A New Dawn 19
Part: 19/?
Rating: 18+
Warnings: Mentions of previous torture and rape
Genre: Angst, AU
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Owen, Tosh, Gwen
Summary: AU. The Torchwood team discover the truth about what happened on the Valiant and search for Jack. A dark fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
AN:The next chapter is here, and also a bonus fic in the next post. I have branched out, in a small way, to BBC Sherlock fiction. My first ever venture into non Torchwood/Doctor Who fic! So, if you like Sherlock, check it out. Don't worry though, A New Dawn is my highest priority.
Previous chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/26563.html
Chapter 19
After Tosh, Ianto and Mark left for home, Owen headed down to the bunker to sleep. Joanne would monitor Jack, while catching up with her regular Torchwood work. Gwen was taking over from Mark and Tosh, in searching the UNIT staff database, trying to find the identity of the three men who had attacked Jack. She was very grateful that, before he became incoherent, Jack had said that the men had been guards at his prison. It cut down the databases she needed to search by a huge factor. It was a shame that he hadn't said which prison he was at, though. She had never realised before, just how many secure facilities UNIT had in the UK. Skipping those that Mark and Tosh had already covered, Gwen opened a separate computer window with photos of the dead men, and started her search.
Three hours and four cups of coffee later, Gwen found the first man. He was one of the privates on staff at the UNIT high security facility in Cumbria. Finding the other two was simple after that. All three were assigned to that prison.
Bringing all three personnel files up on the computer, Gwen called Joanne over, to double check her identification. They both agreed, but decided to leave it until morning to inform Owen.
* * * *
Joanne checked on Jack, several times through the night. The alien device seemed to be working perfectly. Jack was unconscious and peaceful.
At 3am Mark arrived to relieve Gwen, and work the remainder of the night. Still worrying about the surveillance the Hub had been under, he was checking estate agency records of all the rented flats that overlooked the Plas. He found two which had been rented in the few days after Jack had been pardoned. Following up the people who had signed the leases, he found that one checked out as perfectly normal; an accountant, single, in his late 20s. Independent sources confirmed the information. But, for the other flat, there were no records of the man who had rented it. It was a fictitious identity.
* * * *
At 8am the next morning, Ianto and Tosh came back in. Owen had relieved Joanne earlier, and she was now down in the bunker.
They met in the boardroom. “Gwen found the men,” Owen informed them. “All three were assigned to the UNIT facility in Cumbria.”
“So Jack was right,” exclaimed Ianto. “UNIT really were after him.”
“But why?” asked Tosh. “UNIT are bastards, but even they have to honour a Royal Pardon.”
“Apparently someone in UNIT doesn't think so,” commented Owen.
“Do you think this Major Stamford is from UNIT?” asked Ianto.
“I checked this morning,” Owen told him. “There are four Major Stamfords currently active in the British forces. One is attached to UNIT, but not to the prison where Jack was.”
“So it's possible then,” commented Mark.
“Yes,” Owen agreed, “but we can't tell without more information. He could just have been one of Jack's clients in Manchester.”
“We could ask Jack when he wakes up,” Tosh suggested.
“I don't think he'd tell us,” Ianto put in. “He's been very close mouthed about everything, and who can blame him. He may well tell us about the EMP if we ask, but there was obviously some trauma associated with his dealings with this Major Stamford. He probably won't want to tell us about it. I think he is beginning to trust us again, but we've still got a long way to go. Just look at how hard he found it to tell us about the drugs.”
“There is someone we could ask,” Owen mused aloud. “The guy who gave us the DVDs. He was at the prison with Jack. He might have some information that would help explain all this.”
“Yes, but he didn't give his name, and he may well not be willing to talk to you again,” Mark pointed out. “And you don't want to out him to UNIT as the whistle blower.”
“I might recognise him, if I saw his photo,” Owen answered, ignoring the potential problems that Mark had highlighted. “And we know which prison Jack was kept in now, so I might be able to pick him out from their personnel roster.”
