Doctor Doctor
Jack, Owen, Gwen and Tosh sat in the boardroom. Jack put his hands flat on the table and addressed them.
“So what do we know?”
“Well,” said Gwen, picking up a file. “Victor Hughs, 64, was found on the Plass at 6.15 this morning.”
Owen picked up the story. “He died within a minute of being found.” He sighed. “There was nothing I could do for him.”
Jack gave him a steady look. “But you tried. And you made sure he wasn’t alone at the end.” He paused, giving Owen a moment before bringing the doctor back on track. “What did you find out at the autopsy?”
Owen cleared his throat, the mask of detached professional taking over once more.
“He had a number of puncture wounds to his torso, but I haven’t been able to determine yet what caused them. As for a cause of death, it appears to be poisoning of some sort. But the tests I’ve run haven’t yet identified what the toxin was. It’s not anything known to us already. Which also means that we don’t know what sort of antidote we would need if anyone else suffers the same poisoning.”
“Do you think the poison was administered through whatever caused the puncture marks?” Gwen questioned.
“I think it’s safe to assume, yeah.”
“Okay” said Jack, “What else?”
“Well,” said Tosh. “There’s this.” She pressed a button on the computer consol in front of her. A sequence of three numbers, a decimal point, five more numbers and three letters appeared on the screen at the front of the boardroom.
“Just before he died the victim managed to tell us something. He gave us this code. We have no idea what it means. I have started running it through a code breaking programme, but it hasn’t come up with anything yet.”
As the four people stared at the screen in silence the boardroom door opened and Ianto walked in carrying a tray of coffees. He handed them out to his colleagues and glanced up at the screen.
“One of you actually has a library membership?” he asked.
The rest of the team looked at him confused.
“That number up there.” Ianto pointed at the screen. “It’s the reference number for a book. Dewey Decimal System? The 57 at the beginning denotes it being biochemistry.” He looked embarrassed briefly. “I’m afraid I would have to look up exactly what specific area the other numbers donate, biochemistry was never my thing. But, the fact that there are five digits after the decimal point means that it is quite a specific subject.”
Owen gave Ianto a slightly contemptuous look. “Is there any end to the amount of random shit you know?”
Ianto opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by Tosh who had already a turned back to the computer, typing the numbers and letters into a library search programme.
“There’s only one library in Cardiff that has a book with that number, so I suggest we start there. It’s in the archive at Cardiff University.”
“Okay” said Jack, “we have somewhere to start. Owen, take the SUV and go and find the book.”
Ianto spoke up again as Owen stood up. “Jack. Why is Owen going, not me? Archives are my thing.”
“Okay then you can go. Both of you.”
“No, Jack.” both men said at the same time.
“Don’t argue, go.” Jack said firmly, pointing at the door. Owen and Ianto glared at each other then at Jack. “Go!” he said again. As the two younger men made to leave Jack took the SUV keys out of his pocket and passed them to Ianto.
With a look of triumph in his eyes Ianto tossed the keys in the air to taunt Owen. The doctor moved quickly and plucked the keys out of the air. He gave Ianto a humourless smile and left the board room.
Ianto caught up with him and the pair could be heard bickering as they left the Hub. Jack exchanged glances with Gwen and Tosh.
“Does anyone else feel like the mother of small boys with those two sometimes? Right. Let’s carry on. Tosh, I want you to stay here and get more info about the archive to Owen and Ianto. And see if you can stop them killing each other before they get there. Gwen, you’re with me. We’re going to hit the streets, see if there’s any word about this out there.
******
Ianto sat in the SUV sulking and holding the sides of his seat in a death grip as Owen swung the SUV around Cardiff’s busy streets. With a quiet beep the comms opened and they could hear Tosh’s voice.
“I’ve got some info for you. The archive is run by Dr Gerry Patterson. I’m going to call him now and have him evacuate the building in case there’s anything dangerous there. I’ll ask him to meet up with you, then you can get him out of there too.”
“Thanks Tosh.” Ianto said, just before letting out a sharp cry as Owen narrowly missed the car in front of them as he swerved in and out of the traffic.
******
Somehow they arrived at the library in one piece and headed inside. Tosh had done her job and the place was deserted. They walked to the main counter and saw a pretty blond woman sitting behind it.
“I thought everyone was told to leave?” Owen muttered to Ianto, before addressing the woman. “We’re looking for Dr Gerry Patterson.”
