Finally a new bit of reading from FlowerPetalsToTheWind! This is post COE and italics are flashbacks/memories.
Enjoy and please, please, please review,
FlowerPetalsToTheWind

Jack sat back on the bench staring mindlessly at the sky and the passing clouds. He had not been able to stop thinking of Earth since he disappeared that fateful night.

It was a normal day in Cardiff. Good old Earth, back to normal. He was not yet sure of the date, or how long he had been away. Well not in Earth time anyway. He'd travelled the stars to clear his head, had died a couple of times in unfortunate accidents, had completed a fair few adventures and had decided it was time to come back down to Earth again, literally. He lowered his head to the grave stone once more. The flowers surrounding it were fresh, colourful, and beautiful and of course, organised. The man lying in said grave would turn if the flowers had been any other way. He knew who came and did the flowers every week. He had seen her. Without fail, every Sunday, the dying flowers would be changed for new ones and the wilting ones would be watered carefully until they perked up again. A tear crept into the corner of his eye. He wiped it away brusquely, got up and headed off to the city centre, coat billowing in the harsh winter breeze.

Gwen woke to the soft sound of Rhys snoring. She smiled and slipped out of bed, quietly making it into the shower. It was Rhys' day off and she didn't want to disturb him. She managed to get herself ready for work, heading downstairs she suddenly heard a little thump followed by a "scuffle-scuffle" sound. She smiled, turning around to head back up the stairs. Gwen poked her head in her son's room and smiled as he stood at the door rubbing his eyes. She was reminded of the day he was born:

"I can't believe it! I've got a son." Rhys repeatedly murmured over and over again as he cradled the new-born in his arms. Gwen smiled, tired but completely happy. "What are we going to name him?" Rhys asked looking up. Gwen frowned, exhaustion clouding her thoughts. "We could call him Rhys Junior?" Rhys continued,

"You could be a little more original than that, Rhys." Gwen sighed. Rhys frowned and handed the little bundle back to his mother.

"He's my first son; I thought Rhys Junior would be brilliant."

"I thought perhaps an old Welsh name would be better." Gwen answered, "Dillon or Daffyd or something like that."

"I think my great-great-great-great uncle or something was called Mordwywr?"

"Rhys, I'm not calling my baby a name that when he's a teenager can be nick-named Mord. Like Maude, a hairy aunty you never want to kiss." Gwen frowned contemplating.

"Oh, yeah, I see what you mean." They both sighed deeply again. For months they had been considering names but had not decided on anything.

"He has to have a name before we leave the hospital." Gwen stated simply.

"Ok, but I still think Rhys Junior would be cool. When he's a teenager, his friends will just call him Jay or something." Rhys tried again. Gwen thought about it while she watched her baby snuggle into her arms, sleeping softly.

"Ianto would have helped me with a name." She murmured, her eyes brimming slightly at the memory of her baby talks with Ianto. "I always promised him he could be a Godfather." She smiled still thinking of old times, "And Tosh. Tosh would have loved to have been a Godmother." She choked a little on her tears.

"Hey now, shh," Rhys came closer and cuddled her and the baby soothingly. He sat comforting her for a few minutes as her tears dried up. "You know, we could always call him Ianto if you wanted." Rhys suggested. Gwen looked up and thought for a few moments.

"I don't know." She said unsurely, "I don't know if I want the memory."

"Look, how about we call him Rhys Ianto Williams. Then he can be Jay for short, and when he's older he'll just be Rhys Jr. So he'll still have a Welsh name." Rhys tried one last time. "And come on, lover, we can always call the next one Dillon." Rhys winked. Gwen laughed and gave in, "Fine, fine! Rhys Ianto Williams it is." The couple smiled at each other. "Little baby Jay." Gwen whispered.

"Sweetie, are you all right?" Gwen asked Jay, smiling as the little boy continued to rub sleep from his eyes.

"Mmm." He managed to mumble.

