Ghosts

Everything Changes

The hub is flooded with weevils. There must be a hundred of them. Okay, probably more like 50. But still, that a lot of weevils! Gwen is standing against a wall. She has her gun out, and there are a few fallen weevils near her. There are still many closing in on her. One steps too close and she shoots it. Chances are she'll be out of bullets soon.

Tosh and Owen are standing kinda in the middle of the hub awkwardly. The weevils don't notice them. They look helpless, Tosh more so, and she looks flustered. I groan, I feel the same way. I don't want to stand by and watch, but we can't do anything. Firing a gun, which we should be able to do, would freak them out as they can't see us. Rule of ghosting, don't let people know you're there except in emergencies. Well, there aren't actually rules, but if there were that'd be one of them.

Jack springs into action in front of me, pulling out his gun and shooting the three closest weevils. Gwen glances up as the shots ring out, and smiles like a damsel in distress at Jack. Ugh. Her actions make me sick. Jack turns and shoots another weevil.

Rhys, previously frozen in shock, jolts and cautiously takes up his gun. He starts moving toward his wife, shooting the weevils who get in the way, getting more confident as he goes. Gwen, seemingly out of bullets, backs even more into the wall. I think she whimpered. She whimpered; she works for Torchwood, and she whimpered, because of weevils.

Rhys reaches her, grabs her arm, and starts leading her toward Jack's office, one of the more defendable areas. I'm watching him curiously, as he gets much better as time goes on, when I hear Ianto yell, "Jack!"

I spin around. I see Ianto running to the other side of the room. Oh my croft. Jack's gone and died hasn't he. I know he'll come back, but right now, he's dead. I quickly follow Ianto, running through a weevil in the process. Ianto's kneeling next to Jack, just like he's always done. It looks like Jack was also trying to get to his office.

I watch Jack. The fatal bite to his neck is healing. I'm not sure why the weevils are leaving him alone even now, but I'm glad they are. The wound heals, and he gasps to life. Ianto gives a weak smile and starts to back away.

"Ianto?" Jack says weakly. He's looking straight at the Welshman. Ianto stops backing up and stares back.

"Jack?" Ianto echoes, "You can see me?"

They stare at each other a moment longer, then Jack surges forward and is tightly hugging Ianto, who freezes in shock, then hugs him back. "I love you too." Ianto only holds him tighter.

"Okay, I really wish I didn't have to interrupt this moment but there are still like 30 weevils in the hub. And hello, Captain Jack Harkness, I'm Hazel. Gwen and Rhys can't see us, we're ghosts. Not entirely sure why you can, but probably cause you died. We can explain later, but right now, weevils." I announce, grinning and giving Jack a small wave. Jack looks worried, scared, and/or startled by my presence (I honestly can't tell). Then I walk away. I don't want to give him time to respond.

I can hear Jack getting back up and ready to fight behind me, so I turn my attention back to Gwen and Rhys. They've run out of bullets, and are using weevil spray now. There are only eleven weevils left. Still a lot, but quite the improvement. Eight of them are converging on Gwen and Rhys.

Rhys sprays the nearest weevils and it backs up a bit, but it really isn't gonna help much. Gwen throws a punch at one, and, while it's more effective than the spray, it's still not much good. Jack has shot the three after him and shoots one about to kill Rhys.

"Get into my office!" Jack yells to them. Gwen quickly turns and sprints up the weevil free staircase. Rhys, however, is too fat. Er, slow. He sprays the nearby weevils, then turns to go up the stairs. The weevils are too fast. As he turns, one shakes off the effects of the spray and lunges. He doesn't even see it coming before it kills him.

Everyone just stands there for a moment, frozen. Well, the weevils keep moving because they couldn't care less and Gwen keeps moving because she didn't notice what happened. But Tosh, Owen, Ianto, Jack, and I are frozen. Staring at Rhys' body.

"He's not a ghost," Owen breathes. "I'm not sure I'd want him to be, but..."

I know what he means. "It must have ended when I came or when I activated it. I'd say no one else will become ghosts. Which is good, I guess."

At this point Gwen looks behind her and sees him. She gasps and freezes as the rest of us did 30 seconds ago. "Jack, come on!" She screams when she recovers.

I find it strange that her attention turned to Jack so quickly. I mean, I was in shock longer than she was at her husband being dead. I quickly follow her into Jack's office, getting there before Jack, as he has to get through more weevils.

Gwen has an evil grin on her face, but soon forces it to go away. She starts crying, but I can tell its forced. I don't think she cares that Rhys is dead. I think she's glad that he's dead. Now he's not standing in the way of her non existent relationship with Jack. She wants Jack to think that she's upset so he pities her and pays attention to her. Ha. Fat chance. He's got Ianto back now.

*~*

Oh yeah. This chapter is like 33% longer than my other ones. (Yes I'm a nerd. I use percentages in my writing.)

Thanks so much for reading this. It means a lot to me. Fifty-eight reads may not be a lot as compared to many books on this site, but hey, it's better than I expected. (I have rather low self confidence. It's kinda bad actually.) And I hate ending a paragraph with parentheses, not to mention two and a chapter, so here's a completely pointless sentence!