AN: Chapter two! Obviously. Please lemme know what you think of the series so far?

Chapter two – From bad to worse

"Hurry Doctor!" Amy shouted, hysteria in her voice. The Doctor ignored her, quickly setting the TARDIS in motion. Gwen seemed to be trying to calm her down. The Doctor mentally wished her good luck.

"Can I do anything?" Jack asked, restlessly kicking his foot against the floor.

"Stand back," the Doctor said shortly. The entire situation made him terribly uneasy. Friends in danger always made him uneasy - and why was it always the Rory-part of the Ponds? - but there was something else. Something not quite right... It finally hit him. "Oh! Stupid Doctor!" he exclaimed, hitting himself on the forehead. "How did we end up back in the TARDIS?" he asked as they materialized on Roal Dahl Plass.

Jack froze. "I- I don't remember." They stared at each other while Amy ran towards the doors, closely followed by Gwen.

"Right now, I don't care," Amy snapped. "What was that light?" she demanded as she threw the doors open.

"The light, yeees," the Doctor murmured, sorting through all the different possibilities, disregarding improbabilities and thoughts of kittens wearing bow ties.

"TRB?" Jack suggested. "Teleportation and Relocation Beam," he clarified.

"Possibly, yes. Yes, that would actually make sense," the Doctor agreed as they jogged towards the lift. "It was outside, well, mostly. They only used a minor fraction of it on us, just to move us a few meters."

"Why though?" Jack wondered.

"Like I said, to move us. Obviously."

"What's going on?" River asked, ascending on the lift.

The Doctor absently scratched his wrist. "TRB, or that's what I," Jack cleared his throat "we think it is-" the Doctor quickly amended, instantly interrupted by Amy.

"Where's Rory?" she asked, looking around as if expecting him to appear out of thin air. Which was completely ridiculous in the Doctor opinion, because when had Rory ever appeared out of thin air? Except that one time, and that had been an accident the Doctor couldn't be held responsible for and besides he had explicitly told him not to connect those two wires in the TARDIS. Well, sort of told him anyways. Hinted at it. Oh well, water under the bridge and all that.

"They went out for lunch," River told them, frowning. "What happened?"

"Gwen, call Tosh and Owen," Jack ordered. "River, did they say where they were going?"

"No," she frowned. "What happened? Don't make me ask a third time. Sweetie?" She turned towards the Doctor who had to admit she had a rather fetching glare.

"Rory said something about sandwiches," Amy remembered, waving her hands, searching for words. "He- um, he said it'd been ages since he'd had a proper one."

"Closest café this way," Jack said shortly, coat billowing as he ran.

"I know you know how to multitask," River said, giving him one of her more flirtatious smiles.

"Well..." he grinned as they jogged after the others, filling her in on what had happened on the ship.

-'-'-

Rory woke up to kisses and insistent hugging. If he hadn't been aching all over this would have been very nice. As it was, it was rather painful.

"Ow," he supplied, blinking his eyes open. Amy was holding him, his upper body cradled against her. For a few seconds he wondered what she was doing at the café and why they were on the floor, then he remembered the light. Must have knocked me out cold. Great.

"Thank god," Amy breathed, stroking his hair. He'd somehow expected the café to be in ruins, but as far as he could tell it was practically the same. He wasn't the only one lying on the floor though, most of the guests were in similar positions, at least the ones closest to where they'd been sitting.

"Hello Rory, how do you feel?" the Doctor asked seriously, coming into view as he leaned in over him.

"Like I've been run over by a space elephant," Rory groaned, blinking in surprise when the Doctor tapped him sharply on the forehead.

"Hm." He pinched Rory's left knee, making him flinch in pain. "Curiously enough, I've never been run over by one of those," the Doctor said thoughtfully, pulling out a stethoscope from a pocket. "Now that you mentioned it, it's been ages since I've seen a space elephant." His eyes lit up with excitement. "Ooh, I was thinking, after this-"

"He feels like something large ran him over, focus Doctor," Amy demanded, snapping her fingers in front of the Doctor's face. Her ability to shut the Doctor up made Rory love her even more.

