A/N: This is the first time I've attempted writing anything related to Torchwood, so there's bound to be some inaccuracies but I've tried my best. This story takes place after season four, Rex joins Gwen and Jack to rebuild Torchwood. The time of this story is about a year or two after season four ends so the team has only just completely restored the hub to full operation. However, they have been operating from an abandoned building until the hub was ready to become command center again. Previous to the start of this story, Torchwood investigates the mysterious disappearance of Marcie Samson when a strange slime was found in her apartment. The only one who had any form of information about Marcie and her life was Marsha Benning, Marcie's neighbor and friend. The rest of the case will eventually be explained through outbursts of the team, thoughts and maybe a flashback.

This chapter was not beta read, I am human and therefore there are mostly likely several mistakes I've made and somehow overlooked them in my editing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood nor am I affiliated in any way with Torchwood or BBC. I am making no profit from this work; this is merely my attempt at using my imagination to creatively entertain.

Recruitment

It was three weeks after Marsha first met the three members of Torchwood and their leader still wouldn't leave her alone. "Jack, I told you that I'm not interested in this investigating stuff. I'm just a writer who enjoys baking and cooking and quiet evenings at home. There's not much I can contribute to your team that you have yet to explain what exactly you do." Marsha greeted as soon as the handsome Jack Harkness fell in step with her as she started her journey home. She was starting to enjoy his company, or at least when he wasn't trying to recruit her to his team of investigators or whatever they were called at Torchwood.

"Oh come on." Jack said as he flashed her a dazzling smile. He took the bags of food from her hands and left her with just one; she was predictable when it came to shopping for food and this was not the first time Jack had carried her food for her, another reason why she enjoyed his company. "You're selling yourself short. Do I need to remind you how helpful you were during our investigation with Marcie?" Jack argued thoughtfully, without Marsha he had been stuck digging in all the wrong places for new leads. "Not only did you figure out what was missing in her personal belongings and what was damaged but you pulled an exceptional undercover story." He paused for a moment to watch as Marsha started shaking her head.

Jack chuckled to himself, he knew Marsha was a hard one to crack but one that would hopefully crack soon. "You did disarm and bang up Rex pretty good. You know, before he healed up." Jack added on with a laugh to himself. He still couldn't get over how Marsha had overlooked Rex's healing ability after that day, but then again a lot had happened the day they met Marsha.

This was beginning to be the same conversation the two had been having for the last three weeks. Every couple of days Jack would appear when Marsha was out and about to try to get her to join his team. Marsha had nearly accepted a week and a half ago just to get Jack to leave her alone, but then remembered that she would be working for him and his annoying badgering would probably still continue so really she was just holding out in hopes that he would give up on her. He was poking and prodding again, trying to get her to say yes but she wouldn't, she was determined to hold out until he went away. Marsha didn't know Jack or his team well enough nor did she know what they did beside wave their guns at people and drive a completely blacked out vehicle. She did know they investigated some weird things, but she was still left in the dark about what exactly those 'weird things' were. And then there was Gwen, she didn't particularly like Marsha and that much was very clear from what time they had spent together. As far as Marsha was concerned, she was of no help to Torchwood. She had just happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right knowledge to help find Marcie.

"I'm not repeating what I've told you every other time, Jack. I still stand by what I said. Until you can tell me what you're wanting me to do, I can't consider it." Marsha spoke as they stopped at the edge of the street and waited for a car to pass before they crossed. She knew that Jack could remember her words from the other attempts at signing her up for team Torchwood but yet he still wasn't caving in and giving her any information. It was starting to annoy Marsha how much he was dancing around her in circles trying to get her on board like they were dancing, but yet he wasn't actually dancing with her.

Jack wasn't too surprised of Marsha's response, it was predictable as it had been the last nine times he had asked her. He was however starting to grow impatient and a bit frustrated. The first week he had been asking Marsha to join his team was fun and interesting. Jack enjoyed their walks and conversation that weren't related to his mission of getting her to join; he found out a fair bit about Marsha, or at least the small amount she would share with him. In all the people Jack had worked with during his time at Torchwood, he had a feeling that he couldn't pinpoint that was making him work hard to get Marsha on his team. He wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

Last week, Jack had noticed, Marsha had been fairly quiet compared to the other visits he had made and he wondered if today was the day she would crack. "Aliens." Jack finally said as he watched Marsha step over a bad patch of the side walk. "That thing that you saw when we went to find Marcie, it was an alien from another galaxy." He continued. Jack peered at Marsha as they walked, trying to read her face and her mind.

Marsha couldn't deny the creature of a thing she had saw when they found Marcie. It was like nothing she had ever seen before and it was definitely something that someone just didn't think up, not with all the details and the slime. Whatever it was, it was dead and apparently locked away at Torchwood from what Jack had said. Still though, Marsha was unsure about the whole thing. "Right, alien. You going to try telling me that these eggs were produced from some alien cow on the seventh moon of a planet three galaxies away?" Marsha jabbed with annoyance. "Besides, how did it even get here, to Earth?" She asked, suddenly interested in what Jack's reply would entail.

Jack only laughed at her words. "Oh, twenty-first century humans." He said shaking his head with amusement. "There's a rift in time and space that allows for…things to occur and occasionally we get a visitor that falls through and ends up on our side." Jack explained. The concept was kind of farfetched for most people, but Jack felt that it was time to give some information to Marsha and see how she reacted. "Do you believe me, at all?" He asked, his face was now serious and was awaiting her response.

Marsha stopped and turned to face Jack. "The only thing that makes me even believe you just in the slightest way is that I had no clue what I was looking at when we found Marcie. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, that I could have identified that thing to be except something that my eyes have never landed on before anything like it." She paused and looked down at her feet for a few moments before she looked up at Jack in his eyes. "What is it you do with these aliens?" In Marsha's head there had been millions of questions in the last several weeks she wanted to ask Jack, this was probably one of the most important ones she wanted answers to before she agreed to anything.

Gritting his teeth Jack contemplated what he should say in response to her question. He could see from her eyes that she was curious but still apprehensive. "It depends on the situation." Was what Jack decided on saying to the woman. Marsha snorted in response before she turned around and started walking again. "That's not very professional." Jack called as he picked up his pace to reach Marsha again.

"Could you be any more cryptic?" She asked sarcastically. "Don't answer, because I have a feeling that you could and I'm not in the mood for it." They had reached the building Marsha lived in and she was hoping there was a way she could steal her items back from Jack without the conversation continuing.

"Why don't you come down to the hub and I can show you around and explain a bit?" He asked when they reached her door. To Jack, that sounded very reasonable considering what information he had shared and what Marsha had already seen. "Besides, even if you don't want work on investigations we could still use someone who can cook. I've been eating way too much take out. I'm afraid I'll lose my figure." Jack was now starting to talk more to himself than Marsha.

"No." Marsha declared as she took the bags from Jack and retreated into her flat. She came back to the open door where Jack was leaning and looked him straight in the eyes. "No." She said again. "And for the record, you're starting to become a stalker again, it'd be a pity if I had to report you." Marsha threatened.

Nodding his head he slowly backed away from the doorway. "Just think about it." He said in response, just another part of their little routine they had developed. Marsha shook her head, determined that she was going to get rid of Jack Harkness somehow. Slowly she shut the door, locked it and slid down to sit on the floor where she pulled her knees to her chest. She would think about it because there wasn't a way to get the images and all the questions out of her head.