Chapter 2: A Big Change

In the depths of the Torchwood HUB, in the maze of shelves and corridors that makes up the archives was Ianto Jones' office. His large desk faced the door but was hidden behind tall shelves which served the dual purpose of giving him easy access to the files stored there and allowing him some cover from the CCTV camera over the door, since he rearranged the furniture about six weeks ago half of his office was now hidden from the electronic eyes of the HUB security system, giving him a little more privacy. Ianto likes it down here. The quiet is a contrast to the constant stream of questions he has faced from Gwen since those damned flowers were delivered yesterday morning.

He looked over at them now, half a dozen yellow roses, which if Tosh was correct, represented the friendship Sven had asked for. He couldn't say that they weren't nice it was just weird. Nobody had ever bought him flowers before. He really hadn't expected to see Sven again and if he was honest he had got everything that he'd wanted from him in the toilets of the club. Standing, he looked down at the blooms sat in a vase on his desk, lifted them out of the water he threw them into the bin, tossing the card with Sven's note and phone number on it in after them.

Right now all Ianto wanted to do was sleep. He had been aching inexplicably all day and lay down on the couch at the back of his office, praying that he was just tired and wasn't coming down with the flu. Almost immediately Ianto lost consciousness, maybe an hour's sleep would put him right.

In the main HUB Tosh was typing away at a report for UNIT while Owen and Gwen were out buying lunch. They had started sharing out the tasks more evenly lately and to Owen's annoyance had even started using the driving rota. As they had walked out of the HUB the medic had been grumbling to himself while Gwen described how she was going to mess with the mirrors on the SUV. As yet the other organisations had no idea that Jack had disappeared, he often bunked off the scheduled meetings with outside agencies and as long as the paperwork kept being filed, they should be able to keep it to themselves for another few months at least. The last thing that Torchwood Three needed was a UNIT investigation. Ianto might be a good actor but it didn't mean that he was ready to face an enquiry from UNIT asking the whereabouts of their absent leader.

When the proximity alarm sounded to let her know that the SUV was back in the garage Tosh tapped the communicator at her ear and tried to get hold of Ianto. When that failed she texted him and when she got no response she pulled up the CCTV of Ianto's office. The tape showed him entering the office three hours ago but she couldn't see his desk past the bookshelves. There was nothing of interest until forty minutes ago when Ianto had thrown his flowers in the bin then disappeared behind the shelves again. She was about to close the window when the screen lit up with a soft orange glow, Ianto was still out of the shot but there was obviously something going on.

Owen had left Gwen in the garage putting the seat back into its correct position and walked ahead of her into the HUB carrying the food.

"Tosh, I come bearing…" he stopped and stared when he saw her come running out of the weapons locker holding a rather large machine gun, seeing such a small woman holding such a big gun was undeniably sexy but he was still confused as to why she needed it in the HUB.

"There's something in the archives" That was all Owen needed to snap into action, dropping the plastic bag of food on the floor he pulled a handgun out of his waistband, cocked it and followed Tosh through the labyrinthine archives until they reached Ianto's office

"So what are we looking for?"

"I don't know"

Owen looked at her, confused "You're running armed into the Tea boy's lair and you don't even know what the problem is? He'll kill you if you put a bullet in his precious paperwork"

"Something glowy, and orange" Tosh hated not having any more information "The camera was blocked"

"Fine, we go in on three" Tosh nodded

"One" Owen moved in front of Tosh to take point

"Two" Tosh offered a silent prayer to whoever was listening that her friend was okay

"Three" Owen burst into the office, he cleared the area closest to the door then froze, gun pointed in front of him when he was facing the couch. His sudden stop caused Tosh to walk into his back.

"Hey!" She was confused until she too saw what Owen had seen.

Ianto woke up to find two guns pointed at him.

"Okay who the hell are you and where's Ianto?" Owen didn't like this situation, there should be no way that an intruder could get into the HUB without setting off twenty different alarms. On the couch, in nothing but a dress shirt was a woman who was distractingly hot. If she thought that her physical appearance was going to sway him she was mistaken, even if she was even more distracting when a cute, confused look crossed her features.

"Owen?" a second after she spoke she put a hand to her throat seeming surprised by her own voice, screamed and stared at her hands then she passed out.

