Chapter Text
Owen grumbled as he tried to remove the metal band from around his newest corpses neck. It was a simple, gold plated, ring with a complex locking mechanism. Picking the lock hadn’t worked so his next option was a set of bolt cutters. The necklace was human made but it was also extremely sturdy.
“Dinner’s here.” A soft, female, voice called from just beyond the archway.
“Be up in a sec.”
“It’ll be in the meeting room when you’re done.”
The neck ring could wait. He’d already processed everything else so he stored the body away and cleaned up before heading up to the meeting room, where the rest of the team had already gathered.
“We heard you grumbling, wasn’t he doing as he was told?” Gwen asked, leaning back in her chair.
He sat and pulled his own meal over. “He was the perfect patient. It’s his choice in jewellery I have a problem with. Can’t get the damn thing off.”
“What?”
“It’s this neck ring with a lock. I tried picking the lock but it looks custom, so after this I’m just going to take some bolt cutters to it.”
Melody thought for a moment before taking out her phone, tapping away. “Here. Does it look similar to this?” She handed over her phone with an image of a silver ring on the screen.
“Yea. Any idea how to get it open?”
“There should be a safety catch hidden on either side of the lock if it’s an older one. If it’s new then the catch should be either side of the neck so it can split into two parts. He must have had a decent amount of money if he could afford one of those.” She took her phone back and slipped it into her pocket.
“Didn’t know you were into high end jewellery.”
“I’m not. It’s not a necklace.”
“Eh?”
“It’s a fancy collar.”
Tosh nearly choked, remembering their conversation about Mels knowledge of ‘adult interest’ groups. She grabbed a napkin and tried to play it off, sipping her water.
Ianto raised an eyebrow. “Are you ok?”
“Fine. Yes, I’m fine.”
“You’re not meant to breathe it.” Owen teased.
She rolled her eyes in reply.
“Anyway, how did you recognise that so quickly?”
Melody sipped her drink. “They’re made locally. When you said it was a custom lock I was pretty sure it was Dannys work.”
“First name basis. He a friend of yours?”
“No. I’ve chatted with him online a couple of times but everyone calls him by his first name.”
“If this collar’s custom then the order should have a name attached. Can you get me Dannys number? I can’t find anything else to ID the body.”
“I’ll send it over after dinner. But it’s his work number so you might not get an answer until tomorrow.”
“Speaking of it being later than usual, I thought you would have gone home already.”
“I wanted to finalise the telepathy test amendments.”
“Please tell me it’s just a piece of paper that says, let Melody do it.” Gwen teased, smiling playfully.
She chuckled. “No. I can’t always be around. Anyway, have you ever seen two telepaths communicate? In movies it looks really intense and cool. In real life we just look like we’re trying to read really tiny writing.” She squinted to accentuate her point.
“You’ve met other telepaths?”
“Oh yea. We have a message board. In person I’ve only ever met one. He was nice but I think I scared him a little bit. Granted that was when I was like fourteen and still looked like one of the children of the corn.”
Owen smirked. “You still look like one of the children of the corn.”
“I’ve gotten at least three inches taller since then.”
That pulled a round of chuckles through the room. It was nice. Light. Jack always enjoyed the evenings when his team could relax a little, even in the middle of a case.
“Oh, Owen, been meaning to ask, when will Mels arm be healed enough for her to finally spend some time on the range?” The captain asked casually.
Owen thought for a moment. “Should be ok from now as long as they’re our modded weapons. She can always stop if it starts playing up.”
“What?” Melody looked between them in confusion.
“Even if you’re stuck in the office all the time you need to know how to handle a gun. Just in case.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yea. Why?”
“I just never thought that’d be necessary.”
Ianto noted how uncomfortable she suddenly looked. “It’s just a formality. I’ll teach you tomorrow.”
“Anyway, it might be a bit intimidating but it’s fun once you get past that bit.” Gwen tried to reassure her workmate. “You’ll probably never have to use it but it’s a good skill to have. Plus it’s great when the funfair rolls in.”
Tosh nodded. “That’s how I got the huge teddy bear I keep in the corner of my bedroom. The man running the stall couldn’t believe it.”
“We all nearly got kicked out because a certain group of lads got into a bit of a contest.”
“It’s not our fault their little scam didn’t work.” Owen said, looking more than a little pleased at the memory. “Once you work out how those things have been tampered with it’s easy.”
“That group of kids were happy though. I swear that stuffed dragon was bigger than the little girl that carried it off.”
Mel smiled softly, calming a little. “When did you all have time to go to the fair?”
“We were there originally because a family of weevils had been spotted eyeing up one of the burger vans. After we shooed them off we just stuck around for a bit afterwards and made the most of it.”
“We brought back some candy floss for Janet.” Jack beamed. “She didn’t know what to make of it at first, but after that she spent hours just licking sugar off her claws.”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “And the walls, and the floor, and the doors.”
Melody woke to her phone alarm blaring the next morning. She opened one eye and reached over to shut it up, lamenting her inability to be a morning person. As she sat up she winced, her back aching. A lovely start to the day. She’d spent the night nervous about firearms training and that meant she’d been tossing and turning all night. The curtains moved with a slight breeze wafting into the room. It was cold, but not uncomfortable, as she pushed back the duvet and sat on the edge of the bed. She grabbed her necklace and placed it around her neck before strapping on the arm support she’d gotten used to wearing. Her shoulder was pretty much healed but her elbow was taking its sweet time. That was the joint that had been twisted, she supposed it would take a lot longer to fully heal, if it ever did. Her guitar sat gathering dust against the wall and she promised herself she’d give playing a try later.