"Right, sorry. Too much sugar. Possibly. Or not enough sugar. It's always difficult to tell. It's my firm belief you can't get too much sugar except when you do and you make no sense what so ever." He pressed the stethoscope against Rory's forehead, then his ear. Rory exchanged a raised-eyebrows-look with Amy, who then just shrugged, squeezing his hand gently.

"Where's Ianto?" Jack asked, crouching down next to him.

Rory started looking around frantically, the thought that Ianto might be missing not even occurring to him. He really should have learned better by know. It seemed everyone he knew were abducted right and left these days. His wife. His daughter. Himself. "I- I don't know," he stuttered. "He was right here..."

"Jack," Gwen said somewhere above him. "No-one else seem to be missing. We won't know for sure until we've looked through the footage from the security cameras but... well, whoever did this seem to have been targeting Ianto." Jack nodded shortly in acknowledgement, pulling his fingers through his hair. He rose, blue eyes cold, face an unreadable mask.

"Bring him back to the Hub," he told Gwen, nodding towards Rory. "We need to ask more questions and Owen should have arrived by now," Jack finished before striding off.

"Who's Owen? Your interrogator?" Rory asked nervously, even though Jack was too far away to hear him.

"Our medic," Gwen said, smiling reassuringly at him.

"Right," Rory breathed. "Of course."

-'-'-

The Doctor, Jack and Amy all stood leaning against the railings around the medical bay. Gwen was talking to the police who'd arrived at the scene while Tosh tried to track the ship that had sent the TRB. She'd confirmed within minutes that Ianto was the only one who'd been taken.

They had tried to locate "Ianto's" ship, but unsurprisingly it had disappeared. The Doctor felt bad for Jack, could understand his frustration. He was very close to his team, the Doctor remembered. He'd even turned him down for them. Very bad for my ego that. He scratched his arm, watching doctor Harper work. He found the medic absolutely wonderfully snappy and short tempered.

"Do you think it was the flesh?" Amy suddenly said. "The other Ianto on the ship," she clarified, glancing at the Doctor. He felt a bit proud over her quick thinking. Well, she did spend a lot of time with a brilliant mind, it was bound to rub off eventually.

"Possibly, though I doubt it," the Doctor frowned, tapping his screwdriver against his lips. He was missing something, but what? He scratched his cheek.

"The flesh?" Jack interrupted.

"A matter that can take on other forms and become them. Well, not really. But rather like that. A bit like that. You can use that explanation as a guideline." He frowned. "Though I don't think that's it in this case, because I could sense a difference between Ianto and Ianto. Couldn't do that with the flesh so it must have been him and he was aware what was going to happen, or else he wouldn't have had apologized. Which I suppose was rather nice of him. The apology that is." He trailed off, annoyed at himself for not finding the proverbial missing piece of the puzzle.

"He could have apologized for something else," Amy said, leaning forward for a better look at Rory. "I mean, things often go from bad to worse in the company I'm keeping." She looked pointedly at the Doctor.

"Pessimist," he said halfheartedly, having had the same thought. The first part of the thought, the rest was just plain mean.

Jack tapped his earpiece."What have you got for me, Tosh?" he asked. "Okay. Owen's almost done, you might as well come down here. Alright, great work." He turned towards them. "She managed to break down the residue of the beam into- never mind, I'll leave it up to her."

-'-'-

"So we essentially got nothing." Jack was thrumming with energy. He needed to do something. Ianto had gone missing almost three hours ago and they just kept meeting dead ends. He paced back and forth, unable to be still even a moment. They'd all gathered in the boardroom, Tosh quickly summarising her findings before heading back upstairs with River. The Doctor said River was brilliant, Jack didn't like a stranger having access to the Torchwood network but he trusted the Doctor's judgement. Mostly anyways.

"Um," Rory said, then looked very uncomfortable when everyone turned to look at him. Jack had made him go through everything that had happened after they'd left the Hub twice, but they still hadn't got a clue as to where Ianto had been taken and by whom.

