Hope you'll enjoy this one, a bit team time.
No spoilers
Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian
"Your luck is that I know you wouldn't let me anywhere near your pants if they weren't on fire, or if you would be paralyzed like just now. Nice one." Owen smiled and moved over to the dead Mountholder.
"Is the alien dead, be careful" Ianto could hear Toshiko in the com "it scared the shit of us, how could it move so fast?"
"See Tosh, I am a gentleman" Owen mocked her "It wouldn't be very nice to let you in this mess. The head is dead."
"Mountholder" gasped Ianto.
"What?" Owen turned baffled.
"His name was Mountholder."
"Oh it had manners; it introduced itself after it stung you." Owen moved towards other parts.
"Don't bother, they are dead too" Ianto sat up feeling dizzy.
"Owen" Toshiko yelled through the line "we have a Rift alarm."
"Go ahead, there's no danger here anymore." He took his earpiece from his ear. "We should clean this up."
"I'll get body bags." Ianto got up and swayed a bit.
"You should rest." Owen demanded.
"No, I've been still long enough, I need to walk." Owen nodded and they got on with it.
Soon the warehouse was clean and they were off.
"Jack was right about you, you know." Owen started when he stopped at a red light.
"About what?" Ianto stared straight through the window.
"You are ready for the field, you handled yourself well today."
"Not very well, I nearly got converted into an alien body part." He wasn't ready to accept that recognition.
"But you didn't get converted, and that's all that's count. I studied the compound that creature uses to kill and convert, it's a real wonder you managed to fight it long enough to warn me."
"I didn't fight it, I just tricked it, and apparently I'm good at that."
"Anyway it worked, and Jack was right, you are ready to be a field agent."
"Jack said that, did he?" Ianto couldn't imagine that.
"You didn't know? I was convinced he'd done it just to get into your pants, but he clearly didn't need to."
"You're quite fond of talking about my pants" Ianto glared at him.
"You've started it, for a second I thought you were serious."
"As that would happen" Ianto smirked.
They parked.
"But we can let girls think it's their idea to make you a field agent, Tosh needs some feeling of power, and that was her first decision. No need to tell them Jack already had promoted his Tea Boy."
"I wasn't aware that he did." Ianto decided to ignore Owen's familiar banter.
"Bloody Harkness, he doesn't tell us anything. Like I always wondered why he took you in, when you were so green and timid, of course he was proven right in time, but how did he know?"
"I mauled a Weevil and caught a pterodactyl, but I think it was the coffee."
Owen laughed and took Sara and the dog in his hands.
"That sounds about right."
Ianto left Owen with Mountholer in autopsy bay and went to brew some coffee and check on Tosh and Gwen.
Later on they gathered around in the board room. Tosh sat at the head of the table and Ianto thought about how small she is, how anyone would be small sitting there after Jack. It seemed she knew that because she tried to sit straighter and look all focused but there was the feeling like Jack was pacing behind her, or just standing in the corner with his arms folded around his chest.
"We've found only plants this time" she said.
"Bloody heavy ones" Gwen added "We could use some man power. They seem harmless but you should take look before we incinerate them." Owen looked at the plants on the desk.
"Ok, maybe. I found the ingredient to form a vaccine against Mountholer, after today I would feel a lot better if I had more of that stuff."
"Agreed" said Toshiko "What did you find out about the creature?"
"Well" Owen got up and turned on the display, Ianto turned away from the sight of the half converted bodies, Gwen covered her mouth.
"For fuck sake" Gwen cursed, "Ianto honey it's nice to have you back" she squeezed his hand.
"There is not much to say, I already knew most of things about it from the previous encounter, but that alien was clearly disoriented and near death because it moved slow and without purpose. From first examination I've concluded that the creature moves like snail; its joints serve not only to connect into his full form, but also to move parts separately in crawling linear fashion."
"It was nothing like snail, it attacked like..." Gwen interrupted him.
"Like a cobra" Owen changed picture "On the links there are little hooks that I thought only served as a attaching technique, but it turned out that it serves for moving, so the creature can, like snail, move in all sorts of directions, and jump, like a cobra, with great speed and range."
"So Ianto" Gwen turned towards Ianto "did you start to peel off your slough yet." Tosh laughed.
"Maybe he only got the snail part of the process, because he was moving pretty slow" added Owen with a smirk and Gwen laughed.
Ianto smiled, it was first real laugh the team shared since Jack left.
"Now seriously," Owen continued "about the people inside of the parts, they were too far gone. There is not enough of DNA left for proper tests, and their features are completely gone, even their teeth are dissolved, so unfortunately they will stay missing."
Ianto cleared his throat.
"In fact I took the liberty and gathered information about all three of them, and came up with cover stories that will be unsuspicious by their life style. I just need to make phone calls." He pushed files towards Toshiko.
"How in hell did you do that" Owen leaned forward.
"Well I know everything" he said and was cut off by their laughter.
"I almost believe you do Ianto" said Gwen and Ianto decided to suppress rest of that sentence.
He didn't want to ruin the mood with whole explanation how he was linked to those people inside Mountholer's brain, how he knew just who to call and what to say. He would put it all in a report so they could read it if they want. Of course without Jack's part in the story.
"It looks good Ianto" Tosh returned files towards Ianto "make the calls."
Owen approached plants which looked almost familiar.
"Some more veggies on the menu" he murmured to himself and Ianto got an idea.
He looked around.
"You know" started Ianto and everyone looked at him, his voice was strong although he rarely used it "about the plants, maybe we don't have to burn them, wouldn't it be useful to have some alien herbs to study and better understand its humanoid or animal counterparts. Or even to have for vaccines if necessary."
"It wouldn't be bad at all to have them around, but we don't have the space."
"Look around" said Ianto "isn't this a perfect room for a greenhouse. We are redecorating, so why not do something different. The Hub would look better, and the air would be better, less moist, and we have all seen what happens to these glass walls in a small earthquake. It makes me uncomfortable just looking at them."
They all looked at glass windows and silently agreed.
"But what about light" asked Gwen.
"I could think of something" Tosh said with a smile, her eyes were distant like she was already solving the problem.
"And the board room" asked Owen.
"There is that long unused storage room on the right, just outside of the office area" Ianto smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
"He really does know everything" smiled Tosh. "Make it so."