Isn't Worth Living: Chapter 6

[galadriel1010]

Author's Note: I promise, promise, promise there is fluff coming, of a sort. Getting more sci-fi now, less angsty. Maybe

Ianto was in the archives, searching for anything they had on the Watulah. There wasn’t a lot, they’d been visited by one once before, and it had left a trail of devastation and not much information. That had been when Jack was just freelancing, back in the 1930s, and they’d eventually had to call him in to deal with it. Ianto found the reports on the incident and nearly threw up when he read about the injuries Jack had received, but Captain Jack Harkness had done it again. Twenty three deaths, admittedly four of those were Jack, and no one would ever know, because as soon as he’d killed it they had destroyed all the evidence, everything apart from the impeccable records.

He quite liked the 1930s, he reflected as he carried the dusty box of files up to the hub, the archivist at the time had been obsessed with detail and knew their way around the archives as well as he did. Everything up to her death had been neatly organised, well it had been until jack had blundered around down there in the intervening years. But Ianto had been able to build on her system and get the whole thing working again, in alphabetical order by species. However, as Jane had pointed out, that left you with quite a large section of ‘unknown’. Maybe he’d try rearranging it to her system, although he’d have to be more familiar with it before he attempted that.

He heard Tosh chuckle behind him and gave her a confused smile, “Something funny, Tosh?”

“You’ve got that look again, the one that says that we’re in for a fortnight of not seeing you because you’ve decided that the archives would be better colour coded or something.”

He grimaced at the memory, that had not been one of his best ideas, “Well it would have worked if they did manila folders in more colours.”

“Whatever you say, tea-boy.” Owen bounded up from the autopsy room, “Do us some coffees will you, I’ve got the results of the autopsy. Any idea where Jack is?”

“Office.” They chorused, exchanging a slightly worried glance, Jack had holed himself up there this morning and hadn’t even called for coffee, they didn’t have long before he became caffeine deprived and got extremely irritable.

The Captain was reading through a UNIT report on a group of Weevils that had been found in Bristol. He was worried for two reasons; one was that either the rift or the Weevils had spread, and the other was that he’d had to rely on Torchwood 1 to find this information. UNIT would never have sent it, but he’d got an automated memo telling him that UNIT had found something possibly relevant to an open case, and with all sorts of codes and information. He’d followed the codes to a detailed data-file on Weevils, combining information from all over the world, mainly Cardiff, to create a full profile of the alien visitors. It was brilliant, but a bit scary.

He looked up as Ianto appeared in the doorway with a coffee and accepted it gratefully. “What would we do without you, Ianto?”

“Probably the same as you did before me, sir. Save the world, but in a highly inefficient manner.” He smiled, “Owen has the results of the autopsy, he’s waiting for you downstairs.” Jack watched him go with a half-smile and some slightly dirty thoughts about the young Welshman, who looked really, really good in that suit, then realised that this was the man with whom he frequently shared a bed and exactly how uncomfortable that could get, so he shut his mind down and got up to follow.

Down in the autopsy room Owen was fairly buzzing with excitement and annoyance. As soon as Jack appeared he went into action, whirling around the table and pulling up overhead displays to show them what was going on, “OK, so I’ve worked out a cause of death and it’s sort of terrestrial.”

“Sort of?” Jack asked in amusement

“Yeah, sort of. She was attacked by a Weevil, she’s got bite marks on her neck that I’d recognise anywhere, I’ve patched us up from them often enough. So weakened by a Weevil, but she survived that, and we haven’t found any dead Weevils so we have to assume that her attacker survived too. I’d say that the attack took place about six hours before she died, and she kept losing blood, which meant she was probably fairly weak by the time someone else caught her.”

“Probably?”

“Yes, Jack, probably. I’m not an expert on Watulah physiology but if it was exactly like ours she wouldn’t have survived as long as she did, those injuries were major. Which suggests that she didn’t have long to live anyway.”

“What killed her in the end?” Ianto asked, making a mental note to check for any more information Jane could get for him on the Watulah

“A four inch long blade, straight and quite narrow. Like that…” he used a remote to pull up a computer representation of the blade, “Probably a flick knife.”

“So she attacked someone, and they fought back?”

“And took her weapons into the bargain, that’s about the long and short of it. What sort of weapons would she have, Jack?”

“You name it, she probably had it. Anyone had any news on anything?”

“Nothing from the police.” Gwen answered, “No unusual deaths or strange weapons.”

“Nothing on the black market yet and my contacts haven’t turned up anything, Ianto?”

The tea-boy looked up, “Nothing so far come up on blogs or ebay or anything like that. Tosh and I set up a system to monitor calls, but it’s hard knowing what we’re looking for. I’m going to call the Archive today, to see if they have any information that’ll be helpful.”

“Good thinking.” Jack nodded, “Call me if any of you get anything, I’ve got a pile of reports to send off to London. Ianto, can you have pizzas ready for about four?”

