Katie blinked, letting the world come into focus. With a smile, she realized that she had actually been asleep. That didn't happen very often, especially not now, what with the Rift energy constantly pouring into her.

Glancing at the clock on her desk, her smile broadened when she discovered she had been asleep for a full hour. Another score. Today should be good. And of course, the shape that had haunted her since she fell through the Rift hadn't shown up for a full week. If he…it, could stay away today, this would definitely be a memorable day.

Wandering further into storage, Katie started her percolator going and changed into an exercise outfit. After running a few miles on the treadmill, she drank her coffee and showered, putting on long a long sleeve shirt and jeans afterwards. On her way back to her desk, she drew another tally mark on the wall.

She frowned, pausing to count them. Four months exactly. Katie sighed, wishing she hadn't started. The first tally marks had been as a personal joke, expecting to be gone in a couple of weeks. Now the irony of her actions laughed at her.

Turning away, she went to her desk to continue her current project, though her mind wasn't really on it. It had been four months since she last saw the Doctor, four months since she was yanked through the Rift. Now, she was trapped on earth, stranded in the worst possible place to be: smack in the middle of TORCHWOOD Three.

Katie smiled lightly. Well, really it was the Rift that made it a bad place for her. TORCHWOOD itself wasn't so bad. The people were tolerable most of the time and they left her alone the rest of the time. It was still a pain that she could only go outside at night, and then only to one place, but TORCHWOOD was nice otherwise. Lots of alien stuff to play with, a shooting range, a personal laboratory…there were worse places to be stranded.

Pulling a box from out of her desk drawer, she removed several pieces of technology. It was a new thing, but it would be around in a few years anyway. Still, it would be a big help to her.

Katie was piecing together what would soon be used the world over as an insulin pump. For diabetics making use of it, all they had to do was enter in the necessary information and the appropriate amount of insulin would be injected into their system through a needle they would wear all day. Katie was going to do something similar, but with deadly diseases.

Now, ordinarily Katie wouldn't be giving herself the plague on purpose, but the energy from the Rift was so thick and intense that she could and would overload, erasing all morals and personal restraints she had, turning her into a power-hungry monster that would kill anything it came across. She would constantly eat or inject herself with illnesses to help burn off the energy. It never lasted for any great length of time, so she was trying to create a pump that would constantly send trickles of diseases into her blood stream, thus giving her greater freedom.

An hour later, she was finished and soon thereafter had it attached to her. She used two separate needles, one for constant AIDS and the other for whatever she felt like that day.

Putting several refill pouches into her bag, she wandered upstairs with another addition to the computer she planned to hook up.

The Hub was particularly busy that morning, with everyone doing something. "What's the buzz over?" Katie asked Toshiko "Tosh" Sato, the resident computer and technology whiz.

"There was a murder at the David Morgan Apartments just off Baker's Row. Mother, Father, and two children. The neighbors said that it looked as though the residents were killed by a mirage, and the TORCHWOOD logo was painted on the wall. We were called in to check it out."

"Supposed to be horrible, blood all over the walls, organs missing." Owen Harper's face, set in a permanent look of sarcasm, raised its eyebrows. "Can't wait to see it myself."

Katie walked up to him, peering at the center of his forehead. In two fluid movements she wiped an alcohol pad across it and shot something into him with a small gun.

"What the hell was that for Jo?" he asked in irritation as he rubbed his forehead.

She grinned at him, pleased they still didn't know her real name. "Now we can all see. I stuck a miniscule video camera in your head. Also picks up sound. Once I plug the receiver in, those of us left at the Hub should have a perfect view of whatever it you see. If it works, it'll be even better than your Eye-5's for some missions. It even records everything, so if all you do is catch a glimpse of something, you can go back and take a closer look later." Turning from Owen, Katie sat down in a chair next to Tosh. "How's the signal chip doing?" she asked in Japanese. Tosh smiled, responding in the same language.

"Almost there," she said. "We'll be able to call your Doctor very soon."

Katie grinned broadly. "Oh, things just keep getting better."

"It's rude to use a language no one else understands," Jack said, coming down the stairs. Katie raised an eyebrow at him. In her thickest possible Texan drawl, she asked,

"I was always taught to try an communicate with others the way they understood it best, but if you'd rather I speak the way I was born and bred, I can do that too."

"What on earth was that?" Gwen asked, her Welsh accent an interesting contrast. Katie grinned.

