Torchwood: Exodus Code

shoulders stiffened, her head tensed, and with blood trickling down her arm, she tightened both hands on the grip of the gun. Her stance wavered a fraction of an inch. Gwen’s face reddened, her concentration bulging the veins on her neck. She fired.
    The shot went high. Rhys scrambled further into the shadows, broken glass stabbing into his knees. At least if she keeps shooting at me, he thought, she can’t hurt Anwen.
    ‘Stop moving, you stupid, stupid man.’ Gwen’s voice was a low growl. ‘You’re only making this harder on yourself.’
    Rhys clambered up and stepped out of the corner. ‘Gwen, you’ve got to try to fight this… whatever this is that’s telling you to hurt me. You need to think about all of the good times we’ve had together and all of the good times that we can have with Anwen.’
    ‘Will you please shut up, Rhys,’ Gwen sobbed, the gun shaking in her trembling hands. ‘It’s just all so sour. Nothing matters any more.’
    Gwen lifted the gun, aiming directly at Rhys’s chest. This time there was no chance she’d miss.
    ‘I love you, Gwen Cooper.’
    Gwen fired. Rhys jumped. Gwen’s shoulder jerked forward and she collapsed at Rhys’s feet. He lunged for Gwen’s gun, prising it from her fingers and tossing it over her body to the tall figure in the military coat who loomed in the doorway.
    Holstering his Webley, Jack Harkness rushed to Gwen’s side.
    ‘Why’d you wait so bloody long?’ screamed Rhys, clambering into the living room to rescue Anwen. ‘I spotted you through the window when I put Anwen in here.’ Rhys pressed his frightened daughter to his chest. ‘She could have killed me, you bastard.’
    Jack smiled and shrugged, kneeling next to Gwen, who had hit her temple on the floor when she went down and was moaning , drifting in and out of consciousness. Checking her pulse, Jack sighed with relief. It was strong.
    Rhys glared at him. If it hadn’t been for Anwen, he’d have bloody well punched the sod.
    ‘I had to be sure she was really going to shoot you, didn’t I?’ said Jack, grinning. ‘I couldn’t risk shooting Gwen for no good reason. I like her better than you, remember?’
    ‘You’re still a bastard, you know that,’ hissed Rhys, keeping his attention on Anwen who had spotted her wounded mother lying on the hallway floor. ‘But thank you.’
    ‘Mummy sleeping?’
    ‘Yes, Anwen, your mummy’s sleeping,’ shushed Jack, taking off his coat and placing it carefully under Gwen’s head. ‘We need to get her to the hospital. This is a nasty wound on her head and her shoulder’s going to need a little work.’
    ‘I think it’ll have to be a prison ward,’ said Andy’s familiar voice from the front door. ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I need to arrest Gwen.’

28
    WHILE ANDY RADIOED for an ambulance, Rhys called Mary and told her what had happened to Gwen, giving as few details as possible.
    While they waited, Jack sat at Gwen’s side and Rhys paced the floor with Anwen drowsy on his shoulder.
    ‘You could put Anwen in her cot,’ said Jack. ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m sure Gwen’s going to be OK.’
    ‘I’m not leaving you alone with my wife! You might shoot her again.’
    ‘Hey, don’t forget it was you she was trying to kill, not me.’
    ‘Gwen’s been acting really strange for a few days now,’ said Rhys. ‘I don’t know what’s got into her.’
    ‘It not just Gwen,’ said Andy.
    ‘What do you mean?’ said Jack, already working through possible scenarios in his own mind for what might have driven Gwen to such violence. As the sirens grew louder, Jack saw yellow dots bounce in his peripheral vision.
    Andy filled them in on what he’d learned at the station, why he had to arrest Gwen and the strange pattern he’d uncovered of other women in the area losing their marbles. ‘And it’s not just that they’ve gone a bit balmy,’ added Andy. ‘They also hurt themselves in pretty disgusting ways.’
    The arrival of an ambulance and two panda cars interrupted him. ‘I’ll ride with you and Gwen to the hospital,’ Andy said to Rhys, ‘and then we’ll see where to go from there. But it makes you wonder, doesn’t it?’
    ‘Wonder what?’ asked Rhys.
    ‘Well, if maybe there’s something in the water that’s making women, you know, bonkers.’
    Jack hid a wince at Andy’s expression. ‘How many other women did you say have lost their senses and mutilated themselves?’ he asked