Ten minutes later in the medical bay Ianto Jones regained consciousness, his first thought was that the aching he had been feeling had been caused by the flu like he suspected and that Owen must have brought him for treatment but when he looked down at himself he remembered the situation he could scarcely believe he was in. Only in Torchwood could you go to sleep for an hour and wake up tied to an autopsy table with your friends pointing guns at you. Thankfully this time he woke up it was Tosh standing over him, not Owen. He couldn't turn to see where Owen was but could hear him working on the other side of the autopsy bay.

"Identify yourself" Tosh had never looked so intimidating, her usual office wear accessorised with that ridiculously large gun.

Ianto grimaced at how wrong his voice sounded but did manage an answer "Ianto Jones. Please Tosh, what's going on?" Tosh looked to Owen, who projected the results of his analysis onto the wall.

"She…he's telling the truth Tosh" Owen moved to undo the wrist and ankle restraints holding Ianto to the cold table. Then he moved to stand in front of Ianto and stopped him as he made to get down from the table. "Look at yourself and have a think about whether or not you're ready to get down."

Ianto looked down, he saw the long pale legs dangling over the edge of the autopsy table, he saw the soft hands which he stared at for a good five minutes before moving them to touch the features of his altered face, then he realised that there were other, more dramatic changes, his hands went to his chest and Tosh stepped in to stop him before he went any further. Now she had abandoned the rifle she looked less scary and more like the comforting best friend he needed.

"Whose body am I in Tosh? She looked at him like you look at a child who just asked you where babies come from. Owen came to her rescue.

"Yours"

"But I'm a girl"

"Actually, you're a woman." Owen stood next to the tiled wall and pointed to the results of his DNA test.

"This is the sample I took during your last physical" He indicated the top pattern "and this" he pointed to the one underneath "is the one I took while you were passed out"

"They're the same"

Tosh pulled herself up onto the autopsy table to sit next to him and squeezed his hand

"Not quite, this sample is about as similar as I'd expect from a sister. They're definitely similar but there are some differences" he pointed to one piece of the pattern "Like this, in one you've got and XY chromosome pairing and in the other you've got XX"

"I don't understand"

The medic sighed and ran a hand through his hair "you haven't just been put into a woman's body. Your own body has been changed at the most basic level into that of a woman"

"Oh God." They were quiet for a few minutes until Ianto looked down again and noticed his state of undress. The white shirt he ironed this morning now hung loosely to his mid thigh and the sleeves were far too long "I need clothes"

Though the team had been closer recently they had never worked as efficiently as they had in their current crisis. Owen was going over the results of his scans trying to see if this change could be damaging to Ianto's health. Tosh had found some kind of electronic signal in one of the blood samples and was trying to get a better look at the technology to see if it was responsible for Ianto's sudden transformation. Gwen sat in the conference room with a bewildered Ianto; they were creating a timeline of his last week to see when he could have come into contact with anything that could be responsible for his current condition.

"Okay so nothing interesting happened on Monday or Tuesday," she pushed the notes they had made so far to the other side f the table "Tell me about Wednesday"

"It was raining"

"Sweetie it's Cardiff, if the rain turned you into a woman I think we'd know by now"

Ianto just rolled his eyes and carried on with the details of Wednesday morning until Gwen stopped him.

"Wait what was that?"

"I opened up the tourist office and Sven was waiting outside for me, he came in, dried off, bought a map and left."

"Sven?"

"Blonde guy, come on Gwen you've been gossiping about this since yesterday"

"No I've been gossiping about you meeting some stranger in a bar, if he was here in the morning then he could be following you." Ianto went pale…well paler than he already was. Gwen was on the comms calling the other s upstairs when Ianto remembered something else from that morning

"He knew my name."

"What?" Ianto had been silent as Owen and Tosh entered the room, looking as white as the white scrubs Owen had found for him to wear and staring into space, scared at the thought that someone had done this to him on purpose.

"I let him into the office and he said Hi Ianto, he knew my name."

AN/ ooh, so Sven is a baddy is he? Who else saw that coming?

Turning Ianto into a woman is a request from one of my bestest girls who is a diabolical plot genius. I know it's a little confusing, but I did leave a few hints for the more obsessive whovians(Orange glow…tiny machines…changes [if that's not enough then I recommend re-watching DW/The Doctor Dances])

Thank you to everyone who has been reading from the very beginning and I hope you'll all come back on Monday when we get a bit more information on this…and Ianto goes bra shopping (you know that's going to be hilarious)