Chapter Text
Owen watched Mel practically skip past as she carried a set of folders deeper into the hub for the sixth time since lunch.
“So, what’s up with Bambi over there?” He asked.
Gwen chuckled to herself and Tosh looked up from her soldering. “She’s just trying to make sure everything she needs to do is done before tonight.”
“And what’s happening tonight?”
“Some of her friends from her old home are visiting for the weekend so she’s meeting them as soon as her shift’s done.” Tosh clarified.
“Is that why she’s so dressed up?”
“Sort of.”
Gwen grinned to herself.
He side eyed her carefully. “What do you know?”
“She’s meeting with someone new too.”
“As in?”
“Someone she’s been talking to for a while and wants to impress.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I thought she wasn’t dating.”
“It’s just a first meeting. It’s exciting though, isn’t it.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“Oh come on, you’re not even a tiny bit interested in who this is?”
“Unless they’re trying to eat people or take over the world, no.”
“This is Melody we’re talking about here, they just could be.”
He looked her in the eye before sighing. “Get me a name and I can get you a psych report by six.”
“So have you decided on a name for each of them?” Ianto asked as he tipped a small box of fish into the fishers tank. Both creatures scurried across from their basking rock and dived into their tank, ready for their lunch.
Jack chuckled at them as they ran off from where he was sat on the sand. “That one’s Raspberry and that one’s Peaches.”
“I thought you’d go for more human names but they suit them.”
Jack had picked up the habit of joining Ianto whenever he went to feed the fishers. It was just a nice ritual to break up the day. Plus it gave him the chance to check up on how Ianto was doing mentally. As much trauma as he had connected to Torchwood one he’d always felt quite positive about his time there before it fell. That had all been thrown into question and he’d taken it hard. Was he really who he thought he was if he couldn’t even trust his own memory? Had his love for Lisa been natural or set up? How many of his other memories been tampered with? It had been hard to process, let alone deal with. As much as Jack had tried to support him and assure him that who he was now was all that mattered it was still weighing heavily.
“Have you spoken to Mel about trying to unravel more memories?” He asked, finally.
Ianto sighed and placed the box down, watching Raspberry and Peaches swim in perfectly synchronised circles as they ate. “Not yet. I don’t know if there’s even anything she can do. She said so many of my memories are gone.”
“You could still ask. Even if it’s just to confirm that the memories you do have are real.”
“The peace of mind would be nice… But I don’t want to bother her today. She’s so excited about seeing her friends, I don’t want her stuck thinking about me and how it went last time too much to have fun… Maybe on Monday.”
“If you’re sure… Want to go out this weekend? Take your mind off things?”
Ianto nodded. “Sounds good… When was the last time I went outside?”
“Six days ago when you went out to pick up lunch.”
“Didn’t we go and scare off those weevils in-”
“That was two weeks ago.”
“Oh god, I really have been out of it.”
Jack nodded, trying not to bring up just how out of it Ianto had been. “Does that mean you might be up for sending everyone home early?”
“Wh-... Oh. Yes… Yes I am.”
Melody stopped by Gwen as she was making her way out, bag hung from her shoulder. “Um… Does my makeup look ok?”
“You look great. Where are you meeting your friends?”
“Just outside.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“It’s ok. I have plausible deniability.” She held up a handful of leaflets. “Plus they know I prefer to wait in quiet places.”
Gwen smiled softly. “Just have fun.”
“I will.” She bounced before heading out.
As soon as she was out of sight Gwen hopped up and to Toshikos desk, who was already bringing up the camera feed. Owen had told himself he wasn’t going to get involved but he couldn’t help but wander over to join them. Driven mostly by curiosity. They watched as Mel made her way out and waved at a group of people already waiting for her. They looked like a typical group of twentysomethings with a love of the colour black. Three men and two women. The screen lit up with its usual identification pop up boxes.
“I didn’t expect her to hang around with the goth crowd.” Gwen mused.
Tosh chuckled. “Haven’t you ever heard what she listens to on her walk to work?”
“No.”
“Sounded like heavy metal to me.”
“She just wears so much pink.”
Owen rested his arm on the back of Tosh’s chair. “I think they call it pastel goth or something. Makes you feel old, doesn’t it.”
“A lot of teenagers wore that kind of thing when I was a teenager. I used to see them in the magazines my friends sent me from Japan.” The tech smiled fondly at the memory.
“So which one’s this new love interest then?”
“Interested now?”
“I blame you two.”
Gwen pointed to one of the figures. “I think it’s her. Her name’s Heather.”
“I can double check.” Tosh clicked on one of the boxes, maximising it, to show a bare bones profile. “Heather Brookhill, twenty six, mother and father both still alive and together, two brothers and one sister, all born at Birmingham general hospital. No criminal record, studied business, no warning signs here.”
Owen shook his head. “Course not on the surface. Her ex didn’t have much on the surface, didn’t stop her from being a sociopath.”
“Isn’t that where you step in?”
“Send over her profile. I’ll get started.”
“Get started on what?” Jack asked, having crept up on the group as their attention was held by the screen.
“Christ Harkness, don’t do that!”
“Someone’s jumpy.” He grinned as Owen walked back to his desk. “I didn’t know we had any open cases right now.”
Gwen pointed to the screen. “We were just making sure Mels new love interest wasn’t going to be as… well…”
“Stabby?” Ianto offered.
“Well yes.”
