A/N: cover-up story, and Owen lose his toy.
No spoilers
Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian
Ianto tried to plan every detail with perfection. After all Tosh would examine his work trying to fix the problem. Finally he had to move and just do it, there was no time left. He powered down the energy hoping his footage would suffice. Before shooting Hub down everything was set, footage was taken and the aliens safely locked behind glass. In some way Ianto mimicked what Billis did when he breached their security. Ianto waited five minutes then he called Jack. He informed him he was ready and Jack put up wonderful show of urgency shouting at him and telling him he had twenty minutes before they arrived. Ianto smiled and finished the article he was reading before Jack stepped in with his request. When he was done he opened the cog door manually and get to position by the vaults.
Ianto knew they arrived because Jack was shouting `Ianto`. It was a nice touch. Tosh got the power up in a few seconds, it was an easy task for her, then she searched for CCTV footage, there was a false image waiting for her. He heard footsteps so he leaned on the wall panting like he had ran the whole time. Owen and Jack charged in.
"They are contained" Ianto informed them and Owen ran to the vault.
"What the Hell did you do?" Owen shouted at him. "How incompetent you are?"
"Owen" Jack had a warning in his voice "but really, Ianto what the hell happened, it's a mess up there."
"Mess is understatement" Owen started again "how could you let the Scryogen and a Weevil out? I can't believe you did that!"
"Yeah a Scryogen should be kept very safe" Jack joined in "he is an all-eater, he would eat you with no prejudice."
"Well he had a good meal before I stepped in so he was pretty calm."
"Yeah, my creature, you just let it eat the whole thing before you stepped in" Owen was leaning into Ianto's face "couldn't you get there a bit sooner?"
"Um, I was a bit preoccupied with that Weevil, I'll have to change his diet, it was too lively."
"Lively, I'll say" Owen was exasperated "he destroyed my entire sample collection and smashed a few computers."
"Owen" Jack grabbed him by a shoulder "I think badgering is my job. This is unacceptable, how could this happen from out of a blue."
"Guys, there's no need for that" Tosh spoke up from the door "there was a glitch in the system, I fixed it. When Ianto tried to file the report on our tentacle friend the Hub went into shut down. The system detected that compound you studied as a chemical weapon and went into shut down letting all of our prisoners go. It's really an outdated escape plan. The old system allowed for all inmates to escape in case the emergency was activated, at the same time our new system is to keep everything locked in to protect outside world. We're lucky that Ianto was quick in restoring secondary power source or we would be flooded by Weevils and other inmates."
"And then it's just bad luck that I've lost all my samples and a body" Owen complained "but at least I have my test results."
"Sorry" Tosh smiled apologetically "the data was filed as dangerous and automatically deleted."
"What?" Owen was outraged. "I could do so much with it; it was a perfect solution for dissolving a body without traces."
"Are you listening to yourself?" Tosh asked confused and at that moment Gwen raced in with a Weevil on her hands.
"Guys some help would be appreciated; there is a flood of Weevils down there." She shoved him in the cell.
The next few minutes they collected the rest of the Weevils and Owen vented his frustration.
"Your creature?" Jack inquired when they were finished.
"It had some strange and weird charm" Owen sighed "lurking in the dark, to Gwen it's horrifying but I don't know, it's just familiar in some way."
"Lurking in the dark" Gwen laughed "that could easily describe you Owen."
"Ha, ha, Gwen" Owen was not amused.
"Scryogen was a nice touch" Jack said quietly to Ianto "he would eat anything, the footage was great. But you could have crumpled your suit just a bit to seem more believable that you struggled."
"Well, that would be unbelievable, my suit almost never gets crumpled" Ianto deadpanned.
"I can fix that" Jack smiled. "But there were a lot of Weevils outside the vaults."
"It would be a bit to convenient if only two of them escaped and only found Owen's samples." Ianto rolled his eyes.
"Ianto honey" Gwen spoke up "did I mention that part of your archives on sixth sublevel got trashed."
Ianto cursed under his breath and ran down there, Jack's laugh followed him. Clean up took a few hours but he managed to restore everything. This cover up operation was costly.
"Oi, Tea boy" Owen greeted him when he entered the main floor "we left you some pizza. Damn that Scryogen, we should have put him out. He eats a whole carcass in less than five minutes and nothing is left of him, sure there are scrapes and scratches here and there but useless. I've spend hours trying to pump something out of his stomach, all I got is a blue colour that is persistent as hell, but nothing useful, all DNA is lost."
"You've pumped out Scryogen's stomach out?" Ianto stopped in mid step. "How? Did you stick your hand in his teethed throat to make him throw up?"
"No, I stuck a needle in him to put him to sleep, he was all lively from its last meal, and then I've inserted some broccoli and onion in his mouth. Closed the doors, stick a needle in him through the hole in the glass to wake him up, he burped all over the glass and the floor, then I put him to sleep again and collected his insides. He'll probably be awake now, and hungry, you could feed him your pizza Ianto."
"Broccoli and onion?" Gwen was puzzled.
