Ianto was the first one to say anything. Ten seconds had gone by in silence, before he stood up and said: "would anyone like some coffee?" That was what he did in these sort of situations. Not that there had ever really been a situation quite like this before. No one said anything for a few seconds, and then Jack said a quiet "thanks."

As he poured the hot water into the pot he bit down on the side of his mouth. He didn't understand how this was going to work. Well, no, that wasn't exactly true. How it was going to work was easy enough. The real question was why? No, wrong again. The real question, if he was honest, was the same one it had been from the very first day. Who the hell was Jack, and what had he done before they met him? Not the answer, whatever it was, would stop him helping, of course...

Gwen frowned, and shook her head a little.

"I don't like this," she said. "It feels sneaky."

"Who is she?" Owen piped up. "I'd at least like to know who I'm lying to. Not that it's the first time you've kept something from us…"

Jack looked down; crossing his arms, and gave a brief sigh. When he looked back up at them it was with conviction in his eyes. Gwen could tell he was debating whether or not he could tell them… well, whatever was going on. Tosh was studying him with the same look.

"Her name is Rose Tyler," Jack said finally. "I'd say she'd be twenty one or twenty two at the oldest, nineteen at the youngest. Mind you, I'm a little out of the loop…"

"Nineteen?" Tosh repeated. "What can she have gotten into at that age? Apart from the usual, I mean."

Jack laughed, and flashed a smile to the ceiling. "You have no idea," he said.

"That's just name and age," Owen said. "Tell us what it is she's done that means one of us has to pretend to be the boss."

Jack looked at the other man, cleared his throat, and then continued. "Like I said, she's come into some contact with some alien technology, and she needs help."

"What kind of alien technology?" Tosh said.

"I don't know."

"Well, what was she doing?" she asked.

"Don't know that either."

"What exactly do you know?" Owen said.

"Not a lot," Jack said. "Now there's someone else coming with her, and I need you to make sure I'm out of sight when he arrives."

"Why's that then?" Gwen asked.

"Because if I'm not, I just might kill him."

Ianto walked into the room with a tray of coffee, and placed it down onto the table.

"What did I miss?" he said.

"Apparently, our boss is going to do someone in," Owen said.

Ianto blinked. "Wonderful. Another fun day at the office then."

Jack was looking at the wall with a serious, thoughtful expression.

"I won't actually leave the base," he said, "I'll just be out of sight. I want to be patched into the cameras while you're examining her, alright?"

"All right," Tosh nodded. "I'll make sure they're all in working order."

"Gwen, you're the boss. Well, not really, but you know. Don't get too excited – I'll be watching the whole time. Oh and Owen?"

"Jack?"

"You better be nice to her… Gwen, I need to talk to you in my office."

"Okay," Gwen said, following him there.

Jack closed the door behind them, and sat down at the desk.

"You gonna tell me what's going on?" she asked.

"Rose can't find out I'm alive. She can't know you know me. Not a word, not a whisper. Understood?"

"Not understood at all, actually, but okay."

"You're going to pretend you know the man coming with her – otherwise how the hell would he know who we are? His name is the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Just Doctor. He's an alien. Very powerful, very intelligent, has a lot of friends and a lot of enemies. Total asshole, but brilliant. Got that?"

"Wait, did you just say he's an alien?"

"Yep. Looks human though, so it won't be a problem if you have to take him anywhere. Like off the edge of a cliff…"

"I take it you two don't get along."

Jack laughed a little bitterly. "I don't know… We used to be close, actually. At least I thought we were."

"Right," said Gwen, a little awkwardly. "But Rose doesn't know you know each other, is that right?"

"No, she knows. She was there with us. She just doesn't know I'm alive."

"But the Doctor does?"

"Yep."

"Okay... Jack," Gwen said slowly. "Is this, you know, your Doctor?"

Jack gave her a mysterious smile, and then continued: "He won't ask you about me while she's around. Remember not to say anything in front of her. Oh, and he'll be arriving in a TARDIS."

"In a what?"

"TARDIS. Stands for time and relative dimension in space... It's a big blue box."

"Okay… So how're we gonna get that downstairs then?"

"That won't be a problem."

The noise of the time ship filled the hub, sending loose pieces of paper up in the air.


Gwen stood with square shoulders, hoping she didn't look too amazed as the blue box someone came into existence. Ianto muttered something behind her, but she didn't have time to ask him what it was before the door swung open, and the man she had been waiting for stepped out. After Jack's description she had expected him to walk out full of bravado, act like they were best friends and swagger around a little, but instead he walked forward with steely eyed purpose and fixed her with an expression that made her stomach flip.

"Are you Gwen?" he asked. He was tall and skinny, dressed in a striped suit that was a little too small for his long frame, with wild hair he had clearly been running his hands through. He wasn't the sort of man you would think could send chills through someone as tough as Gwen. But he did. It was something behind his eyes... Alien, definitely.

