Miracle Day- Dead of Night
It had taken some time but we managed to acquire a hideout. Jack, Rex and Gwen went out to Friedkin's house while Esther and I stayed back at the hideout. Apparently Jack felt protective of me enough that he wouldn't let me go with them.
"Get the number." Jack said to Rex into a bluetooth that I hooked everyone up with. Friedkin was apparently one in the CIA who turned everyone against Rex.
"Yes, I know that. Thanks." Rex's voice came out of the speaker.
"Yeah, well, hurry up. I was right about the alarm. The police are on their way. Esther's tracking them."
I looked over to my left to see Esther sitting on a couch, typing away at a laptop. "Confirmed. There's a unit on Fifth heading for Riverdale."
"North or south?'
"North. I mean, heading from the north going south." Esther says.
"Gwen, one car from the north." Jack said.
"On it. Doing it." Gwen says.
"They only contact me. They call me through that. But listen, Rex, you won't find them. I never did. They're everywhere. They know everything." We heard Friedkin say.
"Well, I just have one more thing to say. Don't go deaf."
"What? Aah!" We heard a gunshot and then running footsteps.
"You idiot." I said to Rex. "Didn't Esther said the police were coming? This will make us look like the bad guys even more!"
"Sorry." Rex said, clearly not sorry at all.
"How are you doing?" Jack asked me over the phone
"I am currently on the run and pregnant. Not a good combination. Good thing I have two months left."
"That's a good thing?" Jack asked me.
I nodded, even though I knew Jack couldn't see me. "Yes. Because we could be doing this with me eighteen months pregnant. Instead it's only sixteen."
"Yeah, that would be bad. When you get down to eighteen months, I'm not letting you out of the Tardis, or even the med-bay."
"Tardis?" Esther asked. Damn. I thought. I forgot that this our conversation was connected to Gwen, Rex's and Esther's blue-tooth also.
I winced. "My friends… car."
"Really?" Jack asked. "I wasn't aware that it looked like a car."
"What? He uses it to get around." I replied.
"You took your time." Jack says as Rex meets back up with Jack.
"One unit on Tacoma. Jack, you'd better move. They're right on top of you." I said, looking over at the screen on Esther's laptop.
"Go, go, go, go, go!" We hear Gwen yell.
"Not bad, team. Not bad at all." Jack said and we hear a car engine. Gwen had found us a new car.
"What did we get?" Gwen asked Rex over our secure cell connection.
"We got a cell phone. So whoever made the Miracle, now we've got contact." Rex said.
In Washington DC, people are wearing white masks with painted sad faces and carrying candles in procession through the streets. Gwen and I watch them go past as we shop. Jack had finally agreed to let me out of the hideout, after he had gotten back.
"Anything? Any news?" Gwen asked into a cell.
"Yeah. Don't worry, it's good. They've moved Rhys and Anwen to a safe house, location unknown. But they're in the custody of Sergeant Andy Davidson." Jack's voice said through my blue-tooth.
"Well, we've got his number. Have you called him?" Gwen asked.
"That line's been decommissioned. I'm trying, okay?" Jack said as we walked into the hideout.
"Okay, that's my bloody family, so hurry it up. Right, here we go. Brand new mobiles for everyone, courtesy of Jack's cash-point card. I hope I didn't clear you out."
Jack smirked. "Not a chance. That account's been gathering interest since 1906."
"And some new clothes. Just some basics."
I carried over two bags of clothes, one for me and Jack. "Got you some cloths, Jack." I said, handing him his bag.
Jack took the bags out of my hands and sat them on the floor. "Thanks, Susan."
"And food. Everyone is panic buying so I had to go to the petrol station, and all they had was crisps." Gwen said.
"Oh, I think you mean gas station and chips. Crisps are called chips over here." Esther says and I rolled my eyes.
"Thank you, Miss Translation."
"Oh, and a mobile is a cell phone and by cash-point I think you mean ATM."
