This was supposed to be a one-shot.. oops! The bunnies ran away with me!

This came from a dream; I don't remember what happened in it, but I woke up with one of Jack's lines echoing through my head and couldn't let it go. The story just sort of fell into place around it. Plus I love Tosh and this adventure seemed to suit her. Hope you like it!

Spoilers: Vague references to TW: Everything Changes, To The Last Man, and Children of Earth, and DW: Waters of Mars. But mostly you'd have to know what I'm talking about already in order to realise that they're actual references and not just details I've invented..

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or setting but the plot is mine.

Please R&R?

The hub was settling down after lunch. There had been some rift activity in the morning, but the afternoon looked quiet. Suzie was working on some pet project in her corner. Owen was tidying up the medical bay after a Weevil autopsy. Jack and Ianto were in Jack's office, Ianto taking minutes for a conference call Jack was conducting with UNIT officials.

Toshiko was at her workstation, trying to hurry through entering details for the new object. She and Suzie had picked it up after the small rift spike, and it fascinated her. She couldn't wait to try and figure out what it did. It was a white rectangular box, with slightly curved edges, and about the size of a thick paperback novel. It had what appeared to be buttons on top, with symbols and labels in an unknown script. Owen had said it looked like an obese Wii remote, though the buttons were flat, set into the surface of the object instead of sticking out above it.

But procedure demanded she enter it into the system first, along with a visual description, details of where and when it was found, and what protocols had been followed in handling it. In this case, it had been scanned for all kinds of radiation, life signs, biological matter of any sort, and sonic frequencies. There had been a minor reading for radiation, though the hand-held scanner they used at the scene couldn't tell them what type it was, only that it wasn't strong enough to be harmful. It was room temperature, and they had avoided touching it by hand, using tongs to move it into a containment box before heading back to the hub.

Tosh finished entering the initial details into the system, and turned to study object eagerly. She wished the alien translation device worked on written text -no doubt knowing what the symbols and words meant would be a huge help in figuring out what the device was.

First thing to address though, that radiation reading. She used the tongs again to lift the item out of the containment box and placed it in the hub's full-size hyperspectral scanner. She fiddled with the settings, and started the scan.

Immediately, she was blinded by bright light and pain ripped through her head. She screwed her eyes shut, hands pressed to her temples, and thought she cried out but couldn't hear anything. Then there was a sensation like falling and she landed heavily on her side.

She was winded and struggled to take a breath, still lying on her side with her eyes shut. Her head was pounding painfully, and the floor was cold beneath her. She lay still, trying to recover. After a minute, her head cleared just enough for her to wonder why the others hadn't come to her aid yet. Maybe she hadn't cried out, and they hadn't seen the flash of light.

"Owen? Jack?" she called. No response. She attempted to open her eyes, and found that it was dark around her. No, wait -there was a dim red light on the other side of the room, several metres away. She realised the floor beneath her was metal sheeting, and attempted to sit up as her confused mind tried to work it out. The action made her head hurt worse and she groaned. Her vision was blurry but she knew with a sinking feeling: she was not in the hub anymore.

Tosh slowly managed to get her bearings without moving her head too quickly. The room was about 4 metres square, with several large wooden crates stacked neatly against both side walls. The far wall had a door in the centre. She shuffled slowly until she felt the back wall behind her, and then sagged against it. The pain was settling into a steady headache -nasty, but not quite migraine level. She sat still for a few minutes, willing it to recede further. Figuring out where she was and why would be easier then.

Suddenly, the room lit up with bright white lights and the door on the far side slid open. Two men stepped cautiously into the room, guns drawn. They spotted her immediately and pointed their weapons at her.

"Don't move!"

First Officer Alexis Stanton sat at her station, finishing yet another Captain's Log entry. She sighed. Technically, she was second-in-command after the the Captain, but she seemed to do little more than fill out the man's paperwork for him. She felt more like a PA than a ranking officer.

A pop-up on her screen interrupted her thoughts.

New passenger detected.

Please enter details.

Passenger ID:

Title:

Name:

Date of Birth:

Species:

Gender:

Occupation:

Home Planet:

Next of kin:

Please attach medical and other information files here.

Alexis gaped at the screen. There couldn't be a new passenger, they were in the middle of space. Must be an error. She opened the passenger statistics view, and sure enough, it now listed 57 people as being on board. But that couldn't be right! Switching programs, she brought up the bioscanner. Ostensibly, it was to be used for identifying alien species -and checking none had snuck on board without announcing themselves -but it would work well for this too. She ran the scan, and checked the results: 57 humans on board.

"What are you looking for, First Officer Stanton?" Alexis jumped, startled. The Captain was looking over her shoulder.

"The computer just detected a new passenger. Look," she said, pointing at the screen. "Fifty-seven!" The Captain frowned.

"Go to the 3D view," he ordered. She switched over. The Captain jabbed his finger at a lone dot in a storage room, two levels down. "There. Let's go."

Alexis switched on her comms as she raced down the hall, ordering the two nearest crew members to get there ahead of them. They were engineers, but everyone who worked here had weapons training and had been drilled in handling such situations. They were told to find and contain the stranger, then wait for herself and the Captain to arrive.

Toshiko was trying to keep her wits about her. She was in a strange place, with two strangers pointing guns at her, and whilst she was now able to move without dizziness, she was still finding the light too bright and her vision blurry. She squinted at her captors.

"What species are you?" one of them asked.

"Hu -human," she replied, bewildered.

"We can't take her word for it, Finn!" said the other man. "Too many aliens can disguise themselves as one of us."

"I know Grant, but it's standard to ask," Finn responded calmly. "And if the bioscanner tells us she's lying, we'll know she can't be trusted at all."

"Where am I?" asked Toshiko.

"We won't be answering any questions, sorry," said Grant pointedly. There was a pause.

"So, we're just hanging about here for the foreseeable future, then?" she asked sarcastically, then regretted it. Aggravating the people with the guns wasn't her usual sensible approach. She covered her eyes with one hand to try and get some relief from the blinding light.

"The Captain will be here any moment," said Finn. The other man chuckled darkly.

"And then you'll be in for it. No human and precious few aliens get the better of him."

True to Finn's word, footsteps could be heard striding down the hallway outside the room just moments later. Toshiko moved her hand and tried to see, but only made out that two figures had entered the room. She had to cover her eyes again as one of the figures approached and stopped in front of her.

"To-shi-ko Sa-to!" drawled a familiar accent, drawing out each syllable of her name. "I knew some bit of alien tech'd bring you back to me one day!"

"Jack!" she cried, and flung herself at him in relief. He caught her and held her tight, and murmured quiet reassurances in her ear. The others watched him in surprise.

"Alien tech?" said Finn, picking up the device sitting near where Toshiko had been. "This isn't alien, and it's decades old, at least." He was turning the device over curiously.

"It's alien where she's from," said Jack. "Come on, let's get you to the med bay."

Grant caught Finn's arm and held him back a moment as the Captain and First Officer helped the stranger walk down the hall.

"Did you just see what I just saw?" he asked, slightly awed.

"I think so," said Finn. "Unless I'm hallucinating. Did you see his face when he saw her?"

"Yeah, it was like.. delight. Joy. Happiness. I don't think I've ever seen him smile, let alone like that. Who do you think she is?"

"Old lover, maybe?"

"Must be."