Sidewinder for beesandbrews
FESTIVE TITLE BITCHES YO: Sidewinder
RECIPIENT WHO HAD BETTER BE GRATEFUL BECAUSE I SPENT TIME THAT I COULD HAVE BEEN DRINKING WRITING THIS SHIT: beesandbrews
SUMMARY: EPISODE TEAM FIC WITH A HAPPY ENDING.
BETA: DEFINITELY NOT FOXY
RATING: FESTIVE, KINDA FESTIVE
WARNING: IMMA REALLY CRAP WRITER AND YOU'RE ALL MUCH BETTER THAN ME - IT'S TRUE!
SPOILERS: JESUS PEOPLE IT'S JUST ABOUT THE TORCHWOOD TEAM DRINKING EGGNOG
DISCLAIMER: THEY'RE NOT MINE. EXCEPT WHEN THEY ARE. IN MAH PANTS.
Sidewinder
Gwen’s boots clattered across the Hub as she crossed over to Tosh’s station. “Tosh, are you done with that analysis yet?”
Without taking her eyes from the screens, Tosh replied mildly, “I just started. It’s going to take me at least another hour of work.” She paused to take a sip of coffee while Gwen looked on impatiently.
After a long moment, Gwen sighed in frustration, dropping into the chair.
“What’s wrong? Wanted to skive off early to see your fee-ahn-say?” Owen snarked as he carried a small containment box through the Hub toward Jack’s office.
“If you must know, I was going to ask Jack if I could get off early. I have some planning I need to do for the wedding.”
“Oh well, the wedding! That’s different!” Owen set down the box on the edge of Tosh’s workstation and lounged against the desk. “I can see why Jack would let you off early for that.”
"Shut up, Owen. So Tosh … it’s really going to take an hour?” Gwen turned pleading eyes on her colleague.
“At least. I still haven’t finished Jack’s translation, and that’s slowing the system down,” Tosh said absently, her fingers stilled on the keyboard as her eyes tracked something on one of her screens. She frowned. Owen watched her profile and thus caught her start when Jack’s voice boomed through the Hub.
“Toshiko! Tell me you’ve cracked it!” Owen glanced over as Jack stepped out of his office and walked over, checking his Webley and shrugging into his coat. “Owen, shouldn’t that containment box be in my office with the other ones? And then you have that autopsy on the lezne to complete - wouldn’t want it to start decomposing. Nasty smelling creatures, even when they’re alive. We’d never get the smell out.”
Owen sighed and hefted the box again. As he walked away, Tosh raised her voice slightly, “Not yet, Jack, and I won’t any time soon if people don’t leave me to get on with it.”
Jack lifted his hands in mock surrender. “OK, OK.” He looked around, “I need someone to go with me to check something out. “ His gaze alighted on Gwen, who looked at him in alarm.
“No, Jack! No! I have things to do! I was going to leave early.” She half rose from her chair; however, she subsided when he pointed at her, raising a questioning eyebrow. She repeated, “No. Absolutely not. Why don’t you take Ianto?”
Jack replied briskly, “Already asked him. He’s busy. Where’s your spirit of adventure, Gwen? Don’t you want to see something amazing?” He gave her an insouciant smile, “Besides, don’t I have to approve you leaving early anyway?”
Gwen clapped her hands onto her thighs and then rose decisively. “Fine! How long will this take?”
“An hour or two? Tosh should be done with my translation and your data by the time we get back. When we get back you can get your results and finish your report.” He frowned and said over his shoulder as he strode from the room, “What was that about again?”
Gwen shrugged into her jacket as she followed him. “It’s that cluster of cases we were tracking while you were gone. Seven people found drowned nowhere near any water, a few of them inside abandoned buildings. The bodies had no eyes, teeth, or nails when they were recovered, but otherwise were perfectly preserved … even the one belonging to a woman who vanished 75 years ago. We’re trying to see if there are any patterns.” Jack grunted, and Gwen compressed her lips in frustration.
In the garage, Gwen climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV. As Jack settled himself behind the steering wheel, clasping its curve with appreciation, Gwen asked, “So what are we investigating?”
“Several years’ worth of sightings of mysterious black dogs.” Jack gunned the engine and pulled out with a jerk.
She rounded on him. “Several years? And we had to check this out today? You know I have an appointment with my florist, right?”
Jack shrugged. “It seemed like a good time to address the backlog. Ianto’s been on me to clear out some of these old cases. I’m trying to stay in his good books.”
“And black dogs? Is that really a Torchwood case? We do have dog catchers here, you know.”
“Not just any black dogs, Gwen. Supernatural black dogs,” Jack said with a grin. She scoffed and he protested, “No, really. You know that werewolves are real, right?” At her skeptical look he added, “They are! They’re aliens, of course.”
Tosh looked up. For once, there was no one loitering nearby, dividing her attention. Where were they? She frowned, recalling snippets of the conversation between Gwen and Jack. “Owen?” she called.
“What?” His voice came from the autopsy bay. He sounded busy, probably in the middle of something.
Sighing, she got up and brushed her hair back from her face. She stretched her back and flexed her hands to uncramp her fingers. She looked down at one of her computer screens one last time, puzzled, and then turned from her station. Walking into the autopsy bay, she asked, “Where is everyone?”
“Jack and Gwen went out to investigate those black dog sightings he’s been talking about every day this week, and Ianto is lurking somewhere.” Owen was elbow deep in the remains of something that made wet squelching sounds as he worked.
“Lurking?”
Owen jerked, spattering brownish fluid across the tiles. “Christ, mate! Don’t do that!”
“I was attempting to bring some order to the chaos Jack has introduced into the paperwork since his return.” Ianto frowned, coming down the steps. “And you can clean that up when you’re done.”
Owen waved a goo-covered hand dismissively. “Why? What’s up, Tosh?”
“I’m done with Jack’s translation and Gwen’s analysis. I’ve got my results.” She stopped.
