Pre-Story Notes: This is going to be a continuing story. Let's hope I can stick with it and actually write/post the other chapters. Give me some encouragement, a'right? (in the form of a review, would be brilliant)

Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Owen/Tosh

Rated for sexual content

"What the hell is this?"

Captain Jack Harkness looked at the object lying in the palm of his hand. It was a small lavender glass bottle with a clear liquid inside. It had arrived on the Torchwood steps earlier that morning; no name on the box, no returns address; just addressed to Torchwood and labeled "this is for you".

"Do you think its alien?" Ianto asked, stepping forward. The two of them were standing in Jack's office. Ianto leaned against the front of the captain's desk. Jack's eyebrows lowered as he scrutinized the bottle in his hand.

"Well, we should assume so." Jack finally replied, glancing up at Ianto and catching his gaze. A hint of a grin gathered on the edge of his lips. "I mean, we are Torchwood. Alien is what we do, right?" Ianto smiled and looked slightly sheepish for asking such an obvious question. He nodded his head, but didn't stay silent.

"So what do you think it is?"

"My first guess," Jack placed the bottle down on his desk carefully. He examined it from a different angle, but found it no more suspicious than he had while it was in his hand. "It looks like something from Calvin Klein."

Ianto paused. "You mean a perfume?"

Jack crossed his arms over his chest and frowned in thought. "Or cologne." He added. Walking to the side of the desk, he continued to watch the bottle; perhaps hoping that it would suddenly spring to life and tell him what it was for. "But why would someone send us an anonymous bottle of intimacy spray?"

Ianto shrugged. "Dunno."

"Hmm..." the two of them faded off into silence as Jack pulled out his chair, sat down, and let his thoughts dominate his actions. Placing his folded hands in front of his mouth, he continued to stare at the mysterious bottle. Ianto waited several more minutes to see if his captain would divulge any more information; but when it appeared Jack had resigned to thought, Ianto stepped back.

"I'll go make us some coffee, then." He said, walking backwards to the door and leaving the room. It took Jack almost a minute to respond with a delayed reaction.

"Yeah. Thanks, Ianto."

...About an hour later...

The package had arrived for Torchwood early-- earlier than any of the crew had arrived at the office. Ianto was guarding the front desk at reception when the door opened and Toshiko entered. She had a cup of coffee in her hand from the bakery down the street, as well as her laptop bag slung over her shoulder. "Hi, Ianto," she greeted as she made her way to the hidden door. Ianto reached under the desk and pressed the button to allow her access into the base. Before she disappeared inside, Ianto said, "By the way, we got a delivery of something unusual this morning. Jack might ask you to try and help him figure out what it is." Tosh smiled and gave her co-worker a curt nod.

"Thanks for the heads-up." She said before disappearing inside. Ianto watched her go, wishing he could abandon his post and follow her in. He hated standing guard at the front like a puppy. He wanted to be inside; working beside Jack. Sighing heavily as the circular door rolled shut behind Tosh, Ianto went back to flipping through his newspaper. Maybe in a couple hours when everyone else had arrived he could go back in and be with the captain.

Inside Torchwood, Tosh had barely enough time to put down her bag by her computer before Jack popped out of his office. "Tosh, I need you." Tosh smiled up at her boss from her computer station.

"Ianto told me you might." As soon as she reached the top of the landing, Jack ushered her into his office and he showed her the bottle.

"We got this delivered to us early this morning, and Ianto and I can't figure out what it is."

Tosh examined it from her distance of a few feet. "It looks like a cologne bottle." She replied. "Maybe you have a secret admirer, Jack?"

Jack grinned. "I have several admirers, thank you," Tosh smiled. "But Ianto and I already thought about that possibility. Only...I don't think it is."

"Well why not?" Tosh asked, stepping closer to examine the object better. "It certainly looks like cologne. A ritzy one, too. Probably pretty expensive."

