Of the Vortex Born: Chapter Eighteen
Aug. 25th, 2008 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocus
A/N: Confirmation of sexual assault of a minor.
Chapter Eighteen: Darkness Descends
“Damn it!” swore Dr. Owen Harper as he reviewed the footage he'd recovered from the examination of young Jamie Tyler. His wife looked up sharply from her own perusal and at the look on his face was immediately on her way over.
“You don’t want to see this, Gwen,” said Owen.
“Don’t tell me what I do and do not want to see, love,” she said sharply. “This is part of my job. If someone abused her…” Her voice trailed off as the images came into view.
“The only consolation is that she was unconscious,” Owen said softly.
“Consolation?” Gwen asked digging her fingernails into her palms. Absently Owen reached out and made her unclench her fists before she drew blood. “Owen, that lab tech bloody raped her! She’s fourteen years old. Nothing is going to console her.”
“Do you have to tell her? Can’t you just say they used too large a speculum or something?” Owen said.
“Owen Harper, you want me to lie to the girl?” Gwen was furious.
“She’s just a kid, Gwen. She shouldn’t have to live with that.” The break in his voice calmed her anger.
“Can you tell who it was that did it?” Gwen asked.
“Not from the camera angle. But I should be able to find out who used his keycard just before the assault.” Owen typed madly at the computer. When the results came up Owen swore graphically. “It was Davis,” he said.
“Davis? That wanker!” Gwen growled. “What the hell did he need to go and do that for? Like he doesn’t get enough already? She’s going to have to be tested for social diseases. Unless…?”
“He didn’t use a condom,” Owen said with a negative shake of his head. “I’ve got access to her blood workup. I’m not sure human social diseases are compatible with her immune system.”
“From our records her mother was originally a human being before her DNA was altered. It’s possible some of the original DNA is latent. There is no way to keep this from Jamie. We have to tell her what happened so we can make sure she’s all right,” Gwen said.
“Oh, damn, damn, damn!” Owen swore, the computer screen scrolling in front of his eyes. “There’s benzodiazepine in her blood. She might not have been unconscious at all, Gwen, she may have been dissociative. Everything I know about her peoples’ physiology tells me that she’d be able to metabolize it quickly enough that she might start remembering what happened when she seemed to be passed out.”
“I want to know who allowed him access to the girl on his own. He shouldn’t have been allowed in there. He doesn’t have clearance to be there without someone with a level 2 supervising him. This whole things smacks of corruption. When I find out what’s going on, heads are going to roll. This is worse than the days when Hartman was in charge of things,” Gwen replied.
“We all know what happened to her,” said Owen. “Though admittedly, she had been possessed by a spritwing for eight years. It was amazing she hadn’t done something crazy sooner. No, this is much deeper than that. We were deliberately sent away. They didn’t want us here. I think someone planned to take Jamie from the start. I think all of it, the aliens, the attack on the Moon, everything, was designed to get that girl here and hurt her.”
“Who’d do such a thing?” Gwen asked. “She’s just a kid.”
“Someone who wanted to hurt her mother.”
“Rose?” Gwen had very faint recollections of Rose Tyler. She’d worked with the woman for a few years when she’d first started at Torchwood so many years ago. She remembered the kidnapping of Rose’s firstborn child by Mickey Smith.
“You don’t think Smith would pull something like this, do you?” Gwen asked in a hushed tone.
“I don’t know that he’d jeopardize his career for petty revenge on a woman that spurned him,” Owen said. “I’m not saying he’s not capable of it, but what could he gain from it? He’s about as high up as you can get in Torchwood.
“Yeah, but look how he got there. Stepping on his friends. He drove out Jake Symmonds as well as Rose Tyler.”
“But why attack the Moon, Gwen? Just to get a girl? I mean, I know she’s an alien but Torchwood has a treaty with U.N.I.T. that clearly says that Time Lords and Ladies are off limits. Just like the Moon is. It was brokered over twenty years ago,” Owen said.
“Maybe Torchwood got tired of the hands off the Moon approach. Wouldn’t that be a coup for Smith? Get control of the Moon for Torchwood? Put U.N.I.T. in its place?” Gwen asked.
“You don’t really think…?”
“Smith would gain a lot. If he got control of the Moon he could change alien policy completely,” Owen surmised.