"That's about the same response I get from your Dad a lot." Gwen continued to smile. Jay looked up and smiled too,

"Is it time for breakfast Mummy?" he asked, a little more awake now.
"Certainly is." Gwen replied taking his hand and leading him down the stairs.

Jay munched on his cereal happily as Gwen continued getting ready for work and making sure Jay's school things were all together. As she got his correspondence folder out, she noticed a slip of paper. She pulled it out, reading it as she went along. "Jay, did you forget to give me this?" She held the slip of paper up with the Parent-Teacher meeting date and time on it, that was actually today after school.

"Oh yeah, I did." Jay said casually continuing to eat his cereal. Gwen rolled her eyes.

Finally all ready, Gwen left the house with Jay in tow. They got into the car and headed off to Gwen's first destination: school. "Mum, are we going to go feed Myfanwy after school today?" Jay asked.

"No, we've got a Parent meets Teacher thing to go to after school today." Gwen answered automatically, before backtracking, "Jay, you don't talk about Myfanwy at school do you?"

"I used to but people don't think she's real and think I'm talking about a toy so I don't bother anymore." Jay said a little sadly. Gwen glanced over at him.

"Thing is Jay, people don't really understand Mummy's job and sometimes you know more about the world than a lot of adults do. But adults always think they know best so it's better to just agree with them rather than get into trouble, understand?" She explained gently.

"I do. Mummy did you know that I am the only seven year old that knows what a Rift in Time and Space is?"

"How do you know that?" Gwen smiled at Jay's little outburst of knowledge.

"Because at school I asked everybody in my class and they thought it was the name of a new rocket." Jay explained simply.

"Well that might be because all the other kids' parents don't take them to work." Gwen replied, "And I'm starting to think neither should I, you are far too clever for your own good, and I have no idea where you get it from, because it's not from me and it's certainly not from your Dad." Gwen said uncertainly.

"I think it's because I'm seven, Mum. Teachers at school say our brains are like sponges, and when we're seven we can soak up more than older sponges."

"I see. Unfortunately your sponge is soaking up a lot more water than I ever imagined it would."

"Did you also know Mummy; I'm the only one at school that knows what TARDIS stands for? Time And Relative Dimensions In Space." Jay burst again.

"Where did you learn that?" Gwen asked sharply,

"It was on your computer at work, I accidentally clicked the wrong file and this whole thing came up about it, really interesting actually. And there was this profile of this man who's got one, I really want one too. Not even the teachers knew what it meant when I asked them." Gwen looked at Jay in awe as she pulled up outside the school. He looked back steadily completely unaware of his bizarre knowledge. "So anyway Mum, when are we going to feed Myfanwy?" Gwen shook her thoughts,

"Um, I'll get Lois to feed her tonight, you can come help me another night after school when you haven't got any homework." Gwen replied still gaping at her son.

"Ok then, bye Mum!" He called as he left the car.

Gwen sat back in her seat and let out a long breath. Jay was far too clever for an average seven year old. She was going to have to look into this. How much had he taken on board when he came to work with her? She always said she would never let a child of hers enter a world of danger like the one she worked in but when she was stuck for a babysitter one day, she had no choice. Jay had loved it so much as well. He was fascinated by everything, asking questions, and when he got home, begging to be allowed to go back again sometime. Suddenly it became a regular thing. Friday after school he would get picked up and stay at work with Mum until she'd finished. Learnt how to feed the Pteranodon safely and even work the computer files at seven years old. Gwen started to worry now if it was too much too soon for the little boy. She drove off contemplating what to do.

She got to the police station and parked in her usual spot. She headed up to her office and shut the door. She sat down in her comfy chair and blew out a long breath. She thought back to where this had all started.