"Yes Rory?" he said, trying to keep his voice calm. They were wasting time, yet they couldn't do anything because they didn't know where to start hence the search that wasted their time. Evil fucking circle.

"It's stupid-"

"Nothing's stupid here," Gwen assured him, giving him an encouraging smile. "Go on."

Rory took a sip from the water bottle Owen had given him, insisting he'd finish it. "They stole his sandwich," Rory muttered. "See, told you it was stupid. I glanced back when we left and I saw mine still sitting there but his had gone missing. Even the plate was gone. It's just. It's weird, isn't it? I can get them stealing a person, but their food?" He shook his head.

"The beam could have been a bit off-" Gwen began.

"No, TR-beams are very exact," the Doctor interrupted before Jack could, scratching his shoulder. "Probably why they used it as they didn't want to abduct the entire café." He looked at Rory sharply. "What kind of sandwich was it?"

Tuna sweetcorn, Jack thought.

"Um, tuna sweetcorn?" Rory made it into a question.

"Eeeew! Disgusting." The Doctor stuck his tongue out, making a face. "Well. That clears that up." Everyone looked at him questioningly. "They wanted to know his eating habits," the Doctor clarified. "Which means they want him alive," he thought out loud, "why go through all that trouble otherwise?"

"Could be collectors," Jack suggested. If it was collectors, Jack knew how to deal with them. He'd met his fair share while working for the agency.

"Mm, yes, but they could have taken any human. Lots and lots of humans after all. Hardy an endangered species, humans, I mean you're practically everywhere. Not yet, not for you, but for me-" the Doctor babbled. This Doctor rambled even more than his past regeneration, which said a lot. Jack didn't really mind, he'd actually missed it.

The discussion – monologue – was interrupted by Rory fainting, Amy grabbing him quickly to keep him from falling. "A little help," she said, voice a bit stained. Jack rushed to her side, lifting Rory bridal style.

"Get him up to the medical bay," Owen said shortly, walking on ahead. Jack was about to follow him when Rory spoke in a flat, almost robotic voice.

"Scanning completed. Not. Compatible."

"Rory?" Amy touched his cheek. His eyes were open and unseeing.

"Not. Compatible."

The Doctor rushed forward, sonicing him from head to toe, yanking the screwdriver back dramatically, inspecting it closely.

"Rory? Rory, are you still with us? Mentally that is," the Doctor asked, fussing with some settings on the screwdriver.

"Not. Compatible."

"I got that part, thank you. Not compatible for what?"

-'-'-

So far, Tosh's day had sucked. She'd hardly slept, having gotten home at seven in the morning because the Rift spat out some weird tech at midnight she'd had to analyse in case it was something dangerous. Of course it turned out to be an alien microwave slash music box. Then Gwen had called her at half eleven to tell her the Doctor had arrived and oh 'a spaceship is hovering above Cardiff' and would she mind coming into work asap? Upon arrival she'd been told Ianto had gone missing and to top it all a strange woman had been sitting by her computer.

After Tosh had politely shooed her off, River had taken over Gwen's workstation, helping Tosh analyse the collected data. Tosh had to admit it was wonderful to work with another mind who actually understood and appreciated her programmes without Tosh needing to dumb it down. Tosh was running the beams components through the several intermingling programmes that predicted and analysed the Rift, hoping to find a match for something similar, or a clue as to where it had come from. She had told River to leave the rift-bit to her, and instead focus on the energy that made up the beam. Yes, she still felt a bit uncertain about the other woman, but she obviously knew what she was doing and Jack had given his okay. Besides, their first priority was to find Ianto. She'd had a knot in her belly since she'd been told about his disappearance.

An alarm went off.

"Rift alert," Tosh explained as River quickly made it over to her station, narrowing her eyes as she quickly typed in a few commandos. "That's odd."

"Is that here?" River asked, reading over her shoulder.

"Yes." Tosh touched her earpiece. "Guys, rift alert here at the Hub."

"I'll kiss Jack if that's a coincidence," Owen snarked, jogging down the stairs to the medical bay. "With tongue!"