* * * *
At his first opportunity, Mark had, with Owen's authorisation, got the key for the suspicious flat from the estate agents. He and Ianto now stood at the door, guns drawn. Unlocking the door quietly, they pushed the door open suddenly, and burst in. There was no reaction. The flat was empty. In fact, it had been cleared out. There was no furniture, and the only thing left was an ashtray full of cigarette butts.
* * * *
Owen spent an hour looking through the UNIT personnel files, that Tosh had hacked into. He was going cross eyed, gazing at each soldier in turn. “You know all soldiers look alike,” he groused to Tosh. “It's the haircut.”
“I think Gwen, Mark and I would agree with you,” Tosh smiled. “We've looked through a lot more files than you have.”
Eventually, Owen leaned back and said flatly, “It's no good. He's not here. I've gone through them three times, and I'm certain.” His disappointment was palpable.
Tosh was also very disappointed, but then a thought struck her. “Wait a minute,” she cried. “Is that the current personnel file?”
Owen nodded.
“Well, why don't you check for personnel who were there when Jack was, but have since been reassigned?”
“Tosh, you're brilliant,” exclaimed Owen. Half an hour later, he suddenly tensed at his terminal and shouted, “That's him, at least I think it is. He's John Peterson, currently assigned to UNIT's base in Trowbridge, but before that he was assigned to the high security prison in Cumbria.
“Right, we need to get in touch with him, without doing anything that would incriminate him,” Owen declared, leaping up and clapping his hands. “I think this is a job for you and Gwen.”
* * * *
After returning to the Hub, Ianto went to visit Jack. He was now sitting with him, in his room, worrying. Jack was peacefully asleep, much to his relief. He didn't think he could have coped with seeing Jack continue to suffer the horror he had been going through. Thank god for alien tech. But what would happen when they woke Jack? It was too much to hope for; that Jack would have passed through the trauma, by the time he awoke. And that meant that they would have to give him more heroin.
The whole team were painfully aware of the indescribably traumatic nature of Jack's memories, and the sheer number of them. Ianto didn't have to be a doctor to figure out that, if Jack could not kick heroin because withdrawal triggered horrendous memories, then they needed to help Jack deal with his memories before they could help with his heroin addiction. Owen had said, right from the start, when he suggested a methadone program, that Jack should receive counselling In hindsight, knowing what Jack had gone through on the Valiant, he should have been given counselling as soon as the Master was defeated. But instead, he had been reviled, and treated as a traitor, by the very people he should have been able to count on for help. Jack had never had the chance to heal, even a little, after the trauma with the Master. And it had led to this.
As he mused, Ianto was searching on his laptop. He was looking in Torchwood secure files, for information on the therapist who had dealt with the Torchwood 1 survivors. Along with the other survivors, Ianto had been offered therapy. If he was honest with himself, he had needed it. But he had declined, as his whole existence, then, had been focused on saving Lisa. Opening himself up to a therapist, was not compatible with all the secrets he had needed to keep.
Jack couldn't have just any therapist. The nature of the trauma, and the circumstances in which it occurred, meant that someone who knew of the nature of Torchwood's work was required. They would believe in a timeline that had been reversed, and what had happened during that time. If Jack was willing, this therapist would be ideal.
* * * *
When she arrived at the Hub for her afternoon shift. Gwen was surprised to find herself, and Tosh, preparing to head off to Trowbridge, undercover Since Torchwood now knew that UNIT soldiers had been watching them, probably for months, they were taking precautions. Even though it was unlikely that any of those soldiers would be in Trowbridge, they didn't want to be recognised. Both women were disguised, and wearing sexy clothes that Ianto had somehow acquired. Their own families would not have recognised them. It was the first time that Gwen had been blonde.
