Don't pity the bullet and pity the man who both find their place in the same sad plan...

[definitivestep]

Gwen has been waiting in the lobby of the Kashtta for some time now, waiting impatiently for everyone to get back, or at least report in one way or another. Where are they, where are they, what happenedAnd then an SUV pulls up outside, in view of the front doors. Gwen lunges to her feet and half runs out the door, but she can see before she's even

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[the_vesmier]

The Vesmier came back in with the TARDIS. Hard not to. He was the one left to finish the delta wave when the Doctor had to make it to the bomb, and he did, and-

He has some sense that it worked. In any case, Thane is nowhere any more - he can scan for that, can sense it, and were that not the case he doubts the Doctor and they themselves would have been left unmolested at the bomb sites.

So between getting in and now, he's stopped by the Rani's makeshift lab and had words with her. Thanked her for coming and the work she's done and advised her to leave. It's unlikely the humans will want her around, unlikely that her presence would help matters, unlikely that she would want to remain in this company anyway.

That's done. This is done, in tactical terms, even if in other terms it's anything but.

He approaches Gwen quietly, looking her over. Shock, his mind tells him; he's been reading on humans and human conditions. Likely, in this case, not physical but psychological. He understands temporal shock and medical shock and...

[torchwoodsheart]

Gwen looks up at the touch on her shoulder, tries for a faltering smile that doesn't quite make it. It was meant to convince him she's perfectly fine, no need to worry about her, but... she's not sure it quite made it there.

"It worked. The delta wave. Sam ran into Thane just before..." She shakes her head a little. "Anyway, thank you."

[the_vesmier]

"I know," he says. He felt it. And that's not why he's here. I only wish it could have been done sooner.

Oh, the ways in which he doesn't know how to do this. The ways in which Gallifrey prepared him for nothing like this. Even the TARDIS would be better equipped to handle this sort of thing. The TARDIS isn't here, though - rather, she is, but outside and thus too far away.

"...you're not injured," he says after a moment, seeking confirmation. He knows she isn't. Suspects, at least, though he can help her to an infirmary if she is. But there's something wrong, and he can't just reach in and fix it.

[torchwoodsheart]

"No," she murmurs, shaking her head a little, and then laughs, a little too high and soft to be entirely reassuring. "I'm just... I didn't actually think it would work." After everything they've tried, every time they came so close... It seems like forever she's been doing this, and Thane was the centre of everything for all that time and she just...

She takes a breath. "I'll be alright."

[anystranger]

There may or... may be a robot subtly tailing Sam the moment he hits the second floor.

It's not moving to intercept him. Really, if one were to observe it, one might note that it's going out of its way to be unobtrusive - at least, as unobtrusive as a 6'3" antipersonnel robot can be while still trying to keep a target in its line of sight.

Sam can feel free not to notice or question it, but it's there, lookin' out for him.

[definitivestep]

Sam notices the robot. Doesn't really want to, but it's a large person-shaped robot - you tend to notice these things. He sighs, and swings around to face it, because he gets the feeling it's not going away. "You don't need to follow me. I'm fine. It's not even-"

No. It is his blood. It's just...

He is not explaining how he died and came back to a robot.

[anystranger]

{This unit has preprogrammed priorities including: 1) to ensure the health and safety of Torchwood personnel,} the robot says. {Unit programmed via direct psychic interface ID 462O1:C24A401 and literal physical interface; Unit has … … … … … data on certain occurrences within elapsed timeline. Explication not necessary.}

It doesn't step forward. Nor does it back away.

{This unit was requisitioned after review of immediate elapsed timeline and could not impact controlling timeline events; Immediate timeline has elapsed; No further timeline-controlled restrictions exist. This unit is at your disposal.}

[definitivestep]

Sam blinks at it for a second. Waits, because that's generally a safe reaction with the robot, just in case it has anything more to say. And then he sighs, shaking his head. "There's not much left to do. Just... do whatever it is you do when you're not following people." Is it ever?

[lionofmanc]

And there's Gene, just sort of... Lurking, since there's not a thing he can do, otherwise.

The moment he sees Sam, though, he's by his side, white as the proverbial sheet.

