bodldops | (no subject)

The power came back on two days later just as mysteriously as it had gone off, leaving a very wary and confused Torchwood crew to get about with the business of protecting the planet from the universe and from themselves. For the first few days or so (or longer, in Mickey's case), every alarm, every change in previous patterns, even a mistake in the pizza order was met with great suspicion and the certainty that the other shoe was finally dropping.

So far, it hadn't. Sure, there had been a few rogue Weevils, a painting on a nursery wall had come to life and killed the parents of the two children (both of whom had protested the obliteration of said painting with great vehemence, it has to be said), and the usual scattering of real abductions, fake abductions, people offering themselves to be abducted, and people trying to abduct Jack.

Many of those in the latter category didn't give a fig about aliens.

Rhys stopped by the Hub now and then, under the guise of organizing to take Gwen on a cruise at some point or other, but mostly just to make sure his new wife was okay, despite said wife's vaguely mortified complaints. Mickey went through two 'girlfriends'. Ianto discovered a new use for a stopwatch. Gwen tried to crack down on discovering all of Tosh's secret files, but got distracted by Tosh's highly entertaining file of screenshots from CCTV reels from around the city. Jack died twice, but only told his teammates about the one involving the jello, and that's only because they saw him come out and had demanded an explanation.

Two weeks later, and the days of darkness was settling down in their memories as yet another 'isn't our life the weirdest' story, another one of the unexplained and inexplicable details of their deeply deranged existence. Rhys learned to never show up at the Hub with sausages, though some said he should have figured that one out a long time ago. Mickey discovered a new use for the sonic scalpel, one which Ianto secretly thought Owen would have admired, in a grudging and somewhat jealous sort of way. Ianto broke the record for single-handed Weevil catching. Gwen found she could never ever look at sausages the same way again. Jack visited the newly-mounded grave of a friend he'd been meaning to visit for three decades, and never quite got around to, what with one thing and another.

Two months later, they'd pretty much forgotten about the glitch in the system. Rhys discovered that a Weevil bite hurts like hell, and is somewhat difficult to explain to his GP. Mickey showed he learned more than a little hunting Cybermen in that alternate Earth and was a good deal more ruthless than Jack had given him credit for. Ianto found Owen and Tosh's coffee cups hidden, long forgotten in the arboretum, and nearly broke down because of it. Gwen saved the brochures of a couple cruises she had actually liked the idea of from the trash. Jack had entirely too much fun cheering up Ianto after the long-missed coffee cups had been returned to their cabinet, to forever wait for the users who would never come for them.

No one (except maybe the sausages, which had taken up residence under the dissection table) noticed that while the lights were on and power hummed through the Hub, it did so at a very slightly diminished rate.

Two months ago, two weeks ago, a few days ago, more or less or something in between, a young blond woman blindly set the brake of her battered and nearly broken ship, then slid to the floor with a barely audible sound of protest as unconsciousness rose up to claim her. Her ship, just as tired and abused as its owner, latched onto the nearest source of power and hurriedly began to refuel.