Sparkling Cosmos {A Torchwood Story Two} [COMPLETED]

24. Captain Jack Harkness

By the time we get to the Hub, Owen has already told Jack that I can't fill in so Tosh has driven off in a beautiful dress torn between being worried for me and complaining about having to work on her day off.
I couldn't really care right now - I just want to sleep and regain my energy from the Rift slowly burning holes through my synapses.

Ianto lies me down on the sofa with a soothing cup of lavender herbal tea, and I almost immediately pass out. The last thing I hear from them is a conversation:
"What the hell is that?"
"Tosh's Rift monitor programme. She set it to alert me if there were any further movements. The Rift's been opening more and more recently. Tosh reckons the equations are forming some sort of pattern. I should call her. She may have readings her end and this is a bit over my head."
"Er, why wasn't I told about this?"
A pause; I can sense Ianto looking to me, then to him. "Well, you've been off, haven't you."

An indignant scoff from Owen is the last thing I hear before the pain takes over.

All the sounds swirling round my head are indistinguishable, even for a Time Lord: laughs, beats, snatches of sentences that don't make any sense. The pattern of four pops up every now and again, but nothing holds a candle to the attention the Rift is taking up. Toshiko is right - it is opening more. And I don't know about any patterns, but if my mental state linked to it means anything, then it doesn't exactly spell rainbows of joy.

The pain swells every so often, an erratic pattern which doesn't make sense. Each time I grip my arms and curl further into a ball to try and make the outside hurt more than the inside, because physical pain takes the attention away from the mental pain. But even that doesn't help.
I drift in and out of consciousness for I don't know how long, only hearing snippets of conversation between Ianto and Owen between unimaginable heat slicing my being in two:

"We can't; half the equation's missing." Equation for what?
"Shit. Shit!" That's Owen, and after our talk this morning I really want to reach out to him and let him know it's okay to be angry at whatever is happening, but the Rift won't let me. It's keeping me rooted to the sofa; keeping me in fear.

"The manager, Bilis Manger, kept them for posterity," I barely hear or understand from a soft Welsh tone. The name rings in my head - yet another piece for a never-ending puzzle.
There's a muffled reply from another Welsh accent, which I manage to recognise as Gwen. The name comes up again, and at it I wince. Ianto looks to me in concern, and Owen runs to me.
"What is it?" he asks in a hardened rushed tone, but before I can even try to say anything, Ianto says, "Gwen! He's in the photo with Jack and Tosh!"

What guy? Bilis? I try to ask, but all the energy has left me. Owen rushes to the clear wall we use for case studies and peers at the old guy wearing a cravat.
His voice is urgent. "He's the answer. He's come through the Rift. Find out what he's doing."
"No. Get out, Gwen. Wait for backup."
"We can't lose him," Owen declares, and Ianto retorts indignantly, "We can't lose Gwen! Maybe this is a trap. He could be sucking us back through time one by one. Get out of there, Gwen. That's an order."
"I'm sorry, but who exactly put you in charge?" Owen yells, and I manage to shout at him, "Shut up, both of you!"

They both turn their heads to stare at me, and my vision blurs until they're both smudges of their clothes.
I take a deep breath, trying unsuccessfully to steady myself. "Listen, I don't know what the fuck is going on, but the Rift is getting worse; someone is using it. And if it's this Bilis guy, and he has some sort of plan, we need to be careful."
Owen holds my blurry gaze; I can tell without focusing that he's deciding between anger and cautiousness, and I wish I could tell him to act the latter, but I can't - because I pass out again.

~∆~

I'm awoken after I don't know how long by a shake of Ianto. The first thing I do is yell in agony.
"I'm sorry," he says in a rushed urgent voice, "but you need to tell Owen to stop."
The panic in his tone makes me try my hardest to open my eyes. "What's he doing?"
Before he replies, a loud crash happens followed by a snaking sound. We look over to the Rift, my head hurting from the very movement, and Owen is beside it taking up the grates from the floor.