"I'll hold you to that," Jack called, quickly making his way after him, carrying an seemingly unconscious Rory, Amy right behind them. "How long ago?"

"Thirty two seconds." Tosh got up, hurrying after him, stopping above the bay.

"Sounds about right," the Doctor said, standing beside her, ruffling his hair, making it stand up in all directions. It had felt surreal meeting him again, especially since he'd suddenly exclaimed "space pigs!" during her short briefing. Not really a thing she'd wanted to be remembered for.

"Rory fainted at the same time as the alert?" Tosh guessed.

"Yep," Gwen confirmed, walking over to stand on her other side, looking down into the bay where Owen was using a small torch to check Rory's pupils.

"Honestly, why does everyone insist on building their secret bases underground? the Doctor snapped as he began pacing behind them, scratching his neck forcefully. "Don't you have any room above ground? I get that there are lots of humans everywhere, but just for once-" He stopped dead. "Of course! But that's a myth," he contradicted himself in a mutter. "Then again, so am I and lots of other stuff I've encountered. We're myths yet we exist. So can this also exist? It's absolutely impossible which makes it very possible bordering on obvious but why him? Why Ianto Jones?"

"Doctor, care to explain?" Jack asked, having returned from downstairs, looking ready to shake the Doctor until his teeth rattled. Tosh could relate to that, wanting to do the same thing herself and just yell 'spell it out! Because if you hadn't noticed, we're one man short!'

"You ever run into the cat nurses, Jack?" The Doctor began, looking at him intently. Tosh wanted to ask 'what cat nurses?' but didn't want to interrupt.

"Of course, several times." Jack waved him on, Tosh would bet anything he'd dated one. It was a testament of how worried he was that they didn't get to hear the anecdote.

"Well, the sisterhood supposedly have a secret branch, dedicated to preserving species. It's a myth-"

"But like you said, so are you," Jack cut in, looking excited.

"Exactly! What they supposedly do is that they collect DNA from extinct or almost extinct species and use it to turn other species into that species. Well, not exactly like that, but almost. Not really. But pretty much. Well, let's just say it's like that. My point is, there are several humans which means they are perfect hosts to use if they're compatible. You people multiply faster than rabbits!"

"First monkeys then rabbits," Amy muttered, having sat herself down on the stairs, eyes anxiously trained on her husband. "Cheers Doc."

"Why not take a bunch of random humans, though?" Owen called from downstairs. "Why target Ianto?"

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "He's Torchwood? He's got a cute button nose? He likes tuna sandwiches? They liked his suit? All the above. Could be anything."

"Um, maybe it has got something to do with the rift?" Gwen suggested. "He grew up by it."

"Why not take you then?" Tosh asked, choking a yawn.

"Maybe they needed a male?" Gwen suggested.

"I know you claim Rhys is the only man for you, but the are in fact several males in Cardiff," Owen sassed as he joined them. "Something must have blocked the scanners. I was very thorough!" he snapped, kicking the wall in frustration.

"You mean like Beth's perception filter?" Jack suggested.

"Mm, yes, very likely," Owen agreed. "Not sure if we should use the mind probe this time though."

"Stop at the first sign of trouble," Tosh mumbled, butting her shoulder against Jack's.

"Or at the first sign of exploding," Jack mumbled back, mimicking a Welsh accent, smiling, then made a face.

"We'll find him," Gwen said, squeezing his arm. Jack nodded shortly at her, before jogging up to his office, slamming the door behind him.

"Who's Beth?" the Doctor stage whispered.

"Sleeper Agent," Tosh offered.

"How is he?" Amy asked.

"All vital signs are normal. Not sure I trust that though," Owen muttered, eyes narrowing. "He should be fine," he frowned. "He's sleeping, his body is probably exhausted from the scanning. I want a second opinion on this," he suddenly said. "Gwen, call Martha."

"Martha?" the Doctor asked, gaping, for some reason turning to Tosh who shrugged. "Martha Jones? My Martha?"

"She's worked with us before," she explained while Gwen walked off to make the call.