“There’s no way Brigadier Cassidien would let that happen. The Moon is his. He’s made it very clear that any attempt by Torchwood to try to breach his security would be met with deadly force,” Gwen told him.
“But what if there’s someone on the inside? Someone who’s willing to betray not only U.N.I.T. but Cassidien himself?” asked Owen.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to get on the Brig’s bad side,” Gwen said. “His good side isn’t even always a fun place to be.”
All during the time they were talking Owen had been copying footage of the incident, storing it in several failsafe locations and then sending a copy to a data stick that he then put on a cord and looped around his neck.
“Come on,” he said as he rose. “My level 1 will get us in to see the prisoners and we can find a safe place to hide them. Then we’ll need to coax the girl into letting me examine her and make a few tests. He walked over to a locked cabinet and opened it, searching through a box on the bottom shelf until he found a rape kit.
Jamie huddled against Luke on the cot. An hour ago her body had started shaking. Vague nightmarish glimpses of something had been infringing on her awareness, visions not quite seen, not quite remembered. She had asked Luke to hold her. She was so cold. She felt colder than she had on the Ganyites ship. Even with the thick down comforter wrapped tightly around them, she still could not get warm. Tears leaked from her eyes.
Despite her own self involvement she could sense fear radiating off her companion. He wasn’t afraid of the fact that they were locked in a prison cell on a hostile space station. No, she could sense the emotions just under the surface of his mind and she knew that he was afraid of what had happened to her. The uncertainty of it was gnawing at him. He wanted to help her and yet felt there was nothing he could do other than hold her and stroke her hair and back soothingly as she shook.
When the cell door clicked open, he sprang from the bed, automatically blocking access to Jamie with his body from the strange man who stood in the doorway. “It’s all right,” the man said soothingly. “I’m here to help.”
Luke’s hands balled into fists and his expression remained fierce as he faced down the man in the white lab coat. Keeping his voice even the strange man said calmly, “My name is Owen. My wife Gwen sent me to take you and Jamie somewhere safe.”
Jamie groaned and Luke turned slightly towards her as she mumbled something. As Owen stepped forward Luke turned back, something feral inside him snapping to life. “Don’t touch her,” he snarled.
“We don’t have time for this, Luke,” he said carefully, trying to keep his own body language from becoming threatening. “It isn’t safe for you to stay here.” He met Luke’s eyes. “And she needs medical treatment.”
“I’ve seen what your medical treatment’s done to her,” Luke snapped.
“Not mine,” said Owen quietly. “But it’s important I treat her. I…I know what was done to her and she can’t go without being treated, Luke.”
The boy’s eyes lost their wildness for a brief moment. “Was she…?” he asked unable to finish forming the thought aloud.
“Yes,” Owen said. “And I need to make sure she’s okay.” Luke relaxed his posture and Owen stepped closer.
“I’ll carry her,” Luke said. “I don’t think she’d let anyone else.”
“Are you sure you can?” Owen eyed the boy’s frame.
“I’m stronger than I look,” Luke said. He lifted Jamie off the bed and she clung to him. “Lead the way.”
When at last they arrived in the private quarters of Gwen and Owen Harper, he placed Jamie’s body on the exam table in a small lab. Jamie whimpered, reaching for Luke. “Luke?” she called desperately.
“I’m here,” he said taking her hand and threading her fingers through his. “Luke, I remember,” she said.
Owen reached up and flicked a button on the ear communicator he wore. “Gwen? Get here now.” He paused. “I don’t care what you’re doing! Jamie’s remembering.”
Three minutes later Gwen appeared. Quietly and carefully Gwen and Owen explained to Jamie what had happened to her, but her silent nods and tears were enough to let them know she had already remembered.
“Owen needs to examine you, sweetheart,” Gwen said. Jamie shook her head no. “He has to. We need to make sure you weren’t damaged internally and that he didn’t give you any diseases.” Gwen sharpened her empathy, damping down on Jamie's fears as she did so. Finally Jamie nodded her head in consent.
“Luke, if you’ll just step outside--.”
“No!” Jamie screamed.
“It’s all right,” Luke soothed. “I won’t leave you.” He turned to Gwen. “I’ll keep my eyes averted.” He pulled up a chair and angled it so he saw only Jamie’s face while the others prepared the girl. Jamie kept her eyes focused on Luke the entire time, flinching on occasion as Owen hurt her. He murmured apologies each time.
