2.

Jack opened the door to the corridor in which Anita's cell was situated. Owen was sitting on a stool in front of the plexiglass window, watching the family. When he saw Jack, he beckoned him closer. "Look at this."

Jack was amused at the open enthusiasm on Owen's otherwise so serious or sarcastic face. He stepped closer and came to a halt beside him. Anita sat in a corner of the cell and muttered under her breath. One of the babies was with her, tucked against Anita's flank. The other three were huddled in the nest of straw in the other corner. Jack frowned. "What are they doing?"

Owen signed him to be silent. Jack raised an eyebrow in response but he obeyed.

One of the babies was a whining and Anita replied with a brief shout.

Owen threw Jack a sidelong glance and said, "It's been like that for an hour."

"What for?"

"Wait ... I think you can see it for yourself."

Jack pulled the second stool closer and sat down.

The baby whimpered again and Anita replied with another growl. The baby got up carefully until it stood on shaky legs. Jack's eyes widened as it took a few uncertain steps and then fell. It whimpered and Anita made a humming noise – reassuring and encouraging. The baby sat up again and overcame the distance to its mother with a few slow, but almost perfect, steps.

Owen stared at Jack enthusiastically. "Isn't that fantastic? She teaches them walking by giving them no other option. Like birds do. Fly or fall. Only she says: come to me or starve." He made a note on the pad on his lap.

"This is fantastic," agreed Jack, "and as much as I hate to interrupt, but upstairs, work's waiting."

Owen sighed reluctantly. "I know."

Jack put a hand on his shoulder. "You have the CCTV. It's not like you can miss something."

"Yes. Alright."

xxx

Ianto took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair in the boardroom. He'd closed the door to block out the noises of the main Hub. This exercise still required his full attention, even though he'd become better at using his empathy. He focused on his feelings – peace, calm, security – and pushed them back to find the emotions lurking in the background. He felt that it was already much easier to tell his and other peoples' feelings apart. He picked out one emotion – happiness – and then opened his eyes. Gwen was sitting at a table on the small balcony outside the boardroom and opened a box of chocolates which she'd brought to work. A gift from Rhys, without a doubt.

Ianto was a little dizzy and he closed his eyes again. Gwen's feelings were strong. Out of the whole team, she was the one Ianto could practice his empathy on the easiest. Sometimes, he felt a little guilty for using her as a guinea pig but she was just more open than the others.

His hand clenched around the armrest of the chair and he took a deep breath, focusing. He had to learn to hold on just a bit longer, if he wanted to be able to constantly feel other peoples' emotions one day. It was exhausting but it would get better – at least that was what Archie had said. Regret mixed with Gwen's happiness.

Ianto frowned as the feeling grew stronger. Why did she feel regret? Because she was breaking the promise to herself to cut back on chocolate like she'd told them three days ago? He doubted it. It was more likely that she felt remorse because of her affair with Owen. He tried not to let these negative emotions get too close. He couldn't allow himself to drown in them. He had to feel them but he couldn't internalize them.

"Ianto?"

The interruption startled him. He got up hastily and whirled around to Jack, feeling caught. "Sir, I ..." The world tilted to the side and a moment later, he found himself sitting on the carpet. He felt nauseous and dizzy, gasping for air.

Jack knelt beside him, one hand on his shoulder. "Okay, breathe deeply," he said softly.

Rapid steps came closer and then Gwen crouched down beside him, her green eyes worried. "My God, Ianto. What happened?"

"Nothing," he answered quickly. "I'm fine."

"You collapsed."

"I'm okay."

"But-"

"He's fine," Jack interrupted her with a firm, calm voice. "I'll take care of Ianto. You should get back to your break, Gwen."

Ianto nodded at her. He felt her squeeze his shoulder and then he heard her walking away. The door to the balcony closed.

Jack helped Ianto to sit in the chair and handed him a glass of water. Then he pulled up a chair for himself and sat down as close to Ianto as he could get. His blue eyes were serious. "I may not be a good empath but I can see when someone is trying to use it."

Ianto sighed but nodded in agreement.

Jack leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "How long have you been practising?"

"Since our return from Scotland."

"Two weeks," Jack said, raising an eyebrow. "Can I presume that Archie has something to do with this?"

"He showed me how to do it. He said that, with a little practice, I could become better."

"Did he also say that you should practice behind my back?" Suppressed anger was lurking in Jack's voice.

Ianto swallowed and ducked his head. "No."

"He had his reasons." Jack pointed a finger at him. His voice was quiet and tense, as if Gwen being near was the only thing that kept him from becoming louder. "Empathy isn't a game, Ianto. It is an intrusion into the privacy of others and the fact that you are using it is unfair to the team members who have no idea about your abilities. Torchwood has rules for empaths and one of them is that any empathy used has to be reported to the director."

