Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own Torchwood and probably never will.
"Toshiko, Martha; what's your status?" Jack barked into the comm. Toshiko's voice came back to him, breathless. She was running.
"We're in pursuit of two of the creatures. We should be able to bring them in, but there's still one out there."
"Gwen? Ianto?" he turned his attention to the other two members of his team.
"We were after it, Jack, but it got away. And…I lost Ianto."
"What?!" Jack could hear that Gwen was upset, and with good reason – those things were born killers, natures answer to the problem of over population. Jack opened up a private connection between his comms and Ianto's. "Ianto?" he got nothing but silence. "Ianto?!"
"Sorry, Jack. I'm here." Jack almost passed out with relief, then was instantly annoyed with himself. He couldn't allow himself to get too close to the Welshman, couldn't let himself care too much…
"Damnit, Yan, what happened?"
"I got it, Jack. It's out cold; I'm taking it to the SUV now."
"Good. Tell Gwen you're ok, she sounded worried sick." She wasn't the only one. He thought angrily. He was very aware that if it had been Gwen, or Toshiko, or even Martha who had got lost, he wouldn't have felt the same way he did now; all shaky, as though some huge disaster had been averted.
Half an hour later, they were all grouped back at the Hub. Ianto had taken the three creatures down to the cells, where they would be kept until they decided what to do with them. Martha was busy patching up Toshiko's arm; she'd received a pretty nasty scratch.
"There! All done, you'll live."
"Thanks Martha."
Jack watched as the young doctor smiled and walked over to Owen's desk…No, damnit, to her desk… Jack mentally shook himself, biting his lip. It had been 4 months since Owen had died, and he still kept thinking about him. It had never been like this before; he'd always been able to move on. It was probably, he reasoned, because he couldn't actually remember it happening. All he had was a blank. Another three weeks to add to the list of times he had no memory of.
He was jerked out of his thoughts by the sound of the Rift alarm. He hurried over to Tosh's desk to see what was up. He didn't want to have to handle this; two Rift alerts in the space of 3 hours was really too much…
By the time he got there, however, the alarm had stopped. "What happened?" he asked Toshiko, puzzled.
Her fingers typed rapidly at the keyboard. "I have no idea. There was a huge surge in Rift activity, but it stopped before I could trace a source."
"That can't be good." Gwen said. Jack jumped, he hadn't realised she was so close to his shoulder.
"Oh, I don't know." Toshiko muttered. "I don't know that it could have been anything big coming through, it didn't last long enough."
"Well, keep an eye out, Tosh. Any weird sightings of anything let us know."
"Will do."
"You had me worried earlier." Jack murmured into Ianto's ear. He had sent the rest of the team home so it was just he and Ianto. Just the way he liked it.
"Sorry." Ianto leaned his head onto Jack's shoulder. "I didn't really think."
"I don't know what I'd have done if it had hurt you."
Ianto smiled.
"Of course, I was very worried. I think it's only fair that I should punish you…"
Ianto stiffened and pulled away, a very pissed-off expression on his face. "Why do you always do that?"
"What?"
"We're getting along great, you say something really sweet, and then you have to make it all about sex! You make me feel bloody cheap sometimes Jack Harkness."
Jack was about to retort when the door rolled open and Gwen walked in. she froze at the sight of the two men sat together on the couch.
"Sorry, am I interrupting something?"
"No." Ianto said firmly, pointedly avoiding looking at Jack.
"Oh, well, I've just been on the phone to Andy. They've had a young girl come into the station, and apparently she doesn't exist."
"Huh?"
"No birth certificate, no job references, the phone numbers she's given them are non existent…"
"So? Maybe she's just making it up, or got amnesia. It's hardly something Torchwood needs to get involved with, Gwen."
"Yes, but what if she's what came through the Rift?"
"A human girl? Unlikely."
"But possible. Come on, Jack, you might as well check it out. It won't take that long."
Jack groaned and looked over at Ianto. Well, their evening had been ruined already. "Sure, ok. Ianto, you'd better come as well, at least then I've got an ally in that place.
Jack considered the girl from behind the one-way mirror of the interrogation room. She looked human; Jack couldn't believe she was anything Torchwood should be investigating. He was going to have Gwen make up for this.
"Ok Gwen, if you think she's hiding something, you and Ianto go in and talk to her."
"Why do I need Ianto?"
"I dunno, good cop/bad cop?"
Ianto grimaced. He could tell that the only reason Jack wanted him to go in there was so he could avoid being alone with him. He supposed he had over-reacted slightly earlier.
Jack watched as they went in. the girl turned her head as the door opened, and smiled weakly at Gwen. She was rather pretty, Jack thought. Slim, with long blonde hair, and the most amazing green eyes. The young girl turned to face Ianto, and her mouth dropped open in shock. She stared at him for a few seconds, and then her face was illuminated by what was quite possibly the widest smile Jack had ever seen. She somehow managed to display all her teeth without looking like a fool. Then she spoke.
"Ianto?!"
