1.

Toshiko Sato had learned to deal with solitude. It wasn't something she enjoyed – she wanted someone to share her life with, somebody who belonged to her – but she could live with it. Her eyes slid from her laptop through the boardroom and then through the big windows down into the Torchwood main Hub. She let herself get distracted by the water running down the sculpture in the centre of the room. The door to the boardroom was open, so she was able to hear the low pitter-patter of the water hitting the basin. She closed her eyes. She was becoming tired, even though it wasn't even lunch time. She'd worked on several projects until late last night, at home, where nobody could watch her and remind her of her need to sleep. The flat felt empty without Mary. It was strange, since they really hadn't been together for long. Not even a week. The loneliness was now overwhelming whenever she was on her own, though.

She looked at Owen's and Gwen's abandoned work stations. They'd been sent out to a small Rift alert by Jack. Tosh was glad she didn't have to see them. She couldn't have said what surprised her more: the fact that Gwen slept with Owen whom she'd criticized for his sex life ever since she'd started working for Torchwood, or the fact that Gwen cheated on her boyfriend and had told Tosh that she wouldn't stop doing it, not even now that Tosh knew.

Tosh had spent the last few days wishing she'd never worn Mary's pendant. If she hadn't, she would have never read her team mates thoughts. She would still be able to believe that there was nothing between Gwen and Owen. Then she wouldn't know just how bored they were by her and her work. She would have never betrayed Jack's trust by bringing a stranger into this base. She wouldn't have learned just what it felt like to be betrayed by someone she loved.

Mary had been a bitter lecture for Tosh. She couldn't believe that she'd been that stupid. Everything had been too perfect and easy. She should have known that Mary was setting a trap, but Mary had noticed what Tosh needed – attention and love from someone who could distract her from the hopeless case that was Owen Harper – and she'd used her. She'd used Tosh in every single way. And now she was dead and Tosh was alone and Gwen and Owen were ignoring her. And Jack, who had done so much for her, was disappointed in her.

Tosh's laptop beeped, pulling her from her thoughts. She focused on her computer. The internal Instant Message Service had opened.

IANTO: :)

Tosh smiled and looked back through the glass wall of the boardroom into the main Hub. She found Ianto near the cogwheel door, his PDA in his hand, looking at her with worry.

Without Ianto, the days after Mary's death would have been much harder on Tosh. He'd turned up at her flat to console her. She'd called him when she hadn't wanted to be alone and he'd reassured her that her job with Torchwood was safe, no matter what she'd done. Tosh knew that he was just returning the favour she'd done him during his suspension, but she couldn't help but think that they were building a pretty amazing friendship. He gifted her with a small smile and raised his eyebrows questioningly. He'd probably seen her sad face. She turned to her keyboard.

TOSH: I'm fine.

Ianto frowned at her, then he smiled again.

IANTO: Want to talk?

TOSH: No.

He'd been offering her to talk about Mary for days, about what happened, but Tosh couldn't. Not yet. That didn't stop him from asking and Tosh appreciated it.

The phone on the boardroom table rang. Tosh watched Ianto putting away his PDA and hurrying to answer the extension in the kitchen niche. Sighing, she closed the IM chat and went back to work. Jack was waiting for the analysis of the Rift activity over the last few months and she wouldn't disappoint him.

xxx

Somebody, probably Owen, had left an empty biscuit pack in the sink. Ianto sighed in resignation and forced himself to ignore it for the time being to answer the call. Normally, all calls landed in Jack's office, except when Jack's line was busy or when he diverted the calls for some reason. Ianto glanced at his watch and noted that Jack would probably still be busy talking to the Prime Minister. That made it officially Ianto's task to answer the phone. He was curious: aside from the Prime Minister and the royal family, only UNIT ever called them. He couldn't think of a reason anyone would want to reach them at the moment.

He took a moment to straighten his tie and then answered the phone. "Jones?"

"Why the hell isn't Harkness answering?"

Ianto immediately recognized the Scottish accent and gravely voice. Archie McIntyre, Torchwood Two leader, apparently had never learned to start a phone call with a hello. Ianto had met McIntyre only once – during a training course Torchwood One had organized in Glasgow – and he hadn't really decided what to think of him since. On one hand, the archives in Glasgow were perfectly organized. On the other hand, McIntyre was rude, quaint and he was drinking a bit too much. Owen's favourite story about McIntyre was the one where he'd been overwhelmed by a simple e-mail and sent a top secret file about the monster of Loch Ness to a local newspaper instead of Torchwood One. Ianto knew that Jack and Archie were close. Since Archie was well over seventy (nobody knew exactly how old he was) and had worked for Torchwood for forty years, that wasn't a big surprise. Jack and Archie must have spent a lot of time together.

That was why Ianto overlooked the rude greeting and just answered, "The Captain is currently in an important call with the Prime Minister. Is there something I can tell him, Mr. McIntyre?"

"That there's a huge problem over here he could be interested in solving. Something more important than the Prime Minister's ego. Check Scotland's Rift activity for the last two weeks and tell Harkness to call Archie."