“And?”
“And I don’t understand them. They seem to be linked, but what are the chances of that?”
Ianto looked at her questioningly, and she said, “Jack took Gwen to go investigate those black dog sightings that have been occurring over the last 100 years or so. He gave me a piece of tech this morning when I came in, said it came through the Rift last night, and asked me to translate the data chip inside. The translation mentions doglike creatures, describes them as dark and shadowy.”
“Maybe he already knew that. He was probably just having you confirm it for reasons known only to himself.” Running a scanner over the corpse on the table and squinting at the readout, Owen added, “What does that have to do with Gwen’s investigation?”
“There’s also a mention in the translation of bodies being mutilated just like the ones Gwen’s checking into. It says, ‘They fell through the glass and their eyes and teeth were devoured.’”
“Have you told Jack?” Ianto asked. He slouched against the wall, his hands in his pockets, carefully avoiding the dripping stain on the tiles.
Tosh shook her head and reached up to touch her headset. “Jack? I have some information for you about the current investigation. Jack?” She paused. “Gwen? Are you there?” She didn’t receive a response, so Ianto tried his headset and then his mobile as well. Nothing.
“Let me close this guy up,” Owen gestured toward the corpse on the table, “and Tosh and I will head out to their location. The tracker on the SUV is still operational, right?”
Ianto replied, “It makes no sense for you to stop what you’re doing. I’ll go with Tosh and you can take comms once you’re done.”
Owen bristled, “Why should I stay behind?”
“I could ask the same thing,” Ianto pointed out. “I think I’ve proven myself in the field.”
Ending the argument, Tosh said decisively, “Ianto, you’re with me. There were some coordinates in the translation; we’ll try there first. Owen, we need you on comms when you’re finished. ”
“What a cute doggie.” Gwen crouched in order to scratch the puppy behind his ears and looked up at the woman standing in the lane. ”Is he yours?”
The woman fumbled with her purse and her shopping bag. She had just come out of her house as Jack had parked the SUV and had stared suspiciously at them until Gwen addressed her directly. Then she had unbent enough to speak to them, although she had pointedly refused to return Jack’s smile. “No. He’s one of those black dogs that live up at the old Marcher place at the end of the road. Doesn’t pay to go up there; they’re pretty wild. People have been bitten.” The woman gestured to her daughter to take her hand and they left without a backward glance.
They walked up to the abandoned house at the end of the lane, and Gwen said sourly, surveying the overgrown property, “This isn’t amazing.”
“Sure it is.” Jack reached out and lightly traced the silvered wood with his fingers. “Don’t you find that ordinary things can be amazing sometimes?”
They entered the front door, which hung loosely on its hinges, and, after a pause to get their bearings, headed into the larger room to the left. Jack was immediately struck with a sense of the familiarity of the scene. When he’d first ended up on Earth, once he’d gotten accustomed to the idea that he might be here a while, he had spent many a pleasant afternoon in homes such as these. On one wall, an immense bookcase held scores of leather bound books and the type of mementos the average well-traveled Victorian gentleman would’ve collected as the Empire spread over the globe. There were vases, antique pots, rolls of cobwebbed paper, and small canvases thickly coated in dust. There was also an entire shelf dedicated to ancient American artifacts: obsidian bowls, all chipped and cracked save one, and stone knives that still carried a sharp edge. Gwen picked up the corner of one of the white sheets draped over irregular shapes in the center of the room and uncovered a heavily embroidered chair discolored by dust and mold. She looked at Jack.
“Let’s check the opposite room,” he said. They went into the other main room and the contrast was immediately apparent. The room was bare, with nothing but a huge framed mirror, almost as tall as Jack, leaning against the sagging wall. The dust in the air in the half light was so thick that it gave the impression of a cloud of smoke hanging in the stillness.
Gwen looked more closely, her vision sharpening in the thick air. “Is the house on fire?” she asked, her voice edged with nervousness.
“It appears to be,” Jack replied grimly. “But it’s coming from the mirror. A smoking mirror.”
“You say that like it has capital letters,” Gwen said, eyeing the clouds of smoke that were billowing from the framed mirror. “What happens now?”
“One witness report I read says that the black dogs come out of the smoking mirror.” They stepped closer. Jack’s nerves were on edge as he peered cautiously into the mottled surface of the mirror. It seem to be lit with a inner glow that made the rest of the room dim, and the haze that hung over it made something sinuous appear to turn and coil just beyond the plane of glass. The hair lifted on the back of his neck and the air in the room grew still like they were all frozen in a photograph.
Suddenly there was a crashing sound behind him and he spun on one heel, his Webley already clenched in his hand. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the flash of Gwen’s gun as she also turned to face the threat. There was another shattering crash and the floor moved as if the house were collapsing. The shadows in the room coalesced into shapes, shapes that grew and moved like the shapes in the mirror. And then a pack of huge black dogs, each one as tall at the shoulder as a horse, bore down on them, seemingly out of thin air. Without hesitation, both he and Gwen opened fire.
In an instant he was on the floor with sharp claws digging into his flesh. He rolled to fix his aim as the dogs rushed past him. As he squeezed the trigger, the bullet already beyond recall, his awareness caught up with body memory and he saw Gwen, her arm gripped in powerful jaws, being dragged toward the glass. He called out and, as he did, the lead dog breached the surface of the mirror and plunged through. The second dog, the one that had Gwen, followed it through and then Jack’s bullet hit the glass. The mirror cracked and then shattered further as the bodies of the last three dogs slammed into it, strewing glass into the air. As one, they turned on him and he scrambled to his feet already firing his gun.
Tosh looked at the road dubiously. “Are you sure?”
