Chapter 3.

In the Torchwood hub Jack was up in his office sorting out paper work and looking over the rest of the Hub. He could see Ianto slaving away at the kitchen and at the coffee machine. He could see Gwen sorting out her papers on her desk and reading her texts at the same time, probably from Rhys, Jack thought to himself. Then finally, he could see Toshiko working on the computers, every so often yawning or rubbing her eyes and taking small sips from her glass of water. It was now five days after Owen had left her, and this really did show her true colours. She wasn't as tough as she wanted to be, or as she made out to be. She was the little girl of the group, just the brains, and Jack took advantage of her. When Toshiko was going out with Owen she had so much confidence, she was herself. She didn't have to act 'cool'; she could be the computer geek that she is. But now Owen had left her, she hadn't seen him in five days, and she was losing the battle with herself, and Jack knew this. She was losing sleep, she wasn't eating properly, or drinking properly but she was working twenty four seven. Jack loved his workers to be enthusiastic, but Toshiko was doing nothing but work and Jack wanted people to still live a normal life, even with this job you can still have some sort of normal life. And Jack was sure of it. Jack got dragged away from his thoughts by Toshiko calling his name with as much effort as she could handle.

"Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Large rift spikes by 'The 27' in the centre of Cardiff," Toshiko told him as he came running out of his office

"The 27?" Jack stood behind Toshiko watching the images on the computer

"It's a night club, Owen and I went there a few times," The hub went quiet, but Jack broke the awkward silence.

"Ianto, Gwen with me in the SUV, Toshiko? Can you direct us and log into the CCTV network and inform us if you find anything new, I'll call Dr Owen-I'm-too-cool-to-come-into-work-Harper, it looks as though we may need back up for that amount of energy, even if the backup we get is a complete arsehole" Toshiko laughed at Jacks joke, and knew he was only saying it to make her feel better, "Right let's go, Thanks Tosh,"

Jack placed a reassuring hand on the back of Toshiko's neck; she turned her head, nodded and smiled shyly before Jack led the rest of the team out of the hub exit. Gwen looked back one last time at Toshiko working on the computers and tried to catch her eye. But Toshiko refused to be mummy-handled by Gwen, even if she did want to help.

Jack's voice came through on her ear piece; "Tosh? I forgot to ask, can you get us the coordinates for the 27 night club? Maybe some CCTV footage?"

"Yep, sending the coordinates to the SUV now. Not sure about CCTV, it may take up to a minute for me to receive them,"

"That's fine, don't worry about sending the footage just tell us what's going on and where and save the footage on the Torchwood Database,"

"Okay,"

Toshiko hacked into 'the 27' CCTV network within seconds and tracked down the source of rift energy within a couple of minutes.

"Jack? The source of energy is in the back, left room on the second floor of the building,"

"Can you guide us there?"

"Yeah, sure,"

Toshiko watched on the CCTV network as Jack, Ianto and Gwen entered the building, showing their ID cards to get past the security guards and down into the club. The club it's self was on one of the back alleys of Cardiff. It was the 2nd largest in Wales and was well known for its large amount of non stop parties with high security.

"Tosh? We're in, the security guards told people that there was a fire on the second floor so they are now evacuating people from the building, but in fact they are only evacuation people because we told them to. But that gives us enough space to do what we need to do, without being distracted,"

God Jack can ramble on sometimes, Toshiko thought to herself; "Okay, go up the stairs on the left side of the building," She told the team.

"Which ones? There are two?"

"The ones on you left, yes Gwen, those ones," Gwen headed towards the stairs and beckoned Ianto and Jack over.

"Can you see anything which is in front of us?"

"Umm…No, nothing which is a threat, Oh there is a security guard up ahead in the hallway you are now in, Have you heard from Owen?"

"Oh we can get past that guard with our ID cards,"

"Jack?"

"No,"

"Okay,"

"Sorry,"

Toshiko ignored the apology as it was useless, it wasn't Jacks fault, "Keep going right up to the end of the hallway, then take the stairs on you right,"

"Ok, thanks Tosh,"

Toshiko watched the computer screen as Jack took the right hand side of the corridor, and Ianto took that left hand side, both facing each other. Whilst Gwen was hanging back in the middle of the corridor, checking back behind them every so often. Toshiko was looking for any signs of danger which may get in the way of their team, and she was also looking for the source of the rift activity.

