A/N Hi c: This is my first ever Torchwood fic, I've only just started watching it, and I'm up to Children Of Earth Day Two, so if I get things wrong bear with me :S

I hope you enjoy!

'We've got rift activity,' Tosh said conversationally, over the noise of the coffee machine.

'What kind of rift activity?' Jack asked, clattering down the stairs from his office.

'It looks like a small object has come through, nothing dangerous by the looks of it,' Toshiko said, reading the screen. 'It's coming from just out of town, in that abandoned house.'

'An abandoned house, how cliche,' Owen commented, sipping his coffee. 'I'll pass on that one.'

Gwen laughed. 'It sounds exciting to me. I'll go check it out.'

'I'll come too,' Jack announced. 'I need to get out of the house.' His eyes twinkled at Gwen. 'We'll have some girly time together, just us.'

Ianto rolled his eyes and disappeared into the tourist office with a cup of coffee.

'Ready?' Jack asked brightly. Gwen pulled on a jacket. 'Ready.'

Jack grabbed her hand and twirled her around. 'Who you gonna call?'

'Torchwood!' Gwen said playfully, pointing an invisible gun and shooting, as Jack made spooky ghost noises.

Owen caught Tosh's eye, and burst out laughing. Tosh giggled and said 'Take your alien-busting outside, I don't want you accidentally sucking one of us up.'

Jack withdrew his imaginary gun and winked. 'Will do. See you on the other side.'

The black SUV pulled up at their destination, a dilapidated old brick house that looked like it had been there for over a hundred years.

'It is abandoned, right?' Gwen asked semi-nervously, as they marched up to the lonely house.

'Tosh ran a scan, there are no living things in this property, apart from the usual wildlife,' Jack confirmed. 'We're clear, so far. There'll be routine checks, of course.'

Gwen pulled out her gun resignedly. 'This week has been bad enough without some lunatic jumping out at me from the shadows.'

Jack chuckled. 'You go round the bottom floor, I'll check the top. We gotta be quick, in case the rift disturbance gets stronger and something else appears.'

Gwen nodded, and Jack burst through the rackety old door, pointing his gun around the room, proceeding to dash upstairs. Gwen backed down the dusty hallway, pointing her gun into every corner.

'Clear,' she shouted up to the top floor.

A movement back in the kitchen caught her eye. She gripped her gun and prowled down the hall again, wishing she hadn't given the all-clear just yet.

She sidled up to the doorframe, and took a deep breath. There were no sounds echoing from the kitchen, which was a good sign.

Maybe.

Before she could psyche herself out, she leapt into the small room, gun raised, ready to take down any lurking predator-

'Oh, it was a bloody curtain!' she exclaimed, seeing the limp fabric fluttering in the open window. 'For god's sake!'

'You okay?' Jack's voice echoed. Gwen shook her head at her foolishness, and gingerly made her way up the stairs. They creaked menacingly, like they were about to fold under her slight weight.

She located Jack in an abandoned bedroom, advancing towards a small pocket watch on the moth-eaten rug. 'This is where the energy is coming from,' he said softly, sensing her in the room. 'It's a Vigilate Mortis.'

Gwen put down her gun as well, and gazed at the ancient watch. 'And what exactly is that? It looks harmless to me.' She knelt down and looked closer at the pocket watch. It was small and circular, with alien flora lightly engraved on it. A foreign language she'd never seen before was weaving in and out of the flowers.

'Careful,' Jack warned. 'I don't want you looking in it.' Gwen frowned, as a particularly violent gust of wind shuddered the house. 'Why not?'

'It shows an exact countdown to your death. It's driven people insane. It's dangerous, and I don't want you going wacko on me.' Jack grinned at her and bent down, reaching his hand towards the watch.

His fingertips brushed the metal.

A violent rumbling sounded to the west, and everything started trembling. Gwen stumbled and fell. 'Woah,' Jack said, holding on to the doorframe to steady himself. 'Woahhh!' he yelled, as the swaying quickly increased.

The trembling rose to a furious shaking, and dust started falling as Jack flailed wildly, trying to stay on his feet. The house started emitting ominous creaking sounds, and he suddenly realised what was about to happen.

'Jack! What's happening?' Gwen yelped, as she felt the floor slowly tip sideways. 'Gwen!' Jack yelled, throwing himself on top of her.

The earthquake increased with a deafening roar, and Gwen gripped Jack's coat so tight she felt she'd break her wrists. The bricks in the old house started falling, and Jack held on to Gwen for dear life as the house broke, and they fell.

'How's it going?' Owen spoke into his comm.

'Uh, haven't found anything yet...', Jack's voice sounded. 'Wait-there's something in this bedroom... I'll get back to you.'

Owen switched off his earpiece and swung his chair around, facing Toshiko.

'Found anything, Tosh?' he inquired.

Tosh's fingers fluttered over the keyboard, and Owen could see numbers and graphs reflected in her glasses. 'Nothing yet,' she said tensely. 'It doesn't seem dangerous, so far. But you know Jack.'

'He attracts danger,' Ianto chuckled, passing each of them a box of Chinese and settling down on the couch with his food.

'Yeah, and we attract delicious food,' Owen said in delight, opening a carton of steaming rice.

The hot food spilled on the floor as a huge jolt shook it out of Owen's hand. The jolting continued in a violent shaking.

Tosh cried out as the deafening roar worsened. Owen threw himself in her general direction, vaguely noticing objects falling around him. Him and Ianto reached Tosh's desk at the same time, and the earthquake juddered to a halt as they huddled under the desk.

'What was that, an earthquake or something?' Tosh asked shakily. Ianto brushed off his suit, gazing at the trashed Hub in dismay. 'Looks like it,' he replied.

Owen unfolded himself with a grunt. 'You two okay? Anyone need my medical expertise?'

'Uh, I think I may need it,' Tosh said faintly, feeling her head. There was a large gash on her forehead, and it was dripping blood.

'Oh shit,' Ianto said concernedly.

Owen noted Tosh growing pale at the copious amounts of blood. 'Here,' he said, lifting her up and carrying her down into the medical bay. She blushed as he lowered her onto the autopsy table.

'You're okay, it just needs a few stitches,' Owen murmured, gently cleaning the wound. 'Your necklace is pretty.'

'It was my grandmother's,' Tosh said, feeling rather overwhelmed. Owen smiled at her as he started sewing up her wound.

Several minutes later, Tosh's forehead was good as new and she was back at her desk, only slightly red from Owen's face being in such close proximity to hers.

'We've lost power, and the comms are down. We can't contact Gwen and Jack,' she said nervously, remembering their friends.

Ianto groaned. 'I don't want to freak anyone out, but they're in a three-hundred year old brick building.'

Owen went pale.

A new chapter should be coming in about a week or so :) A review would be appreciated, too c: