Beautiful Iris - part 10
Title: Beautiful Iris
Part 10 - The Beast
Rating:NC17
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Tosh/Owen (sort of)
Summary: When a seemingly cut-and-dried incident calls out Torchwood early one morning not everything as it seems. Alien technology transmits a strange frequency signal and leads them into a trap of curiosity and an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar faces.
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood... believe me... if i did Jack and Ianto would walk around in nothing but tight pants (and a tie for Ianto) The BBC own it. so as much as i love it i don't own it :( also the title don't belong to me lol Although i have some pretty characters i made up myself.
Spoilers : Up to episode 7, also slight spoiler (very tiny) from the book Border Princess
Notes: Reviews welcome :D
Part 1: Cut & dried here -> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/4527.html
Part 2: Alien Lego here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/15486.html
Part 3 is here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/15691.html
Part 4: Meeting Iris here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/17433.html
Part 5: Finding the way here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/17963.html
Part 6: Thinking here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/18276.html
Part 7: Is this what you want? here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/19490.html
Part 8: Lost here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/23625.html
Part 9: Making Arrangements here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/24721.html
Owen pulled his gun from his belt and edged his way into the familiar warehouse; it was cold, colder than it had been last time, and reeked unlike anything he had ever experienced. He put his hand across his mouth and tried to stop himself from gagging, then continued into the warehouse.
“Whoa!” Gwen walked in behind him and immediately ran back outside, vomiting and coughing in the gutter. She leaned her hands on her knees and glanced over at Owen who came running out after her. “What the hell is that?”
“That is what we're here to investigate,” he reminded her, “now had it been just a normal report of a funky smell coming from a warehouse on the docks I might have just put it down to something rational, but this is in the same place.”
“So it has to be connected.”
“Exactly.” Owen pulled her back inside by her jacket and pointed his torch up at the ceiling. Creatures that looked like a cross between a bat and a dog hung from in rows, covered in a blue gunge that seemed to drip slowly to the ground at irregular intervals; there must have been a couple hundred of them all sleeping in their slimy blue cocoons.
“What is it?” Gwen asked, backing away to side-step a large splatter of the blue liquid that fell in front of her. “And what the hell are those?”
“Fuck if I know.” He pulled a pair of examination gloves from his pocket and slipped them on, then crouched down to inspect the gunge. “I think the best thing to do is to take a sample of this stuff and see if we can sedate one of those things.” pointed to the ceiling. “Maybe they will give us some kind of clue.”
“I've seen something like them before somewhere.” Gwen set down her rucksack and pulled out a digital camera; she took a few pictures of the strange looking animals and them one of the gunge. “An ex-boyfriend of mine, Steve, he was into strange things. Gothic memorabilia and mythical creatures, and I'm sure I saw those creatures in one of his books, only they were smaller than that.” Gwen pointed up the cocoon's; each were at least four foot high, and tightly packed together so that they took up as little space as possible.
“Mythical creatures huh?” Owen said, shining his light onto the ceiling and catching a glimpse of fang-like teeth protruding out from one of the creatures; he jumped back a little. “No creature seems mythical after you've been in this job for a while.”
Gwen tossed Owen a sample jar and a small tool belt.
“Are they sleeping?”
Owen crouched down and took a sample of the gunge, putting it into the jar. “Well, they're definitely not dead and if they were awake I have a feeling that we might just be food, or at least a decent sized snack. Those fangs aren't the calling card of a vegetarian species.”
“So what do we do if they wake up?”
“Run?” Owen suggested, stepping over the remaining gunge on the floor and towards the end of the large room.
“That's it?” she asked, “run? That's the best plan that you can come up with. Run?”
“A couple hundred flying dog things with fucking huge teeth are after you, would you happen to have a better idea?”
“I guess not.”
“Yeah, well shut up then.” They walked a little further down a corridor and then stopped. Owen pulled a syringe out of his pocket and held it up for Gwen to see. “Keep your eyes open, if there's one of those things awake, then I want it caught.”
“We should go and look at the room where the others went missing,” Gwen suggested, “maybe there's a weakness in the rift there.”
Owen stopped and turned, shining the torch in her face. “Sometimes, I do believe that I see a little a glimmer of hope in you, and think that, just for a moment, maybe you actually do know what you're doing.”
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Okay, what happened?” Toshiko walked over to Jack as he hammered a nail into the broken fence.
“I don't know.” Jack stood back and looked at the large hole. “It looks like something crashed through it.”
“Not to the fence. To you.”
“Me?” He turned around and stopped working, throwing his hammer onto the ground gently. “Nothing happened to me.”
“Yesterday, you were walking around with a dark cloud above your head, and today you look like the cat who got the cream.”
“I was unhappy yesterday, and today I'm not.”
“You you expect me to believe that you just happen to be in a better mood today than you were yesterday and that it has nothing at all to do with the reason why you and Ianto were late for breakfast this morning?”
Jack turned away. “No.”
“Or the fact that you kept putting your hand on Ianto's crotch when you thought I wasn't looking?”
“When was that?” Jack creased his brow.
“When Iris and her father went outside and I turned around to get another cup of tea. You put your hand on Ianto's crotch and he shoo'd you away.”
“Oh yeah.” Jack smiled. “I may have done that.” He picked his hammer back up and started to work on the fence again.
“So?” she prompted.
“So, what?”
“So, what happened?”
“Nothing.”