By about three o’clock Jack was bored and the team were all busy. Owen was doing reports on autopsies of the last week, Tosh was underneath her computer, doing he hated to think what, Gwen was catching up on her paperwork and of Ianto there was no sign. Jack checked through the CCTV feeds to try to find him, starting in the archives and flicking through all the usual places. He eventually found him in the TI office, watching his computer screen and laughing, occasionally sending messages. The Captain was intrigued.

Jones: Have you got any information for me yet?

Pink elephant: patience! I sent Mark, you know what he’s like

Jones: Dear God save us. Has he learned the alphabet yet?

Pink elephant: ROFLMAO!! Erm… as far as I can tell, why?

Jones: Ask Lucy, she knows the full story. I’ve heard it second hand

Pink elephant: OK, am intrigued now. But Lucy’s out today… mebbe I’ll email her

Jones: Do do

Pink elephant: Dodo? What’s the Dodo got to dodo with anything?

Jones: Everything, darling, everything

“Can I help you sir?” he grinned as Jack started upright guiltily

“Erm… I’m bored?” he pouted and Ianto laughed, sending a quick message to Pink elephant, who Jack realised was probably Jane Doe from Torchwood. “And you didn’t look to be working, so I thought I’d come and pester you.”

“I am working!” he announced indignantly, but didn’t hide the smile, “I’m waiting for the head of Torchwood to contact me with some information and sharing information about her employees with her.”

“Gossiping?”

“Do you want to know the story of why we don’t trust Mark with letters?” Jack mimed zipping his lip and Ianto laughed, “He once spent three hours looking for a copy of the Silmarillion, then came back to say they didn’t have any Tolkein at all.”

“Sounds unlikely.”

“It was, he couldn’t find it because he’d been looking on the wrong shelf. The idiot had got it into his head that T came after W.”

“And he didn’t notice?” Jack laughed

“Nope, and that selfsame idiot is second in command at Torchwood 1. His only superiors are you and Jane.”

“I outrank him?” the Captain was still struggling with the hierarchy

“Oh yes, you and Jane are the top of the tree but she’s more top of the tree if you know what I mean. Then Mark and… who is your second at the moment?”

“I dunno, you I guess. Maybe Owen officially.”

“Well your second is with Mark and the top rank of UNIT on that level, then all archivists on a sort of side branch.” Now Jack looked really confused, “We have top level security clearance within our branches, because we need to be able to get into our own archives, but less control over other branches.”

“So who has higher security clearance here?”

“We have the same level of clearance here,” he explained patiently, for what felt like the twentieth time since he’d got back from London the other day, “Except for the fact that you’re banished from the archives.” Jack’s pout really was attractive, but Ianto would not be swayed, “Post-it notes are not a suitable method of filing. Especially when most of them seem to be some sort of treasure hunt leading to a secret supply of biscuits.”

Jack muttered something about Ianto being a spoil-sport, but the Welshman had been distracted by an alert from his computer, “She’s got that stuff for us sir.” He slipped back into his professional manner far too easily for Jack’s liking, but he pushed the thought aside.

“Send the information down to the conference centre, then I want you and Gwen down there to help me go through it. Owen can deal with the pizzas.”

By the time the pizzas arrived and they were all gathered in the conference room, the three of them had a much better idea of what was going on, as well as what had gone on in the past. They had information from UNIT, the original Torchwood archive, Liberty Towers in the US and a diary account from the 18th Century.

”OK, so here’s what we have on the Watulah. Owen, that’s the physiology file,” he slid a file across the table and the medic studied it carefully, “And that little lot is the history of the Watulah. Now Gwen, Ianto and I have gone through it, and this is what we’ve found that’s really interesting. Ianto, it’s all yours.”

“Very good sir.” The first report of interest was this one from UNIT about a spaceship crashing in South Devon about six months ago, no sign of any life on board. It was heavily armed and built for two occupants. Without an occupant you’d think it’d be impossible to tell whose ship it was, but someone found this photo from 1953, taken in the USA, with another photo of...”

He pulled it up on the screen and heard a gasp of recognition from Tosh, “That’s a Watulah!”

“Correct. Which means?” Jack prompted

Owen groaned, “There’s another?”

The Captain’s grin was far too cheerful for the situation, “Yep, and we have to take a trip to Devon. Cheer up kids, we’re going on holiday.”

Jack felt that the groan he got from his team wasn’t entirely deserved.

Ianto and Tosh had been the most successful at resisting Jack’s attempts to get them out of the Hub. Ianto had actually gone as far as arranging for some examples of Watulan weaponry to be delivered from UNIT, and obviously he had to be there to receive them. Jack was impressed, if put off, but his argument. Tosh had pointed out that the Hub really needed two of them to monitor the systems, and Ianto would probably need help with those weapons and it should really be someone with technological knowledge.

Owen and Gwen hadn’t been so lucky.

The medic had insisted on driving, so Jack was sitting in the back working on the computers. He knew that, had Ianto agreed to come, he would just have taken the two of them in his Jag, but the young Welshman hadn’t been overly enthusiastic about going to Devon in the middle of Autumn. So instead they were barrelling down the motorway in the SUV, which was big, and comfy, and full of all the tech they’d need, but soooo boring.

