London 2009

Timing. Funny word, timing, considering time and space were more like a big ball of tangled yarn, rather than the straight line people tended to think it.

But in this case, the timing had to be just right. Too early, and certain people who needed to be avoided would still be in the way. Too late, and he'd be really dead. No chance of saving him.

And Ianto Jones really needed saving.

The Doctor aimed to land the TARDIS in a janitorial closet of the high school where dozens of bodies had been laid out under red sheets in the gymnasium. But of course, when she opened the door and stepped out, she nearly tripped over a cello.

Music room. Right, not as inconspicuous as a closet, but as long as she had the timing right, then the rest was all semantics.

Letting the door of the TARDIS swing closed behind her, she paused to listen as voices echoed from the corridor. Male, talking in short, sharp sentences. Probably the military or UNIT. No one she wanted to run into when she didn't want anyone to know she was here. If they knew The Doctor was in town, they'd expect her to do something about the alien-children situation, and Torchwood already had that well in hand, even if they didn't realize it yet.

Ianto's death was the catalyst for Torchwood's leader, Captain Jack Harkness, to finally work out how to stop the alien threat the humans were calling the 456. This was one of those pesky fixed-point-in-time situations where The Doctor couldn't, shouldn't interfere.

Right now, Jack was devastated about losing the man he loved, almost broken. Almost. But not quite. Because now he was also desperate and angry. And while the 456—who were actually a parasitic, low-life race of gas-breathing creatures called the Sohanidd—hadn't worked it out yet, thinking they'd claimed victory and the ten percent of the world's children they were demanding, killing Ianto had been the one thing they could do to guarantee Jack would find a way to beat them once and for all. No matter the cost. Because that cost… Oh, that cost was too much. But the only way Jack would follow through was if he already felt like he had nothing left to lose.

So, no, she didn't need anyone to find her here and get her involved, because then Jack would look to her for answers, and it could change the outcome. There was only one outcome she was here to change, and that was the finality of Ianto's death. She'd seen patterns developing, things that made her decide she needed to take a gamble and change the course of Ianto's fate.

He was meant to die today; an entire timeline had unfolded with just that eventuality. But something was happening in the dark corners of the galaxy, something she didn't understand yet, and her instincts were shouting at her not to ignore it. So, even knowing it could actually make things worse, she was going to change history and save Ianto's life, while hopefully still keeping the balance of events that had to occur today.

Once the voices had faded away, she crossed the room and peeked into the corridor to check it was clear before slipping out. She let the sound of muffled voices lead her to the gymnasium, pausing to look through a small square window in one of the two double swinging doors. She had to stand on tip-toes to see. Damn short legs. Most of her last regenerations, she'd been tall. Of course, she'd also been a man. So there was that.

In the middle of the gym, Jack sat with an arm around Gwen Cooper, the other surviving member of Torchwood. The only surviving member of Torchwood. Apart from Jack who couldn't die, the rest had all perished in one way or another. But every single one of them had given their lives to save the planet from destruction at different points in time.

Jack and Gwen were staring down at Ianto, neither of them looking like they planned to move anytime soon.

"Come on, Jack. Say your goodbyes and be on your way. Before it's too late," she mumbled to herself.

"Can I help you, Miss?" A pair of soldiers had walked up behind her while she'd been distracted looking through the door glass. Every now and then, she still looked over her shoulder to find the Miss people were referring to, until she remembered that she was the Miss. Or ma'am. Or hey lady depending on what she was doing that day.

"Oh, no, I'm fine." She sent them what she hoped was a friendly, not-up-to-anything smile. "Just waiting for someone."

The soldiers nodded and then continued through to the gym, chatting to each other.

Once the doors swung closed again, she went back on tip-toes to steal another look. Jack and Gwen were finally on their feet, still with their arms around one another, walking slowly, stiffly away from the body. Though Jack was aging immeasurably slower than a normal human—he still had thousands of years to live—he looked so much older than the last time she'd seen him, as if losing Ianto had stolen hundreds of years off that vast lifetime of his.

If only she could tell him he would see Ianto again. But that was for another day. For today, Jack needed to keep on believing that Ianto was gone forever.

By the time Jack and Gwen had disappeared from sight, she was practically hopping on the spot with impatience. The window of time she had to revive Ianto was rapidly shrinking. The pair had barely left the gym through the outside doors before she went rushing out. If they came back, she was banking on the fact that Jack wouldn't recognize her—at least not right away. Last time Jack had seen The Doctor, he'd had brown hair. Among other more noticeable changes.