It was only a one and a half hour drive to Trowbridge from Cardiff, so Tosh and Gwen arrived there at about 5pm. They checked into a hotel, as they expected to be there overnight. Then they headed for the pub nearest the UNIT base, where off duty soldiers would hang out. Ordering drinks, they sipped slowly, and checked out every patron who came in. The clients were almost exclusively male soldiers.
“I hope Mark's right, that all the squaddies head to the nearest pub when they get off shift,” Tosh murmured. “Or this could be a total waste of time.”
“Well,” Gwen replied, “Peterson was definitely due to work a shift today, Owen checked. So it's worth a shot, at least.”
Midway through the evening, Gwen and Tosh had been fending off advances for hours, and were getting fed up of being hit on by unimaginative soldiers.
“Now I know how Ianto felt, in that pub in Manchester,” commented Tosh.
Finally their target walked into the bar. He was alone. As he went to the bar to order, Gwen sidled up beside him and, smiling, said “Buy a girl a drink?”
The soldier looked surprised, but smiled and said “sure.” When they had their drinks, Gwen invited him to sit at the table with her and Tosh. The pub was loud, with soldiers carousing and the music blaring, so Gwen felt safe in whispering in the soldier's ear. It wasn't what he wanted to hear of course. “We're Torchwood, we need to talk to you.”
The soldier looked alarmed, and hissed back “Not here!”
“Come back to our hotel with us then” Gwen suggested. “You can pretend to be taking me home, and Tosh will follow on in a few minutes.”
Peterson reluctantly agreed and, taking Gwen's arm, he walked out with her to a chorus of catcalls from the other soldiers. Tosh made her escape, via the ladies, soon after.
When they reached the hotel, Peterson turned to Gwen and said angrily “What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you know the danger that you'll put me in if UNIT find out it was me who told you lot about the Valiant?”
“Yes,” Gwen apologised, secretly pleased to know that Owen had got his identification right. “We're sorry to do this, but we really need your help. It's Jack Harkness. There are things going on with him that we don't understand. And we suspect that UNIT may have something to do with it. It's more than what happened on the Valiant, as if that wasn't enough. We need to understand, to help him.”
Peterson looked guilty, as he remembered how UNIT had treated Harkness in the prison. He really didn't want to admit to what had happened, even if, at the time, everyone had believed Harkness guilty of treason. But he owed Jack Harkness his life, so he could hardly refuse to help.
Sighing he acquiesced. “OK, what do you want to know?”
* * * * *
At the Hub, the time had come to bring Jack back to consciousness. By mutual agreement, Joanne and Owen had left a few extra hours for the methadone to dissipate, ensuring that it would be at a very low level before Jack awoke. They had a syringe, filled with Jack's usual dose of heroin, standing by.
Ianto and Mark were in the room with them, preparing to hold Jack still for the injection, if he was still incoherent. Everyone was hoping desperately that, by some miracle, Jack would be improving, and they would not have to give him the heroin. No one really believed that, though.
“Everyone ready?” asked Owen.
The others nodded, so he plucked the device off Jack's forehead and placed it in a metal box.
Within seconds, Jack began to murmur and thrash around. He opened his eyes, but was not seeing reality. Mark and Ianto were holding his arms, trying to stop him falling off the bed. Jack strained against them and screamed.
Talking to him had no effect. Jack clearly wasn't seeing them. The methadone had not worked. Owen, therefore, grabbed the syringe and injected Jack as carefully as he could. It was only moments before Jack relaxed, and slumped into oblivion on his bed.
Owen looked at him sadly. “He'll be out of it for hours now. Ianto, do you want to stay with him? We can set up a camp bed, so you can get some sleep, but be on hand if anything changes.”
Ianto agreed, gratefully.
* * * *
In the hotel in Trowbridge, Tosh, Gwen and Peterson had settled down to talk. “We're going to be frank with you,” Tosh began. “We know that you want to help Jack,. In fact, you were instrumental in him being pardoned, so we're going to trust you with this information. Please don't let it go any further.”