Finally it was done and Owen left the room, leaving Gwen to help Jamie get dressed properly. Jamie felt a slight flutter in her mind, felt her mother’s mind suddenly reaching out for hers and she flicked away from it. A moment later it was joined more forcefully by her brother, sister, and father. For a moment she allowed herself to be comforted. Then a knock at the front door of the Harper’s quarters caught her attention.
A man’s voice crept into the room, a voice she suddenly remembered and never wanted to hear again. Even as she heard a fist connecting with someone's jaw, she recoiled into herself, throwing her family violently from her thoughts, trying despairingly to hide her violation before they could see it. Something surged deep within her. Something primal and savage. Somewhere in the back of her mind she heard a wolf howling. Soon it was joined by the surge of a hurricane until the two sounds, two thoughts, became inseparable in her mind. “The Storm Wolf comes,” she said in a voice not entirely her own. "Bring it to me."
“Jamie’s regained consciousness,” Rose announced as the flicker on the edge of her awareness, the fiery orange spark that indicated Jamie’s presence in her mind, wavered a bit more strongly. “Her mind’s a maelstrom.”
Landon reached over and grabbed Rose’s hand, and then Mairi took his other one. The young woman reached for Rose’s other hand, then thought a moment and took the Doctor’s hand instead. “Take Mum’s hand,” she ordered brusquely.
The Doctor looked at her oddly but did as directed. “Link,” said Landon. One by one little sparks of color began to flare in his mind next to his own silver life force. Strongest was Rose’s golden glow, then a more muted, calm green that was masculine and faintly Landon. Mairi’s vivid shade of red came next, forceful in its femininity and very recognizable to him. Then a tiny infinitesimal glimmer of orange. Jamie.
Together they reached for the youngest member of their family, reaching towards the mind in such violent disarray. Rose took the lead, trying desperately to soothe, to make gentle contact, to focus her love and concern on her daughter. For a moment she found Jamie warming to the contact and then in a sudden decisive shove, Jamie flung the lot of them out of her mind with so much force that they reeled away, Rose and Landon falling backwards and the Doctor and Mairi only staying upright as they had items wedged at their backs.
Rose sat up and looked at the Doctor with terrified eyes. “Did you hear what she said when she threw us out of her mind?” Rose asked.
“We all did,” said Jake coming back towards the little group.
“You did?” the Doctor asked in shock.
“Yes. She said to bring her the Storm Wolf.”
Ch. 19: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/124536.html
“The only consolation is that she was unconscious,” Owen said softly.
“Consolation?” Gwen asked digging her fingernails into her palms. Absently Owen reached out and made her unclench her fists before she drew blood. “Owen, that lab tech bloody raped her! She’s fourteen years old. Nothing is going to console her.”
“Do you have to tell her? Can’t you just say they used too large a speculum or something?” Owen said.
“Owen Harper, you want me to lie to the girl?” Gwen was furious.
“She’s just a kid, Gwen. She shouldn’t have to live with that.” The break in his voice calmed her anger.
“Can you tell who it was that did it?” Gwen asked.
“Not from the camera angle. But I should be able to find out who used his keycard just before the assault.” Owen typed madly at the computer. When the results came up Owen swore graphically. “It was Davis,” he said.
“Davis? That wanker!” Gwen growled. “What the hell did he need to go and do that for? Like he doesn’t get enough already? She’s going to have to be tested for social diseases. Unless…?”
“He didn’t use a condom,” Owen said with a negative shake of his head. “I’ve got access to her blood workup. I’m not sure human social diseases are compatible with her immune system.”
“From our records her mother was originally a human being before her DNA was altered. It’s possible some of the original DNA is latent. There is no way to keep this from Jamie. We have to tell her what happened so we can make sure she’s all right,” Gwen said.
“Oh, damn, damn, damn!” Owen swore, the computer screen scrolling in front of his eyes. “There’s benzodiazepine in her blood. She might not have been unconscious at all, Gwen, she may have been dissociative. Everything I know about her peoples’ physiology tells me that she’d be able to metabolize it quickly enough that she might start remembering what happened when she seemed to be passed out.”
“I want to know who allowed him access to the girl on his own. He shouldn’t have been allowed in there. He doesn’t have clearance to be there without someone with a level 2 supervising him. This whole things smacks of corruption. When I find out what’s going on, heads are going to roll. This is worse than the days when Hartman was in charge of things,” Gwen replied.
