Author's Notes: For some reason, I'm not completely satisfied with how this turned out. I hope you enjoy it, though. It's an AU, apparently, and it's based on an AU in tumblr. It's quite new for me in many ways, so I'd love to know what you think of it.

Ianto put the last of the files in the cabinet, filing today's reports for future use, and turned to Gwen. "You can go home, I think," he said with a sigh and absently started organising the stray sheets of paper over his desk. "We're finished here."

"Thanks God," Gwen muttered, standing up from his desk. "I'm so glad Owen could dissolve that thing with the spray there and then, there was no way we were dragging it all the way back here."

Ianto gave her a sympathetic smile, but didn't say anything. It was true; he was just as happy as she was to see the end of the giant alien they'd had to fight in the middle of the city. Still, the Rift activity had been big enough for him to hope, and when Tosh had said that something large had come through...

"I'm sorry," Gwen said and Ianto looked up, raising an eyebrow, surprised by the sudden change of topic. "That it wasn't your," she paused, clearly unsure of the title she had to use, "friend. I know you've been waiting a long time."

"Not really." Ianto said with a small, mirthless smile. "Not anymore, anyway. It's been too long. God knows where she is now."

Gwen was the only one who knew the real reason behind his joining Torchwood. She'd insisted on knowing, saying that she could help if he told her, and after a bit of persuasion, Ianto had told her everything – how he'd been separated from the Doctor and had ended up here against his will, and how the Rift was the only place where he had even the smallest chance of ever getting her back.

"You never know," Gwen offered after a moment of silence. "What if she's still out there trying to find you? As ironic as it may be, if there's one thing I've learnt in Torchwood is that you should never lose hope."

This time Ianto found it in himself to give her a genuine smile. "Good to know that this place has done something useful for at least one person. Go home, now." He kissed her on the forehead when she hugged him. "I'll still be here in the morning."

As if he could be anywhere else.

He'd been waiting for almost three years now. He'd joined Torchwood for the sole purpose of being around everything alien that could attract the Doctor's attention, but she hadn't showed up yet and he had mostly resigned to his fate. He'd made a life here. It wasn't that bad. He still got to run after aliens, but now he had his team as well. It wasn't like he was alone. Not all the time, at least.

Ianto could still remember the night when they'd been separated as if it was today – the Rift opening between them, and her last words to him as the golden light had sucked him away from the here and now. I'll find you. Wherever and whenever you are, I will find you.

It wouldn't have been the first time matters were taken out of her hands, but for some reason, he still couldn't resign himself to it. The Rift was a cruel mistress and Ianto tended to obey it – mostly because everyone else from his team did it – so what was the chance that she would bring the Doctor to him now of all times?

Ianto locked the cabinet and was just about to leave the Archives and close up the base to call it a night when the alarms blared from upstairs, deafening and clearly saying that something big was coming. Rift activity.

He ran up the stairs to enter the Hub and found it unsurprisingly empty. Everyone had gone home, of course, mostly because if his countless assurances that he'd be fine on his own. The deserted workstations were still working, though, and provided him just with the information he needed.

He raised his eyebrows at the information that was rapidly appearing over Tosh's monitor. Several big spikes, right where he was. Not in the main control room but still within Torchwood ground, in the very heart of the Rift.

He pulled up the detailed maps of the base and saw the red dot blinking in a room deep into the bowels of the building. It was a room he was familiar with, because he'd been fascinated by Mainframe ever since arriving in Three.

The soul of the Torchwood Hub seemed to be semi-sentient and definitely had its own temper – Ianto had found that out during an unfortunate accident after fiddling with the main computer's inner workings. It kept the Hub the way it was and, as far as he was aware, it had arrived through the Rift a hundred years ago only to settle down and wrap itself around the entire base and give Torchwood Three a kick into the technology of the future. No one knew quite how it worked or how it cooperated with the Rift to help them, but it did, and Ianto was utterly enamoured with the sheer genius of whoever had built it.

And now, he'd have to protect the machine that gave life to the Hub from whatever had landed in there.

He took his gun and quickly went down the corridor he needed, feeling a bit dizzy as he sank deeper and deeper underground. Everything was colder and wetter here; more of a dungeon than anything else. Ianto remembered being told once that one of these paths led straight into Torchwood Two in Glasgow and there was water slowly sliding down the stone walls. The place looked wild, as if it had been abandoned for centuries, and if he listened hard enough, he could hear someone running down the stairs in the distance.

