Turning Point - 34/64
Title: Turning Point
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: budding Jack/Ianto, references to past Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Some information and events from s1,2. NONE for s3.
Summary: In the aftermath of Lisa's death, Ianto is struggling to cope - and new surprises don't help matters much. Can his friends on the team at Torchwood help him carry on?
Author's Note: Sequel to Guilt.
Thanks to: My beta cazmalfoy, angelzbabe1989 for idea bouncing, and morbid_sparks for cheerleading even when she doesn'tdidn't know what happens.
Previous chapters at master list
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ianto hadn’t long finished getting all of the relevant CCTV loaded into the system and was brewing the second round of coffees for the day when there was a slightly muffled beep from the office area, followed by the sounds of Tosh scuttling across to the machine attached to their analysis equipment.
“Finally got the results on the gas analysis!” she called up to Jack.
“And?” He could see Jack at his desk if he cricked his neck a little; the Captain had temporarily given up on the reverse route tracking of the meteorite after finding that they didn’t have enough data beyond a certain distance from the Earth. The remaining possibilities were apparently almost endless.
“Vorax and Suranium.”
Ianto frowned as he put the mugs for everyone onto a tray, trying to remember if he’d seen either of those names come up in the sections of the archived files he’d been sorting.
“Oh, two of my favourites,” Jack said, a wry grin on his face. “Do we know anything about them at all?”
Ianto handed Owen his coffee mug on his way down to the medical bay, where Owen kept all his own records of alien substances that might have any medical effect.
“I’m on it!” Owen called back.
“Any luck with the CCTV?” Jack asked as Ianto handed the rest of the coffees around.
“Program should nearly be done, now,” Tosh replied.
Gwen came to stand just behind Ianto near Tosh’s desk. “Program for what?”
“I’ve taken an image of the girl from the club CCTV,” Tosh explained. “And the program cross-checks her face with the UK population.”
Gwen shook her head. “You surely can’t have the face of every single person in the UK on there. That goes again civil liberties, data protection, all that stuff - you can’t do that.”
Jack leant between Gwen and Ianto. “I think you’ll find that we can and do, when necessary.”
“But…”
Gwen was silenced as the program finished running, flashing a results screen on the monitor.
“One hundred and nineteen possible matches,” Jack read from the window. “Not quite the single answer we were hoping for.”
Tosh sighed. “The CCTV was just too low res. I magnified it and enhanced it and cleaned it up as much as I could, but there just wasn’t enough detail for the program to function properly.”
Ianto looked around at them, slightly surprised at the pessimism being displayed about the results. “Well, it’s narrowed it down at least; a hundred and nineteen, from millions. I could look through the rest the old fashioned way.”
Jack, Gwen and Tosh all shot him confused looks. “You know,” he said dryly, “with my eyes?” He waved a hand at said features for emphasis.
Jack patted his shoulder. “Good thinking.” Tosh was still typing the commands to send the group of pictures and details to Ianto’s own tiny workstation near the kitchen area when Jack started talking again, throwing out ideas in a way that Ianto knew bore results surprisingly often.
“Tosh, is there any way we can trace her movements backwards, to before she got herself possessed? The CCTV cameras must have picked up when she arrived at the club, we could follow her back through the street network, see where she started.”
Tosh looked sceptical. “Every turning on every street corner, that’s thousands of possibilities. Could take a while, and we might not even follow her home.”
Jack nodded. “I know. Give it a shot anyway. At least it will tell us something.”
There was a thoughtful look on Gwen’s face. “We could cross-reference the last point we do see her with the addresses for the faces, once Ianto has narrowed them down even further.”
A wide grin spread across Jack’s face. “Now we’re getting somewhere!”
It was nearly an hour - and yet another hastily brewed round of coffee - before Ianto was finished checking through all the possible matching faces, and just a little longer before the CCTV tracking system spit anything out, but within minutes of that, they had a breakthrough.
“Jack!” Tosh called. “I think we’ve got her address!”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Comments and concrit are loved!