"Don't ever leave my side, okay? It is absolutely mental out there. Some TV show said that the Miracle was a virus, and then some website said it was the plague, so they all run to the shops and they clear the shelves." Jack said.
"Oh, and the new cult out on the street, that march?" I said, cutting in. "They call themselves The Soulless."
Gwen has one of the masks. "Apparently, everlasting life has robbed mankind of their souls."
"Turns out Friedkin was telling the truth. His handset was only contacted by one number. I traced it, but it hits a vine." Esther said.
"What's a vine?" Gwen asked.
"A vine is when you trace a number back but the trail branches out, then it branches out again and again, Piggyback those secondary numbers spreading out almost exponentially. So instead of tracing one number you're chasing five hundred thousand. What?" Rex asked. He has taken his shirt and bandages off. The wound is not pretty and I looked away, swallowing down the bile in my throat.
"You should be in the hospital." Jack says.
"Hey, less of the sympathy. He can keep working, the bastard." Gwen said.
"You're gonna keep just going on and on about your kid, huh? Do you want her here with us, hmm? Maybe she can go play in that corner where the lead paint chips look extra tasty."
Gwen throws him the mask. "Got you that from your mates, The Soulless."
"Did you get me painkillers?" Rex asked.
"Sold out. Unlucky." I said, getting behind Jack and changed shirts from my work suit that I wore to Torchwood, which seems like forever ago, and into a purple button up shirt with dark buttons and a small pocket right above my left chest area. I also changed into jeans when I ducked down behind the couch and had to pull myself back up again once I was done.
"I think we should take all those pills, and all those tablets and those potions, and give them to people free." Danes was saying on the screen.
"See, now this guy has got a good idea. Free drugs.
"Oswald Danes." I muttered. "Not a guy you should be around."
Rex eyed me and shook his head. "Ah, he just got lucky. He's a convicted murderer and pedophile sentenced to death on Miracle Day."
"All the same, he's on every channel. We need to investigate anyone who's making a profit out of all of this."
"Our research team should be doing that." I told Jack. "Remember?"
"We can't contact them now, Susan." Jack told me. "We're off the grid."
"On it, doing it." Gwen said, grabbing another laptop and getting to work.
"So go back, search family history, everything." Jack said.
"I know. Thank you, I know what I'm doing. And this lemonade. This lemonade is flat." Gwen said taking a swig of a lemonade bottle.
"It's lemonade. It's supposed to be flat." Esther said.
"What, fizzy, fizzy lemonade?" Gwen asked Esther.
"It's fizzy in the UK and flat in the US." Esther told us.
"Hmm, just about sums it up." Gwen mumbles.
"How are we doing on the money?" I asked.
"I can't trace where the bribes came from, but I'm going through Friedkin's patterns of behavior instead."
"He's a Section Chief. You're not getting into those files." Rex said.
"Hmm, really? You want to bet? This Torchwood software, it's serious." I said.
Rex puts a fresh dressing over his wound. "What are you doing with that? Esther sets up contacts on her new phone.
"Nothing. I'm just putting my numbers in." Esther says.
I walked over to her, not in the mood. "Whose numbers?"
Esther gulped. "My sister's."
"You're gonna phone your sister?" Rex asked.
"No, I-"
"Esther, what the hell is the matter with you? Don't you know how serious this is? The CIA is gonna be monitoring her calls." Rex yelled at her.
Esther practically through her old phone down. "I'm sorry, okay?"
"Well, think next time." I hissed and I walked over to a chair by a window and sat down, staring out at the street with the masked people.
"Come on, Rex, Susan. She's not used to this." Gwen said.
"Well, I'm not used to this either. It doesn't make me stupid." Rex said.
"That's enough, okay?" Jack said, coming over to stand behind me and put hands on my shoulders.
"And who the hell put you in charge?" Rex asked him.
"I think the CIA did. You're a member of Torchwood now, whether you like it or not." Jack said.
"I'm sorry, okay? I really am. I just, I've never done all this before. You guys have. I sit at my desk and read blogs for a living. Rex, it's my sister. She's just. She's not well." Esther tried to explain.