Of course, Ianto knew that there was no one there. It was just a broader crack in the Rift and past and future often bled through. Down in the Archives, he frequently heard all sorts of things – running and laughter and someone barking orders at someone else. This, however, was different. It was much more substantial and much closer to him, constantly going in and out of focus. Ianto went on further and, having memorised the map he'd seen upstairs, made a turn to the left and searched through his pockets for the key for the door he encountered there.

That part of the Torchwood base had always been closely guarded by its members and Ianto knew that it was because of the importance of what it held, but he still felt a bit hesitant towards opening it. He'd been here before, albeit without being allowed to, and he knew how to handle Mainframe, but it was still a no-no for most cases.

Well, not today. Not when something was endangering it. He unlocked the doors and swung them open, squinting against the darkness that he encountered there.

Mainframe was a thing of beauty; he'd always been the first to admit it. The room seemed empty at first, but when his eyes got used to it, he saw what he usually did – the lights chasing each other on the ceiling and over the walls, disappearing as soon as he tried to look at them and the pillar of light that swirled around itself slowly in the middle of the room. It was the heart of the Hub as he knew it and he reached for it almost reverently.

Ianto smiled when the lights stretched out to his fingers, caressing his skin as the voices around him intensified. He could feel a strange kind of pressure pushing against him; something different than the crossed borders of time and space he'd been used to from his time with the Doctor. It was almost as if something was trying to get through...

from another universe.

It was then that he realised that the voice he was hearing was the voice of a woman and that it was getting clearer by the second.

"Ianto!" He looked around himself wildly, only to see the lights still chasing each other over the walls, only much faster now, gathering up like the beginnings of a hurricane. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," he said at last and cleared his throat, trying to make his voice louder. "Yes. Who am I speaking to?"

"Oh, come on, seriously? You've been stranded on Earth for far too long, Ianto Jones."

"Doctor?" Ianto felt his heart leap in his chest at the mere thought of how incredibly lucky he must be. It could be something different entirely, of course; it wasn't unheard of to have an alien imitating an agent's close ones. "Where are you?"

"Never mind that now. I'll be with you in a second if you'd just try and control your computer." She sounded irritated, Ianto noticed with a grin. He'd missed this so much; being able to pick up the way she felt just from her voice alone.

"Yes, of course," he mumbled and ran his hands over the column of brightness in front of him, closing his eyes. Mainframe tended to obey mostly mentally given orders – if she obeyed any at all – and he almost begged her to oblige him this time, his desperation seeping through. He could feel the ghost of the machine absorb it, accept it and then the Rift stretched under his fingers, opening, widening and swallowing him and before he could take a breath, Ianto found himself staring at the very essence of it; made of pure light and golden energy. He saw the Doctor's face just for a moment and reached for her, only to see her approach him and then dissolve into the darkness that crept up on him all at once.

o.O.o

Ianto woke up with a groan and blinked several time to focus his eyes. It only then occurred to him that there were four faces staring down at him, and one of them...

Ianto's lips stretched into one of his first genuine smiles in a while. "Doctor?"

"Here you are." Her voice was quiet, but it sounded perfectly clear now that she was next to him. "Gave us all quite the scare. Diving headfirst into the Rift, what were you thinking?"

"That I couldn't lose you again." Ianto finally found it in himself to sit up. "What happened?"

"You nearly threw yourself in the Rift. Again. It hit you hard and I found your phone and called your team."

"You idiot." Ianto received a quick hug from Gwen, followed by one from Tosh and a pat on the back from Owen. "Do you know what it's like to get a call in the middle of the night from an unknown woman and have her say that you're in danger?"

"It was worth it, though," Ianto said, somewhat sheepishly, at Gwen's stern look, and then looked back at the Doctor. "I'd do it again any day."

He saw her expression finally melt and then laughed when her arms brought him in for a hug. He'd forgotten how much he'd missed this; her smile and her worries over his well-being and even the exuberant energy that seemed to shine from the inside out.

"I've missed you," she said in perfect sync with his thoughts. "I've been looking for you for weeks."

"Weeks?" Ianto echoed incredulously. "Try two years!"

They both laughed together and only then did he remember that they weren't, in fact, alone.

"So–" Tosh started, voice tentative, but Gwen cut her off.

"Does that mean that you're leaving?"

"I'm not sure," Ianto said, even though he knew the answer perfectly well. Yes, he would miss his team, but he wouldn't give up the Universe for anything else, no matter what it was. And who knew? Maybe he could talk Gwen into joining them. "Yes, probably," he opted for in the end. "But first– Doctor, would you like the grand tour?"

She immediately jumped to her feet. "Do you even need to ask? By the way, the TARDIS is parked just around the corner of the corridor."

And really, as long as he could hear that sentence, nothing could possibly go wrong.