Nightingale: Agent of Torchwood

Everything Changes

Heavy rain poured down; it was dark as Nightingale walked the streets to calm her head and aching heart. It had been months since she had left the glittering landscape of Asgard and replaced it with Cardiff's gloomy, rainy scenery. She had created a routine for herself of getting a coffee in the morning and going to the library to use their computers to search for her brother, but each day was the same...nothing. Looking up at the sky, she could imagine the glittery stars and imagining herself sitting on the rainbow bridge with Heimdall as the man helped her gain focus in her sight.

Nightingale shook her head of the memories, knowing that when she began to ache for Asgard, she would begin to ache for...him. She glanced around for something to distract herself, and she was grateful when she noticed a swarm of police officers milling around a crime scene. 

Two police officers, a male and a woman, were standing in the rain.

Nightingale walked up to the police tape. "Who is it?"

"Dunno. Some bloke." The male officer replied.

Then, the Scene of Crime officers were told to leave the scene.

"What's happening there, then?" Nightingale asked

"Move back if you can. Thank you. Back you go. That's it. Back you go," the female officer told her.

Nightingale went to one of the officers. "Excuse me, sir. What is it? What's happening?"

"Buggered if I know. It's orders from above," The officer replied.

"But the body's still in there, isn't it? You can't just leave it,"

"Move back, they said. Clear the site. Special access, they said," the officer said bitterly.

"For who?"

"Torchwood,"

A big black modified Range Rover Vogue arrived, and four people, Suzie, Owen, and Toshiko, led by a man in a long coat, Jack, got out. They marched into the crime scene.

"Who's Torchwood?" Nightingale voiced confused.

"Special ops or something." The officer noticed the coffee Nightingale was holding. "Is that hot?"

"Er, yeah. Have it." Nightingale said absently, "But they're not allowed in there. They could contaminate the evidence and all sorts. I mean, how come they..."

"Don't ask me. There's no procedure. It's a fucking disgrace," The officer walked away with Nightingale's coffee.

Nightingale stared after him and then looked at the Torchwood team.

Jack turned in her direction but didn't appear to be looking at her.

Nightingale tried to see what they were doing. She looked up and saw a multi-story car park. Nightingale headed off up the stairs of the multistory car park overlooking the crime scene to get a better view from level 5. She could hear the mystery people speaking.

"There you go." The American leader, Jack, said, "I can taste it, Oestrogen. Definitely oestrogen. You take the Pill and flush it away. It enters the water cycle, feminizes the fish,"

One of Jack's female colleagues, Suzie, pulled a gauntlet from a crate and put it on her right hand.

"Goes up into the sky and then falls back onto me. Contraceptives in the rain. Love this planet. Still, at least I won't get pregnant. Never doing that again." Jack looked at Suzie. "How's it going?"

"Nothing yet; it's got to connect. I just gotta feel it," Suzie explained

"Then hurry up and feel it. Freezing my arse off here," A man with a small camera, Owen, complained

"I can't just flip a switch! It's more like access, it, it grants me access,"

"Whatever that means,"

"It's like, oh, oh, oh, oh..." Suzie proclaimed as the glove started to glow blue.

"Positions," Jack ordered his team.

"If I get punched again, I'm punching him right back," Owen proclaimed

"Just concentrate." Jack said, "Suzie," he nodd.

Suzie kneeled behind the dead man and cradled his head in the gauntlet.

The crime scene light grew brighter, the rain stopped, and then the dead man woke up.

Nightingale looked down; she was shocked.

"There was. What was? I was, I was. Oh, my God. I was going home," the dead man cried.

"Listen to me," an oriental woman, Tosh, told him. "We've only got two minutes, so you must listen, okay?"

"Who are you?"

"Trust me. You're dead,"

"How am I dead?"

"You were stabbed," Owen replied

"I'm not dead. I can see you,"

"We've brought you back, but we haven't got long." Tosh explained, "I'm sorry, but you've got to concentrate. Who did this to you? What did you see?"

"Why am I dead?"

"Who attacked you?"

"I don't want to be dead,"

"Sixty seconds," Suzie counted down.

"You've got to think," Tosh told the dead man. "Just focus on me. What was the last thing you saw?"

Jack sighed, clearly frustrated

"I didn't see. I don't know," The Deadman claimed.

"Who killed you? Did you see them?"

"I don't know. There was something behind me,"

"Police said one stab wound in the back," Owen confirmed.

"So you didn't see anything,"

"No. What happens now?" The Deadman wondered.

"Thirty seconds," Suzie continued to count.

"But he didn't see anyone," Tosh argued.

"Don't waste it,"

"What else do I say?"

"What's your name?" Jack cut in

"John." The dead man replied, "John Tucker,"

"Okay, John. Not long now,"

"Who are you?"

"Captain Jack Harkness. Tell me, what was it like when you died? What did you see? John, tell me what you saw,"

"Ten seconds," Suzie said.

"Nothing." John admitted, "I saw nothing. Oh, my God. There's nothing," he stopped breathing, his head falling back into Suzie's hands, dead once more, and the rain resumed falling heavily.

Nightingale stared at them from above.

"Shit." Owen proclaimed, "I said it was stupid, telling him he was dead,"

"Well, you try it," Tosh argued.

"Told the last corpse he was injured; he wasted the whole two minutes screaming for an ambulance. Maybe there's no right way of doing it." Jack looked up at Nightingale and shouted, "What do you think?"

Nightingale leaned back, shocked when Jack saw her. She ran across the car lot and back onto the street. Nightingale bent down, breathing shallowly, shocked and confused.