Just Imagine...

They Do Tend To Come In Pairs

Jack pulled his coat a little tighter around himself, shivering as the cold air cut through even its thick fabric.
Okay, well, maybe it wasn't just the cold that had him shaking and wanting reassurance and warmth from his trusty greatcoat, it was the fact that he was standing in front of an abandoned church that was likely full of sleeping Weevils, which he now had to enter to retrieve an object he didn't even want that much.
Ever since Suzie had died (the second time), Jack had devoted himself to searching for a second glove. Resurrection Gauntlet. Risen Mitten. Whatever, the other metal thing that brought people back to life when you stuck your hand in it.
It had been almost a year, and Jack had finally tracked it down. He just had to get it out of this church and destroy it before it fell into the wrong hands. Which maybe wasn't the best idea to try and do by himself.
No matter, one person could get in and out faster, and Jack couldn't die, so was there any real risk involved?
Taking a deep breath to work up his courage, Jack stepped into the threshold of the church.
He was greeted by an almost silence, the only sound was the soft, grumbling snores of the Weevils. Jack could tell there had to be at least two dozen of them, but he'd been lucky to catch them sleeping. Better not turn on his flashlight though, waking them up would likely result in death.
He began carefully inching around the church, trying to find a spot where the other glove could be hidden. His steps were almost comically slow, and Jack probably would've been laughing hysterically at himself if he wasn't so afraid of waking up the slumbering creatures around him.
It was so dark Jack couldn't even see the Weevils, but he knew they were there - besides the sounds of their breathing, the air was thick with their disgusting smell. Somewhere between fresh sewage and rotting food. It was enough to make Jack gag in this small of a space.
"Where are you?" Jack whispered faintly, frantically looking around for anything that might give him a clue as to where the object he was looking for might be.
There was so little light in here that Jack's eye was immediately drawn to the faint beam of moonlight from a circular window high above him, shining down on the front of the church near the pulpit. Something glinted beneath the piles of junk.  
"Gotcha!" Jack exclaimed as loudly as he dared, grinning and making his way closer to the metal gleam. Then he stopped.
His eyes were adjusting to the darkness now and he could see that the majority of the Weevils were curled on the floor in front of him, directly blocking his path to the pulpit and the second glove.
Cursing under his breath and making a pouty face that no one could even see, Jack began edging his way through the rancid creatures, heart hammering so hard he was fearful that in itself would wake the Weevils. But it didn't.
Jack reached the pulpit without issue and started carefully rummaging through a pile of horrific-looking old dolls scrunching up his nose partly in utter disgust and partly to keep himself from sneezing.
The Weevils only awoke when a rusty toy car fell out of the pile with a clatter and skidded across the floor.
It was as if they all awoke at the same time, immediately on alert and snarling as they saw Jack trespassing in their makeshift den.
Jack braced himself for the feeling of gnashing teeth and serrated claws ripping him to shreds, but it never came, as a dark figure with a bejewelled sword that glinted in the light of the full moon suddenly leaped down through a hole in the ceiling, straight into the middle of the throng of bodies.
It was over in seconds, three Weevils lying slain on the ground while the rest ran for their lives, the newcomer holding their bloodied sword aloft in the centre of the carnage. They looked up, grinning, and Jack resisted the boyish squeak of excitement wanting to escape his throat when he recognized who it was.
"Hey Jacksie." Sam murmured slyly.
"Mom, what the hell are you doing here?" Jack demanded, instead of screaming at his renther about just how fucking awesome that had been.
Get ahold of yourself, Jack, he thought, you're not twelve!
"Saving your skin, apparently," Sam chuckled, striding up to him and wiping the blood from her sword on her coat, "I thought The Lion's Breath could use a little Weevil-killing. A better question would be, what are you doing here?"
"Looking for the other... Risen Mitten." Jack murmured, turning back to the pile of junk.
"I love Ianto but there's no part of my brain that can accept that name," Sam sighed, stepping up behind him, "wait a minute, 'other'? There's TWO of those creepy things??"
"Well, gloves do tend to come in pairs."
"You stole than one-liner from Ianto, didn't you?"
"How'd you know?"
"Because only he could say something that stupid with a straight face. Stop giggling, Jacksie."
Jack wiped his mouth on his sleeve as if that would get rid of the goofy grin on his face.
"It was funny when he said it." He murmured, still laughing softly.
"I'm sure it was," Sam said, resigned, "but why do we need to find the thing anyway? Can't we just leave it in this fucked-up place?"
She glanced around warily, as if checking for any Weevils brave enough to return that might be lurking in the deep shadows of the abandoned church.
"No, we can't risk someone else getting their hands on it," Jack responded, becoming serious once again, "it's too dangerous to be left lying around somewhere."
"I don't think the Weevils are planning to start bringing each other back from the dead," Sam said dryly, "what would that even look like anyway?"
"I'm not talking about the Weevils," Jack murmured, biting back chuckles, "I'm talking about someone who might use it for the wrong things."
