I'm writing far too many stories. I can't promise to update any of them or finish any of them or serve you with chapters in any way other than the way I've been doing it in the last few months, which has been sporadically and incredibly unmethodical. I love this site so much, I love every single person who reads and gives me feedback on my writing. You guys are what gave me the confidence to branch out and begin seriously working on my original fiction. I adore writing fanfic, it's so much fun! I have very little time to do it now… Regardless of that, here is yet another something new. Enjoy!

"Jack?! What the fuck did you just do?"

"Shut up and clear that table!"

Captain Jack Harkness staggered across the lab, an unconscious woman in his arms. Gwen gritted her teeth and swept the files from the table onto the floor. She also swept Jack's favourite mug with them. It would have been easy to pick it up instead of sending it to its demise, but…

"Gwen," he said warningly.

"Piss off."

"Fair enough," Jack grunted as he laid the woman down on the table.

"Who is she?" Gwen asked.

"Nobody."

"What do you mean, nobody? Is she hurt?"

"Not badly. She'll be fine when she wakes up. If she wakes up."

"What do you mean, if?"

"She, uh, I… Look, I didn't plan it, okay, but then something changed."

"What do you mean?"

"Something changed in time! I felt it, it happens a lot but this was big, she's important, and she was going to die, she was going to die and I couldn't let that happen so I…" he trailed off, looking down at his wrist.

"So you what? Went on a little time jump and grabbed her?"

"Well… Yeah."

"Fuck."

"Hey. It's not the end of the world."

"But what the hell are we going to say to her?"

"The truth, I thought. She can be in the gang."

"We're a gang now? As in the two of us? Fabulous."

"Don't you want to be in my gang?"

"Shut up. We can't tell her the truth. She won't believe it, for one thing. And for another… When did you take her from?"

"Nine years ago. The thing that changed… She was going to die, Gwen. I had to save her."

"Everyone dies. You can't save them."

"Someone saved me."

"Don't even get me started… Jack…"

"It was a feeling, okay! I acted on it. She's here now."

"There's something you're not telling me," Gwen realised.

"Deal with it," Jack said bluntly, leaving the room. As the door slammed behind him, there was a faint groan from the table. Gwen rolled her eyes and went over to the woman lying on it. She looked about twenty-five. Gwen's age.

The woman blinked, then sat bolt upright, jumping off the table but swaying back into it.

"What the… Who are you?"

"Another American. Well that's just bloody fantastic. I'm Gwen, Gwen Cooper, and unfortunately, I imagine we'll be getting to know each other a lot better in the next few days. What's your name?"

"Where am I? Why am I here?"

"Cardiff, Wales," Gwen said dryly. "And as for why, you'd have to ask Jack. Speaking of which," she raised her voice to a yell, "Jack, she's awake!"

"Would you please tell me what the hell is going on?" the woman asked. Gwen had to hand it to her, she was coping remarkably well. Then again, they hadn't even brought up the time travel yet, let alone the aliens.

"Cup of tea?" Gwen offered.

"Do you have coffee?"

Gwen made a face, but went over to make some coffee. She waved towards the sitting area; their guest settled uncomfortably in an armchair. Jack draped himself on the couch opposite her, hooking his thumbs in his braces.

"Sorry," he said, not sounding like he meant it particularly.

"You're really going to make me explain?" Gwen said, putting down the drinks on the table and shoving Jack's legs out of the way so she could sit beside him.

"You'll do it much better than I could," he argued. Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Okay… What's your name?" she asked the woman.

"But if you… Never mind. It's Kate."

"Kate. Nice. Well, Kate, you should probably put down your coffee, because I'm about to tell you something very shocking. You won't believe me straight away, but I'm guessing by this afternoon you'll reach a point where you have to concede that at least some of what I'm about to tell you is true."

Kate put down her mug.

"Okay. So, this is Jack. He's my… boss. And today he had a feeling. You can bug him about what that means later; I have no idea. Anyway, he had a feeling, and you were going to die."

"Someone was going to stab you, you were going to walk home the way you always walk and when you went into that alleyway someone was going to-"

"Enough, Jack."

All the colour had drained from Kate's face.

"I don't know who put you up to this but if it's some kind of sick joke-"

"It's not a joke, Kate," Jack said, showing some sympathy now.

"Then what?" Kate stood up, looking down at them with anger and confusion.

"He… he grabbed you and brought you back here. To save you. You won't believe me but-" Gwen stopped speaking with a sigh. Kate was already running out of the room.

"She'll be back," Jack said, but he didn't feel anything like as confident as he tried to sound.

Kate Beckett ran down the strange metal corridor, hauled open a very heavy storm door, and found herself in something like a tool shed. It was dark, she could hear water… She saw light creeping in under the door and hurried for it. They might be chasing her. The conspiracy was far, far bigger than she'd realised. She'd known since she was 19 that random gang violence hadn't been responsible for her mother's death, but kidnapping? And why hadn't they just killed her? What did they think she-

-knew. She was outside, blinking in the bright sunlight. And she was beside a river, in a city… She ran along the dirty, stoney beach and up the nearest flight of steps. They were slippery, hardly used. Her high heeled boots struggled to find purchase on the steps, but she made it to the top and stood beside a fairly busy city centre street. People walked past… There was something wrong about it, something different. She couldn't put her finger on it but… It was sunny. Warm. She took off her jacket. She'd have to talk to someone, go into a shop, get her bearings…

The cafe she found was cheap and grimy, she hadn't wanted to go somewhere on a main street. She realised too late that she didn't have any money, but the elderly man behind the counter took pity on her and gave her a cup for free.