It was getting late in the evening and people were gradually leaving, plus with the alien threat still hanging over them, no one was worrying too much about the already-dead when there were millions of children who needed saving. No one paid her any attention as she crossed the rows of bodies, but she kept her head ducked just in case, doing her best not to attract attention to herself. Jack and Gwen had left the red sheet off Ianto's face, as if they couldn't bear to fully cover him like the rest of the bodies.

He certainly looked dead as a doornail. She hoped she wasn't wrong about this. His lips were blue and his skin was grey. She pulled her sonic screwdriver out of her pocket and gave him a quick scan before checking the reading. Ah-ha. Just what she'd been hoping to find. He wasn't dead yet. Just in a very, very deep sleep. Exactly like sleeping beauty.

Ianto Jones, however, was much prettier than sleeping beauty. And unfortunately, true love's kiss wasn't the cure to this disease.

Actually, if the virus was what she suspected, it really was the same thing sleeping beauty had caught. Not the Disney version. The real-life sleeping beauty the story was based on. A German princess from around the mid-17th century who'd eaten what she'd thought was an apple, but had actually been a piece of contaminated fruit thrown out of a passing tourist spaceship. Gosh, had that been a doozer of a day. The king nearly had her drawn and quartered before she'd worked out what was wrong with his daughter.

The secondary analysis on the sonic screwdriver finished with a whirr and confirmed the diagnosis. She slipped the device away again and then reached into a different pocket, pulling out several small vials and sorting through them to find the neon purple one with the anti-viral to counteract the effects. Tasted like death, but was preferable to actual death.

"Down the hatch, Ianto Jones." She pinched his chin to part his lips, glancing around to make sure no one was watching before she tipped the contents of the vial into his mouth. The room was now empty, apart from the two soldiers who'd spoken to her out in the corridor. And the dead.

The truth was, none of these people were actually dead. Oh, they would be within ten to twenty minutes. And she would have saved every one of them if she could. But she didn't have enough anti-viral to go around, and while she didn't want to say Ianto was any more important than anyone else here—their lives cut tragically short when the 456 aliens had released the fast and deadly virus into Thames House—the fact was, she needed Ianto alive. The entire universe possibly needed Ianto alive. She just hadn't worked out why yet.

Ianto gasped suddenly, his eyes snapping open, gaze frantic as he looked around. She set her hands on his shoulders to stop him from getting up right away.

"Jack—Jack. We have to stop them—"

"Calm down, Mr. Jones. Just take a minute to get your breath back." She glanced over her shoulder, but so far, Ianto's miraculous resurrection had gone unnoticed by the two guards sitting at the very far end of the gym.

He focused on her, blue eyes impossibly bright.

"Who are you?"

"I'm The Doctor. And you, Mr. Jones, need to come with me."

"The Doctor?" Ianto pulled out of her grasp, confusion in his features. "The Doctor. Jack told me about you. He said you had something to do with it, why he can't die. He said you helped him. He said—he said you were a man."

She wrapped her arm around his shoulders, urging him up so they could make their getaway before the two guards finally noticed something was going on.

"Yes, I was a man. Now I'm a woman. Things change. Bodies regenerate. Now are you coming with me, or not?"

He did his best to get on his feet, still weak, swaying slightly against her.

"What happened to me?"

"You were sick, I made you better." She got a firm arm around him to help keep him upright and led him away from his place among the dead.

"Where are we going?"

"Away from here for a start." They skirted the bodies, and Ianto paused as he suddenly seemed to realize where they were.

"All these people, they're all dead." He swayed again and she tightened her hold on him, snatching another glance at the soldiers.

"We can't help them now. But if you want to help everyone else, then you need to come with me."

"They're dead because of us. Because we went in there and told them we weren't going to give them the children." They started moving again, but it wasn't much more than a slow shuffle.

"You did the right thing, Ianto. It might not seem like it now, but you did the right thing."

"Where's Jack? Is he under one of these sheets? I don't want him to be alone when he wakes up." He paused again, casting a searching glance, like he was thinking about going back to search the bodies until he found Jack.

"Jack is gone. I'll explain everything—"

"Gone?" Ianto pulled out of her hold, managing to stay upright, seeming a bit stronger now. "What do you mean Jack's gone? He wouldn't have left me. Not unless—"

The dawning realization on his face was heartbreaking. On both her hearts.

Ianto gasped a breath like he was in physical pain. "I have to go find him. He thinks I'm dead, doesn't he?"