He worked his way through the Torchwood system, putting in the code Ianto had given him to get the information he needed. The young man had enthused about the system all week, and Jack had a feeling that he’d probably disappear for a while soon. He suppressed a laugh at the memories of his friend when he’d first seen Jack’s attempt at archiving. Ianto had stared in shock, then turned and glared at Jack with his hands on his hips. They hadn’t seen him for a fortnight. Looking back, Jack could now see why they’d overlooked what was going on so easily, Ianto was just like that, from the very beginning he’d never really tried to integrate, and they hadn’t encouraged him. And all the while, he was suffering one of the most painful things in the world, watching someone he loved suffer and ultimately die.

Gwen’s voice brought him back to the present, and he was aware that he’d been staring out of the window at the changing scenery for quite some time. He reassured her with a grin and turned to studying the UNIT report on the crash site in detail. Ianto had managed to pull some strings, with whom Jack would never know, and got them permission to study the site. As far as he could tell the site would be safe, but he’d thought that about a crashed spaceship before.

“She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship…” he chuckled again, then realised that both Owen and Gwen were staring at him now, “Sorry, got a bit caught in the past there. Funny place the past.”

They’d got to the crash site now and he got out without a backwards glance; knowing without having to look that they would be exchanging confused glances. He heard the doors slam behind him and heard Owen calling out, “Who was hanging from a barrage balloon?”

He raised the tape surrounding the site and grinned at them, gesturing through and leading them towards a group of UNIT personnel in a gazebo. On tables in the gazebo were photos of all the weapons collected from the ship. Much as he would have liked to see them, he recognised the wisdom of not leaving them lying around to be taken by anyone who happened along. Not that anyone could get through the UNIT guards patrolling; yeah right!

“Captain Jack Harkness, pleasure to meet you.” He introduced himself to the group, “Anything further you can tell us about this that isn’t in the files?”

“Not a lot sir. There’s been no unauthorised movement within the cordon, nothing unusual really, apart from an alien spaceship crash landing in Devon, that is.” An attractive young researcher spoke up, whilst the other personnel showed Gwen and Owen the photos, “Commander Doe was here yesterday, she thinks that the occupant or occupants evacuated the ship before it crashed.”

“Somewhere over Cardiff?” he swore fiercely and ran his hand through his hair, “So somewhere we’ve got another one to deal with?”

“And the two members of our team with the least field experience are on their own back in Cardiff.” Owen groaned, “Why do I get the feeling this isn’t going to go well?”

Jack was torn between wanting to get back to Cardiff to protect his team and the knowledge that he didn’t know enough yet. “Right, let’s have a look round the ship, “ he decided, “then we can get back there with more information.”

The ship was a thing of beauty, all straight lines and curves, looking like a futuristic sports car, probably the Pagani Zonda. Beautiful but completely insane. It was in a bad way, with wreckage strewn across the field and a gaping hole in the side. Rather than attempting the door, they did as the UNIT teams had done before them and made their way into the main body of the ship through the hole, which had been shored up with jacks to make it safe. Gwen was wide-eyed as they entered and Jack realised that it was her first time inside an alien space ship. He grinned and found himself wishing that he could show her round the most amazing space ship he’d ever seen, wishing he could show them all. Maybe he would, maybe it would be soon, maybe it would be too late.

Inside it was quite claustrophobic and difficult to move about, as it had only been designed for two occupants who got on fairly well, and there were three of them in there and he didn’t know them well enough to move around as he would have liked in there, especially with the damage. As Gwen bashed her head for the third time and he and Owen got wedged in a corner again he finally decided that enough was enough and sent them to study the photos again and wait for him.

In the quiet after they left he felt a great peace descend on him; that peace which only came when he was completely free to do his own thing. It was a spaceship thing. His first stolen spaceship had been a way out of a way of life that he’d felt trapped and vulnerable in, he’d crossed time and space in it without a second thought. If this one had been in working order…

A sudden sick feeling flooded into his stomach as he realised what he’d been considering; what he would have done. If the ship had been able to fly, he would have left without a backwards glance. He would have gone everywhere and everywhen, hoping to find the right version of the Doctor, and his team would have been left in limbo. Gwen and Owen would be stranded in Devon because he’d taken the SUV keys back when they got there, Tosh would have no one to protect her from UNIT, the inhabitants of Flat Holm Island would have no one watching them from the shore, and Ianto… His stomach did a strange somersault at the thought of the young man; it was part sympathy, part worry, part guilt, part anguish, and part love although what kind he didn’t really know. Ianto still needed him, he couldn’t and wouldn’t leave.

He looked around the ship again, working purely on instinct. Without his brain telling him what to do he managed to find the escape pod, or the space where it should have been. Again trusting to instinct, he pressed a button on his wrist-strap and picked up a small sonic remote from the floor. It emitted a small, blue light and an annoying buzzing noise, and almost immediately the end of the remote started to be surrounded by a golden glow.

“Oh.” He muttered as he watched them growing in strength, then as the repair of the spaceship around him distracted his attention, “This is just priceless.”