The streets of Cardiff were silent, expect for the sound of the pouring rain. I was leaning up against a building, hiding my face behind the hood of my dark sweatshirt and the black curls dipping in front of my eyes. I was watching the only people that would possibly be out on a night like this, the police. They had blocked off the whole road with blinking lights and yellow tape. People with bright yellow shirts and big black hats were walking around and a small crowd with umbrella's was gathered up against the tape. These people were so stupid. It was just another stupid murder in another stupid city. It was really pouring now, but I was pretty safe under the awning of this restaurant.

I noticed the police retreating from under the tape and then a huge black van pulled in. It had silver letter on the side, TORCHWOOD. Well, this was different. Four people dressed in dark clothes without hoods to shield them from the ran, jumped out. There was two men and two woman, one of the woman was carrying a briefcase. They looked more like superheros's then police. I noticed one of them men was wearing a trench coat that looked like it had stepped out of world war two. Had these people walked out of the theater? The man noticed me looking at him, I put my head down quickly. I didn't want to be noticed, especially not by police that would take me back to Bates.

Bates was my newest daddy. As long as I could remember I'd been shuffled in and out of foster homes, only to be given back because I was 'a danger to the family's living conditions' or 'I was a disrespectful little shit who didn't obey the rules of the house.' Last month, they'd shipped me off here, to a whole nother continent where the accents were like they were speaking a different language. 'A whole new life,' Mrs. Myers, the woman who owned the orphanage in Maine that they always sent me back to had said. And it wasn't to bad here. Sure, my American accent stood out like a sore thumb and I still couldn't figure out what a wanker was, but besides that, I liked this city. The only bad part was Bates. Tonight, I'd spilled a glass of water on the carpet and he'd hit me so hard that I fell onto the ground. Then I'd run out and I wasn't going back this time.

I'd run away from Bates many times in the past month, but these stupid police always brought me back. Bates would act all nice when they shoved me in the door, like he'd been totally worried about me. Then he'd lock me in my room and wouldn't give me anything to eat for forty eight hours. I knew hanging around police probably wasn't the best idea for me right now, but it was the only dry spot I could find and it was close to 2am, I was smart enough not to walk down any alleys. People had always told me I was smart for twelve, smarter then I should be and that I should keep my mouth shut.

When I looked up, trench coat was still looking at me. This time, I didn't look away. I stared right back at him until he broke the gaze. He was hansom. What were they doing over there, just the four of them around a dead body in the pouring rain? And why were all the police standing on the outskirts with the crowd of civilians? It was much to tempting to resist. I left my dry corner, darting across the empty street and into the parking garage. If I went up, I could look down at the murder scene and see what they were doing. Unlucky for me, someone was already there.

It was a woman in a police uniform, looking over the rail. She seemed to be the only one of the police who had any sense around here. Obviously, I couldn't stick around. But as I turned, so did she.

"What are you doing up here?" she demanded. I thought about running, I should diffidently be running, but if I ran, where would I go? Back out onto the street to wait and be brought back to my own personal hell? I was getting a look at a dead body first.

"I wanted to see the body," I said simply. This seemed to surprise her, some kid alone in a parking garage at night wanting to see a dead body. Maybe it was weird to her, but it wasn't to me. I mean, why not? It was a dead body and I'd never seen one. Plus, that man was the most interesting thing I'd seen all night. I walked past her, over to the rail.

"Get back here!" she said sharply.

"Shh," I hushed. "The'll hear you." They were forming an odd little circle around the dead man. The woman with the briefcase was pulling something out of it. At first I thought it was a hand, but it was silver. Some kind of weird glove? The cop lady seemed to have lost attention in me, she was leaning over the rail beside me, watching them.

"How's it going?" Trench coat asked. He was American! This guy kept getting better. The woman was putting the glove on, sitting on the pavement above the dead man's head.

"Nothing yet, I've gotta feel it." Feel what? The fact that you're sitting on cold, wet, pavement? "I can't just flip a switch, it's more like accuses. It grants me accuses." She gasped, then put the gloved hand under the dead man's head. The pouring rain suddenly stopped, just stopped. Rain wasn't suppose to do that. Then the dead man's eyes flew open.

"Wholly shit," I muttered.

"What the hell is going on?" the dead, or should be dead, man said."

"Listen to me," said the other woman, an Asian girl. "We've only got two minutes, so it's important that you listen. You're dead."