"Really?" The Doctor looked comically surprised. "Huh. Small world. Or planet, since you're all on the same one. Same country even. Britain. Curious that. Still. Is she, um, coming? Here? Soonish? Like, now-ish?" He pulled his fingers through his hair, correcting his bow tie with both hands.

"Who's Martha?" Amy asked curiously, briefly turning towards them before turning back to keep an eye on Rory.

"Sweetie! Come look at this!"

Saved by the bell, Tosh thought in amusement as the Doctor had begun to look a bit flustered.

"What?" The Doctor dashed over to Gwen's workstation, Tosh quickly following.

"See that?" River pointed at the screen, showing the footage from the surveillance cameras inside the café in slow motion. The Doctor leaned in over her shoulder, focusing.

"Play it again," he commanded. He suddenly sniffed. "Are you wearing perfume, River?"

"Yes, sweetie, I am." She smiled warmly at him. "You like it?" The Doctor sniffed again.

"Very, hrm, 51th century." He shook his head forcefully, actually blushing a bit.

"It's two beams," Tosh suddenly said, having ignored the couple's (?) antics.

"That's what I thought. You agree then?" River asked her. Tosh was already over by her own station, typing quickly. If she could just- then run it through- yes!

"Got cha," she breathed. She tapped her earpiece. "Jack. Come look at this."

-'-'-

"So it's two beams?" Jack repeated. He felt exhausted, having made several calls to find out more about the 'Secret Sisterhood' to no avail.

"Yes. We think one to scan and one to abduct," Tosh said, glancing at River who nodded. "They used the rift to maximise the power," she pointed to her screen which showed a rise in rift activity at the time of the beam. "I think the scanning process took awhile, working through Rory's body, then returned to it's source." She pointed at the raise in activity coinciding with Rory fainting. "Which means their ship probably wasn't even close to here, it didn't need to be."

"Which means we can't trace them," Jack concluded softly. God, he needed coffee. He needed Ianto to bring him coffee. Shit. How could he have let this happen? He was supposed to keep them all safe. It had been way to close recently; first when Owen got shot, then Gray- don't think about him.

"I did manage to get a direction, but-" Tosh shrugged, regarding him with sad eyes.

"There must be something-" the Doctor muttered, scratching his scalp frenetically.

"Have you got lice or something?" Owen drawled, always the tactful one.

"What? No! I'd know, thank you very much. Be very rude of them not to ask permission before coming aboard, so to speak."

"You keep scratching," Amy suddenly said, as if just realizing it. Jack hadn't really thought about it, being preoccupied, but she was right.

"Am not." The Doctor stilled, looking down at his hand which had been in the process of scratching his torso. "Oh. Oh dear." He rummaged through his pockets lightning fast, theatrically raising a cookie in front of him. He quickly broke it in half, taking out a tiny folded piece of paper.

"Is that the one you nicked from the ship?" Amy asked.

"He said go ahead," he Doctor reminded her, eyes on his finding. "Now let's see here-" he frowned. Jack could taste his pulse in his mouth. Please let it be a clue. Please.

"Future Ianto gave you a fortune Jammie Dodger?" Owen said incredulously.

"Of course not. It's obviously a secret cookie message," the Doctor scoffed. "Very clever if I do say so myself. I wonder if there was a message in each of the cookies? I had like three of them. It's not that healthy to eat paper. Unless you're a goat, I guess. Then there's all these environmental issues. How will I ever be able to look a forest in the eye again?"

"Doctor. Message," Amy ordered. Jack liked her. Fierce, demanding and an absolute joy to look at.

The Doctor squinted at the message through a monocle, humming 'Star ships, were meant to fly' rather off key under his breath.

"Well?" Amy said impatiently after a minute or so.

"Huh?" the Doctor looked at her inquiringly.

"What does it say?" Jack cut in.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Lot's of things you can do with a paradox."

"Jack! Doctor!" a familiar voice shouted. Jack and the Doctor turned as one towards Tosh's workstation, Jack's heart hammering painfully in his chest. "Doctor, can you hear me? Jack? It's me! It's Rose."