"Yeah, it's irrelevant." Rex muttered loud enough so we could all hear him.
"I tried to do a search on morphic fields, because that's the best that I could work out, that some sort of morphic field suspended the human race. But it's got to be more than that." I said.
Gwen looked at me. "What do you mean?"
"It's like there's some sort of energy behind this. A will, a drive, a consciousness, because this miracle, it's more than people just surviving. They are so alive. You saw Lyn, that woman at the airport. She should have been paralyzed but she just kept on going." I said.
Jack took over. "And I've seen bodies at the morgue, burnt and broken, still alive, staring right at me. They weren't even allowed to be unconscious. It's as if something is willing them to go on, each and every individual forced into life."
"That was me. All the way through my accident, wide awake." Rex said.
"And you could feel everything that happened? It still hurt?" Gwen asked.
Rex looked down. "Yeah."
"So what did the search say?" Esther asked, diverting everyone from the current topic.
"Well, that's the problem. Everybody's had the same idea. Morphic field gets ten million results."
"Then I'll go through them, all ten million. See, that's what I do when I'm at my desk. Hard work."
"I know. He cock blocked the ATF." Rex said.
"I have no idea what any of that means." Gwen said.
"The ATF's the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. They asked the CIA about information on a warehouse here in Washington, but Friedkin forwarded the request onto ancillary three times." Esther said.
Gwen tilted her head. "What's ancillary?"
Rex sighed. "It's a paper chase. It's a guaranteed way to lose something in the system."
"So if he tried to stop people from seeing the warehouse, then maybe he was paid to protect it, which would indicate there's something in there. It's at Third and Boston, south west." Esther concluded.
"Alright, so we've got a mission. First thing we need to do is steal a new car… again." Rex said.
"Ahem. So who's giving the orders?" I asked, nodding my head toward Jack. "Who has the most experience with these situations?"
Rex took one look at my face and Jack's stare and sighed, "Okay, Torchwood, what do you say?"
Jack smirked. "We need to steal a new car."
All of us were outside in the street, checking the handles on the cars parked outside. I kept close to Jack while Gwen was the farthest away from us.
Gwen throws a stone through a window. The alarm goes off. "Got one." Gwen says.
Rex sat in the front with Gwen driving while I sat in the middle between Esther and Jack, leaning into him. Jack's arms were around mine and I was trying to get some sleep, but it wasn't working.
"There's somebody's dry-cleaning back here." Jack said, tausing it up to Rex. "See if it is your size."
"It's my size." Rex said in amazement. "I'm taking these. My clothes are stinking. Ladies, avert your eyes. That includes you, World War Two."
I opened my eyes at that. "Hey!" I protested. "That World War Two guy is my Husband."
"So?" Rex asked. I rolled my eyes and closed them again, snuggling up against Jack, making him tighten his arms around me in response.
"Hey, these new phones aren't bad. The camera is good quality too." Esther said, apparently finding a phone in the back of the car.
"I know you didn't just take a picture of me changing my pants." Rex said.
I opened my eyes and narrowed them at Rex. "Seriously, you American's can't go a day without saying a bathroom joke."
"You're changing your pants?" Gwen asked, because of the wording.
"Pants mean trousers." Esther replied.
"Are we really on a mission here?" Rex asked us.
"Yeah, well, maybe this is the way Torchwood does things, mate." Gwen snips at him.
"Yeah, well, maybe you want to drive on the other side of the street, mate." Rex said.
Gwen turned the car sharply onto the correct side of the road. "Oh."
Gwen drive's into an empty car park.
"Third and Boston. That's the one. Security profile says the guard's on a quarterly rotation. That means he checks in with base every fifteen minutes starting on the hour." Esther says.
"All right. So, we gonna come up with a plan, or is that just the American thing to do?" Rex asked and I huffed in annoyance.
Gwen pulls the car up outside the warehouse while I am in the passenger seat, making it obvious that I am pregnant by rubbing my hand on my stomach. "Hi." Gwen says, grinning.
