Different but sane (3/?) Torchwood
Chapter Two
Gwen was waiting for us when we arrived in my blue Ford Focus. I could see that she didn’t seem impressed by something. Probably the argument between her and Jack was still in her mind from the day before. I looked at the building which stood before us; well it was more like one of those retirement homes that my grandmother lived in back home in Australia. A huge building which wrapped around like a fence with a garden in the middle.
“Jack’s inside, he wanted me to give you this.” Gwen said, handing me the scanner which picks up signs of rift or alien activity. “He’s waiting for you in a room at the right wing building of the hospital.” She added pointing to the right side of the building.
“Where’s Ianto?” I asked a bit puzzled.
“Back at the hub, researching the history of the hospital.” She replied, the tone in her voice evident that she was still angry at Jack.
I nodded and made my way to the entrance of the right wing. No one really looked at me as I walked past, well except some of the patients, who were looking at the scanner that I had in my hand. I tried not to think what ideas they had about it in their mind. I held it close to me but I realised what I doing was probably stupid. A few minutes later I stopped in front of a room at the end of corridor as a big grey coat caught my eye. I leant on the door frame.
“These hospitals are interesting aren’t they? They have nurses but no doctors, just psychologists and psychiatrists.” Jack mused turning to me as I held up the scanner. “I freaked one man out when he saw my coat.”
“I’m not surprised, probably a war veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder who didn’t quite recover.” I replied, now fully in the room.
“Yes, though to him it would be shell shock.” Jack told me and I could feel his eyes gaze upon me.
“Actually combat fatigue if he served World war two, the term shell shock was only used for world war one, still they were the same thing.” I explained, looking at the scanner. “So it doesn’t matter what they call it.”
The scanner blipped with excitement as it picked up traces of rift or alien activity. It probably didn’t mean anything since it was on top of the rift. The patients could have still escaped but I looked up to see a glint in Jack’s eye which suggested otherwise. I went back to looking at the scanner.
“Um James.....”
“Yeah?” I asked looking up from the scanner.
“I’m sorry about last night.” Jack replied, “I mean I know I shouldn’t apologise but Ianto has this idea that I should get to know you better and....”
“Oh so you thought weevil hunting would be the answer?” I answered, rolling my eyes.
“Well not really as I knew you would refuse.” He told me, cocking his head to one side. “Maybe we could go out to dinner, not a date or anything just as friends.”
“Alright.” I heard myself say which surprised me but then it wasn’t a date. Still it did surprise me because I had worked for Torchwood for two months and not once had he asked me that. He did know some stuff about me from my database file but though it probably would be nice to answer some questions that weren’t answered in the file.
“Great, now’s that sorted, it seems the scanner had picked up from traces.” Jack said, pointing at the scanner.
“Doesn’t mean anything Jack, not until I’ve seen footage of this place.” I replied, making him look at me with a frown of disappointment.
“God you’re negative.” He observed before putting a hand on my shoulder.
“I though you said we shouldn’t assume until otherwise.” I retorted looking up with a smile. “Though why did you leave last night?”
“The report interested me, last night I did some research about the other disappearances and suddenly got suspicious. I found out that the police haven’t been through the footage.” Jack replied placing both hands on my shoulders and looking into my eyes.
I suddenly felt uncomfortable as I looked into his steel blue eyes. Maybe I was starting to fall for him. Nonsense I thought, he’s not even my type. I pulled back and went back to work avoiding eye contact as I went around the room with the scanner. Until a bit of writing caught my eye on the wall at the far end, I walked towards the wall the words seemed to be written in blood.
I need to find the asylum
“What the fuck?” I asked which made Jack walk over.
“Oh I saw that before.” Jack said with a grin. “Seems the police didn’t notice it as it wasn’t mentioned in the reports. Why would that be?”
“Because they assume they escaped.” I replied, “So they warned everybody to keep a look out as they might be dangerous.”
“Yes, still they could have kept an open mind.”
“Jack when it comes to mental hospital escapees, they are consider more for the safety of the public as a minority of them are psychotic serial killers.” I explained with a smile. “In other words, having mental problems means you will kill people.”
“Right so public perception is screwed up then.” Jack pondered before giving me a smile.
I nodded.
“So James, do you believe me now?” Jack asked in my ear.