"Jack?"

"Tosh?"

"I…I think I've found it…?" Toshiko looked closely at the CCTV viewing of the room where the coordinates were set. It looked like an adult's bedroom. It had a king size bed and something seemed to be hidden underneath it. It looked almost like a child. It slowly started to crawl out from under the bed, Toshiko zoomed into the CCTV to try to get a closer look at what exactly awaited the team, but she could not get a clear enough picture as it was too dark.

"What is it?"

"I don't know Jack, it looks like a child…an alien…no…human child," Toshiko asked her self,

"A…Hang on…did you say a human child? How can that activate the rift?"

"I'm not sure…Hang on, let me see for sure, just, don't shoot, don't even go in the room yet. Stay outside the door," Toshiko zoomed in and focused on the small child. It had crawled out completely out from under the bed. It slowly stood up and walked over to the bedroom door, "Jack, it's going to open the door," Toshiko heard a clicking sound and the room lit up, "False alarm, it was turning on a light switch," Toshiko chuckled to herself at her stupid mistake.

"What? What exactly is it?"

"A Child, a human child," Toshiko said for sure

"Oh God,"

"Why Oh God Jack?" Gwen questioned,

"Well if it is Human, and it has something to do with the rift, that surely can not be a good thing,"

Toshiko looked back at the computer screen and looked closely at the child, it was standing with its back to the camera.

"Jack? That human child?"

"Yeah,"

"I don't think it's entirely human…or not entirely child…" Toshiko looked onto another computer screen and saw Jack look confusingly at Ianto and Gwen,

"Want us to go in yet?"

"No, not quite yet…I'll do a bio scan on his body, if only I can get the CCTV camera close enough, go it, do you want me to send or save the results?"

"Both, so we know what we are dealing with now, and we will know what we dealt with later,"

"Okay, just give me a moment,"

"Keep us up to date with what the creature is doing inside the room, in case it is any danger to us,"

"Alright,"

Toshiko zoomed into the small child who still had his back to the camera. She slowly downloaded a bio scan to the computer; it seemed to take hours as she was so bored. Sometimes, she felt as though this job just wasn't for her. She is used as the computer geek, and that is it, but then she would see the wonderful things that are out there, in the small world, and even in the small city of Cardiff.

"Jack? The bio scan results are now coming through," Toshiko checked the bio scan results for herself, "Oh My God…"

"Tosh? Toshiko?"

"It's…half male, half female,"

"Ha-ha!" Jack realised Toshiko wasn't laughing, "Hang on, Are you being serious?"

"Yes, and that's not all, it's body is 10 years old, it's brain however is 46 years old…"

"So its appearance is younger than its brain?"

"Yes, I can't believe it; I have never seen anything like it…."

"It's a bit like someone else I know…" Toshiko heard Jack mumble to himself.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing, what do you think we should do?"

Gwen's voice came through on Toshiko's ear piece, "Tosh?"

"Yeah,"

"What should we do? I mean, should we treat it as an alien, or human? Child or adult?"

"We treat it as a child, I mean, it has a fragile body. Then if we can communicate with it, we may have to change our minds,"

"Okay, thanks Tosh, we are going in,"

Toshiko nodded then realised Jack couldn't see her, "Okay," She said,

She watched Jack and Gwen stand in front of the door as Ianto stood behind them.

"Ready? One, Two, Three," Gwen opened the door and kept her gun out in front of her,

"Gwen! Don't shoot it!" Toshiko ordered,

Gwen lowered her gun once she saw the small being,

"Oh My…"

The small human slowly turned around, obviously realising that there were others in the room with it. Once Toshiko could see its face she ran another Bio scan, but didn't really need to as she saw something was wrong. It looked like a small human boy, but don the whole if its left hand side of its face, it was scarred. It was scarred as if it had been burnt by flames. The whole side of his face which was scarred was swollen and it was swollen twice the size it should be.