Ianto smiled in amusement about Archie's habit to talk about himself in the third person, but he didn't let it show. "Where in particular should we check?"

"A particular address," Archie answered. "Torchwood House."

xxx

Jack leaned back in his chair and supported his elbows on his desk. His right hand was busy tapping a pen against he wooden desktop in irritation while his left hand was clutching the phone hard as if he could choke off the Prime Minister's words, "Mr. Saxon is our Minister of Defence. He has every right to know about Torchwood."

"With all due respect, I don't think so," Jack answered firmly. "Our Charter says that only the Prime Minister and the royal family is to know about Torchwood. UNIT is the representative organisation. Torchwood is top secret." He pushed a few papers aside he would still have to read later.

"Those rules are antiquated at best and the last time anyone changed them was 1967. Captain, you have to agree that times have changed."

Ianto entered Jack's office, holding open the door for Tosh who was nervously tucking her dark hair behind her ears. Jack frowned and raised his eyebrows questioningly. He knew that Ianto wouldn't disturb him if it wasn't important. Ianto signalled him to end the call before shoving his hands in the trouser pockets of his suit, effectively making Tosh the one bearing the news.

There was nothing Jack would have rather done in this moment than ending the call. "However, Mr. Prime Minister, we'll have to continue this some other time. I'm afraid an important case just landed on my desk."

"Just remember that it could be useful to have Mr. Saxon on your side, Captain."

"I'm sure he's a very nice guy." With that, Jack hung up and turned to Tosh. "Problems?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered, "huge problems." She walked around his desk and he shifted his chair away to allow her access to his computer which was standing on a small table crammed into a corner. While Tosh busied herself opening the necessary computer programmes to explain the situation, Jack turned to Ianto. He was still standing near the open door and answered Jack's gaze with a questioning frown. Jack smiled at him. After a second of hesitation, Ianto returned the gesture. For the first time in days, Jack realized how good Ianto looked: more content and healthy. Aside from the situation with Mary, the last few weeks had been quiet and Jack had been able to send the team home on time most evenings. The added amount of sleep must have helped Ianto. Jack hoped that he'd finally been able to regain some sense of peace. Just like Jack was slowly coming to terms with his loss and was ready to look towards the future. He'd spent a lot of time alone in the last few weeks, keeping Ianto at a distance. Matthew's death had hit him hard and the last thing he'd wanted was to lose himself in Ianto to overcome his grief. It would've been unfair towards either of them.

Jack leaned back in his chair. "Who called?"

Ianto pulled his hands from his pockets and folded them on his back as if he was taking on an official work position. "Torchwood Two asked us to check the Rift activity in Scotland."

"So?" Jack asked.

Tosh stepped back from his computer an pointed at the screen. Jack turned his attention to her and immediately started to worry. She seemed tired, her hair in an untidy knot. Dark shadows had developed underneath her eyes. Jack regretted that out of all Torchwood members, Tosh had been Mary's victim. She was insecure enough. The fact that she thought she'd found the possibility of love just to discover that she'd been manipulated into betraying Torchwood must have made things worse. He didn't know how to show her that he still trusted in her. She worked a lot from home and regularly handed in reports about all kinds of projects. More reports than he needed or asked for. He decided to wait for a few more days before he'd take her out for a heart to heart talk over dinner.

She cleared her throat. "These are the Rift spikes in Scotland. There were some really bad ones right here." She pointed at a point on a satellite image that was marked with a red spot. The area around the spot was green. There were a couple of small villages located a few miles away, but nothing actually on the spot.

"How long?" Jack asked.

"It started two weeks ago."

Jack narrowed his lips. "And Archie didn't think of calling earlier?" he asked, irritated, and grabbed the phone. "Why?" Archie should know that Jack would support him in any way possible whenever he needed it. Torchwood Two was just an archive, Archie didn't have any agents fit for field duty.

Ianto shrugged. "He didn't say."

Tosh asked softly, "Jack, are you aware of where that is?"

"Torchwood House," Jack answered grimly and dialled. "That's not good." Officially, Torchwood House was just a ruin. Way back, it had been the headquarters, but a fire in the 20s had ended that abruptly. Jack looked at Ianto. "Call Owen and Gwen back in. Tell them to hurry, but to finish with their job." It looked as if the quiet time was over.

xxx

Tosh looked up from her screens when the entrance gate to the base rolled aside and Owen and Gwen entered. Both of them seemed tense, but since Owen was carrying an isolation unit and they didn't seem to be injured, Tosh assumed that the mission had been a success. She hadn't expected anything different. Neither had Jack, or he would have taken the whole team to the origin of the Rift activity. But the spike had only been small, so it seemed to be just a piece of technology or a plant. Gwen and Owen ascended the stairs to the working area. Nobody answered the greeting smile Tosh gifted them with. She fought down her disappointment an asked curiously, "What did you find?"