"Hi." The guard answers back, eyeing me then is back to looking at Gwen.
"I wonder, can you help? We're a little bit lost. Sorry. The British abroad. Hopeless, honestly. But I think we're trying to get to Boston Avenue. Is it Boston Road or Boston. Is it Boston Street?" Gwen says looking at a map she has up.
As the guard leans in, Gwen grabs his tie and slams his forehead against the car, knocking him out.
"Go Gwen!" I said, giving her a high five.
Jack, Rex, Gwen, and I go to the alarm box. Esther is back at the car, using her new phone.
"Esther, how much time do we have?" Jack asked Esther.
"Eleven minutes." Esther called from the car.
"I can unlock it, but only by tricking it into thinking it's booting up for the day. But that means all the lights are gonna come on, all the computers are gonna boot up."
"Oooor." I said, pulling out my sonic pen and smirking.
"Or you could use that." Gwen said as I pointed the pen at the box and pressed.
"What can a pen do?" Rex asked.
I spun the pen around my fingers and put it back in my pocket, checking to make sure my psychic paper was still there. It was. "Oh Rex. This is just the beginning of The Mysteries of Susan Jane Harkness. Good luck figuring them all out." I told him, patting a stunned Rex on the back and walking past him.
"That'a girl, Susan." Jack said, catching up to me.
I smirked. "He needed to be put in his place. He's too American for my taste. I like Brits."
"But weren't you American?" Jack asked.
"And now I'm a Time Lady." I remarked back, stepping inside the warehouse. "Esther." I called. "Watch the car!"
The place is full of pallets of cardboard boxes wrapped in clingfilm. Jack opens one with the PhiCorp logo on it. "Let's see what's in this." Big bottles of tablets.
"Let me see that. It's drugs." Rex said, picking it up. "It's legitimate drugs."
"What is it? Metanec. Metanec is a painkiller, yeah?" Gwen asked.
"Hallelujah." Rex said and started pocketing some painkillers.
"Thousands of them. Millions of them." Gwen said looking around in amazement as they continued to walk.
"PhiCorp?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, you know PhiCorp, Jack. PhiCorp's a big pharmaceutical company. We've got PhiCorp back home. I mean, it's everywhere. It's worldwide." Gwen said.
"These are the same pills that I've been taking. The beauty of it is is that they're non-narcotic. They keep you painless and wide awake. It's the perfect drug for the new world order." Rex said.
Jack finds a clip-board. "There was a delivery yesterday." I read off the clip-board.
"When was the first one?" Gwen asked.
"Way back. Oh, hold on. Deliveries go back at least a year. All for drugs. All from PhiCorp.
Rex opens another set of doors. "Oh my God."
Jack, Gwen, Rex and I stared into a storage facility that looked like a combination of Warehouse 13 and the Library size.
"Bigger on the inside than the outside." I whispered, grabbing Jack's hand.
Gwen turns to Jack and I. "These are all painkillers?"
"They're ready for a war." Jack breathed, squeezing my hand back.
"No. They were ready for the Miracle. PhiCorp knew it was coming." Rex said.
"There's something I missed." I said.
Jack turned and looked at me. "What."
"I should have realized this." I said bitterly. "I mean… bigger on the inside? If I make that connection and I am right…. things are about to get a lot worse. Nothing good can come if their technology is being used or replicated."
"Bigger on the inside?" Rex asked. "And whose technology?"
I shook my head. "You still have to earn our trust, as does Esther. Why do you think she is outside right now?"
Back at the hideout, Jack took command. "Okay, we do a deep search on this PhiCorp. I want to peel back security and find everything."
"I can handle company history." Esther said.
"I can do European operations." Gwen said.
Rex held up his hands. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. After we do all this research, then what do we do?"
"We go in, whether that means infiltration or confrontation." Jack said.
"So we're just gonna sit on this information? Come on, guys, seriously? I mean, we've got a major link between an international corporation and the Miracle and we're just gonna keep it to ourselves?"