"How am I dead?"

"You were stabbed," the other man said.

"I'm not dead, I can see you!"

"We brought you back, but we haven't got long." Asian girl said. "Who did this to you?"

"But why am I dead? I don't want to be dead!"

"Who killed you, did you see them?"

"I don't know, they were standing behind me."

"So you didn't see anything?" They all looked up at trench coat. He seemed to be the boss of these crazy people. He knelt beside the man.

"What's your name?

"John."

"Okay John. Not long now."

"Who are you?"
"Captain Jack Harkness." Captain? Who went around calling themselves a captain? "Tell me, what was it like when you died? What did you see?"

"Nothing. I saw nothing. Oh my god, there's nothing!" Then the man went limp. The rain started pouring again and I couldn't hear the voices over the sound.

"Maybe there's no right way of doing it!" The captain shouted over the rain, as if he wanted me and the cop lady to hear him... "What do you two think?!" Run, fucking run. I booked it out of the garage, cop lady had the sense to follow. Once I had run far enough a way for my liking, I stopped, gasping for air.

"Did you see that?!" I shouted. "That guy was dead, right? You police people came because that guy'd been murdered and then that woman just-"
"I saw it," she said in a heavy welsh accent. She was silent for a moment, leaning up against the side of a building. "Where are your parents then? It's almost 3 in the morning."

"Don't have any," I said offhand.

"Then where do you live?"

"Why do you want to know all these personal questions about me now, some man just got resurrected!"

"Because I'm a cop and there's a little girl alone in the rain," she responded calmly. "I can drive you home, if you'd like?"

"No!" I snapped quickly. "I mean, I'll just walk. Thanks for the offer." I stopped as I started to walk away. Only the two of us had seen this..thing. I didn't want to loose this lady, or at least I didn't want to leave without knowing her name.

"I'm Ali, Ali Hale," I said.

"Gwen Cooper."

"Nice meeting you Gwen Cooper." I smiled and walked away.

I spent the night in a subway station, not sleeping at all, just watching the rain's go back and forth from my dirty bench. After a few hours, I went up to meet to walk around, the sun would be up now. As soon as I stepped out from the subway steps, I saw a blue trench coat running past me. No way. I chased after him, not really considering what would happen if I actually caught up. He ran into the police building. I paused outside the door. No way was I going in there, not even to find the Captain guy who could bring people back to life. But then I saw a familiar figure. It was the cop woman from last night, Gwen Cooper.

"Gwen!" I shouted. She was looking at the staircase where he'd disappeared, she'd saw him to. I ran in the doors, towards her.

"You again," she said. "Stay right here." She headed up the steps after him.

"No way, I found him first!" I pushed past her. I stopped at a door covered in white plastic.

"Excuse me," Gwen said, leaning over the stairs to talk to a janitor. "It's all celled off up there, who did that?"

"I thought it was you lot?"

"But what's it for, what happened?" I asked.

"I don't know, nine o'clock this morning it was all celled off. Chemicals or something." He walked away. I pushed past the plastic.

"Ali!" Gwen shouted after me. "This is a private area, you can't be up here." I gave her a look. "It's not safe," she corrected.

"Not safe for you either," I pointed out. "Looks like we're both not safe, we can both be unsafe together." I spotted a figure at the other end of the hall.

"Sorry, we're just looking for someone," Gwen called to him, putting her hands on my shoulders as she pushed past me. As we got closer, I could see that he was wearing some type of halloween monster mask. Was this some sort of sick prank? "Anyway, I don't know if you saw a man come through here?" Gwen asked. "A tall man in of those big, sort of military coats?" The masked man didn't move. He just stared us. This was really creepy, but Gwen kept going closer "Are you alright? That's good, that's a good mask sort of thing. Look, I'm sorry if we're interrupting something, but I think we can stop this now." This thing had animal eyes. And the eyes were't part of the mask, they were real eyes. Was it really a mask? I grabbed onto the back of Gwen's shirt. People were coming back from the dead, could there not be monsters too? "We're looking for a man in a big gray coat," she said. The thing growled at us. Then I heard the plastic moving and the janitor came through.

"Ah, there you are. I did ask, and my boss said it was nothing about the police and then I asked about chemicals and he said I was stupid, no chemicals. Who've you got with you there, then? So much for sealing it off. There's a face, nice one. You two alright? Bloody hell, that is brilliant!" The man walked towards the thing.