Owen ignored her. He'd barely spoken a word with her since the team had found out that Tosh had read their thoughts. While Jack and Ianto hadn't changed their attitude around her, Gwen and Owen had put up walls – more Owen than Gwen. Tosh didn't know if it was because she knew about their affair now. She just knew that it hurt. Even the fact that Gwen was mad at her bothered Tosh, though they weren't exactly the best of friends.

Gwen seemed inclined to follow Owen to Jack's office without an answer, but then she stopped at Tosh's desk and said, "No idea." Then she followed Owen. Ianto caught them on their way to Jack and offered them coffee from the tray in his hands.

Jack's office door slammed shut resolutely, cutting the three off from Tosh and Ianto. The quiet in the main Hub was broken by Myfanwy who left her nest under the ceiling with a sharp cry and flew around the water tower. Tosh tipped her head back to watch her. The flapping of the pteranodon's wings had a calming effect.

Ianto stepped next to her and set a mug of coffee down on her desk. Tosh looked up at him. "Thanks."

"They'll calm down eventually. I'm sure of that," Ianto said.

"I don't know," Tosh answered, staring towards Jack's office. Through the windows, she could see Owen and Gwen talking to Jack who was listening attentively. "I think I did too much damage."

Ianto leaned back against Tosh's desk and crossed his arms, his empty tray pressed against his chest. "Unknowingly."

"No," she answered. "That's sweet, Ianto, but I didn't do it unknowingly. I knew what the pendant would do. I knew it would enable me to read your thoughts. And that didn't stop me from wearing it." She wrapped her hands around the mug and shook her head. "I just wanted to understand them. Sometimes I think … I'm not really part of the team."

"Oh," Ianto replied and smiled weakly. "I know the feeling."

They looked towards Jack's office where Jack had opened the isolation unit and was staring into it with a dark frown. Then he shook his head and smiled at Gwen and Owen. Nothing dangerous, then.

"Would you like to be able to do it?" Tosh asked.

"What?"

"Read thoughts." Tosh looked up at Ianto.

He seemed surprised by that question and gave it some thought, but then he just shook his head. "Never."

"Why?"

Ianto let out a breath. The answer seemed to be hard on him. Tosh knew that he didn't like to open up about himself, so she gave him a minute. "I think I'm too much of a coward. I don't want to know what everyone thinks about me ..." He shook his head. "I can't."

"Jack's thoughts …," Tosh said. She saw Ianto raise his hand in warning and continued before he could interrupt her, "There was nothing. Just a big emptiness and that strange feeling … but when Mary took me as a hostage, he talked to me. Using his thoughts. He didn't think some random thing, he really talked to me."

"That's amazing," Ianto said, "but not really a big surprise. We already knew that he could do things like that. He has mental shields to ward off intruders, so that nobody can get into his head and read his thoughts or use mind control."

"You have mental barriers as well," Tosh replied.

"Mine aren't as strong as his," Ianto said.

Tosh nodded in understanding. "Nevertheless, it was strange. I wonder if he could do it when I'm not wearing the pendant. Talk to me using his thoughts."

"Maybe." Ianto looked at her earnestly. "There's a lot of things we don't know about him."

Tosh had to agree. They knew that Jack was from the future but not really where from. They knew he couldn't die but they didn't know why. They knew that he'd travelled with the Doctor but he avoided questions about the Time Lord technology and the Doctor himself, who, in Tosh's opinion, was one of the most fascinating beings of the universe. She knew he was holding back because he couldn't tell them too much or he would risk polluting the time lines. But sometimes she'd like to know how the Doctor's time machine worked or what it looked like from the inside. Sometimes she would like to know where Jack had gotten his vortex manipulator from that would enable him to travel through time if it weren't broken. Too many question marks remained and all she ever got was Jack's smile – the one he wore when he didn't want to answer.

Tosh saw Jack closing the isolation unit and addressed Ianto, knowing they would be interrupted in a moment. "Your thoughts were different from Gwen and Owen's. So sad." It was the first time she told him about it. Until now, she hadn't dared to ask since she knew how private he was about his feelings. But the opportunity seemed perfect and, right now, she needed the feeling that she had Ianto's trust.

He ducked his head and pulled up his shoulders. His eyes glanced at Jack's office – at Jack – and then returned to the floor.

Tosh stared into her coffee. "Are you alright?"

"I'm better," Ianto answered, giving her a reassuring smile. "Really. I can handle Lisa's death better now and I ..." He sighed. "I'm fine."

She wasn't entirely convinced by his words. Ianto was a fantastic liar when he put his mind to it. But she couldn't help notice that he looked healthier and lighter, as if a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He really seemed to be doing better, but not as well as he could be. She knew that Jack had distanced himself from Ianto during the last few weeks. It had seemed that the both of them had revived their sexual relationship after Lisa but Jack seemed to have changed his mind now. Tosh could only imagine that it had something to do with Matthew's death. Jack hadn't been himself for days and then he'd suddenly fallen back into his old pattern of flirts and jokes. Tosh could imagine that he felt Matthew's loss all the more when he was alone at night.

Jack interrupted her thoughts by opening the door to his office and ordering all of them into the boardroom.