Chapter 24

Greeks Bearing Gifts Part 3

Rose could not remember the last time she had laughed so much, it had all started when Owen had gone over his findings again when he arrived at a dead end, after doing further checks he had found some of his initial findings to have been incorrect. This had led to the current situation.

Owen was stood beside the skeleton, a permanent frown fixed onto his face as Gwen stood above and tried to dodge the items he was throwing at her, all the while singing a song about connecting bones.

"Stop singing." He begged, throwing another wrapped bandage at her.

"Please, stop singing." Another bandage hit her which only made her sing louder.

Rose lay her head against Jack's shoulder as she tried to control her laughter, Owen turned to them with a glare and threw the remaining packets in their direction.

"I don't know what you two are laughing at." He called out as they tried to dodge his attack.

"Hey!" Rose shot back, picking up some of the makeshift ammo before throwing it back at him with a laugh.

"Whats going on?" Tosh chimed in as she wondered over to join the group.

"Y'know the skeleton we found at the building site?" Gwen said once she had managed to contain her laughter, to which Tosh nodded.

"Well, Amanda Burton here has just completed the post mortem." She told her with a smirk.

"I can explain." Owen chimed in but Gwen cut him off.

"As you may remember, at the building site, Owen said this was a woman who was killed by a single gun shot." She continued.

"I'd been there like a minute." He called out in defence.

"Since then, he's had to tweak some of his initial conclusions, the first being that this isn't in fact a woman, but a man." She announced and Owen rolled his eyes.

"A young man, a very girly man." He told Tosh who nodded as she was filled in.

"But still ultimately a man." Gwen confirmed.

"Then there was the cause of death, Owen said GSW, well that was also wrong, the correct answer was." She trailed off and looked to Owen to fill in the blank, much to the amusement of everyone else.

"Unidentified trauma." He said.

"It's the sort of thing you see in RTA's when something like a steering column or a post goes into a body at great velocity." She explained.

"But there was one thing that could be ruled out, Owen?" Another smirk crossed her lips as she waited him to deliver the final nail.

"Gun shot wound." He said with a sigh.

"Was there any part of your prognosis that was correct?" Rose asked which earned her a glare.

"I got that it was a, skeleton." He told her in a matter of fact tone.

She let out a burst of laughter at his answer before nodding, it took her a moment to compose herself before she offered him a sympathetic smile.

"Yes you did! Well done." She congratulated him sarcastically and he rolled his eyes.

Jack chose that moment to make his exit, he rested a hand against Rose's back briefly and she offered him a smile before he wondered off to make a phone call. Tosh noticed the interaction and recalled what she had heard Rose thinking earlier in the day, she feared what would happen when they realised what she had done, especially when she had inadvertently invaded her boss' privacy too. She followed after Jack in hopes of finding out more about the pendant and left the two women to continue their onslaught of Owen's reputation.

"Where did you train?" Gwen questioned as she wondered along the deck above the med bay.

"Did you even train?" Rose chimed in, walking forward and leaning on the railing to look over down at Owen with a smirk.

"I did train, yeah." He told them with a shrug and she rolled her eyes.

"Absolutely useless." She said with dramatised exasperation.

Tosh had been acting off ever since they had found the skeleton at the building site, she wasn't one for letting others in when she had things going on in her personal life but those who had noticed made a point of keeping a closer eye on her just in case they felt the need to intervene. When she failed to turn up to work the next day, Jack knew that whatever was going on with her was reaching its climax.

There had been an alert when Tosh arrived via the visitor centre, much to their surprise she wasn't alone. Jack told the others to make themselves scarce and he grabbed the 'stapler' before doing the same.

Tosh led her friend through the hub, grateful that no one else seemed to be around but curious all the same. She walked over to the station where they had been keeping the object they found at the construction sight and frowned when she found it to no longer be there.

"Wait here, I'm gonna find my boss, he has it." She told Mary before glancing around to see if she could catch sight of Jack.

"Looking for this?" A voice called out from above.

The two women followed the sound to find Jack standing on the walkway with the object in his hands, Tosh watched nervously as he made his way along the platform.

"A friend of mine, let's call him Vincent, that was his name after all, regular guy, girlfriend, likes his sport, likes a beer, starts acting a little strange, a little distracted, suddenly he disappears for a few months." He began, watching them carefully with a frown he continued to make his way along towards the stairs.

"He comes back and we've gotta start calling him Vanessa, since then I've always been a little nervous when a friend acts out of character." He continued, descending the stairs ad stopping at the bottom to offer Tosh's friend a smile.

"We haven't been introduced, Jack Harkness, my guess is you're not from around these parts." He told her, his voice taking on a southern twang as he introduced himself.

"This is incredible, do you know what it is?" He asked, gesturing to the object he held.

"It's a transporter, Mary was a political prisoner, she was exiled here, look Jack.." Tosh chimed in before being cut off by Jack.

"You're half right, but you wanna tell her the really interesting bit Mary? It is Mary isn't it?" He addressed Tosh's friend, who looked back in silence.

"No? Chatty isn't she? I don't know how you got a word in edgeways Tosh." He said, looking back to Tosh.

"It's a two man transporter, or whatever you may be, could be squid for all I know, a two squid transporter, room for one prisoner and one guard, wanna tell us what happened to the guard Mary?" He switched his gaze back to Mary who finally spoke up.