“You two are impossible,” Tosh moaned, resting her back against the fence as she looked down at him. “I couldn't get anything out of Ianto and now I can't get anything out of you.”
“Have you ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, there's no big scandal?”
“No!”
Jack chuckled and took a deep breath, looking up at her.
“Jack!” Toshiko prompted him for an answer and he looked away.
“Its complicated.”
“What's compllic--”
A blood-curdling scream sounded out from somewhere in the distance and Jack leapt up, running towards the direction where it had come from. He ran across the courtyard, tripping a little as he sprinted, and bumped heads with Ianto as they collided.
“What was that?” Ianto asked.
The scream came again, louder this time and Ianto and Jack ran off, following it. They ran into the barn and stopped when they saw Iris backed into a corner with a creature growling at her; it stood on its hind-legs and spread out its bat-like wings to their full width. The creature's skin was grey and hairless, with blue veins that glowed and throbbed in their wings like flashing neon lights; its feet had claws that dug into the stone, leaving indentations, and the muscles in the hind legs were strong like a fighting dog. It stood tall, reaching about six foot, and when the growled again it was loud and reverberated around the walls.
Ianto looked on the ground at the horse that was lying on its side with wounds that were inches deep and seeping blue gunge; his eyes were open, fluttering a little, and its legs desperately moved to try and get up. It seemed to be in pain and let out a high pitched noise that turned the beasts attention from Iris.
It made it's way over, backing Ianto into the corner and towards the injured horse. The creature's teeth were long, more than a few inches, and the face looked harrowing, like a pit-bull cross-bred with a vampire bat; hairless and hungry for blood.
Jack looked around the room and picked up the closest thing to hand, a long-handled broom which was leaning against the wall.
“Jack!” Ianto said, backing away slowly, never taking his eyes off the beast, “I really don't think that's going to do any good unless you intend on sweeping it to death!”
He looked at the broom and snapped it in half before thrusting the jagged end into the creature's back in a soft spot between it's wings. It fell backwards and landed on the ground with a thud, narrowly missing Jack. Its eyes were still open and its legs sprawled around on the floor.
“Get Iris out of here,” Jack instructed, “I'll meet you outside.” He backed away as the beast managed to flip over and crawl it's way over to him, the wings dragging against the floor.
Ianto made his way over to Iris and pulled her up, leading her out of the door.
The beast moved over to Jack, crawling along the stone floor with his red eyes zoned in on him; claws scraped across the ground and wings flopped and dragged behind. There wasn't far left for Jack to go as he baked himself into the corner, but the creature looked weak and it's breathing was heavy and strained. He waited for it to come to him a little more before moving swiftly towards it and sticking the wooden stick through the centre of the beast's chest.
An almighty roar sounded from somewhere inside the animal and it fell backwards, landing on the stone heavily, cracking it where it lay.
Jack took a closer look and nudged the creature with his foot; it was definitely dead, and the blood that seeped from the wound was blue and glowing. Slowly, the veins in the creatures wings started to fade until the whole body had faded to a static grey. He walked outside and closed the door behind him, resting against it for a moment.
He cast his eyes over at Ianto who sat on the ground, with Iris lying in front of him.
“What happened?” Jack asked, “it didn't bite her, did it?”
“No. She fainted.”
“Oh, good.”
“What was that thing?” Ianto questioned, tapping Iris' face to try and wake her.
“God only knows, but I've never seen it before.” He looked down at Iris as she started to flutter her eyes open a little. “You should get her inside.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Owen walked into the room carefully and shone his torch on the floor. The caucuses of dead rats lay on the ground, and some were moving, only half living, attempting to move.
“Well at least we know how they've been surviving,” he said, moving his way through the room and towards the corner where one of the beasts sat in the corner, feasting on a small domestic animal. “That looks like the perfect specimen, wouldn't you say?”
“If you can get it.”
Owen handed Gwen his torch and she lit the back of the creature whilst Owen removed the cap from the syringe that he kept in his pocket. He edged his way over to it and pounced on it quickly, stabbing the needle into it's neck and injecting it with the solution. The beast turned and looked at him with sleepy red eyes and stalked him across the room. It only took the creature only a few minutes until it could no longer move and collapsed in a state of sedation on a bed of half-gnawed rats.
“That one looks small,” Gwen said.
“It's probably an offspring.” Owen took off his jacket and covered the creature with it, bundling it up and cradling it. It was small, but heavy, and the fangs looked under-developed; the claws were sharp, but only measured half an inch and the skin was wrinkled. It was most definitely not an adult like the ones hanging from the high ceiling on the other room; they were at least four foot in height with smoother skin and sharper talons.
“We should get it back to the hub,” Owen said, “I want to run some tests.”
“Do you think it's connected?”
“I don't see how it could be anything else. It's in the same place as the others went missing, and they're definitely a product of the rift. We should get out of here.”
As they turned to walk out, a large creature shrouded the room in darkness, blocking out any light with it's wings; it was much larger than the others by at least a few feet, with wings that spanned twice as wide as the height.
“I think we've found mama,” Owen said.
“She doesn't look happy.”
“No.”
“Is it time to do that running thing you were talking about earlier?” Gwen asked, spotting another door to an unknown corridor across the other side of the room. “Because I'm really starting to see the attraction of that plan.”
“Yep. Run.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Ianto carried Iris into the living room and laid her down on the couch; she was awake but every time she tried to walk she just stumbled on her weak legs. He untied her laces and removed her shoes, putting her feet up on a cushion, and then placed another under her head.
