Hey everyone! This is Lia, aka unshakespearean. Due to Rachel's evilness, I have decided to overthrow her as a writer and take over myself. Because clearly, she can't be trusted.

Haha, I'm kidding. I'm not actually overthrowing Rachel. However, she did allow me to help her write the first chapter. Thanks Rachel! xxx

Right then - here we go!

(P.S. I can't freaking write in first person past tense. It just doesn't work for me. So whenever I'm writing, it's either going to be first person present or third person past. Including now.)

Ellie's POV

All I can see is darkness, thick, cold, choking darkness. There is no sound and the silence is driving me insane. I can smell blood and it makes me want to vomit.

Oh, God, I realize. I'm dead. I'm actually dead.

I sink down to my knees and then lie down to curl up in a ball. The ground is hard and cold. I'm still in my new sweater and I hug it to me to try to keep warm.

I'd thought Dad had it hard, being immortal. But if this is what it feels like every time he dies and comes back, I'd choose immortality any day. And now I'm stuck here. Forever.

I'll never see him again, I think, and I start crying. I'm never going to see Dad again, or Tosh or Owen or Ianto. Or Gwen.

I never got to tell her that I think of her as my mum now. And now she'll never know. I don't even think I ever told her I loved her, not once.

And then I remember, I did say it, once, just before I died. But she can't have heard it. She must've been too worried about trying to keep me alive.

I move my hand towards my chest to feel for my locket. I hope I still have it on. I still have my sweater, so maybe I'll get to have my locket when I'm dead. It's not like I'll ever see it, though, with no light.

"Oh, thank God," I whisper. It's still there, warm in my hand and shining-wait

I look down and realize that my locket is glowing with a soft silver light, like moonlight.

Maybe I can use it like a flashlight, I think, and I reach in back for the clasp-

"-No!" A voice calls out from somewhere. "Ellie, whatever you do, do not take the locket off."

I sit straight up and begin looking around. "Who's there?" I call out. Fuck, I think. What if it's one of the Luvendan Ianto killed, here to torture me in the afterlife?

"Ellie Cianna Harkness, you watch your language."

Only one person on the planet calls me that.

Well… without the Harkness part.

"Mum?" I ask. I look up and there she is. My "real" mum. Helen. "Oh my God… what the hell are you doing here?!"

"Language," she warns, giving me the stinkeye. "Also, that's a daft question."

"Okay, yeah," I say. "I suppose if I were to see anyone here, it would be you… but still, what's going on?"

"Aren't you going to say hello?" she asks.

I look up at her and my lip starts quivering. Oh my God, I've missed her so much. I jump up and run to her, crying my eyes out.

"I've got you," she says as she hugs me tightly. "I've got you, baby. Shhhh."

"Mum," I choke out, burying my face in her chest. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I'm not really here to do much," she says, pulling back a little bit. "Really, I just wanted to make sure you didn't go mad - or take off that locket."

"Okay, yeah, what's with the locket?" I ask. "Why can't I take it off?"

"That locket's not just a necklace," she says with a smile. "That locket's going to bring you back."

"What?" I ask, eyes widening.

"It's… oh, god, how do I explain it? Well, first of all, Gwen did it on purpose. She gave you that necklace knowing it was meant to protect you. Pragmatic as hell. No wonder your dad likes her."

"Okay, but how?" I ask.

"Well, it was meant to protect you from being found by the Luvendan, first of all. And it was also meant to give your powers an extra boost, since she knew you'd used them to fight them off before. Except you were tired, and so you had trouble using them to fight them off."

"Oops," I half-laugh.

"Yeah, oops, but little did they know that it's also going to help you heal. Right now, that necklace is healing every physical injury in your body and, once your body is back to normal, it's going to bring you back."

"But how?" I ask. "How's the necklace doing that?"

She laughs. "Oh, how should I know? That Hub of yours is built on mostly genius with a side of insane coffee mojo and one immortal idiot; that locket's probably nothing compared to the other crazy stuff they do."

"Oh my God, that's possibly the single best analysis of Torchwood ever," I laugh. "So now what?"

"Now you're healing," she says.

"So what do I do?"

"Nothing. It'll take a few days to heal," she says. "And then you'll go back home."

"Can you come back with me?" I ask.

"No," she says. "And that's okay, Els. You don't need me anymore."

"What? So I'm just going to go back and know you're still down here by yourself? You think I'm going to accept that?"

