Hi there! This is my first Torchwood fic, it's been written out for a while in a little notebook, but I've only just gathered up the confidence to type it and post it!

I decided to post it as a one-shot even though it will be extremely long, for my standards anyway!

Spoilers for Exit Wounds and Fragments ... ye be warned!

Oh yeah, another thing...I'm going to ignore that Journey's End ever happened, not that I didn't like it, it's just I wrote the story before it and I'm too lazy to change it so it fits!

Reviews, as always, are very loved and appreciated.

Disclaimer: Can I have the BBC? No? Didn't think so.

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All Torchwood staff knew about the Doctor - his regeneration abilities, the way he could travel through time and space, the form the TARDIS took, his tendency to never travel alone, they knew that Torchwood had been created to 'combat the threat posed by the Doctor'. In other words, Torchwood staff knew as much about the Doctor as was possible to know without travelling through time with him, or at least knowing someone who travelled through time with him.

This meant that the team at Torchwood Three knew much more about the Doctor than most Torchwood employees.

They had learnt about his love of bananas, his need to apologise for things out of his control, his terrible dancing, the way he always managed to save the world no matter how incomprehensibly huge the threat was, and many other things through the stories of one Captain Jack Harkness.

Each member had heard the stories of places the Doctor, Rose and Jack had been, the aliens they'd angered, and the planets they'd saved. Even if they didn't believe half of them.

However, what neither Gwen, Toshiko, Owen nor Ianto knew was that each one of them had, unknowingly, met the Tenth Doctor at some point in their lives.

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Gwen was running across the Plass, already flustered and fed-up before the day had really begun.

She'd overlaid for a start, the film from the night before had gone on much longer than she'd expected, but she couldn't turn it off before the end, how could she sleep not knowing if Jim Carrey was going to kill himself or not?

When she had eventually managed to drag herself out of bed, she'd spilt coffee down her white shirt while trying to put her make-up on, sort her hair out and eat breakfast, simultaneously.

She'd just got in the car and set off when Jack had rung, and she'd had to pull over to answer the phone because she'd left her hands-free on the kitchen side. He told her they needed her there straight away - some abnormal rift activity - and it had taken her forever to pull back out onto the road because of rush hour.

When she had finally managed to park the car, Jack rang again, telling her she really did need to get a move on. And so she had started running toward the invisible lift.

Half way across, her phone started to ring again and just as she pulled it out of her bag to answer it - or throw it against something concrete - she tripped over a loose paving slab and crashed to the floor.
The contents of her bag scattered everywhere.

"Thank you." she muttered sarcastically, "Just what I need."

She began to scrape herself from the floor when a concerned voice asked, "Are you ok there?" she looked up to see a tall, skinny man in a brown pinstriped suit crouching down to look at her.

"I'm fine." Gwen replied, "Just a bit clumsy."

"Are you sure? No broken bones or anything?"

"No," she decided,"everything feels in the right place."

"That's good then!" he then started retrieving the contents of Gwen's bag, including the still ringing phone.

He passed it to her, and she answered it with, "I. Am. On. My. Way." Silence followed. Then, "You have got to be kidding me. Seriously?! Brilliant. Just brilliant. Ok. See you in a minute."

"Everything ok?" the man asked, smiling at the unbelieving look on Gwen's face.

"Yeah. I was rushing to work, some emergency. Turns out it was a false alarm anyway."

The man laughed, "Always happens like that doesn't it."

"It does to me!" Gwen said, smiling, "Thank you, for your help. I best hurry up before there's a real emergency and Jack kills me for not being there."

"Jack is...?"

"My boss."

"Oh." he said, with an understanding expression, "I'll get out of your way now then."

"Thank you again, anyone else would've ran off with my purse!"

"Not anyone, just some."

"Well, I'm glad it was you instead of them." she smiled as she spoke, "Thank you."

"You are quite welcome; now get to work before Jack phones you again!" Gwen smiled, nodded and began to walk away; she turned back moments later and saw the mysterious helper's coat disappearing into the crowd. She was woken out of her thoughts by her phone ringing again, "30 seconds, Jack!"

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Toshiko dodged the sweet that flew past her ear and tried to ignore the loud chatting of her 13 year-old classmates. They had been at the London Science Museum all day and Toshiko just wanted to go home. She had been looking forward to the trip for weeks, excited about all the things she would see, the facts she would learn and the ideas she would go home with, but so far all that had happened of any interest was David and Sam pushing the 'Giant Polar Bear' into the artificial river running through the museum and watching everyone scream as it floated past.

She was now walking ahead of her class, right up to the tour guide, who looked close to tears. Toshiko wanted it to be just them. She had so many questions to ask.