“What was it?” Iris spoke softly, but her voice filtered through the silent room.
“A hybrid,” Ianto lied quickly, kneeling down on the ground, “a scientific experiment gone wrong.”
“It was hideous.”
“It's dead now.”
Iris hesitated a little before sitting up and looking down at Ianto on the floor. “You saved me from it. You and the Captain risked your lives for me. Why?”
“What kind of house guests would we be if we let a beast kill our hostess?”
Iris returned the smile that Ianto gave her, and then it dropped suddenly from her face. She looked out the window. “Do you suppose there are any more out there?”
“I don't know.” Ianto pulled himself to his feet and sat next to Iris on the couch. “But it may be better if you don't mention this to anyone.”
“Why?”
“It's just a bad idea. They don't understand and they wouldn't believe you anyway.”
“What about my father?” she asked, “he really ought to know.”
“Why?”
“I tell him everything,” Iris said, “I couldn't lie.”
“You wouldn't be lying, more like omitting.”
“Which is lying by default,” she argued.
“Do you trust me?” he asked her, turning to face her.
She considered it for a moment before returning his gaze. “I do actually, yes.”
“Then believe me when I tell you that there is no good that can come of telling anyone about this.”
“What are you hiding?” she asked, “You, the Captain, Toshiko. What's the big secret?”
“What makes you think that we have secrets?”
Iris turned her body to face Ianto and looked directly into his eyes. “You dress different, you behave different and you lie about why you're here. So, the least that you can do is tell me why you lie to me when I'm no threat.”
“I'm not--”
“Ianto!” The girl's tone was sharp, and shocked him a little. She took a breath and relaxed a little. “Mr. Jones. Tell me what you're hiding. Please?”
“We all have secrets,” he said, “but some are meant to be that way. The secrets that we hold and the things that we don't tell you are things that you don't want to believe.”
“How would you know that I don't want to believe them when you don't know who I am?”
“For the same reasons that you trust me when you know I'm lying to you.” Ianto stood up and started to walk away, only to feel himself being pulled back. Iris caught his hand and entwined her fingers.
“I don't like secrets, but i do trust you by way of instinct. I know that if you tell me that what you're hiding is something that I don't want to know then it must be a secret bigger than the world itself.” She stood up and walked over to him. “By all means, keep your secrets, but don't suffer by protecting someone who doesn't need to be.”
"Iris--"
"I don't need protecting."
"I'm not protecting you; I'm protecting everyone else.”
“I worry,” Iris moved her free hand to cup his cheek, and Ianto almost moved away, “I don't know why but something tells me to worry for you.”
“Don't.”
“I feel like something is going to happen to you. Like I can see it, and I worry for you when you're caught up in these lies.” She let her fingers fall from his face and took a step back. “Please don't lie to me any more.”
“The world can't cope with our secrets, and neither can you.” He turned and headed for the door. “I'm going to see if Jack needs me in the barn.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
“I've never seen anything like it.” Toshiko was inspecting the wound in the side of the horse, whilst she tried to patch it up with gauze. “The wound's are so deep, but it's almost like they were filled in with this gunge. I've removed it as much as I can.”
“It stinks,” Jack said, “its blue and it stinks; I've never seen it before and I have no desire to see it again.”
“It's probably a way or warning other creatures away from its food.”
“I bet it works too, I know I'd never eat anything that smelt like that. Can the horse be saved?” Jack nodded towards the white stallion.
“I don't know, it's in a lot of pain, but if he's given a chance then maybe he'll survive. We have no idea what that stuff has done to it. My bigger concern would be what the hell we do with that.” Toshiko pointed to the dead beast which was now slightly embedded in the stone of the floor.
“We'll hide it for now, eventually we'll have to burn it or something; we can't bury it and risk someone finding it and declaring it a new species of dinosaur or something.”
“I bet this wasn't the way that you saw this morning panning out.”
“Definitely not.” Jack sighed heavily and threw a large sheet over the creature. “The day started out good, very good.” He smirked a little, then stopped himself and proceeded to drag the heavy body of the creature over to the corner. “This is not how I envisioned my day at all.”
“And all this before lunch.”
“Do you suppose it came through with us?” Ianto appeared in the doorway and walked over to help Jack drag the body. “Or do you think the rift has opened again?”
“I didn't even think about that,” Jack said, giving Ianto a smile over the carcass of the creature.
“How's Iris?” Toshiko asked.
Ianto took a deep breath and shook his head. “She's on to us.”
“What?” Tosh looked around in a panic. “What does she know?”
“I don't think she knows anything really, other than this isn't just a scientific experiment gone wrong. She knows we're hiding something, and something big, but she doesn't know what.”
“So, is she going to tell her father?” Jack asked. “because that could be a problem.”
“No. I persuaded her that it would be a very bad idea.”
Jack looked over at Ianto, smirking. “You and your persuasion methods.”
“All part of Torchwood training, along with emotional blackmail.”
Toshiko looked at them and held back her chuckle. “Well I think that I'm going to go an change out of these clothes.” she pointed at the blue gunge on her blouse.
“Me too,” Ianto said, “Its starting to burn my skin.”