She smiles. "No, Els, I don't think you will. I know you will. Because you have a whole new life now, a new home and new friends… and a new mum."

"Oh, God, you heard that," I say. "I didn't mean it, Mum, honestly, I didn't-"

"Yes you did," she says firmly. "And it's okay, Ellie. Of course she's your mum now. And a far better one than I ever was."

"No," I say, starting to cry again. I run and hug her. "You're a great mum, honestly-I love you."

"Of course you do," she says. "I sincerely hope you do. But that doesn't mean I was a good mum to you."

"But-"

"-I let Martin treat you like rubbish," she interrupts. "He called you the devil and I didn't do a thing, just wiped his memory and let him stay; I never even helped you control your powers, and you ended up killing Tricia by accident, but I did nothing to help you. I didn't tell you about your dad, or anything, and then you got kidnapped and now you're dead-not for long, but you're still dead. Els, you deserved better."

Suddenly, there's a sound in the distance that sounds like a gunshot, and a flash of light. "Oh, bloody hell," she grumbles. "Here we go again."

"What's that?" I ask.

"You really want to know?" I nod. She sighs. "That's your dad," she says. "He thinks that if he kills himself enough times, he'll break his immortality and die for good. Don't worry," she says when my face goes white. "He can't actually do it. He can shoot himself as many times as he likes, but he won't die for good, ever."

"Thank God," I say. "Isn't there anything we can do to stop him, though?"

She shrugs. "I mean, we could try, but it likely won't work. Besides, he probably needs to get it out of his system and it won't do him any harm. The worst that'll happen is Ianto yelling at him for wasting bullets." We both laugh aloud. "And now you get some sleep," she says firmly. Your father is letting you stay up way too late; it's no wonder you were too tired to kick alien keister… don't tell him I said that."

"Ha, no chance," I say.

"Well, it's bedtime for you, missy."

"What, here? It's kinda… creepy," I say.

She looks around for a minute. "Oh… yeah… that's definitely something I need to fix. Here." She snaps her fingers and suddenly we're standing somewhere incredibly familiar: my bedroom. Not the one in the Hub. My old bedroom, at…

"Your old house," she says.

"Am I really here?" I ask.

"Well, sort of… This whole thing, with you and me and the dark place and the room, it's like at the end of Harry Potter. This is all in your head, but it's still real."

"So where am I, really?"

"Your body? It's in a bag, inside those creepy boxy things, healing. But that doesn't matter. You need sleep, Ellie. End of story."

"I want to go home now," I almost whine. "I miss Dad, and Tosh and Owen and Ianto and…"

"Say it," she says softly. "It's okay."

"I miss Mum," I whisper, crying. "I miss my mum."

"I know you do, baby," she says, hugging me. "I know, I know. And soon you'll get to be back with them, I promise. But now you need sleep."

"If I'm dreaming, can't I be in my other room? I mean, no offense, but-"

"-None taken. But no. First of all, I have no idea what it looks like, so I can't really help with that, and second, since your body's in there in reality, it could project an image of you there in reality which would scare the pants off of everyone before you were even alive. Not a good idea."

"Fine," I mutter. I sit down on my old bed and look around. It looks the same as before, but different somehow. Like there are details missing, but I don't know what they are. I suppose it's just a memory of my old room.

And then I see something hanging in my half-open closet. "That looks different," I muse, and I walk over to take a look. "Oh, you're the best."

My dad's jacket.

"You're welcome," she says as I take it off the hook and run to my bed. I bury my face in it and it still smells like Dad.

She pulls down the covers and tucks me in the way she did when I was really, really little. "I'm not a baby," I mutter.

"Sweet dreams," she says, and she turns out the light and leaves the room. I try to work out where she'd be going, if I'm already dreaming - and speaking of which, why did she say "sweet dreams" if I'm already-

"GO TO SLEEP!" she calls from behind the door.

I sigh, bury my face in Dad's jacket, and end up falling asleep pretty easily.

Still Ellie's POV

I wake up feeling better than I have in days. "Guess it was a good idea to get more sleep," I say to myself. I sit up and look around to see that I'm still in my old bedroom with Dad's jacket next to me. "Still dead then."

"You're pretty close." I turn around to see… still not sure what to call her; it's sort of weird… "Your body's almost fully healed. You'll be ready to go back soon."

"How long have I been out?" I ask.

"Your body's been healing for three days. I don't know how long that feels to you, since you were asleep the whole time… it's all a bit complicated."