She held out her hands, trying to keep him calm. "Ianto, I know this doesn't make any sense right now, but you can't see Jack. He needs to think you're dead. It's the only way he'll do what needs to be done."

"That's ballocks." Ianto's voice went up by twenty or so decibels, his blue eyes wet with unshed tears. "How can it be better to let him think I'm dead?"

The shouting finally got the attention of the two guards, who were looking like they were going to come over and intervene.

"Please, I'll explain everything. I'll take you to see Jack. But can we get out of here first?"

"Hey! You two!" One of the guards yelled out suddenly.

"Ianto, are you feeling any better yet?" she asked, watching the two guards dance around the bodies as they tried to hurry toward them.

He sniffed, wiping a hand over his face. "No, actually. I feel like microwaved death."

"Then I'm sorry for this, but, run!"

She grabbed his arm and yanked him into action. They sprinted the remaining distance across the open floor of the gym and slammed through the doors into the corridor. Almost right away, Ianto pulled to a stop, gasping for air and bending over to brace his hands on his knees.

"I can't— Need a second. Can't run anymore."

She yanked her sonic screwdriver out and locked the doors, scrambling the tumblers so even the key wouldn't work. It'd give them a few extra minutes until the guards either broke the door or found another way around.

She took Ianto's arm and helped him straighten. "Come on. No more running for now. I promise."

No, they weren't running, but she did hustle him into a very fast walk. By the time they reached the music room, he was practically stumbling, coughing over every breath. Just inside the familiar blue doors of the TARDIS, she finally let him go. While he sunk down on the floor to catch his breath, she rushed over to the console and fired up the engines.

She circled around, pushing buttons, turning knobs and throwing levers until the TARDIS breathed into life.

"Where are we?" Ianto used the railing to pull himself to his feet.

"The TARDIS. My ship. I assume Jack told you all about that as well."

Ianto took a few slow steps forward, looking around. "He might have mentioned it."

"Well?" She spun to face him and held out her arms.

"Well what?" He coughed again, pressing a hand against his chest with a grimace.

"You didn't say the thing. Everyone has to say the thing the first time."

"I'm sorry, what thing?"

She went over and took his hand, leading him around the console and sitting him down in the seat, dropping down next to him.

"It's bigger on the inside. Although, once someone told me it was smaller on the outside. Clever, impossible girl. Not so good with words."

Ianto stared at her, blinking, his brow furrowed like he was having trouble keeping up.

"About Jack—"

She huffed as she pushed to her feet. "What is people's obsession with Jack Harkness? Those 51st century pheromones aren't that great, I've smelled better. He's a good kisser, I'll give you that. But really, is he worth all the trouble that follows him around?"

"It's not an obsession." Ianto's features tightened with anger. "I love him. And right now, he needs me. I don't care what you say, letting him believe I'm dead can't possibly be the best thing for anyone."

She leaned against the console and crossed her arms. "I told you I'd take you to see him, and I will. But there's something I need to show you first."

"Something you need to show me?" He got to his feet, fists clenched. "We don't have time for sight-seeing. The whole world—all those children. They're in danger right now."

"And they'll always be in trouble right now, because it's a fixed point in time I have no interest in messing up."

Ianto's brow creased, clearly trying to figure out what she was telling him.

"The TARDIS can go anywhere in space and time. Which means we can spare an hour or two to see a few things, and then I can drop you right back where you were, two minutes after we left. You won't miss anything. Jack will still be there, I promise."

"Then take me back now. I don't want to see anything, I need to help Jack and Gwen."

The TARDIS gave a familiar whooshing-wheezing noise before powering down.

"But we're here, Mr Jones. And believe me, this is something you want to see." She pushed away from the console and held out her hand.

"But he thinks I'm dead. I can't even imagine how much that's hurting him." Ianto coughed, breath getting short, the after effects of the virus still playing havoc on his body.

She walked by him and went to find a glass of water. But then she got waylaid digging him up a bowler hat and pair of glasses. He was definitely going to need a disguise.

She returned a moment later to hand over the water. "Didn't I just get through explaining the whole TARDIS time and space thing? We won't let Jack think you're dead any longer than we have to, okay?"

Just long enough to make sure he saved the little speck on the edge of the universe called Earth and all it's amazing, infuriating inhabitants.

Ianto drank down every last drop of water in the glass and then exhaled a long breath.

"Fine, I'll go see whatever it is you want me to see if it'll get me back to Torchwood quicker."

"Now we're in business. Put these on."