“We all know what happened to her,” said Owen. “Though admittedly, she had been possessed by a spritwing for eight years. It was amazing she hadn’t done something crazy sooner. No, this is much deeper than that. We were deliberately sent away. They didn’t want us here. I think someone planned to take Jamie from the start. I think all of it, the aliens, the attack on the Moon, everything, was designed to get that girl here and hurt her.”
“Who’d do such a thing?” Gwen asked. “She’s just a kid.”
“Someone who wanted to hurt her mother.”
“Rose?” Gwen had very faint recollections of Rose Tyler. She’d worked with the woman for a few years when she’d first started at Torchwood so many years ago. She remembered the kidnapping of Rose’s firstborn child by Mickey Smith.
“You don’t think Smith would pull something like this, do you?” Gwen asked in a hushed tone.
“I don’t know that he’d jeopardize his career for petty revenge on a woman that spurned him,” Owen said. “I’m not saying he’s not capable of it, but what could he gain from it? He’s about as high up as you can get in Torchwood.
“Yeah, but look how he got there. Stepping on his friends. He drove out Jake Symmonds as well as Rose Tyler.”
“But why attack the Moon, Gwen? Just to get a girl? I mean, I know she’s an alien but Torchwood has a treaty with U.N.I.T. that clearly says that Time Lords and Ladies are off limits. Just like the Moon is. It was brokered over twenty years ago,” Owen said.
“Maybe Torchwood got tired of the hands off the Moon approach. Wouldn’t that be a coup for Smith? Get control of the Moon for Torchwood? Put U.N.I.T. in its place?” Gwen asked.
“You don’t really think…?”
“Smith would gain a lot. If he got control of the Moon he could change alien policy completely,” Owen surmised.
“There’s no way Brigadier Cassidien would let that happen. The Moon is his. He’s made it very clear that any attempt by Torchwood to try to breach his security would be met with deadly force,” Gwen told him.
“But what if there’s someone on the inside? Someone who’s willing to betray not only U.N.I.T. but Cassidien himself?” asked Owen.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to get on the Brig’s bad side,” Gwen said. “His good side isn’t even always a fun place to be.”
All during the time they were talking Owen had been copying footage of the incident, storing it in several failsafe locations and then sending a copy to a data stick that he then put on a cord and looped around his neck.
“Come on,” he said as he rose. “My level 1 will get us in to see the prisoners and we can find a safe place to hide them. Then we’ll need to coax the girl into letting me examine her and make a few tests. He walked over to a locked cabinet and opened it, searching through a box on the bottom shelf until he found a rape kit.
Jamie huddled against Luke on the cot. An hour ago her body had started shaking. Vague nightmarish glimpses of something had been infringing on her awareness, visions not quite seen, not quite remembered. She had asked Luke to hold her. She was so cold. She felt colder than she had on the Ganyites ship. Even with the thick down comforter wrapped tightly around them, she still could not get warm. Tears leaked from her eyes.
Despite her own self involvement she could sense fear radiating off her companion. He wasn’t afraid of the fact that they were locked in a prison cell on a hostile space station. No, she could sense the emotions just under the surface of his mind and she knew that he was afraid of what had happened to her. The uncertainty of it was gnawing at him. He wanted to help her and yet felt there was nothing he could do other than hold her and stroke her hair and back soothingly as she shook.
When the cell door clicked open, he sprang from the bed, automatically blocking access to Jamie with his body from the strange man who stood in the doorway. “It’s all right,” the man said soothingly. “I’m here to help.”
Luke’s hands balled into fists and his expression remained fierce as he faced down the man in the white lab coat. Keeping his voice even the strange man said calmly, “My name is Owen. My wife Gwen sent me to take you and Jamie somewhere safe.”
Jamie groaned and Luke turned slightly towards her as she mumbled something. As Owen stepped forward Luke turned back, something feral inside him snapping to life. “Don’t touch her,” he snarled.
“We don’t have time for this, Luke,” he said carefully, trying to keep his own body language from becoming threatening. “It isn’t safe for you to stay here.” He met Luke’s eyes. “And she needs medical treatment.”
“I’ve seen what your medical treatment’s done to her,” Luke snapped.