"Yes," she said, eyes wide and unblinking.

He looked around the room for a second, before pointing at Owen, who was standing with amazement on his face.

"You," the Doctor said, "I need your help carrying... Gwen, has Jack told you what we need you to do?"

"Pretend I know you."

The Doctor looked at her, nodded, and said, "Thank you."

"You!" he clicked at Owen, "Hurry up!"

He ran back into the TARDIS. Owen hesitated for only a second before running in after him.

"Bloody hell! Look at this place!" they heard him say.

A few seconds afterwards he emerged with what looked like medical equipment in his arms. He walked over to the autopsy room quickly, as if he wanted to start running, and said to Gwen in a low voice as he passed her: "this isn't good."

Half a second later the Doctor emerged again, this time carrying a blonde girl in his arms. She was clearly, at the very least, unconscious. What wasn't clear was where she had been hurt, or how, only that it had been bad; her body sat limp and awkwardly, with dark purple bruising scattered all over her. He was carrying her so close to him it was hard to see anything more.

"Tell Jack I'm here," the Doctor looked at Tosh. "Please," he added.

"I don't think I need to," she said, pointing towards the camera.

The Doctor looked up at it with a stony expression, and gave a curt nod.

In his office, out of sight, Jack did the same.

"Over here!" Owen called, and the Doctor moved as quickly as he could, gently laying her down on the table.

Ianto followed the others over to the railing, looking down in silence. They watched as the Doctor, whoever he was, gently pushed the hair off the girl's face, and took her hand in his.

"I put her in status," he said to Owen, still looking at the girl. "When I take her out we'll only have a ten minutes before it's too late. Are you a good enough doctor?"

Owen smirked. "You clearly don't know me," he said.

The Doctor turned so sharply on his heel towards them that even the three above jumped a little.

"Don't be cocky," he said in a low voice. "Just tell me if you're good enough. Because there is no way in hell I'm letting you near her if you aren't. So are you good enough or not?"

Owen blinked. "Yes," he said, sincerely. "Yes, I am."

"Good man!" the Doctor said, suddenly smiling at him.

"Is there anything we can do?" said Tosh.

The stranger turned around. "Yes, there is. I need someone to monitor her while we do this. Can you do that?"

"Yes," she nodded quickly, running down the stairs to join them.

"What happened to her?" Ianto asked.

The Doctor had started setting up his equipment with a steely, focused expression. He didn't look at Ianto as he replied.

"It was my fault," he said. "I got arrogant, thought I could see things coming, talk my way out of anything. Turns out I can't, and Rose got caught in the middle."

"Jesus," Owen muttered to himself, as he cut open the girl's top to reveal the almost black wound in the center of her chest. "Get ready to start timing, Tosh."

The Doctor clenched his jaw for a moment, and then went back to his work with even more speed.

"Oh my god," Gwen said, covering her mouth, staring down at the decidedly wrong whole in the centre of the young girl's pale chest..

Ianto looked over at her just in time to see all the colour drain for her face. He grabbed her by the elbow and said quietly, "let's go over here."

He sat her down on the couch and asked her if she was going to be sick. She shook her head no. She didn't even notice him leaving her until he came back holding a glass of water. She took a slow sip and then said: "thanks."

"No problem."

"I don't know why that got to me so much… God knows we've seen worse here, haven't we?"

Ianto didn't say anything, just giving her a small smile.

"I think it was because I had been looking at her face before Owen opened her shirt… She looked young, didn't she?"

"Yeah, she did."

"Do you think she'll be alright?"

"I don't know. I hope so… Are you going to be okay here? I want to go check on Jack."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Go see how he is… I want to know what he knows about all this anyway."


Ianto knocked gently on Jack's door. When he opened it he saw his boss staring at the screen on his desk intently.

"Jack," he said softly.

Jack looked up. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to see if you were alright."

"I'm fine."

"Who - "

"Please don't ask me who he is," Jack said. "Because right now I have no idea…"

"Actually, I was going to ask who she is."

"You're more interested in her?" Jack's expression was unreadable.

"She's the one that's been hurt. And, well, Gwen said she looked young."

"I told you she'd be young."

"Rose Tyler," Ianto nodded. "Why can't she know you're alive?"

"Because it would hurt her."

Ianto frowned. "I can't imagine anyone wanting you dead, Jack," he said.

Jack laughed. "Thanks," he said, "but that's not the problem."

"Then what is the problem? I don't like seeing you so uncomfortable."

Jack sighed and walked over to where Ianto was standing, putting one hand on his shoulder.

"I'll be fine," he told him, "as long as she is." Seeing in Ianto's face he was going to ask again, Jack added: "We travelled together."

"Where you…"

"No. Not in the way you're thinking. But she is important to me." Jack put one hand on the side of the other man's face for a moment, then dropped it.