“I'm going to stay here for a while and see if I can get my head around this thing.” Jack took a deep breath and looked between the horse and the dead creature. “There's something wrong with the rift,” he said thoughtfully, “we're miles from Cardiff and the rift is dumping it's junk out here; something is happening and it's not good.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
“Is that really necessary?” Gwen pointed to the creature that lay sedated on the autopsy table with it's wings tied down.
“Yes.”
“It looks to inhumane.”
Owen put the blue blood sample he had just taken into a specimen jar and turned to look at Gwen across the table. He put his hands on the cold metal and glared at her. “I presume that you are the same person that I ran for my life with out of a warehouse on the bay with a fucking huge winged thing following us, but just in case you have a memory of a gold fish with dementia I'll remind you again; it's not something sweet and cute, it's a monster and I don't trust it. This little thing will probably grow into one of those huge things, and I have no idea how long these creatures take to grow, so I'm not taking any chances so--”
“Owen.” Gwen stopped paying attention when she heard a faint bubbling coming from the jar that contained the blue gunge. “Owen, what's that?” she pointed to the jar.
“I don't know, I need to analyse it.”
“What's it doing?”
The smell from the warehouse was back and was seeping out from the container, sending out a sort of grey smoke. Owen walked over to it and touched the jar, jumping back instantly when he felt the heat through the glass. He held his hand away and inspected the red burn that started to appear.
“Hot?” Gwen asked.
“Just a bit.”
The gunge started to bubble erratically and the jar wobbled a little; after a moment it stopped and suddenly, after about twenty seconds, vanished..
“What the--” Owen walked towards it and inspected the bench; the blue gunge had turned to a black stone, approximately an inch wide and the glass jar had gone completely.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Jack walked into his bedroom and looked at his shirt, still stained with the blue slime from the creature. He had found no other clues in the barn and the blue gunge was starting to blister his skin through his shirt. He took it off, and threw it in the basket in the corner.
“Striptease?” Ianto's voice came from behind him. “In the afternoon?” he shut the door and turned the lock. He took a seat on the bed and sat up against the headboard, watching Jack as he undressed. “Carry on.”
“What are you doing hiding up here?”
“I'm not hiding; I'm waiting.” He jumped up from the bed again and walked over to Jack, untuckng his vest from the waistband of his trousers and yanking it over his head. “Waiting patiently for you.”
“You just can't keep your hands off me today.”
“Are you complaining?” he asked, “because I can stop.”
“I'm not complaining,” Jack said, putting his hand on Ianto's stomach and manoeuvred him back towards the bed, pushing him down on it. He straddled the Welshman lightly and rocked his hips a little. “Although, today is a rather strange day to want to jump me.” He pushed Ianto back onto the bed and unfastened his buttons, sliding his shirt over his shoulders. “If I had known that big scary things with wings and teeth turned you on so much I would have made more of an effort at Halloween.”
“I wasn't actually intending on jumping you,” Ianto told him, “I was thinking more of stress-relief.”
“Stress-relief?” Jack asked, a little taken aback. He climbed off Ianto and stood above him, looking down. “I'm stress-relief?”
Ianto sat up and shimmied to the edge, putting his hands on Jack's belt. “No. I'm stress relief.” he unfastened the Captain's belt and unfastened the cord, never removing his eyes from Jack's gaze.
Jack raised an eyebrow when Ianto slid the trousers over his hips and pulled him closer. “You're offering me stress relief in the form of--”
“Only if you want it.”
“What happened to not getting too close?” Jack asked. “Not that I'm resisting.”
“We broke that rule this morning and I don't see the point on having another pointless conversation.” He hooked his fingers inside Jack's underwear and threatened to pull them down. He lowered his head and planted a trail of soft kisses across Jack's stomach, then pulled down the material a little; he looked up. “That thing could have killed you.”
“It didn't.”
“It could have.”
“Ianto. It was never going to kill me.” He moved closer and cupped Ianto's cheeks. He kissed his lips softly and then stood up, looking down.
“I'm glad it didn't; i'd be lost in this world without you.” Ianto lowered his head and sucked on the older man's hip. His tongue swept across the skin, sucking him into his mouth. He yanked down Jack's underwear and dragged his tongue over Jack's body, tracing a trail from his left hip, and over to his right.
“Oh God.” Jack looked own at the Welshman and tangled his fingers in his hair, pulling him gently towards his skin. “You're going to kill me with a mouth like that.”
Ianto's hands moved around Jack's back and traced his spine, gripping his backside before sliding them around the back of his thighs, pulling him in. His tongue reversed its previous trail and moved back across Jack's hip, sucking in the skin and making its way down his thigh.
Jack's breaths were harsh and desperate as he felt the warmth of Ianto's lips cross his thigh; he whimpered when the Welshman bipassed his goal and worked hiss way back up towards his hipbone.
“Jack!” Toshiko's voice filtered through the door.
“Bad time,” he groaned, “I'm changing.” Ianto chose that moment to move his hands around from Jack's thighs and wrap his fingers around his cock, stroking him slowly. “Such a bad time!”
“It's the creature,” she said.
Ianto followed the path of his hand with his tongue, and smiled when he felt Jack's hand grip his hair a little, being careful not to force him. He pulled Jack in closer, taking his length into his warm mouth.
“Oh!” Jack gasped loudly and looked down at the Welshman who's eyes looked up at him, dark and sultry. “It can wait five minutes.” Ianto licked Jack's length slowly with the tip of his tongue. “Ten minutes.”
“Jack!” she shouted through the door. “It's vanished!”