“These are the coordinates you gave me,” Ianto replied looking out the window at the trees. Every few moments he checked the readout on Tosh’s scanner to make sure they were still on track. He was content to sit quietly. He had a lot to think about. Jack’s return had unsettled him, overturning the pattern he’d set for himself when the other man had left so unexpectedly. He was still trying to find a way to reconcile the person he’d become in Jack’s absence with the person Jack had apparently expected to find upon his return. In many ways, he wasn’t the same man anymore. He was more seasoned, more decisive, more confident, and, in some ways, more ruthless. And he wasn’t sure yet how Jack felt about that … or how he felt about
Tosh spun the wheel, turning onto the narrow lane. “So, how are things? We’ve haven’t talked much since Jack got back.”
Ianto replied diffidently, unwilling to share his thoughts, “Fine.”
Tosh stopped the engine and engaged the handbrake. “Fine?” she asked, looking at him searchingly.
“Fine.” Ianto handed her the scanner and then opened the door. He pointed, “It should be right over that rise.”
She stumbled over the rough ground as she led the way to the location.
Just over the hill, there was a small lake, one Ianto had never been to before. The surface of the water was peaceful, dark and glassy, reflecting the clouds and the gray sky. There was a mist rising from the water that grew and grew as they stood watching until it became a dense and compact fog, like white smoke in the air. Tosh stepped forward, closer to the shore, holding the scanner and squinting at the readout. Suddenly the surface of the water split, cracking like glass, and Ianto glimpsed dark shapes writhing beneath the water. One of the shapes edged toward the surface.
“Uh, Tosh?” Ianto said, backing away gingerly.
“What is it?” Tosh breathed, fumbling with the scanner. As she backed away, the dark shape rose above the surface. It looked vaguely like a dog, although it was unnaturally smooth and so black that light seemed to fall into it. It was lying on its side in the water, convulsing restlessly and twisting like a snake, but as the surface split it lifted its head and turned to regard them. It had short, pointed ears that were pricked forward and tiny eyes like marbles. As it broke the surface, it held up its front legs and, instead of paws it had hands like a human, or like a monkey - long-fingered with dull palms. Its hindquarters were thin and its back legs ended in human-like feet that churned in the oily water. It had a long, serpentine tail and at the end of the tail was another hand. The tail uncoiled suddenly, whipping forward, and the hand reached out and grabbed Tosh around the throat. It began to drag her toward the water which was now in a boiling frenzy, more dark limbs breaking the surface here and there.
With a shout, Ianto leapt forward and wrenched at the hand, prying it away from Tosh’s throat as his feet slid in the mud at the edge of the lake. They were both drawn further in. The flesh of the hand was slick and hard to grip, but Ianto twisted sideways and managed to get his thumb under it. He arched his thumb and then yanked back sharply, putting his full weight into the maneuver, breaking the creature’s grip. He followed with a half turn and put his shoulder between Tosh and the creature. She clambered swiftly through the shallows, and he went to follow her. However, the mud beneath his feet gave way treacherously and he lost his balance, falling to his knees. His arms shot out reflexively as he fell and the creature took advantage of his inattention to grab him and yank him backward. He struggled, squelching though the mud, the heavy wet scent of lake bottom thick in his mouth and sinuses, but he couldn’t catch his balance and he was drawn back again, forced swiftly beneath the surface of the water. As he fell backward he took one last deep gasp of air and then he was plunged into darkness, peculiarly separate from everything living except for the rapid thrum of his heartbeat.
On the bank, Tosh gasped for breath, looking at the lake in disbelief. There was a moment of absolute stillness, then a muffled explosion that created circular waves on the flat surface of the lake shook the ground. She looked hopefully, rising to her feet and preparing to dive in and begin the search. The surface of the water broke and a dark head rose above the water. Tosh’s relief was short-lived when she realized that it wasn’t Ianto.
“Gwen?”
As Jack swept the area with his wrist strap, carefully avoiding the corpses of the three dogs, he heard a vibrating sound from the shards of glass. His earpiece suddenly crackled to life and Tosh’s voice broke through. “Jack! Thank goodness! I’ve been trying to reach you.” Her voice broke up, and then was audible again. “Gwen’s here. She must’ve gone through some kind of portal. Is Ianto there at your end?”
“Why would Ianto be here?” Jack felt a spike of fear run through his body, starting in the back of his throat and ending somewhere deep in his gut.
“He was pulled through from this side right before Gwen came out.” The panic in Tosh’s voice was apparent now. “If he isn’t there, I don’t know how to find him.”
Jack looked down at the broken glass, some of it shattered into white dust. “The mirror’s broken. I think he’s trapped inside.”
“We have to get him out, Jack. I saw what’s inside.”
Jack scanned the walls of the room and then searched in vain for an unbroken window, anything he could use to construct a makeshift mirror, his frustration and fear growing with every passing second. He returned to the first room and looked desperately for a mirror, tearing away all of the sheets and having his hopes dashed each time. He ran his hands over the objects on the shelves, knocking priceless artifacts to the floor, until he saw a set of eyes looking at him in the gloom. He recoiled sharply and then reached forward with a triumphant shout. He grabbed the wide obsidian bowl and hastily polished the dust from its surface with his sleeve. He carried it carefully but rapidly into the other room and set it against the wall amidst the glass shards.
It was too small, barely a quarter of the size of the mirror that had taken Gwen. But the dogs shouldn’t have fit through that mirror, he thought frantically, trying to recreate the scene in his mind’s eye. There had to be a trick to it. He knelt down in front of the mirror, wondering how to unlock it.
“Jack?” Tosh’s voice was tinny in his ear.
“Tosh, ask Gwen what it felt like when she went through the mirror. I’m trying to open a doorway for Ianto, but I don’t know how.”
Gwen’s voice, weary and scared, said, “I could feel it calling to me. It was irresistible, like being physically pulled.”
Jack looked at the curved surface of the mirror, peering in to the darkness on the hunt for any motion, any hint of something beyond the surface. “Ianto?” he said tentatively. “Are you there?”
There was no response, no smoke, no motion, no hint that he was not utterly alone in the dead old house.