"Right everyone!" their teacher called, "Can you hear me at the back?" no response was given but the teacher carried on regardless, "Right, we've only got an hour left before we have to be back at the coach, so we've decided you can explore on your own for the last session. Be back at the main entrance for three."

Excited conversation filled the room, talk of shops and fast food were exchanged. Toshiko was also excited; it meant she could explore properly without being called 'Teachers Pet' or having noisy teenagers upsetting the quiet.

When everyone had gone their separate ways, Toshiko went back to her favourite exhibit. The one about space and the universe. She stared up at the ceiling where all the constellations were mapped out.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" a voice said to the left of her. She looked and realised the man the voice belonged to was talking to her, "One day," he continued, "they'll know much more than this," he gestured to the ceiling, "they'll know how many galaxies there are and how many planets are in the universe."

"But that's impossible to know!" Toshiko said defiantly,

"Is it?" the man in the pinstriped suit asked, "Is it really?" Toshiko thought about it,

"But that means that the universe stops somewhere. It means it must have a shape." she thought harder, "But what's beyond the universe?"

"Good question...s." the man said, "maybe one day we'll find out. Maybe you might discover it."

"That is impossible. It'll be found out centuries after I'm dead, if ever!"

"Perhaps..." the man sighed, "maybe we have to be happy with what we know. If we knew everything we'd have to stop." Toshiko noticed the changed in tone in man's voice, his cheerfulness had betrayed him. He seemed deep in thought and Toshiko decided she wanted to hear more from him,

"Wouldn't you love to know what's out there?" Toshiko looked at him, to make sure he'd heard,

"One day you will." the man answered, and stared back up at the ceiling. Toshiko did as well, wondering whether he meant her specifically or the entire human race. She started to imagine what it would be like to meet a real-life alien, when a noise like a squeaky shoe on a floor broke her out of her daydream. She looked back at the man, only to see his long coat disappearing around the corner.

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Owen had brought Katie into town. A voice in his head told him it would be a bad idea, but he had decided not to listen. As it turned out, it was a bad idea.

It hadn't begun badly, they'd had something to eat, Owen had treat Katie to some new shoes and they were going to pick out a new settee. That's were it all went wrong.

They'd gone into the shop and Owen had been talking to a sales assistant, telling her what they wanted. Usually, he would've avoided jobs like this one like the plague, but it needed doing and he knew it would make Katie happy. If only for a few hours.

"So this is for you and your...?" the sales assistant looked confused. So did Owen.

"Fiancée. Katie." he turned around to face Katie but she'd gone, how had he not noticed?

"Oh God." he murmured, "Where did she go?" he asked the sales assistant,

"I don't know, I didn't realise you had anyone with you."

"Oh God. Oh God." Owen muttered, "Where are you?" he began running, desperately looking for her, "Katie!" he shouted over and over, "Katie?"

He was so distracted with his search he ran straight into someone. A man. He was tall, with lots of brown hair and a blue suit, which made him look a bit like he'd left the house with his pyjamas on. "Whoa!" the man said, as he came to a sudden halt, "Are you ok?"

"Not really." Owen said distractedly,

"Can I help?" the man asked,

"N..." Owen stopped, why shouldn't he get help looking? Because this man could be anyone, he could find her and hurt her, a voice at the back of his head said.

But Owen couldn't help trusting him.

"Yeah, you can help." He got a picture from his wallet. It was one him and Katie, before she had gotten ill. "This is Katie. She wandered off, she gets confused."

"I'll help you look."

"Thank you."

"Ok." the man began, "You go left, I'll go right. We'll meet back here in half an hour. That'll be twenty past one. Alright?" Owen nodded, "Allons-y then!" the man added.

Owen was desperate with worry. Where was she? Had someone taken her? Had she wandered into a busy road? Despite all these worries going round in his head, Owen found himself unable to worry about sending the random man to look for her. There was something about him he trusted entirely.

Half an hour passed without any luck. Grudgingly, Owen returned to the fountain where he had parted company with the stranger.

As he approached it he could see the man's long overcoat billowing in the wind. The man was stood animatedly chatting with someone. Katie. Owen couldn't believe his eyes; he was so sure he'd never see her again. But there she was.

"Katie!" Owen shouted as he ran towards her, she saw him and grinned,

"Owen! I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" She cried as they flung their arms around each other,

"Shh," Owen soothed, "it's ok! I'm here! I'm sorry! I let you go! Oh God Katie, I thought I'd lost you."

"Not yet." she said, "But if it hadn't had been for your friend, you might've done."

"Oh yeah." Owen had left all thoughts of the mysterious man behind when he'd seen Katie. "I should say thank..." but the man was nowhere to be seen.