“That won't be a problem,” answered Peterson. “ I don't exactly want to advertise any connection to Harkness.”
“When we found Jack,” Tosh continued, “he was stoned out of his mind. He'd been working the streets, and obviously using heroin a lot. We took him back to Torchwood, and tried to get him off it. Our doctor, you know him, Owen, supervised his withdrawal. He went through a complete physical withdrawal, but he's still hooked.”
Gwen was watching Peterson closely, as Tosh spoke. He did not look surprised to hear what she was saying.
“He went out looking for drugs and, despite the fact that he has been officially pardoned, he was grabbed by UNIT soldiers from your old base in Cumbria.”
Peterson did look shocked at that, Gwen noted.
“We rescued him, and took him back to Torchwood, but he then went into another withdrawal. This time much more violent. He went completely wild, almost insane, when he didn't get his fix. He'll offer anything to get one.” Tosh blushed, remembering what Jack had done to Ianto. “And, although it's the last thing we wanted, we've had to sedate him, and we may have to give him heroin.”
As Tosh spoke, Peterson looked more and more guilty, and more unhappy. And he had noticed, and correctly interpreted the reason for Tosh's blush. He cringed at the next sentence.
“While he was rambling, he talked about a Major Stamford. He was offering the Major whatever he wanted in return for heroin. Do you know if Jack knew a Major Stamford at UNIT?”
“Yes, there was a Major Stamford at the prison for a while,” admitted Peterson.
“Do you have any idea how he could have ended up in Manchester, offering Jack a fix?” Gwen demanded.
Peterson knew he was on the brink of throwing his UNIT career away. If he told the whole truth, there would be serious, and far reaching, repercussions. His name was bound to come into it, as a witness. But what had happened in that prison, to Harkness and others, was not what he had signed up for when he joined. It was wrong, and someone needed to make a stand.
“It wasn't in Manchester, it was at the prison. It was UNIT that got him hooked on heroin.”
Tosh and Gwen were flabbergasted. “What possible reason could there be for getting a prisoner hooked on heroin?” Gwen yelled. “Are they more docile and easier to keep, is that it ?”
“Nothing so innocent, I'm afraid,” Peterson replied. “They did it to get information out of him. He wouldn't tell them anything under normal interrogation techniques, and believe me they tried them. So they brought in a specialist, Major Stamford. He came up with the new technique. They dosed him up for a few days, then withdrew it and made him go cold turkey. Then upped the dose and did it all again. It took quite a while, and they got him up to a massive dose before he told them anything. It would have killed a normal person.”
Tosh was looking very pale. She had known that UNIT prisons were brutal, with the inmates treated as scum with no rights. But she had never dreamed they would actually systematically torture a prisoner. How could she have been so stupid. How could she have left Jack there. She should have moved Heaven and Earth to get him moved to someone else's custody.
Gwen was also listening with horror. “What information?” she gasped. “What could they possibly have wanted?”
“Torchwood,” Peterson admitted. “They wanted to know all about Torchwood. UNIT have always wanted to take over, or avail themselves of the contents of your archive. They always want information on Torchwood. It was like Christmas when Harkness got sentenced.”
“But we're on the same side,” Gwen whispered.
“So that's why he gave UNIT his codes,” Tosh breathed.
“Yeah. It took months, but he eventually told them everything they wanted to know. They know your archives inside out now, and if the codes had worked they would have gone in and taken the lot.”
“Do you know why he's still hooked, even after complete physical withdrawal?” asked Gwen.
“No, but,” Peterson hesitated, “that wasn't the worst of it.”
Already in shock, Gwen and Tosh gazed at him with trepidation.
“When he'd told them everything, the top brass lost interest and stopped giving him the heroin. I guess the same thing happened then, as is happening now. He got desperate. He ended up doing six guys for a hit. He never kicked it. From what you said before, I guess he's just trying to buy the hit the same way as he used to.”