“That’s me.” said the woman. Coming out from behind the counter she shook hands with both the men. Neither Owen or Ianto were doing very well at disguising their surprise. Far from being the middle aged man, with the middle age spread they had both assumed Gerry Patterson would be, they were facing a woman in her late-twenties who had all the right curves in all the right places.
“Don’t worry, I get it all the time.” She smiled, looking at their faces. “My fault really, just hate the name Geraldine, so always go by Gerry. Now how can I help you and why did I have to send all my staff and students home?”
“We’re looking for a book.” Ianto said. “We have the Dewey code for it and we believe it is in your archive.”
“What’s the number?” asked Gerry turning to the computer. Ianto told her and her fingers flew quickly over the keyboard as she searched for the book.
“You’re right, it is down stairs. Now I see the title, I remember it. Been a bit of interest in this book lately. There was a man in here the last few days looking at it.”
“Really?” said Ianto. “Can you tell us more?”
Owen interrupted him. “To save time Ianto, why don’t you go down and find the book - after all, achieves are your thing - and I’ll stay here and find out what Dr Patterson knows.” He smiled innocently at Ianto. The Welshman glared back at him and turning on his heels headed for the stairs. Owen’s voice floated behind him.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Dr Owen Harper, and that’s my assistant Ianto Jones.”
Ianto kept walking, refusing to give Owen the satisfaction of rattling him.
Once down in the archive Ianto discovered that it was well maintained and like any good library things were in perfect organisation. Ianto felt safe around books and order, this was where he excelled. The Owens of this world could have the action and the fights, just give him a well ordered filing system any day.
Ianto pulled his gun out from his waist band. He still wasn’t used to wearing it and found it uncomfortable. He put it down on a nearby desk and started scanning the shelves.
It didn’t take him long to follow the numbers through the library shelves to find the book he was looking for. He rested it on an empty section of shelf and started flicking quickly through the pages, wondering how obvious whatever they were looking for would be. He touched his hand to his blue tooth ear piece.
“Owen?”
The two way comms opened and Ianto could hear laughing in the background. He scowled to himself.
“Owen. I’ve found the book.”
“Anything special about it?”
“Doesn’t look like it. Wait!”
Owen listened as Ianto’s voice became more animated, interested in spite of himself.
“On the back pages, there’s something written. A lot of letters and numbers, symbols. Looks like chemical symbols.”
“Read them out to me.”
Own listened as Ianto read them out. He started to recognise them.
“It’s a compound. Sound like it’s the ingredients for something, maybe some sort of drug or…” He paused, his brain working quickly to fit the pieces together. “It must have something to do with the poison the old man died from. Either the poison itself or more likely an antidote.”
“That would make sense” Ianto said. “If I had been poisoned I think my last words might be something to do with…”
Ianto suddenly stopped talking. Through the comms Owen could hear what had made him pause. A sound like a thousand hollow twigs quivering together was getting closer to Ianto. In the library the young man turned round and his eyes opened wide at the sight in front of him.
“Owen” he said, his voice low and urgent.
“What is it Ianto?” Owen tried to concentrate on all the sounds coming through his earpiece, concern colouring his words.
But Ianto couldn’t find the words to describe what was in front of him. The creature was humanoid in shape, but that was where the similarity ended. It was at least seven feet tall with the black eyes and face of a rodent. The front of its body was covered in a coarse purple-grey fur. But that wasn’t what concerned Ianto. What concerned him was the layer of two foot long purple quills that covered the back of the creature from the head down. They were laid flat but as the creature approached Ianto they quivered and started to rise like a dog’s hackles.
“Owen!” Ianto shouted his name this time and reached into his waistband for his gun, groaning when his fumbling fingers came back empty. Ianto left the book on the shelf and twisted his body to fully face the creature, making sure that he was between this giant porcupine and the book. He knew that whatever was in there someone had killed for, someone had died for, and he would protect it with his own life if it came to it.
Owen shouted at the librarian to stay where she was and drawing his gun he raced for the stairs. Gerry gave him a five second head start before ignoring everything he had said and chasing after him. If something was happening in her library she was damn well going to know about it.
Ianto stood firm as the creature came towards him. Reaching behind him, he felt his way along the shelf of books. He let his fingers search out the thickest book and he pulled it out, holding it in front of him like a shield. He knew he had to do whatever he could to make sure the quills didn’t touch him.