She plonked the hat on his head and held out the wide, square-rimmed glasses.

"What do I need these for?" He took the hat off, but she slipped it from his hand and put it right back on again.

"Don't worry, you look charming. Bowler hats are cool. And it's because we're going incognito."

He actually looked her up and down. "I don't see you wearing any disguise."

"This entire regeneration is a disguise, believe me."

Grabbing his arm, she tugged him into motion, but he paused to set the empty glass on the nearest horizontal surface.

"Not on the control console, you heathen." She grabbed the glass and tossed it over the railing. A second later it broke on the lower level in a tinkle of shards. She pulled him into motion as he gaped over his shoulder at where the glass had disappeared. "Don't worry, the TARDIS will take care of that. But we don't leave things on the console. I have rules now, you see. Ever since Amelia Pond left a half-eaten chocolate bar on there and it melted into the primary rift matrix. We got lost in this one binary system for weeks. It was not as fun as it sounds. I'm still finding little sticky bits of cocoa and sugar in places those substances should never go."

"Right, no leaving things on the console," Ianto replied, sounding a little overwhelmed.

They stepped through the doors of the TARDIS, out into the orange light of a red dwarf star. They'd landed at the edge of a bustling city square. On one side was a funky little craft market selling handmade gifts and collectables. Another side held a transport hub where people were coming and going from mono-rail-like shuttles. Over further, some kind of rally seemed to be happening.

"Where are we?" Ianto seemed positively dazed now.

"A little planet circling a little red star, seven-hundred-thousand light years from Earth and approximately… oh, five hundred years in the future."

He looked this way and that, as if he didn't know what to take in first. "These people, they're all—"

"Human. You lot eventually colonize one end of the universe to the other, like adorable little rodents."

He cut her a lightly indignant look, but didn't reply.

"Anyway, we didn't come here just to see some boring city."

"Boring? On a planet five-hundred-years in the future, a gazillion light years from home?" Ianto shook his head. "This is so—"

Apparently, he didn't have words for exactly what he thought it was.

"Amazing?" she supplied. She'd travelled so far and for so long, she often forgot to take in the wonder of the things she saw. That's why she needed them. Companions. Friends picked up along the way. Through them, she remembered to get a little star-struck and appreciate the moments day-to-day. "Spectacular. The most astounding, breathless moment of your previously tiny existence."

"I was going to say normal." This time when he looked around, it was like he'd finally got everything together in his head, shaken off the last cobwebs of the virus that'd nearly killed him. He was still a little pale, but all things considered, it could have been worse. "It's just people, and it all looks so normal."

"Oh." Ianto Jones was not like regular people. He said the unexpected. She liked it, and she was beginning to see why the enigmatic Captain Jack Harkness had fallen so hard for the charming Welshman. "Well then, let's see if we can find something not-normal to surprise that single heart of yours."

The look he gave her in return suggested Jack probably hadn't told him about the two-hearts thing, which no doubt made that last statement sound completely odd. Most people found the things she said completely odd at one time or another. But it just made things all the more fun.

She led Ianto across the city square, down a busy block and into a little building nestled between two taller structures. When they walked in, the scent of incense enveloped them. A special incense of mind-altering properties, if breathed for too long. They wouldn't be able to spend too long in here with that incense seeping into every pore, or anything could happen.

Soft low music was coming from somewhere, while hushed, relaxed-sounding voices chatted and laughed without disturbing the peace.

"What is this place, some kind of temple?" Ianto asked in a loud whisper.

"Something like that."

They came to a wooden door and she pushed it open, waving an arm to indicate he should go first. He spent a long second looking at her, before stepping through.

She followed after him, but unsurprisingly, he'd pulled to a halt just inside.

"What the hell is going on here?" His voice was tight, gaze fixed straight ahead like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. She studied his expression, since she'd already studied everything in this room for clues.

"I was hoping you could help me work that out."

"That's me." He pointed, as if making sure she hadn't failed to see it. Not that anyone with eyes could miss the sight. "That's some kind of shrine with pictures of me all over it."

"To be fair, some of them are of you and Jack." There was another room just over from here that was solely dedicated to Jack. But considering she'd only just convinced Ianto to come with her instead of rushing back to let Jack know he was still alive, she didn't think he needed to see that just now.

"But what the hell is it doing here. Why is it here? Are they—are they worshipping me or something?"

"Worshipping. Idolizing. Generally revering that gorgeous face of yours. Yup, they're doing all that."

"But, how? Why?"

"That, Mr. Jones, is what we're here to find out."