"Hello Little Guy, what's your name?" Jack slowly edged towards the boy, holding out this hand, inviting him to come closer, after pocketing his gun.

"Bobby, my name's Bobby, who are you?"

"My name's Jack, do you want to come with me and my friends?"

"I'm lost; please can you help me?"

"Okay, I will help you; do you want to come with me?"

"I'm lost, please help me, I want to go home,"

"I'll take you home; I'll take you to my home, yeah?"

"Jack? Its heart rate is increasing by the second!" Toshiko said immediately

"Come on little boy,"

"I, I want my mummy," Jack stopped dead; he had heard this before "Mummy?" The little boy's body went ridged and he collapsed to the floor,

"Ianto! Help me!" Toshiko watched as Jack picked up the small boy and placed him on the bed

"Jack!? His heart rate has stopped, but his brain is still working…?"

"How?" He put his ear close to the boy's mouth,

"He's not breathing either,"

"Well if his heart wasn't pumping oxygen then breath would not be able to-"

"Ianto now is seriously not the time to be giving us scientific lectures," Jack told him with a charming smile, and received a shy one from Ianto in return. Toshiko looked at the progressed bio scan, and panicked. She checked it once, she checked it twice, and certainly found out this human child future was not nice,

"Jack?"

"Tosh? What is it?"

"He is dying!"

"I thought he was already dead?" Gwen butted in. Honestly, Toshiko thought to herself, that woman always thinks she is right.

"No Gwen, he wasn't already dead,"

"But-"

"His brain was still in working order, now it seems to be deteriorating! Jack, we have to do something!"

"How long has he got left to live?"

"About 3 days, at the most," Tosh said, panicking about the small boy's life, even though it was a long time until the boy may die.

"Don't panic Toshiko," Said Jack, almost reading her mind, "It's going to be fine. We will get him back to the hub and find out what the hell is going on around here,"

"Okay,"

"Right, Gwen you go first out of the door, Toshiko! Have we got anybody waiting for us? Mind you, if it's that security guard again, don't tell me…he was good looking," Jack obviously got dodgy looks off Ianto because he then added, "Actually… take that back, I have my own hot guy right here and he is enough for any one to handle," Jack said with a kinky hint in his voice

"Any ways Jack, as you were saying…but I totally agree with you about the security guard" Gwen said

"Jack? The little boy happens to be dying in your hands!" Toshiko said, abruptly

"Oh Shit, Yeah, Gwen you go first, Toshiko you look out for any security guards, even the hot ones," Toshiko saw Jack put his hands up as an innocent gesture, on the computer screen, "Hot guy, you go behind me, I'll carry Bobby," Toshiko saw the team nod and get into the formation.

"Jack? I'm sorry to say that the security guard you had the hots for is no longer in the building," Toshiko informed them,

"Actually, I reckon he had the hots for me, I swear he was looking at my arse once we walked passed him," Jack boasted

"Yeah, and if I had of noticed that, he wished he had never been born," Ianto said, rather aggressively in an aggravated tone because they were still talking about the security guard, Toshiko noticed this and changed the subject.

"Jack, nothing is in your way until you get to the exit of the club, just a couple of security guards," Toshiko heard Jack try to begin a sentence but she cut across him, "Eugh, I wouldn't shag him if it was the last day on earth," Toshiko changed the screen back to the CCTV camera where the team were, she saw Ianto spot the CCTV camera and he stuck his thumb up at Tosh.

"What are you doing Ianto?" Jack turned round, obviously noticing Ianto out of the corner of his eye

"Oh Nothing, just a fly in my face," Toshiko knew that if the CCTV camera was in colour, she would see Ianto's cheeks burn up. It just reminded her of the time Owen first kissed her; she didn't expect it at all so she didn't exactly know what to do, but then it just felt so right. Its memories like this which wonders why they ever fell apart, and makes her wish she was curled up inside his warm arms.


A/N: So I decided there was already 2 chapters of misery, so I decided to throw in a chapter of pure Torchwood action, but without Owen, I know I'm sorry. He will be back in the next chapter. Promise ;)