"In twelve hours," Jack says, "there'll be a brief moment when both times exist, before the time shift completes, when Tommy can be here, now, and in 1918."
The time lock on the sealed dispatch box has opened, revealing instructions from Torchwood operatives long dead. Toshiko listens with increasing dread as Jack speaks. She feels as if reality is coming unstuck.
Jack is still explaining. Toshiko forces herself to listen.
"– when you go back to 1918, your life will be like a thread, stitching time back together again."
Tommy replies in his soft Manchester accent. He sounds a bit bemused. "A stitch in time."
A stitch in time. A stitch in time? Toshiko can't quite wrap her head around what is happening. The barrier between times is breaking down, and they are contemplating using Tommy's life to sew it closed again?
"Toshiko," Jack says. "With me."
Abruptly, she realises the briefing is over. Chairs scrape back against the conference room floor as the others go off to do whatever it is they're meant to do.
Obediently, Toshiko follows Jack to his office.
The more Jack briefs her on the mission, the worse it gets. They will send Tommy back to 1918, and three weeks later he will die, shot by a firing squad made up of his fellow soldiers, for cowardice in the face of duty. It's a barbaric fate for the young man, and Toshiko feels physically ill at the prospect that she will play a part in his death.
It's Tommy's life, or that of the world. For once, she can find no comfort in maths. Her grasp of logic is hard and relentless, but Toshiko cannot apply it to this very human equation. She must determine a new analogy if she is to play her part.
Maybe it is because the epicentre of the Rift event is at St Teilo's Hospital, but she begins to think of what they are doing in medical terms: They are going to perform surgery on Time itself and use Tommy as the suture material.
It's a good analogy, although she suspects Owen might object. It is easier to contemplate what must be done if she thinks of St Teilo's as their operating theatre, and the Rift Manipulator as another instrument. Jack is the chief surgeon, guiding the team. She is his key assistant, performing a crucial task at a critical juncture in the procedure.
Thinking about Tommy as an inanimate object gives her enough perspective to get her bearings. It allows her to accept the necessity of the mission, and her role in it. At least until she sees him again.
Her colleagues are doing their best to be kind, but they are clearly ill at ease. Tommy is putting on a brave face, but Toshiko can see underneath his cool bravado he is terrified. She knows what he needs, because she needs it too. They are in this together. They are bound by their duty.
She glances up at Jack, nervously seeking his permission. The look he gives her is almost paternal. He understands. Toshiko has the feeling he has been in her place before. Knowing he approves of what she is about to do is a small comfort as she announces her intention to take Tommy home.
She feels, as they leave the Hub, that she and Tommy are living a fairy tale; not the Disney 'happily ever after' kind, because there can be none of that for them. It's one of the cautionary stories collected by the Brothers' Grimm, although as yet, Toshiko isn't sure what the lesson is meant to be. It's not the first time she's thought that way about Tommy. It's hard not to. He is her sleeping solider, allowed one day of life a year until there is a mission only he can complete.
Maybe it's a lesson about the dangers of love. Owen, of all people, has already warned her about losing her heart to Tommy. She appreciates his unexpected concern, but it's too late. She already has.
Whatever the moral of the story is meant to be, Toshiko decides it doesn't matter.
Tomorrow there will be an operation. Tomorrow, Tommy will be the instrument that will heal Time. But that is tomorrow. Tonight, Toshiko will lie in Tommy's arms. Tommy is her brave and handsome soldier, and for one night, she will be his girl.