"Just how folk down in Texas communicate, mam. Can't quite copy your speech, so we fall back on our own."

"Where did you pick up Texan?" Jack asked.

"I told ya'll; I was raised that way. Now all ya'lls better get a move on before something happens to your crime scene!"

It didn't take Katie very long to hook up the receiver. She put on her own headset and sat next to Tosh, feeling like a child going to work with a much loved aunt.

"Owen, I want to make sure this picture is coming through clearly," Tosh said. Katie marveled at how she could sound so confident while talking about technology, while being so nervous and timid the rest of the time.

"I'm not singing for you."

"Why not?" Katie asked. "You've got a nice tenor, I've heard it. Okay, you just ran a red light."

"No backseat driving!" Owen protested. Katie stifled a laugh. Oh, today was definitely a red-letter day. She could use more like this.

"The license plate number of the car in front of you is…CF07QDE."

"Correct on all accounts."

Katie pumped her fist silently in the air, grinning.

Ianto brought down drinks for the three of them, tea for him and Tosh, and a black coffee for Katie. Katie took it with thanks, and they all chatted quietly. Katie was on good terms with all of TORCHWOOD, but she shared a stronger connection with Tosh and Ianto. They were the support group, hardly ever leaving the Hub, but holding up the team all the same. It was good, Katie decided. She liked having a stable life to belong to, a pattern to follow. Not that she would think twice about joining the Doctor when she contacted him again, but until then, life was good.

The live feed showed Owen walking up stairs. One of the normal police cautioned them against the gore, then let them past.

When the door opened, Katie could feel the blood drain from her face. It was like the most graphic horror movie of all time, but it was real. Organs and limbs were stacked neatly in the corners, huge lacerations on what was left of the bodies showing that they had died in pain. Blood had been used to paint and write all over the walls. The sick part of that was that the pictures were wonderfully done, as if by a master artist, and the words were in calligraphy. It was as though whoever had done this had only regarded the family as pots of red ink for their horrendous work.

Ianto gave a rare swear as Tosh got up and stepped away from the screen, her face a sickly green. Katie kept staring, realizing what the pictures were.

"Owen, I hate to ask this, but could you take a closer look at those paintings?"

"Yeah. Yeah sure."

He stepped into the room. Katie felt fear rising in her throat. The pictures seemed random, as though one had nothing to do with the other. She knew better.

The whole thing was arranged as a circle. Gang signs she knew didn't come from Cardiff. A molecular structure for a powerful mind-altering drug. Initials belonging to people she tried to forget or knew were dead. A date that had passed twice for her now, once from her life as a human and once while she was part of TORCHWOOD. Faces that belonged only in her mind. Off to the side, almost as an afterthought, was the TORCHWOOD 'T'. All of this swirled around one name, a name she had tried hard to erase.

Kavrin.

Katie went ridged as the voice rang in her ears. She abruptly stood, knocking her chair over. Ripping off her head set, she took off running as hard as she could for the front door. Ianto's protests rang faintly in her ears as the seal closed behind her.

"Jack, Jo's gotten out. I repeat, Josephine Cole is on the loose."

"What!"

As Jack turned away from the sight before him, Tosh's voice continued with the news. "She saw the feed from the thing she implanted in Owen, and just took off!"

"Why the hell would she do that?" Gwen's voice said through the coms.

"I don't know, but she looked terrified. More scared than I thought anyone could be."

Jack thought quickly. Jo was not someone you just let run about a city full of people. "Tosh, are you almost done with the homing signal?"

"Yes."

"Drop whatever you're doing and finish it. She's had plenty of time to find out about all the hiding spots here in Cardiff, and we won't be able to stop her when she goes mad. You need to finish that signaling chip and get the Doctor here pronto. Have Ianto see if he can find her signal and track it. I want an update as soon as you have something."

"We'll get right on it."

Katie pelted down the street, people flashing by her at an absurd rate. She pushed them aside, not caring what damage she did. She had to get to that apartment, had to see it for herself. The message was obviously left for her. It all combined to the single most painful event in her life, and events afterward. Even the family size fit her life. The TORCHWOOD symbol was only there to let her know that the person who did it knew her current location, and would likely be coming for her. But who would know something like that? They would have had to dive into her mind, and gone through the darkest corners for that story.

Katie poured on more speed until she felt her hearts near the bursting point. Everything was a blur of colors, single objects no longer existing. The only thing that she could think of was that gruesome collage.