Ianto turned to leave the room, when Jack spoke again.

"Tell the Doctor I want to see him, when he's finished."


Owen pulled off his surgical gloves with a sharp slapping sound.

"Three minutes remaining," Toshiko's relieved voice said.

Owen inspected the girl's vital signs with a sigh. That had been a close call, but they'd managed it.

"You have good hands," he told the stranger.

The Doctor didn't respond, staring down woefully at the girl still lying unaware beneath them. He stroked her face tenderly, and for a moment Owen actually thought he might burst into sobs, or, at least, kiss her. But he didn't. Instead he looked up, grinning a little madly, and said: "We're quite the team, aren't we? Doctors united and all that!"

His face suddenly shifted again, and he said: "We should move her somewhere more comfortable."

"How long do you think it will take her to wake up?" Owen said.

"Oh, shouldn't be too long. A few hours at the most, I'd say. But you're the expert on humans. Still though, don't want to give her a sore neck – you wouldn't happen to have a couch anywhere around her, would you?"

"A stiff neck'll be the least of her worries," Owen shook his head. "I don't know what the hell you two were doing when this happened, but you're clearly the older one, so I'm blaming you. She's going to need to rest for at least couple of days – you got that?"

"Believe me, we won't be going anywhere for a while," the Doctor said, taking Rose's still hand in his. "Now, where are we moving sleeping beauty?"

Ianto cleared his throat, and the two men looked up.

"I can help Owen with that," he said, looking at the Doctor. "Jack wants to see you."

"You can tell your boss I'm busy," the Doctor said, pointing a finger. "And I'm not leaving my best friend lying on a Torchwood slab while he has words with me."

"Now how did I know you were going to say that?" Jack said.

The Doctor stiffened slightly. "Captain," he nodded.

"Doctor," Jack nodded back. "Rose will be fine," he said, and Ianto could see Jack was avoiding looking at the girl. "And we need to talk."

The Doctor put his head back a little, sticking his hands in his pockets, then followed the Captain out of the autopsy room.

"You be careful with her," he said in a threatening voice, pointing at Owen on his way out.

"Yeah,like you can talk," Owen muttered.

Tosh stepped forward, into the position the Doctor had just left, and looked down at the girl.

"Her name's Rose," Owen told her.

"She's pretty," Tosh observed.

"I hadn't noticed," Owen said, and Tosh rolled her eyes.

"I wonder what happened to her," she said, looking back down.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, I feel sorry for her."


Upstairs, Jack closed the door to his office quietly, and turned around to face his old friend.

"Got anything to say?" he said, crossing his arms.

"Thank you," the Doctor said. "I know you don't like people coming here. So, thank you."

"You know I'd always help her," Jack responded coolly. "I was thinking more on the lines of you abandoning me."

"I couldn't have you on board."

"So you said."

"Just being here with you now – it feels wrong, Jack. You're wrong."

"I've noticed, thanks."

The two men stared at each other for a few moments, and then Jack shook his head, laughing.

"Would you look at us?" he said. "Imagine if Rose was watching this. She'd probably slap us both."

"Me more than you," the Doctor said.

"Yeah, well, you deserve it… I've had a long time to get over that though. Do you want a drink?"

Before the Doctor had answered Jack was already pouring him one.

"Have you had work done?" the Doctor asked.

"Ha! Like you can talk!"

"Oh, yeah! I forgot you hadn't seen this yet! What do you think?"

"Honestly? Bit skinny. Good hair though."

"You think? Shame it's not ginger, really, but you can't have everything…"

"You know you love it, don't try and fool me."

"Well, you know…"

They both smiled into their drinks, before Jack said: "What happened to her, Doctor? You didn't say when you called… Should I be worried?"

"No," the Doctor said quickly. "No. I wouldn't let anything hurt her that badly. Owen's a good doctor," he added.

"Best in the business. That's why I recruited him."

The Doctor nodded, sitting down on the chair behind Jack's desk. The captain leant against the wall as they both stared at the security footage displayed on the screen, showing a slumbering Rose lying on the newly cleared off couch, courtesy of Ianto, who was busy tidying up around her.

"Anything interesting on?" Jack said, remembering another time.

"Bit domestic, that one," the Doctor ignored the reference, pointing at Ianto's image on the screen.

Jack smiled fondly. "Yeah, well, he looks good doing it, doesn't he? Love that suit…"

The Doctor looked up at his facial expression and shook his head. "Some people never change." He looked thoughtful for a second, watching Ianto prop Rose's head up with a pillow and said: "What's he like in a crisis?"

"Don't even think about it," said Jack in a stern voice. "Anyway, do you really want someone else on that ship? God knows you were jealous when I was around."

The Doctor went to say something, but he was interrupted by Owen's entrance.

"She's waking up," he said.

(To Be Continued)