This is an expansion of
Suddenly I See.
Title - Why the hell it means so much to me
Author -
laurab1Rating - PG, mostly gen
Characters/Pairings -TW3 team, Ianto/Lisa
Length - 809 words
Summary - reminders
Challenge - alternative lives
Spoilers - as far as 1.8 TKKS
Disclaimer - The BBC’s and RTD’s, not mine
Feedback is loved and appreciated :) Enjoy!
Why the hell it means so much to me
by Laura
Owen’s patient tells him she was bitten by a werewolf. The idea sounds so bloody stupid. He’s at the desk, about to ring the psych ward and get her sectioned, when they arrive; period military bloke and a gorgeous Asian bird. The bloke announces them as Special Ops, and asks where Owen’s “werewolf bite victim” is. (He can hear the quotation marks.)
Owen takes them to her, and stays while they question the girl. When they’re finished, he hears the Asian bird whisper something to the bloke. It sounds like Weevil.
“Thanks, Dr Harper,” the bloke says, and the two of them swagger off.
Owen goes back to the desk, and sips the coffee he left there. The next morning, he wakes up with a pounding headache. God knows why, as he hadn’t been out drinking.
A few months later, he catches a glimpse of a period military great coat. “Werewolf” comes to mind, but Owen has no idea why.
***
Gwen separates two very drunk men. The taller one tries throwing another punch, but she slaps the cuffs on him. She and Andy drag him off to the car, and take him back to the station.
They’re getting him signed into the cells, and Gwen’s copper’s instinct tells her something’s not quite right with this man. She hadn’t been able to look at him properly, back in the pub, like her eyes had been deliberately pushed away. Here, she is able to look at him, and she’s reminded of the black oil alien, in that episode of The X Files. That’s just bloody stupid, Gwen thinks.
Then Special Ops stalk into the station, two men and two women, all swagger and confidence. The leader of the team buys a coffee from the Kenco machine, hands it to Gwen, and asks her what she saw.
“Thanks, PC Cooper,” the man says, and they all stalk off again, talking quietly among themselves.
The next morning, for some inexplicable reason, Gwen wakes up with a pounding headache.
A few months later, she catches a glimpse of a familiar pair of boots. “Black oil” comes to mind, but Gwen has absolutely no idea why.
***
Working at UNIT London, Tosh divides her time equally between examining aliens and writing computer programs. She has a huge number of incredibly cool toys. In May 2007, Torchwood’s ivory tower falls, and Tosh gains some more cool toys.
She’s using one to perform an autopsy on an alien of indeterminate origin when a team from another Torchwood base arrives. The boss, a handsome American man, tells her they’ll now deal with the alien.
Tosh is unable to argue with him. She lets the three of them pack up the alien and take it away.
And then she Retcons herself.
***
The metal glove is the most amazing thing Suzie has ever seen, ever repaired.
It joins with her…soul, and together, they bring dead things back to life.
The Resurrection Gauntlet, she calls it.
She’d found it on the beach, just sitting there. It was winter, but Suzie burnt her hand on the glove, before wrapping it up in her scarf and taking it back to the lab.
One day, she’s using her blowtorch, welding an edge back together, and two men appear in her lab. Before she’s aware what’s happening, they’ve taken the glove away from her, placing it in a large metal box.
“I said they come in pairs, sir,” a Welsh voice says.
“You did, Ianto,” an American one replies.
One of them injects her with something, and Suzie passes out.
Weeks later, she hears some half familiar voices, “resurrection” comes to mind and she doesn’t know why.
***
Nearly all of Ianto’s colleagues are dead.
Torchwood One had a staff of 800. Most of them are gone, and they’re never coming back.
He managed to save Lisa, his girlfriend, but she’s now partially encased in metal. She, and the cyber conversion unit that’s keeping her alive are sat in the van that Ianto commandeered from Logistics, which is parked outside. He really needs a drink, but he’s driving.
What the hell is he going to do with Lisa?
There’s a UNIT base in Cardiff, perhaps he could con his way into there, and find somewhere to hide her.
There’s someone familiar at the bar; the man was at the clear up. He comes over to Ianto with a pint of something, saying, “You look like you need a drink. Didn’t I see you earlier?”
“Yes,” Ianto says simply, and he can see an old revolver in the man’s holster.
Later, he and Lisa are in Cardiff. Ianto knows where the base is.
It’s only months later, when UNIT's on a joint mission with Torchwood, and he sees Captain Jack Harkness pull out his gun, that it all comes flooding back.
“You Retconned me.”
The man says nothing.
-end-