"It works every time" Ianto answered Gwen "in my no-meat policy after countrycide incident I tried all sorts of veggies on aliens, broccoli and onion are death to Scryogen, he can eat glass and tyres but broccoli, no."
"No meat policy?" Owen was appalled.
"Why are you bothered with this so much Owen?" Tosh inquired.
Owen spun his chair towards her.
"Tosh there is something about Torchwood that is more than just catching aliens, remember how Jack said, `we're arming the human race against the future`, the future that brings all sorts of aliens to our door steps, that is one of our main causes here. This thing was a perfect weapon with tranquilizers, dissolvent and who knows what else, now it's lost. There is puny chance we'll see another one again."
"So you're sorry you've lost some weapons to play with and probably cause us some more lock downs and accidental leaks of deathly acids" Tosh smiled and Owen smiled back.
"You're probably right" he said and threw his chart to trash. "I can't believe I just spent a couple hours digging through some alien vomit."
"Not just anyone" Gwen smiled "do you remember when Scryiogen ate a whole cow and then threw up on us."
"The stench lasted for days" Ianto sighed.
"Ianto, my office, now" Jack shouted out loud.
"I bet he'll make you scrub the floors" Gwen laughed.
"No, he would just enjoy that" Owen smirked.
"Close the doors" Jack told him and he obeyed.
"What exactly was Owen examining?" Jack asked cautiously. "Did you cut off part of the corpse?" He looked concerned.
"No, I let him eat the whole thing" Ianto answered simply shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Would you like to explain that, because I remember we spoke of storing it in part of the morgue that we never use?"
"We'll I made a plan, but it was impossible to perform. I can lose a corpse down there when no one is looking for it, and I can say there were a lot of corpses in between that I don't remember, but this is not the case. Considering that you wanted to trash the samples, I assumed Owen would search for the body with more severity, not to this length, but still, and even if I managed to produce false images of it eating the body, there was a fair chance of accidental finding. Owen is spending more time down there lately; he's constantly dragging out old alien corpses to look at things differently, searching for vaccines and patterns of DNA."
Jack studied him for few seconds before he nodded.
"Good thinking" he sighed "it's better this way, one burden less to carry. By the way nice move with Scryiogen, but how did you know it wouldn't kill him, it did dissolve human tissue."
"I retrieved a sample of the liquid with syringe and then sprayed it on Scryiogen, it just ate it. I thought its safe enough."
"Syringe?" Jack asked.
"Destroyed." Ianto took a deep breath. "Jack, can I ask, why?"
Jack stared at his hands.
"Just curious I guess" Ianto continued "You don't seem to mind all the damage, why don't you want for Owen to find new weapons, we do that usually."
"Because it would only be a weapon against humans, as you may notice none of Weevils or the Scryiogen were injured in any way." He said quietly.
"But why would it be designed to human physiology..." Ianto paused before he realized "of course, because humans are its prey, they feed on our energy, and their predator, we can kill them. That wasn't alien at all, it was like those fairy creatures, and it was from Earth, which means... they are everywhere."
"And how do you feel about that" Jack asked sadly looking at his palm, rubbing it with his thumb.
"I feel that I'm hungry" Jack lifted his head surprised "and that I won't go jumping on the grass in the dark." Jack smiled.
"What, you won't jump around searching every dark corner?" Jack teased.
"Why, they were here yesterday too, the only difference was I didn't know about it." Ianto shrugged his shoulders. "There must be some use of them like there are spiders, bats and scorpions."
"We sleep better because of them" Jack smiled.
"Then I like them, I love to sleep, we probably have one in the Hub, there is a lot of sleeping lately in here." Ianto said seriously and Jack's smile widened.
"Then it must have sneaked in when I was away." Jack said confidentially. "Maybe I'll sleep better from now on."
"We could do something about that" Ianto's face softened as he smiled. "But now I should go and get ready for my date; that is, if you're not grounding me for all the mess I've caused."
"How much time do you need to prepare?" Jack frowned curiously. "You look just fine this way."
Ianto looked down at his suit and frowned.
"Really? After a whole day working, chasing Weevils and feeding Scryiogen, not to mention sorting dusty archives I don't feel fine. A hot shower is what I need and a new suit, I suggest you do the same. That shirt needs to be trashed; I'm not taking it to the cleaners." Ianto pointed at him.
"What, I cleaned myself this morning as ordered, and didn't get a stain on it."
Ianto rolled his eyes.
"Jack, it's covered with mucus, you are restored, and perfect, but your clothes show how long you are on your feet, and the grass stain on the coat confirms fence story, but that thin layer of mucus suggests you were consumed by the creature. It is hardly noticeable but if you don't want Owen to sniff around and find some samples I suggest you just burn it, and the trousers."
Jack paused for a moment shocked but then he jumped up and started to take off his clothes.
"Please Jack, there are glass walls in this office." Ianto pleaded. "This is not a place for that."
"Well you should have thought about that sooner, when you made me aware that I was still wearing its insides on me." Jack dropped his shirt and pulled his T-shirt over his head.