Next chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/27295.html
Rating: 18+
Warnings: Mentions of previous torture and rape
Genre: Angst, AU
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Owen, Tosh, Gwen
Summary: AU. The Torchwood team discover the truth about what happened on the Valiant and search for Jack. A dark fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
AN:The next chapter is here, and also a bonus fic in the next post. I have branched out, in a small way, to BBC Sherlock fiction. My first ever venture into non Torchwood/Doctor Who fic! So, if you like Sherlock, check it out. Don't worry though, A New Dawn is my highest priority.
Previous chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/26563.html
Chapter 19
After Tosh, Ianto and Mark left for home, Owen headed down to the bunker to sleep. Joanne would monitor Jack, while catching up with her regular Torchwood work. Gwen was taking over from Mark and Tosh, in searching the UNIT staff database, trying to find the identity of the three men who had attacked Jack. She was very grateful that, before he became incoherent, Jack had said that the men had been guards at his prison. It cut down the databases she needed to search by a huge factor. It was a shame that he hadn't said which prison he was at, though. She had never realised before, just how many secure facilities UNIT had in the UK. Skipping those that Mark and Tosh had already covered, Gwen opened a separate computer window with photos of the dead men, and started her search.
Three hours and four cups of coffee later, Gwen found the first man. He was one of the privates on staff at the UNIT high security facility in Cumbria. Finding the other two was simple after that. All three were assigned to that prison.
Bringing all three personnel files up on the computer, Gwen called Joanne over, to double check her identification. They both agreed, but decided to leave it until morning to inform Owen.
* * * *
Joanne checked on Jack, several times through the night. The alien device seemed to be working perfectly. Jack was unconscious and peaceful.
At 3am Mark arrived to relieve Gwen, and work the remainder of the night. Still worrying about the surveillance the Hub had been under, he was checking estate agency records of all the rented flats that overlooked the Plas. He found two which had been rented in the few days after Jack had been pardoned. Following up the people who had signed the leases, he found that one checked out as perfectly normal; an accountant, single, in his late 20s. Independent sources confirmed the information. But, for the other flat, there were no records of the man who had rented it. It was a fictitious identity.
* * * *
At 8am the next morning, Ianto and Tosh came back in. Owen had relieved Joanne earlier, and she was now down in the bunker.
They met in the boardroom. “Gwen found the men,” Owen informed them. “All three were assigned to the UNIT facility in Cumbria.”
“So Jack was right,” exclaimed Ianto. “UNIT really were after him.”
“But why?” asked Tosh. “UNIT are bastards, but even they have to honour a Royal Pardon.”
“Apparently someone in UNIT doesn't think so,” commented Owen.
“Do you think this Major Stamford is from UNIT?” asked Ianto.
“I checked this morning,” Owen told him. “There are four Major Stamfords currently active in the British forces. One is attached to UNIT, but not to the prison where Jack was.”
“So it's possible then,” commented Mark.
“Yes,” Owen agreed, “but we can't tell without more information. He could just have been one of Jack's clients in Manchester.”
“We could ask Jack when he wakes up,” Tosh suggested.
“I don't think he'd tell us,” Ianto put in. “He's been very close mouthed about everything, and who can blame him. He may well tell us about the EMP if we ask, but there was obviously some trauma associated with his dealings with this Major Stamford. He probably won't want to tell us about it. I think he is beginning to trust us again, but we've still got a long way to go. Just look at how hard he found it to tell us about the drugs.”
“There is someone we could ask,” Owen mused aloud. “The guy who gave us the DVDs. He was at the prison with Jack. He might have some information that would help explain all this.”
“Yes, but he didn't give his name, and he may well not be willing to talk to you again,” Mark pointed out. “And you don't want to out him to UNIT as the whistle blower.”
“I might recognise him, if I saw his photo,” Owen answered, ignoring the potential problems that Mark had highlighted. “And we know which prison Jack was kept in now, so I might be able to pick him out from their personnel roster.”