"I killed him." She told them with a shrug.

"But I was interrupted." She added.

The cog door slid closed and the rest of the team appeared as Mary told them her story, how she came to inhabit the body she now had, how she had been surviving off the hearts of innocent humans ever since she had arrived on Earth all those years prior. So many innocent victims.

"And you've been killing ever since." Rose surmised and Mary nodded.

"I knew they might come a time when my situation here would become complicated, but I was safe as long as I knew where the transporter was." She explained with a shrug.

"Then the machine was uncovered." Jack chimed in.

"As soon as the air touched its surface I could feel it, I went back to get it but you'd beaten me to it, that's when I found my beautiful Toshiko." She continued, looking at Tosh with a smile.

No one had noticed when Tosh put the pendant back on but her mind was instantly filled with the fearful thoughts of her colleagues.

She's so calm, she isn't even scared of us.

What the hell are we doing? We're just talking to her.

I'm gonna go for it.

Tosh looked over at Owen in a panic as his thoughts crossed her mind.

"Owen, no!" She called out but Mary was too fast, she had moved before Owen even had a chance and grabbed Tosh from behind, holding a knife to her throat.

"Toshiko tell them to give me the transporter." Mary said calmly, pressing the knife against her skin.

"Let her go!" Jack called out as Tosh struggled against her grip.

This is pointless, we're just shouting at her.

What do we do? That knife will tear Tosh's throat out.

Not again, we can't lose anyone else.

"You, how's this." Mary started with a grin, looking over at Owen.

"I'll exchange Toshiko for that one, your choice." She offered, gesturing over to where Gwen was standing.

No, no not Gwen.

"Just put the knife down." Owen pleaded, raising his hands in defence.

"Did you hear him, he didn't want to did he?" She spoke into Tosh's ear.

She read my thoughts.

What happened? Did he not want to?

What did he say?

"That's what they think of you, these are the people you've been working with for all these years." She continued, her soft voice feeding doubt into Tosh's mind.

"Don't listen to her Tosh, it's not true." Rose told her.

"But we have a connection, whatever I've done doesn't change the way I feel about you, what we have is real." Mary said calmly.

Toshiko, don't move, don't do anything until I say.

"You want a transporter? Well we want Toshiko, I'd say that's a fair trade?" Jack offered, holding up the transporter.

What the hell is he thinking? He can't seriously be letting her go.

He's gotta be bluffing, that thing can't still work.

Mary considered his offer for a moment before letting Tosh go, she stepped forward and reached out to take the transporter from Jack.

"You smell.. different to them, what are you?" She asked with a curious frown.

Rose shot a glare in Mary's direction as she watched the exchange, this really wasn't the time for jealously to start rearing its head but she couldn't help it.

"I don't know." He told her simply and she smirked.

"And you would have put me in a cage." She observed.

Jack activated the transporter and took a step back, watching the smirk fade and be replaced by a look of confusion.

"What's happening?" She asked.

"I reprogrammed it for you, it's set to enable." He told her, a smug edge in his tone.

He moved further away as a bright light surrounded Mary before she and the device both disappeared.

"About now." He added with a satisfied smirk.

"Has she gone home?" Tosh asked and he shook his head.

"Where did you send her?" She questioned.

"I reset the coordinates to the centre of the sun, it shouldn't be hot, I mean we sent her there at night and everything." He explained with a shrug.

"So you killed her." She deadpanned and he looked her in the eye with an expression she couldn't read.

"Yes." He said bluntly before turning and walking away without another word.

Ianto had accompanied Tosh to the conference room for a short while after Mary's departure, having lost his own girlfriend a few months prior he could offer her comfort and understanding the others wouldn't be able to. She'd had a brief discussion with Gwen and Owen regarding what she had heard whilst wearing the pendant before then speaking with Jack. Rose had decided against seeking Tosh out for a chat, she wasn't even sure what she would say to her. She wanted to comfort her friend, but she also couldn't shake off the feeling of betrayal. She had invaded their minds without their knowledge and given herself access to thoughts that would never be said out loud, personal thoughts that she no right to privy herself to.

Rose had decided to hide out in Jack's office until he returned from his talk with Tosh, having Tosh poking around her head had given her a headache and she was looking forward to the day being over. Leaning back in Jack's chair she brought her feet up to rest on his desk and closed her eyes, there was nothing left to do so she hoped the others would send themselves off and not bother her whilst she attempted to get a few minutes peace.

"Comfy?"

She cracked an eye open at the voice and offered the visitor a small smile.

"I was, and then this guy came in and decided to interrupt." She said and received a chuckle in response.

"This is my office." Jack told her with a smile as he walked further into the room.

She took her feet off his desk and held out her hand, he reached forward and grabbed her hand before pulling her up from the seat. Stepping forward, she slipped her arms around his middle and his went around her shoulders before he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"You ok?" He asked and she nodded.

"mhmm, Tosh alright?" She asked back.

"She'll be fine." He assured her and she nodded again.

"Can she still hear peoples thoughts?" She continued and he shook his head.

"Not anymore, the pendant has been destroyed so her temporary abilities are gone." He explained.

"Good, are the others still here?" She asked.

"I sent them all home, figured we could all benefit from an early night." He told her and she smiled, it had been a long few days whilst trying to figure out who the skeleton was and what the object was and everything had come to a head at such a speed it made her head spin. She was relieved that it was all finally over.