She slowed slightly, knowing she was nearing the apartments. It was easy enough to pick out, with all the police cars. Shoving past officers and ducking under the tape, Katie turned into the door, instead crashing straight into Jack.

"Jo, you can't be here. You have to get back to the Hub."

"Jack, I have to get past. Let me through."

"No. Owen is taking you back right now."

"Jack!"

He looked sharply at her, something in her tone making him listen. She swallowed hard. "Jack, this is something that I can't explain right now. But right now, you have to trust me. Look," she said, leaning back a little so that he could see her. "My hearts are here on my left side, and on either side of my chest. A bullet through my brain would also work. Shoot me if I really lose it, but let me past. Please."

For one terrifying moment, Katie thought he wasn't going to let her in. Then he stepped slightly to the side and Katie brushed past him.

Ignoring Owen and Gwen, who both stood abruptly as she came in, she walked to the wall with the mural. Hand on her mouth, all she could do was stare. It was more horrifying up close.

Her eyes caught sight of another sentence hidden halfway behind a bookcase, somehow painted to only be seen if the person was at her height and near the wall. Latching on to the side of it, she pulled it away from the wall, eliciting protests from Gwen.

"We haven't finished here!"

Green eyes cold as fire and blazing like ice, Katie looked at Gwen. Gwen stepped back, stunned by the intensity. Katie turned back to studying the sentence and the picture under it. It took her a few moments before she realized it was a code she had only used with her brother when she was still human. Once she figured that out, translation was easy. She wished it hadn't been.

Guess who's next.

Under the sentence was a perfect picture of the TARDIS's console room, a human shape standing next to it.

A half-strangled squeak came out of Katie's throat as she stumbled backwards. Pushing past Jack, Katie leaned over the railing trying to breathe, horror written across her face.

"Jo?"

Katie's mouth moved, but no sound came out. He eyes danced across the street, landing on an alleyway. That's when she saw the figure.

"Doctor."

"What about him?"

Katie ignored Jack. Seeming to forget the stairs, she jumped over the railing, landing on her feet and taking off running.

"Doctor!"

The man moved farther down the alley and turned a corner. Katie ran faster. "Doctor!"

Katie spun around the corner and stopped. There he stood, that man she had longed for daily, thought of hourly. The man with the blue box, her best friend in all of time and space, the one man she could ever trust. He grinned at her, obvious delight on his features and she knew that somehow, everything would turn out alright.

Pin-stripes had never looked so good.

Katie dashed forward, throwing her arms around his neck as her wrapped her in a hug.

"Hello Kathryn. It's good to see you again."

"I knew you'd find me!"

"I'll always come for you."

She stayed there, eyes closed, relishing the remembered smell of him, sinking into the feeling of safety he always carried with him.

A light beeping filtered through her joy. Opening her eyes, she noticed the timer behind the Doctor, instantly recognizing its use.

"Doctor, I hate to cause problems so soon, but there's a bomb behind you."

"I know."

Katie jerked her head back, shocked at the calm way he said it. "Maybe you didn't hear me. There is a bomb in this alleyway, and it will go off in five minutes."

"Don't worry, it'll only take a corner of the building. Well, and you."

The sensation of security rapidly falling away, Katie struggled, placing her hands on his chest and trying to break his hold, which was now painfully tight. "Doctor, let me go. Someone in there could get killed. We need to turn it off!"

"No we don't," he replied calmly. Moving one arm, the man placed a hand against Katie's face, holding it tightly. She stared at him, fear starting to leech into her eyes. The man holding her could not be the Doctor. It was impossible. Her energy absorption never worked on him, yet she could feel energy moving between them. With a start, Katie realized he was taking her energy at the same time that she took his. They would have been in perfect balance, had Katie not been wearing the disease pump. It was using up energy, and she worried that she couldn't hold on.

Her face feeling on fire, she tried to fight back her terror as she asked,

"Who are you?"

The man smiled, the cruelest look that Katie had ever seen on the Doctor's face. "Oh Kavrin," he said, his voice a smooth whisper. He leaned in next to her ear, the move a very personal one. "I'm the one you left behind."

Katie felt a wetness cover her hand, the smell telling her it was blood, the hole under her fingers where the heart belonged confirming it. She looked back up at the man's face, which started to change. A hole appeared between his eyes, just the right size for a bullet as the rest of his features changed. The timer on the bomb went un-heeded as she stared, unable to speak. She swallowed hard, forcing the words out.

"Bradley…but…you're dead."

*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*