"Okay," I say. "Well… it was amazing seeing you again… Will I ever see you again?"

"Not sure," she says. "Probably not, though. Although, I suppose since all of this is a dream, perhaps you'll dream of me again."

"I do, all the time, but it's just a dream," I say. "Not like Harry Potter."

She smiles and shrugs her shoulders. "Well, either way, you'd better keep being incredible, Ellie, and have the best life ever."

"I love you," I say, getting up and hugging her.

She hugs me back. "Hold on," she says. She pulls my locket out of my sweater and runs her thumb along the back of the heart.

"What did you do?" I ask. I tug at the locket so I can see. "Oh…"

The writing on the back has changed - it says Mum at the bottom, instead of Gwen. "You're still my mum," I say. "She's my mum, too, but you're still my mum."

"As long as you see her as your mum," she says. "Because I think she's just about the best mum in the world, and she definitely sees you as her daughter."

I look down to see that my locket's glowing again. "Does that mean-?"

"Time to go back," she says. "You should be able to use the locket as a teleport, so you won't be stuck inside the bag. Just concentrate on where you want to end up."

"I'm gonna miss you," I say.

"I'm gonna miss you too," she says. We hug one last time, and then she begins to fade away. I think as hard as I can about being back home. I don't even care where, just not the basement.

Not the basement, not the basement, not the basement, not the basement…

Jack's POV

There's a knock at the door. "Go away," I say.

"I've got coffee, sir," Ianto says from behind the door.

I look around at the five other empty coffee mugs. "Fine," I mutter. I don't even bother getting up to go to the door, instead pushing a button on my vortex manipulator to make it open.

"Oh, God," Ianto says when he sees my desk, almost looking distressed at how messy it is. "I'll just take… all of these…" He puts my coffee down on my desk and takes the others away.

I mutter a half hearted thanks and have a sip of the coffee. Usually, it makes me feel instantly better. But it doesn't. It can't. Nothing can.

"Jack, please come out of there." I'm surprised to hear that this time, it's Tosh who's begging me to come out of my office.

"Yeah, seriously, we kinda need you," Owen says. Definitely surprising.

"GO AWAY!" I shout. I'm done. I'm seriously done.

The first day, I tried to kill myself. It didn't work. Never does.

The second day, I tried to pretend everything was normal.

But now it's day three, and I'm so fucking done.

Suddenly, alarms start ringing all over the Hub.

"Security breach!" Ianto shouts.

I jump up and run out the door. There's no way anyone's getting in my building again. Ever.

"Show me that screen," I demand. Tosh steps aside so I can see. "What the hell?!"

"What is it?" Tosh asks.

"Nothing," I say. "There's a breach, but there's nothing there. No heat signature, no life signs, nothing-wait, now there's something." A red dot literally appears on screen. "It's like something teleported in."

"That's impossible," says Ianto. "We set up protection; nobody can teleport in or out of the building. Not even you, sir, not without overriding the protocols."

"Okay, so something teleported in, but not from outside... how is that possible? First of all, where did it end up? What's down there?" Tosh gulps nervously. "What?"

She points. "It's... it's in Ellie's room."

I clench my teeth. "They're back... Oh, God, they're back."

Tosh taps her keyboard. "No, they're not," she says. "I'm scanning down there and there's no sign of any you know what trademarks. In fact, there's nothing coming up here that indicates it's hostile, or even unusual. It's not alien. Whatever's down there is human. And I scanned for teleportation feeds - it traces back to something internal."

We all look right at Ianto. "Oh, come on," he mutters. "Make me the scapegoat."

"It's not you," Gwen says suddenly. "I think I know what it is, but it's completely impossible. There's no way-"

Tosh's eyes widen. "Gwen, you can't seriously think-"

"It's the only thing that makes sense," she says. "But it's impossible. Sh-it, oh shit-"

"No," Owen breathes. "There's no way-it's impossible!"

"Okay, what's going on?" I ask impatiently. "What aren't you telling me?"

"If it's true, then holy shit, we are good," Owen says.

Tosh slaps him. "Owen! Time and fucking place! And it's not-it can't be-"

"I have no idea what the bloody hell you're going on about, but there's only one way to find out what that thing is," Ianto says.

"I'm going down there," I say, and I grab a gun and run downstairs. Whoever is in Ellie's room is dead.

Gwen's POV

"Do you think it really could be-?" Tosh asks, unable to finish her sentence.

"Get a DNA scan going," I say. "If it is-we'll be able to tell."

