PART 1 of 2

Michelle, Helen and John watched from the corner of the room as the head of Torchwood Three stormed into the room followed by his PA. The whole day was looking to be an interesting one. The trio were the personal assistants to the three leading members of U.N.I.T. and they were here to record and monitor the meeting, not to mention fetch documents or anything else that might be needed.

U.N.I.T. wanted to discuss the delicate matter of staffing, not to mention the Ostahagan Key with the head of Torchwood Three and, ultimately the leader of the entire Torchwood institute when decisions that covered all the locations were needed. One Captain Jack Harkness, known flirt and wild card. They'd all seen him a quite a few times and none of them particularly had high opinions of him. Nor did their bosses for that matter.

Harkness' PA however was a different matter; they always had coffee with the young man and had become fast friends. Unlike them however he was not of military background and was therefore the only person in the room not in Uniform, (if you could call Harkness' outfit a Uniform.) No, as per usual, Ianto Jones was dressed in an impeccable three-piece suit, which was in no way suitable for his job even if he was a PA. In an institute like Torchwood or U.N.I.T. even the PA's are trained to deal with threats if the need were ever to arise.

Ianto looked in their direction as he followed Jack into the room and smiled a silent greeting. None of them had seen each other for almost a year now but they regularly spoke on the phone and emailed each other for work, though often the correspondence would end on a social note.

Harkness stalked across the room, not bothering to sit he stood in front of the table opposite their three bosses and without so much as a hello let rip, "What the fuck were you idiot's thinking!?"

Ianto didn't even bat an eyelid but their bosses looked about ready to explode; Helen's boss, Brigadier McCarthy, was completely red in the face, a colour to match his temper.

"Captain Harkness... you can't just."

"Oh Can't I?! Who's fucking brilliant idea was it to turn this planet into a giant explosion? Nuclear Warheads positioned to tear this planet apart? I want them disabled within the week. You do not have the authority to go behind my back or any one else's for that matter and create a plan that will destroy the whole damn planet when you think nothing else can be done!" he fumed slamming his hands down on the table so he was leaning threateningly over their bosses.

"You have no right to question our judgment, your track record is hardly perfect." John's boss, General Plith, snorted sitting back in his chair arms crossed as he glared at the Captain.

"I might not be a saint and play by your rules all the time but I get the job done and save the planet in the process! Where the hell where you three during the Stolen Earth incident? Cause I sure as hell didn't see any of you on the Dalek Crucible working with the Doctor to save the planet like I was," The three commanders bristled but were cut off before they could begin to retort, "I want it disabled, and if I have to contact the Doctor and call him back to do the job he's not going to be happy."

"Don't threaten us with the Doctor, Captain, we have better connections with him than you do," McCarthy snorted.

"You want to bet? What's his phone number?" Harkness smirked.

"The Doctor doesn't carry anything as primitive as a phone," Michelle's boss, General Carson, replied though his voice sounded a little uncertain.

"Wrong," Harkness said holding his hand up and without further prompting Ianto placed a mobile phone in it. The captain hit a number on speed dial placing it on the table between them and smirking when the phone was answered by a voice that had everyone in the room but Harkness, and Ianto who was already standing tall, straighten into attention.

"Ello Jack, how'd it go with U.N.I.T.?" Came the Doctor's voice through the speaker

"I'm working on it Doc, would you like to say hello? You're on speaker." Harkness replied still smirking at the commanders.

"Who'm I talking to then?" The Doctor asked.

"General Carson, Brigadier McCarthy and General Plith, plus we've all got our PA's here."

"Jack you don't have a.... Oh, hello Mr. Jones,"

"Doctor," Ianto smiled.

"Hmmm, No Alistair or Benton... I miss those two, they were such fun."

"Doc on topic," Harkness prompted. The familiarity with which he spoke to the Doctor was clearly disturbing the commanders.

"Right then, I hope you're taking the Captain's and my advice about removing that foolish project."

"Doctor we can't just," Carson replied.

"Of course you can. You three are running the place at the moment aren't you? I'm sure you can work it out."

"Of course sir." Plith grumbled and if the Doctor noticed his tone he didn't show it.

"Very good then, I'll be off; people to see things to run from. Oh and Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"I want an invitation to the big day. You can't expect me to be witness if you don't send me an invite," The Doctor said happily.

"I'll make sure you get it sir," Ianto replied still standing completely unruffled behind his boss.

"Excellent," The Doctor replied and then the dial tone echoed around the room as the Doctor hung up leaving the room in shunned silence around a very smug Captain Harkness.

"Well Gentlemen. I'll be on my way now. But I'll be in town at the Hilton Hotel for the week to make sure you keep your word," Harkness said making his way to the door, Ianto right behind him like always. But Harknesss hadn't finished he stopped in the door and turned back to the three furious commanders. "Oh and to fill out any paperwork I might need, Dr. Jones is transferring to Torchwood and that is not up for negotiation," he stated before sweeping through the door.

Michelle, Helen and John sat having afternoon tea at their favourite cafe, just round the corner from U.N.I.T. headquarters in London.

"Every time Harkness comes here it always ends in Chaos for the rest of the base," John said his distaste for the man clear in his tone.

"He's such an arrogant shit, he pisses off every boss on the base leaving them to take out their on the rest of us and still gets practically everything he wants," Helen agreed stirring her coffee.

"How does he do that? It's not like his ranks that high," Michelle asked.

"Rank or no rank he still runs Torchwood and since Ms Hartman screwed up he's got the entire Institute under his belt," John snorted taking a bite of his doughnut

"No wonder he's so arrogant," Michelle replied.

"You've heard the rumours right?" Helen asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, but which ones are you referring to at the moment." John replied around the doughnut in his mouth causing the girls to throw him a slightly disgusted look.

"Exactly there are the ones about him being a complete mad hatter and loose cannon," Helen replied.

"And the ones that he'll flirt and shag anything that's good looking enough whether it be male, female or alien," John added making sure he'd swallowed first this time.

"I heard he'd shagged and blackmailed the prime minister and that's why she favours him so much," Michelle whispered so they weren't overheard by the surrounding tables; bad mouthing the prime minister wasn't the best thing to do when you're a U.N.I.T. operative on a coffee break, if the wrong person overheard they'd be in all sorts of trouble.

"No the other rumours; about just how long he's been around," Michelle prompted.

"They're not rumours, the proof right there in the paperwork; he's been working for Torchwood longer than any of us have been alive and he doesn't age a day," John shrugged having worked in archives for a while before being promoted to his current position.

"So what is he?" Michelle asked confused having not heard that rumour before now.

"Well he's either an alien or a human that's been messed with by alien technology or something," Michelle shrugged.

"That's just creepy," Helen muttered.

"I'm just glad he's not my boss," John said.

"Poor Ianto, I'd hate to have his job. I wonder why he hasn't quit, maybe Harkness has something on him," Michelle said biting her lip a little in worry for her friend.

"Maybe... hey, we should invite him out with us tonight," Helen suggested.

"That's brilliant, Harkness said he's in town for the week so of course Ianto's going to have to stay with him," John agreed planning to ring Ianto the moment they got to base to ask him to come out with them.