"Someone like Suzie?"
Jack paused, even though they both knew that was what he'd been thinking.
"Yeah," he said finally, "that."
"So we're gonna destroy it, right? Not... try to bring her back. I had to kill her once, I'm not doing it again."
"You said yourself that she was out of control and had to be stopped."
"I know. I saw that firsthand. But that doesn't mean I'd kill her again."
"What happened that day wasn't your fault."
"And it wasn't yours either."
Jack glanced over his shoulder at Sam, and she stared back at him, deadly serious. He went back to searching without saying anything.
Sam crouched down beside him to help, but Jack noticed she was being much more hesitant - she didn't want to end up touching the other glove if she found it.
"Look; we lost a friend to this thing's other half," Sam murmured, "are we sure we wanna bring it into the place where Suzie used the other one before? I don't wanna lose somebody else to this crap."
"You think Tosh, Owen, Gwen, or Ianto might end up like Suzie?" Jack asked.
"Not at all," Sam assured him, "I doubt they'd even consider touching it, especially Gwen. But you know the other glove had an influence, a hold on Suzie that she couldn't break out of. That's what I'm worried about."
"Well that's not going to happen this time. Because we're going to destroy it as soon as we get back to the hub."
Sam looked up at him and grinned, nodding.
"Perfect," she murmured, "maybe we can use that new toy Owen's been messin' with."
"You just like destroying things in obscure ways, don't you?" Jack laughed.
"Yeah," Sam said, "what of it? I know you do too. Ooh, can we set it on fire?"
"I don't think that would work. Owen and I tried to do that with the last one and it wouldn't burn."
"I was meaning to ask you how you managed to destroy that thing. How'd you do it? Dynamite??"
"No, absolutely not. Owen shot it."
"With a high-tech alien machine gun?"
"With a glock 17."
"Aw, seriously? It's that easy?"
"Apparently."
"Well that's no fun."
"I got it!"
Jack let out a triumphant laugh as he pulled a hollow metal hand-shaped object from the heap of trash, then yelped as an old baby doll head rolled down the pile and bounced off his foot.
"Oh, great," Sam said unenthusiastically, "you found it. How fun."
"I promise this isn't gonna cause any harm to anyone," Jack murmured, "but if you're that worried about it you can hold onto it on the drive back to the hub."
"Uh, no way." Sam said. "How 'bout you hold it and I'll drive."
"Okay." Jack laughed, handing her the keys to the Torchwood SUV.
"Here," Sam added, handing The Lion's Breath to him in return, "in case you need it."
She winked and turned to walk towards the entrance to the church as Jack stared at the glimmering sword in his hand. This was the first time he'd ever held it, and it felt even more powerful that he'd imagined. 
"You comin'?" Sam asked, turning back to look at him from the open door.
"Uh, yeah. Coming!" Jack replied, hurrying after her.
Sam grinned warmly, waiting for him to get outside before following, falling into step beside him.
"You didn't have to follow me, you know." Jack murmured.
"I know." Sam replied simply, opening the driver's side door of the SUV and climbing inside. "Jesus, what is up with this seat adjustment?"
"Owen was the last one to drive." Jack said, climbing into the passenger seat.
"And you didn't adjust it to a more comfortable position when you drove it? Jacksie, you're gonna get cramps doin' that."
"And I'll heal them immediately. Same with the Weevils, if they'd killed me-"
"There's no 'if' about it. If I'd been a second later you'd've been a chew toy."
"Either way, I would've come back. I can't die."
"Jacksie, you very much can die. You've died several times since I've met you. You just don't stay dead. But that's not the point, the point is that you don't have to go through needless suffering just because you can heal. It's not about the length of your life, it's the quality, and I won't have you putting yourself through pain and death just because you come back to life in one piece. You understand?"
"You're lecturing me."
"Damn straight. Answer the question."
Jack sighed, rolling his eyes as he glanced out the passenger window.
"Yes, you are understood." He mumbled.
Sam nodded curtly, then put the SUV in reverse and pulled out of the overgrown parking lot.
"You don't have to treat me like a teenager, y'know." Jack added after they'd driven along in silence for a few moments.
"I do when you're acting like one." Sam replied.
"I'm over one thousand years old. You're just over thirty."
"That doesn't matter. In the grand scheme of all this shit, I'm still older than you, and I am your renther. Not just by blood, but by promise. Okay?"
Jack bit his lip.
"Okay." He said.
"What's wrong?" Sam asked, not taking her eyes off the road.
"Nothing."
"Well something's on your mind."
"It's nothing! Just... thank you."
Sam glanced at him, green eyes glimmering in the moonlight slanting through the windshield.
"You're welcome, son." She murmured, reaching out to pat his shoulder.  
They didn't speak during the rest of the drive back to the hub, but Jack was smiling the whole way there as he leaned his head against the passenger window and watched the streets of Cardiff go wizzing by.
There was a warm feeling inside his chest from Sam's words. One that he knew - or at least hoped - wouldn't go away any time soon.