CSI: Cardiff

[capj_harkness]

Who: Jack and Ianto
When: Crime Scene Investigation, Torchwood-style.
Where: The SUV and the bar where the attack took place.
What: Jack and Ianto go into the field to check out the scene of the previous night's alien attack.
Status: Complete.

Comments

[tea_boy_x]

Well, that was certainly the old Jack, Ianto couldn't help but think. He gave the Captain his usual sardonic smile before taking up the role as neutral shadow man once again.

He held onto the equipment, surprised as how one often could get away with telling the truth, as it were, since no one was gonna believe it anyway. Even though, Jack did travel to the end of the universe, from what Ianto had understood with last night's explanation.

A smirk was held in as the constable finally gave up and made he way out the room. That was a sign for Ianto to move in and set up the equipment. Blue eyes already casting around to take in the scene in, trying to see what was out of the ordinary and what wasn't.

"Yes, Sir," Ianto nodded, all business and completely missing the impish remark. Or maybe that's because he'd been so used to them he was hardly noting them at all. Which was odd, since it /hadn't/ been around for several month's.

Shaking his head, Ianto picked up the equipment and made his way over to the spot Jack hand indicated. He was twisting some dials and getting some reading done for Tosh to look over later while he waited for further instructions.

[capj_harkness]

Jack walked slowly through the crime scene while Ianto took readings near the bar.

"Hey, there's some..." he began, calling to Ianto, then stopped when he realized it was copius quantities of what looked more like human blood. "Oh. I think this is probably mine," he admitted, gesturing to the wide drying puddle.

[tea_boy_x]

"Sir?" came the automatic reply as Ianto shuffled closer. One eye still on the apparatus he was reading, the other to what Jack wanted him to see. Though, a few moments later he wish he hadn't.

It was one thing knowing Jack couldn't die. It was another to know that he had, possibly, died... and he'd not been there to hold the man as he woke up. Like you couldn't be there for him when he died over and over and over and...

Ianto wince and looked away from the dried up blood. He didn't even have to look at the scanner to know that it was human. "Right," Ianto muttered, not even bothering to see if the DNA matched Jack's as he continued on with his scans.

[capj_harkness]

"Sorry," he said. And he meant for wasting Ianto's time. It didn't occur to him that the younger man might find the sight disturbing. Jack had died so many times he was used to it. Oh, not to the sensation. That was always like being dragged naked over broken glass. He was used to it happening. Especially after the last year, when being dragged over broken glass was a welcome relief compared to what had come before it.

"What kind of readings did you get from the bar?" he asked. "Anything unusual?"

[tea_boy_x]

"Yeah," Ianto replied, giving the Captain a small smile. Sometimes he wondered how Jack could be so blasé about dying and finding a pool of his own blood. But then he recalled the man had died... oh, countless of times. Ianto didn't think it was something one could get used to, though.

"Uh, oh..." That question startled him out of his referee. He glanced at the devices, going over various reading and found nothing out of the ordinary. Well, except for the odd patterns he got when went over, what he presumed to be, the aliens blood. If it even was blood.

"Just the usual for Tosh to look over later," he shrugged, making certain to save all date before holding the one with the alien readings out to Jack. "Unless you can make something from this?"

[capj_harkness]

Jack didn't take the scanner. Instead, he moved to stand at Ianto's elbow, looking at the readout over his shoulder.

"Strange elevated energy levels," he noted, reaching around Ianto's arm to gesture with his fingers. "Here and here, especially."

He shook his head and stepped back, moving further into the room again. "You're right, though. It needs Tosh's analysis to make any sense of it."

He went to the booth they'd been sitting at. Or what was left of it. The creature had partially crushed the walls of it.

"This is where we were when it came in," he informed Ianto. "Owen had already left. Gwen sat on this side and I sat there," he explained, pointing to the other side of the table.

He looked at the table for a moment, then stepped sideways until he could see the door - or rather, the huge hole in the window beside the door - and frowned.

"It almost seemed to beeline for us," he said, not bothering to point out the obvious (that it smashed everything in its path on the way to them), "but it wouldn't have been able to see us from its point of entry. It had to somehow already know we were here." He glanced over at Ianto. "Unless the fact that it attacked us so specifically really is a coincidence, and we don't know yet that it isn't."

[tea_boy_x]

Ianto followed Jack's line of vision and finger pointing as the man explained the scene to him. He'd not been there, of course, he'd been back at the Hub. Waiting for Jack to come back, even if he hadn't been admitting that to himself, so they could have a private conversation.

He put the scanners down on a nearby table, one that was at least standing and in one piece as he followed Jack. Hands on hips Ianto glanced from the impromptu door the... whatever it was had made, to what was left of the booth his co-workers had been sitting.

"I don't know about you, S-- Jack," Ianto shrugged, "but I don't really believe in coincidences." Especially not with their job. And aliens. /Especially/ not combined.

[capj_harkness]

"No," Jack said. "Neither do I."

He turned and surveyed the scene again. "So it knew we were here, even though we didn't plan it ahead of time. It followed us here?" he mused. "Or followed our trail somehow?" He was talking aloud, trying to reason it out. Brainstorming.

[tea_boy_x]

Well, no, Ianto didn't expect Jack to believe in it either. Far too much had happened to the man to chalk up to 'coincidence' for him to believe in that now.

Putting his hands on hips, Ianto glances at the scene as well, following the Captain's line of sight. "Smell?" he offers, recalling how he had smelled Jack's 51st century pheromone's once upon a time. Perhaps for this alien Jack, or even Gwen or Owen had some special smell.

Like a bloodhound who was trained to catch criminals.

[capj_harkness]

Jack nodded. "Could be," he said. "We'll know more about its capabilities after Owen's autopsy, I guess."

He looked at Ianto. "If someone sent it, they might send someone or something else," he reasoned. "We all need to watch our backs... and each other's."

[tea_boy_x]

While he was packing up their gear again, Ianto nodded. The autopsy should give them more to go on. If it was a sort of blood hound send after them, one of them or all of them, then they needed to now.

Obviously. Also obviously the next questions would be 'why' and 'who send it'.

"Yes, sir," Ianto agreed, hoisting the equipment around his shoulder to carry again. "We should probably go and warn the others then." There really wasn't much more they could find out here anyway it seemed.

And the sooner he could get away from where his eyes would fall on the dried puddle of Jack's blood... the better.

[capj_harkness]

"Mmm," Jack agreed, taking one last look around the bar.

He looked over at Ianto as they walked towards the door. "Anywhere in particular you want to go tonight?" he asked. It was a fair question. They'd done their business there. Planning their personal time for after they left the Hub that evening was fair game.

[tea_boy_x]

Making his way to the car, Ianto once again wears an air or professionalism. It's one he looses moments later as he loads the gear into the back of the car. It's not the loading of the gear that has him blinking. It's Jack's question.

Talk of switching gears quickly. Good thing Ianto is capable of adapting equally as fast. Though, he doesn't really have an answer to that question. Mostly because he hadn't given it any thought.

Dinner and a movie sounds so cliché. Dancing may be nice, if only he could do more then slow dance without stepping on people's toes.

"Uhm, no, no, not really," he says honestly, giving Jack a sheepish smile. "I'll let you surprise me."

[capj_harkness]

Jack gave him a happy grin in return. "Well, then, I'll give it some thought." He opened the driver's side door. "I don't want to disappoint you."