* * * *
At his first opportunity, Mark had, with Owen's authorisation, got the key for the suspicious flat from the estate agents. He and Ianto now stood at the door, guns drawn. Unlocking the door quietly, they pushed the door open suddenly, and burst in. There was no reaction. The flat was empty. In fact, it had been cleared out. There was no furniture, and the only thing left was an ashtray full of cigarette butts.
* * * *
Owen spent an hour looking through the UNIT personnel files, that Tosh had hacked into. He was going cross eyed, gazing at each soldier in turn. “You know all soldiers look alike,” he groused to Tosh. “It's the haircut.”
“I think Gwen, Mark and I would agree with you,” Tosh smiled. “We've looked through a lot more files than you have.”
Eventually, Owen leaned back and said flatly, “It's no good. He's not here. I've gone through them three times, and I'm certain.” His disappointment was palpable.
Tosh was also very disappointed, but then a thought struck her. “Wait a minute,” she cried. “Is that the current personnel file?”
Owen nodded.
“Well, why don't you check for personnel who were there when Jack was, but have since been reassigned?”
“Tosh, you're brilliant,” exclaimed Owen. Half an hour later, he suddenly tensed at his terminal and shouted, “That's him, at least I think it is. He's John Peterson, currently assigned to UNIT's base in Trowbridge, but before that he was assigned to the high security prison in Cumbria.
“Right, we need to get in touch with him, without doing anything that would incriminate him,” Owen declared, leaping up and clapping his hands. “I think this is a job for you and Gwen.”
* * * *
After returning to the Hub, Ianto went to visit Jack. He was now sitting with him, in his room, worrying. Jack was peacefully asleep, much to his relief. He didn't think he could have coped with seeing Jack continue to suffer the horror he had been going through. Thank god for alien tech. But what would happen when they woke Jack? It was too much to hope for; that Jack would have passed through the trauma, by the time he awoke. And that meant that they would have to give him more heroin.
The whole team were painfully aware of the indescribably traumatic nature of Jack's memories, and the sheer number of them. Ianto didn't have to be a doctor to figure out that, if Jack could not kick heroin because withdrawal triggered horrendous memories, then they needed to help Jack deal with his memories before they could help with his heroin addiction. Owen had said, right from the start, when he suggested a methadone program, that Jack should receive counselling In hindsight, knowing what Jack had gone through on the Valiant, he should have been given counselling as soon as the Master was defeated. But instead, he had been reviled, and treated as a traitor, by the very people he should have been able to count on for help. Jack had never had the chance to heal, even a little, after the trauma with the Master. And it had led to this.
As he mused, Ianto was searching on his laptop. He was looking in Torchwood secure files, for information on the therapist who had dealt with the Torchwood 1 survivors. Along with the other survivors, Ianto had been offered therapy. If he was honest with himself, he had needed it. But he had declined, as his whole existence, then, had been focused on saving Lisa. Opening himself up to a therapist, was not compatible with all the secrets he had needed to keep.
Jack couldn't have just any therapist. The nature of the trauma, and the circumstances in which it occurred, meant that someone who knew of the nature of Torchwood's work was required. They would believe in a timeline that had been reversed, and what had happened during that time. If Jack was willing, this therapist would be ideal.
* * * *
When she arrived at the Hub for her afternoon shift. Gwen was surprised to find herself, and Tosh, preparing to head off to Trowbridge, undercover Since Torchwood now knew that UNIT soldiers had been watching them, probably for months, they were taking precautions. Even though it was unlikely that any of those soldiers would be in Trowbridge, they didn't want to be recognised. Both women were disguised, and wearing sexy clothes that Ianto had somehow acquired. Their own families would not have recognised them. It was the first time that Gwen had been blonde.