"We got this far on our own." Jack said.
"Yeah, but see, it's not just about us. Not anymore. This is about doing the right thing for the state and for the people." Rex said.
"Jack, he's got a point." Gwen said. "Remember when you released that video during the 456? You didn't want to but that was what was needed during the time."
"That was you?" Esther asked, shocked. "No wonder you looked familiar. You were all everyone and anyone talked about for weeks after."
"Okay." Jack said, cutting in. "We need a friend with connections. Got any ideas?"
"All right, my senior instructor at Langley. I'm pretty sure he'd still give me a chance." Rex said.
Jack raised an eyebrow at that. "He's CIA."
"He's ex-CIA. Look, I know this is a risk. I know that. But it's a risk I'm willing to take. So what do you say?"
"Okay." Jack said.
"Okay." Rex said.
Rex phones his man. "And I've got proof. I've got photographs and documentation. But I can't compromise you or your family, sir. You know I would never do that. So maybe we could meet somewhere neutral. How about the lobby of the Freeville Hotel? It's on North Street West. The Freeville Hotel."
Rex, Jack, Gwen, Esther and I stood across the street in an alleyway next to North Street West. We watch from across the street as police cars screech to a halt outside the Freeville Hotel, and armed police go inside. "Damn." Rex said.
"What's the use? We discovered this PhiCorp shit, but everyone's been turned against us. We're still on the run. We can't trust anyone." Rex said angrily.
"They can't have got to everyone we know, and they can't be tracking the cell phones because they're new." Esther said.
"I warned you. Whoever these people are, they're good and they're ready for us, which puts us back at square one. We tackle PhiCorp ourselves." Jack said.
"And is that standard Torchwood policy?" Rex asked, more like hissed.
"I suppose it is, yeah."
"You know, you dress like it's World War Two, so I don't expect you to be up on current events, but there is no Torchwood. It's dead. Gone. Buried."
"It's us." Jack lied, not wanting Tosh, Owen, Ianto, and the rest of the teams to get involved.
"As far as I can see, you got all your staff killed."
"They were my friends." Jack said.
"Your dead friends." Rex said in Jack's face.
I stepped in between Jack and Rex. "Don't you dare, Rex! You have no idea what happened, Who we are. I personally have saved your ASS so many times, I've lost count, and you go and yell at my HUSBAND?! Is this how the world thanks me from saving them?"
"Susan, calm down." Jack said, worrying over me.
"You want me to stop? I'll stop. Who the hell are you people anyway?" Rex asked. When I didn't answer he turned around and got back into the car.
"Rex, hold on. Hold on. We're got to work together on this, Rex. Don't, Rex. Don't. Don't! Rex!" Gwen said, yelling after him as Rex takes off in the car.
"Americans." I muttered.
"Hey!" Esther said. I glared at her and she fell silent.
"The city's going wild." Esther says, watching as people run around the city, drunk, screaming and yelling.
"Everyone's out drinking. Nobody knows whether it's a party or a wake." Gwen said.
"My arm is itching." Jack said, rubbing his left arm with his right.
"Poor baby." Gwen said. I eyed her. She didn't normally act like this. I concluded that it must be the stress of forcefully away from her family.
"I think it's infected." Jack said and I took his right hand in mine in order to get him to stop picking at it.
Gwen rolled her eyes. "Do you know, you're worse than Rhys. It's itching because it's healing. Now stop it, Jack. Oi, Jack."
Jack is heading across the street to the Golden Gopher. "Mortal man, mortal needs." Jack says.
"Yeah, we've got work to do." Gwen said.
Jack smiled. "I am so mortal."
A car drives past, with a drunken man standing up out of the sunroof. "Hey, baby. What's up? Yeah! Whoo!" I winced as they drove past.
"There's a poem. I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain and back in rain." Esther said. "It's probably not about walking. I suppose it's about death." I heard Esther said as I followed Jack into the crowded bar while Gwen and Esther talked outside.
