Trusting the Enemy

Chapter 4

A screech woke Shylah up the next morning and she jumped of the couch to see a pterodactyl flying by, startled, she let out a loud yet short scream. A few minutes later Jack ran up the stairs, relaxing when he saw everything was okay.

"What is that?" She shouted at him. "Those things are extinct!"

Jack shrugged with a small smile. "Yeah, well, when you have a rift like ours things like our pet there get through sometimes."

"My mother said strange activity but this...? Why didn't you tell me last night? I nearly had a heart attack!"

"Slipped my mind." He replied before going back down stairs as Ianto came into the room below. "Ianto, coffee!"

"On it." Came Ianto's reply before he rushed up the stairs, greeting Shylah as he passed. "I see you're up. Want some coffee?"

"Uh, sure." She was a bit thrown off by her unusual awakening but wake managing to relax again.

"Don't forget mine!" Tosh's voice called up as she entered followed by Gwen.

"What about Owen?" Ianto called down. "...Where is Owen?"

"Sleeping." A voice grumbled as the man stepped out of another room. "Or trying to, could you keep it down with the shouting?"

Shylah watched as Jack walked over to him with a smirk on his face. "No, now get to work!"

Owen glared back before muttering something under his breath that Shylah couldn't hear from the second floor. Jack seemed amused though and it amazed her how this small group had lasted so long when Torchwood One had been destroyed. Her Torchwood had been disciplined and the largest, yet here stood Torchwood Three, small and very immature at times.

Ianto distracted her by holding out a plain white mug, which she gratefully accepted, before walking down the stairs to pass out the rest. Shylah sighed as the scent soothed her troubled mind before taking a small sip, the only thing she liked about mornings had to be the coffee. It was surprising Ianto made it so well, he'd been a researcher at Torchwood One, how he ended up making coffee here... well she could ask him later.

"Hartman!" Jack shouted her name and she looked over to see him motioning her down.

With a groan she walked down the steps, one sip of coffee didn't mean she was ready to get working. "What?"

"Someone's not a morning person." Tosh commented, though Shylah took it as a joking tone.

"Good news is you're now part of Torchwood Three, if you wish to join." Jack announced. "Bad news is we need to go out and investigate some dead Weevils."

"Dead Weevils?" Gwen gave him a look. "What's the big deal with that?"

"The way they died." Jack led all of them over to a screen and brought up a picture of what was once a Weevil. "Any idea what did that Newbie?"

"Well..." Shylah got closer to the screen and frowned. "The teeth are definitely not from an animal in Cardiff... or any other animal on the planet that I'm aware of."

"Well done Sweetheart." Owen replied sarcastically.

Shylah glanced back and 'accidentally' hit his cup as he went to take a drink out of it, causing coffee to spill on his shirt. She turned her head to look at him. "Oops, sorry."

He glared back before putting down the cup and muttering about changing his bloody shirt. Gwen gave Shylah a thumbs-up and a smile; she really was starting to like it here.

Jack cleared his throat. "Exactly, now I haven't seen anything like it either, so we need to go out and find what did this."

"Aren't Weevils bad?" Shylah asked. "Mother always said they were."

"You need to stop thinking like Yvonne." Jack replied before continuing. "Yes, Weevils can be bad when they come out of the sewers but whatever is killing them seems to be worse."

"Right..." She should've thought about that. "We should split up into three teams, and spread out to look for anything strange."

"Two teams." Jack corrected. "Owen is staying behind to keep an eye on the Time Lady."

"What?" Owen came back out with a new shirt on. "Ianto always stays behind, he can watch her."

"Ianto wasn't afraid of a bit of spilled coffee on his clothing." Jack responded before moving over to Ianto. "Besides, he's getting good a field work."

Owen looked like he wanted to argue but shrugged and turned to sit at his desk. "If you die before I can get there don't blame me."

"You have a TARDIS and someone who can use it... I think I'm safe." Jack turned to the others. "Right, now, Gwen, Shylah, you're a team, Tosh, Ianto, you're on my team."

"I need to change you know." Shylah motioned to the clothes she'd worn yesterday, which still had dried blood crusting off in some places.

"One minute." He responded before walking off.

Shylah stared at his back. "Where am I supposed to find a spare outfit?"

"Forty-five seconds!" Behind her Owen tried muffling a laugh from Jack's comment.

"Oh go stuff it." She growled before brushing her hair with her hands and following after the others.

"Is that an offer?" He called out.

Shylah get him the finger and left the room. Another word from him and she'd make sure he'd never be able to speak again... though Jack might have a problem with that... so perhaps she'd just break his jaw. At least that would be temporary peace.

"About time!" Jack called to her as she caught up. "Didn't they train you in Torchwood One?"

"Yes." She answered. "But I wasn't a field agent yet, I was still with weapons and archiving... I was going to be in the field... My promotion was supposed to be the same day the Doomsday Invasion started. Outcast would be free and I would get to find aliens not just see pictures and videos... we would've both had what we wanted."

"Not if Yvonne found out." Ianto replied, a haunted look crossed his face when she'd mentioned the invasion, which she noticed happened whenever she or another person mentioned it.

"You lost someone?" She took an easy guess.

Ianto looked at the ground, away from them before quietly replying. "Yes."

Everyone stayed silent, the noise only broken by the car engine as Tosh turned it on. Shylah felt a prick of guilt for asking the question as she looked at Ianto's grieving face, but knew he'd bounce back. He did once; he was always good at it from what Shylah had seen. He would be fine again once the action started.