____________________________________________________________________________________
Part 10 - The Beast
Rating:NC17
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Tosh/Owen (sort of)
Summary: When a seemingly cut-and-dried incident calls out Torchwood early one morning not everything as it seems. Alien technology transmits a strange frequency signal and leads them into a trap of curiosity and an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar faces.
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood... believe me... if i did Jack and Ianto would walk around in nothing but tight pants (and a tie for Ianto) The BBC own it. so as much as i love it i don't own it :( also the title don't belong to me lol Although i have some pretty characters i made up myself.
Spoilers : Up to episode 7, also slight spoiler (very tiny) from the book Border Princess
Notes: Reviews welcome :D
Part 1: Cut & dried here -> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/4527.html
Part 2: Alien Lego here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/15486.html
Part 3 is here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/15691.html
Part 4: Meeting Iris here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/17433.html
Part 5: Finding the way here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/17963.html
Part 6: Thinking here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/18276.html
Part 7: Is this what you want? here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/19490.html
Part 8: Lost here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/23625.html
Part 9: Making Arrangements here --> http://jo19844.livejournal.com/24721.html
Owen pulled his gun from his belt and edged his way into the familiar warehouse; it was cold, colder than it had been last time, and reeked unlike anything he had ever experienced. He put his hand across his mouth and tried to stop himself from gagging, then continued into the warehouse.
“Whoa!” Gwen walked in behind him and immediately ran back outside, vomiting and coughing in the gutter. She leaned her hands on her knees and glanced over at Owen who came running out after her. “What the hell is that?”
“That is what we're here to investigate,” he reminded her, “now had it been just a normal report of a funky smell coming from a warehouse on the docks I might have just put it down to something rational, but this is in the same place.”
“So it has to be connected.”
“Exactly.” Owen pulled her back inside by her jacket and pointed his torch up at the ceiling. Creatures that looked like a cross between a bat and a dog hung from in rows, covered in a blue gunge that seemed to drip slowly to the ground at irregular intervals; there must have been a couple hundred of them all sleeping in their slimy blue cocoons.
“What is it?” Gwen asked, backing away to side-step a large splatter of the blue liquid that fell in front of her. “And what the hell are those?”
“Fuck if I know.” He pulled a pair of examination gloves from his pocket and slipped them on, then crouched down to inspect the gunge. “I think the best thing to do is to take a sample of this stuff and see if we can sedate one of those things.” pointed to the ceiling. “Maybe they will give us some kind of clue.”
“I've seen something like them before somewhere.” Gwen set down her rucksack and pulled out a digital camera; she took a few pictures of the strange looking animals and them one of the gunge. “An ex-boyfriend of mine, Steve, he was into strange things. Gothic memorabilia and mythical creatures, and I'm sure I saw those creatures in one of his books, only they were smaller than that.” Gwen pointed up the cocoon's; each were at least four foot high, and tightly packed together so that they took up as little space as possible.
“Mythical creatures huh?” Owen said, shining his light onto the ceiling and catching a glimpse of fang-like teeth protruding out from one of the creatures; he jumped back a little. “No creature seems mythical after you've been in this job for a while.”
Gwen tossed Owen a sample jar and a small tool belt.
“Are they sleeping?”
Owen crouched down and took a sample of the gunge, putting it into the jar. “Well, they're definitely not dead and if they were awake I have a feeling that we might just be food, or at least a decent sized snack. Those fangs aren't the calling card of a vegetarian species.”
“So what do we do if they wake up?”
“Run?” Owen suggested, stepping over the remaining gunge on the floor and towards the end of the large room.
“That's it?” she asked, “run? That's the best plan that you can come up with. Run?”
“A couple hundred flying dog things with fucking huge teeth are after you, would you happen to have a better idea?”
“I guess not.”
“Yeah, well shut up then.” They walked a little further down a corridor and then stopped. Owen pulled a syringe out of his pocket and held it up for Gwen to see. “Keep your eyes open, if there's one of those things awake, then I want it caught.”
“We should go and look at the room where the others went missing,” Gwen suggested, “maybe there's a weakness in the rift there.”
Owen stopped and turned, shining the torch in her face. “Sometimes, I do believe that I see a little a glimmer of hope in you, and think that, just for a moment, maybe you actually do know what you're doing.”
______________________________________________________________________________________
“Okay, what happened?” Toshiko walked over to Jack as he hammered a nail into the broken fence.
“I don't know.” Jack stood back and looked at the large hole. “It looks like something crashed through it.”
“Not to the fence. To you.”
“Me?” He turned around and stopped working, throwing his hammer onto the ground gently. “Nothing happened to me.”
“Yesterday, you were walking around with a dark cloud above your head, and today you look like the cat who got the cream.”
“I was unhappy yesterday, and today I'm not.”
“You you expect me to believe that you just happen to be in a better mood today than you were yesterday and that it has nothing at all to do with the reason why you and Ianto were late for breakfast this morning?”
Jack turned away. “No.”
“Or the fact that you kept putting your hand on Ianto's crotch when you thought I wasn't looking?”
“When was that?” Jack creased his brow.
“When Iris and her father went outside and I turned around to get another cup of tea. You put your hand on Ianto's crotch and he shoo'd you away.”
“Oh yeah.” Jack smiled. “I may have done that.” He picked his hammer back up and started to work on the fence again.
“So?” she prompted.
“So, what?”
“So, what happened?”
“Nothing.”
