Penalty Lap (Owen and Torchwood)

[Captain Jack Harkness]

Jack lowered his gun as Jared spoke and re holstered it. "Sorry," he apologised to the older medic, "Force of habit." he added.

"Don't put that comm. unit in yet, Owen, set up the scan to register any of it's activity when the device is activated, I want to see if we can monitor any sort of response it gives." he spoke levelly and clearly, but all the time his mind was racing ahead of him.

He looked to Owen as the man asked about the creature, "It's dead, Owen." he said quietly, "But the body is down in archives, you might be able to learn something about its autonomy."

Turning his attention to Jared he looked at him sternly, "have you told Kean about what you were planning to do?"

[Jared Baker]

Jared pulled his bare feet up onto the bed, nestling his knees against his chest. He couldn't trust himself anywhere in the hub.

"Look, Jack... sleepwalking to the fridge and eating a pound of butter would be disturbing. I woke up at the kitchen table with my Walther laid out carefully in twenty pieces. Kean... Kean isn't going to understand, but you both know that there is no way I can risk sleeping unless I'm contained or restrained or cured. Not when we know there's an alien riffling through my head."

[Owen Harper]

The medic nodded at Jack before walking to the machine, not looking at Jared once it was too much to look at him, it just reminded him of the event with Katie and he couldn't go through that not again. He soon pressed the various buttons setting the scan to search for what the captain had requested. Owen waited for a few minutes before turning around and walking out of the room when Jack spoke.

"Its dead" he muttered to himself as he repeated Jacks words well at least Katie had took it down with her. Owen then walked back into the room for a split second before looking at Jack directly. "I'm going to get that thing and see what i can find out" he said with a frown walking away from the lab and towards the archives.

[Jared Baker]

As Owen walked away Jared locked eyes with Jack. "Can you ask him about shared blood supply? If that's how it's surviving inside of me, we might have a way to pin it down. At least for a little while."

Jack had the comm unit in his ear so that he could ask Owen directly whenever he felt the moment was right.

[Captain Jack Harkness]

Jack nodded at Jared and clicked his comm. on , "Owen, see what you can find out about blood supply between the alien and it's host, there might be something in it. Let me know as soon as you have something." he spoke confidently, eyes fixed reassuringly on Jared's at all times.

"How are you feeling Jared?" he asked quietly.

[Jared Baker]

"Exhausted," Jared told Jack softly. "Missing Kean."

He shrugged after speaking. It didn't change anything. He couldn't sleep and he didn't trust himself, especially not with Kean. He didn't want his husband hurt.

"Owen said you've seen these things before. Would his medical ray gun be of any use?"

[Captain Jack Harkness]

Jack nodded in understanding at Jared's words, "You mean the singularity scalpel?" he asked, thinking of the last time they had used it.

"I don't know, I don't like the idea of it in such close proximity to your brain, if it were Owen in your position then maybe..." he said with a wry smirk, "Let's wait and see what Owen can find out, he's a pretty good Doctor, I trust him."

[Jared Baker]

Jared agreed with Jack that Owen was a good doctor. He had other concerns, however.

"Are you certain that this is fair to him?" Jared asked. "Asking him to stare down the exact thing that killed his wife?"

[Captain Jack Harkness]

Jack shook his head, "Fair? No, it's not fair at all. Unfortunately its something that needs to be done, and at the moment he is the only person who can do it, and who I can trust to do it." Jack stated firmly, "Life is rarely fair, it's how we deal with that that makes us into who we are."

Jack had no doubts it would be difficult for Owen to do, but he also knew how strong and proficient a doctor Owen was, and that is what made him tell him to do it.

[Jared Baker]

Jared rested his head against the wall and waited for Owen to find a miracle down in the vaults.

[Owen Harper]

Owen had found the box that held the alien that had killed his wife, the only person he had felt love for in a long time. He wished that he could find that again, he wished that he hadn't if lost that in the first place and it was the stupid aliens fault. The medic had been staring at the box for a while not wanting to open it on his own so he finally snapped back into reality.

He walked to the exit of the archives with the box held tightly in his hands. Owen didn't want to open it, it scared him too much so he waled into the medical bay and left the box on the bed next to Jared. He let out a breathe that he didn't know he was holding in until that moment.

The medic looked at Jared then took a couple of steps back. "Can you..." he began with a shaking voice "Open it?" Owen was scared and more scared than he had ever been in his life, he would finally see what killed his wife all those years ago.

[Jared Baker]

Jared had his own reasons for not wanting to open the box but he just asked for gloves, snapped them on and lifted the lid as though this was any old alien with no ties to any of them.

He lifted it out onto the stainless steel tray but delayed making any dissecting cuts as he looked over the basic physiology. "Owen, it's dead and cold. Come look with me. we have to figure out how this bastard ticks."

The body was translucent and delicate, a large main lobe with lank training 'limbs.' It brought to mind a sea jelly save for all the neural bundles tangling in the central core and traveling out through the limbs. the ends looked all the world like the end of a human neuron, as though the tings could plug right into a brain and pick up signals as it passed them along. He couldn't think about that without wanting to be sick so he moved on to looking at it's survival features.

"Here, shared blood supply, presumably with the host. that's probably how it can survive without access to food or air." Maybe they could drug the thing, if they could figure out what drug to use.

[Owen Harper]

He managed to force himself over to where the other medic was standing and looked into the box. If he had to say then and there was it looked like it was a jellyfish, his wife had been killed by a stupid jellyfish looking alien. Owen gritted his teeth in temper and was going to begin to swear yet remembered that Jared still had one in his brain, he must feel so much worse.

"Thats what i thought" he muttered to himself, he had a feeling that it needed the host to survive so it wasn't so much of a surprise although he was still taking all the information in. He still couldn't believe that Jack had kept the alien in the archives and hadn't told him, that was a big knock in his confidence but first they needed to save Jared.

"OK then what if we stop your blood flow, sure its risky but it could work, it might need air and food and due to not getting blood it might just die?" to be honest he knew it was a crap idea but he could think straight "Or we could try your idea? Either way your going to have to go through the sane thing. We drug you and the thing is drugged, we stop its blood supply by stopping your blood flow. I hope your up for at least one of them"

[Jared Baker]

Jared felt his heart give a stuttered beat. ...stop your blood flow... He had to pull himself together to keep from panicking. A spike of pain across his mind and he found it strangely centering.

"Stop the blood flow..." he restated Owen's suggestion with a soft tremor in his voice. "That could work if you pair it with hypothermal therapy. At room temperature my brain will die off at the same rate as the alien."

He'd have to tell Owen to get the actual details from his computer. If the alien was plugged directly into his mind, he wasn't about to tell it how they planned to fight it.

[Owen Harper]

The medic then nodded and looked at Jack, he had a feeling that the captain wouldn't like their plan but Owen couldn't give two shits. He wanted to help Jared and felt that if he stopped the alien getting the other medic then he would somehow get his revenge, it was stupid but thats how he felt and he would get the chance to kill the very thing that had destroyed his own life.

Owen walked towards Jared and flicked on the machine beside it logging in quickly so that all the medical files opened up. "Lets do this and get rid of that fucker in your brain" he said with a passion. He truly hated the creature that was laying inside his workmates head and he was going to be the one to flush it out.