AN – I do not own Torchwood, its characters, the Doctor or any large blue boxes. I do however take full responsibility for Jay Hunter's actions. Which may not be good for me as I have a feeling she isn't going to play nicely…

This is a follow up to my previous story Partners in Time. Action has now moved onto the end of Season 2 (spoilers for that) and is sort of an instead-of for COE. This means that I don't treat people nicely all the time, people will get hurt, heads will be messed with, and relationships will be strained. You have been warned! But I hope you enjoy.

Gwen shook the rain out of her hair as she walked into the Hub. Ianto was just leaving Jack's office.

"Morning. Coffee?"

Gwen smiled gratefully and looked over at Jack. He smiled and nodded in greeting before Gwen turned to walk to her work station. She looked at the picture of Tosh and Owen taped to her desk and gave it a small smile. They had been gone a couple of months now. Long enough that Gwen no longer expected to hear their voices as she came into the Hub each day, but not so long that her heart didn't still ache at the memories.

Their workstations remained untouched since they had been cleared that first day. The three remaining team members were at a place where they could laugh about the good times and enjoy their memories, but had to be careful not to think about what lay down in the cold storage of the morgue.

Gwen sat down and booted up her computer.

"All quiet over night?" she called to Ianto at his coffee machine.

"Yes, fortunately. Though Janet was in a mood about something and created all night."

Gwen smiled. Could she risk teasing the young man yet? "She's jealous. You give all your attention to Jack now instead of her. You're like a proper little couple."

Gwen sniggered at her computer screen as she heard the clatter of a mug dropping onto the work surface. She stayed quiet. A few moments later Ianto appeared in front of her with the promised coffee, a delicate shade of red still gracing his cheeks.

Gwen gave him a warm smile. "Thank you. It's okay you know. You're allowed to be together. You're allowed to be happy."

Ianto looked guiltily over at Tosh's empty workstation, then down to the floor.

"She'd be happy for you Ianto." Gwen said softly, "She always hoped you and Jack could be more. That Jack could be that for you."

Ianto was deciding how to answer when a strange noise filled the Hub. It sounded like a metallic whirring. Like two pieces of the universe being dragged against each other, forced through time together and protesting the movement with a scream.

Ianto and Gwen looked around them, panicked, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Then Jack bolted from his office, an expression on his face they hadn't seen before. He didn't even wait to grab his coat as he hurtled towards the round door, and out down the corridor. Gwen and Ianto raced after him, calling for him to slow down, but he didn't even register them.

Jack ran out of the tourist information office door with the pounding feet of Gwen and Ianto behind him. This was a longer way to go, but the lift would feel like it was taking forever. This way he was moving. Despite making the decision all those months ago that here, with his team, was where he wanted to be, the sound had brought a lot of old feelings to the surface and there was still one man he needed to see. Especially now, when everything was so broken. As he rounded the corner into the Plass he, and his team mates behind him, could see a large blue police box standing sedately near the water sculpture.

As they ran towards it the air around it started to shimmer and pulse.

"No!" screamed Jack and pushed himself to run even faster. Before he could get any closer the box disappeared completely. Jack slowed his run "No" he said again, but this time in a quiet, resigned voice. The others caught up with him as he noticed that where the blue box had stood a moment ago, there now lay a body.

"Oh my god!" said Gwen and started to run towards it, followed by Ianto. Jack moved forward slowly, his eyes narrowed. He had a feeling he recognised the body and he didn't like what this meant.

The body lay on its back, head turned away from them, legs partly bent to one side, arms slightly splayed. Getting closer Gwen and Ianto could see it was a woman's body and that the body was covered by a red leather coat.

"No way?" said Gwen. She and Ianto exchanged a glance of recognition. Ianto knelt down next to the woman and felt for a pulse. It was there, but weak. Gwen knelt on the other side of the woman's body. They both looked at her face. It was covered with bruises, a mixture of colours, some old, some more recent. Blood streaked her brow and was matted, dried into her blond hair; the sign of a recent head injury.

Jack had caught up with them now and stood back, impassively, as Gwen gently pulled the coat off the body. The woman's red corset was covered in rips and tears. The gaps in the material showed wounds underneath and even the undamaged material held blood stains. Her trousers too were cut and torn and showed evidence of more injuries to her legs.

Ianto cupped her face gently in one hand. He looked up at Jack who's face was still expressionless. Ianto's head swam with emotions that he didn't want to register, and his mind raced. What have they done to you Jay Hunter? What have I done to you?

It was clear to Ianto that Jack wasn't going to help, and Gwen, seeing Jack's expression seemed unsure what to do next. Ianto threw Jay's jacket at Jack.

"Hold this. I'll get her." Ianto moved to pick Jay up in his arms hoping that he wouldn't be making any of her injuries worse. She stirred slightly as Ianto's arm slipped under her neck.

"Doctor." She rasped.

"It's okay; we're going to look after you." Ianto soothed. Jay tried to shake her head, wincing at the movement.

"Doctor." She said again, "The Doctor."

Jack finally shook himself out of his stupor. Why was he being so stupid? The Doctor had clearly left Jay here. Maybe she would know where he was now. He knelt down next to her.

"Where is he? Where is the Doctor?" but Jay's eyes rolled back in her head as unconsciousness claimed her again. Ianto gave Jack a look.

