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Rating: PG (innuendo, one swear)
Summary: Trying to turn Owen back to his right age doesn’t go as they hope.
Disclaimer: I say it once; I say it a lot. I do not own Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005) and Torchwood.
AN: Small spoiler (very small) for Children of Earth. No like, no read and get a quick version for next time.
Ianto grabbed the tech and locked the SUV before going over to the TARDIS. He knocked twice and waited to be let in. He looked around and thought he saw someone watching him. He had a slight feeling he knew him but shook it off as Jack opened the door. “Come on in, we were just looking for Owen. He ran off after eating,” Jack informed.
“I can’t imagine why,” Ianto muttered, receiving a glance from Jack. “He talks in his sleep after having several beers.”
“Great, tell me what to expect.” Ianto glared at him; psychically giving him the answer Do you really want me to betray trust? “Fine, at least tell me something so I don’t have him screaming and running off again.”
“He wasn’t raised by his mother, but he didn’t know that until the aunt that was raising him started yelling at him at his tenth birthday. He ran away to his grandmother’s and the police had to bring him back. His aunt began to beat him after that. He was happy to be thrown out at sixteen.”
“You didn’t just get that from listening to him sleeptalking, did you?”
“No sir. Have you checked play areas and small places?”
“I’ve checked where he’s been.”
“Do you really think he’s going to stick to the places he knows?”
“Good point. Where should I start?”
“Small places, under tables, closets. They like to hide.”
“I am not used to this part of raising kids. My daughter wasn’t like this.” Ianto raised an eyebrow as Jack went back down the hall again. He past the Doctor and told him about Ianto.
“Ianto, the regresser,” he yelled, coming forward. Ianto handed it over quickly. “Ah, it’s at eighty-five percent. It needs to be reprogrammed in order to match Turlough. We should bring him back up before trying this on Owen. I don’t think Jack would be very forgiving if I de-aged his son even more.”
“I’m fairly sure he doesn’t want to raise Owen back up.”
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Jack wasn’t having that much luck. “Owen?” He had searched all the hall closets and was going through all the bedrooms that the TARDIS had unlocked to Owen for him to check. “Come on, Owen; please don’t do this to me.” He was in a somewhat laboratory room when he finally heard a muffled crying coming from one of the tables. “Owen? Are you here?”
“Who are you?” His voice rang in the back corner.
“Owen, I’m a friend of your mum’s.” He tried searching the room, but there were too many places.
“No, you can’t be. You’re nice.”
“What do you mean?” He could hear Owen moving, but still couldn’t place him.
“Mummy’s friends aren’t nice. They say bad things and laugh when I get hurt.”
This bitch should hope she’s not alive. “I’m not like her other friends. We are not like her other friends.” A tense moment passed before Owen’s head popped out from beneath a table. Jack knelt down to receive him running at him at full speed. He rubbed his back while standing up to calm the small bit of sniffling that came up. A yawn sprung up from inside Owen. “Hey, why are you tired? You just had a nap.” Owen seemed to ignore him as he settled down more. Jack carried him out of the lab and headed down the hall again.
Ianto intercepted him while he was going to his former bedroom on the TARDIS. “The Doctor successfully brought Turlough back to his proper age. He’s plugging in the tech to the TARDIS, which is going to subvert Rift energy to charge it up faster. How should we do this?”
“Bring him back while he’s asleep. We’ll just cover him and have him on a bed so there won’t be any problem with clothing.”
“Jack, you never have any problem with clothing.”
“Thank you for the idea, Ianto, but not now. Let’s wait until they all leave.” Jack walked into his bedroom and set Owen down on the bed.
“How long will the charging take?”
“He said about two to three hours?”
“Owen will be asleep for about an hour, possibly two. We’ll need some of his clothes for him to change back into.”
“I’ll bring in the bag of clothes I collected there.”
- .-- - .-- - .-- - .-- - .-- - .-- - .-- - .-- - .-- - .-- - .-- - .--
“All right. Now, he was twenty-six?” the Doctor quickly asked.
“Twenty-seven,” Jack answered. The Doctor made one final adjustment that pushed the machine up by a year.
They all stood back as the Doctor fired the tech. A beam of bluish-white energy hit Owen in the chest area. They all watched as the body started expanding. Legs became longer, arms grew, and hair sprouted a little bit. They were around twelve years added when the machine cut off unexpectedly. “Doctor?” Ianto motioned. The Doctor tried fiddling with the machine to turn it back on. He shook his head.
“I don’t think it had enough of a break. I may have pushed it a little far.”
“Doctor, you just left one of the more volatile employees as a teenager. How long is that tech going to have to rest?”
“I have no idea.”
“Good, because that’s a phrase I always like to hear.”
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