The ringing of her phone alarm said her five minute snooze was up. She stood and stretched, muting her phone and grabbing her clothes for the day before dragging herself to the bathroom. She had a routine that she could sleepwalk her way through, but she always woke up properly after her half cup of cheap instant coffee at breakfast. She never finished a whole cup and had to admit it tasted watery and bitter compared to what she’d gotten used to at work, but it was caffeinated and that’s what mattered. As she munched on a barely toasted croissant she looked over the rental listings closer to work. She couldn’t stay in a student flat forever. Strictly speaking she shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but thanks to a very kind landlady and some good timing she wasn’t stuck living miles out of the city with relatives. It was meant to be temporary and now she had a job it could be. There were a few places in her price range that were closer to work but she’d have to check them out at the weekend.
“Morning.” Jessica said groggily, plodding through the kitchen in her mismatched pyjamas to the kettle.
Mel smiled softly. “Morning. Rough night?”
“I lost track of time chatting with Tony while I was meant to be studying.”
“Why don’t you just invite him over?”
She scoffed. “Yea, that’ll make studying easier. Anyway, I’m still a bit iffy with inviting anyone over after… Well, you know. What happened with… Yea.”
“Yea.” Mel frowned deeply and closed the browser on her phone. “Have you remembered anything else that happened?”
“Naa. I can’t believe she slipped something in my drink just to ransack the place. Mum said you’d cleaned up really well but she could tell the whole place had been turned over. She still wants to adopt you.”
She chuckled lightly. “I don’t think my parents would be too impressed. My sisters on the other hand…”
“That’s sisters for you though, isn’t it. How’s your arm?”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“Someone has to.” She smiled. “I’m going shopping later. Anything you want?”
“We’re running low on dried pasta and the milk’s a bit suspect so you might want to pick up another bottle.”
Jess took the milk from the fridge and sniffed it, cringing, before dropping it into the bin. “You should get going if you don’t wanna be late.”
“Oh, right, yea. Got distracted.” She dumped her mug and plate in the sink, then grabbed her coat and bag, slipping her headphones on. “Later.”
“Byee.”
The cold morning air was nice to walk out into. Taking a deep breath she began her walk to work. Part of her hoped to see signs of some alien shenanigans going on so she could avoid firearms training for another day, but the sky was clear and the world was peaceful. Within temptations ‘angels’ played through her headphones, dictating the rhythm of her steps. It helped block out the thoughts of the morning commuters as they sleepily drove past. The world was a very noisy place when no one knew how to quiet their minds. At least at work it was quiet. She’d noticed that Jacks thoughts were always silent and Ianto was usually very careful to keep his thoughts quiet. It was a gesture she appreciated more than she could express. The rest of her walk was nothing out of the ordinary and she pulled off her headphones as she stepped into the tourist information centre, her nose filling with the familiar scent of paper, coffee and old furniture. It was warm and comforting.
“Morning.” Ianto smiled, immaculately dressed as ever, a mug of coffee in his hand.
She nodded a greeting. “Good morning.” Maybe if she acted chipper enough she’d start to feel it too.
“Still nervous?”
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.”
“You’ll be fine. Though one bit of advice.”
“Yea?”
“You might want to clip back your fringe. I’m surprised you can even see where you’re going with it over your eyes.”
“Oh… Yea.” She blushed lightly. “That’s kind of by design. It limits the risk of me looking into anyones eyes accidentally.” She brushed her fringe aside and took a couple of hair clips from her bag, snapping them in place. It was the first time Ianto had really seen her face since they met. He didn’t let himself look at her eyes, even though part of him was curious as to what they looked like.
“I promise I’ll keep my eyes to myself.” He opened the hidden door and held it for her politely.
“Anything interesting happen overnight?”
“Other than being woken up at five this morning to retrieve a weevil that broke into Tesco, no.”
“Seriously?”
“Completely. It ate so much it could barely hobble out when we got there. It’s sleeping it off in the cells.”
She chuckled at the idea as they made their way down into the first basement floor of the hub. She placed her bag in her locker and hung her coat up before heading to meet Ianto just outside one of the doors she usually didn’t have the clearance to go through. She could get to the general storage, the safe section of the archives and even the outside of the cells but that was it. Not that it bothered her one bit. After all, her job was beginner level and she never needed access to anywhere else in the building. The firing range was through a heavy access door she barely even registered being there. Ianto walked through with two cases he’d retrieved from the armoury. He placed them on a side table and beckoned Mel into the room as she hung back by the door.
“What’s really wrong?” He asked.
She tilted her head. “Huh?”
“I know you’re not this nervous about just any new thing. We’ve got at least an hour before anyone else gets here and Jack’s up on the roof, so what’s wrong?”
“I…” She sighed deeply. “I just don’t think I’ll ever be able to use any of this, even in a situation where it’s needed.”
“Why?”
“When people are truly fearing for their lives their minds make this noise… Have you ever heard a rabbit scream? It’s like that but… It’s like a chorus of them. It’s debilitating.”
“Melody, you’ll probably never need to use a weapon of any kind. I told you, it’s just a formality. Anyway, you can use your telepathy in an emergency. Think of this as just a safety course. It’ll mean if any of us are disarmed you’ll be able to safely tidy everything away.”
“Ok.” She didn’t sound convinced.
“And if you manage to actually hit the target I’ll go and get donuts at lunch time.”
She smiled softly. “You know the way to a girls heart.”
“No, I just want donuts.” He teased gently.