“Ianto … I uh … I’m not sure what to say to call you back.” He sat back on his heels, speaking to the mirror conversationally. “You know you’re the one who called me back, right? I did come back for you. Yeah, I know that’s cheesy and not the kind of thing I usually say.” He paused. “I’m no good at this.”
He had a mental flash of Ianto’s face when he’d said something similar, when he’d first returned, and he felt a strong, physical ache, a yearning to be in the other man’s arms. A wisp of smoke drifted up from the surface of the mirror. He ran a finger through the smoke, making it dance in the air.
“Is that it? I have to want you?” he laughed. “That’s not a problem. I do want you.” He cleared his throat, checking to make sure his headset was off. “I saw you this morning in the archives, working on the backlog. You had your jacket off and your sleeves were rolled up … I wanted you then.” As a throb of want went through him, another wisp of smoke boiled out of the dark surface and things began to move within the stone.
“I wanted you in that office the other day. You were so nervous. You put your hands on your hips; that’s such a tell, by the way.” He smiled at the memory. “I asked you out, but what I really wanted was to lay you down on one of those desks and feel you under me.” Light began to crawl out of the mirror.
“Ianto?” Jack called. “Ianto, I’m here. Find me.”
The shapes in the obsidian bowl swirled more rapidly, tentacles brushing against the surface from the other side, and Jack steeled himself not to pull away in disgust. Instead, he thought of the last time he’d seen the younger man. “Ianto?” he called again. There was a sudden frenzy amidst the shapes in the dark mirror, and he seemed to see a human shape among the smoke and the living motion. A thick mist poured out of the bowl then, drawing the light even further into the room, and Jack could smell the deep scent of things that had fallen below the surface of the lake and rotted away. He felt another swift stab in his gut and he reached forward into the effulgence. The light was bitterly cold, like shards of ice into his skin. Nevertheless, he focused his thoughts to feel heated desire, attempting to draw Ianto out.
Then he felt warmth, shocking in the midst of that deep cold.
Jack tumbled backwards, scrabbling away from the mirror as the light began to fade. He had his arms wrapped tightly around the sopping wet man who clung to him shivering so deeply that he shook them both. Jack lay back and then pulled the two of them over on their sides, drawing Ianto still closer. The younger man was so cold that Jack could feel his own warmth being leeched away. He wrapped his coat around them both and held him, keeping one eye on the obsidian bowl against the wall.
After a few moments, Jack felt the ragged shivers begin to slow and he tightened his grip again. “Better?” He felt Ianto turn in his arms, burrowing against him in search of animal comfort.
“Better.” With obvious effort, Ianto pulled his face away from Jack’s chest and looked at him.
“What was it like in there?” Jack asked curiously, searching Ianto’s face for some clue.
Ianto grimaced and shivered again. “You don’t tell me about your nightmares. Why should I tell you about mine?”
“Fair enough. Time and place. Not right for this conversation.” Jack looked at Ianto. “But we can have it, if you really want to. Later, maybe?”
Something vulnerable in his voice pierced Ianto’s awareness and he looked at Jack more closely. He nodded. “Yes. Later.”
Jack smiled at him. “OK. Ready to go?” At Ianto’s assent, he loosened his grip and rose, offering a hand to the other man. “Let’s go sort this.” They got to their feet and Jack reached down to lift the bowl. Ianto looked at it curiously. “We’re taking this back to the Hub.”
Ianto preceded Jack out the door, then stopped in front of the SUV. Jack tossed him the keys as he activated his earpiece, and Ianto climbed behind the steering wheel. “Tosh? I’ve got him. Coordinates?”
Owen broke in, “Jack? Tosh? You may want to head back to the Hub instead. I’ve got a build up on the Rift. It’s going to be a big one.”
Jack looked over at Ianto. “Looks like this case will have to go back in the pending file.”
Ianto nodded grimly, swiping at his sodden hair. He started the engine and pulled out into the road. Jack watched his profile as he spoke. “We’ll meet you back at the Hub, Tosh. Owen, I’ll need you ready to take a look at Gwen and Ianto.”
“So,” Ianto said carefully, looking thoughtfully at the small mirror in Jack’s quarters. “Nightmares.” His fingers briefly brushed the surface of the mirror, wiping ay the slight condensation there. He thought about the obsidian bowl, locked up in Jack’s safe, and about what lay beneath the surface of the small lake. He thought about drowning.
“What did you see?” Jack asked curiously from his spot on the bed.
Ianto frowned and touched the bruise on his forehead. “It was dark. Everything was oily, slimy and cold. The smell was … like rot. Things moved all around me, wrapped around me like snakes or tentacles. Kept trying to get inside me, get through my skin. ” His hand shook for an instant and he watched it grimly in the mirror. “And there was this whispering that was inside my head. It wasn’t like psychic training at London; it was … something else. It felt dirty, like I’d never be able to get it out of my head.”
“What did it say?”
“That’s just it. I can’t remember now, although at the time the words were carved into my soul.”
“Your soul,” Jack said flatly.
“Yep.” Ianto turned to face Jack. “Your turn.”
Jack said it quickly, like a speech he had rehearsed. “A year of pointless torture, being murdered as an experiment. Being helpless to protect anyone, including myself. Seeing the man I’d waited all of these years for reduced to helplessness, too.”
Ianto sat next to him on the bed. “The Doctor.” Jack nodded. “But it all worked out, right? I saw the CCTV footage. He dropped you off after everything reset.”
“But it still happened.” Jack’s shoulders bowed and he half turned away.
“No,” Ianto said, drawing him close. “Don’t shut me out just yet. There’s plenty of time for that later. You don’t have to tell me anything else, but let me help you with this.”
Jack laughed. “Don’t change the subject. You were the one who was almost killed today. Shouldn’t we be talking about you?”
“I’d rather talk about you,” Ianto responded, laying one hand on the back of Jack’s neck. “Lie down with me and we’ll talk.”