Owen and Katie swept the street with there eyes, "There!" Katie cried, but all Owen saw was the man's coat disappearing into a building.

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Ianto walked out of the Hub. He could still hear Jack in his head, shouting at him to come back. Normally he would've turned back and gone to apologise, but he was too mad.

He didn't know where his feet were leading him, but he left them to it as he went over the last two hours in his brain. He replayed the screaming and shouting and the look on Gwen's face when Ianto had pushed Jack out of the way, quite violently, so he could leave.

When Ianto's feet had stopped moving he looked out over Cardiff from the rooftop he was stood on. Rooftops. Why did everything bring him back to Jack? Ianto felt anger rising in him again. How could Jack even dare to have thought that? How could it possibly be any kind of solution? What was the problem to warrant a solution anyway?

Ianto went and sat on the edge of the roof allowing his feet to dangle over the edge. He had sat like this many times before. It had surprised him when he had seen Jack stood on the rooftop, he thought it was his thing, one of those freaky little quirks that people have. He apparently shared his with Jack.

Most of the time he came just to think, after a hard day. But sometimes he came to act rashly, like when Lisa died. He always stopped himself. He always found something that made him step back and think clearly.

Ianto stood up and looked over the edge. It's not that far down, he thought to himself, you wouldn't feel anything. Who are you anyway? Nobody important, they could do it without you. Jack's trying to get rid of you anyway. You've said it yourself, everyone in Torchwood dies young. You could join them. See them all again, if you only had the courage, if only you-

"Not thinking of jumping are you?" If Ianto had been any closer to the edge, he would've most certainly fallen off from shock. He turned to look who the voice belonged to. It was a man who looked familiar; he had eyes older than his face, not unlike Jack's. He was holding a something that appeared to be a screwdriver in his hand.

"No." Ianto said defensively, once his heart had slowed to a near normal rhythm. "No. I was.... I was just...just...thinking."

"Hmmm. Dangerous stuff, thinking. Can lead to all sorts of irrational behaviour." the man said innocently.

"Look, I wasn't going to jump, ok?" Ianto said, a little more aggressively than he'd intended.

"Ok!" the man said, "I believe you! I do. Erm..." he paused as if wondering whether the next thing he was going to say was appropriate, "You haven't seen a blowfish walking round recently have you?"

In other circumstances Ianto would've tried to find out how much this man knew about the blowfish, and then Retcon him if it was too much. But he couldn't bring himself to care enough.

"No. Sorry." Ianto said, blankly.

"Ah well. Never mind, just detected it on this and thought I'd have a look." he waved his screwdriver, "It's been causing a bit of trouble around here. Torchwood'll sort it I expect." the man declared, Ianto looked at him and made a 'hmph' sound. He doubted Jack and Gwen would catch it on their own; they usually had enough trouble catching it with all five of them.

Three now, Ianto thought, not five.

"So..." the man said, "What were you thinking about? Not that I mean to pry or anything. Well obviously I do or I wouldn't have asked, and I wouldn't be rambling on about nothing." The man looked thoughtful for a moment, and then turned to face Ianto.

"It was just...nothing." Ianto sighed, "Nothing."

"Can't have been nothing to bring you all the way up here." the man said cheerily,

"I don't know, maybe...maybe I overreacted." Ianto sighed once more then turned to look out over the Cardiff skyline, "I used to come up here all the time. Just to get away, to think. I decided to go to London when I was sat up here."

"Were you escaping?" the man asked,

"I don't know. Even now. Escaping, or just trying to get away before I ended up like the others."

"Others?"

"Just people I was around." The stranger nodded and kept quiet, just breathing in the night air.

"Did it work?" the man asked after a while, "Did you end up like them?"

"No. No, I didn't."

"So does running away help? Do you forget everything you were trying to get away from?" Ianto looked at the man curiously, how had the conversation ended up here? How had he ended up talking to a complete stranger about something he had come up here to avoid talking about?

"I'm sorry, but why are you asking me that?"

"Just wondered what you thought."

"Why? Do you think it works? Running away?"

"No. I don't. I think you need to stay with the people you love. I think human life is too short to run away."

Ianto smiled. He had tried to tell Jack exactly the same thing under two hours ago. Jack had said it was too dangerous for Ianto to stay in Cardiff and that he should leave Torchwood. That had resulted in a huge argument. Ianto had said, not calmly, that he didn't see Jack wanting Gwen to move away, was she in less danger than he was, or did Jack just want him out of the way? Jack said not to be stupid; just that he had lost too many people he cared about. And so it had gone on for over an hour.

The sound of his own ringing phone jolted Ianto out of his replay of the argument, and as he looked up he saw the mysterious stranger's coat billowing back through the door he had entered by.