This is the introduction to a new story I'm planning to write. I wanted to know what people thought of the idea. I know I really shouldn't but I wanted to write it down before it went out of my head. It is AU but not completely. It will return to current time to pick up after CoE but .............. there will be no Ianto - sorry.

ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER FACE

The prologue

Captain Jack Harkness sat on a bench in Regent's Park, London. Gone were his trademark great coat and braces which made him look like a refugee from World War II. He didn't want to look like himself. Instead he was dressed in black jeans, white t-shirt and black leather jacket. Across the park he watched as two people he'd once known rolled around on the grass, in the sunshine, without a care in the world. Ianto and Lisa looked like many another couple enjoying each others company. Jack knew that their lives would change and soon. Soon Cybermen would invade planet Earth and Lisa would be snatched from Ianto and end up half converted and dead, in a hole in the ground in Cardiff Bay. Jack wondered how their lives would have been different; they looked so happy together. He then wondered why once again he was torturing himself. It had been bad enough when he kept visiting Rose before the Doctor returned; now he'd visited Ianto so many times.

He needed to get away; he needed to stop doing this to himself. He tried space and for a while. With Alonso things had been better but something, or someone, always drew him back. Perhaps he needed to try time instead. The past was, after all, another country. He needed to do something else, so perhaps he could bury himself in the past. He'd go back to Wales, a time he knew, but a time and place where he knew he wouldn't be. He needed to work. He wanted hard physical work to occupy his time. He knew that they'd built the docks in Barry, before 1889. He'd join a team of navvies and then he'd be too tired to think about anything. Those men lived hard and died young. Of course, that would never happen to Jack.

With a few presses of his wrist strap he planned his destination. Firstly he borrowed some clothes from a well known film studio and then seconds later he appeared in Barry on a Saturday night in Thompson Street. There were men roaming mostly drunk. This area of town had an interesting reputation. Jack needed somewhere to stay. He walked along Gueret Street. The street was renowned for its colourful customers but he knew that lots of the dock labourers lived there. He found somewhere with a vacancy sign and knocked on the door. A woman answered and looked him up and down.

'I've come to ask about the vacancy. I need somewhere to stay. I have money.'

'Yes we have a bed but you'll be sharing a room. Money in advance and you get meals as well, in the morning and evening.'

'That would be good as I'm hungry now,' Jack replied.

'I can probably stretch it out. Nothing fancy mind you. You're not from round here then?'

'No my family went to America but I wanted to come home.'

'Who could blame you? This place is full of newcomers. Come in and I'll introduce you.'

Jack was motioned to sit at the table. A few men came in and sat down and he was introduced. Then his heart stopped as he heard a voice.

'Sorry I'm late Maggie, we had to finish something in number two dock. What's for tea?'

'Stew and we've a new man who'll be sharing with you, now Dai has gone.'

Jack's breath caught as the man with the voice turned around. 'Oh God,' Jack thought. The man held out his hand.

'Hello, my name is Jones, Ieuen Jones.'