Secrets With Problems 8/8

[samecgh]

Rating: PG-13 (swearing, themes of child and sexual abuse, innuendo)
Summary: The Doctor fixes the machine and turns Owen back to his right age.
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood or Doctor Who.

 

Last Part

Ianto kept back for a couple of minutes. The Doctor had a full supply of tea to last him while he worked on the machine to repair it. The Master was safely locked up aboard one of the many rooms on the TARDIS, where he was far away from Turlough’s room. Jack had been sitting with Owen, who was reading the report that Jack had recently found. He was threatening to fall asleep after a small hiccupping moment with Jack. He was going over reports while Owen wasn’t anywhere to be found. “Where’s Owen?” Ianto asked. Jack took the coffee and sipped it quickly.

He motioned for him to come over to the ladder that goes down to his bunker. Owen was lying on the mattress and sleeping soundly.  “Take the night off. Get some sleep. I’m going to stay here.”

Ianto kissed him for two minutes. “Are you sure about that, sir?”

“As much as I would love to pay you back for the Captain Obvious remark today, I don’t want to leave Owen alone and I don’t think he would appreciate us having sex so close to him.” Jack returned to the kiss for another minute before going back to his desk. He checked on Owen, who didn’t show any sign of waking up soon. “Besides, I have too much work to catch up on. Brilliant idea of keeping Owen inside for a week and forcing him to do all of his reports,” he whispered to himself, going back over the stack of reports he had to read.

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It was very confusing, at first.

He didn’t know her, but he could trust her. She seemed peaceful, waiting for him on a bench in his favorite park as a kid. ‘Come here, Owen,’ is what he heard, but he couldn’t tell who said it. He looked back at her. ‘It’s okay, honey.” She nodded and motioned with her hand to come closer.

‘Who are you?’ he thought, but it sounded out just like her voice. He sat beside her.

‘You never met me. I died before you could. I didn’t even get to hold you.’

It took him a minute to process. ‘Mom?’ She smiled and nodded. ‘But how…’

‘I figured it was about time for me to make an appearance. I’ve been watching for too long.’

‘Watching?’

‘Your birthdays, days at school. Holidays. You loved that bike at age eight. You were on it up until twelve.’

‘But why didn’t you talk to me before?’

‘I did, but you don’t remember. You’re not allowed to remember.’

‘Will I be allowed to remember this?’

‘It’ll be in patches, but yes, you’ll remember.’

They sat for a moment. He was taking in the weirdness of all of it and she was watching wind blowing leaves around. ‘Have you seen everything?’

‘Unfortunately, yes. I know about her and the two boyfriends. And that’s something you should talk to him about.’

‘Who?’

‘Your father.’

‘Why should he know?’

‘He’ll understand. Don’t keep it bottled up.’

‘I don’t want to him to know. I’ve seen what happens when you tell someone. It changes how you interact with them. I don’t want them to treat me different.’

‘Trust me; no one will treat you different just because what happened.’ She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him, laying his head on her shoulder. He slid his arms around her. ‘Happened, Owen. It’s in the past and you’ve gotten out.’

He waited for a minute before asking her another question. ‘Do I have anybody on your side?’

‘Mum died a few years ago. Da died when I was little. No aunts, uncles, cousins or siblings. Sorry, no one to talk to on my side.’

‘Unless you visit more.’

‘Oh I will, and I won’t be the only one from the past that you’ll be talking to.’

‘What?’

‘You’ll see.’

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“All right, now, this will not hurt,” The Doctor calmly said, setting up the machine.

“Doctor, it’s going to break again, will it?” Ianto asked.

“No, no, I’ve given it enough time for a break. It should be okay by now.”

“Are you sure, Doc? I don’t want to be a baby again,” Owen joked. Jack laughed while the Doctor yelped out an Oi. The Doctor pulled the lever and the beam hit Owen again. He grew an inch more and bodily hair sprouted out. It wasn’t even a minute before the machine shut off. “Oh, I’m back. Thank you, I am back.” He grabbed his bag of clothes and went to autopsy.

“That means it’s my time to go and drop Turlough off.”

“Doctor, you’re not going to keep the Master on the TARDIS, are you?” Jack asked.

“What should I do with him, Jack?”

“He’s dangerous. Lock him up somewhere.”

“He is locked up.”

“Doctor, he was dead. You burned his body after that.”

“Then that’s something I will need to ask him. Until we meet again Jack.”

“Hopefully it’s under better circumstances.” Jack hugged him quickly before getting back up to his office. Ianto shook his hand before he went back to the TARDIS. He went back to start making coffee while they heard her take off. Gwen came out from the morgue when Owen came back up.

“He’s gone?”

“Yeah, just left,” Ianto informed, bringing coffee around.

“And I can’t believe that I didn’t get to see you as a child,” Gwen protested, pointing at Owen. “I can’t believe that they didn’t take any photos.”

“Ianto knows that if he did, he would get weevil intestines for the next three weeks,” Owen threatened, going back down after putting on his white coat. Ianto, behind his back, motioned Gwen over. He opened up his phone and showed the pictures he snuck onboard the TARDIS. Gwen awed just as Owen came back up. “Ianto!”