Disclaimer: Not mine, except Ashley. Also, thanks to Jen, my beta over at the ARC.

Chapter 3 - Waterlogged: Things were pretty quiet for a few days after that. Ashley had missed some minor anomaly activity - Cutter and Connor had taken care of it, and Connor was feeling vindicated because his detector worked after all. He was also pestering her as to when they could take that trip out to the firing range. She told him Saturday, barring an emergency, and he agreed.

Ashley shook her head as Connor left her lab. He was starting to grow on her. She'd always had a soft spot for geeks. Probably because she'd been one herself, more or less. And still am, considering my line of work, she thought.

She looked down at the papers she'd been studying - readouts of the magnetic fields around the latest anomalies. She was looking for any discernible pattern beyond the obvious one that the field waned as the anomaly did. The note about the disruption of radio waves - which was part of what went into Connor's detector - was interesting, but she wasn't yet sure if or how she could use it.

"You know, if you don't stop for a break every now and then, you'll snap," a voice said cheerfully. Ashley glanced around. The speaker was Henry Johnson, one of the other scientists.

"I'm used to it," she said, smiling slightly. "Did you need something?"

"No, it's... well, we're all just curious."

"About?"

"The field team. See, we - the science team, that is - are always here. We never do anything outside of the lab. It's fascinating, what we do, but sometimes we get bored. And so we were wondering what working with them's like, especially with Temple being trigger-happy, Cutter being crazy, and - "

"Wait, what? Cutter's not crazy." Connor wasn't exactly trigger-happy, either, but that comment was at least partly true.

"You weren't here when he came back through an anomaly a few weeks back. One of the SAS guys told us all about it. He was rambling about the world having gone wrong and some woman who doesn't exist. And then, he said Ms. Lewis was someone else. Kept calling her some other name. Claire. Or, no, actually I think it was Claudia. See, he's gone daft."

"How could Jenny be someone else?" Ashley asked.

"Who knows? You don't think he could be right, do you?"

"No, of course not. It's just odd, don't you think?" But she wasn't quite as dismissive as Johnson. She didn't think Cutter was crazy. Haunted, yes, definitely that. She'd assumed it was because of his wife - she'd heard that story already - but maybe it wasn't just that.

She didn't like this train of thought. Not here, not again, she thought, trying to ignore the sudden flare of panic. But if alternate realities were in play again, she wasn't sure she could ignore her reaction. Playing with realities could be fatal. Torchwood had learned that the hard way.

This situation was different, if it even involved alternate realities. But it had enough similarities to make her very, very nervous. However, thinking like a scientist again, she noted that the possibility that alternate realities may be tangled up in the anomaly problem added a new dimension to the situation.

She went back to studying the papers. Henry left in a huff, not liking being ignored in favour of a few papers. He would tell the rest of his gossip circle that Stafford wasn't of any use for gossip. She was already every bit as close-mouthed as the rest of the team, and she'd only been on one mission.

When they got word of another anomaly via Connor's detector, Ashley, Cutter, Stephen, and Jenny headed off to investigate. Cutter kept trying to call Connor, but couldn't get him. He finally called Abby, who did answer, and told her to get herself and Connor over to meet them.

The four of them arrived at a basketball court, or rather in the clearing next to it. The anomaly hadn't been there; it had been somewhere in a nearby canal but had closed before an exact location had been determined. But a teenage boy, Lucien Hope, had disappeared from here, supposedly dragged through a manhole in the field.

After some discussion as to what might have caused the incident, Cutter asked Jenny to organise a search of the canal for Lucien - or whatever had most likely killed him. Then he and Stephen jumped into the hole.

"Are you two insane?" Ashley asked, not really expecting an answer. She didn't get one, and she sighed, shaking her head. Then she jumped in after them. Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

There was no water left in the tunnels, though it was damp. She followed the two men until they stopped, listening to a strange noise. "Sounds like whalesong," she commented. "But whales wouldn't snatch someone, right?"

They didn't know what it was and they'd hit a dead end, so they couldn't investigate. They headed back up and went to the canal, where they met Abby, Connor, and Jenny. Two boats were ready for them to go out and search.

"Jenny, you go in the boat with Abby and Connor. Ashley, come with Stephen and me," Cutter said briskly. Both women did as he said, and then they were off.

They stayed in the boats for hours, but saw nothing. Ashley was leaning over the side of her boat, shining a torch into the water in the hopes of finding something, when she glanced over at the other boat. There seemed to be some shifting of positions. Abby had been doing what Ashley was, but Connor seemed to want to take over. Jenny, who Ashley guessed was probably fed up with the squabbling that undoubtedly accompanied Connor and Abby's movements, pushed them both aside and took Abby's place. A mistake, as it turned out, because the boat hit something a moment later and Jenny was thrown from the boat

"Heads up," Ashley said, pointing. Cutter and Stephen glanced around.

"That's tough luck," Stephen commented. Then he frowned as he watched Jenny thrashing about. "Can she swim?"

"I think that's a minor problem," said Ashley, pointing again. This time she was indicating something in the water behind Jenny.