Ianto went still for a moment just staring at his exposed torso, it was too sudden, all that skin and muscles, he just wanted to leap forward and taste it. To his luck Jack hadn't noticed how startled he was; he just turned around and pulled new T-shirt from a drawer. Ianto took in the sight of his back and shoulders. All muscles and skin, which was the sight he first daydreamt about even before he realized he desired Jack. Ianto flushed a bit when he turned around in his white T-shirt which he filled out nicely.
"Please leave the trousers on till I'm gone. Just give me the coat and I drop it at the dry cleaners. The rest of it just throw away." He lifted his hand waiting for the coat.
"But I planned to wear that coat, you love it" he resisted.
"I do love that coat" Ianto's voice came out husky "but I won't come near you until it's clean, if you want a date, you'll have to come up with something else, something clean."
Obviously Jack took him seriously because he grabbed the coat and hand it over to Ianto without further argument. Ianto took it carefully folding it inside out to avoid the worst parts.
"The others didn't notice anything wrong with it" Jack frowned offended.
"Well I know thing or two about clothes, sir" Ianto smiled tightly "so I can determine how long some poor shirt was worn."
"And that's how you knew I was gone longer than an hour" Jack smiled with relief. "I will have to keep that in mind. I have to have a cover story if I want to lie to you."
"Why would you lie to me?" Ianto frowned taking his focus off the coat to Jack.
"Well, for vanity reasons, like the mucus thing, it just didn't seem too attractive or stimulating; look at your face now."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about it sir, you have other races to cover a lot more mucus and slime." Ianto said before he could contain it and got cocky grin in return, the one that made him think that Jack could make him lick the mucus off him with just few gestures and a smile, and that he would enjoy the process. It was time to go, seriously, it was time.
"Right then" he pressed his lips together straightening himself up "see you later."
He retreated from the office in a dignified but hurried speed.
"Really, the cleaners, that is his way of punishing him for slacking off" Owen whined.
"Let it go Owen, he did everything right" Tosh jumped in.
"He didn't push that corpse to the morgue like he should have" Owen argued "it was his job to do it hours ago. Seriously why was it left in the middle of the hallway? That is just lazy."
"If I recall I did ask for your assistance, there was a problem finding a place for it, we're running full in the morgue and nothing goes out, I'll have to put lower levels to use." Ianto answered firmly.
Tosh took him by the arm and lead him away from Owen.
"Oh, just ignore him" she said loudly but as they stepped away she continued in a lower voice. "I just wanted to congratulate you, it was a good job; in fact it was perfect."
"I just cleaned up a little" Ianto was confused "and caught few aliens, nothing worth mentioning."
Tosh looked at him with a knowing smile.
"Come on Ianto" she said "It was a genius cover up. I bet Jack patted you on the shoulder in there. I can't say I completely understand his logic, but I agree this should have been hidden even from us. The creature was too much; there are too many destructive ways to use it. Walking through walls is the least of them. Owen would really have a field day with it, who knows what he would think of. But you stored it in a safe enough location, are you sure that it can't be found?"
Ianto smiled grateful that he had destroyed it all; it would be hard for him to keep it from Tosh, especially because he believed she would try to use it for good uses.
"There is none, Scryiogen really did eat it, the samples were destroyed. You've seen the footage; I wouldn't be able to create false images in such a short time." He answered sincerely.
"That means it is more dangerous than I thought, then I won't try to recover data." She said thoughtfully.
"What was my give away? What did I do wrong?" He asked as the cog door opened. She smiled.
"I knew it, I was right." She jumped up. "You did nothing wrong, everything was perfect, even the peripheral damage that covered up focused on the destruction. It was just that you could have fixed the energy problem in a few minutes, instead you left it to me to handle."
"But if I did fix it there would be no proof, just my word that it happened."
"I know this way I could step in and explain it later. That makes it perfect. I'm honoured that you leaned on me to do it in time." She patted him on the chest and he smiled. "That's why I have the right kind of chore for you; there is a need for repair in the Rift manipulator."
"Tosh, leave him be" Gwen warned her as she picked up her bag to go. "He's going home now, just like me. Aren't you sweetie?"
"Oh, I wasn't aware we're going early today" Tosh was surprised.
"Come on, it was a long night, then a day, I think it's ok to go now. Isn't it Jack" she yelled "we can all go home now."
"No worries, I'll call in case of need." He responded quickly. "You too Owen, some doctor you are, allowing your patient to exhaust himself that way, you are a terrible patient."
"Ha, ha" Owen responded and jumped to his feet. "No worries, you won't get me to stay here in the midst of all this disappointing vomit. Speaking of that Ianto, shouldn't you stay and clean it all up, how would you sleep tonight knowing you left the Hub messy." He continued as they exited to the corridors.
"Leave him be Owen" Gwen shushed him "he's allowed to have a date from time to time. We all are."
"Boy or a girl?" Owen shot the question right away.
"Owen" Tosh was appalled.
"What, how should I know, he's leaning to both sides as far as I can see." He defended himself.
"I think word you were searching for is a man" Ianto said seriously "or a woman in that case; I'm not really drawn to minors' seduction thing."
Gwen laughed.
"He got you there Owen"
They exited outside and Ianto was pleased to see that it would be a nice evening, calm and warm.
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End of book two