Secrets with Problems 5/?

[samecgh]

Rating: PG-13 (swearing, violence, innuendo, torture implied and a small bit acted out)
Summary: Runaway teenager and an enemy after him. Jack has too much to deal with.
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood.
AN: Another small spoiler for Children of Earth. No like, no read and there will be a small recap before the next chapter.

Last Part

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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He was naked, and he feared the worst. I’ve been kidnapped. I’m in a guy’s house and he’s going to… His stomach flip-flopped at the idea as he looked around at the room he was in. He saw a pile of clothes and pulled them toward himself. They fit relativity well except he kept having the bottom half fall off. He searched the nearby closet for jeans he could wear. He saw a pair of boxers and jeans that didn’t seem to fall off. He pulled the wallet out of the pocket and checked it over. “Who the hell is this guy?” he asked himself, looking at an older version of himself on the license. He checked the amount of quid before taking out all of it with the license and leaving the wallet behind.

The hall was empty. He didn’t hear anything as he snuck out trying to find the exit. The corridors of the place he was in were confusing and he couldn’t actually tell what the exit was. He kept trying closed doors and looked through open ones. Voices were coming from the console room. He was going to go back when he heard his name being said. He stopped to listen in.

“Doctor, you’ve been purposely vague about the identity of your enemy. Any reason why?” Jack asked standing against the console as the Doctor ran some operation on the computer screen.

“Jack, don’t worry about it. I can take care of it. Worry about Owen.”

“Doctor, did you know he was alive again?”

“He’s wrong. He’s wrong like you Jack.”

“You mean he’s like me.”

“Be grateful this was after the Year.” The Year? What are they talking about?

“Doesn’t mean that someone won’t come along and use him against me.”

There was a break in the talking. Jack was playing with the large leather item on his arm. “Jack, he’s wrong like you; how did it happen?”

“Owen’s my son.” What? I’m not this guy’s son. Gotta be a lie he’s telling to hide me.

“Your son? What did you do, bring Rose back to become Bad Wolf again?” Bad Wolf? What the hell are these guys talking about? Who’s Rose?

“Doctor, I don’t know what happened.”

“Did you have any more kids?”

“Two daughters.”

“Did you carry any of them?”

“One of them. The one I carried died a few years ago from heart complications. She was 87.”

“I’m sorry. What happened to Owen that didn’t happen to the others?”

“He was shot; I was selfish. I brought him back using a resurrection gauntlet or the Risen Mitten as Ianto calls it. We thought it worked like the other glove, but instead of going back after two minutes, he stayed. Death was brought back with him.” Death? Scythe carrying with black gown Death?

“Jack.” The Doctor’s glare fully trained on him. Yeah, Dad, why did you do that? I just called him Dad. Damn it.

“He had twelve when Owen went in and fought Death. He resided on residual when my ex-partner came back into town. My brother had been playing him. He blew up much of Cardiff, then took me back in time where my brother stabbed me and buried me. I was buried until the twentieth century when I was frozen to avoid myself.” The Doctor stopped for a minute to process. This guy was buried alive? What the hell? Owen slid down the wall outside of the room.

“Grey had the nuclear reactor ready to explode and went to the Hub to stop everyone. Owen went to the nuclear reactor. He stopped the reactor from exploding, but he couldn’t get out in time. Tosh was helping him in the Hub. Gray shot her. I wasn’t able to get to her in time. She died in front of me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Martha visited for their funerals, but she couldn’t stay. Mickey’s working with us, but he was away when Owen first came back to the Hub. They’ve gotten along great. Lost loves.”

“Lost loves?”

“Yeah, Mickey lost Rose to you.”

“Oi! I resent that.” Jack and Owen were snickering when a beep came up.

“Found you! Now where have you been hiding?”

“Found your enemy?” Jack was trying to peer over his shoulder, but he did something that made Jack frown.

“This is my fight. Now, I need you to guard the TARDIS while I’m out. Make sure nobody paints on it.”

“Somebody’s painted on the TARDIS?”

“Oh yeah, it was before you came aboard.” The Doctor gathered two odd objects and left through the door. That’s it. I need to go through that. Jack ran out to follow him. My chance. Owen went to the exit and looked out. They were just far enough away to sneak out and go the other way using the place he was in. As he stepped out, he saw the TARDIS on the outside. How was I in there? How is that possible? Whatever, I’m out of here. He went around and blended into the crowd.

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Jack turned around from trying and failing to learn the identity of the enemy. He noticed the door to the TARDIS was opened and shook it off as incompetence on their faults. He went back and shut the door before going off to check on Owen. He got to his own room to see the bed was empty. “Owen?” He ran down to the kitchen to check there. “Where is he?” He brought out his comm and opened communications. “Ianto?”

“Yes, Jack?”

“Is Owen anywhere near you?”

“No, he’s not. Do you need me to search for him? I can pull up all CCTV and if necessary, bring up the tracker I placed.”

“You placed a tracker on him?”

“His shirt and his wallet.”

“I need to find him fast. Use the tracker.”

“All right, I’ll program a handheld with a map and his position.”

“The Doctor’s tracking his enemy. Can you come and guard the TARDIS while I go look for Owen?”

“Gwen will be coming in about a half-hour. She and Mickey can take care of any alarms.”

“Okay.” Doctor, why did you mention the Year?

Flashback

Two guards threw him on the floor, hands cuffed behind him. He only had boxers on and there were marks over his body. Burns, knife wounds and bruises now marked the pale body of Owen Harper. Jack took in a few deep breaths to calm himself down so he wouldn’t anger the guards around him. “Owen, Owen can you hear me?”

The head barely raised itself before he came bounding in. “Hello, Freak. Haven’t seen you in a couple of days? I had a new toy to play with.” He pulled on the head to bring his face up. There was a segment of duct tape on his mouth and one eye had almost sealed shut. “He’s one of yours, isn’t he? Your merry little band of Torchwood. One girl died in Japan. Another was in London. Put up too much of a fight. Your last one is very hard to find. I guess I’ll just have to make do.” He pulled a thin blade out. Tracing it along the arm, he cut the very edge of a burn that was the length of the arm.

Owen didn’t move away from him, which didn’t make him mad. He was shaking a little from the pain. “Let’s see how many rounds of entry we can go this round. Let’s see if the student can defeat the teacher. I think he can go three times. Don’t you, Freak?” He pulled out a bottle and started to pull down Owen’s boxers.

End Flashback

“Jack, are you all right?” Ianto asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“Fine, I’m fine. Has he stopped anywhere yet?”

“He was heading into the pub area when I last checked.”

“All right, I’m going after him.”

“Jack, maybe it would be a good idea if we gave him some time. He’s a teenager. His years were rough as is. Being in a situation he doesn’t know.”

“Ianto, one of the Doctor’s enemies are out there. Owen is in danger. I need to protect him.” Jack’s cell phone started to ring. He checked who it was before answering. “Doctor?”

“Jack, excellent. I may need your help to bring down this enemy. He’s going into a public area.”

“Where are you, Doctor?”

“Right around a few pubs. I just past a church on the way here.”

“Doctor, Owen’s heading there now.”

“You sent him to follow me.”

“He ran away.”

“Jack, get over here now.”

“Doctor, who is the enemy?”

“The Master.”

Next Part