“You two are impossible,” Tosh moaned, resting her back against the fence as she looked down at him. “I couldn't get anything out of Ianto and now I can't get anything out of you.”
“Have you ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, there's no big scandal?”
“No!”
Jack chuckled and took a deep breath, looking up at her.
“Jack!” Toshiko prompted him for an answer and he looked away.
“Its complicated.”
“What's compllic--”
A blood-curdling scream sounded out from somewhere in the distance and Jack leapt up, running towards the direction where it had come from. He ran across the courtyard, tripping a little as he sprinted, and bumped heads with Ianto as they collided.
“What was that?” Ianto asked.
The scream came again, louder this time and Ianto and Jack ran off, following it. They ran into the barn and stopped when they saw Iris backed into a corner with a creature growling at her; it stood on its hind-legs and spread out its bat-like wings to their full width. The creature's skin was grey and hairless, with blue veins that glowed and throbbed in their wings like flashing neon lights; its feet had claws that dug into the stone, leaving indentations, and the muscles in the hind legs were strong like a fighting dog. It stood tall, reaching about six foot, and when the growled again it was loud and reverberated around the walls.
Ianto looked on the ground at the horse that was lying on its side with wounds that were inches deep and seeping blue gunge; his eyes were open, fluttering a little, and its legs desperately moved to try and get up. It seemed to be in pain and let out a high pitched noise that turned the beasts attention from Iris.
It made it's way over, backing Ianto into the corner and towards the injured horse. The creature's teeth were long, more than a few inches, and the face looked harrowing, like a pit-bull cross-bred with a vampire bat; hairless and hungry for blood.
Jack looked around the room and picked up the closest thing to hand, a long-handled broom which was leaning against the wall.
“Jack!” Ianto said, backing away slowly, never taking his eyes off the beast, “I really don't think that's going to do any good unless you intend on sweeping it to death!”
He looked at the broom and snapped it in half before thrusting the jagged end into the creature's back in a soft spot between it's wings. It fell backwards and landed on the ground with a thud, narrowly missing Jack. Its eyes were still open and its legs sprawled around on the floor.
“Get Iris out of here,” Jack instructed, “I'll meet you outside.” He backed away as the beast managed to flip over and crawl it's way over to him, the wings dragging against the floor.
Ianto made his way over to Iris and pulled her up, leading her out of the door.
The beast moved over to Jack, crawling along the stone floor with his red eyes zoned in on him; claws scraped across the ground and wings flopped and dragged behind. There wasn't far left for Jack to go as he baked himself into the corner, but the creature looked weak and it's breathing was heavy and strained. He waited for it to come to him a little more before moving swiftly towards it and sticking the wooden stick through the centre of the beast's chest.
An almighty roar sounded from somewhere inside the animal and it fell backwards, landing on the stone heavily, cracking it where it lay.
Jack took a closer look and nudged the creature with his foot; it was definitely dead, and the blood that seeped from the wound was blue and glowing. Slowly, the veins in the creatures wings started to fade until the whole body had faded to a static grey. He walked outside and closed the door behind him, resting against it for a moment.
He cast his eyes over at Ianto who sat on the ground, with Iris lying in front of him.
“What happened?” Jack asked, “it didn't bite her, did it?”
“No. She fainted.”
“Oh, good.”
“What was that thing?” Ianto questioned, tapping Iris' face to try and wake her.
“God only knows, but I've never seen it before.” He looked down at Iris as she started to flutter her eyes open a little. “You should get her inside.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Owen walked into the room carefully and shone his torch on the floor. The caucuses of dead rats lay on the ground, and some were moving, only half living, attempting to move.
“Well at least we know how they've been surviving,” he said, moving his way through the room and towards the corner where one of the beasts sat in the corner, feasting on a small domestic animal. “That looks like the perfect specimen, wouldn't you say?”
“If you can get it.”
Owen handed Gwen his torch and she lit the back of the creature whilst Owen removed the cap from the syringe that he kept in his pocket. He edged his way over to it and pounced on it quickly, stabbing the needle into it's neck and injecting it with the solution. The beast turned and looked at him with sleepy red eyes and stalked him across the room. It only took the creature only a few minutes until it could no longer move and collapsed in a state of sedation on a bed of half-gnawed rats.
“That one looks small,” Gwen said.
“It's probably an offspring.” Owen took off his jacket and covered the creature with it, bundling it up and cradling it. It was small, but heavy, and the fangs looked under-developed; the claws were sharp, but only measured half an inch and the skin was wrinkled. It was most definitely not an adult like the ones hanging from the high ceiling on the other room; they were at least four foot in height with smoother skin and sharper talons.
“We should get it back to the hub,” Owen said, “I want to run some tests.”
“Do you think it's connected?”
“I don't see how it could be anything else. It's in the same place as the others went missing, and they're definitely a product of the rift. We should get out of here.”
As they turned to walk out, a large creature shrouded the room in darkness, blocking out any light with it's wings; it was much larger than the others by at least a few feet, with wings that spanned twice as wide as the height.
“I think we've found mama,” Owen said.
“She doesn't look happy.”
“No.”
“Is it time to do that running thing you were talking about earlier?” Gwen asked, spotting another door to an unknown corridor across the other side of the room. “Because I'm really starting to see the attraction of that plan.”
“Yep. Run.”