After the five days of terror, Gwen had absolutely no idea what to do. She knew that you couldn't do another job after Torchwood. But she had no choice. She returned to her old job and was back on the beat with PC Andy Davidson who was delighted to have her back. She didn't intend on staying though. Work depressed Gwen for months, but when her bank statements came in she noticed that her Tochwood salary was still being fed to her account. She started to plan then. Thanks to Ianto, she still had the Tochwood technology on the laptop used in the warehouse. As well as other things she had scvanged. She worked her way up in the police force and now in an office of her own she had restarted Torchwood Three, with help from her new assistant Lois Habiba. After the bomb site was cleared, Gwen had returned to see what was left of the hub. It took a lot of effort for her to go back. She stood outside the Tourist Information office for a long time. Finally she entered and went down to the Hub. The cog wheel was still firmly in place, apart from the glass which had been blown out and still lay on the floor. She held her breath waiting to see if the cog wheel would open or whether it's circuits had been blown to pieces. She closed her eyes as the familiar sound of the wheel churning back to allow her past reached her ears. She sighed, wishing it could be like it used to be and she would see Toshiko tapping lightly on a keyboard, Jack swooning around, Ianto tidying somewhere ready to make her his best coffee and she would be able to hear Owen moaning about something down in the medical bay. But the image of ghosts that had haunted her dreams were not reflected in the old Hub as she opened her eyes. There was nothing left but ash and rubble. The place was nearly completely caved in. Overhead she knew that the council had redone the plass and the fountain had been rebuilt but down here…

She breathed shallow breaths so as not to fill her lungs with the dust. She felt the tears prick the corner of her eyes, threatening to overspill any second. The memories she had of this place were so precious. There was literally nothing left. The only suriving thing was the Rift itself, though it could no longer be monitored using the tower. She had no idea what had fallen through the Rift, how many weevils that could have possibly gone rogue and no archives to help her. Then again…

Climbing through the rubble heading to the long tunnels that had held Torchwood's archives, she knew most of them would be ash on the floor, but this was Torchwood, it should be ready for things like this. Her footsteps echoed slightly off the concrete walls that were still in place and had managed not to crumble during the explosion. She kept planting one foot in front of the other, her breathing picking up pace as she entered the long winding tunnel. "This is Torchwood. Jack says you have to be ready. So this place must have been ready." Gwen said aloud. She continued walking. The walls were black from the explosion. The continued down. It was completely bare. Any shelving, or storage or anything that had previously been along these walls had been completely destroyed in the blast.

Gwen kept going forward wondering how far the explosion had gone when she spotted something. The first solid object she had seen since she came down that was neither rubble or ash; it was a lone piece of paper. Lying on the floor, she wandered if the energy from the explosion had caused it to be blown from its place like a gust of wind. She bent down slowly and picked it up, its heading read: TORCHWOOD REPORT

Gwen smiled at the piece of paper as it sat beautifully undamaged in her hand. She drove onwards trying to find more pieces from the archives, in hope of discovering more paper, and even praying for perhaps an artefact or other object from her old work place.

Gwen shook her head to regain her thoughts. She had a habit of daydreaming nowadays. Memories would just play in the front of her mind from times gone. She started her computer and made a conscious effort to do some work. A cup of coffee was brought to her desk by a rookie scurrying around. She took a sip and coughed. It was luke-warm, instant and far too milky. It was at times like these when she missed Ianto Jones the most and often felt guilty for only wanting her co-worker back just for his coffee sometimes. She smiled and tipped the coffee into a flower pot that someone had placed conveniently on her desk for some reason unbeknown.

Jack continued his stroll in Cardiff. He had certainly missed it during his travels. He walked past the fountain that once had held the secret beneath it that had become his life. It had been redesigned. It was quite different now. For some reason this made him feel a little sad. It felt as though Torchwood had never existed. He continued with his walk not wanting to stop and reminisce. He seemed to walk for miles around the Welsh city and was just walking past the police station when he saw a sight that flashed a vivid memory at him. An SUV parked in a space near the station caught his eye. It was a black range rover with a number plate he had been sure he would never see again; CF06 FDU. That was his car.