Guilt - 64/69
Title: Guilt
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Torchwood is not mine. No matter how much I sometimes wish it was.
Spoilers: Better say everything through s2, just to be sure, although it takes place pre-S1.
Summary: Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you. - Well, what if he did?
This chapter: What will the repeated scan say?
Thanks to: My beta cazmalfoy for all her wonderful work, and my cheerleaders angelzbabe1989 and piper08 for putting up with me when I whine about being stuck.
Fic starts here
Previous chapters at the new master list for this fic
Chapter Sixty-Four
A few minutes later, Ianto, Jack, Tosh and Owen were crowded into Lisa’s room once more while Tosh explained the new modifications she had made to Lisa.
“Would you be able to…?” Lisa started falteringly.
“Would I be able to what?” Tosh prompted gently.
“Well… I’ve been thinking. If this says that it’s worse, then you should probably be scanning me regularly, and that got me wondering. Is there any way you’d be able to set it up so it was constantly monitoring?”
Tosh nodded slowly. “Sure, it wouldn’t need much work to make it do that, but… are you su…?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Lisa interrupted. “If it suddenly accelerates or something, I don’t want you, us, to miss it just because it happened when there wasn’t a scan scheduled. I couldn’t bear it if something bad happened to any of you because of it, and…”
She looked hesitant. “And I’m not sure that if it took over, that it would let you know that it had. I don’t want to even consider what that might mean for the rest of you.”
“I’ve already told you we won’t let it get that far,” Ianto told her, “but if you’ll feel better with a constant monitor, we can absolutely set that up.”
Tosh nodded in agreement and looked over at Ianto. “If you give me a hand with it, Ianto, I can probably get it set up to do that in about half an hour once we’re done here.”
“Of course.” Ianto took a deep breath. “We should get this going, then.”
Tosh moved around to Lisa’s head and turned the scanner on. They were all waiting anxiously by the time it beeped softly and Tosh turned it around so they could read the number displayed on the newly added screen.
Ianto felt his heart sink into his shoes as he read it.
32%
“What does it say?” Lisa asked nervously. Ianto couldn’t make his voice work and looked entreatingly at the others.
Jack cleared his throat a long moment later. “Thirt… thirty-two percent.” He didn’t sound much better than Ianto felt.
“Oh.” Lisa’s voice shook.
Ianto pushed past the lump in his throat to reassure her. “Tosh thinks she might have found something that could help, though.”
Lisa’s eyes flew to his, a tiny spark of uncertain hope appearing in the despair. “Really?”
Ianto nodded as Tosh answered verbally, “Yes. I’ve been running extra tests on it all morning. It’s the reason I called Ianto out of here earlier, to explain it all. I didn’t actually get around to that, but maybe this works better anyway. You should hear this too.”
She paused for a moment and stood up a little straighter, as if she’d had a sudden thought. She took a step backwards. “Actually, I’ll be right back.”
Jack, Ianto, Owen and Lisa watched her go in astonishment as she disappeared out the door.
Less than two minutes later, she reappeared, the item in question in one hand and a folder, presumably full of test results, in the other. She set the artefact down on the small side table. “This is, well, I don’t really know what the name given to it by its creators was - there’s no way we can find that out without somehow finding out who they were - but I’ve been calling it the mind probe.”
“I’m assuming from that oh-so-imaginative name that it… probes minds?” Owen said dryly.
“As far as I can tell, yes it does,” Tosh replied, sending Owen a withering look. “Now, obviously, I haven’t actually been able to test it properly in action, but I’ve run every scan we have on this thing. I invented a few extra ones we didn’t have to run on it too.”
“And?” Jack asked, looking thoughtful.
“There are high levels of both electrical and psychic energy coming from this thing. And more than that, they can be directed very accurately. I believe that it would be able to go into the thought processes and separate them out, revealing separate or hidden consciousnesses, uncovering concealed memories or personalities that the person or creature in question might not even be aware of.”
The others looked at her in astonishment, allowing a new sense of hope to flood through them.