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Ianto carried Iris into the living room and laid her down on the couch; she was awake but every time she tried to walk she just stumbled on her weak legs. He untied her laces and removed her shoes, putting her feet up on a cushion, and then placed another under her head.
“What was it?” Iris spoke softly, but her voice filtered through the silent room.
“A hybrid,” Ianto lied quickly, kneeling down on the ground, “a scientific experiment gone wrong.”
“It was hideous.”
“It's dead now.”
Iris hesitated a little before sitting up and looking down at Ianto on the floor. “You saved me from it. You and the Captain risked your lives for me. Why?”
“What kind of house guests would we be if we let a beast kill our hostess?”
Iris returned the smile that Ianto gave her, and then it dropped suddenly from her face. She looked out the window. “Do you suppose there are any more out there?”
“I don't know.” Ianto pulled himself to his feet and sat next to Iris on the couch. “But it may be better if you don't mention this to anyone.”
“Why?”
“It's just a bad idea. They don't understand and they wouldn't believe you anyway.”
“What about my father?” she asked, “he really ought to know.”
“Why?”
“I tell him everything,” Iris said, “I couldn't lie.”
“You wouldn't be lying, more like omitting.”
“Which is lying by default,” she argued.
“Do you trust me?” he asked her, turning to face her.
She considered it for a moment before returning his gaze. “I do actually, yes.”
“Then believe me when I tell you that there is no good that can come of telling anyone about this.”
“What are you hiding?” she asked, “You, the Captain, Toshiko. What's the big secret?”
“What makes you think that we have secrets?”
Iris turned her body to face Ianto and looked directly into his eyes. “You dress different, you behave different and you lie about why you're here. So, the least that you can do is tell me why you lie to me when I'm no threat.”
“I'm not--”
“Ianto!” The girl's tone was sharp, and shocked him a little. She took a breath and relaxed a little. “Mr. Jones. Tell me what you're hiding. Please?”
“We all have secrets,” he said, “but some are meant to be that way. The secrets that we hold and the things that we don't tell you are things that you don't want to believe.”
“How would you know that I don't want to believe them when you don't know who I am?”
“For the same reasons that you trust me when you know I'm lying to you.” Ianto stood up and started to walk away, only to feel himself being pulled back. Iris caught his hand and entwined her fingers.
“I don't like secrets, but i do trust you by way of instinct. I know that if you tell me that what you're hiding is something that I don't want to know then it must be a secret bigger than the world itself.” She stood up and walked over to him. “By all means, keep your secrets, but don't suffer by protecting someone who doesn't need to be.”
"Iris--"
"I don't need protecting."
"I'm not protecting you; I'm protecting everyone else.”
“I worry,” Iris moved her free hand to cup his cheek, and Ianto almost moved away, “I don't know why but something tells me to worry for you.”
“Don't.”
“I feel like something is going to happen to you. Like I can see it, and I worry for you when you're caught up in these lies.” She let her fingers fall from his face and took a step back. “Please don't lie to me any more.”
“The world can't cope with our secrets, and neither can you.” He turned and headed for the door. “I'm going to see if Jack needs me in the barn.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
“I've never seen anything like it.” Toshiko was inspecting the wound in the side of the horse, whilst she tried to patch it up with gauze. “The wound's are so deep, but it's almost like they were filled in with this gunge. I've removed it as much as I can.”
“It stinks,” Jack said, “its blue and it stinks; I've never seen it before and I have no desire to see it again.”
“It's probably a way or warning other creatures away from its food.”
“I bet it works too, I know I'd never eat anything that smelt like that. Can the horse be saved?” Jack nodded towards the white stallion.
“I don't know, it's in a lot of pain, but if he's given a chance then maybe he'll survive. We have no idea what that stuff has done to it. My bigger concern would be what the hell we do with that.” Toshiko pointed to the dead beast which was now slightly embedded in the stone of the floor.
“We'll hide it for now, eventually we'll have to burn it or something; we can't bury it and risk someone finding it and declaring it a new species of dinosaur or something.”
“I bet this wasn't the way that you saw this morning panning out.”
“Definitely not.” Jack sighed heavily and threw a large sheet over the creature. “The day started out good, very good.” He smirked a little, then stopped himself and proceeded to drag the heavy body of the creature over to the corner. “This is not how I envisioned my day at all.”
“And all this before lunch.”
“Do you suppose it came through with us?” Ianto appeared in the doorway and walked over to help Jack drag the body. “Or do you think the rift has opened again?”
“I didn't even think about that,” Jack said, giving Ianto a smile over the carcass of the creature.
“How's Iris?” Toshiko asked.
Ianto took a deep breath and shook his head. “She's on to us.”
“What?” Tosh looked around in a panic. “What does she know?”
“I don't think she knows anything really, other than this isn't just a scientific experiment gone wrong. She knows we're hiding something, and something big, but she doesn't know what.”
“So, is she going to tell her father?” Jack asked. “because that could be a problem.”
“No. I persuaded her that it would be a very bad idea.”
Jack looked over at Ianto, smirking. “You and your persuasion methods.”
“All part of Torchwood training, along with emotional blackmail.”
Toshiko looked at them and held back her chuckle. “Well I think that I'm going to go an change out of these clothes.” she pointed at the blue gunge on her blouse.
“Me too,” Ianto said, “Its starting to burn my skin.”
“I'm going to stay here for a while and see if I can get my head around this thing.” Jack took a deep breath and looked between the horse and the dead creature. “There's something wrong with the rift,” he said thoughtfully, “we're miles from Cardiff and the rift is dumping it's junk out here; something is happening and it's not good.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
“Is that really necessary?” Gwen pointed to the creature that lay sedated on the autopsy table with it's wings tied down.
“Yes.”
“It looks to inhumane.”
Owen put the blue blood sample he had just taken into a specimen jar and turned to look at Gwen across the table. He put his hands on the cold metal and glared at her. “I presume that you are the same person that I ran for my life with out of a warehouse on the bay with a fucking huge winged thing following us, but just in case you have a memory of a gold fish with dementia I'll remind you again; it's not something sweet and cute, it's a monster and I don't trust it. This little thing will probably grow into one of those huge things, and I have no idea how long these creatures take to grow, so I'm not taking any chances so--”
“Owen.” Gwen stopped paying attention when she heard a faint bubbling coming from the jar that contained the blue gunge. “Owen, what's that?” she pointed to the jar.
“I don't know, I need to analyse it.”
“What's it doing?”
The smell from the warehouse was back and was seeping out from the container, sending out a sort of grey smoke. Owen walked over to it and touched the jar, jumping back instantly when he felt the heat through the glass. He held his hand away and inspected the red burn that started to appear.
“Hot?” Gwen asked.
“Just a bit.”
The gunge started to bubble erratically and the jar wobbled a little; after a moment it stopped and suddenly, after about twenty seconds, vanished..
“What the--” Owen walked towards it and inspected the bench; the blue gunge had turned to a black stone, approximately an inch wide and the glass jar had gone completely.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Jack walked into his bedroom and looked at his shirt, still stained with the blue slime from the creature. He had found no other clues in the barn and the blue gunge was starting to blister his skin through his shirt. He took it off, and threw it in the basket in the corner.
“Striptease?” Ianto's voice came from behind him. “In the afternoon?” he shut the door and turned the lock. He took a seat on the bed and sat up against the headboard, watching Jack as he undressed. “Carry on.”
“What are you doing hiding up here?”
“I'm not hiding; I'm waiting.” He jumped up from the bed again and walked over to Jack, untuckng his vest from the waistband of his trousers and yanking it over his head. “Waiting patiently for you.”
“You just can't keep your hands off me today.”
“Are you complaining?” he asked, “because I can stop.”
“I'm not complaining,” Jack said, putting his hand on Ianto's stomach and manoeuvred him back towards the bed, pushing him down on it. He straddled the Welshman lightly and rocked his hips a little. “Although, today is a rather strange day to want to jump me.” He pushed Ianto back onto the bed and unfastened his buttons, sliding his shirt over his shoulders. “If I had known that big scary things with wings and teeth turned you on so much I would have made more of an effort at Halloween.”
“I wasn't actually intending on jumping you,” Ianto told him, “I was thinking more of stress-relief.”
“Stress-relief?” Jack asked, a little taken aback. He climbed off Ianto and stood above him, looking down. “I'm stress-relief?”
Ianto sat up and shimmied to the edge, putting his hands on Jack's belt. “No. I'm stress relief.” he unfastened the Captain's belt and unfastened the cord, never removing his eyes from Jack's gaze.
Jack raised an eyebrow when Ianto slid the trousers over his hips and pulled him closer. “You're offering me stress relief in the form of--”
“Only if you want it.”
“What happened to not getting too close?” Jack asked. “Not that I'm resisting.”
“We broke that rule this morning and I don't see the point on having another pointless conversation.” He hooked his fingers inside Jack's underwear and threatened to pull them down. He lowered his head and planted a trail of soft kisses across Jack's stomach, then pulled down the material a little; he looked up. “That thing could have killed you.”
“It didn't.”
“It could have.”
“Ianto. It was never going to kill me.” He moved closer and cupped Ianto's cheeks. He kissed his lips softly and then stood up, looking down.
“I'm glad it didn't; i'd be lost in this world without you.” Ianto lowered his head and sucked on the older man's hip. His tongue swept across the skin, sucking him into his mouth. He yanked down Jack's underwear and dragged his tongue over Jack's body, tracing a trail from his left hip, and over to his right.
“Oh God.” Jack looked own at the Welshman and tangled his fingers in his hair, pulling him gently towards his skin. “You're going to kill me with a mouth like that.”
Ianto's hands moved around Jack's back and traced his spine, gripping his backside before sliding them around the back of his thighs, pulling him in. His tongue reversed its previous trail and moved back across Jack's hip, sucking in the skin and making its way down his thigh.
Jack's breaths were harsh and desperate as he felt the warmth of Ianto's lips cross his thigh; he whimpered when the Welshman bipassed his goal and worked hiss way back up towards his hipbone.
“Jack!” Toshiko's voice filtered through the door.
“Bad time,” he groaned, “I'm changing.” Ianto chose that moment to move his hands around from Jack's thighs and wrap his fingers around his cock, stroking him slowly. “Such a bad time!”
“It's the creature,” she said.
Ianto followed the path of his hand with his tongue, and smiled when he felt Jack's hand grip his hair a little, being careful not to force him. He pulled Jack in closer, taking his length into his warm mouth.
“Oh!” Jack gasped loudly and looked down at the Welshman who's eyes looked up at him, dark and sultry. “It can wait five minutes.” Ianto licked Jack's length slowly with the tip of his tongue. “Ten minutes.”
“Jack!” she shouted through the door. “It's vanished!”
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