Jack and I made our way up to the bar and sat down. "Scotch." Jack told the bartender. Jack turned to me and before I could open my mouth he said, "Remember you can't have anything alcoholic. You're pregnant."
I groaned. "You are so not fun." I said, lightly slapping Jack on the shoulder. I turned to the bartender. "Sparkling water?"
"Sure thing." The bartender said. We sees a dish of tokens.
"What are these?" Jack asked.
"Sobriety chips. Got two month chips, six month chips. They got a whole bowl of ten year chips around here somewhere. People are throwing a lot of sober out the window tonight."
"Sorry I can't add to your collection, unless you want a button." Jack says.
"Oh, you damage that coat, I'm jumping over this bar to protect it." The bartender said.
I raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me, I happen to be his WIFE." I said.
The bartender leaned back. "Oh, sorry lady. Din't mean no disrespect."
"Bet you didn't." I muttered.
The bartender handed Jack his Scotch and me my sparkling water. "On the house." He told us, then winked at Jack and moved over to another part of the bar.
"I don't like him." I said as I sipped my water while Jack started draining his scotch.
"You don't like most people." Jack said.
"Hey! Yes I do."
"Oh, then there is no other option for me to choose only that you are jealous!"
I rolled my eyes and took another sip of the water. "Of course I'm jealous, Jack! You're my Husband! I thought the flirtations would stop because you wore a ring. Apparently they don't." I added bitterly.
Jack set his glass down on the bar and looked at me. "Susan, I didn't know you felt this way."
"What else am I supposed to feel when you are flirting with another man or women? Am I supposed to be OKAY with it?"
Jack took my hands in his, making me set down the sparkling water. "No, of course not. Come on, Susan. Lets go back to the hideout. This is not a conversation to have in a bar."
Jack and I reached the hideout no problem, though Gwen and Esther were not back yet. Jack takes my hands and sits me down on the couch, then he sits down next to me. "Susan, why haven't you told me this before?" Jack asked me.
"I've tried." I protested, not meeting Jack's eye. "You wouldn't listen. Apparently it takes you being mortal and getting alcohol in your system to notice."
"I only had half a glass." Jack protested, then shook his head. "There's nothing else that I can do other than saying I'm sorry, is there?"
I shook my head.
"What if I got better at it?" Jack asked me. "What then?"
I looked up at my husband. "I'll believe it when I see it." I sighed. "I hate when we do this."
Jack sighed as well. "As do I." Jack grabbed me and pulled me tight against him, making me give out a tiny yelp.
"Jack! Let me go!" I said, trying not to giggle, but failing.
"Nope. I've got you now." Jack said.
I stopped struggling after a while and leaned back against Jack's chest, closing my eyes. "What do you think's happening at base?" I mumbled.
"Well hopefully they don't get this crazy notion to come and rescue us or to find us. If both of us are out, Ianto is in charge. I hope he has the sense to put Torchwood in lock-down. They can survive months on end in that building, if they have to."
I smiled. "Good." And promptly fell asleep.
When I woke up the next morning, I found that Jack wasn't next to me anymore. Jack was standing behind Esther and Gwen next to Esther, looking at something which requires a laptop. Rex was also back, which annoyed me, but I didn't say anything about it.
I stood up to go look at what they were looking at. "Hey guys." I said.
Gwen turned around, "Hey Susan. 'bout time you woke up." She said, smiling at me. "Esther's sending me texts." She said.
"So we can communicate with the Eye 5s just by typing." Esther said.
"Hello, Esther. I'm Gwen." Gwen said.
"Yeah, but there's no sound." Rex said, pointing to the laptop.
"But we've got lip-reading software. Look at me. Right at me." Gwen said and Esther did, what she was looking at came up, visually, on the laptop.
"Mmm hmm." Rex said.
"Now say something." Gwen said.
"My name is Rex Matheson, representing the Central Intelligence Agency." Esther said.
"My name is Rex Matheson representing the Central Intelligence Ajenny." The Computer said, messing up only one word.
"All right, all right. That'll work. I can get inside with those." Rex said.
"Problem. The Eye 5s, they're isomorphic. Biometrically tuned in to me and me alone." Gwen said.
"Seriously?" Rex said and I eyed her, seeing her lie. Lois used them okay in Children of Earth.
"Mmm hmm. If anyone's going on this mission, it's got to be me." Gwen said. Esther types Liar! Gwen closes the laptop that is running the software. "Yep. What?" Gwen asked.
Jack is stifling a laugh.
Jack, Rex, Esther and I sat down on the couch, watching Gwen's movements on the laptop. Jack had me in his lap. Esther was to the left and Rex to the right.
We see Gwen go up to a fire escape exit which opens after a few seconds to reveal, who rex told us to call, Vera. "Where's Rex?" Vera asked, frowning.
"No, I'm not Rex, I know. Hello. Long story. Go back to the meeting and keep Jilly Kitzinger there for as long as you can. Go."
Vera raised her eyebrows. "Are you giving me orders?"
Gwen stared her down. "Yes, go."
"She did good, Doctor Juarez." Esther said, talking about Vera.
"Yeah." Jack agreed.
"How did you talk her into it?" Esther asked, looking at Rex.
"Well, it's not exactly a professional relationship."
Gwen sees someone coming down the main stairs at PhiCorp with Jilly. "Oswald Danes." Jack says, immediately sitting up straighter.
"What's he doing there?" Esther asked in bewilderment.
"Tell her to follow Oswald."
"No, no. No way. Let her stay on the mission." Rex said.
"Gwen find out anything about Oswald Danes?" Jack asked Esther.
"Nothing special, apart from being a monster. He just chose the right day to be executed on. He's got nothing to do with this stuff."
Jack calls up A WYUB interview with Danes. "I'm sorry, no. I have been forgiven. A substantial number of people have forgiven me. I can feel that in my heart, in my guts. And forgiveness, it's like a tide or storm. It clears the air. I'm very lucky to have been forgiven, and I feel very, I feel very blessed. And I think of forgiveness as a cure."
I rolled my eyes. "Too dramatic." Rex's phone rings. "You put that phone on speaker, Rex." I said, staring at him.
Rex stared at me back, sighed and put it on speaker. "Yeah?" Rex asked.
"Who was that woman?" Vera's voice flowed up from the phone.
"She works for me. Are you at the meeting yet?"
"Yeah, but it's not a meeting. It's some kind of presentation."
"All right, well, keep the line open. I want to hear." Rex said, then he looked at me. I nodded my head, telling him it was okay.
"Hello, and thank you for coming. I'm Congressman Patrick Morganthall. Some of you are listening to us from Los Angeles-" Congressman Patrick Morganthall said.
"A Congressman?" Esther asked.
"Others from PhiCorp locations in Cleveland, DC, Dallas, Singapore, Hong Kong-"
"PhiCorp was ready worldwide." Rex said.
"But if they knew about the miracle, does that mean they caused it?" Esther asked.
"Our modern drug prescription system has served us very well for many decades, but times have changed. Times have changed a great deal. The need for drugs is far outstripping the access to the people with the means to prescribe them. Something has got to change. And that's why later today I will be introducing legislation to make all prescription drugs, all painkillers, antibiotics, almost all medications available without a prescription."
"Think it'll, what, multiply sales by tenfold?" Esther asked. Jack motioned for me to get up and while they were focused on the Congressman, we snuck out.
"Jack," I whispered, walking down the street. "Where are we going?"
"To meet Oswald Danes."
It was dark outside as I watched as Jack climbed up the building that Oswald Danes lived in. Jack was taking extra caution and not letting me climb up while pregnant. But he didn't say anything about Vortex Manipulators. So, I flipped open my vortex manipulator and pressed some buttons, looked both ways and vanished once I saw Jack was in the room.
"Okay, you ready for me?" Danes asked, coming into the room. I moved closer to Jack who took my hand.
"Yeah, sure." Jack said.