It was only a one and a half hour drive to Trowbridge from Cardiff, so Tosh and Gwen arrived there at about 5pm. They checked into a hotel, as they expected to be there overnight. Then they headed for the pub nearest the UNIT base, where off duty soldiers would hang out. Ordering drinks, they sipped slowly, and checked out every patron who came in. The clients were almost exclusively male soldiers.
“I hope Mark's right, that all the squaddies head to the nearest pub when they get off shift,” Tosh murmured. “Or this could be a total waste of time.”
“Well,” Gwen replied, “Peterson was definitely due to work a shift today, Owen checked. So it's worth a shot, at least.”
Midway through the evening, Gwen and Tosh had been fending off advances for hours, and were getting fed up of being hit on by unimaginative soldiers.
“Now I know how Ianto felt, in that pub in Manchester,” commented Tosh.
Finally their target walked into the bar. He was alone. As he went to the bar to order, Gwen sidled up beside him and, smiling, said “Buy a girl a drink?”
The soldier looked surprised, but smiled and said “sure.” When they had their drinks, Gwen invited him to sit at the table with her and Tosh. The pub was loud, with soldiers carousing and the music blaring, so Gwen felt safe in whispering in the soldier's ear. It wasn't what he wanted to hear of course. “We're Torchwood, we need to talk to you.”
The soldier looked alarmed, and hissed back “Not here!”
“Come back to our hotel with us then” Gwen suggested. “You can pretend to be taking me home, and Tosh will follow on in a few minutes.”
Peterson reluctantly agreed and, taking Gwen's arm, he walked out with her to a chorus of catcalls from the other soldiers. Tosh made her escape, via the ladies, soon after.
When they reached the hotel, Peterson turned to Gwen and said angrily “What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you know the danger that you'll put me in if UNIT find out it was me who told you lot about the Valiant?”
“Yes,” Gwen apologised, secretly pleased to know that Owen had got his identification right. “We're sorry to do this, but we really need your help. It's Jack Harkness. There are things going on with him that we don't understand. And we suspect that UNIT may have something to do with it. It's more than what happened on the Valiant, as if that wasn't enough. We need to understand, to help him.”
Peterson looked guilty, as he remembered how UNIT had treated Harkness in the prison. He really didn't want to admit to what had happened, even if, at the time, everyone had believed Harkness guilty of treason. But he owed Jack Harkness his life, so he could hardly refuse to help.
Sighing he acquiesced. “OK, what do you want to know?”
* * * * *
At the Hub, the time had come to bring Jack back to consciousness. By mutual agreement, Joanne and Owen had left a few extra hours for the methadone to dissipate, ensuring that it would be at a very low level before Jack awoke. They had a syringe, filled with Jack's usual dose of heroin, standing by.
Ianto and Mark were in the room with them, preparing to hold Jack still for the injection, if he was still incoherent. Everyone was hoping desperately that, by some miracle, Jack would be improving, and they would not have to give him the heroin. No one really believed that, though.
“Everyone ready?” asked Owen.
The others nodded, so he plucked the device off Jack's forehead and placed it in a metal box.
Within seconds, Jack began to murmur and thrash around. He opened his eyes, but was not seeing reality. Mark and Ianto were holding his arms, trying to stop him falling off the bed. Jack strained against them and screamed.
Talking to him had no effect. Jack clearly wasn't seeing them. The methadone had not worked. Owen, therefore, grabbed the syringe and injected Jack as carefully as he could. It was only moments before Jack relaxed, and slumped into oblivion on his bed.
Owen looked at him sadly. “He'll be out of it for hours now. Ianto, do you want to stay with him? We can set up a camp bed, so you can get some sleep, but be on hand if anything changes.”
Ianto agreed, gratefully.
* * * *
In the hotel in Trowbridge, Tosh, Gwen and Peterson had settled down to talk. “We're going to be frank with you,” Tosh began. “We know that you want to help Jack,. In fact, you were instrumental in him being pardoned, so we're going to trust you with this information. Please don't let it go any further.”
