy?" Jack inquired, hearing the smile in his voice.
"Well, I couldn't sleep because someone gave me a front view seat to the Z Factor special." Rose said, fighting the urge to yawn.
Jack patronisingly rubbed her back, mocking her sleepy state. "Awww, Rosie." he teased.
Rose scowled at him. The Bad Wolf was roaming her cage. If you had any sense, you would run and hide, but not Jack, he had to take a poke, taunting the animal.
"I hate you." she told him.
"And?" he prompted.
Rose yawned, stretching her arms above her head. "And? I went for a walk and saw him in the street, we talked and he apologised."
"DI Grumpy?" asked Ianto, curiously.
Jack took his eyes away from Rose, back to the phone. "Just a game. I don't call him that to his face." Jack declared.
"Good." Rose said, which earned Jack flashing her a cheeky grin for good measure. She quickly added. "I don't want you to get us arrested. Otherwise you'll have my mother to deal with."
And with that Jack's grin was wiped off his face.
"Can we be serious for two second, please?" Gwen said, her voice impatient. You could hear her tapping against the desk, waiting for the nonsense to end.
"Sorry." Jack and Rose muttered, simultaneously.
"Why is this thing moving between here and Cardiff?" Rose asked, resuming her professionalism.
"It's staying here for a reason. What does this place have that Cardiff doesn't?" Jack asked.
Gwen opened her mouth and closed it again, not having an answer for them. Finally she said, "Well, nothing."
Jack racked his brains, his frustration was getting the better of the him. He hated when a case dragged on. It was easier when he could just shoot things. "They're both by the sea, both big tourist destinations. But there's the population difference—"
"Us." Rose said, abruptly. Her eyes widen, shocked at her own theory. She rose to her feet, pointing at her chest. "It's us. We're in Cardiff watching over the rift."
Jack rolled his eyes, not seeing where her trail of thought was leading "Us? What could they know about us?"
"Torchwood has been around for a while." she retorted.
Ianto stabbed the keyboard, the idea suddenly hitting him. He loaded the files the of team's origin. "The institute was first established by Queen Victoria in 1879 to protect Britain's borders. Something fell to Earth and infected a boy. They thought it was a werewolf."
Jack jumped to his feet, thinking back to his early days on the job. "Okay, but Earth has been known to encounter some gruesome enemies over the years and they have always been dealt with, away from the public eye-"
"But they in the last few years it's been getting harder to cover our tracks." Gwen interrupted.
"John said the same thing." Rose whispered. She looked at Jack, her heart beating madly against her chest. "The explosion at Canary Wharf. He saved us all. Everybody thought it was accident. But remember all the conspiracy theories afterwards?"
There was pause before Gwen hastily added. "Jack, the public are getting closer to finding out what's really out there. It's not too farfetched to believe that they don't know something about us and our defences." Gwen told him.
"So the aliens are talking to each other. Rumours are floating about." He scratched the back of his head, anxious. "This thing left Cardiff the minute it arrived because it knew we were are based there over the rift. So it leaves, why come back?"
"The box. It came back for the box. Must be from its spaceship." Ianto suggested.
"We need to find its location-" Gwen started.
"Then what?" Jack exclaimed. "You can't go there alone."
"Jack, we need to find that ship." It was more of statement, than asking for permission.
"Wait for me to come-"
"You can't leave Rose by herself." Gwen countered. "And I can't take Ianto with me. I have to go alone."
God, this would be easier if we could lock them in the office like we used to, Ianto thought.
"Gwen if this about me leaving you there -"
"This has nothing to do with that. We're running out of time!"
"If you keep shouting like this, you won't need the phone." Ianto bellowed, his voice laced with sarcasm. "We'll end up exposing ourselves."
Rose pushed her hair from her face, wishing for nothing more than for John to be there to take control of the situation like he used to. To lead them in the right direction. If only there was more of us. We might have caught them by now. If Torchwood had known that the Cybermen were going to invade then John wouldn't have… Two people are dead and they will never know why or how. How can they bare it? It drives me crazy knowing the truth. Sometimes I wish I could forget.
She glanced down at her hand, rubbing her palm with her fingertips, missing the hand that should have held it. I miss you, she thought, hoping he could hear her words, her plea. If she could just imagine… almost feel his skin…
Rose snapped back to reality as the cries from her team were bouncing off the walls.
Gwen could sense her anger rising. In a way she was glad that Jack wasn't there otherwise he would have seen how red in the face she was. "What if they are planning something big-"
"This thing doesn't want to invade us. It can't, there is only one of them!" Jack said, his voice getting louder.
"So, what's changed?!" Rose said, matching his volume, silencing everyone else. "Why start killing people in the sickest way possible? It must have known we'd be drawn to it."
"They can't know that much—" Jack started but Rose hadn't finished.
"Torchwood has a reputation!" Rose carried on, her voice losing all its warmth that they knew so well. "We save the day. We stop the bad guys. But we are still alone in the dark because we believe the Earth isn't ready to understand the bigger picture."
"It's not that simple!" Jack yelled at her.
"Isn't it?" Rose barked back.
Jack stepped closer, his eyes dark than she ever seen them, but she didn't back down. "You think it would be easier if there was more of us? More people aware of the danger? You think Helen would appreciate knowing that her boyfriend was feast to something she can't begin to comprehend? It's easier for them to think it was a human."
"We hide the truth, but there is only so many lies we can tell before the ground shrinks beneath our feet. One day someone is going to see something they can't explain and then what?" Rose scowled.
Jack stepped closer, his voice grim. "When that day comes, everything changes, but until then you will obey orders from me. Is that understood?!"
Ianto glanced at Gwen, listening sympathetically to the quarrel, that could destroy a good friendship. Not sure of how to say next, Gwen stepped in. "It's late, maybe we should carry this on when we've all cooled down."
Jack swallowed hard, avoiding Rose's cold gaze. She took a deep breath, she could hear the blood rush to her ears. They took a step back from each other, their anger melting away.
"Good. I need some sleep." she mumbled, before leaving to her room. Rose fell onto the bed face first, clinging to the duvet, shaking. Within a few minutes, her body gave in and drifted, dreaming of a better day.