"I think you should step back," I said quietly.

"Look, it's just like real teeth!" The monster lunged, bitting the janitor's neck. Blood spattered all over the floor and he started screaming, echoing my own. Trench coat came out of nowhere, grabbed me around my waist and throwing me over his shoulder. He grabbed Gwen's arm, carrying me and dragging her back towards the plastic.

"Go, go, go, go, go!" I heard other voices as my feet hit the ground again and I saw the the people from last night before the plastic shut in front of me. Gwen grabbed my hand, pulling me behind her down the stairs. She jumped into her police car.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Get in!" The black van was already pulling away. We followed it onto the M5. Gwen put her headset on.

"The only Captain Jack Harkness is American," I heard a woman say through it.

"That's it, he's American!"

"American volunteer. Except he disappeared, went off the records, presumed dead."

"When was that?"

"1941 at the hight of the blitz. Never seen again until now. What's going on, Gwen, you seeing ghosts?" I glanced at her. We were pulling up the melamine center. A very pissed off looking man came up to us.

"Oi, you can't leave that there."

"Police."

"I can see that love, and you're still not leaving it there. I'm talking to you, move your bloody car!"

"Piss off," I told him, following her to where the team had disappeared. It started pouring, so we took refugee in the car.

"Will your parents, or whoever looks after you, will they be looking for you?" Gwen asked. I smiled.

"No. He doesn't care. To be honest, I'm not living anywhere right now. I slept in a subway station last night." She smiled, which confused me because I thought she would freak out.

"I know. I looked into you last night, Ali Hale. Rule one, never tell a police officer your name. Man named Mr. Bates reported you missing last night, and the week before that, and the week before that. You're a foster kid from America, twelve years old, no parents."

"Well, you're noisy," I said, glancing out my window. I saw a man walking towards us. He opened up my door.

"I walked," he said, looking at Gwen with dagger eyes. "I bloody walked. Who the hell are you then?"

"Ali," I said, carful not say my last name. "Hello." Gwen lead him out of the car, signaling for me to stay. The rain was starting to clear up. The stupid rain patterns here were making me crazy. Was it going to rain or not? I watched Gwen pleading with the man outside the car. She seemed to be pleading with him. I hooped in the back seat as they came back. The man, who's name was Andy, dropped us off at Gwen's flat.

"We're going back, aren't we?" I asked as she walked around to garage where her car was.

"Well, I am."

"I'm going too!" I argued.

"Stay with my boyfriend and me. No more subway stations."

"I'm not going to impose on your life."

"I'll make you a deal then," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "You agree to stay with me, and I'll let you come." Man, she was good. I shrugged and she smiled. "I'll be right back. I'll tell Rhys that I have to look after you for some police thing, alright? I can even tell him you're a foster kid, won't be to much of a lie. You wait in the car."

"Okay." I couldn't help but smile. No one had ever cared enough about what happened to me to lie to their boyfriend before. When she came back out, we drove back to the melamine center. She paced around while I sat in the car with the heat on, watching the building, but not willing to walk around, it was cold. I saw a man on a motorcycle delivering pizza and got an idea.

"Hey, Gwen," I called out the window. I signaled for her to come into the car, then she shut the door. Torchwood could be listening, after all. "What if we go ask that pizza place across the street if they ever deliver to them? You're a cop, they'll tell you."

"That's brilliant," she said with a smile. "Come on then." We walked into the little store, a teenage boy was behind the counter.

"Gwen Cooper, CIT," she said, showing him her badge. "I'm making some inquiries around the bay, I need to check some people out on your list if that's okay. I don't suppose you deliver to a Captain Jack Harkness?" The boy shook his head.

"I don't know."

"Well, could you have a look?" The boy pressed some keys on his computer.

"No, he's not a regular, anyway."

"Okay, never mind, thanks anyway," Gwen said, heading out.

"What about Torchwood?" I asked.

"Alright. We do them all the time," he told me. "Good customers."

"Can we have a pizza?" I asked.

"I should bring you along more often," Gwen whispered, the pizza under her arm. "Could use you in the office."

"Thanks," I said beaming.

"Now stay out here and wait for me." I rolled my eyes.

"No way, it was my idea."

"Ali, you saw how dangerous it can be, it would be wrong for me to let you go in there."

"So?"

"So you're staying out here." I made a pouty face, then grabbed the pizza from her, pushing the door open before she could stop me. There was a man behind the counter. It looked like a normal office.