Jack smiled at him. “Can we do other things, too?”
RECIPIENT WHO HAD BETTER BE GRATEFUL BECAUSE I SPENT TIME THAT I COULD HAVE BEEN DRINKING WRITING THIS SHIT: beesandbrews
SUMMARY: EPISODE TEAM FIC WITH A HAPPY ENDING.
BETA: DEFINITELY NOT FOXY
RATING: FESTIVE, KINDA FESTIVE
WARNING: IMMA REALLY CRAP WRITER AND YOU'RE ALL MUCH BETTER THAN ME - IT'S TRUE!
SPOILERS: JESUS PEOPLE IT'S JUST ABOUT THE TORCHWOOD TEAM DRINKING EGGNOG
DISCLAIMER: THEY'RE NOT MINE. EXCEPT WHEN THEY ARE. IN MAH PANTS.
Sidewinder
Gwen’s boots clattered across the Hub as she crossed over to Tosh’s station. “Tosh, are you done with that analysis yet?”
Without taking her eyes from the screens, Tosh replied mildly, “I just started. It’s going to take me at least another hour of work.” She paused to take a sip of coffee while Gwen looked on impatiently.
After a long moment, Gwen sighed in frustration, dropping into the chair.
“What’s wrong? Wanted to skive off early to see your fee-ahn-say?” Owen snarked as he carried a small containment box through the Hub toward Jack’s office.
“If you must know, I was going to ask Jack if I could get off early. I have some planning I need to do for the wedding.”
“Oh well, the wedding! That’s different!” Owen set down the box on the edge of Tosh’s workstation and lounged against the desk. “I can see why Jack would let you off early for that.”
"Shut up, Owen. So Tosh … it’s really going to take an hour?” Gwen turned pleading eyes on her colleague.
“At least. I still haven’t finished Jack’s translation, and that’s slowing the system down,” Tosh said absently, her fingers stilled on the keyboard as her eyes tracked something on one of her screens. She frowned. Owen watched her profile and thus caught her start when Jack’s voice boomed through the Hub.
“Toshiko! Tell me you’ve cracked it!” Owen glanced over as Jack stepped out of his office and walked over, checking his Webley and shrugging into his coat. “Owen, shouldn’t that containment box be in my office with the other ones? And then you have that autopsy on the lezne to complete - wouldn’t want it to start decomposing. Nasty smelling creatures, even when they’re alive. We’d never get the smell out.”
Owen sighed and hefted the box again. As he walked away, Tosh raised her voice slightly, “Not yet, Jack, and I won’t any time soon if people don’t leave me to get on with it.”
Jack lifted his hands in mock surrender. “OK, OK.” He looked around, “I need someone to go with me to check something out. “ His gaze alighted on Gwen, who looked at him in alarm.
“No, Jack! No! I have things to do! I was going to leave early.” She half rose from her chair; however, she subsided when he pointed at her, raising a questioning eyebrow. She repeated, “No. Absolutely not. Why don’t you take Ianto?”
Jack replied briskly, “Already asked him. He’s busy. Where’s your spirit of adventure, Gwen? Don’t you want to see something amazing?” He gave her an insouciant smile, “Besides, don’t I have to approve you leaving early anyway?”
Gwen clapped her hands onto her thighs and then rose decisively. “Fine! How long will this take?”
“An hour or two? Tosh should be done with my translation and your data by the time we get back. When we get back you can get your results and finish your report.” He frowned and said over his shoulder as he strode from the room, “What was that about again?”
Gwen shrugged into her jacket as she followed him. “It’s that cluster of cases we were tracking while you were gone. Seven people found drowned nowhere near any water, a few of them inside abandoned buildings. The bodies had no eyes, teeth, or nails when they were recovered, but otherwise were perfectly preserved … even the one belonging to a woman who vanished 75 years ago. We’re trying to see if there are any patterns.” Jack grunted, and Gwen compressed her lips in frustration.
In the garage, Gwen climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV. As Jack settled himself behind the steering wheel, clasping its curve with appreciation, Gwen asked, “So what are we investigating?”
“Several years’ worth of sightings of mysterious black dogs.” Jack gunned the engine and pulled out with a jerk.
She rounded on him. “Several years? And we had to check this out today? You know I have an appointment with my florist, right?”
Jack shrugged. “It seemed like a good time to address the backlog. Ianto’s been on me to clear out some of these old cases. I’m trying to stay in his good books.”
“And black dogs? Is that really a Torchwood case? We do have dog catchers here, you know.”
“Not just any black dogs, Gwen. Supernatural black dogs,” Jack said with a grin. She scoffed and he protested, “No, really. You know that werewolves are real, right?” At her skeptical look he added, “They are! They’re aliens, of course.”
Tosh looked up. For once, there was no one loitering nearby, dividing her attention. Where were they? She frowned, recalling snippets of the conversation between Gwen and Jack. “Owen?” she called.
“What?” His voice came from the autopsy bay. He sounded busy, probably in the middle of something.
Sighing, she got up and brushed her hair back from her face. She stretched her back and flexed her hands to uncramp her fingers. She looked down at one of her computer screens one last time, puzzled, and then turned from her station. Walking into the autopsy bay, she asked, “Where is everyone?”
“Jack and Gwen went out to investigate those black dog sightings he’s been talking about every day this week, and Ianto is lurking somewhere.” Owen was elbow deep in the remains of something that made wet squelching sounds as he worked.
“Lurking?”
Owen jerked, spattering brownish fluid across the tiles. “Christ, mate! Don’t do that!”
“I was attempting to bring some order to the chaos Jack has introduced into the paperwork since his return.” Ianto frowned, coming down the steps. “And you can clean that up when you’re done.”
Owen waved a goo-covered hand dismissively. “Why? What’s up, Tosh?”
“I’m done with Jack’s translation and Gwen’s analysis. I’ve got my results.” She stopped.
“And?”
