A Blue String (Janto AU)

11 - Revealed (+)

//The ability to match time in the book with the show can go fuck itself.

(+) means in collaboration\\

"Yeah," Owen looks at Jack, a confused expression on his face, "you came back before Gwen to check on Ianto and Ianto didn't have a negative reaction to you being near him. Remember?" 

"I never left Gwen. I stayed with at the restaurant the whole time," Jack says, suspicion and confusion in his voice. 

"You have him a hug and said you would do everything in your power to fix him," Owen stated firmly. "I saw it with my own eyes and I know that Ianto did too. Tosh, you believe me, right?"

Everyone's attention turned to Tosh who wasn't paying attention. Instead, Toshiko was looking over at something. 

"Tosh," Owen tried. 

At the second mention of her name, Tosh seemed to snap out of her thoughts. 

"Jack stopped by ahead of Gwen and gave Ianto a hug without affecting him, right?" Owen asked. 

Tosh's eyes widened slightly but no one except Jack noticed her small reaction. 

"Uhm, no. Well, I'm not sure. I was on my computer, not exactly aware of what was happening..." Tosh answered, her voice not at it's usual volume. 

Jack eyed Tosh suspiciously for a second before looking away. He had already been planning on talking to her about the whole telepathy necklace, anyway. He could talk to her about whatever secret she was keeping then as well. 

"Alright then. Since none of us know what happened, we can work on it later. I understand we all have things to do that are yet to be finished," Jack put aside the topic for later. He gave Tosh a look that the technician didn't notice. 

The group separated to do their own thing. But the thought of another Jack lingered in their minds. 

Eventually, Jack called on Tosh to talk with her. 

Almost anxiously, Tosh came up to Jack, "yes? You wanted to talk?" 

Jack gave Toshiko a small smile, "lets go outside," he said, not waiting for an answer and walking to the exit of the Hub. 

Tosh followed Jack to the elevator and to the outside world of Cardiff. 

The Torchwood leader walked over to a bench and sat down. He took out the necklace from his pocket- Tosh having given it to him after Mary was sent to the sun- and handed it to the technician. 

Toshiko took the necklace into her hands and looked at it. 

"It's funny that such a small object could be possibly the most powerful thing we've ever found. I-it could wipe out armies, tear down governments, destroy cities." Tosh shook her head. "What do we do with it?" 

Tosh looked at Jack, who had a small, knowing smile on his face. "Well, that's up to you," he says, offering Tosh a choice. 

"It's a curse..." Toshiko drops the necklace to the ground and crushes it with the heel of her foot. 

There's a short silence between them. Jack could almost tell that Tosh hoped he only wanted to talk about the pendant. So, she tried to keep the topic away from anything else. 

"Why couldn't I read your mind?" Tosh asks after a moment. 

Jack looks at the ground and not at the woman sitting next to him. "I don't know," he says honestly.

Tosh keeps her eyes on Jack, "it's weird. It was like... I dunno, you were dead or something."

Jack frowned to himself and changed the subject, "I want that paper on UNIT tomorrow," he ordered, making it seem like he had nothing else to talk about. 

"Alright," Tosh answers, a slight bit of relief in her voice. 

But that relief disappears when Jack starts to talk again. 

"And Tosh?" 

"Hmm?"

"What do you know about this other Jack? The one that hugged Ianto without affecting him?" Jack asked, turning to see Tosh's face. 

"I-I don't know anything!" She said. 

Jack could immediately tell she was lying. 

"Right."

Jack marched back inside, determined to find a way to reveal whoever or whatever this fake Jack is. The team looked up as Jack walked in. Owen was working as fast as he can with the computer to find a cure for Ianto, Gwen was doing paperwork. The doctor had given Ianto a medicine that allowed him to sleep, so Ianto lay on the couch. 

"It seems we may have a sort of problem on our hands, team," Jack said as Tosh entered the Hub. 

"Let's check the security cameras," Gwen suggested. "Maybe we can see if it's some sort of fake."

Jack, Tosh, Gwen and Owen made their way over to one of the computers and got onto the security footage. They found the camera that showed Owen and Ianto. They skimmed through the past few hours and finally found what they were looking for. 

Owen had been correct. A man who looked so much like Jack it could have been. But it wasn't. Jack would've remembered doing that! 

The group watched as "Jack" made his way over and talked with Owen before hugging Ianto. Ianto, in the video, had woken up and as Owen had said, gave no visual proof that he was in any pain. Then, "Jack" walked away just as the real Jack and Gwen came into view. 

The real Jack's lips were pressed into a thin line as he watched the video play out. 

"I was right!" Owen said victoriously like he had just won a ball game. Everyone rolled their eyes at him. 

"So do we have some sort of transforming alien on our hands?" Gwen asks. 

"Maybe..." Jack says, not entirely sure of what exactly whoever- or whatever- that was. Or how it even got in to the Hub in the first place. 

"This doesn't give us a clue about whatever that is. It still could be some sort of shapeshifter but the video doesn't give us anything to support that or go against it," Gwen pointed out. 

"So then we just start looking anywhere we can."

"We don't have enough facts to start looking."

"We look for facts then." 

"We don't have anything to collect facts from." 

Gwen and Owen began facing off. Jack rolled his eyes at them and Tosh sighed. But before Owen could retort to Gwen's 'nothing to collect facts from', the door to the Hub opened and the alarm rang through the entire Hub. 

In walked Jack and Ianto, their hands intertwined. 

Torchwood Three went into shock.