"Oh hi, sorry I'm late," Gwen said quickly, snatching the box back. "Someone ordered pizza?"

"Who's it for?" The man asked. He hadn't been with the others on last night, or the night before with the dead man.

"I think it's a Mr. Harkness," Gwen said. Suddenly, the wall next to us opened.

"Don't keep him waiting," the man said. Gwen started down the passage and I followed. She slipped her hand backwards, into mine, holding the box under her arm. Another door hissed open. It was circler with a couple of steps down. Inside, was the coolest room I'd ever seen in my life. It looked kind of like an army base, there were loose wires everywhere, water dripping from the celling. But it was huge. Something bubbled next to me and I looked to see a hand in a jar. I gripped Gwen's hand a little tighter. Blue sparks were flying off a desk where woman was hunched over something, a huge tower went up through the middle of the room. The woman stopped when we walked in. And there was the Captain, walking like were invisible, over to a desk and looking at some papers. The Japanese woman was at a computer, the second man next to her. She started giggling.

"I can't do this, I'm sorry!" The man turned in his chair. "I'm rubbish, I give up."

"He set me off!" The Japanese girl accused.

"Well, that lasted not but two point seconds," the other woman sighed, disappointed.

"Look, she's actually carrying pizza," the man laughed.

"Come on!" The captain was getting up from his desk. "They were going to say, here's your pizza and I was going to say how much and she says, I don't know, twenty quid and I say ooo I don't have any money. I was working on a punchline, had I got there. But it would have been good."

"Here's your pizza, I think we'd better go," Gwen said, gripping my hand.

"I think we've gone past that stage." Jack said sharply.

"You must have been freezing out there," The English woman said. "How long where you walking round, three hours?"

"You could see us?" I asked. She nodded.

"And before we go any further, who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?" The boss demanded.

"Uh, yeah, that would be me," the man said awkwardly.

"That man at the hospital, that porter, what happened to him?" Gwen asked. "That was real, wasn't it? He was attacked?"
"He's dead," Jack said unsympathetically.

"But there's no one gone missing."
"We took the body and retrozspetivly changed the work route, planted a false witness who saw him leaving the hospital, giving him an alaby for the next forty eight hours, so when his body's pulled out of the docks next Tuesday night, he's only been missing for three days."

"He was murdered, and you covered it up?"

"It's my job," she said offhandedly.

"What about that other man, John Tucker?" I asked. "In the alleyway last night, we saw you."

"And what did you see?" Jack asked me, stepping forward.

"You revived him."

"No, what did you see?" I gulped.

"You retested him."

"No." He looked me right in the eye. "What did you see?"

"You brought him back to life." My voice was really quiet now. He nodded.

"Yeah."

"Who are you?" Gwen demanded.

"Torchwood."

"What's Torchwood?"

"This is Torchwood. All around you."

"And what happens to us? I'm police, you can't do anything."

"Right then PC Cooper, do you want to come see? You saw the murder, come and see the murderer." He started to walk away and I followed.

"Ali!" Gwen snapped after me. I heard a screeching noise above me.

"Is that a dinosaur?!" I asked, watching it swoop over us.

"Taradactul," Jack corrected, putting his hands on my shoulders. "Coming?" I followed him down a flight of steps, Gwen closely behind me. Then I saw the monster, the thing from earlier that had killed the porter, but it was in a cage.

"It's alright, it's sedated. It's called a weevil, or at least we call them weevils. We don't know their real name because they're not to good at communicating. We've got a couple hundreds of them living in the city in the swears. But every once in a while one of them goes rouge, comes to the surface and attacks. It's been happening more and more and we have no idea why. But it's alien."

"Cool," I muttered, putting my hands up against the glass that separated me from it.

"Look into it's eyes," Jack told Gwen. She shook her head, standing back and looking sick. So Jack tried with me instead. "Take your time." It looked back at me. "It was born on a different world, and it's real." I turned and grinned at him. Gwen did not seem amused. Maybe it was time to go now, even though I really didn't want to. If she fainted, I'd be alone and I didn't trust these people, not yet. Jack lead us back upstairs.

"Owen Harper-"

"Doctor Owen Harper, thank you," he corrected. Jack ignored him.

"Tosheko, computer genus, Suzie Costello, she's second in command. And this is Ianto Jones. Ianto cleans up after us and gets us everywhere on time."