"Already doing it," says Tosh. "It should finish any second.

The computer beeps and we all run to look at it.

DNA CONFIRMED: ELLIE C. HARKNESS

"Oh my God," Tosh whispers. "We did it." She turns to Owen and they lean in simultaneously, kissing for mere moments before breaking apart and crying in each other's arms. Ianto looks at them and then at me.

"Jack," we say together, and we run downstairs.

Ellie's POV

I look around my bedroom and can't help but jump for joy. I'm alive! And home! Home, with Dad and Tosh and Ianto and Owen - and Mum. Everything's going to be okay now.

The door bursts open and Dad rushes in, gun in hand. "Bloody hell, don't shoot me," I laugh. "Only just got back."

He stares at me for a moment, drops the gun, and screams.

"I'm going mad," he says. "I'm going insane; this isn't happening, I must've fallen asleep at my desk-none of this is real; it can't be-" He sinks to his knees and then curls up into a ball on the ground, shaking and crying to himself.

Before I can do anything, the door opens again and Gwen and Ianto walk in. "Oh dear," Ianto sighs. "Bloody drama queen."

"Oh for God's sake, Ianto, that's not funny," Gwen-Mum- chastises.

"Erm... hi," I say. "... Long time no see?"

There's a silence as we look at each other and then at Dad. And then I get up and run right around him and straight to Mum.

Gwen's POV

I catch Ellie as she runs into my arms and hold her tightly. "Ellie," I whisper. "Oh, Ellie, you're alive..."

She begins to sob into my shoulder. "Mum," she chokes out. "You saved me, you brought me back-oh, Mum, I missed you..."

She called me Mum, I realize. Why did she do that? I try to work out why she's calling me Mum, but then I realize - it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter why she's calling me Mum, why now, or any of that. What matters is that I think of her as my daughter, always have, and always will, and that my daughter is crying in my arms. So what ends up happenings comes completely naturally.

"Shhhh," I murmur. "Mummy's here, darling. Mummy's right here. You're safe, love."

She holds onto me tighter and almost slumps against me, still whispering "mum," over and over again. And I have no idea what to do.

Then again, it's not like there's anything in any parenting book about what to do when your daughter comes back from the dead. So I just keep doing what I've been doing, trying to soothe her, and eventually she manages to calm down. "I'm here," I whisper one last time, and she falls quiet.

"I love you, Mummy," she whispers, looking up at me with bloodshot brown eyes.

"I love you too, Ellie," I say, hugging her again. "Now, let's get your dad up off the ground, eh? He looks a bit daft down there."

"He always looks a bit daft," Ianto points out, reminding us of his presence. "Er… do you three need a moment?"

"That'd be great," I say. "Thanks, Ianto."

"I'll make coffee," he says. "Ellie, coffee?"

"Oh, God, yes!" Ellie runs and hugs him. "I've missed you, Yan."

"I've missed you too," he says. "Back soon." And he leaves the room, leaving the door slightly ajar.

I gently guide Ellie over to her bed and have her sit down. "Let me try talking to him first, alright?" She nods silently. I give her head a quick kiss and then kneel down next to Jack. "Jack," I whisper. "Jack, sweetheart, listen to me."

"No," he moans softly. "I'm going mad-"

"That's enough," I say firmly. "Jack, listen to me. You are not going mad. Ellie's alive. She's here, as insane as it might sound. We can explain later-well, I'm not entirely sure myself-"

"-I know what happened," Ellie says shakily.

"Okay, then Ellie can explain," I say. "But she's alive, Jack. She honestly is, and you're not mad. Now enough of this. Get up and wish your daughter a proper hello."

He finally looks up and sees me, but not Ellie. "Dad," Ellie says. She jumps off of the bed and runs over to us, kneeling next to me.

"Ellie?" he finally whispers, reaching out to touch her hand.

"I'm here," she says, tears forming again.

He stands up and pulls her up with him, scooping her into his arms and sitting down on the bed with her in his lap. I walk over to the bed and he pulls me down next to him, hugging us both to him.

We're a family, and we're together, I think to myself. And nobody's going to separate us, ever again.

Hey everyone! Lia here! So it would appear that I ended up writing the whole chapter. Thank you Rachel for letting me take over! :D :D

Make sure to read all of Rachel's fics… and if you want, checkout some of mine! I'm unshakespearean!

Love and ducks, hugs, thanks, shoutouts, etc distributed as usual to all my fans!

Love,

Ofelia xxx