“Not mine,” said Owen quietly. “But it’s important I treat her. I…I know what was done to her and she can’t go without being treated, Luke.”
The boy’s eyes lost their wildness for a brief moment. “Was she…?” he asked unable to finish forming the thought aloud.
“Yes,” Owen said. “And I need to make sure she’s okay.” Luke relaxed his posture and Owen stepped closer.
“I’ll carry her,” Luke said. “I don’t think she’d let anyone else.”
“Are you sure you can?” Owen eyed the boy’s frame.
“I’m stronger than I look,” Luke said. He lifted Jamie off the bed and she clung to him. “Lead the way.”
When at last they arrived in the private quarters of Gwen and Owen Harper, he placed Jamie’s body on the exam table in a small lab. Jamie whimpered, reaching for Luke. “Luke?” she called desperately.
“I’m here,” he said taking her hand and threading her fingers through his. “Luke, I remember,” she said.
Owen reached up and flicked a button on the ear communicator he wore. “Gwen? Get here now.” He paused. “I don’t care what you’re doing! Jamie’s remembering.”
Three minutes later Gwen appeared. Quietly and carefully Gwen and Owen explained to Jamie what had happened to her, but her silent nods and tears were enough to let them know she had already remembered.
“Owen needs to examine you, sweetheart,” Gwen said. Jamie shook her head no. “He has to. We need to make sure you weren’t damaged internally and that he didn’t give you any diseases.” Gwen sharpened her empathy, damping down on Jamie's fears as she did so. Finally Jamie nodded her head in consent.
“Luke, if you’ll just step outside--.”
“No!” Jamie screamed.
“It’s all right,” Luke soothed. “I won’t leave you.” He turned to Gwen. “I’ll keep my eyes averted.” He pulled up a chair and angled it so he saw only Jamie’s face while the others prepared the girl. Jamie kept her eyes focused on Luke the entire time, flinching on occasion as Owen hurt her. He murmured apologies each time.
Finally it was done and Owen left the room, leaving Gwen to help Jamie get dressed properly. Jamie felt a slight flutter in her mind, felt her mother’s mind suddenly reaching out for hers and she flicked away from it. A moment later it was joined more forcefully by her brother, sister, and father. For a moment she allowed herself to be comforted. Then a knock at the front door of the Harper’s quarters caught her attention.
A man’s voice crept into the room, a voice she suddenly remembered and never wanted to hear again. Even as she heard a fist connecting with someone's jaw, she recoiled into herself, throwing her family violently from her thoughts, trying despairingly to hide her violation before they could see it. Something surged deep within her. Something primal and savage. Somewhere in the back of her mind she heard a wolf howling. Soon it was joined by the surge of a hurricane until the two sounds, two thoughts, became inseparable in her mind. “The Storm Wolf comes,” she said in a voice not entirely her own. "Bring it to me."
“Jamie’s regained consciousness,” Rose announced as the flicker on the edge of her awareness, the fiery orange spark that indicated Jamie’s presence in her mind, wavered a bit more strongly. “Her mind’s a maelstrom.”
Landon reached over and grabbed Rose’s hand, and then Mairi took his other one. The young woman reached for Rose’s other hand, then thought a moment and took the Doctor’s hand instead. “Take Mum’s hand,” she ordered brusquely.
The Doctor looked at her oddly but did as directed. “Link,” said Landon. One by one little sparks of color began to flare in his mind next to his own silver life force. Strongest was Rose’s golden glow, then a more muted, calm green that was masculine and faintly Landon. Mairi’s vivid shade of red came next, forceful in its femininity and very recognizable to him. Then a tiny infinitesimal glimmer of orange. Jamie.
Together they reached for the youngest member of their family, reaching towards the mind in such violent disarray. Rose took the lead, trying desperately to soothe, to make gentle contact, to focus her love and concern on her daughter. For a moment she found Jamie warming to the contact and then in a sudden decisive shove, Jamie flung the lot of them out of her mind with so much force that they reeled away, Rose and Landon falling backwards and the Doctor and Mairi only staying upright as they had items wedged at their backs.
Rose sat up and looked at the Doctor with terrified eyes. “Did you hear what she said when she threw us out of her mind?” Rose asked.
“We all did,” said Jake coming back towards the little group.
“You did?” the Doctor asked in shock.
“Yes. She said to bring her the Storm Wolf.”
Ch. 19: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/124536.html