"I try my best."

"And he looks good in a suit."

"Carful, that's harassment, sir."

"But why are you telling us their names?" Gwen asked. "We're not suppose to know, are we? This classified."

"Way beyond classified."

"Then you shouldn't be telling us." She did have a point. "What are you going to do to us?"

"What do imagine?" Jack smiled. I was starting to get a little nervous.

"Well, we've seen to much, your names, the weevil. You could dump a man out in the water and lie about his death." Jack started giving orders. He stopped when he got to me.

"I don't know your name," he said with a smile.

"You didn't ask." He snickered.

"What's your name?"

"Ali Hale." He wasn't a police officer, after all. He got a strange look on his face.

"Hale?" he asked. I nodded. He turned to Gwen. "You're coming with me, you, kid, you're going with Suzie. Suzie, show her to my office."

"No way," Gwen said. "She's not leaving me sight."

"It's fine," I muttered.

"No, it's not."

"Gwen," I sighed.

"Hey," Jack said. "I'll look after her." She could tell she didn't have a choice, she wasn't winning this one. They left, Gwen glancing back at me as she went. I smiled, letting her know that I wasn't scared about being left here on my own. I followed Suzie up a set of steps into a small office.

"You can wait here," she told me, gesturing to an arm chair across from the desk.

"Thanks." She stood in the doorway. The others were leaving, but I guessed she had to watch me. What would I do if I was alone in this place anyway? That Taradactul might eat me. Suzie walked over to a small cooler across the room.

"Do you want seven up, coke, water or some type of purple juice?" she asked, smiling politely back at me.

"Coke please," I said. She handed it back to me, sitting down on top of the desk. I wondered if she'd do that if Jack was in the room. She seemed to be studying me and it was kind of making me nervous. I sipped my coke a little awkwardly.

"How old are you?" she asked randomly.

"Twelve." She frowned, the shook her head sadly.

"Why doesn't he just erase your memory?" she said more to herself.

"Erase my memory?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "We have a drug called ricoden. Makes you forget everything you saw, everything you did, everyone you spoke to in the last twenty four hours. That's what he's doing to Gwen right now."

"But that's not fair!" I said. "She doesn't want to forget, that's taking away freewill!" I realized suddenly that meant that Gwen would forget me too. Suzie chuckled.

"You're to smart for twelve," she accused. "What happened to you in your life that made you grow up? Where are your parents?"

"Why do you want to know?" I snapped. I didn't like this place anymore, I had to get out of this place before they made Gwen forget me. But there was no way this lady was letting me out of her sight.

"Who hurt you?" she asked quietly. I looked up at her, confused. She jumped off the desk, picking up my left wrist and moving the sleeve of my sweatshirt back, reveling an angry purple bruise. I quickly pulled it back down.

"Must have tripped or something," I said. She nodded, a smile on her face.

"I use to lie like that all time. Who hurt you?" she repeated her question.

"I live, or I lived with a jerk foster guy, okay?" I said, rubbing my arm. She'd found one of many bruises, but I could tell from the look on her face she knew exactly what I hid under all the layers I wore.

"So you don't have parents?" she asked. I shook my head.

"They shipped me here from America, if you hadn't figure that out. The guy they put me with was a jerk, so I ran away and then I met Gwen."

"And now we're taking her memories away," she realized. She sat back on the desk, looking at me sympathetic. I hated when people did that, looked at me like I was a ticking time bomb or some underprivileged little kid.

"So why did you use to lie then?" I demanded.

"My father was not a nice person," she replied simply. I had a feeling that was all she was going to tell me. I'd told her about my life, why wouldn't she tell me about hers? It was maybe a half an hour before Jack pushed open the door to his office.

"You can go home now Suzie," he said, not looking at me as he sat behind his desk.

"You better pay me extra for this," she said, winking at me as she closed the door behind her. Jack looked up at me, studying me the same way Suzie had.

"Did you erase Gwen's memory?" I asked. He smiled, glancing towards the door.

"What else did she tell you?"

"Nothing, did you make her forget or not?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you make me forget?"

"I'll make you a deal. You answer one of my questions and I'll answer one of yours." Really, I'm not fucking five.

"How old are you?" Why did everybody want to know how old I was? Did it matter, I looked like a kid, I was a kid, the end.

"Twelve," I answered. He sat back in his chair, looking at me thoughtfully.