Owen raced around the corner in time to see Ianto struggling with a creature much bigger than him. He appeared to be trying to defend himself with a book. Where the fuck was the man’s gun?
Before Owen could react the creature shoved hard against Ianto. The young man was thrown backwards against the metal shelves behind him and his head stuck them hard. Owen could only watch as Ianto’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the floor unconscious.
Owen and the creature saw the open book on the shelf behind Ianto at the same time. Owen felt a flash of pride at Ianto’s determination to protect it. He raised his gun, took aim and squeezed the trigger. Then gun caught, jammed. Owen tried again, but still nothing. The noise though was enough to cause the creature to turn its attention away from the book and onto Owen. He swallowed and took a step back as the creature advanced on him.
He kept retreating back through the archive, looking for a way out, trying to think of an escape. He suddenly found himself backed against a table, his escape cut off.
“Oi!”
Owen looked over to his left at the direction of the shout to see Gerry standing there.
“I told you to stay upstairs.” Owen growled.
“It’s my library.” Gerry said firmly “And you clearly need help.”
Owen wasn’t able to argue; she was right. The creature was still advancing on Owen, and the desk he was backed up against wasn’t getting any easier to walk through. Gerry shouted again.
“Oi!”
“Will you stop that?” Owen snapped. Though it clearly wasn’t making any difference as the creature was dangerously close to him now. But it suddenly stopped, its head lurching forward. The very large book that Gerry had thrown at the creature’s head clattered to the ground.
The creature turned now to look at Gerry. This gave Owen time to look around him to see what he could find to use as a weapon. His eyes lit up when he saw Ianto’s gun lying on the desk.
He snatched it up and pointed it at the creature, but before he could take a shot the creature retaliated against the assault from Gerry. The creature’s body shook momentarily and it shot a raft of shorter quills from its back towards her.
Gerry tried to duck but wasn’t quite quick enough. A number of the quills struck her in the side and crying out she fell to the floor.
Owen spared the woman quick glance as his face hardened. Keeping his aim on the creature walking towards him again he squeezed the gun’s trigger and emptied the whole clip into the alien. Owen held his breath as the creature slowly fell to the floor, and lay unmoving.
Owen glanced between Gerry and Ianto deciding who needed his help first. Before he could make a move Ianto started to stir on the floor. Owen called out to him as he ran over to Gerry, who had still not moved.
“Ianto? Ianto mate? Are you okay?”
“Ah, yeah, will be. Cracking head ache though.”
“Okay. Gerry’s been injured. Get that book, we have to go.”
Kneeling down next to Gerry he put a hand on her head and grasped her wrist with the other, fingers automatically seeking out her pulse. His eyes travelled over her body, assessing her in an entirely different way to how he had been just a few minutes ago. He spoke to her at the same time.
“Gerry love. Can you speak to me? How do you feel?”
“It hurts. It really bloody hurts.”
Owen gave her a small smile. “Okay, hurts is good. Sorry but it is. Let me help you up.”
He helped Gerry to her feet while watching Ianto out of the corner of his eye. Ianto was just finding his own feet and was picking up the book, holding it close to him. Gerry swayed and Owen caught her before she fell to the floor. Her face had now drained of colour and her eyes were glazing over.
“Ianto come on!” he shouted, picking Gerry up in his arms. He ran over to the stairs and climbed them two at a time, listening for Ianto coming up behind him. He ran out of the library and headed for the SUV.
Ianto joined him at the black car and Owen watched as he shook his head a couple of times. It wasn’t ideal, but Owen was going to have to get him to drive so he could help Gerry.
He handed the keys to Ianto then helped Gerry into the back seat.
“Give me the book Ianto and get Tosh on the comms. Then get us back to the Hub as quickly as you can.” Ianto still looked very pale, but Owen just had to trust that he could get them back safely.
Owen climbed into the back seat next to Gerry. He shifted her as gently as he could so that she was leaning back against him. Ianto threw the car into gear as Tosh’s voice came over the comms.
“Owen, Ianto? What have you got for me?”
“Tosh,” Owen’s tone made it clear that he needed to be listened to. “The librarian has been injured. I think it’s the same poison. We have what’s possibly the antidote and I need you to make it up for me by the time we get there.”
“Tell me what it is and I’ll get it done.”