“And I don’t understand them. They seem to be linked, but what are the chances of that?”
Ianto looked at her questioningly, and she said, “Jack took Gwen to go investigate those black dog sightings that have been occurring over the last 100 years or so. He gave me a piece of tech this morning when I came in, said it came through the Rift last night, and asked me to translate the data chip inside. The translation mentions doglike creatures, describes them as dark and shadowy.”
“Maybe he already knew that. He was probably just having you confirm it for reasons known only to himself.” Running a scanner over the corpse on the table and squinting at the readout, Owen added, “What does that have to do with Gwen’s investigation?”
“There’s also a mention in the translation of bodies being mutilated just like the ones Gwen’s checking into. It says, ‘They fell through the glass and their eyes and teeth were devoured.’”
“Have you told Jack?” Ianto asked. He slouched against the wall, his hands in his pockets, carefully avoiding the dripping stain on the tiles.
Tosh shook her head and reached up to touch her headset. “Jack? I have some information for you about the current investigation. Jack?” She paused. “Gwen? Are you there?” She didn’t receive a response, so Ianto tried his headset and then his mobile as well. Nothing.
“Let me close this guy up,” Owen gestured toward the corpse on the table, “and Tosh and I will head out to their location. The tracker on the SUV is still operational, right?”
Ianto replied, “It makes no sense for you to stop what you’re doing. I’ll go with Tosh and you can take comms once you’re done.”
Owen bristled, “Why should I stay behind?”
“I could ask the same thing,” Ianto pointed out. “I think I’ve proven myself in the field.”
Ending the argument, Tosh said decisively, “Ianto, you’re with me. There were some coordinates in the translation; we’ll try there first. Owen, we need you on comms when you’re finished. ”
“What a cute doggie.” Gwen crouched in order to scratch the puppy behind his ears and looked up at the woman standing in the lane. ”Is he yours?”
The woman fumbled with her purse and her shopping bag. She had just come out of her house as Jack had parked the SUV and had stared suspiciously at them until Gwen addressed her directly. Then she had unbent enough to speak to them, although she had pointedly refused to return Jack’s smile. “No. He’s one of those black dogs that live up at the old Marcher place at the end of the road. Doesn’t pay to go up there; they’re pretty wild. People have been bitten.” The woman gestured to her daughter to take her hand and they left without a backward glance.
They walked up to the abandoned house at the end of the lane, and Gwen said sourly, surveying the overgrown property, “This isn’t amazing.”
“Sure it is.” Jack reached out and lightly traced the silvered wood with his fingers. “Don’t you find that ordinary things can be amazing sometimes?”
They entered the front door, which hung loosely on its hinges, and, after a pause to get their bearings, headed into the larger room to the left. Jack was immediately struck with a sense of the familiarity of the scene. When he’d first ended up on Earth, once he’d gotten accustomed to the idea that he might be here a while, he had spent many a pleasant afternoon in homes such as these. On one wall, an immense bookcase held scores of leather bound books and the type of mementos the average well-traveled Victorian gentleman would’ve collected as the Empire spread over the globe. There were vases, antique pots, rolls of cobwebbed paper, and small canvases thickly coated in dust. There was also an entire shelf dedicated to ancient American artifacts: obsidian bowls, all chipped and cracked save one, and stone knives that still carried a sharp edge. Gwen picked up the corner of one of the white sheets draped over irregular shapes in the center of the room and uncovered a heavily embroidered chair discolored by dust and mold. She looked at Jack.
“Let’s check the opposite room,” he said. They went into the other main room and the contrast was immediately apparent. The room was bare, with nothing but a huge framed mirror, almost as tall as Jack, leaning against the sagging wall. The dust in the air in the half light was so thick that it gave the impression of a cloud of smoke hanging in the stillness.
Gwen looked more closely, her vision sharpening in the thick air. “Is the house on fire?” she asked, her voice edged with nervousness.
“It appears to be,” Jack replied grimly. “But it’s coming from the mirror. A smoking mirror.”
“You say that like it has capital letters,” Gwen said, eyeing the clouds of smoke that were billowing from the framed mirror. “What happens now?”
“One witness report I read says that the black dogs come out of the smoking mirror.” They stepped closer. Jack’s nerves were on edge as he peered cautiously into the mottled surface of the mirror. It seem to be lit with a inner glow that made the rest of the room dim, and the haze that hung over it made something sinuous appear to turn and coil just beyond the plane of glass. The hair lifted on the back of his neck and the air in the room grew still like they were all frozen in a photograph.
Suddenly there was a crashing sound behind him and he spun on one heel, his Webley already clenched in his hand. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the flash of Gwen’s gun as she also turned to face the threat. There was another shattering crash and the floor moved as if the house were collapsing. The shadows in the room coalesced into shapes, shapes that grew and moved like the shapes in the mirror. And then a pack of huge black dogs, each one as tall at the shoulder as a horse, bore down on them, seemingly out of thin air. Without hesitation, both he and Gwen opened fire.
In an instant he was on the floor with sharp claws digging into his flesh. He rolled to fix his aim as the dogs rushed past him. As he squeezed the trigger, the bullet already beyond recall, his awareness caught up with body memory and he saw Gwen, her arm gripped in powerful jaws, being dragged toward the glass. He called out and, as he did, the lead dog breached the surface of the mirror and plunged through. The second dog, the one that had Gwen, followed it through and then Jack’s bullet hit the glass. The mirror cracked and then shattered further as the bodies of the last three dogs slammed into it, strewing glass into the air. As one, they turned on him and he scrambled to his feet already firing his gun.
Tosh looked at the road dubiously. “Are you sure?”