"My turn," I said. "Why didn't you make me forget?"

"Because you remind me of someone I knew, and I'd like to figure out who you are. You said your last name was Hale? What was your mother's name?"

"I don't know," I replied honestly. "I never met her."

"What about your father, did you meet him?"

"It's my turn." He chuckled lightly, but waited. "Where do all these alien's come from and why do you collect them?"

"That's two questions, choose one."

"Seriously?" I asked. He nodded. "Fine, where do they come from?"

"There's a rift in time and space that goes through this city." It sounded ridiculous, but I believed him. "Did you ever meet your father?"

"No. My turn. Why do you collect these aliens?"

"Because that's what Torchwood does."

"That's not a real answer."

"You didn't give me a real one either."

"I told you the truth, I never met my father and I have no idea who he is." I was getting tired of this game. "Why do you want to find you about me? Did you know my mother or something?"

"Well, I'm not sure, because I don't know her name."

"Couldn't you find it?" I asked. "I saw all the hacking stuff you've got on your computers. You could look through thousands of data files, couldn't you?"

"You're good," he said. "You figured that out from a glance?" He came around the side of his desk, kneeling next to my chair. "What did you do to your arm?"

"Nothing." I put my hand over it, but he moved it aside, rolling up my sleeve to revile an arm full of bruises and cuts. He got an angry look on his face.

"Who did this to you?" he demanded.

"Ask Suzie." I angrily pulled my sleeve back down. He stood up, offering me his hand. I took it, seeming as I didn't really have a choice. He lead me back down the steps and then down another into a medical looking area.

"I'm fine!" I sighed. "There just bruises, I'm not going to die." He ignored this, lifting me onto the table. He rummaged around in a draw for a second, then turned back to me.

"Close your eyes," he ordered.

"Why?"

"I'm going to figure out who you are, Ali Hale, so close your eyes."
"No way!" He dropped whatever he was holding in his hand back in the draw and came over to me.

"Twelve and a half years ago, knew a woman named Isabelle Hale," he told me. "We had a relationship, and then she suddenly disappeared, leaving a note saying she had to protect her baby. Protect it from me. You're smart, do you understand what that means?"

"Yeah," I said. "You got this lady pregnant and she was smart enough to get the hell out before he messed up her life like you're doing with Gwen's and mine. But that doesn't mean anything, there are lots of people named Hale."

"Right," he said. "Doesn't mean anything that you look just like her, you act like her, you never knew either of your parents, you're American, you're the right age, and we have the exact same eyes." I looked up at him. His eyes were an electric blue, the exact same color as mine. I gulped. No way that he could be, way to much of a conduce. Out of all the places I could come to in the world, out of all the people I could meet. There were lots of Hales. "Close your eyes," he said again. And this time I did. I heard him go back over the the draw and then come back. Something cold touched my arm, and ten I felt a prick and I winced, but I didn't open my eyes. He moved away from me again and I stayed motionless on the table and waited. I heard his breath catch and I felt a tear dripping down my cheek. He came back, his hands coming over mine while I still kept m eyes closed.

"Do you know who you are now?" he asked me quietly. I nodded, eyes still clamped shut. I felt him move a strand of hair away from my face and then whip the tear on my cheek away.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"I don't know."

This place was so weird. I wasn't sure how long I'd slept for, there were no windows to tell me weather it was night or day, they'd apparently left me alone because I couldn't find anyone, and there were no god forsaken clocks in this whole place! While look, I had given myself a little tour, though. The glove was sitting on a desk that I assumed to be Suzie's. I considered leaving it, I should really leave it. Bu they really shouldn't have left me here alone. I ran the cold medal over in my hands.

"Pretty cool, huh?" the voice startled me and I dropped the glove with a clang back onto the desk. Suzie looked back at me, an amused smile on her face.

"I thought you went home," I said awkwardly.

"I did, last night. It's morning now, or it was. Sun just went down, you slept a long time."

"Oh."

"Do you want to see how it works?" She picked it up, slipping it on her hand. I was worried it would explode or something. She pointed to a dead fly lying on her desk. She waved the glove over it. It twitched, flipped it self over and flew over my head. "What to see something else?" she asked, grabbing a black bag and putting the glove in it.

"Are you allowed to take that out of here?" I asked.

"Of course," she smiled at me, then grabbed my arm, leading me towards the door. There was something the speed she was walking, just the urgency to her movements that was making me nervous. She didn't let go of my arm, even when we got outside into the real world again. She suddenly stopped.