"Yes, sir. Sorry, I ... wasn't thinking." He looked up at Jack. "I just wanted to practise."

Jack let out a breath and his face relaxed. "Ianto, empathy is a dangerous thing. Useful, but dangerous. Not for others but for yourself. You don't want to always know what others feel, believe me."

"But if it's useful ..." Ianto stared at Jack firmly. "... and I have this ability, then I should be able to use it."

Jack sighed deeply and closed his eyes. "Stubborn."

"Yes, sir."

"But it's a decision that affects the entire team. Everyone must know about it and agree. It's not the same as reading their minds but you'll still be able to notice things that they would rather keep secret. If they agree, we will think about training. Together."

Ianto nodded. "Alright."

The door to the boardroom opened and Owen entered. "Jack, I've got something that might fall into our area of expertise."

xxx

"Lynn Pierce, Carys Fletcher and Max Tresilian," Owen said and waited for the names to sink in. The team had gathered in the boardroom and Owen had now taken the lead over the meeting. "Who can tell me three things these people have in common? You'll get a gold star as a reward."

"We don't give out gold stars anymore," Jack said with a twinkle in his eye, then he became serious and folded his hands on the table. "And they're connected to us."

Owen nodded. "100 points to the gentleman wearing the braces." He woke the projector from standby mode and projected the pictures of the three from the case files on the wall. "Lynn Pierce," he said, pointing to the blonde middle-aged woman, "was the mother of Jasmine Pierce who was kidnapped by the Fairies." He pointed at the young woman. "Carys Fletcher was briefly taken over by an alien and nearly killed. And …" He nodded at the dangerous-looking man. "... Max Tresilian, the newest member of the Torchwood fan club. Our ex-colleague Suzie forced him to commit murder."

Tosh pointed out something else they had in common, "All three took Retcon."

Owen nodded. "Successfully so. They couldn't remember anything that was related to us. Mrs. Pierce thought that Jasmine died in a car accident, we told Carys that someone in the club she frequented put drugs in her drink and we gave Max an alibi for the murders – he believed that he spent a few very intimate days with a woman in Glasgow."

Tosh sighed. She remembered the work she had had to put into inserting Max into the CCTV footage of a hotel. "What's the last thing they have in common?" she asked.

"All three have committed suicide in the last twenty-four hours."

Gwen's eyes widened in shock. "They're dead?"

Owen nodded and pointed at the picture of Lynn Pierce. "Jumped from a parking garage," then to Carys, "slit her wrists in the loo of a nightclub," and then Max, "shot himself in a mall."

Ianto stirred his coffee. "Pretty public."

Gwen nodded affirmatively. "A lot of witnesses."

Owen continued, "Everyone wrote something on their arm before they died."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Please don't say that it was the word Torchwood."

"No, it was D12, 10."

Gwen frowned. "What does that mean?"

Tosh noticed that Ianto was staring thoughtfully into his cup. His lips moved, repeating the numbers and letters a few times as if he was checking a mental database. It wouldn't surprise her. Ianto had a photographic memory. That was one of the reasons why he was so good at his job as an archivist.

Owen shrugged. "We should find out. Maybe it has something to do with the suicides." He looked at Jack. "According to the autopsy reports, the cases have all landed on the desk of our favourite DI."

Jack showed a broad grin and his eyes sparkled. "Kathy." He stood up. "I bet she misses me. Owen, we should pay her a visit." He shoved his hands into his trouser pockets and took charge. "Gwen, make yourself familiar with the police reports and look for other suicides among people who are connected to us. Tosh, the sensors. Make sure there were no unusual Rift activities that could explain this. We can't rule out a connection. Ianto, the archives. I can't remember similar cases but maybe I'm wrong. Look also for D12, 10." With that, he waved Owen to follow him, and they left the boardroom.

Gwen sighed deeply. "God, I hope this has nothing to do with us."

Tosh nodded. She was hoping the same. The incident with Suzie just a week ago had left the team shaken. Suzie had proven that working for Torchwood could drive a person mad enough to kill and crazy enough to create a plan that would enable them to come back from the dead, not caring about the consequences. Jack didn't show it but Tosh could see that killing Suzie again had been hard on him. She also saw that he and Ianto seemed to spend a lot of time together and she was relieved – she knew that Ianto would take care of Jack.

She startled when Ianto reached for her mug. "More coffee?" he asked.

Tosh realized that Gwen was gone and cleared her throat, a bit embarrassed about becoming distracted when there was a case to work on. "Yeah. Thank you."

He smiled and left.

xxx

It wasn't that Kathy Swanson didn't like Jack Harkness. He was certainly knowledgeable and seemed to do everything to protect his team, and apart from the fact that he'd managed to get trapped in his own base, he seemed to be intelligent as well. What she had a problem with, however, was the fact that Torchwood just barged into police work and snatched up their cases whenever they wanted to. Without an explanation as to why. All they got in the end were reports dripping with lies. Cardiff was a city where strange things happened. Like these suicides. Kathy wanted to have one of the strange cases long enough to be able to figure out the truth – just to know what Torchwood kept hidden. But it looked as though she wouldn't get a chance anytime soon.

