[#150] Not Herself (Torchwood)

[badly_knitted]

Theme Prompt: #150 – Paradox
Title: Not Herself
Fandom: Torchwood.
Rating/Warnings: PG / None
Bonus: Yes (with a slight adjustment to the wording).
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Torchwood investigates the case of a woman who suddenly starts behaving very strangely.
A/N: Not entirely happy with this one and not sure it fits the prompt, but it’s what I ended up with, so…




Torchwood didn’t make sense at the best of times; it was a secret organisation that practically everyone in Cardiff had heard about, even if they weren’t clear on exactly what it was Torchwood did. Their leader was an immortal man from the future who, thanks to a rather big mistake on the part of a friend, couldn’t die and yet frequently did, only to come back to life again. Oh, and they had a secret base underneath the Roald Dahl Plas, the main entrance to which was through a Tourist Information kiosk tucked away down by the water where most tourists would never think to look. Understandably, it wasn’t especially busy, which was fortunate since it was seldom open for business. Not that kind of business anyway.

In contrast, Torchwood itself was always open, although not to the general public. The team had a vitally important job to do, protecting the city and its residents from alien threats, and that kept them busy to the point of being run off their feet at times. All because there was a Rift in space and time running through the city, dragging aliens and their technology from across the universe, past, present, and future. Someone had to deal with the problems it caused, and so that was what the team did, to the best of their ability.

There were displaced aliens, both sentient and not, to be looked after, dangerous or unfathomable technology to be retrieved, investigated, and where necessary, disabled, and invaders to be repelled. It was a full-time job, but while it paid well it didn’t make the team popular. The trouble with working for a secret organisation was that they couldn’t explain what they did or why they did it, leaving everyone convinced they were at best a nuisance to be tolerated. If people knew the truth, they’d no doubt panic and either leave Cardiff to live somewhere safer, or never have a good night’s sleep for the rest of their lives.

Sometimes though, it was necessary to tell certain people the truth.

OoOoOoO

“Who are you? What do you want with me? Are you kidnapping me?” Annabel Hughes was terrified and angry, which was understandable but not helpful.

“No,” Tosh assured her. “We’re not kidnappers, we’re Torchwood, but you need to come with us, for your own safety. You need treatment.”

“Are you saying I’m crazy? I’m not crazy!”

Her husband would have disagreed with that statement; his wife was a quiet, gentle woman, an animal lover known for bringing home strays, but for the last couple of days she hadn’t been acting like herself. She’d found an injured creature while out for a walk, brought it home with her, but it hadn’t survived. As it was dying, it had bitten her, and ever since then she’d been a bit… strange.

He'd worried that the creature might have given her rabies, except she wasn’t foaming at the mouth, and she wasn’t afraid of water or anything. But he’d woken this morning and found her in the kitchen, with her sharpest kitchen knife in one hand and one of their cats in the other. She’d said she was hungry and needed its blood, and that just wasn’t normal. She’d been a vegetarian for as long as he’d know her. Then when he’d managed to rescue the cat and disarm his wife, she’d tried to bite him.

Not knowing quite what he should do, he’d locked her in the cupboard under the stairs and called the police, only it hadn’t been the police who’d shown up on his doorstep half an hour later. It had been Torchwood.

They’d asked to see the animal that had bitten his wife, which meant he’d had to dig the body up from where it had been buried, and then things had got REALLY weird.

OoOoOoO

“Oh, that’s not good,” Jack said as he studied the body.

“What is it?” Ianto asked.

“A besnyth. They’re kind of like cuckoos, except they don’t lay eggs. Instead, when they’re nearing the end of their lifecycle, the implant their offspring into a host creature where they grow and develop until they reach maturity, at which point they eat the host. Sounds like Mrs Hughes is playing host to a litter of besnyth spawn. It would explain her craving for blood.”

“You’re right; that’s not good. So what do we do?”

“We’ll have to take her back to the Hub, so Owen can surgically remove them. It’s only been a couple of days so it shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s unlikely they’ve migrated far from the implant site. Once they attach to the internal organs, that’s when it gets tricky, but that usually takes seven to ten days. It’s a good thing we caught this early. A minor operation, a shot of Owen’s anti-parasitic serum, and she should be back to normal in a day or two.”

Mr Hughes had been looking back and forth between his uninvited visitors as they’d been talking, but now he’d had enough.

“You’re out of your minds, the lot of you!”

“Calm down, Mr Hughes.” Gwen used her most soothing voice, but it didn’t help.

“No! This conversation is ridiculous! You’re all ridiculous! Everything that's happened in the last few days is intensely ridiculous! Why should I listen to a word you’re saying?”

“Because you love your wife, you want to help her, and we can do that,” Ianto said, looking him in the eye. “I know it sounds insane, but everything we’ve said is the truth. Aliens are real, your wife has been bitten by one, and now her life is in danger. You can come with us, but you need to let us do our job. I promise she’ll be fine.”

So Mr Hughes had let his wife out, allowed her to be restrained, and gone with Torchwood. Or he thought he had, only now it was morning, and he’d woken in his own bed with his wife beside him. What a weird dream!


The End


 

Comments

[badly_knitted]

No plans for a sequel, although I'll probably expand the fic a bit before posting to my journal as it feels a bit rushed. There's really not much more to be done with the idea since the woman is back to normal and her husband just thinks he had a weird dream.

Thank you, glad you liked it!