"...Sam." If any of that blood's his, if any of it's his, he's going to find Thane or Jack or whoever he is and bloody well rip his guts out and tie them 'round his neck in a pretty bow.

[definitivestep]

Sam glances over to Gene, and he'd try to look reassuring, but with a shirt that used to be light blue and is now just red, that's going to be hard. He decides not to bother. "I'm fine," he says, though it sounds more of an automatic reassurance than anything actually true. He only died, but other than that he's... really fine. "It's just..."

He reaches up to his chest again. He keeps doing that, because it seems wrong that there's nothing there. "I'm not hurt." That's better than I'm fine. It has the advantage of being true.

[lionofmanc]

"Then why are you acting like you should be?" Gene's moving, instantly, when he sees Sam's hand go to his chest. He takes Sam by the shoulder with one hand, and the other goes to Sam's chest, gently probing.

Unbroken skin. And a hole in his shirt he's willing to bet was made by a bullet.

"Talk to me," he snaps, and this is not fucking around, this is not Sam's worried ~boyfriend, this is his bloody DCI, and he is going to damn well talk.

[definitivestep]

Sam considers shaking Gene off, starts to twist away instinctively to do just that, but stops himself after a second. Gene's not letting this go, he can tell already, and it's pointless to try to convince him to. He grimaces and looks up to meet Gene's eyes, not quite glaring.

"He shot Mat. And then he shot me." Pause. "I have to... take off this shirt." Because a clean shirt's going to fix all his problems.

[hey_capn_jack]

Sometime around midnight, when most of the adrenaline has worn out and most of Torchwood has crashed, there's a flare in the lobby.

The flare resolves itself into two wrist devices, one partially cannibalized to fix the other, neither one with a person attached. The flare's not quite a teleport from either one - more like the same insertion technology which dumped a robot there earlier. The larger and more complete one blinks a status readout, otherwise still on the wide cool floor.

[techniclybrill]

Tosh notices the flare - she's a little primed to notice those things, after the month she's had, and she jolts out of a half-doze to grab her gun from beside the bed, move down to the lobby as quickly and quietly as possible and...

She lowers her gun when she sees the wrist devices just... sitting there. Waiting. After a moment she walks the rest of the way over to them, leans down and picks them up. She's held Jack's wristband before, once or twice, but it still feels wrong - it feels like a part of him, not right unless he's attached to it or nearby, and...

Tosh turns slowly and starts back up the stairs, weighing the wristbands in her hand as she does.

[egyptiansoldier]

Daniel doesn't see Gwen right away, but halfway across the lobby he stops, tipped off by the quiet sound of someone else breathing. For one terrible moment he wonders if maybe the delta wave didn't work, but then he sees her and now he doesn't know what to think. But whether the plan worked or not, he can't just walk past like this, without doing or even saying anything. So he sets his P90 down on the desk and sits down next to her, far enough away to avoid invading her personal space but close enough to talk.

He doesn't ask if she's all right. That's always seemed like an immensely stupid question. So instead he asks, "What happened?"

[torchwoodsheart]

Gwen looks over at him, giving him a quiet, rather worn smile at the question. "The delta wave worked. Hart's dead, Mat's in the hospital, Sam's back, fine."

Pause.

"Jack's gone." Her voice is almost flat when she says that. She can't decide how she feels about that, whether she'd really prefer if he were here, after everything, or if it might be better that he's gone, it's just... She always expected he would be back. Jack's supposed to come back, no matter what...

[egyptiansoldier]

Daniel says nothing at first, just... processing the implications of it all. Good news, bad news. It's not too terribly surprising, but it is a little demoralizing. He forgets sometimes that Torchwood are technically civilians. They've seen a lot, been through hell all on their own, and it just isn't the same for them

[torchwoodsheart]

Gwen listens quietly as he talks, studying his face, and while she can't quite reach emotion past exhaustion and some level of shock, and while it's not the most encouraging thing she's ever heard... she appreciates it.

"I probably should have... It's Jack. It's not like he hasn't just left before..." Several times. But he came back. He has to come back, and while she can't exactly hold a vigil beside his body like the first time, maybe if she waits...