"We'd better get over there," said Cutter.

Cutter managed to pull Jenny into their boat before she got eaten by the whatever-it-was in the water. As it turned out, the creature was some kind of future shark, as they learned after shots from Stephen and the SAS men killed it. Ashley cursed herself for forgetting her gun. Stupid mistake, one she couldn't afford.

Later, back at the ARC, Ashley joined Jenny just as Cutter was leaving her. "You're not going to do the autopsy or whatever it is they're doing?" Jenny asked.

"You're kidding, right?" said Ashley. "I'm a physicist, not a biologist. Or anything to do with animals at all, actually. I'd be worse than useless. How are you doing?"

"Fine."

"Hmm. So, can you swim?"

"Yes, but have you ever tried to swim with one of those things on?""

"No."

"Then don't comment on my inability to swim in one."

Ashley grinned and went to go check the progress of the others.

Lucien hadn't been eaten by the shark after all, it turned out. His basketball and one sneaker had been found in the animal's stomach, but no human remains. Stephen, Cutter, and Abby all said sharks didn't digest food that fast, and Ashley took their word for it. As she'd said to Jenny, animals weren't really her thing.

The next morning, they were under orders from Lester to search the canal more thoroughly, but Cutter, acting on some hunch, went off in another direction.

"Does he do this sort of thing often?" Ashley asked a frustrated Stephen.

"All the time," he said, shaking his head. "And I'll have to cover for him."

"Unless he's right."

"Which he probably will be. It's annoying, but it happens a lot."

But Cutter hadn't been right. Or maybe he'd been too right. Ashley didn't get the whole story, but Cutter had apparently run into a suspicious man, made all the more suspicious because he was familiar. Something about being a cleaner at a shopping mall that had been infested with raptors. The man had knocked Cutter out briefly, after which Cutter took Abby and Connor to investigate something. He didn't call for backup, a fatal mistake. Something - they had no clue what - took Abby.

After hours of searching, Cutter and Stephen called it off. There wasn't any chance Abby was still alive. Ashley was hardly surprised when Connor fell apart. She knew how he felt. She hated giving up; she didn't know Abby that well, but it just seemed wrong. More, she'd been in his shoes recently, though she couldn't say as much. Officially, Canary Wharf had been "dissolved due to poor management".

Lester showed up with Jenny and Leek in tow. He had Jenny take a distraught Connor home before firing Cutter and putting Stephen in charge. Stephen continued the search for the creatures in the canal. Cutter tried to convince him that he was looking in the wrong place, but with no success.

Stephen had told Lester he needed a remote submarine to search properly, and he got one. It didn't seem to be helping much, though, as even with the sub's camera, they saw nothing. When they did finally get a picture, it was quick and dramatic.

The creature took up most of the screen, but beyond it... Was that Cutter? She thought he'd gone home. It wasn't really a surprise, though. Stephen wasted no time. He grabbed a pistol and a machine gun before diving into the water.

"Oh brother," Ashley muttered, before checking that her own gun was secure in its concealed holster and diving after him.

They got there just in time to find Cutter and a boy - Lucien, Ashley assumed - surrounded by the strange animals. Stephen made short work of them with the machine gun, Ashley's own handgun helping somewhat. Cutter told them that Connor had been with him, and that Abby had been held captive here with Lucien. Connor had gone running off in search of Abby, and Cutter headed in that direction, Stephen and Ashley hot on his heels.

Ashley paused briefly, remembering Lucien. "Stay here, yeah?" she told the clearly shaken teen.

"Oh yeah," Lucien said, nodding. Ashley grinned before taking off again.

They didn't find Connor or Abby, but they did find an anomaly, and they realised that their missing team members were probably on the other side. Cutter and Stephen went through without hesitation. Ashley followed a bit more uncertainly - she'd never been through one before, and she was pretty sure they both had.

As it turned out, their timing was spot on. They found Connor hanging off a cliff edge, trying desperately to hold on to Abby's hand. Cutter hurried over to help, and together the two men got Abby over the edge to safety - relatively speaking, as none of them were exactly safe in this environment. Ashley and Stephen, meanwhile, were shooting at the giant creature that had been after Abby, joined by Cutter once he'd left Abby and Connor. There was no way for it to survive the onslaught of bullets.

Back in the present, Lucien was loaded into an ambulance, and the bureaucrats were back. Jenny was talking to Lucien, while Lester spoke to Cutter and Stephen, Leek at his side like a shadow. Lester commented that the next time he sacked Cutter, he'd appreciate it if the professor could at least pretend to stay sacked for at least ten minutes. However, he also admitted that it was a good thing he hadn't, because if it had been left up to Stephen, they'd still be looking in the wrong spot. Ashley found that unfair. Lester's plan to seal off the anomaly with concrete was a good one, though.

There were reports to fill out, so Ashley, Stephen, and Cutter went back to the ARC. By the time all was said and done, night had fallen. Ashley didn't mind that, not really. It wasn't like she had any plans anyway.

But things changed when she got back to find Ianto Jones sitting on her doorstep.