Title: Out of Time, Part 1 of 4
Author: Emma
Characters: Canonical Torchwood Three members… sort of.
Rating: Some chapters definitely not safe for work.Disclaimer: Oh, please. If I owned them, would I let some of those idiots write the scripts? And if I were making any money off them, would I be where they could find me?
Summary: Doctor Owen Harper falls in love with an improper stranger..
Notes: If anyone can tell me why LiveJournal has decided to strip the formatting from an OpenOffice document which has been saved as a Word document I'd appreciate it. It's too fucking late in the morning to make sure all the indents line up. To hell with it. I'm going to bed.

“Hey, Gwen!”

Gwen waved at the young woman standing by the coffee machine. “Kyra. How are you?”

Kyra shrugged. “Still making coffee. So they finally called Torchwood in on the airport thing?”

“Yeah. You have time for a cup? Not here, though. There's that new French cafe...”

“I'm supposed to be off for lunch in a few minutes,” Kyra said, her eyes brightening at the idea of something rich and creamy. “I could meet you.”

“Good.”

Gwen walked out of the station, winking as she passed Jack, who was deep in conversation with the Assistant Commissioner. They had worked out a division of labor that had turned to be highly satisfactory; while Jack concentrated on officialdom, Gwen would troll for information among the lower ranks. The street constables would happily unburden themselves of the very thing that senior management wanted to keep under wraps, especially to someone like Gwen, who was one of their own, so to speak.

Less than ten minutes later Kyra bounced in. Gwen had already ordered a nice selection of pastries and two cups of cafe au lait. Kyra sank into the chair opposite her with a sigh of contentment.

“Now, this is a lunch.” She giggled. “I'll be sedated all afternoon, which is a good thing, considering that I have to take notes during the monthly budget meeting.”

“Load up, then.” Gwen offered the plate. “What's going on with this airport thing, then? They all seem to be spooked by it. The Chief Constable sounded about ready to tear out her hair.”

“So she should be, considering all the pressure she's under. The Carrington people have been making all sorts of noises about calling in the London crowd.” Kyra snorted. The Chief Constable was a favorite with the ranks and they resented any political games aimed at her. “”As if they had better exorcists than we do or something.”

“So it's a ghost?”

“Kind of.” Kyra scooped up from crème fraiche on her finger and licked at it. “It's a ghost plane.”

“That's unusual.”

“That's what Brother Allan says.”

Brother Allan was the head of Glamorgan Police's Parapsychological Unit. Gwen had worked with him briefly and had a high opinion of his abilities. “So tell me about this ghost plane.”

“It started about a month ago. They tore down most of the airport, but when they got to what used to be the hangar for this little private airline that used to ferry all the rich folks in Cardiff, things started going pear-shaped in a big way. First, all kinds of things kept going wrong with the equipment. The management called in an exorcist and that only seemed to make it worse. Two accidents shut down the site for days at a time. The last one nearly killed one of the workers. Then neighbours started to hear the sound of a plane taking off, then the engine stalling and a crash. Every night they hear it and every morning, when the workers come in, the whole place looks like it's been hit by a hurricane. Heavy equipment overturned, electrical things fried. It's been going on for a week.”

“Lady Aranrhod have mercy. No wonder they called Jack.”

“Well, that was the Chief Constable. The others aren't so sure.” The twist of Kyra's lips told Gwen all she needed to know about Kyra's opinion of the others. “But Brother Allen backed her up.”

“That would do it. There's Jack.”

Kyra turned to watch Jack walk towards them. “He's just... something, isn't he?” She gave Gwen a conspiratorial smile. “Too bad you got Rhys.”

“Rhys keeps me very happy, thank you.” Gwen grinned back. “Besides, if I made a move on Jack, Ianto would shoot me.”

“That piece of gorgeous is gay?” Kyra pouted.

“Nope. That piece of gorgeous had his head turned by another piece of gorgeous. You see them together, your heart stops.” Gwen sighed. “But nothing beats my Rhys.”

“Great Mother, Gwen, you're fathoms in love.”