“If she knew you were doing this she’d be very upset.”
“We’re just looking out for her.”
Jack crossed his arms. “Usually I’d tell you to leave her alone but, with her history, just make sure all of her friends are human and aren't carrying alien technology. Then you can take the rest of the evening off.”
Melody hadn’t felt this happy in a while. She’d left so quickly that she’d barely had the chance to tell them all why. Simon, the tallest of the group, took a sketchbook from his bag and offered it to her.
“You left this at mine. I didn’t look through it or anything. Your mum asked us to bring some of your other stuff too.”
She took the book and slipped it into her own bag. “Thanks. Sorry I didn’t have time to really grab everything or even give you warning.”
“No, I completely understand. You needed to get out of there. I’m sorry we didn’t step in.”
“You didn’t know how bad it had gotten. Anyway, I’m in a better place now. She’s in prison and I’ve got my life back.”
“You look better. Even after the mugging and everything.”
She smiled brightly. “Thanks.”
They stopped as the rest of the group had paused to look at something in the sky.
Mark pointed upward. “I didn’t think we were due a meteor shower or anything.”
Lights flickered in the sky above, too still to be fireworks and it was too early for stars. They were like sparks flickering below cloud level. Mel took a picture and sent it to Tosh, just in case.
“It could be some kind of lightning. Why don’t we get set up at mine and then we can think about dinner, yea?” She offered, acting as if it was perfectly normal to be seeing lights in the sky.
“It’s easy to forget you’re used to weird stuff, but if you say so. Do you want to go in mine or Nathans car?”
Tosh checked the rift monitor but it wasn’t showing anything too alarming. Her sensors had detected something breaking up in the atmosphere but, due to all the space junk humanity had left up there, it wasn’t unusual either. She sent a message back just saying not to worry about it and to have a good weekend. Owen had finished the short background checks quickly and found nothing to worry about. The rest of the psych evaluation he could do from home which he was sure would make Jack happy. They’d all noticed how distant Ianto had been for the last month and the change in him from that morning. Owen had been close to pulling him aside and telling him he needed to accept some help, but the upturn of his mood had lessened the need. Hopefully a night off with Jack would bring him back to his senses.
“You’re still worried, aren’t you?” Tosh said from the passenger seat on the way back to Owens flat.
He shrugged. “A bit. He’s a bit more himself now, so who knows.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine. Jack’s been keeping a close eye on him.”
“That doesn’t usually end well.”
“It’ll be fine. We should just enjoy a couple of days off. Gwen said she’s going to try and convince Rhys to have dinner somewhere nice tomorrow.”
“Subtle Tosh.” He chuckled. “You could just ask.”
“Last time I did the world nearly ended. I’m trying to work around it.”
“Fair enough. It’s your idea so you get to choose where we go.”
“You don’t get to complain about where we end up if you leave it all up to me.”
“I promise nothing.”
Sat around the living room with way too much pizza made Mel feel like nothing had changed. She’d spent so many weekends just having fun and being social. It was the one thing she missed about her old home. Heather had even settled into the group seamlessly. She’d always been great to chat to online so it wasn’t a shock but new people joining a set group could be uncomfortable.
“Trust you to move to the urban legend capital of Wales.” Ailsa chuckled.
Mel shrugged. “Why not? If I’m going to be surrounded by strange stuff I may as well be somewhere it happens anyway.”
“So there’s something I’ve wanted to ask about as you’re here.” Heather began, putting down the small box of garlic bread she had.
“Oh?”
“Torchwood.”
Mel could feel herself almost choke, but she kept her cool on the surface. “Umm…”
“Well, lots of people say that word but every time I find anything about it online it gets removed. As you live here I wondered if you’d heard anything. Stories and stuff.”
“Well, it sounds familiar but I haven’t heard anything in particular. I assumed they were just a security business, or something, that’s really sensitive about their web presence. I mean I had to sign an NDA for my job, so there are plenty of businesses that could have contracts that don’t let them be public.” She hoped that would be believable enough.
“What about the coat man?”
“The what?”
“This mysterious figure sometimes spotted on rooftops, way higher than any sane person would climb to. He wears a long coat and witnesses say he’s seen just before disasters. Like the mothman but more human shaped.”
She couldn’t help but laugh, thinking of Jacks face when he heard that he’d become Cardiffs own cryptid. “Strange things that happen aren’t that dramatic, or out in the open, otherwise they wouldn’t be strange.”
“Then what strange things have followed you?”
“Well, I got this place so cheap because it was haunted.”
“Wait, that was this place? I saw about all the bodies they found in the basement.”
“Yep. They were found not too long after I moved in. Other than that, getting mugged, having a sudden unexplained power outage at my old place, my ex turning up and trying to kill my flatmate, plenty of other strange stuff.”
“Didn’t she go to prison?”
“Yea. Turned out she’d murdered someone. I’m glad I escaped when I did.”
“If the pictures I’ve seen are anything to go by you can do so much better anyway.” She winked.
Melody went bright red and grabbed her drink to hide her face a little.
PC Davidson shook his head. He’d pulled over after seeing a couple of cars stopped for no apparent reason. They weren’t parked, just stopped. On the pathway lay a young woman, the front of her shirt stained red with blood. Her face was pure white and she was cold. She’d been dead for a while and dumped right on the street. He’d quickly dispersed the crowd and taped the area off before backup arrived. This was going to be one of those strange cases, he just knew it.