Fffc Bingo Card - Something bad

[m_findlow]

Title: Something bad
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 81 - Accident at fffc
Summary: Jack's sixth sense is tingling with foreboding. 

Jack heaved in that first breath of life with the same agonising shock as always. Even after all this time, every awakening still felt unexpected and a little scary, like he wasn't sure what was happening. It didn't take long however to realise he was coming back to life. That much never changed. 

Jack rolled over onto his side and the first thing that entered his immediate field of vision was a dead body. Not just any dead body, though. It was the body of that young doctor, Rupesh someone or other. The guy that had been at the hospital earlier that morning, looking after their dead guy with the hitch-hiker. The one that had been so effusively kind to them before he'd known what they were. The one that thought he and Ianto made a cute couple, even though Jack couldn't get it out of his head how much he hated the concept of being a couple with anyone, even someone he loved as much as Ianto. People just had to go and ruin everything by sticking a label on it. 

Of course, their happy gay couple story hadn't lasted long. Like reality itself, that bubble had been burst by the simple fact that they were Torchwood, and now the young medic knew it, he couldn't just let them walk out of there. He wanted to get up in Jack's grill about some dead bodies going missing at the hospital. It was all Jack could do not to roll his eyes. Some lowly porter had probably just misplaced them, or someone had a creepy side gig of stealing them for other uses. Jack hoped it was the medical research kind and not the necrophilia kind. These sorts of things had happened all the time back in the Victorian age and Jack had done his own share of body snatching from morgues and funeral parlours, but always in the name of Torchwood. 

But bodies going missing in this day and age was a little troubling, even if he didn't like to admit it. Maybe the kid was on to something. He'd get Gwen to check it out, and check out this kid while she was at it. 

For a while there Jack was starting to think that his quiet morning was going to turn into something more promising. Loathe as he was to acknowledge it, they did need a doctor and this kid had a tenacity about him that Jack liked. He could be the recruit they'd been waiting for. Not now, though. He was dead, killed alongside Jack. All that potential gone in an instant. 

That wasn't the most worrying thing for Jack. He'd been shot in the back by someone that had been waiting for them, watching them for who only knew how long. Was it connected to the missing bodies case or was it something else? Jack could understand why people might want him dead, but why killed the kid? Pieces of puzzle were tumbling into place but still more were missing. He started to get a feeling that being asked to come here was no accident. They'd meant to lure him out into the open. Maybe the kid had been a part of it and everything from this morning was just a precursor to get him an introduction so that he could force Jack to come back here. But to what end? If they knew who he was and they knew about Torchwood, did they really think killing him would achieve anything? Perhaps his immortality wasn't as well publicised as he'd thought. Perhaps they thought killing him would put an end to Torchwood. What little they knew. His team would never give up the fight, even if he was no longer there to lead it. 

That led him to the next thought as he pulled himself to his feet, still feeling a wet patch on the small of his back where the blood had soaked through his shirt and coat. Ianto would kill him, if someone else didn't try to kill Ianto first. If there were people out here trying to kill Jack, what was to say they'd stop there? Gwen and Ianto could be next. 

Jack groaned. Why today of all days, when the globe was going into a tailspin with kids chanting all over the planet, and him here getting caught up in some missing bodies investigation. Who cared about that? They were already dead. 

He looked around the room, both at the body on the mortuary table and the dead junior doctor at his feet. If someone came down here and found Jack, they were going to assume that he'd been the one that had killed the kid. His webley in its holster at his hip would be enough to convince them of that. He had to get out of here and back to the hub asap. He knew the all too familiar sensations in his gut that told him something was very wrong and that a net of some kind was closing in around him. It was his job to stay one step ahead of whoever it was before they finally did close it, trapping him inside. 

He ran down the halls, slowing only once he reached the public access areas, trying to appear calm and collected, just another visitor to a hospital that saw hundreds of them every day. Was he still being watched now, or did they think they'd gotten rid of him? It didn't matter. He pulled the parking fine ticket out from under the windscreen wiper of his blue convertible, wishing for once he had the sturdy protection of the SUV around him, and sped out of the hospital parking lot. 

He resisted the urge to call ahead and check on them. They'd be fine. The hub was the safest place in the whole city. Down there, nothing could get to them. So long as they stayed inside whilst they figured this all out, everything would be okay.