"Alright. Get her into the Hub." He stood back and let Ianto gather her in his arms and carry her to the invisible lift, followed by Gwen. He carried Jay's coat over to the water tower. He absentmindedly felt the pockets of the coat finding them unusually empty, save for a slip of paper in one.

"Look after her. She will save you."

Jack stood next to the others and activated the lift, carefully putting the paper in his pocket so the others wouldn't see. The note must have come from the Doctor. But what did he mean? Jack didn't need saving. There was nothing to save him from; he couldn't die. Still, maybe it meant that the Doctor was coming back. He desperately didn't want Jay in their lives for a second longer than she had to be, but when she was conscious she could explain everything.

Ianto carried the woman straight down into the autopsy bay, and laid her gently on the table. Gwen prepared the body scanning equipment while Ianto grabbed some scissors and started to cut off Jay's clothes. Making a long incision up each trouser leg, all three could see bruising and lacerations adorning her legs, concentrated near her knees. The wounds seemed superficial enough though.

Ianto moved up Jay's body and started to cut into the front of her corset and the cropped t-shirt under it. As it fell away from her body they could see her chest and stomach were a mass of more bruises, abrasions and deep lacerations. Some of the bruises were red and new, others were various shades of purple, brown and yellow. For a moment all three stared at the battered body in front of them. This woman must have been systematically brutalised for about a week. Even Jack felt a sting of pity.

Ianto started to move again.

"Jack, we need to check her back. Help me roll her."

Jack moved to the side of the table opposite Ianto. The young man put one hand on Jay's furthest shoulder and one on her hip and gently rolled the woman towards him they way that he had seen Owen do. Jack tried to keep the flash of emotion out of his eyes as he saw Jay's back exposed to him. It was covered with red welts. They crisscrossed and overlapped. As with the bruising some were new, some were old. The most recent lying over the top of older scar tissue. But these went back a lot further than a week. He couldn't let Ianto see this.

"No wounds." he said. "Is the body scan ready yet?"

Gwen nodded and wheeled the device over the table. Laying Jay back down Ianto carefully placed her hand onto the flat monitor.

The machine scanned her hand and a read-out flashed onto the wall for them all to see. All of them, including Jack, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay. Let's get her cleaned up and treat these wounds. And cover her up." He turned on his heel and walked away from the autopsy bay.

It wasn't until Jack had said anything that Ianto registered the fact that Jay was near naked in front of him. She was just wearing, unusually enough, boxer shorts, and Ianto reached for a sheet to cover her. Gwen couldn't resist a quick smile as she saw Ianto blush. She started to prepare an antiseptic solution.

Ianto motioned to take it from her hands, a pile of cotton wool already on the table next to the still unconscious Jay.

"Let me." Gwen looked into his eyes. There was something there that she couldn't quite place. It almost looked like guilt. But it couldn't be; Ianto had nothing to be guilty about. But whatever it was, there was a need in those blue eyes too, so without a word she passed the bowl over to him and turned to leave the bay.

At the top of the steps she turned to watch him silently. He picked up some cotton wool with the forceps and dipped it in the solution. He gently, almost lovingly, started to trace it over Jay's wounds. Gwen frowned, remembering back to that time, all those many months ago, when they thought they were about to lose Ianto to this woman. Had they been closer than any of them had realised?

Gwen shook her head to clear it. No. She was just over-reacting because the pain of losing Tosh and Owen was still so raw. Ianto would never leave them. He'd never leave Jack.

Gwen busied herself around the Hub. Jay's arrival had made Jack tense, and although she couldn't blame him after last time, Jay clearly wasn't a risk at the moment. In another time Gwen would have gone to Jack's side and tried to say the right things, make things better, but she didn't have the strength for that right now. They were pulling each other through their grief still. Gwen didn't have anything left to give Jack sulking over the return of a past lover.

Jack was sitting in his office, chin resting on bridged hands. His CCTV screen watched Ianto in the autopsy bay meticulously cleaning Jay's visible wounds. Jack almost laughed at the irony that no matter what, Ianto seemed to end up cleaning something. Maybe that was why he seemed to have slipped into the doctors' role recently. He had always been a carer, and always meticulous, always thorough, liked order. Maybe this was a natural progression for him.

He wondered what was going through Ianto's head. He had a feeling that Ianto had already put two and two together, but still he hoped he hadn't. He hoped he never would. As soon as Jay was awake and could move Jack would get her out. Get her to a safe house if needs be for a couple of days, but get her gone, out of his life, and especially out of Ianto's. That was after he found out what she had been doing with the Doctor, and what the note had meant.

Jack was already bored of sitting still and pushed his chair away from his desk heading to his office door. He glanced down at Gwen at her workstation. Before she would have been up here asking what was wrong, trying to fix him. But now she wasn't, and he knew why. He understood why. There was only so much fixing anyone could do. And Gwen wouldn't even understand what was broken right now. No-one would. Because they didn't know Jay. They didn't know her the way he did and they had no idea what she was capable of. Jack did, and that's why he was so afraid.

AN – long set up chapter again I'm sorry. I just like scene setting… Would love to hear what you think of it so far though.

And a huge thank you to everyone that has reviewed me before. It really does make a difference and I appreciate all your comments and concrit. Thanks, Jooles