"I'd apologize for being late, but it wasn't my fault. I was needed across town. Still, made it, and this will be going on live, yes? Can you tell me who's interviewing me?"
"Yeah, it's er. Sod it." Jack draws his gun.
"I suppose a man like you was always on his way." Danes said.
"You met with PhiCorp today. Why?" Jack asked.
"You'll have to ask them." Oswald responded.
"Did they mention the name Jack Harkness? What about Susan Harkness. Have you heard of those names?"
"Never. Why do you ask, Jack? I figured if you cared that much about the name, it was probably yours." Oswald looks to me. "And obviously your pregnant wife."
Jack takes out a small memo recorder. "I just want you to talk."
Danes raises an eyebrow. "What about?"
"I saw you on television saying you feel forgiven for taking the life of a child. That's a lie. I know that's a lie." Jack said, thinking back to when he gave the 12 children over to the 456.
"How do you know that, Jack, with such certainty?" Oswald Danes asked.
"Tell the truth!" Jack yelled. "The murder of Susie Cabina. You don't feel sorry at all."
"The truth is, she flaunted it. Her innocence. Most people, they get hit or whatever, it's hours before the bruises rise up. But they showed right away with her. It was like I was painting on her. And she looked so beautiful. I thought it couldn't get any better than that. But oh, Jack, I swear to you, right then at the end, I felt her life leave and she left through me. Yeah. You know that feeling? I think you do. And I relive it every single night, because that was the best moment of my life."
Jack lowers his gun and forced me behind him. "Now I understand. You're doing all this because you're searching for one thing. One simple thing. Execution. World without death, so you get to live. And it's killing you."
"Jack, what are you going to do with that recording?"
"We're in a broadcast center. Figure I might broadcast it." Jack said.
"Excellent idea. If only I didn't have to do this. Boys! Take that recording off him." Thugs burst into the grab Jack, twisting his arms behind him, pulling me ruffly away from him.
"Jack!" I yelled as two more grabbed me.
"I did visit PhiCorp and they were kind enough to offer me protection." Oswald Danes said.
Jack looked up at Danes from being bent over by the thugs. "In exchange for what?"
"The message. Don't hurt him, or the woman, just get rid of them. It was nice to meet you, Jack Harkness, Susan Harkness. Well, you can hurt him a little, but not the face. That's how it's done these days. Leave the woman alone, I won't want to harm that precious child." Oswald said then walked out the door.
"You bastard!" Jack yelled after him.
The thugs take us the back way down the building and taus me into the street to watch them beat up on Jack. Jack is getting repeatedly punched below the belt before being thrown out onto the street and the thugs slam the door closed.
I ran up to Jack who groaned and helped him get up. "Why did you come in, Susan? I told you to wait in the street!" Jack said as soon as he was up and let out a groan as he stretched his back.
"Because you're my Husband!" I yelled at Jack. "Are you daft? I do it because I love you and I don't want to see you get hurt. You have to be more careful now!"
At that Jack sighed and came close and hugged me. "Sorry, Susan. I love you too." Jack mumbled into my shirt.
A Woman pulled us apart to stare at us. "I saw you two thrown out of that building. Did you see him in there? Did you see Oswald Danes? Did you touch to him?" She asked, completely love-struck with the man.
"Did we what?" Jack asked.
3rd Person POV.
On T.V.
"-And I'm thinking of companies like PhiCorp. They'd never abandon us, because they need us. If we're talking about medications, I have to say that I'm somewhat of an expert. I spent a lot of long years in solitary confinement, a dangerous man companies like PhiCorp tried to help. They put me on a drug regime with every drug known in the world. Uppers, downers, sideways, and bled. Every single one-." Oswald Danes said.
"-They stick with us. And I'm asking you now to join with me in this great enterprise as we all walk across the fragile skin of this wide world together. The future is now endless and it's terrifying. I'm offering you my hand to walk on this long journey together. Walk with me. That's all I ask. Walk with me."
A/N: Feel Free to Review.