"Are you lost, my love?"

Welsh. He was Welsh, and that girl had been Welsh. She was in Cardiff.

"Yeah, you could say that. Jetlag, you know," she said. "This sounds stupid but could you tell me what day it is?"

"It's Friday, love. Been out on the town, have you?"

Kate shrugged, not wanting to give an answer. Her new friend narrowed his eyes at her. Kate tried to hide her horror. Five days! She had lost five days. She was in a strange city, thousands of miles from home, and she had lost five whole days…

"Do you know where I could make an international call?" she asked. The man reached in his pocket and tried to pass her a strange kind of cell phone.

"I have free calls to America, if that's what you need. My son and his family live there, they put it on my plan…"

Kate took the phone doubtfully. She wondered if it was one of those new ones with a slide out keypad-

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a voice behind her. The kidnapper girl. Kate considered running, but there was only one door and her ears were still ringing; she'd be no match for her opponent. She handed the phone back to its owner and slowly turned around, surprised to find that she didn't have a gun trained on her.

"Come with me," Gwen said firmly.

"Is that an order or a request?"

"A request. But you'd be bloody stupid not to."

"Why? It's Friday! Where did the last five days go? What's been happening to me, why am I here?"

Gwen groaned. "Look. Sit down. Let me buy you another coffee… Just give me an hour to explain-"

"I want to call my dad, I call him every night, he'll be so worried-"

"You can't call your dad, Kate."

"Why not?"

Gwen reached over to pick up a discarded newspaper from a nearby table. She handed it to Kate, who stared at it, not knowing what she was looking for. And then she saw the date.

"This says June 13th 2014. Is this another part of the joke?"

She spoke smoothly and calmly, working very hard to keep a hold of herself.

"No," Gwen told her. "It's not a joke."

"But it's 2005," Kate said firmly. "It's January, it was January 9th 2005 and I was going to the…" she dropped the newspaper and ran for the door. Gwen made a noise of frustration and ran after her.

Kate looked at the street outside, at the row of parked cars… They were different. They were the wrong way around, of course, but they looked different. Clothes were different, phones were different, everything was just a little bit off. Nine years off. She passed a man selling papers and grabbed one off his stand. June 13th 2014. She threw it back at him and kept on running; she ran back to the city centre and up to several strangers, asking them for the date and getting the same response.

Finally, breathless, tears in her eyes, she sat down on a swingset in a park that was devoid of any children, put her head in her hands, and waited to wake up.

It didn't take Gwen long to find her. Panting, she sat down on the swing beside Kate's.

"Sorry," she said uncomfortably. "I… It's not my… Jack… Look. Stay here and listen and I'll tell you what happened. You won't believe it, but at least you'll know."

"It's okay," came Kate's muffled response. "Tell me whatever you like. I know it's not real."

"What?"

"I'm dreaming. It was a stressful day and I'm having a very bad, very confusing dream, but I've figured that out now, so in a minute I'm going to wake up."

"You're not going to wake up, Kate. You are awake."

"That's what people in dreams always say. It's fine."

Kate sat up, wiping her face with her sleeve. "So, tell me. I'm interested. Why am I here?"

"Okay… Well, you were going to die. You were in an alley, someone was going to kill you, but you're important, Kate, and Jack couldn't let you die, he felt you, felt you happening in time, because something messed up… You're not supposed to die but you had to. Only Jack got there and he brought you back to us. The problem is, we live in the future. I don't really know why he had to bring you here but… You're dead. To your dad, to your family, your friends… You've been gone for nine years."

"Wow. And people say I don't have an imagination!"

Gwen sighed. "It is a crazy story."

"It's wonderful. And what's your name?"

"Gwen. Gwen Cooper."

"And your boss is named Jack. That's fantastic. Okay, well I'm going to wake up soon but I've never been to Cardiff, so until I do, why don't you show me around? And also these future phones! Do you have one?"

Gwen took out her 'future phone' and called Jack.

"She thinks she's dreaming," she said as soon as he answered.

"At least she's not trying to run away anymore," he said cheerfully.

"You're an idiot."

"Be nice to her. Entertain her for the day. You can even have it as a paid holiday."

"Firstly, entertaining her is work. Secondly, since when do I get paid holidays?"

Jack hung up. Gwen looked at Kate, who was looking into the distance, a strange expression on her face.

"Time travel, huh?" she said softly. Gwen pinched her hard on the arm.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"You're not bloody dreaming. Come on. Jack said I should entertain you, and I'm hungry, so we're going to get lunch."

Kate shrugged and got up from her seat. Her stomach rumbled. She tried not to think about it. She was dreaming. She had to be dreaming…