Captain Jack Harkness sat at his desk lost in his own thoughts. Gwen, Tosh and Owen had left over 2 hours ago. It had been yet another tense day tiptoeing around Emma, frightened of saying the wrong thing to her, concerned for her when she'd run to the bathroom to throw up. Jack blamed himself for what happened and why Emma was in this mess, he'd given in to her demand of letting her go undercover to try and find any new leads on one of Torchwood's current cases, while he took the rest of the team out on a new one in the welsh countryside.

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Emma James closed her eyes and tried to relax as the hot water ran through her long brown hair and ran off her back as she stood in the shower. It had been the same routine for the last three months, she dreaded the changes that were yet to come.

There was nothing Jack could do about it, nothing the others could and nothing she could do. She felt sick as thoughts whizzed through her mind making her heart beat faster, she could hear it drum in her ears drowning out the noise of the water, she took a sharp breath and her eyes shot open in fear taking her back to reality. She reached up switched off the flow of water, and reached her hand up through the steam and grabbed the white fluffy bathrobe Ianto had left for her on the heated towel rail.

She wrapped herself up in it, got out and twisted her sopping wet hair up into a towel, her back ached and she felt so tired. She slowly walked out the shower room and into his room, she dried herself off and put on the light blue shirt that was folded up on the bed. Her own clothes were too tight to get into now. She removed the towel from her head and dried her hair before tying it up, then she got into bed, pulled the blanket up tight around her and like she always did and cried herself to sleep in the dark.

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Three Months Earlier: June 1st 2007

Emma Sat in the board room, files flung across the desk. The team had been tracking down yet another missing persons mysterious disappearance, it had been the latest out of ten women, that had disappeared in the space of five months. By far this had to be the longest case any of them had worked on. Evidence was hard to pin point and there didn't appear to be any eye witnesses.

So far in this latest incident the woman "Carly Stratton" had a colourful past to say the least. Emma and Gwen had been working flat out making up her profile questioning friends and family.

Owen and Gwen had already questioned the staff in the club where she worked. The next task was to work through the regulars. Tosh had managed to draw up a list of regulars that attended the club from CCTV tapes. She'd then cross referenced it with the footage of the night at the club of Carly's disappearance. There were fifteen names to get through. Emma looked at the list and the profiles when Jack appeared in the doorway.

"Get your camping gear together. We're taking a trip to the countryside." He beamed leaning on the door frame with his arms folded across his chest.

"Camping! Jack you've got to be kidding. I can't stand it". She replied not amused at the prospect.

"That's exactly what Owen said. What is it with you lot I offer to take you out on a trip and you complain."

Emma rested her hand underneath her chin and smiled. She loved it when Jack was in this mood.

"Thanks for the offer. But if you don't mind I could really do with staying here and see if I can chase up any leads on Carly Stratton. Tosh has just given me a list of more people to question and maybe one of them might give us some new leads. Pretty please." She replied giving him a pleading look.

"Okay I suppose I can spare you. I'll take Ianto instead. Just be careful okay and call me if you find yourself in any trouble." He replied pointing at her.

"Thanks Jack." She smiled looking back down into her paperwork.

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That evening Emma headed to the seedy looking club on one of the backstreets of Cardiff where Carly had worked. She felt nervous as she entered the club, trying not to draw suspicions to herself she took a seat on an empty bar stall at the bar and ordered herself a drink. The music was really loud she could hardly hear herself think. She sipped at her drink and looked round the club, the bar man smiled at her, she signalled for him to come over. She didn't recognise him off the list of staff that Owen and Gwen had questioned previously.

"Do you know a Miss Carly Stratton?" She shouted close to his ear.

"Oh I, yeah she's a regular in here. She dances here now and again, drinks with that group over there." The bar man pointed to 3 men dressed in black business suits.

"I haven't seen her, for a while mind, must be a least a month or so, why don't you go and ask them."

"Thanks I will."

Emma slid off the bar stool put her glass down on the bar and headed over to the area where the three men were sat with their backs to the crowd deep in conversation. "Bit odd" she thought to herself wondering how an earth they'd be able to hear themselves speak. She wondered if the three of them were on the list she'd been sat looking through earlier on in the day.

"Excuse me." She shouted I'm looking for a Miss Carly Stratton, I was told your acquainted with her."

"Please sit down." One of the men got up and gestured her to sit down, he was tall, had dark hair and very deep dark brown eyes that made him shifty looking. It made Emma feel instantly uncomfortable. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her.

"Are you a friend of Miss Stratton's?" He asked in a very formal tone.

That wasn't a local accent Emma mentally noted to herself, she tried to place it's origin but to no avail. She didn't recognise him from the photo's either.

"Atkins, go and get our guest a drink?" He ordered one of the other men.

"Atkins?" what kind of a name was that she thought, these men were definitely not from around here, it made her even more curious to dig deeper and find out what information they knew if any about Carly.

Atkins, in his early 30's Emma guessed, with bleach blonde hair and piercing blue eyes and well built stood up, smiling at her in what appeared to be some sort of trance.

"Yes sir." He replied doing as he was told and went to the bar to get some drinks. He knew what he had to do he understood from the glint in his friend eye.

"The names Milton." The man gestured his hand to her.

"Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

"Emma James." She replied trying to avoid making eye contact with him, there was something really not right about him, she sensed it and wanted to get this over and done with and out of here as quickly as possible.

"Milton, I've never came across a name like that before." She replied nervously.

"That's not a local accent either, where are you from?"

He avoided her question "Ah Atkins, good your back."

Atkins sat back down in his seat and handed out the drinks. Emma reluctantly took the glass from him and set it down on the table.

"Now where were we, my dear.. Ah yes Carly Stratton."

Emma picked up her glass and took a large nervous gulp.