Welcome to my second rabbit warren of plot bunnies. I'm recycling my character, Jenny, from my first missive, Hello Again, but if you want to get started straight away on this one here is her one line biog. Jenny is from a different planet brought here half a millennium ago by you know who in a blue box. She ages slowly and heals quickly and was once a Torchwood agent in the 1950's till they found out and tortured her for her "Alien Secrets". She spent the last thirty or so years working as a doctor and rediscovered Torchwood Cardiff under difficult circumstances just before Something Borrowed, ended up generally saving the day and but declined the offer to stay around.

I think you get the picture, I'll shut up now shall I???

Enjoy.

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Jack sat with his head in his hands staring at the grain on his desk. It had seen so many things over the years, including things Ianto would rather not have revealed in public, but it didn't hold the answers today. He was bone tired, the last few weeks had taken their toll on him and the rest of the team, well Gwen and Ianto, were only just holding it together. As if loosing Tosh and Owen wasn't bad enough, clearing up the mess left by his own flesh and blood while doing the day job with only half as many people as normal took the biscuit. They might just have managed it but then the earth went and moved solar systems and he had to go running off to save it. Meeting all his friends again and adding a few more had been just the tonic he needed and he had bounced back into the Hub with a renewed vigour forgetting that not everyone had enjoyed the experience.

He had stepped through the cog and nearly gone arse over tip on the thousands of used shell casings then nearly had a panic attack when he saw the Dalek, he had pulled his Webley out and fired off all six rounds at the metallic being before he had even drawn breath. It was then he had heard the whimpering from under the desk, with the ease of too many years practice he reloaded the barrel while walking and demanding the miscreant showed themselves. He should have known the sound anywhere but the blood was rushing round his ears. Next to the desks in the main area was Ianto with the ammo box half full of the used casings. He was shaking violently reaching out one hand automatically to pick up the shiny brass but never connecting, the vocalisations not matching anything he had ever heard before. He holstered his gun and whispered he young mans name, scared of spooking him, and crouched next to him gently picking up the shaking hand in his own. The fingertips were bloody, god only knows how long he had been repeating this movement, the floor had track lines in dried blood. Jack swept his other hand across Ianto's jaw and gently lifted his chin up, there was little behind the eyes he looked deeply into. Jack came forward and rested his forehead on Iantos before pulling him unresisting into a crushing bear hug.

Jack didn't know how long they had sat on the cold slightly damp floor together. Gwen had come in the next morning and quietly joined them, her eyes were still red from the night before and as soon as she saw them she started again. This wasn't like the last time Jack had disappeared, they had given him permission and had joined him from afar, they knew he was back in the country, in the right time and Ianto had told her to go home. She had been grateful because all she wanted to do was make sure Rhys was still there. The presence of the additional body finally broke the silence and Jack pulled back, he swept a thumb over Iantos tears and gave Gwen the sort of embrace that would have had rugby players begging for mercy.

"You know I've really gotta pee" said Jack trying to straighten out.

Gwen punched him quite hard on the arm while Ianto chuckled and tried to unfold himself, both legs had gone to sleep he had been there such a long time.

"I'm glad you came back, Rift's been quiet since everything shifted though, thank God." Said Gwen.

"Did you doubt I would?" asked Jack genuinely shocked as he caught Ianto when the dead leg betrayed him

"I knew you would come back." Said Ianto quietly.

Jack went to freshen up and smelt the wonderful aroma of coffee being brewed. The TARDIS might well be sentient but she hadn't a clue how to make a good cup of Joe, he scrambled back up into his office and back out onto the gantry and shuddered at the sight of the metal monster. Gwen was checking through the activity monitor, Jack glanced over her shoulder.

"I guess the change of address cards haven't arrived yet." Said Jack glad for the down time from the space junk and various alien visitors that normally made up a days activity. "We should make the most of it, take the day off Gwen Cooper – Williams go show your man how grateful you are to be alive."

"But what if something happens?" she asked, partly unable to comprehend what she would do with free time.

"UNIT owe me a little favour and they need me to keep quiet for a while." He said tapping the side of his nose, "But before you go we need to get rid of that." He said pointing at the metal shell of the Dalek, "I want it incinerating, it gives me the creeps."

"Do you want coffee first?" asked Ianto, somehow looking smart in a crumpled suit carrying his tray. "Sorry I think your favourite got broken when we moved." He said handing over Tosh's old mug.

Jack put down the mug, took the tray from his hand and shoved it at Gwen before claiming his lips with the fervour of a man in the desert without a drink.

"I love you Ianto Jones." He said when he finally came up for air.

"What I think you mean is you love my coffee." Said Ianto in his normal sardonic way, but the way he looked down at the end of his sentence betrayed his gratitude.

That had been three weeks ago, UNIT had sent a few of their most trusted guys over but they hadn't lasted a week before Jack got sick of them. Ianto had managed to get him to stay away from the base for just over 29 hours then given up, and of course where Jack was Ianto also stayed. Gwen had taken a week to recover, Rhys had complained that she hadn't woken up for the first 36 and wasn't in the mood for anything else but in his voice you could hear the pride in his wife. They finally came to the arrangement that Rhys would come in and stay when she was watching the monitors, Jack never went far either so no one ever truly got a rest. Breaking point had only been delayed.

In front of him was a pile of potential recruits, people who he had met, souls who had somehow come into contact with the aliens and rift scatter in the past few years. There were one or two suggestions from UNIT and a couple of names on the back of a fag packet posted by Archie from the side of Loch Ness. But none of them had the right feel, you didn't interview for Torchwood, you were found – unless you were Ianto and then he found you and bless that day. No there was nothing more for it thought Jack as he squared off the papers noisily banging them this way and that on his desk there was only one person he could call on, though he didn't have a clue if the call would be welcomed. He picked up the phone and dialled her messaging service.