Owen read out the list of instructions from the book. He knew that if anyone could make it happen it would be Tosh, he just hoped that these random scribblings in the back of this book were indeed what they needed.
“Tosh” Ianto spoke up “Are Jack and Gwen back?”
“No, I’ll patch you through. Tosh out.”
“Ianto!” Jack’s voice boomed into the SUV “What you got for me?”
“An injured archivist and a dead…” Ianto paused, searching for the right word “porcuman alien. We have the archivist, but we need you to get back to the library and deal with the alien.”
“Shouldn’t it be me giving the orders to you?”
“Jack we need to get her back to the Hub now. I don’t have time to argue. Oh. And don’t touch the quills.”
The empty silence that greeted him displayed Jack’s shock at being spoken to like that by Ianto, but there were no arguments.
Owen was trying to figure out how to help the young woman in his arms before they got back to the Hub. He remembered that the puncture wounds in the old man’s body had been straight wounds. Assuming it was the same type of quill that had injured Gerry Owen knew that there were no barbs or hooks on the end of the quills and the size of the wounds meant that it would be safe to remove the quills from Gerry’s body without her bleeding out. It may prevent more poison being released into the woman’s.
“Gerry. I’m sorry, this is going to hurt, but I need to do it, okay?”
Gerry nodded. Her head was resting on Owen’s shoulder and Owen brought his arm around to hold her tighter against him. Her arm curled under his and up to grip his shoulder. With is other hand he took a tight grip on one of the quills.
“Ready?” he said.
She nodded. He pulled the first quill out. Owen felt her body stiffen in pain, but she didn’t cry out. Gerry’s other hand now gripped Owen’s knee and she grip became firmer as Owen pulled quill after quill out of the woman’s body.
Despite Ianto driving even faster than Owen had on the way over the journey back to the Hub seemed to take forever. Finally arriving on the Plass Ianto stopped by the invisible lift and helped Owen get Gerry out of the car and onto the paving stone before jumping back into the SUV and driving it back to the underground car park.
As they were lowered into the Hub Owen shouted to Tosh.
“Do you have it ready?”
“Yes it’s here. In the medical bay.”
Owen carried Gerry down to the medical bay where Tosh was waiting, a syringe already filled with the compound.
Owen lay Gerry down on the medical bed and quickly hooked her up to the monitors. Her blood pressure was dangerously low and her pulse was thready and irregular.
Tosh looked up briefly as Ianto walked back into the Hub. He walked over and joined them in the medical bay, sitting heavily down on the concrete steps.
The doctor gently pushed the needle into Gerry’s arm and injected the mixture into her vein. He turned his eyes to watch the monitors. After a couple of anxious minutes Gerry’s blood pressure started to rise and her pulse became steadier and stronger. Owen blew out a sigh of relief.
He looked at her, smiling.
“I think you’re going to be fine.”
Gerry smiled weakly back at him. “Thank you.”
Assured that Gerry was mending with the help of Tosh and the antidote, Owen now turned his attention to Ianto. Walking over to the other man, he gently lifted up his face. Ianto let him. Owen looked at the Welshman’s eyes. They were equal and reacting to light so there was no major injury, just mild concussion by the looks of things. Owen then examined the back of Ianto’s head. There was a nasty gash that had been bleeding. Owen reached for tray of cleaning materials and some steri-strips. Carefully cleaning Ianto’s head wound Owen spoke gently to him.
“You did well today mate. Really well. We got what we went for, saved a life, and have got the know-how to save more if we come across those things again. And, we’ve got a gorgeous girl back to the hub to boot.”
Ianto smiled in spite of himself. “Thanks” he muttered, Owen’s words meaning more than he wanted them to.
By the time Owen had finished cleaning and closing Ianto’s head wound and he had gone to his own archives to make notes of the porcuman and the antidote, Gerry was feeling much better and was sitting up on the bed. Tosh had left her with a smile to get back to her computer. Working with Jack over the comms they were now putting together a plan to cover up the day’s events.
"So Doctor Harper," Gerry asked Owen. "What's next for me?"
"Well Doctor Patterson, you’ve had a serious health scare and although you have responded well to treatment, but I think there are some precautions you should take."
"What sort of precautions?" she asked, “You’re not going to make me go to hospital are you?”
Owen smiled wickedly; "No, but I do think you should spend some time under a doctor."