“Yes. Clear your calendar for next year. If I'm lucky...” A small shadow passed over her face which Kyra did not notice, “you might get an invitation. Hey, Jack. This is my friend Constable Kyra Oakland. She's a saesnes, but we don't hold it against her.”

“Hello, Kyra.” Jack bestowed on the Constable one of his most charming smiles. Gwen had a sudden vision of Kyra melting into a puddle like the witch in The Wizard of Oz. “I'm sorry but I have to take Gwen away. Business.”

“Yeah... yes... I have to get back myself... busy this afternoon... “ Kyra babbled. “See you later, Gwen.”

They watched her go. “Did you get something?” Jack said

“Yeah. They're pissing their pants over there and trying not to show it.”

“I got the same impression. I called Ianto and Tosh and told them to start searching. Let's pick up some lunch and get back to the Hub.”

A quick stop at their favorite pizzeria revealed that Ianto had predicted their choice. Two large pizzas, one meat, one veggie, were waiting for them.

“If I didn't love Rhys so much,” Gwen giggled. “I'd steal that man of yours.”

Jack showed her his teeth in a predator's smile. “Not if you want to live to dandle great-grandchildren on your knee, sweetheart.”

They laughed. Gwen drew her arm through Jack's as they walked towards the tourist office. As usual, they found the place shuttered and the door locked. Gwen wondered if tourists ever wondered what kind of tourist bureau would have an office that was closed most of the time.

They found Owen sitting back, watching Ianto and Tosh, who were bent over Tosh's terminal. Ianto was tracing something on the screen with his finger. “Yes, that's it.” He said to Tosh. “It crashed right about there. My mam remembers it.”

“What does your mam remember?” Jack asked, although Gwen noticed he was more interested in checking out Ianto's rear. A very nice rear, actually, she thought, giving Ianto the once over herself.

Ianto looked back at them. “The crash of the Sky Gypsy in 1953. She used to talk about it. One of the people who was killed was a man called John Ellis.” Ianto pressed a key and the image of a man appeared on the monitor. To Gwen he seemed the very image of an English businessman. “Big in banking and investment circles, ruthless, disliked by a lot of people. There were rumours that the crash was deliberate, but I don't think anyone looked very hard after the report declaring it an accident was released.”

“Who else died?”

“Diane Holmes was the pilot, unusual in those days, but by all accounts she was unusual.” The image that appeared made all the men hold themselves up a little straighter. Owen's quiet wow made Tosh and Gwen grin at each other. “She had a reputation as a bit of a heart breaker. One of her suitor killed himself after she dumped him for another man. And finally,” a young girl with a wistful look about her smiled at them from the monitor, “Emma-Louise Cowell. A poor little rich orphan with more money than the Bank of England and some shady heirs.”

“Do we know anything about the charter company?”

“Yes. Sky Charters. Owned by Samuel Troughton. Well liked, the report attached no blame to him. The Sky Gypsy flew into storm clouds a few minutes after takeoff. People on the ground could hear the engine stall, and then the plane came out of the clouds in a dive and crashed nose first into the river. The report found that one of the wings and the engine had been hit by lightning. Nobody's fault. Just bad luck.”

“So why the haunting now?” Tosh asked. “I thought in these cases it started almost immediately.”

“Maybe it's just place memory,” Gwen said. “Sometimes when something terrible happens in a place, it retains the memory of the event and it replays... no that wouldn't do it. There was an even bigger crash in that airport later on, wasn't there?”

“Yes,” Tosh confirmed. “A jet crashed on landing in 1972. Fifty dead.”

“So why this small accident?” Gwen said. “Makes no sense, unless there's something more to it than the crash.”

“An interesting thing,” Ianto mused. “The problem started when the construction crew tried to bring down the old hangar. So it may be that the problems centers around it, rather than the plane. Something that happened in that hangar before the plane took off.”

“All right,” Jack said. “Let's eat these things before they get cold. Then Owen, Gwen, and I will head out to the airport. Tosh, Ianto, the two of you go through the lives of everyone connected to this flight until they have no secrets at all.”