“These are the coordinates you gave me,” Ianto replied looking out the window at the trees. Every few moments he checked the readout on Tosh’s scanner to make sure they were still on track. He was content to sit quietly. He had a lot to think about. Jack’s return had unsettled him, overturning the pattern he’d set for himself when the other man had left so unexpectedly. He was still trying to find a way to reconcile the person he’d become in Jack’s absence with the person Jack had apparently expected to find upon his return. In many ways, he wasn’t the same man anymore. He was more seasoned, more decisive, more confident, and, in some ways, more ruthless. And he wasn’t sure yet how Jack felt about that … or how he felt about
Tosh spun the wheel, turning onto the narrow lane. “So, how are things? We’ve haven’t talked much since Jack got back.”
Ianto replied diffidently, unwilling to share his thoughts, “Fine.”
Tosh stopped the engine and engaged the handbrake. “Fine?” she asked, looking at him searchingly.
“Fine.” Ianto handed her the scanner and then opened the door. He pointed, “It should be right over that rise.”
She stumbled over the rough ground as she led the way to the location.
Just over the hill, there was a small lake, one Ianto had never been to before. The surface of the water was peaceful, dark and glassy, reflecting the clouds and the gray sky. There was a mist rising from the water that grew and grew as they stood watching until it became a dense and compact fog, like white smoke in the air. Tosh stepped forward, closer to the shore, holding the scanner and squinting at the readout. Suddenly the surface of the water split, cracking like glass, and Ianto glimpsed dark shapes writhing beneath the water. One of the shapes edged toward the surface.
“Uh, Tosh?” Ianto said, backing away gingerly.
“What is it?” Tosh breathed, fumbling with the scanner. As she backed away, the dark shape rose above the surface. It looked vaguely like a dog, although it was unnaturally smooth and so black that light seemed to fall into it. It was lying on its side in the water, convulsing restlessly and twisting like a snake, but as the surface split it lifted its head and turned to regard them. It had short, pointed ears that were pricked forward and tiny eyes like marbles. As it broke the surface, it held up its front legs and, instead of paws it had hands like a human, or like a monkey - long-fingered with dull palms. Its hindquarters were thin and its back legs ended in human-like feet that churned in the oily water. It had a long, serpentine tail and at the end of the tail was another hand. The tail uncoiled suddenly, whipping forward, and the hand reached out and grabbed Tosh around the throat. It began to drag her toward the water which was now in a boiling frenzy, more dark limbs breaking the surface here and there.
With a shout, Ianto leapt forward and wrenched at the hand, prying it away from Tosh’s throat as his feet slid in the mud at the edge of the lake. They were both drawn further in. The flesh of the hand was slick and hard to grip, but Ianto twisted sideways and managed to get his thumb under it. He arched his thumb and then yanked back sharply, putting his full weight into the maneuver, breaking the creature’s grip. He followed with a half turn and put his shoulder between Tosh and the creature. She clambered swiftly through the shallows, and he went to follow her. However, the mud beneath his feet gave way treacherously and he lost his balance, falling to his knees. His arms shot out reflexively as he fell and the creature took advantage of his inattention to grab him and yank him backward. He struggled, squelching though the mud, the heavy wet scent of lake bottom thick in his mouth and sinuses, but he couldn’t catch his balance and he was drawn back again, forced swiftly beneath the surface of the water. As he fell backward he took one last deep gasp of air and then he was plunged into darkness, peculiarly separate from everything living except for the rapid thrum of his heartbeat.
On the bank, Tosh gasped for breath, looking at the lake in disbelief. There was a moment of absolute stillness, then a muffled explosion that created circular waves on the flat surface of the lake shook the ground. She looked hopefully, rising to her feet and preparing to dive in and begin the search. The surface of the water broke and a dark head rose above the water. Tosh’s relief was short-lived when she realized that it wasn’t Ianto.
“Gwen?”
As Jack swept the area with his wrist strap, carefully avoiding the corpses of the three dogs, he heard a vibrating sound from the shards of glass. His earpiece suddenly crackled to life and Tosh’s voice broke through. “Jack! Thank goodness! I’ve been trying to reach you.” Her voice broke up, and then was audible again. “Gwen’s here. She must’ve gone through some kind of portal. Is Ianto there at your end?”
“Why would Ianto be here?” Jack felt a spike of fear run through his body, starting in the back of his throat and ending somewhere deep in his gut.
“He was pulled through from this side right before Gwen came out.” The panic in Tosh’s voice was apparent now. “If he isn’t there, I don’t know how to find him.”
Jack looked down at the broken glass, some of it shattered into white dust. “The mirror’s broken. I think he’s trapped inside.”
“We have to get him out, Jack. I saw what’s inside.”
Jack scanned the walls of the room and then searched in vain for an unbroken window, anything he could use to construct a makeshift mirror, his frustration and fear growing with every passing second. He returned to the first room and looked desperately for a mirror, tearing away all of the sheets and having his hopes dashed each time. He ran his hands over the objects on the shelves, knocking priceless artifacts to the floor, until he saw a set of eyes looking at him in the gloom. He recoiled sharply and then reached forward with a triumphant shout. He grabbed the wide obsidian bowl and hastily polished the dust from its surface with his sleeve. He carried it carefully but rapidly into the other room and set it against the wall amidst the glass shards.
It was too small, barely a quarter of the size of the mirror that had taken Gwen. But the dogs shouldn’t have fit through that mirror, he thought frantically, trying to recreate the scene in his mind’s eye. There had to be a trick to it. He knelt down in front of the mirror, wondering how to unlock it.
“Jack?” Tosh’s voice was tinny in his ear.
“Tosh, ask Gwen what it felt like when she went through the mirror. I’m trying to open a doorway for Ianto, but I don’t know how.”
Gwen’s voice, weary and scared, said, “I could feel it calling to me. It was irresistible, like being physically pulled.”
Jack looked at the curved surface of the mirror, peering in to the darkness on the hunt for any motion, any hint of something beyond the surface. “Ianto?” he said tentatively. “Are you there?”
There was no response, no smoke, no motion, no hint that he was not utterly alone in the dead old house.