“That won't be a problem,” answered Peterson. “ I don't exactly want to advertise any connection to Harkness.”
“When we found Jack,” Tosh continued, “he was stoned out of his mind. He'd been working the streets, and obviously using heroin a lot. We took him back to Torchwood, and tried to get him off it. Our doctor, you know him, Owen, supervised his withdrawal. He went through a complete physical withdrawal, but he's still hooked.”
Gwen was watching Peterson closely, as Tosh spoke. He did not look surprised to hear what she was saying.
“He went out looking for drugs and, despite the fact that he has been officially pardoned, he was grabbed by UNIT soldiers from your old base in Cumbria.”
Peterson did look shocked at that, Gwen noted.
“We rescued him, and took him back to Torchwood, but he then went into another withdrawal. This time much more violent. He went completely wild, almost insane, when he didn't get his fix. He'll offer anything to get one.” Tosh blushed, remembering what Jack had done to Ianto. “And, although it's the last thing we wanted, we've had to sedate him, and we may have to give him heroin.”
As Tosh spoke, Peterson looked more and more guilty, and more unhappy. And he had noticed, and correctly interpreted the reason for Tosh's blush. He cringed at the next sentence.
“While he was rambling, he talked about a Major Stamford. He was offering the Major whatever he wanted in return for heroin. Do you know if Jack knew a Major Stamford at UNIT?”
“Yes, there was a Major Stamford at the prison for a while,” admitted Peterson.
“Do you have any idea how he could have ended up in Manchester, offering Jack a fix?” Gwen demanded.
Peterson knew he was on the brink of throwing his UNIT career away. If he told the whole truth, there would be serious, and far reaching, repercussions. His name was bound to come into it, as a witness. But what had happened in that prison, to Harkness and others, was not what he had signed up for when he joined. It was wrong, and someone needed to make a stand.
“It wasn't in Manchester, it was at the prison. It was UNIT that got him hooked on heroin.”
Tosh and Gwen were flabbergasted. “What possible reason could there be for getting a prisoner hooked on heroin?” Gwen yelled. “Are they more docile and easier to keep, is that it ?”
“Nothing so innocent, I'm afraid,” Peterson replied. “They did it to get information out of him. He wouldn't tell them anything under normal interrogation techniques, and believe me they tried them. So they brought in a specialist, Major Stamford. He came up with the new technique. They dosed him up for a few days, then withdrew it and made him go cold turkey. Then upped the dose and did it all again. It took quite a while, and they got him up to a massive dose before he told them anything. It would have killed a normal person.”
Tosh was looking very pale. She had known that UNIT prisons were brutal, with the inmates treated as scum with no rights. But she had never dreamed they would actually systematically torture a prisoner. How could she have been so stupid. How could she have left Jack there. She should have moved Heaven and Earth to get him moved to someone else's custody.
Gwen was also listening with horror. “What information?” she gasped. “What could they possibly have wanted?”
“Torchwood,” Peterson admitted. “They wanted to know all about Torchwood. UNIT have always wanted to take over, or avail themselves of the contents of your archive. They always want information on Torchwood. It was like Christmas when Harkness got sentenced.”
“But we're on the same side,” Gwen whispered.
“So that's why he gave UNIT his codes,” Tosh breathed.
“Yeah. It took months, but he eventually told them everything they wanted to know. They know your archives inside out now, and if the codes had worked they would have gone in and taken the lot.”
“Do you know why he's still hooked, even after complete physical withdrawal?” asked Gwen.
“No, but,” Peterson hesitated, “that wasn't the worst of it.”
Already in shock, Gwen and Tosh gazed at him with trepidation.
“When he'd told them everything, the top brass lost interest and stopped giving him the heroin. I guess the same thing happened then, as is happening now. He got desperate. He ended up doing six guys for a hit. He never kicked it. From what you said before, I guess he's just trying to buy the hit the same way as he used to.”
Next chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/27295.html