"Wait right here," she ordered.

"Why?"

"Just wait," she said, walking away.

"Hello again," I heard Suzie's voice from the other side of the fountain. "You were right. You told Jack we should lays with the police, I was the only one who bothered, so I was the only one who saw your report." I peeked through the water. Gwen! But didn't Jack erase her memory? I was about to run out, when I saw Suzie reach into her bag, and pull out a huge silver knife.

"I'm arresting you for... how do I know you?" So they erased her memory. I stayed hidden, watching them. If I ran out now, I'd be in the same situation as Gwen.

"I thought you might have seen it," Suzie said. "And that can trick the agnismia, just one spastic image if you're clever. He said you were good. Anyway, it's not much good now, I can't really... You're gonna put up a fight, so I've got to." She put the knife back in her bag, but came out with a shotgun.

"Put it down," I heard Gwen say.

"You had to come back."

"Put down the gun."

"You're the only one who can make the link. Well, the only one in public. Torchwood's gonna find out by morning, but I'll be gone. I don't know where, far away." I heard her voice break. "What am I gonna do? I loved this job, I really loved it. And now I've got to run. How can you do any other job after this one?"

"Please put down the gun."

"Cause it gets inside you. You do this job for long enough and you end up thinking, how come we get all the weevils and blokes and shit? Is that what alien life is? Filth? Well, maybe there's better stuff out there. Brilliant stuff, beautiful stuff. But they don't come here. This planet's so dirty, all we get is shit."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She sounded really scared, but I couldn't move.

"I wish I could forget," she said.

"Why did you kill those people?" Gwen demanded.

"For the glove. I needed the bodies, that's how it works, violent death. It was so easy. To bring them back, I'd just position myself behind their head, so they'd never see me twice."

"You killed three people."

"It was the only way. The more I use the glove, the more I control it! If I can get enough practice, then think what the glove could do. If I could get it to work all the time, on anything for more then two minutes, to work permitly, it could resurrect! Well that's what I've been working for all day and all night. The rest of them go swilling about while I'm working. You gotta get inside this stuff. Surrender yourself to it. I did with the knife and the glove and that's why the perception filter isn't going to work on me." She shot off to the side and Jack's body fell onto the pavement. I let out an unintentional squeak and she turned on me.

"Ali, I'm so sorry." She pointed the gun on me.

"Suzie?" I asked. She wouldn't shoot me.

"I've got to," she said. " I can't let you go, I've got to." She raised her gun, her hand on the trigger.

"Please don't," Gwen said from behind me, putting her hand on my arm. My whole body was shaking.

"Put down the gun." Jack was standing behind her, a bullet injury in his head, but he was standing. And then his skin just kind of came back, as if there was never a wound there in the first place. He held out his hand to Suzie.

"Give me the gun, it's over. Come with me." She looked back, her eyes meeting mine. Gwen's hand was grasping mine so tight I was loosing feeling. Suzie raised the gun to her throat and before Jack could move to stop her, she pulled the trigger. I turned into Gwen's chest and her arms tightened around me.

"I remember," she whispered.

"Owen and Toshiko. You don't tell them that were shot in the head and survived."

"You didn't tell them either, you followed my lead. Keep doing that and you might just get through this." I was standing on a roof next to Jack Harkness, watching as the sun slowly crept up in the once dark sky.

"But she killed you. I saw her kill you." He looked at me almost sympathetically.

"I can't die."

"Okay,"I sighed, playing along.

"But I can't. Something happened to me a while back, a long story and far away. Maybe I'll tell you about it someday. But I was killed and then I was brought back to life and ever since then, I can't die."

"But how-"

"I don't know. One day I'll find a doctor, the right sort of doctor and maybe he can explain it, but until then-"

"Nothing kills you?"

"Well, it sort of creeps people out, so, best if you don't say anything. Just keep it between you, me and Gwen."

"But it doesn't matter," I sighed. "You'll only wipe her memory again."

"Why would I do that?" I turned to look at him. "I'm giving her a job, Torchwood's got a vacancy. What about you? Want to join up?"

"What?" I asked, not able to get anything out of my mouth.

"Well, what else am I going to do with you?" he asked. "You're to smart for me to recon you, plus you're my kid, I cant' just get rid of you. So what do you say? Do you want to join up?"

"Yeah. Yeah I do."