When she looked up from her third cup of coffee, she noticed Harkness making his way through the office towards her desk, wearing his vintage military coat like a cape and carrying a charming smile on his handsome face. Confident of victory. She wasn't willing to give in without a fight, though. "Don't even think about it, Harkness."

"The suicides," he said firmly, leaning both hands on her desk, "fall into our jurisdiction."

Kathy successfully ignored the part of her subconscious which imagined having a candlelight dinner and more with Harkness ... he was definitely worth every wistful sigh that followed him. She focused on her job. "Why?"

"I could ask the Prime Minister to explain," Harkness answered and his arrogant smile was that of a spoiled child that always got what they wanted.

Kathy bit her lip. "I want to get your report once you're done."

"Of course."

"Your full report," Kathysaid pointedly. "Don't think that I believed the story you fed us about the serial killer case a week ago."

"I can't promise you that, Kathy," Harkness said.

She pulled a reluctant grimace but knew that she had no chance. Harkness hadn't been kidding when he'd dropped the Prime Minister's title. "Fine." She handed him the file. "It's clear that I lost. Since you've got the Prime Minister behind you."

He winked at her, his blue eyes sparkling with triumph. "Don't be angry, Kathy. Just trust me when I tell you that this case falls within our area of expertise."

She snorted derisively.

Harkness held up the file. "Give me the latest highlights."

"Why don't you find out yourself? You can read, can't you?"

Harkness raised an eyebrow. "I don't think this is the time for games."

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "One of the victims, Carys Fletcher ... for two weeks, her diary has a new appointment added. Every evening at seven – Apollyon. That's all we know. I did some research but I couldn't find anything about it. At least nothing that seemed relevant."

A thoughtful frown had dug itself into Harkness's face. "Apollyon?"

"The diary is in the file."

"Alright. Thanks." He turned away.

"Harkness," Kathy called after him and he looked curiously at her. "When you're ready to hand over your without a doubt correct report on the events, please make sure your secretary drops it off." Harkness raised his eyebrows in surprise. Kathy casually shrugged and smiled. "He's more polite," she explained, "and I'd believe anything a man with eyes like his would tell me."

Harkness laughed. "I'll tell him that he has fans around here." He winked and turned to go.

Kathy began to write an e-mail to her boss to tell him that Torchwood had taken over the case. Again and again, a smile crept on her lips, even though she tried to suppress it. "Bloody bastard," she muttered.

xxx

When Jack asked Ianto over the headset to look up the word Apollyon in their archives, Ianto was barely able to mask his surprise. The name wasn't unfamiliar to Ianto but he wanted to make sure that he wasn't mistaken before telling Jack so. He'd told Jack that he'd look for the name and stopped the search engine from trying to find a reference to D12, 10 – he knew it was useless. Apollyon on the other hand ...

Ianto was standing in front of the wall of filing cabinets containing the documents belonging to artifacts, personnel files and case reports, and, without further hesitation, opened the drawer labeled Ton-Toz. His fingers found the pile of records which he had recently put in there. He took the file out and closed the drawer, then put the folder on his desk and crossed his arms. His gaze wandered through the large main room of the archives, the rows of shelves filled with over a century of artifacts which had come through the Rift. Over a century of secrets. The archives were just like Jack himself in that regard. He'd also been here for over a century and he had secrets. Ianto wondered if all of this was coincidence. He'd read the file that was now lying so innocently on his desk directly after their case in Scotland – out of interest and curiosity. The folder was thick but still as good as new – maybe nobody but him had ever read it.

He reached out a hand, smoothing his thumb over the label on the file which announced in black letters the title:

Torchwood 4

With a determined sigh, he sat down and began to leaf through the pages until he found what he was looking for. An e-mail from January 15th 2000, written by Torchwood 4 director Janice Abston to Jack.

Captain Harkness,

My sincere condolences to the events on New Year's Eve. I knew Alex in person and can hardly grasp the fact that he didn't just kill himself, but also the people he was responsible for. I can imagine that your situation right now is anything but easy but I feel obligated to remind you that Alex has agreed to install the Rift Manipulator and carry out experiments (Project 'Apollyon'). It would be of great importance for us to start these experiments soon.

Janice Abston Torchwood 4

Apparently, Jack had never answered because the next page was also the last in the file. There were only a few words on it but they said it all.

Your Majesty, following your command and our recommendation:

Torchwood 4 officially neutralized

And underneath, three signatures: Yvonne Hartmann, Archie McIntyre and Captain Jack Harkness.