Burning Cosmos {A Torchwood Story Three} [COMPLETED]

31. In And Out Of Time

"Aaaaaand we're back up!"
I bash the start button with gusto and the backup generator turns on! Emergency lights flicker throughout the hospital, electricity begins to slowly reconnect, and I grin triumphantly.

These people are safe. Now, time to find Jack!

I begin to run, asking someone at reception to borrow a car. They give me the keys to an ambulance, the only thing they're allowed to give out, and at the front door I take one last look back.

I wish Owen were here. But at the same time, I really don't want him to know what I'm about to do.

I run out the doors and find the ambulance. As I sit in the driver's seat and figure out everything, I touch my comm. "Anyone there?"
"All the officers are here; about to start the conference now," Gwen replies, her determination seeping through the line. Further away, in the server building, Ianto replies for a busy Tosh, "Still working on it. We'll let you know if anything changes."
"As long as you don't make it worse, eh?" I tease tensely, only hearing an attempted laugh on the other end. "Owen?"

"The generator's back on," he replies, and whilst I reverse the ambulance out of the car park, I roll my eyes. "I know, stupid, I did it. How is everyone in the hospital?"
"You're in there, you should know," he retorts with snark... but then he pauses. A small silence tells me exactly what he's thinking. And he knows I'm up to no good.

"Evy, come back here. Now."
"No," I deny, not caring if the others hear. "I can find them, I know I can. All three major explosions are covered without me."
"What if you can't find them? What if you get trapped yourself? Evelina!"
I take a breath, driving down streets, turning the siren on so people get out of my way. "I know what I'm doing now. You all know your orders, now you do them. I may be offline for a while, and while I am, Gwen, you take over til I'm back."

A pause. "It sounds like you're leaving forever," Gwen points out.
"I know." I don't dare to say any more. I touch my comm again, so it's just Owen and I. "Owen?"
Another pause. Then, "After everything I said, you're letting yourself go?"
"No," I say. "I'm thinking clearly. John implied that he's under someone's control. Now if that someone wanted Jack, it's never going to be good. If I get to Jack, I can help him, and out of us I'm the only one who can. Cuz if whoever is out to get Jack gets him, then they can only want the worst for the rest of us." I stop my rambling for breath, then say, "I love you."

"I love you too. Come back safe."

"Don't worry about it."

I steer the ambulance right up to my flat, run inside, find my time-travel armband which is still on the floor after Jack and I's recent adventure, then hop back into the ambulance and drive the ambulance right into the Cardiff Castle grounds. What are they gonna do, it's an ambulance, you can't call the police on me!

The energy inside of me pulls me to the last site of Jack and John, and I stand in a cloud of amber dust. Naked to the human eye, but Time Lords can see everything. I hope this works.

I open a small compartment I just modified on my armband, and like an order the remaining energy from the disappearing duo slinks neatly into it. I shut it tightly, lest they escape, and work the buttons on the machine til they match accurately enough to the end destination of the fading signature. I can't get an accurate fix, as it happened so long ago, but I've got enough.

I touch my comm. "Everyone? How's it going?"
"The Turnmill nuclear power station is gonna go into meltdown unless we go in there and work the direct transmissions," Tosh comes in. I let all my breath out in one long swoop.
"Is there no other way? If you get trapped in there, it's a suicide mission."
"That's why we're going together," Ianto's voice chimes, his brisk Welsh accent and her determined tone making tears come to my eyes.
"Okay," I manage to tell them. "Be careful. Gwen?"
"The police are doing their best," she replies. "At the moment, I'm at the station locking everything down."
"That's great." Then I say, with a lump in my throat, "Owen?"
"Yeah, it's all good here," comes his eventual reply, and I sigh in relief. He's okay. "The backup generator is working, but the staff don't wanna try anything big just in case. They're all shit scared."