Disoriented Cosmos {A Torchwood Story} [COMPLETED]

20. Boom Town

"Hey," Owen calls as he comes back from the postbox with our newspaper one day, "look at the front cover. Brand-new nuclear power plant by the mayor."

I set my spoon down and peer over as he sits down next to me. Slap bang in the middle of the cover is a photo of the new mayor, trying to cover the camera with one hand. I frown - if she doesn't like being photographed, why did she become the Mayor?
Also, when did she become the Mayor?

I say as much to Owen: "When did she become Mayor again? I can't even remember."
"A few months ago; she started building the plant right away, smart woman," he replies, and leans over to steal my bowl of cereal and pour some leftover Chardonnay from last night into the remaining cornflakes. Absent-mindedly I slap him on the shoulder and he grunts in retort, but I let him carry on and instead peer closer at the woman.

The Mayor Margaret Blaine: out of the blue, big nuclear power plant, extremely private. I don't know, but something doesn't exactly seem right. Maybe I should ask Jack about it.

~∆~

On our way to the Hub, I feel the wind blowing through my brown hair and when I look to the bay, I punch Owen lightly on the shoulder and ask, "Can we get ice cream?"
He moans. "Come on, Evy - my head hurts, I just wanna sit down."
"You can sit down in the cafe, you hungover whinger," I persist with a dazzling smile on my face, which he gives into begrudgingly and lets me drag him into the cafe.

He grabs a table outside while I go to the counter, and when I return with a wooden spoon bearing our order number, he's grumbling with his eyelids low and his body slumped into his chair.
I put my hands on my hips, the spoon set down on the table. "What?"
"They're being loud," he complains like a child. I roll my eyes and look in the direction he's pointing to a table of four a bit away from us.

They look happy enough, only loud to a hungover Owen, really: a woman with blonde hair laughing, a man in a leather jacket across from her; a black guy laughing along with them, and...

No.

Fuck right off.

"Owen," I alert him, and he moans before I grab him by the jacket and pull him up to look at the group.

Why the fuck is Captain Jack Harkness there?!

"Oh my God," Owen exclaims beside me, and I turn to leave for the Hub and run into the waiter with our ice creams. I smile politely, take them and thank him, then start rushing to the Hub with Owen close behind me.

As soon as we reach inside we're off to find Tosh and Suzie to tell about Jack. He never told us he has friends outside of here, and he's never worn anything besides his World War Two outfit. We've all been wondering, who is Captain Jack Harkness, and here we have another piece of the puzzle!

I turn round the corner and bump into Jack, in his army uniform. I say nothing, just gawp at him, and he asks, "What?"
"Wha-uh," I say, at a loss for words, and he leans on one leg and crosses his arms.
"Some coherent words would be great, Evelina."

"But you were just," I point behind me, "you were just out there... in the... the cafe, you were... with these people, this... man, in a big leather jacket... you... you what?"

Jack furrows his brows. "A leather jacket?"
"But... you were there, in the cafe, like a minute ago, and..."
"A leather jacket?" Jack repeats, and I nod, still dumbfounded at how he could be in two places at once, and he doesn't say anything else, just pushes past me to get into the Hub and runs to the CCTV screens.