Skypoint by Phil Ford Page B

watching her. Suddenly self-conscious she smiled and turned the music down a little.
    ‘I’m sorry. Do you mind?’ she asked.
    Owen shrugged and couldn’t help smiling. ‘I didn’t know you liked jazz.’
    ‘My mother’s a big fan. It used to be on all the time when I was growing up.’
    ‘Same here. I used to think it was the only thing that stopped my folks going for each other with the kitchen knives. “Take Five” would chill them out better than a case of red.’
    ‘Sorry. If it brings back memories…’ She moved to turn it off.
    ‘No. I like it. Like you said, it rubs off on you.’
    Toshiko shook her head. ‘It’s weird, isn’t it? We spend all that time with each other and we go through all this stuff – but we know next to nothing about everyone else.’
    Owen stiffened. ‘Yeah, well maybe it’s better that way.’
    ‘I don’t understand.’
    ‘You know what it’s like, Tosh. No one gets to retire from Torchwood. And it isn’t worth taking out a pension plan.’
    She knew what he was talking about. She had gone back through the Torchwood records once. No one had ever left the organisation for another job, or to start a family, or to go live in a cottage by the sea. Personnel files all closed with the same word: DECEASED.
    But Toshiko didn’t want to think about that. She forced a smile. ‘You’re a bundle of joy today.’
    Owen fought down the urge to tell her that he didn’t get the opportunity for much joy these days. He wondered whether he should also remind her that they were at SkyPoint to do a job, and that they were not there playing House.
    Owen’s heart may have stopped beating; it didn’t mean he didn’t have one any more.
    ‘Sorry,’ he said.
    And he was sorry. If he hadn’t been dead, playing man and wife with Toshiko for a couple of nights could have been fun. He was also sorry because he liked Toshiko (strangely he had grown to like her so much more since there had been no chance of – and no point in – bedding her) and he knew that a big part of her was looking forward to their stay here. She had feelings for him that he could never return, and she knew that, but this SkyPoint job was the closest she was ever going to get to playing husband and wife – probably, with anyone.
    This was her dream job, he thought. It would have made his stomach turn over, had it still been able to.
    He should tell her now, he thought, that this was a mission – that they had a job to do – and anything else going on inside her head was just pure fantasy, and she should quit it right now. The trouble was, he didn’t have the heart to do that. How could he do that to a woman that loved him even though he was a walking corpse.
    If you loved her, you would.
    Christ, he hoped they could clear this business up fast.
    The doorbell went.
    They looked at each other. They had agreed that Jack and the others should stay away while Owen and Toshiko got settled in at SkyPoint. No one else knew they were there.
    ‘Maybe it’s the milkman come to sign us up,’ Owen theorised with a frown. He headed for the door. ‘What do you like on your cornflakes in a morning?’
    He opened the door to a tall woman with cascading blonde hair in a white dress. If she’d had wings coming off her shoulder blades, he’d have believed in angels. Beside her stood an economy copy. Same golden hair, same finely sculpted cheekbones, same blue-green eyes. Just in jeans and a T-shirt with a kitten face on it.
    The little girl smiled up at Owen. ‘Hello, I’m Alison. What’s your name?’
    Kids were about as alien as it got for Owen. Some guys couldn’t talk to women. He never had a problem there. But kids…
    The mother spoke before he had to. ‘I’m Wendy, this is Alison. Sorry, my daughter always likes to get in first.’
    ‘What did you do to your hand?’
    Alison had noticed Owen’s bandaged fingers.
    ‘I had an accident,’ he told her.
    Behind him, he felt Toshiko come to the door. He felt her hand