Chapter Sixty-Five
All comments and concrit welcomed! (Comments = Love <3)
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Torchwood is not mine. No matter how much I sometimes wish it was.
Spoilers: Better say everything through s2, just to be sure, although it takes place pre-S1.
Summary: Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you. - Well, what if he did?
This chapter: What will the repeated scan say?
Thanks to: My beta cazmalfoy for all her wonderful work, and my cheerleaders angelzbabe1989 and piper08 for putting up with me when I whine about being stuck.
Fic starts here
Previous chapters at the new master list for this fic
Chapter Sixty-Four
A few minutes later, Ianto, Jack, Tosh and Owen were crowded into Lisa’s room once more while Tosh explained the new modifications she had made to Lisa.
“Would you be able to…?” Lisa started falteringly.
“Would I be able to what?” Tosh prompted gently.
“Well… I’ve been thinking. If this says that it’s worse, then you should probably be scanning me regularly, and that got me wondering. Is there any way you’d be able to set it up so it was constantly monitoring?”
Tosh nodded slowly. “Sure, it wouldn’t need much work to make it do that, but… are you su…?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Lisa interrupted. “If it suddenly accelerates or something, I don’t want you, us, to miss it just because it happened when there wasn’t a scan scheduled. I couldn’t bear it if something bad happened to any of you because of it, and…”
She looked hesitant. “And I’m not sure that if it took over, that it would let you know that it had. I don’t want to even consider what that might mean for the rest of you.”
“I’ve already told you we won’t let it get that far,” Ianto told her, “but if you’ll feel better with a constant monitor, we can absolutely set that up.”
Tosh nodded in agreement and looked over at Ianto. “If you give me a hand with it, Ianto, I can probably get it set up to do that in about half an hour once we’re done here.”
“Of course.” Ianto took a deep breath. “We should get this going, then.”
Tosh moved around to Lisa’s head and turned the scanner on. They were all waiting anxiously by the time it beeped softly and Tosh turned it around so they could read the number displayed on the newly added screen.
Ianto felt his heart sink into his shoes as he read it.
32%
“What does it say?” Lisa asked nervously. Ianto couldn’t make his voice work and looked entreatingly at the others.
Jack cleared his throat a long moment later. “Thirt… thirty-two percent.” He didn’t sound much better than Ianto felt.
“Oh.” Lisa’s voice shook.
Ianto pushed past the lump in his throat to reassure her. “Tosh thinks she might have found something that could help, though.”
Lisa’s eyes flew to his, a tiny spark of uncertain hope appearing in the despair. “Really?”
Ianto nodded as Tosh answered verbally, “Yes. I’ve been running extra tests on it all morning. It’s the reason I called Ianto out of here earlier, to explain it all. I didn’t actually get around to that, but maybe this works better anyway. You should hear this too.”
She paused for a moment and stood up a little straighter, as if she’d had a sudden thought. She took a step backwards. “Actually, I’ll be right back.”
Jack, Ianto, Owen and Lisa watched her go in astonishment as she disappeared out the door.
Less than two minutes later, she reappeared, the item in question in one hand and a folder, presumably full of test results, in the other. She set the artefact down on the small side table. “This is, well, I don’t really know what the name given to it by its creators was - there’s no way we can find that out without somehow finding out who they were - but I’ve been calling it the mind probe.”
“I’m assuming from that oh-so-imaginative name that it… probes minds?” Owen said dryly.
“As far as I can tell, yes it does,” Tosh replied, sending Owen a withering look. “Now, obviously, I haven’t actually been able to test it properly in action, but I’ve run every scan we have on this thing. I invented a few extra ones we didn’t have to run on it too.”
“And?” Jack asked, looking thoughtful.
“There are high levels of both electrical and psychic energy coming from this thing. And more than that, they can be directed very accurately. I believe that it would be able to go into the thought processes and separate them out, revealing separate or hidden consciousnesses, uncovering concealed memories or personalities that the person or creature in question might not even be aware of.”
The others looked at her in astonishment, allowing a new sense of hope to flood through them.
Chapter Sixty-Five
All comments and concrit welcomed! (Comments = Love <3)