Emma Smith: Torchwood

Keeping Secrets

A week after the fairies incursion, we head out of the city with Jack and Lynn's permission. "Where are we going?" Carys asks as she drives. I explain what Jack told me when he called me to his office the previous day.

"I need you to go to London. We'll look after Cardiff for a few weeks."
"What are we going to do there?"
"There have been several spottings of aliens, mysterious deaths, and it seems to be tied to Weevils."
"I thought Weevils preferred Cardiff."
"So did we," Jack agreed. "However, we want you to sort it out. Also, take a bit of time to get to know the city. You will be living there after the summer."

"How can these murders be linked to Weevils?" Jasmine asks. "The victims weren't bitten. They were stabbed. Weevils don't stab their victims." Carys drives up to a house.
"Is this it? Is this where we're staying?" I read the road sign.
"Yes, this is the place. I'm sure they won't mind if we park in the drive." We park in the drive, collect our belongings, and Carys rings the doorbell.

"Ah, you've come," Mum holds the door open. I guess she was hoping for it just to be Luke and me so we could have some proper family time. Mummy walks out of the living room.
"Luke! Emma!" We bundle straight into her arms. "We haven't been able to sort out everything yet."
"That's all right, Mummy," I tell her.
"How long are you here for?"
"A few weeks. Jack sent us here to investigate a series of murders, and to start establishing Child's Torchwood London."
"That's good to hear. Please, come in, all of you."

"What's it like in Cardiff?" Mum asks once we're settled down and introduced them to Jasmine.
"Not much at the moment, just the usual," Luke shrugs. "We had to defend ourselves against a load of fairies."
"Fairies?" Jasmine nods and explains what happened.
"Anything else that we must know?" Mummy asks. She looks at me.
"There's nothing else to tell."
"Don't think that something will get past me, Emma Smith-White. I know that look. It was the same look I gave to my Aunt Lavinia when I lied about not having anything to tell her."
"And did you?" Luke asks.
"Only about Ruby and me. I hope you're not keeping a secret like that, Emma."

"It was just the once."
"Oh?" Mummy sounds interested.
"You remember that time we were eating Chinese with the rest of Torchwood?"
"I was under the influence of a sex gas." Carys blurts out. Mum and Mummy's heads snap to her at once. "I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't because of it. Then again, I wouldn't have joined Child's Torchwood, met Emma and Luke, wouldn't have got thrown out by my dad..."

"Well, I'm not surprised. If my parents knew that something similar happened with Ruby and me, I don't know what they would have done. You see, they died when I was a baby. But Aunt Lavinia- she tried to separate us."
"Until she realised I could get to Sarah every night," Mum chuckles. "After that, she told us just to do it in secret. She never told us off or anything, and look at where that got us." I nod, smiling. "But Carys, we're not going to judge you. You weren't yourself during that time."
"We want Emma safe," Mummy agrees. One of our devices bleeps.

"There's been another murder," Jasmine tells us.
"Right, let's go," I exclaim. We run out to the car, climb in and drive off. We drive to the scene of the crime, finding that the police have made it before us. We step out of the car.

"We're Child's Torchwood," I tell them.
"At last," a detective nods. "Aren't you supposed to be in Cardiff?"
"Torchwood has told us to come up here for a few weeks." She explains the murders, and we notice writing above the new victims' heads, written in blood.
"Is that writing?" Luke asks, shocked.
"Work in progress," the detective answers and leads us into the house. "Whoever it is, they want your attention." The blood is writing, spelling Child's Torchwood. Jasmine gags.
"They've got it."

The detective explains what she thinks, that Child's Torchwood had committed the murders. She walks out, leaving us to it. "Depending on how long this has been going on, we've probably annoyed between four and five million people." Luke shrugs.
"That's just the humans," I point out.
"Oh, shouldn't be too hard," Carys jokes. I notice that Jasmine doesn't want to be here.
"Jasmine, can you go out to the car and see if anything is connecting the victims."
"Doing that now," Jasmine nods, ducking out of the room.

She reports to us later that nothing is connecting them. The police have identified the hair from the murderer, so we go out to investigate. There is one compound they don't recognise- B67. "Uh-oh, we're in trouble," Luke realises.
"What is it?" Jasmine asks, leaning her head out of the car.
"It's retcon. He's got retcon in his blood." We leave the scene quickly after that, heading back home.

"I never want to go back there," Jasmine tells us.
"You won't have to," I promise her.
"What's going on?" Mummy asks. We explain what we've found, and she grows concerned. "Maybe you have to get Torchwood on the case." I nod, thinking.
"We might be out of our depth here," I sigh. I call Jack, and he says that Torchwood One will take up the case now.

"I'm sorry, Sarah, but I have to go," Mum sighs.
"But Bath's over an hour away." Mummy realises that she's beaten. "How long will you be gone for?"
"At least a week."

I talk to Luke about this. "You should go with her," Luke suggests.
"Are you sure?" I ask.
"Of course. Let me manage Child's Torchwood for a while. Go and have some family time."
"If there's any trouble, call me."
"I will don't worry."

The next morning, we talk about it with the rest of the team. They agree with me that I should go and give Luke a chance to try running it. "We've got a few weeks here, anyway," Jasmine points out. "You should both spend time with your parents."
"We'll be fine, so don't worry," Carys tells me. "Go and have some fun." I nod.

We tell our parents about it in the afternoon. Mummy has set herself against it at once. "You all need to stay together to sort the case."
"That's Torchwood One's problem now," I tell her. "They've taken on the whole case."
"Sarah, they need a chance to get to know us properly," Mum points out. "You can spend some proper family time with Luke." Mummy shakes her head.
"I might allow you to go to Bath, but I won't let you take our only surviving daughter with you."
"Luke needs a chance to get to know Jasmine and Carys properly," I say. "It would be useful for me to be out of the way during that time." Mummy still disagrees with me.

"Emma, wake up," Mum whispers. I check my clock. It's five in the morning; it's barely even light yet. "Em, are you awake?"
"Yeah," I yawn.
"Pack your bags. We're going."
"How long for?"
"At least a week, if you want."
"Yeah," I whisper. I climb out of bed and silently pack my bags with some clothes a few weapons 'just in case' I tell Mum when she gives me a concerned look, along with a few keepsakes. One of them is my soft toy lamb, midnight.

"You ready?" Mum asks. It's five thirty. I nod. We quietly place our bags in her car. I leave a note for Mummy, explaining where I am, then we go.