The morning after the night before, Owen awoke to a horrible screeching which vibrated in his head; he rolled over groaning slightly trying to remember his Friday night. His hand clamped down onto the offending object as he mumbled a 'yeah' into the receiver. "Mum? What do you want? ... Yeah... O why? ... No... Call Lisa, she can't cancel now, your leaving in the afternoon...but she acts like a bitch! ... Ok, ok sorry mum...yeah... 3pm... Cardiff high... yeah, have a good trip, tell Dad I said hi... bye."

He hung up the phone and threw it onto the floor with a sigh. He had just become the proud guardian of his little sister while his parents went away for a while, his other sister was supposed to be taking care of her but apparently something came up 'yeah right' he thought, 'she's just smart enough to know that Kai acts like a bitch' He saw his family when he had the time, normally about once or twice a month and every time his little sister of 16 years spent most of her time with a iPod clamped to her ears and a phone glued to her hand. He loved her but she was a big pain in the ass, and now that meant he had to spend his lazy day cleaning up his apartment instead.

After about 4 hours of cleaning his place was finally liveable, the pizza boxes and Chinese takeaways were in the bin the empty alcohol bottles were in the recycling; and most importantly all his Torchwood files that he usually just spread across the living room table were gathered and locked away in his room.

Jack stared blankly out of his glass walled office; he was fiddling around with a broken piece of vortex manipulator to pass the time. It had been unusually quiet in Cardiff recently, when there was usually something rampaging through the wilderness, sewers or city centre there had been nothing of interest for the past week and a half. He had given most of the team the time off and they only came in when they had reports due in, or in some people's case; nothing better to do. The hub had been silent nearly all day but this was still no excuse for cutting work, as he had made quite clear to everyone else, except Owen; who had ironically always been away when he mentioned this topic to the other team members.

"Ianto, Owens meant to be here, well now actually bleep me when he gets here, there's stuff for him to do and he hasn't been anywhere near here in the past week!"

"He's coming in, well now... ish. Sir" Jack nodded and slumped back into his office chair

The bell rang and the gates opened spilling hundreds of teenagers into the unsuspecting city. Owen got out of his Range Rover and stood there waiting until he saw someone he recognised. Kai waltzed out of school with her friends and walked right past him without even looking. 'For Christ sake' He said under his breath then started to jog over to her.

"Kai!" She spun around and her smile faded,

"Owen, Lisa's meant to be picking me up"

"Change of plans kiddo, get in the truck, I'm late for work."

"No, I'm busy" She said with a regal air but eventually her brother won the argument and she followed him to the truck and slumped in the backseat looking very resigned. He drove round to the back entrance and beckoned for her to stay in the truck until he came back. 'Even dogs get let out for a break' she thought when he had been gone at least 10 minutes.

"Jack wants to see you?" Ianto informed him as soon as he set foot in the entrance

"Um, I have my sister with me"

"Well... do something with her, she can't be here"

"5 minutes Ianto, please?"

"I've heard your stories Owen"

"Please, look it's just me, she just doesn't like me, she's fine with everyone else in the universe" After what seemed like a lifetime Owen went back to his sister and escorted her into the building. She looked around her dreary settings and was once again not smiling. He settled her down behind the desk and went off to find Jack. He was sitting in his office and beckoned Owen up as soon as the cog door rolled open.

"No" Was all Jack said even when Owen pleaded and threatened

"Jack. There's nowhere else she can go"

"Your apartment?"

"Yeah, right. Like I'll let her in there alone, unsupervised" a shiver went down his spine thinking about his poor apartment in that state "look Jack... seriously this landed on me this morning, there was nothing I could do. She can't be out there 'till 9:00pm she'll just leave. I don't see why she can't come in, she'll be quiet"

"Owen" Jack said looking at him through squinted eyes "We're a secret organisation... How can we stay secret when bloody family members come in at all times to finish homework!"

"Gwen brings Rhys in with her!"

"That's different, he's a grown man, and we're talking about a child here"

"Jack" He said looking exhausted "What else can I do?" He looked so sad and beaten; Jack had never seen him like this. Owen never really talked about his family, he mentioned them if he was asked a direct question but unlike the others he wouldn't share anecdotes, or references with everyone else.

"Ok. Fine, fine. I think this is bad thought. I want you to know that, it takes a lot for an adult to handle what we do, let alone a kid"

Owen brought his sister through but stopped in the entrance tunnel.

"Kai. This is going to look weird. Remember, you're the only one who really knows what I do. Try to keep it that way?!" She rolled her eyes and followed him to the cog door and waited for something to happen.

"God Owen, you always have to be so dramatic. What's wrong with a regular office in a nice part of town?" she asked him, not really expecting an answer. She touched the door and jumped back as it began to roll to the side, she was astounded by what she saw, but surprised... everyone knew there was weird stuff going on in Cardiff... The name Torchwood had been thrown around a bit as well; no one really knew who they were it had just been mentioned.

"Don't touch anything. Don't want you to start world war 3 round here. This is who I work with, he pointed around to people naming them, well the two that were there anyways, Ianto and Gwen, Jack was looking down from his glassed office, Owen gestured up to the office followed by a straightforward comment of 'That's my boss, piss him off, your grounded 'till your 30'

She sat down and played around with her computer.

Jack had been watching her for the past hour or so, on and off not the entire time. He found her captivating, he didn't understand what he had said about her, she seemed perfectly pleasant and drop-dead gorgeous to match. He'd been all over and in his opinion children definitely didn't look like that, she was as much a women as anyone else he'd ever been with; and when you're as old as Jack, what's age but a number, although human; he'd realised; didn't seem to share his philosophy unfortunately. She was blonde/brown with pale blue eyes and clear pale skin with a hint of colour, Jack had noticed that she looked quite... nice in the clothes she wearing even if it was her uniform. Owen must have snapped at her about 5 times now about the length of her skirt and how if she was going to show that much cleavage she might as well go to school topless. Before he knew it was 8:00pm and the staff were beginning to get hungry. Gwen had gone home as had Ianto leaving just Jack, Tosh, Owen and their guest who had been sleeping for the past hour or so.