"Only it arrived in a plain box. No return address, no nothing. Nothing except a message for us that said 'this is for you'." At this new piece of information, Tosh's head perked up in interest and she stared at her boss.

"So you think it's dangerous?"

Jack shrugged. "I don't know what to think. It just appeared out of nowhere; right here on our front steps, anonymous...who knows what to think? I mean, who even knows where to find us? It could be hazardous." He picked up the bottle and handed it over to Tosh. She instinctively took a step back and didn't want to touch it; but Jack gestured for her to take it. Reluctantly, she did. "The bottle itself is safe. I just don't know about the liquid. That's what I want you to do: run tests on it. Examine it." Tosh nodded her head and left Jack's office, mysterious bottle in hand.

...Several hours later...

Gwen and Owen had arrived at Torchwood and each of them were working on discovering what the bottle was, and what it contained inside. Gwen was helping Tosh with the readings, while Owen ran a sample of the mixture through a series of tests. Owen sighed heavily and pulled his feet down from resting on the desk top. Getting up from his swivel chair, he took the pile of papers in his hands up to Jack's office. Jack and Ianto had been discussing the liquid and where it could have come from. However, somewhere along the way of their meeting, the two of them had stopped talking. Ianto was sitting on the edge of Jack's desk while Jack stood in front of him. Both men were pressed together, kissing each other deeply. Ianto's hands were busy massaging Jack's chest through his shirt when Owen's loud throat clearing made them pull apart. A bit out of breath and disheveled, Jack glanced over in the doorway to where Owen stood. The doctor noted that, although they weren't kissing anymore, their hands never left each other's bodies. Ianto kept his hands pressed up against Jack's chest while Jack had his hands on Ianto's cheek and neck. Ignoring the sight, Owen walked up to the two of them. He held out the papers for Jack to take, which he accepted. Pulling completely away from Ianto, he flipped through several of the top papers, his eyes readily scanning the information printed on them. For their benefit, Owen explained what those papers stated. "There's nothing there, Jack. At least, nothing any of these tests are telling us. I don't see any alien life forms inside the liquid, there's no hazardous chemical inside it, there's...well...nothing. All these tests keep telling me it's nothing more than store-bought cologne."

"What's it smell like?" Jack asked, looking over the pages again. Owen shrugged and frowned.

"I dunno. I wasn't sure what it was, so I was wearing a mask the whole time. I didn't bother sniffing it."

"Why does it matter?" Ianto asked curiously, watching his lover. Jack glanced up from the readings and smiled at Ianto.

"Because if it's nothing more than cologne, perhaps we could test it out. See if it invokes any sexual desires." He winked at Ianto while Ianto grinned back, his heart jumping in his chest in excitement. He reached out his hand to hold Jack's while Owen stepped back and rolled his eyes. Jack leaned closer to his boyfriend and kissed him, his tongue sliding lightly and playfully across Ianto's lower lip. Owen cleared his throat loudly once again to break the two of them apart.

"You're like rabbits," he muttered to himself. Jack tore his gaze away from Ianto's eyes and glanced at Owen.

"Rabbits don't have half as much fun as we do." He winked. Ianto flushed lightly, focusing his eyes on the floor as his right hand still held onto Jack's left. Owen rolled his eyes one last time. Jack handed him back his papers and pulled Ianto up and into his arms as Owen made to leave the room. Right before he departed, Jack called after him: "Run just a few more tests on it; just in case. Maybe it's something that's more alien than we anticipated and is good at masking itself. We just want to make sure it's not dangerous. If you finish that, see if Gwen and Tosh don't need some help."