“Ianto … I uh … I’m not sure what to say to call you back.” He sat back on his heels, speaking to the mirror conversationally. “You know you’re the one who called me back, right? I did come back for you. Yeah, I know that’s cheesy and not the kind of thing I usually say.” He paused. “I’m no good at this.”
He had a mental flash of Ianto’s face when he’d said something similar, when he’d first returned, and he felt a strong, physical ache, a yearning to be in the other man’s arms. A wisp of smoke drifted up from the surface of the mirror. He ran a finger through the smoke, making it dance in the air.
“Is that it? I have to want you?” he laughed. “That’s not a problem. I do want you.” He cleared his throat, checking to make sure his headset was off. “I saw you this morning in the archives, working on the backlog. You had your jacket off and your sleeves were rolled up … I wanted you then.” As a throb of want went through him, another wisp of smoke boiled out of the dark surface and things began to move within the stone.
“I wanted you in that office the other day. You were so nervous. You put your hands on your hips; that’s such a tell, by the way.” He smiled at the memory. “I asked you out, but what I really wanted was to lay you down on one of those desks and feel you under me.” Light began to crawl out of the mirror.
“Ianto?” Jack called. “Ianto, I’m here. Find me.”
The shapes in the obsidian bowl swirled more rapidly, tentacles brushing against the surface from the other side, and Jack steeled himself not to pull away in disgust. Instead, he thought of the last time he’d seen the younger man. “Ianto?” he called again. There was a sudden frenzy amidst the shapes in the dark mirror, and he seemed to see a human shape among the smoke and the living motion. A thick mist poured out of the bowl then, drawing the light even further into the room, and Jack could smell the deep scent of things that had fallen below the surface of the lake and rotted away. He felt another swift stab in his gut and he reached forward into the effulgence. The light was bitterly cold, like shards of ice into his skin. Nevertheless, he focused his thoughts to feel heated desire, attempting to draw Ianto out.
Then he felt warmth, shocking in the midst of that deep cold.
Jack tumbled backwards, scrabbling away from the mirror as the light began to fade. He had his arms wrapped tightly around the sopping wet man who clung to him shivering so deeply that he shook them both. Jack lay back and then pulled the two of them over on their sides, drawing Ianto still closer. The younger man was so cold that Jack could feel his own warmth being leeched away. He wrapped his coat around them both and held him, keeping one eye on the obsidian bowl against the wall.
After a few moments, Jack felt the ragged shivers begin to slow and he tightened his grip again. “Better?” He felt Ianto turn in his arms, burrowing against him in search of animal comfort.
“Better.” With obvious effort, Ianto pulled his face away from Jack’s chest and looked at him.
“What was it like in there?” Jack asked curiously, searching Ianto’s face for some clue.
Ianto grimaced and shivered again. “You don’t tell me about your nightmares. Why should I tell you about mine?”
“Fair enough. Time and place. Not right for this conversation.” Jack looked at Ianto. “But we can have it, if you really want to. Later, maybe?”
Something vulnerable in his voice pierced Ianto’s awareness and he looked at Jack more closely. He nodded. “Yes. Later.”
Jack smiled at him. “OK. Ready to go?” At Ianto’s assent, he loosened his grip and rose, offering a hand to the other man. “Let’s go sort this.” They got to their feet and Jack reached down to lift the bowl. Ianto looked at it curiously. “We’re taking this back to the Hub.”
Ianto preceded Jack out the door, then stopped in front of the SUV. Jack tossed him the keys as he activated his earpiece, and Ianto climbed behind the steering wheel. “Tosh? I’ve got him. Coordinates?”
Owen broke in, “Jack? Tosh? You may want to head back to the Hub instead. I’ve got a build up on the Rift. It’s going to be a big one.”
Jack looked over at Ianto. “Looks like this case will have to go back in the pending file.”
Ianto nodded grimly, swiping at his sodden hair. He started the engine and pulled out into the road. Jack watched his profile as he spoke. “We’ll meet you back at the Hub, Tosh. Owen, I’ll need you ready to take a look at Gwen and Ianto.”
“So,” Ianto said carefully, looking thoughtfully at the small mirror in Jack’s quarters. “Nightmares.” His fingers briefly brushed the surface of the mirror, wiping ay the slight condensation there. He thought about the obsidian bowl, locked up in Jack’s safe, and about what lay beneath the surface of the small lake. He thought about drowning.
“What did you see?” Jack asked curiously from his spot on the bed.
Ianto frowned and touched the bruise on his forehead. “It was dark. Everything was oily, slimy and cold. The smell was … like rot. Things moved all around me, wrapped around me like snakes or tentacles. Kept trying to get inside me, get through my skin. ” His hand shook for an instant and he watched it grimly in the mirror. “And there was this whispering that was inside my head. It wasn’t like psychic training at London; it was … something else. It felt dirty, like I’d never be able to get it out of my head.”
“What did it say?”
“That’s just it. I can’t remember now, although at the time the words were carved into my soul.”
“Your soul,” Jack said flatly.
“Yep.” Ianto turned to face Jack. “Your turn.”
Jack said it quickly, like a speech he had rehearsed. “A year of pointless torture, being murdered as an experiment. Being helpless to protect anyone, including myself. Seeing the man I’d waited all of these years for reduced to helplessness, too.”
Ianto sat next to him on the bed. “The Doctor.” Jack nodded. “But it all worked out, right? I saw the CCTV footage. He dropped you off after everything reset.”
“But it still happened.” Jack’s shoulders bowed and he half turned away.
“No,” Ianto said, drawing him close. “Don’t shut me out just yet. There’s plenty of time for that later. You don’t have to tell me anything else, but let me help you with this.”
Jack laughed. “Don’t change the subject. You were the one who was almost killed today. Shouldn’t we be talking about you?”
“I’d rather talk about you,” Ianto responded, laying one hand on the back of Jack’s neck. “Lie down with me and we’ll talk.”
Jack smiled at him. “Can we do other things, too?”