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: budding Jack/Ianto, references to past Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Some information and events from s1,2. NONE for s3.
Summary: In the aftermath of Lisa's death, Ianto is struggling to cope - and new surprises don't help matters much. Can his friends on the team at Torchwood help him carry on?
Author's Note: Sequel to Guilt.
Thanks to: My beta cazmalfoy, angelzbabe1989 for idea bouncing, and morbid_sparks for cheerleading even when she doesn'tdidn't know what happens.
Previous chapters at master list
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ianto hadn’t long finished getting all of the relevant CCTV loaded into the system and was brewing the second round of coffees for the day when there was a slightly muffled beep from the office area, followed by the sounds of Tosh scuttling across to the machine attached to their analysis equipment.
“Finally got the results on the gas analysis!” she called up to Jack.
“And?” He could see Jack at his desk if he cricked his neck a little; the Captain had temporarily given up on the reverse route tracking of the meteorite after finding that they didn’t have enough data beyond a certain distance from the Earth. The remaining possibilities were apparently almost endless.
“Vorax and Suranium.”
Ianto frowned as he put the mugs for everyone onto a tray, trying to remember if he’d seen either of those names come up in the sections of the archived files he’d been sorting.
“Oh, two of my favourites,” Jack said, a wry grin on his face. “Do we know anything about them at all?”
Ianto handed Owen his coffee mug on his way down to the medical bay, where Owen kept all his own records of alien substances that might have any medical effect.
“I’m on it!” Owen called back.
“Any luck with the CCTV?” Jack asked as Ianto handed the rest of the coffees around.
“Program should nearly be done, now,” Tosh replied.
Gwen came to stand just behind Ianto near Tosh’s desk. “Program for what?”
“I’ve taken an image of the girl from the club CCTV,” Tosh explained. “And the program cross-checks her face with the UK population.”
Gwen shook her head. “You surely can’t have the face of every single person in the UK on there. That goes again civil liberties, data protection, all that stuff - you can’t do that.”
Jack leant between Gwen and Ianto. “I think you’ll find that we can and do, when necessary.”
“But…”
Gwen was silenced as the program finished running, flashing a results screen on the monitor.
“One hundred and nineteen possible matches,” Jack read from the window. “Not quite the single answer we were hoping for.”
Tosh sighed. “The CCTV was just too low res. I magnified it and enhanced it and cleaned it up as much as I could, but there just wasn’t enough detail for the program to function properly.”
Ianto looked around at them, slightly surprised at the pessimism being displayed about the results. “Well, it’s narrowed it down at least; a hundred and nineteen, from millions. I could look through the rest the old fashioned way.”
Jack, Gwen and Tosh all shot him confused looks. “You know,” he said dryly, “with my eyes?” He waved a hand at said features for emphasis.
Jack patted his shoulder. “Good thinking.” Tosh was still typing the commands to send the group of pictures and details to Ianto’s own tiny workstation near the kitchen area when Jack started talking again, throwing out ideas in a way that Ianto knew bore results surprisingly often.
“Tosh, is there any way we can trace her movements backwards, to before she got herself possessed? The CCTV cameras must have picked up when she arrived at the club, we could follow her back through the street network, see where she started.”
Tosh looked sceptical. “Every turning on every street corner, that’s thousands of possibilities. Could take a while, and we might not even follow her home.”
Jack nodded. “I know. Give it a shot anyway. At least it will tell us something.”
There was a thoughtful look on Gwen’s face. “We could cross-reference the last point we do see her with the addresses for the faces, once Ianto has narrowed them down even further.”
A wide grin spread across Jack’s face. “Now we’re getting somewhere!”
It was nearly an hour - and yet another hastily brewed round of coffee - before Ianto was finished checking through all the possible matching faces, and just a little longer before the CCTV tracking system spit anything out, but within minutes of that, they had a breakthrough.
“Jack!” Tosh called. “I think we’ve got her address!”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Comments and concrit are loved!