"Sure thing, boss." Owen said, obnoxiously saluting before leaving. As he walked down the stairs, he fought a small smile on his lips. He did find the captain's promiscuous, over-sexualized (at times) behavior a little annoying...but it always amazed him how Jack could easily combine work with sex. Back in the office, Jack pulled Ianto closer to him and the two men stared deeply into each other's eyes. A smile played on Jack's lips, lighting up his eyes in the process. He brushed his fingers along Ianto's jaw line before settling his hand back behind Ianto's neck. From there, Jack pulled his lover closer and pressed his lips longingly against his. His hands slipped down to Ianto's ass and ran over it with his fingers. Jack had Ianto's arms wrapped around his chest, pulling him in closer so their waists touched and rubbed against each other.

...Roughly 22:45...

The Torchwood team was getting tired. They had been analyzing, re-analyzing and running tests on that little bottle and its contents for nearly fourteen hours. Every test or examination that was run through did absolutely nothing. There didn't seem to be anything dangerous about it, but Jack still wasn't convinced. He was wary about how the object had reached them in the first place; not to mention that it had came to them anonymously. Despite his pressing for more tests, the three active crew members were running out of options. There simply weren't any more tests to be run. "Jack, let's face it," Gwen sighed, tossing down a manila folder. "There's nothing dangerous there."

"But how can we be sure?" Jack asked.

"Because we've run at least a hundred different tests on it. We can't find anything. Even if we repeat the tests, it's unlikely the results will be any different." Owen replied.

Tosh sighed as well as she stretched her arms out across the conference room table. "Normally I would agree with you, Jack, but this doesn't make any sense. I know the circumstances make this thing seem strange and dangerous, but the tests prove that it's not."

"But what if we--" Ianto started, but Owen cut him off with a shake of his head.

"There are no more tests. We've done everything." The whole team sat in silence, thinking. They had never before faced something they weren't able to crack. Perhaps it wasn't something alien after all. That still made it a mystery about where it came from and for what purpose, but it was obvious that it wasn't going to harm them.

Gwen yawned widely and rubbed her eyes before stretching out in her chair. Tosh caught the contagious yawn and followed suit, covering her mouth and letting her eyes droop slightly. They were all exhausted from their long day and didn't want to do any more work. Knowing this, Jack sighed and pushed his chair away from the table. Standing up, he gazed at all of the sleepy souls around him. "Why don't we call it a night? I'll stay here and make sure every thing's shut down; you guys just go home. It's been a long day." None of them needed to be told twice. As they grabbed their jackets and left the conference room, Jack said, "Good work today. Thanks, everyone."

There were three people that left the room. One remained in their chair. Jack's eyes held their's for several beats. "Why don't you go home too, Ianto?" From his seat, Ianto shook his head.
"I'll stay. I can make sure every thing's closed down for the night." A lingering smile painted itself on Jack's lips as he walked up to his lover. Resting his hand on Ianto's head, he grinned down at him. His voice was soft as he spoke.

"You're exhausted. Go home. I can take care of everything. It's not like I have anywhere else to be tonight." Ianto smiled a little, tearing his eyes away from his boyfriend and staring at his hands on the table top. He didn't say anything. Then again, he didn't need to. Jack was good at reading his emotions. The captain felt his chest swell with pride as he watched Ianto's timidity dominate. He had always been shy about fully asserting himself. Jack found it endearing. Brushing his hands through Ianto's hair, he leaned down to whisper something in his ear. "You're welcome to stay here with me, Ianto." Ianto looked up at Jack, catching his eyes. A smile played on the corners of his lips and he nodded his head readily in agreement. Jack laughed in joy and pulled away to walk over to the door. Turning back in the doorway, he beamed at Ianto from across the room. "I'll go turn off Tosh's computer and clean up the medic station. You just get the bottle and put it in the safe for me, OK? Then we'll spend the rest of the night together." Ianto smiled in agreement, hardly able to contain his excitement. Blood and adrenaline rushed through his body. Jack laughed again before hurrying off to finish his task. Ianto stood up and made to follow suit, his mind traveling a million miles an hour, focusing on what he and Jack would do together, what he wanted to do to the captain... his heart pumping and palms sweating in anticipation, he swiftly went to the Owen's desk where the bottle had been placed.