Ghosts

Ghost Machine

I shrug. "I could ask the same of you. Why are any of us here. There's got to be a reason, or at least a cause. I propose we find it."

"She's got a point. Most people do not haunt their workplace," Ianto says flatly, but I can he's intrigued by the shine in his eyes.

"Well," Tosh says thoughtfully, "Hazel woke up in the archives, so maybe there's an artifact that caused this somewhere near where she came through. Do you know where in the archives you were?"

"Yep, I looked through some files to get my bearings. It was 2005; space pig." I grin.

"Wait, you looked through files, as in, opened a file cabinet and picked up a file?" Owen asks disbelievingly. I frown.

"Yeah...?"

"We can't touch or interact physical objects unless it's a floor, bed, the seat of a chair, and other things like that. We can walk through walls and sit on countertops." Ianto answers my half-question. At this I reach out to touch the coffee machine, but my hand goes through it.

I gasp. "We should definitely go down to the archives."

We head out of the kitchen and start toward the archives. We're half way there when the alarm sounds and the cog door rolls open. Jack runs in and silences the alarm, then stops and sighs. He looks kind of depressed. Not happy, anyway. Gwen comes in, with Rhys close behind her.

"Wait, is Rhys working here now?" I ask. Tosh nods. I go back to examining Jack. He looks... empty. Ianto. I look over at him. He's watching Jack with a pained expression. He always suffered the most survivor's guilt, I guess he's going through the opposite here.

"Hazel!" Owen yells and I stop staring at Jack. Ianto wordlessly leads as we start down through the archives.

*~*

After a significantly shorter walk than it took me to get out of this area of the archives, we arrive. I go over and open the file cabinet, proving that I can manipulate objects. Owen stares at me like I broke the laws of physics, which I may have, but just accept my simile, okay? Tosh looks somewhat surprised, but I think she trusted that I was telling the truth. Ianto frowns thoughtfully and picks up some sort of gadget.

"If we have a solid form here, whatever's making us like this should be close by. I use the term solid loosely." I announce. "What here do you not know a use for?"

They start picking through the stuff on the shelves, sorting stuff they don't understand to one side. Ianto is going through the stuff Tosh and Owen set out and removing some, giving them a "oh come on, how do you not know what this is look" look sometimes. I stand to the side, not knowing what any of it is.

When they've sorted everything, we have twenty-one, things, set aside. "So how do you propose we go about seeing which is the cause of this, Hazel?" Owen asks in an almost disdainful tone.

"Well," I stop and think for a good minute. "We could pick each up and walk away. If it slips out of our hands, then we know we're out of range of the actual cause." I'm proud of my solution.

"Or we could slide them along the shelf so they don't fall and break." Trust Ianto can come up with a similar but 1000x better idea.

Tosh shrugs I'm agreement and starts pushing a metallic black box down the shelf.

"Wait. We need to know how far 'out of range' is," Owen sighs, exasperated. He practically trudges down the hall, running his hand over the wall. He gets thirty feet down before shouting "Here!"

Tosh resumes sliding the box along the shelf. When she reaches Owen her hand goes through the box and it stops. She shivers, pulling her hand out quickly. I take the next one down, something that looks like a gun made out wood. I get the same result as Tosh. Ianto comes next, then Owen.

For my third trip down, I choose a silvery rock polyhedron with strange designs on it. As soon as I touch it I feel a jolt of something, not electricity though. I glance over Ianto who's standing behind me. He looks startled and is staring at the rock.

"I think this is it." I almost whisper. He nods. I slide it down the shelf quickly, excited. When I get to where the other stuff is starting to pile up, my hand doesn't go through.

"Yes!" I lift it up in triumph. Then stop, frowning. "Now what?"

*~*

Okay there we go. Or there I go. I don't know if people are reading this. As of now there are 9 reads, but no feedback. And there I am, begging for votes. I said I wouldn't do this! *gets incredibly angry at self, but doesn't fix mistake* *sigh* This is hard to write. I think I have a cool story planned out, but I suck so bad at writing action. *cries* This is still picking up pace though, there should be more. More action, that is.

I haven't actually finished Torchwood yet. I know that these guys die, and I sorta know how. Knowing isn't gonna make their deaths easier though. I'm still gonna cry for Ianto. I love him. He's the only one with any common sense. Jack, Tosh, and Owen always overthink things and Gwen is too stupid. No offense Gwen, I like you most of the time. Key word most.